[Aurora Starborn]
"DEMON REALM PORTAL: OPEN!"
The words echoed like a curse through the grand banquet hall, the once-vibrant space, adorned with floating chandeliers and gold-trimmed silk banners, was filled with overturned tables, shattered wine glasses, and scattered plates that still held half-eaten delicacies.
The air reeked of spilled champagne, burnt fabric, and mana thick enough to choke.
Aurora's heart throbbed painfully in her chest as she watched the fractures begin to ripple in midair like glass being cracked by invisible force.
The rift was small, no larger than a fist, but it pulsed with unstable energy that throbbed like a second heartbeat in the room.
What... is that...?
She felt her breath catch, her lungs refusing to obey. Her body was already suffering under the weight of multiple curses, distorting her mana flow into a chaotic storm.
Her star mana, once beautiful and vibrant like constellations dancing through her body, was now a fragmented mess, misaligned.
She had been trying to resist the curse, trying to dispel the curse but it was proving difficult, It was consuming her mana and mental energy far faster than she was willing to admit.
And now, to make matters worse, the enemy had invoked something far beyond a mere spell.
Did he say... portal? He's trying to open a portal...? The thought itself felt foreign, like it didn't belong in this reality.
Her hands trembled at her sides. Her body, already weakened, felt heavier with every passing second. And that thing—whatever creature was casting this—it wasn't mentioned in any of the books.
Not in the restricted archives. Not in any historical books, It was an unnatural horror dressed in flesh and smiling.
Demons...?
The Human Association had kept the truth about demons tightly sealed from public knowledge, they wanted to delay the panic and chaos as much as possible. So there was many ignorant people in the world.
But after this incident was over, the whole world will know about them.
Just then, her eyes snapped to the portal, which had already begun expanding, slow but relentless. Its chaotic edges shimmered like dark flame, pulsing with unstable power.
No... I can't let it grow! I can feel it—death. Real death. If that thing opens, we all die here.
She raised her trembling hand, forcing herself to ignore the curse crawling under her skin like fire ants.
She could not afford to split her focus anymore. Her heart screamed, her body ached, but she poured every shred of herself into her next spell.
A circle of white light bloomed around her palm, and within moments, her star mana began rushing into it like a tidal wave—dense, radiant, and laced with pain.
The wind howled around her as the spell took shape, strong enough to pull attention away from the battlefield.
The sound of clashing steel and shouts faded. Everyone—Amelia, Grace, Lyra, the second-years—turned toward her. The banquet hall had become a frozen stage for her defiance.
Even Zerak was watching the scene with an amused smirk playing on his lips, yet he made no move to stop her.
Miraak, too, turned his gaze toward her—not at her, but at the circle forming in her hand, where the condensed star mana had begun shifting into something purer.
A glowing white hue began to overtake the vibrant starlight, Slowly.
But it didn't last.
The transformation stopped halfway, leaving it half-white, half-Violet.
Blood trickled from Aurora's ears, dripped down her chin from the corners of her mouth, but she didn't falter.
She couldn't.
She had used a spell beyond her limit—a spell from a circle above her level, forced through sheer desperation and raw star mana.
If it wasn't for the curse... I could've finished it, the thought stung, a bitter truth she swallowed as she launched the spell.
Biting her lip until she tasted blood, she clenched her jaw and released the magic.
"Stellar Beam!"
The words tore from her throat, she coughed violently, a splash of blood staining her already torn dress, and dropped to her knees.
She was able to use a spell beyond her actual magic circle which was only possible thanks to her star mana, but because of the curse, the star mana was chaotic and distorted and thus the backlash occurred.
She held her chest, breathing raggedly, Her entire body convulsed with the recoil, but her eyes—red-rimmed and burning—remained fixed on the beam now racing across the hall.
The white and violet light streaked through the air like a divine arrow, moving too fast for most to react.
It illuminated the ruined hall, casting eerie reflections across shattered silverware and wine-stained carpets. The food left abandoned on the tables sizzled under the heat as it passed.
All eyes were locked on Miraak, whose hands were casually behind his back, as though nothing of consequence was approaching.
Every pair of eyes turned to the attack. Amelia stood frozen, Grace and Lyra held their breath, and the second-years stared in stunned silence.
Ray, Ethan, and Irvin had formed a ciclr around Zerak, keeping him from interfering—not that he seemed remotely bothered. He simply stood there, relaxed, watching the attack unfold as if it were a stage play.
The beam moved closer.
And Miraak... smiled.
A slow, eerie grin that made Aurora's blood run cold.
Before the beam struck,
He raised his hand and muttered, voice calm yet echoing unnaturally across the battlefield,
"Curse of Nullification."
The moment the beam collided with him, a flash erupted—blinding and silent. And when the light faded, the result sent a cold wave of dread through the hall.
There was no wound.
No explosion.
No burn.
It just pushed Miraak back.
Two steps, that was it.
Just two steps back.
Aurora felt the world tilt beneath her.
He... he wasn't even injured.
Blood dripped from her mouth as she whispered hoarsely, "H-How...?"
And she wasn't the only one.
Amelia also took a step back, her expression twisting in disbelief. Grace's lips parted, stunned beyond words.
