The Second-Generation Principal left the Art Building hanging upside down above the Campus. His figure rose higher and higher through the Art Building Layer-until, when he exceeded some physical limit, fluctuations of the layer surged around him. He passed through them and entered-the pitch-black night above the Campus.
"Boss, Boss-where are you-?"
The Second-Generation Principal felt he had reached the space above the Campus, but for some reason, even the authority of the "Principal" could not let him enter it smoothly.
This immediately left him startled and uneasy. At that moment, he also suddenly noticed subtle changes in his carapace. He did not know whether it was due to the "Angel's" contamination, but countless tiny particles seemed to have appeared inside him. Like shattered crystals of rules, they combined with one another, making him look like-a humanoid crystal of broken glass.
"What-?"
"I-?!"
He hurriedly spread his perception. The successive developments beyond his cognition were gradually warping his certainty about what he knew. He urgently needed to find Boss, tell her the most pressing matter first, and then-deal with everything else.
But just then, he seemed to hear some ancient, distant summons.
They were esoteric syllables spoken in a human voice, unmistakably human. They sounded like a beginner trying to sing Huaxia opera by combining Indian rap with Russian vocals. Absurd and uncanny, yet they filled him with the sense of being summoned-
And the intangible force that had been preventing him from entering the Campus finally opened a crack in response. He hurried through it into the Campus-
Light, shadow, and grainy mist filled the rift. The Second-Generation Principal kept traveling through it until, at last, he saw its exit. There seemed to be a mass of mystical runes there, like a totem branded onto the ground, summoning his