Angelica’s words were followed by a heavy silence.
Vale opened his mouth, about to retort with another insult, another sneer—
But he never got the chance.
A wave of dread swept across the room like a silent storm.
It ca without sound, without motion, yet every teacher felt it.
A crushing weight, invisible and imnse, settled over them. Their breaths caught in their throats. Their hearts pounded.
Even Edward, the headmaster, revered as the strongest man in the academy stiffened, his fingers tightening on the table’s edge. Beads of sweat ford on his brow. His chair creaked under the tension in his body.
It felt as though the air had grown ten tis heavier. As though gravity itself had thickened. Had they not already been seated, so of them might have collapsed to their knees.
With great effort, stiff necks turned. All eyes slowly shifted to the source of the pressure.
Angelica.
She remained as she had been seated, calm, her expression untouched by the rising storm in the room. No sign of exertion. No sign of emotion. But no one doubted it now.
This suffocating pressure, this oppressive weight, it ca from her.
From the silent wrath of a master whose authority had been questioned, whose disciple had been threatened.
The pressure hung in the air for several monts.
No one spoke.
No one dared.
"Vale," Angelica’s voice rang out, not a shout, not a whisper, but sothing that echoed with terrifying clarity.
The mont he heard his na, Vale’s heart lurched. The dread in his chest flared like death itself had turned to stare him down.
"My qualifications?" she muttered.
"I am qualified enough to cut off the head of your so called Boss and hang his skull on my wall like a decoration."
And no one," her voice dropped to a hiss, "no one would dare to take it down."
She stood slowly. The weight in the room intensified with every word.
"Imprint this in your mory," she continued coldly. "And deliver it to your Boss."
"If any one of you as much as looks at Athar with ill intent, I will gouge out your eyes."
"If anyone speaks ill of him, I will rip out their tongue."
"And if anyone as much as make a movent in his direction, I will sever their limbs, each one, and hang them around their neck like a garland."
She paused.
"And I do not make false threats."
She placed her palm lightly on the table.
Crack. The thick wooden table, crafted from one of the toughest materials the academy had split beneath her hand. A web of cracks radiated outward like shattered glass. Though the table still stood, it trembled on the verge of collapse. One more touch, and it would fall.
Angelica said nothing more.
She did not need to. Her silence was louder than any roar.
She turned and walked out of the room her footsteps quiet, but each one heavy with finality.
The threat hung behind her like a blade in the air, and everyone in that room knew. This was no bluff.
She would do exactly what she said.
No one dared to move long after she was gone. Her presence, that suffocating dread still lood over them like a lingering shadow.
And it was not mana. It had not been pressure born of raw cultivation or power alone.
It was sothing deeper, sothing that had been hamred into their hearts. A primal terror that each of them knew they would rember for a long, long ti.
Edward was the first to erge from the haze. His breath was slow, uneven. He turned his gaze toward Vale.
He might have ignored the situation before. Might have chosen to turn a blind eye, like so many tis in the past.
But not now. Not after what he had just witnessed.
He was supposed to be the strongest in the academy. And yet in that mont, had Angelica decided to cut off his head, he knew—he knew—he would not have been able to stop her.
She was not necessarily above him in rank but whatever she had used was really potent. A skill from her beast? What was her beast? He did not know despite her being an academy teacher.
He needed answers.
"Vale," he said quietly, his voice edged with sothing unfamiliar, fear.
The na snapped Vale out of his stunned trance. Clarity returned to his eyes, but he did not respond.
He turned. And bolted.
No words. No explanation.
Just the sound of hurried footsteps fading down the corridor. He had to reach the Boss. He had to stop him. Had to warn him.
They had been wrong about her. All of them. Angelica was not just so eccentric, detached instructor.
She was dangerous.
Maybe it was not her raw power. Maybe she had a monstrous beast bound to her. Maybe she held so ancient artifact. He did not know.
But what he did know was this, if the Boss planned to move against Athar, he needed to be warned.
Because if they treated her as just another obstacle. Then even the Boss might not make it out alive.
Vale moved frantically through the corridor, his steps uneven, his breath shallow.
His trembling hands fumbled inside his pocket as he searched for the mana communicator. Fear had made his fingers clumsy.
Finally, he pulled it out. Just as he was about to connect to Axel, the communicator buzzed in his hand.
An incoming call. From Axel.
"Axel," Vale answered, his voice tight with urgency. "I need to tell you sothing—"
But Axel cut him off. "Later, Vale."
Had Vale been in a better state of mind, he might have noticed the tension in Axel’s voice. Uncharacteristic of him and strained.
And had Axel been calr, he might have caught the sa desperation in Vale’s tone. But neither man was in any condition to notice the other.
"Listen to carefully," Axel continued, his voice sharp. "Do not approach Athar."
Vale froze in his tracks.
"Do not go near him," Axel repeated, the words deliberate, absolute.
Whatever Vale had intended to say was caught in his throat, replaced by a storm of questions.
"I will talk to you later," Axel added, and the line went dead.
For a few monts, Vale simply stood there, unable to move, his mind racing.
Why? Why had Axel suddenly backed off?
Could he have heard about Angelica? No. Impossible.
Before the eting, none of them had suspected her capabilities.
And there had not been enough ti for word to reach Axel.
So, if it was not Angelica. Then who?
What had changed? What did Axel know that Vale didn’t?
Only Axel could answer that now.
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