The ground trembled~
Then it spilt open with a roar.
A colossal fissure tore open beneath the feet of the arcanists, stone shattering like glass as something moved below. From that abyss, a monstrous serpent surged upward—its body vast beyond reason, its scales blackened like burnt iron, its presence swallowing the very light.
Its mouth opened.
Not like a creature's… but like a gate to oblivion.
Rows upon rows of jagged fangs unfolded, stretching wider, deeper—far too deep. Inside, there was no throat… only darkness. A living void, writhing, pulling—hungering.
The arcanists froze.
Draves. Eren. Lisa. Oryn. Stok. All of them stared as the ground beneath them became that gaping maw, ready to devour them whole.
The Mordrath, the beast of corruption rose further~ Its jaw snapping open to engulf them and then~
All of the sudden it stopped ~ Mid-Motion.
Frozen like an Ice. Time itself seemed to shatter as a faint presence stepped into the battlefield and the one who did was none other than Draves, one of the five students name as Riya.
The girl blessed with frost alongside her various advance mana techniques.
She stood there, silent… her arrival so sudden it was as if she had always been there. The air bent unnaturally around her, the serpent's massive form trembling—locked, unable to move.
Draves eyes sharpened.
His eyes flickered ~ shifting colour, glowing with a cold, precise light same as the moment before where he slices beasts inside the gate.
"Blessed authority "
The world changed.
Lines—thousands of them—spread across the serpent's body. Invisible trajectories, perfect paths of destruction, each one whispering where to cut… how to cut… to sever even the indivisible.
Draves moved with a single step~ single swing and the reality itself was divided.
Cutting through the flesh...
Cutting through the mass...
Cutting through the atoms...
Cutting through the existence of the corrupted beast...
And the moment he steps on the ground.
The beast of corruption~ Frozen spilt.
From its gaping mouth to the length of its titanic body—it was cleaved in half with terrifying perfection. Not torn. Not crushed ~ Separated.
The massive form collapsed, its two halves crashing against the earth as the arcanists fell free from the suspended death.
They landed safely.
But Draves didn't relax~
His eyes narrowed again.
"It's not over..."
He exhaled slowly.
"Blessed authority < Death marks>"
The world dimmed.
Shapes emerged—hidden signatures, presences cloaked beyond normal sight. Draves' vision pierced through concealment itself, locking onto unseen targets.
But—
The darkness crept at the edges. His surroundings blurred and as a result a drawback~ fatal one.
Suddenly something stuck from behind.
Unseen danger Another maw lunged from the void, aiming straight for Draves' blind side—
CLANG!
The strike of someone sword collided with snake teeth's, No. A large devilish pointy teeth's, which can separate any normal humans' body from their torso. Spilling their blood on to the ground while the human's small intestine can be seen coming out of the body like a rope.
It was Kira.
His strike collided with the serpent, forcing it back as Draves staggered slightly, his vision snapping back to normal.
"Watch your back," Kira muttered.
Draves shifted his gaze as he can see both Kira and the beast.
"What are you doing here?", Draves ask.
"We just want to help.", Kira said narrowing his eyes and looking towards the beast.
---------------------------
Few moments before.
Inside the tower.
"What was that?", Kira spoke looking towards Elvin who was also in confusion.
Elvin was speechless as if he didn't have anything to say about the explosion.
"It seems like the gate is broken", Riya spoke cutting through the tension.
"Yay...", Elvin spoke.
Silence spread~
"Hey, do you want to help them...", Kira said not as an advice but as a request.
Riya nodded and started going towards the door from where they entered narrowing her eyes.
"I don't want to lose anyone now.", She muttered in a low voice.
"Hey, wait for me", Kira yells as he also start walking.
But besides him he noticed someone standing and looking down and then he spoke surprising both Kira and Riya.
"Hey can't we stay here."< He said trembling in fear.
Riya gave him cold eyes as she turned back and then moves towards the gate ignoring his words.
"You truly are pathetic", She says to Elvin.
Kira stands there unable to say but he understood what was going on in both of their minds.
-------------------
At Eldoria forest.
In the battlefield~
"Didn't I tell you to stop there.", Draves said holding his sword and looking in the eyes of the devil.
"Yay... but"
"You never listen do you", Draves said looking towards Kira with his side eye.
"...."
They both charged forward. Steel met flesh... Blow after blow rained upon the serpent—but—Nothing.
No resistance.
No impact.
It was like striking smoke.
Draves' expression darkened.
"…I see."
The serpent flickered.
Distorted.
Unreal.
"It's an illusion."
Kira frowned. "Then how does it have this much presence?"
Draves' gaze sharpened, memories surfacing.
"Sixteen years ago… during the Rampage of Draconia…"
"…this serpent didn't have such power."
The battlefield seemed to grow colder.
"This isn't natural," he continued. "The real beast—its strength lies in size manipulation… and cloning."
His voice hardened.
"But this…"
"…this is something else."
"…Someone engraved this power into it."
Silence followed.
A heavy, unsettling realization.
"Who?" Kira asked.
Draves didn't answer.
Instead, he turned.
"Lisa. Directions."
Lisa pointed sharply to the east. "There!"
Eren frowned, pointing elsewhere. "No—west!"
Oryn narrowed his eyes, indicating the north.
Each of them—
Different.
Conflicting.
Illusions still lingered.
Distorting perception.
Then—
Footsteps.
Stok.
Without hesitation, without doubt—
He started running.
One direction.
No words.
No hesitation.
Draves' eyes followed him… and for the first time—
He trusted.
"…Follow him."
Kira glanced once more at the fading serpent, then at Draves.
"If it's artificial… how is it this strong?"
Draves walked forward, voice low but certain.
"It isn't."
Kira blinked.
"The real beast isn't powerful," Draves continued. "Not like the others."
"It relies on tricks—size manipulation… clones…"
He looked ahead, where Stok had already vanished into the distance.
"This one?"
"…It's just using hallucinations."
A pause.
"Which means…"
His voice turned colder.
"…the real enemy isn't the serpent."
"…it's the one controlling it."
Kira eyes shifted towards Draves and looks into his expression which was more serious than he imagined.
And then he spoke.
"Stok! lets use your blessings", Draves said looking towards the Stok whose eyes changed.
Glowing with a blue light like a hope of a sea.
"Blessed authority < Eternal Gaze: Phase: Tenfold Horizon>
"I will kill that bastard.", He says with one hand on his face smiling as he sees something somewhere close.
The time phase after the past sins and present deeds lies none other than future heaven. Beneath the depths of sins committed in past or above the sky full of present outcomes lies the sea full of love from those people who says everything will be alright in future.
A lie which is truly greater than seven deadly sins.
And the person who see through that lie is Stok.