Humans fear many things.
Darkness, insects, animals, the depths of the ocean…
Death, hunger, disease.
But in this age, what people feared most could be summarized in a single word: Monsters.
Eren pushed Dean with his left hand without thinking. It was a push full of hatred. It was uncontrolled. It was hard.
Dean was thrown backward onto the floor. His breath locked in his chest. Something cracked inside him as the stone floor of the hall hit his back. His eyes blurred. For a moment—just a moment—purple-black veins appeared around his pupils. Then they vanished.
Dean clenched his teeth. He slammed his fist into the floor. "What the hell are you doing—!" His voice was angry but muffled. He didn't get up. He didn't get up because something inside him… was being suppressed. That familiar pressure circulating in his chest, Sigrum's mark, stirred deep inside.
The creature began to scream, or at least that's what they thought, because that soul-scratching sound was neither a howl nor a roar; it was nothing like them. But a werewolf couldn't make that sound. The sound came from within that dark spirit. It sounded like an ancient tomb opening. The dome of the hall trembled. The chandeliers shook.
Just then, Dusk stepped forward. The silver wavy patterns on his robe and the dark purple fur cloak around his neck began to ripple. His walk was calm. Too calm.
"Stop it," he said. His voice was low, yet everyone heard it.
Dusk looked at the creature. There was no fear in his eyes. There was recognition. "This is not an alpha werewolf."
The creature bowed its head. Its chest expanded. Melted pieces of flesh stuck to its armor dripped onto the decorated floor of the ballroom.
"This," Dusk said, starting to breathe heavily through his nose, "is an attempt to reproduce an ancient monster. Seeing these werewolves inside the academy was already a nightmare in itself. It's very difficult to identify them since they only become creatures at night. But this thing was sealed in the academy dungeon years before these events. It has not only a gigantic size, sharp teeth, and claws but also an incredibly high amount of magical energy. This is a…" He took a determined step forward. "Nightmare Stalker."
Eren clenched his teeth. He gripped his sword tighter. "What does that mean?"
"It means," Dusk said, "that we cannot defeat it. The power difference is incredible."
Eren's heart raced. "Vice Captain Dusk, please don't talk nonsense."
"Until help arrives," Dusk continued, "we will survive. We have no other goal."
Eren turned around and looked at Dean. He wanted to tear him apart, but now was not the time. "Is there nothing we can do?"
Dusk turned to Eren. "Well, I have a plan, but it will require the help of that Lantern behind you."
Dean slowly stood up. "And if I refuse?"
Eren began to grin, a terrifying grin. "Then I'll attack you instead of the creature."
Dean started glaring at Eren. "Okay, what's your plan, Deputy Captain?"
It took 5 minutes to explain the plan. During that time, the creature had finally managed to compose itself. It noticed their group as it looked around. It raised its gigantic claw and brought it down on Dusk. The floor shattered, and the chandeliers around began to shake. There was no sign of Dusk; it was as if he had evaporated.
Shirou stepped forward. He set his pipe to its maximum size, about 1 meter. Shirou put his lips to the tip of his pipe, and a white steam began to emerge from it. "You know the plan, buy us time!" he shouted.
Nicholas knelt down. He pressed his hand to the floor. First, the area around his hands turned white. Then the stones of the hall turned white. Blue ice stalagmites continued to form from Nicholas's hand to the creature's foot. A cold wave spread. The creature's foot was stuck between the ice.
Kayra was reciting magical words so fast that it was impossible to understand what he was saying, and suddenly chains emerged from the ground. They were not thin like before; this time, he could summon thicker and stronger chains. The sound of the chains clashing and rubbing against each other echoed in the dome. "There's no escape from this!" he shouted.
And Eren… Eren stopped. He held his breath. He remembered what Dusk had said while explaining the plan as the creature came towards him.
Dusk put his hand on Eren's shoulder. His touch was heavy. "Listen to me," he said. "Don't be afraid of the dark. That's one of the biggest problems when trying to use the dark element."
Eren's throat was dry. "I can't control it."
"You won't, the Dark is not like earth, water, or wind. You feel the wind deep inside, you hold and throw the earth, you can hold water in your two palms, but people cannot interact with the dark," Dusk said. "Don't force it, and everything will happen by itself."
The creature's shadow fell over Eren. "Point your hands at its head," Dusk said. "Imagine a wave coming out of your body. Pure. Intense. Dark."
Eren swallowed. He raised his left hand. Something opened in his chest. Not cold. Not hot either. Like a void. "And shout."
