Dark gray clouds piled up like mountains, winding endlessly onward.
Silvery-white lightning flashed through them like raging rivers between the peaks, roaring as it passed.
First University's Special Plane was currently cutting through a storm.
Through the tall floor-to-ceiling windows, the dining hall could be seen in complete disarray, as though it had just endured a thunderstorm. Tables and chairs lay overturned, shattered dishes were scattered everywhere, and silvery-white curtains had been torn from the windows and heaped messily across the floor.
The ornate chandelier hanging in the center of the dining hall looked as though someone had grabbed it and yanked it violently. Its gilded frame was twisted, and its crystal shades were covered in cracks.
The dining hall doors were tightly shut.
Near the entrance, a cobra had originally been curled up asleep on a barstool beside the counter. Now, the snake was gripped in a pair of slender little hands and tied into all kinds of knots.
The cobra bulged its eyes, flicked its tongue, and let out miserable hisses.
The banshee remained unmoved.
In her heart, she was a hundred times more miserable than that old snake.
The Special Plane's security surely already knew about the incident in the dining hall. It was only a matter of time before they rushed inside. As for how wizards would deal with a lich who had delivered herself straight into their hands, even preschool children could give eighteen different answers.
Running away in disgrace would not only damage a lich's terrifying reputation, but would also inevitably disrupt the captain's arrangements. By then, her fellow demons would have a hundred and eighty ways to deal with her.
The cobra in her hands had already been tied into a dead knot.
The banshee tossed aside the ball of snake, folded her arms, puffed out her cheeks, and watched the freshman students crammed together in the room, shouting and screaming. Her head ached.
"Such cowards," Nikita muttered.
In truth, all she had done when entering the dining hall was snap her fingers, sending the obstructive tables and chairs rolling aside, tearing down the curtains blocking the light, and clearing a clean, bright space for herself to work.
She had not even touched these tender little things yet.
Not far away, the pleasantly scented boy leaned against an overturned sofa, clutching a handful of yellow talismans as he stared at her with a determined expression. Though he was still trembling, he was far better than those people who screamed while waving Black Donkey Hooves or gleaming silver crosses.
As expected of a man she found so pleasant-smelling, a charming smile appeared on Nikita's face. She would take him along when she left and bring him to the captain. That should explain why she had been exposed, right?
Perhaps the captain would not have the heart to eat this little fellow either. In that case, she would have to work a little harder and bite him once.
If Zheng Qing had known what Nikita was thinking, he would definitely have spat out a mouthful of blood.
There was absolutely no determination on his face. It was merely an expression frozen stiff by extreme fear. This demon was far more terrifying than he had imagined.
She had nearly destroyed an entire dining hall with nothing more than a snap of her fingers!
What if that snap had been aimed at his face?
Leaning against the sofa, Zheng Qing nervously glanced at the banshee nearby as countless terrifying futures churned through his mind.
Xiao Xiao stood behind him, rapidly whispering something in a low voice, but he spoke too softly and too quickly for Zheng Qing to make out a single word.
Li Meng crouched behind the sofa, hugging the fox and the pigeon. Only her eyes showed, and there was not a trace of fear in them—only excitement and agitation. If little monk Shi Yuan had not been holding her back, she probably would have already shouted and charged at the banshee.
Not far behind them, the cobra's owner—a pale-skinned girl with a sharply pointed chin—was quietly sobbing.
In the entire dining hall, apart from the freshmen and their pets, there was only one injured little elf.
The situation filled these young people with despair.
"If I'd known, I would've insisted on dragging Lan Que to the dining hall," Li Meng complained softly from behind the sofa. "He looks like he can really fight."
Before coming to the dining hall, several of them had invited Lan Que to lunch with them. However, the aloof boy had merely shaken his head and continued sitting in meditation with his sword in his arms.
"Don't make a sound. Stay put back there," Zheng Qing said through gritted teeth. His breathing had become hurried, and his brain seemed deprived of oxygen as strings of golden stars kept flashing before his eyes.
Pouting, Li Meng stuffed Poseidon and White Dove's little heads back behind the sofa and fell silent.
"A bunch of weaklings." Not far away, the banshee curled her lip, and a trace of nostalgia flashed through her eyes.
She drew out a Quill Pen from her bag and opened the spellbook in her hands.
This was not her spellbook, but that flight attendant's from the lounge.
The magical fluctuations of every Fallen Wizard's spellbook were recorded by the authorities. Carrying her own spellbook aboard First University's Special Plane would have been extremely unwise. So, while borrowing that flight attendant's heart, the banshee had also borrowed her spellbook.
It was a Bologna-bound spellbook, probably standard-issue equipment for the flight attendants. Its pale blue cover was unblemished, the five gold lines along its spine were bright and clean, and the marbled page edges still depicted Poseidon and four little angels.
Nikita vaguely remembered that when she had attended university, she could only afford the standard spellbook awarded by the school. Those thick, bulging soft-cover spellbooks had been as glaring to a girl at the age when she loved beauty as a pimple on her face.
Back then, the Bologna-bound books displayed in the windows of Beta Town's bookstores had been like Cinderella's crystal slippers to her—longed for, but untouchable.
But now.
Nikita opened the brand-new spellbook with little interest. Whether it was Athena's prayer on the title page or the Hadi linen paper used for the pages, everything seemed so vulgar and laughable.
Why did I ever like this sort of showpiece spellbook? she thought silently. Perhaps she had merely wanted to be a little more confident in front of him.
Speaking of confidence, there were several idiots nearby who also wanted that quality.
But arrogance without strength was no different from suicide. The banshee raised her head and looked toward an overturned dining table in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. Behind it, several large-framed male wizards seemed restless.
Zheng Qing heard those unusual movements as well.
A rough voice was quietly urging the students beside it to take out their talismans and Magic Tools and show that demon what they were made of.
"Don't be afraid, she's just a banshee!" The voice sounded extremely agitated. "One Explosion Talisman each can knock her unconscious! As long as we smash open the dining hall doors and hold on for a little while, the Registered Wizards on the plane will arrive immediately!"
The others seemed somewhat tempted.
"Idiots! We're on an airplane! Aren't they afraid of blowing a hole in it and falling out themselves?" Zheng Qing did not dare turn around. He could only move his lips and whisper to Xiao Xiao.
He had merely been complaining.
But Xiao Xiao really stepped forward.
"Don't do anything stupid!" He turned around, looked at those boys, and rebuked them angrily, completely unconcerned that he had become the most conspicuous target in the dining hall.
"She is a Fallen Wizard." Xiao Xiao spoke as he glanced at Nikita. "And she has undergone a complete Fallen ritual. A demon like her, one capable of fully retaining her human form and even her consciousness, is not something freshmen who have not even entered the university gates can face."
"If she wished, she could drain all our blood and seize all our souls without alerting anyone."
"In fact, we're already half dead."
The dining hall fell into an awkward silence.
"Coward! Since one foot is already through the gates of hell, we should fight even harder!" The boy who had urged everyone to resist stood up as well. Fearless, he shouted, "If we ourselves have already given up on living, what difference is there between us and the dead?"
Zheng Qing could not help turning around.
The boy was solidly built, with a close-cropped haircut and a flushed face. Zheng Qing could not tell whether it was from agitation or simply natural.
That style... he had to be one of Starry Sky Academy's lunatics!
Someone nearby seemed to mutter softly.
Before you continue