The invasion began at dawn.

  Tendrils of corruption spread across the outer walls of the academy like grasping fingers, attaching themselves to the magical barriers that surrounded it. The corruption pulsed and writhed, testing for weaknesses, searching for entry points. Overhead, a group of figures hovered in the sky, weapons drawn, watching the chaos unfold beneath them.

  It wasn't just the five from the previous meeting. Now there were about twenty mages, though most of them looked wrong somehow. Their movements were too jerky, their eyes too vacant. The corruption controlled them, not the other way around.

  Aurora was the first to notice.

  From her room in the spire, she had a direct view of the invaders. She stood by the window, her silvery-white hair catching the early morning light, and assessed them for a long moment. Her eyes moved from figure to figure until they rested on the Professor.

  That alone seemed enough to divert her from any rash decisions.

  She turned from the window and went straight for the door. Just one floor down was the room of the other S-rank. She needed to warn Aurelius.

  Meanwhile, the academy was mobilizing its defenses. Students were being herded back to their rooms, though a good number still lingered in the corridors, curiosity overriding caution. Most of the staff had been sent to the walls to contain the threat, while the remaining faculty stood guard at key locations.

  "When do we strike? It's been ten minutes already!" Garrick asked, hefting a massive spiked mace in both hands. He wore light armor that somehow made him look even more intimidating, metal plates strapped over his scarred arms and chest but leaving his movements unrestricted.

  "It was only three minutes," Vera corrected without looking up from a small notebook where she was recording observations, her shortsword now sheathed on her side.

  "We are waiting for Stormweaver." The Professor stood perfectly still, hands clasped behind his back. "Once he arrives, you will leave to capture Silvani."

  "And the students?" Nyx asked, twirling a curved dagger between her fingers. The blade caught the light, wickedly sharp.

  "Take whatever you want on the way, but don't delay." He didn't even glance at her.

  It didn't take long for Aldric Stormweaver to appear.

  He'd noticed them almost immediately through his security measures, but he'd waited to see what they would do. Now he rose from the academy grounds, a spiraling vortex of wind lifting him upward toward the floating group.

  Had it not been for the Professor creating a small corruption barrier in front of them, all the others would have been swept away by the sheer force of his arrival.

  As soon as Stormweaver reached them, the others began descending. Garrick dropped like a stone, armor clanking. Vera floated down with practiced control. Nyx practically danced through the air. Dorian followed more carefully, staying close to the buildings.

  Stormweaver didn't try to stop them. His eyes were fixed entirely on the Professor.

  "I did not expect you to make such a... bold decision, Cassius." The director's voice was polite, measured, but there was an edge underneath. His silver hair whipped around him from the residual wind magic.

  "Times have changed, old friend." Cassius smiled warmly, the expression completely at odds with someone invading an academy. "My research has finally borne fruit."

  Stormweaver's expression didn't change. "If you're here for the boy, I don't have him anymore."

  "I know. Tell me, how is Greystar doing? Has she noticed yet how limiting this academy truly is?"

  "Why don't you ask her yourself? I'm certain she would enjoy the conversation." The director's tone made it clear what kind of conversation it would be.

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  Cassius laughed. "You plan on capturing me? We both know a battle between us does not end in capture."

  "Despite your actions resembling those of someone with a death wish, I do not assume you'll simply throw your life away in battle against me."

  "In that sense, you are completely correct, my friend." Cassius smiled again, wider this time. "But this time, I will win."

  The academy was like a labyrinth for those unfamiliar with its layout.

  Despite being able to sense where Silvani was, actually reaching her was a completely different matter. The corridors twisted and turned, staircases led to unexpected places, and entire sections seemed to shift depending on which entrance you took.

  Garrick had opted for a simple approach: bash through anything in the way.

  Walls crumbled under his mace. Floors cracked beneath his boots. Anyone unfortunate enough to be in his path either dove aside or got thrown aside. He didn't even look back to check what he'd hit, just kept moving forward with single-minded determination.

  "Move!" he bellowed, swinging his mace through a support column. The ceiling groaned but held. Barely.

  Dorian followed in Garrick's wake, using the path of destruction as a convenient road. He moved quietly, trying not to attract attention, hoping Garrick wouldn't notice him trailing behind. Unlike the others, he carried no weapon and hadn't even changed clothes from the meeting. Just a man in ordinary attire, walking through a war zone like he belonged there.

  Every time Garrick smashed through something, Dorian would slip past the debris, nodding politely to any students too shocked to run. He was counting doors, memorizing the layout, building a mental map as he went.

  Vera had different priorities.

  She wasn't looking for Silvani at all. She'd stolen a jacket from a fleeing student and was now pretending to be desperate, running through the corridors asking anyone she could find about Professor Greystar.

  "Please, I have important information! Where's Professor Greystar's office?" She grabbed a guard's arm, her eyes wide and frightened. "It's about the corruption mages!"

  The guard, too flustered to question her, pointed down a hallway. "Third floor, east wing, but you should get to safety—"

  "Thank you!" Vera was already running, her notebook tucked securely under the stolen jacket.

  Nyx wasn't interested in reaching Silvani quickly.

  She'd been unlucky enough to land in an empty courtyard beside an old stone structure that looked like a library. No students outside, no teachers, no one to play with. She walked slowly through the area, her dagger tapping against her leg in a rhythmic pattern.

  "Come out, come out," she sang softly, checking behind statues and benches. "I just want to talk..."

  A sound from inside the library made her pause. Her head tilted, smile widening.

  "Oh, there you are."

  She pushed open the library doors, humming to herself.

  The other corruption-controlled mages simply wandered the grounds, trying to find their way to Silvani with varying degrees of success. Some crashed through windows. Others got lost in storage rooms. A few actually made progress, though they left trails of corruption wherever they stepped.

  Back on the walls, academy defenders were holding the line.

  The corruption tendrils had breached the outer barrier in three places, but they weren't advancing further. Teachers formed defensive lines, coordinating their magic in practiced patterns. Fire spells burned back the corruption, earth magic reinforced weak points, and barriers compartmentalized the breaches.

  "Secondary barrier holding!" someone called out.

  "Keep rotation tight! Don't let anyone drain their reserves!"

  The defenders were managing, but it was a strain. The corruption wasn't behaving like a mindless force. Every time they burned it back, it adapted. When they used fire, it spread wider and thinner to avoid the heat. When they reinforced with earth magic, it concentrated into denser spikes trying to pierce through.

  Whoever was controlling this understood defensive magic theory.

  "It's learning our patterns," one professor muttered, sweat beading on her forehead as she maintained a barrier. The corruption pressed against it, not trying to break through by force but testing different angles, searching for fluctuations in her mana flow.

  "Don't let it touch you directly!" another voice warned. "It devours mana on contact!"

  A younger teacher had gotten too close. The corruption had latched onto his barrier, and within seconds the magical construct was dissolving, being consumed and converted. He stumbled back, another mage stepping in to cover the gap.

  "Where the hell is Emberheart when you need him?" someone asked, frustration clear in their voice. "This would be so much easier with proper fire support."

  But Emberheart wasn't at the walls. He was exactly where he needed to be, maintaining the frozen seal on a different threat entirely.

  The defenders were competent, coordinated, holding their ground.

  But they couldn't push forward. Couldn't reclaim what had been breached. And slowly, methodically, the corruption was learning.

  The academy was under siege, and the real battle was only just beginning.