Lyra's hands clenched around the silver panther at her side. All around them, second-year students had gone pale, frozen in place, their thoughts screaming.
We're dead...
Mom, I'm scared...
I... I don't want to die...
Is this the end...?
The silence was suffocating.
Miraak laughed—loud, sharp, and twisted.
"Hehehe… Who would've thought I'd need to use one of my hidden techniques to stop a child's magic? How amusing, " he said, licking the words like poison off his teeth, "But I suppose you deserve that much... little star girl."
Aurora barely heard him. Her vision blurred, the cold of mana exhaustion creeping through her spine. Her fingers twitched. She had nothing left.
This is it, isn't it? This is how I die...
She thought of her mother. Of the stars. Of everything she hadn't done yet.
Miraak stepped forward, laughing still, voice rising as he spoke again, "Let's speed up the process of portal op—"
But he never finished.
Because at that very moment, a thunderous crack split the air. A streak of pure lightning, too fast for the eye to follow, passed by Miraak and slammed into the storm of unstable portal.
Aurora's wide, trembling eyes turned toward the source, along with everyone else's.
***
There is no gap.
Ash knew it the moment he looked at Miraak's form.
His body surged forward, faster than the eye could follow, but in his mind, time slowed to a crawl. Seconds stretched into eternity under the effect of Omni Thought. Every movement, every flicker of energy, every sound stretched and echoed in unnatural silence.
"If he was distracted for even a second..."
That thought passed through his mind like a whisper, half-formed but heavy. The meaning was clear.
If Miraak was distracted for a second he could attack the portal without any hesitation.
Just as that thought bloomed in his mind, Ash's sharp gaze caught Aurora firing a beam of pure light across the hall. It shot forward with incredible force, but to him, it moved like a slow ripple through water.
In real time, only two or three seconds had passed since Omni Thought activated.
His eyes shifted sharply to the center of it all—a portal, small but growing, floating in mid-air like a tear in space.
But then Ash noticed something else—faint lines and glowing marks floating around the portal,
Symbols..
Cracks in the air surrounded the portal like broken glass, and around those cracks floated a circle—a strange one, drawn with dozens of glowing shapes and lines that shimmered in a language he couldn't understand.
What is that?
He had never seen something like this before. But then again, he rarely used Omni Thought. It was hard to activate and harder to control. Maybe this strange sight only appeared when his mind was working at full power.
It looks like some kind of structure...
Floating in a circle around the black portal, framed by the spreading fractures in space, were symbols—dozens of them—interlocked by thin, glowing lines. It resembled a magic circle, but it didn't feel the same as human magic.
Is that a magic circle...? No... maybe a demon circle? he guessed.
He wasn't sure. The novel never explained how demons structured their powers. They were described as mysterious and chaotic beings.
His thoughts were racing, snapping between theories. And just then—he saw Miraak raised his hand and spoke.
"Curse of Nullification."
The curse wasn't aimed at Ash, but something changed in the air. The circle around the portal shook. One of the glowing lines flickered and vanished. A slight mistake appeared in the pattern—an error.
A flaw.
A single, perfect imperfection.
Ash's eyes widened slightly.
This is it...
A plan formed in that instant.
He launched forward, faster than before. Even though he was using [Lightning Step] a movement technique of warrior class, Ash wasn't worried.
Everyone else was still distracted by the chaos. No one had noticed him yet.
Even though he had decided not to hide his strength anymore, he didn't want to reveal everything just yet. Especially not his unique class as a Magic Swordsman.
Miraak was still recovering from the effect of Aurora's star mana. It left a lingering interference in the air. And that made the demon circle even more unstable.
The flaw caused by the disturbance was spreading, growing more unstable with each passing second.
Ash knew this was the chance he'd been waiting for. He didn't hesitate—because deep down, he understood something crucial.
They aren't called the Twin Calamities for nothing.....If I wait it is over.
Miraak was feared across battlefields for a reason. His signature ability, the Curse of Nullification, didn't just disrupt mana—it tore it apart.
It unraveled spells and erased magical structures as if they were nothing but chalk drawings in the rain.
To mages, he wasn't just a threat.
He was a living disaster.
A calamity.
Ash had feared that his mana might be rendered useless against such an ability. But he trusted the Primordial Core.
He trusted himself.
Without another thought, he lifted his hand and lightning gathered.
Small electric arcs danced along his fingers, but it didn't stop there.
Tiny magic circles began to form across his palm, stacking, rotating, combining with dangerous precision.
Condensed mana swirled around his palm, forming a single glowing orb.
Inside that orb, dozens of smaller lightning balls whirled in chaotic harmony
Dozens of them, nested within each other, held together with delicate control.
This was a spell Ash had created through long experimentation. But pulling it off required both perfect mana control and intense focus.
[Multi-Core Lightning Sphere]
It was a spell which was impossible without the hyperfocus of Omni Thought. But now, he could see every thread of energy, every movement of his spell.
It was beautiful.
And it was deadly.
He passed by Miraak in a flicker of lightning streak and then thrust the orb forward.
He slammed the bundle of lightning into the side of the portal where the imperfection was.
And rushed past it without stopping.
Ash didn't need to look back.
BOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!
***