Half a Holy Grail

Holkodo was brightly lit at eight in the evening.

For most people in the city, tonight was no different from any other.

At most, the abstinence day was approaching, and they would go to the bustling night market to find a bar, order a cocktail, and celebrate or vent their desires in advance.

But for another group of people, this night meant death.

Floris Hospital.

A fierce battle was unfolding under the cover of night.

The garden, once meticulously cleaned for patients to relax and enjoy, was now strewn with bodies lying in disarray.

Gunshots, explosions, and cries of agony mingled with blood and fire, drifting and swaying in the night.

"Give up, Miss Flame Crow."

A middle-aged man with graying temples stood by the window on the third floor of the main building, looking down at the young girl still fighting desperately in the garden, and said softly. His voice was low, yet it clearly reached Elvily's ears.

"Never!"

The girl swung her greatsword, and surging flames erupted like a tide, instantly engulfing an orderly in front of her and burning him to ashes.

This was her answer.

Even surrounded by enemies, even knowing she might die here tonight, she would never bow her head.

Iris and Isha were also gritting their teeth and holding on.

With their strength, they shouldn't have been reduced to such a desperate situation.

Elvily was a Tier Five Wizard, approaching Tier Six. Iris also had one foot in the Tier Five ranks. Furthermore, Isha, a Tier Four Wizard, had rushed over from Old Sigel City to help before the attack, along with over a hundred well-trained companions of Tier Two and above. Such a lineup should have been enough to sweep through Floris Hospital.

But what they hadn't expected was that their people had personally seen the Vice Dean, who had already boarded a plane and left Holkodo yesterday, appearing at the hospital tonight.

The moment she saw him, Elvily knew it was a trap.

If it were just the Vice Dean alone, the situation wouldn't have become so dire.

The Vice Dean's name was Zajik, and his rank was similar to hers, also Tier Five.

In a one-on-one fight between mages of the same tier, Elvily was confident she could win, or at least hold her own and stall him.

However, if it was a premeditated trap, how could there only be one extra person like Zajik?

In the original Floris Hospital, apart from doctors like Quill, others had little to no Magic. Tier One Wizards were no different from strong ordinary people and posed no threat to them.

But Zajik had secretly replaced them.

Tonight, all the "orderlies" at Floris Hospital had become Wizards of Tier Two or above.

Not only that, but their numbers were several times greater than expected, making them impossible to defeat.

Zajik had also set up magic arrays. The team they sent to the dormitory to rescue people was wiped out before they even saw any patients, not a single one surviving.

From the moment they entered the hospital until now, only an hour had passed, and their casualties were already over half.

Let alone rescuing anyone, it was uncertain whether they could even escape themselves.

There were too many enemies. Elvily and the other two had already killed countless, yet they were still trapped in the enemy's encirclement. Orderlies surrounded them from all directions, all staring at them menacingly, waiting for them to show signs of fatigue before swarming them for the fatal blow.

And the Vice Dean on the third floor hadn't made his move yet.

This was almost a certain death scenario.

Elvily's beautiful face was already smeared with blood.

Iris no longer had the gentle demeanor of a girl next door from the Void Arts Space. Electricity crackled in her hand, and a fierce glint appeared in her eyes. She unleashed a lightning spell that pierced the head of an orderly who had come forward to test them, saying menacingly, "Don't let me find out who the informant is, or I'll make sure they die without a complete corpse!"

There were only two possibilities for them to fall into the enemy's trap tonight.

Either they were discovered by the other side when they scouted Holkodo beforehand.

Or someone had leaked the information, and there was an insider arranged by the Floris Family among those who knew about this operation.

An insider was more detestable than the enemy.

"Now is not the time to talk about this," Isha said vigilantly, looking at the orderlies blocking their path. "We have to leave."

If they didn't leave now, once the other Wizards they brought with them were captured or killed, they would face an even more difficult situation.

"We can't leave," Elvily said, her eyes constantly fixed on Zajik upstairs.

Iris and Isha might be able to escape, but she couldn't.

Elvily knew clearly that the trap set by the other side this time was aimed directly at her.

Wizards of Tier Five and above were powerful and valuable. Both she and Zajik posed a significant threat to each other's factions. Zajik wanted to eliminate her and cripple the Dawn Council, just as she wanted to kill Zajik and severely damage the Floris Family.

If she was destined to die here tonight, she would pay any price to make Zajik accompany her to hell!

Elvily looked up at the man by the window on the third floor, her deer-like eyes narrowing slightly, with faint wings beginning to appear behind her.

Seeing this, Iris said urgently, "Elvily, don't be rash!"

"I'm not being rash." On the contrary, Elvily was calmer than ever.

The reason Zajik had not yet entered the fray was simply fear—fear that she would find an opportunity for a mutual destruction.

The more the enemy feared something, the more she had to do it. In a certain death situation, only by risking her life could she carve out a sliver of survival.

The biggest trouble now wasn't Zajik, but the orderlies surrounding them.

Among them were not a few Tier Three Wizards. Under a joint assault, even she had to deal with them seriously.

Elvily and the others didn't know yet that the so-called siege was just a ruse.

Every time the orderlies attacked them, they would use spells to resist or dodge with their footwork, impossible to stand still. And under this continuous tug-of-war, the position they were in had been gradually guided to the center of a formation.

Elvily saw Zajik raise his hand.

At the same time, those orderlies on the outer perimeter of the encirclement all closed their eyes, lowered their heads, clenched their fists, and assumed a prayer-like posture, muttering incantations.

Elvily sensed something was wrong at the first moment.

But it was too late.

"Buzz!"

The next second, a circle of scarlet light emerged from the ground, and surging Magic rushed up like water pouring back from the feet of the three women, dyeing the air within the range blood-red.

Iris's face changed drastically, "Holy Grail Festival?!"

A vast, killing aura spread out. The Magic fluctuations brewing within far exceeded the scope of Tier Three, and were enough to pose a threat to Isha and herself, and even to Elvily.

However, in the next second.

When she decisively decided to risk her life to stop the orderlies from activating the formation, the formation stopped on its own, a step ahead of her.

The Magic that should have shot straight into the sky stopped halfway, as if a pause button had been pressed.

If the formation had fully activated, the blood-red energy, distinct from the transparent air, would have made it look like a giant red goblet connecting to the sky. Elvily and the other two would have been trapped inside, washed to death by the scarlet Magic, their corpses flowing into the sky to be drunk by "God."

But now, with the Holy Grail Festival suddenly terminated, the goblet looked as if it had been cut in half out of nowhere, giving it an indescribable sense of strangeness.

Even stranger things were yet to come.

As if to prevent the Holy Grail from continuing to grow, the surface of the cup, which was made of energy and had no substance, actually sprouted golden chains, firmly locking the half-formed goblet. Golden characters also emerged from under the feet of the chanting orderlies, coiling around them like vines from bottom to top, sealing their mouths so they could no longer utter a sound.

Iris was stunned for a moment.

Logically speaking, the situation was critical, and she shouldn't have been distracted, but this scene was too bizarre. She realized that the "chains" locking the Holy Grail and the "tape" sealing the orderlies' mouths were actually... math problems??

Isha's eyes widened even further, her mouth agape in disbelief, and she exclaimed, "Question Booklets?!"

Weren't these math problems the same ones from the question booklets Sean bought from the bookstore a couple of days ago??