The creature swung its claw. "UMBRA—!" Eren's voice cracked. "UNDAM!"
Something dark spewed from Eren's hand. It wasn't an explosion. It was a spread. The wave came out of Eren's body. It tore the air. It hit the creature's head. And— Shadows began to wrap around the creature's head.
The creature's head was completely darkened. Black smoke spewed from its eyes. It tried to cover its face with its claws. Its scream filled the hall.
Dean was standing behind Raphael, both his hands were on Raphael's back, as if he was transferring something. "Okay, that should be enough. Thank you, charming genius." Raphael said.
Raphael spun his spear. The wind first whispered… then roared. The air swirling around the spear became visible. Raphael suddenly jumped very high and brought his spear down on the creature's head. Suddenly, a small tornado formed at the tip of his spear. The creature didn't seem very affected by this.
Shirou, at that moment, grinned from the dome-shaped ceiling of the ballroom and raised his hand. "Thank you, guys. Just in time."
The gigantic sphere of boiling water that Shirou had created exploded, and the boiling water poured over the creature. Steam covered everything. The creature was screaming because of the small lake amount of boiling water poured on it. Hiss— But the creature was still standing.
Finally, Dusk… was seen for the first time after the claw the creature brought down on him. He pressed his hand to the floor. The hall completely darkened. The floor softened. The shadow swallowed the creature's feet. Dark waves, three times the size of Eren's, hit from all directions. The creature knelt down.
Dusk was breathless. "It wasn't enough…"
And then— "Step back."
Before Dusk's voice could even echo, the atmosphere of the hall changed. Metal sounds were heard, as if plates were rubbing against each other, a sound that grated on the ears. The air behind the creature was cut like a knife, and dozens of metal pieces appeared at the same time. Not arrows. Not spears. Pure, shapeless, swirling masses of metal.
"I said, step back."
A silhouette appeared in the back, and then it was slowly understood who it was: it was the Lanterns' captain, Burhein Godrick. His feet were not touching the ground. The metals were holding him in the air. The long cloak on his back was motionless. His eyes were on the creature, with a cold gaze.
"Secure yourselves," he said to the Lanterns. "This is no longer your fight."
The creature raised its head. Shadows were still flowing from its face, but its eyes found Burhein. And it tried to bite Burhein. The five-meter body lunged forward with all its might. Burhein moved his finger. Metal plates emerging from the ground flew towards the creature's head. The metal plates that hit the creature's head began to melt after being embedded.
Not chains. Not ropes. Liquid metal that moved like a living thing wrapped around the creature's body, binding its joints. The creature was completely motionless. Before the creature hit the ground, Burhein raised his hand. "Collapse."
Liquid metals began to gush from the floor, they had tied the creature to the floor, and suddenly the floor collapsed. But the creature was still alive. It stood up as if the melted metal was not there. And at that moment— everyone in the ballroom felt a very great pressure. Eren remembered this man. This was the man who gave the speech before going to Moon's Eye: Azrael Solarius.
In the middle of the ballroom, without any magic circle, fire, wind, water, and earth moved at the same time. The chandeliers cracked. The air began to tremble.
"What an ugly copy," he said in a calm voice. "It can't even be the shadow of an ancient being."
He raised his hand. Light and Dark element spells formed at the same time, they did not destroy each other. They layered on top of each other. When they hit the creature's body, there was no sound. They disappeared. A part of the creature's armor… was erased. As if it had never existed.
The creature stumbled backward for the first time. And then— The ground trembled. A black sphere formed. The Shadow team captain, Azel, had arrived at the ballroom. The darkness around him was like a void. It absorbed light. It even swallowed sound.
The sphere grew. This was not an ordinary spell. It was pulling everything into it like a black hole, even bending the light passing around it. The creature and everything around it began to be pulled inward. Broken stones, metal pieces, shadows… even the creature's own energy.
The creature tried to scream, but even its voice was swallowed.
Just then— the dome ceiling and the sky disappeared, as if the ballroom was passing through the stars. A gigantic sealing circle descended from the stars. Kael. He had his arms spread wide. His eyes were closed. His lips were bleeding. But his voice was clear.
"Sealing protocol — Iron Maiden."
A gigantic, thorny, metal structure descended from the sky. The creature moved one last time. At that moment, Kael closed the seal. The Iron Maiden closed. The hall suddenly fell silent. When the last echo disappeared, Azrael turned his head and looked at the students.
"No one," he said in a calm tone, "should play with seals again."
Burhein looked at Dean. For a long time. "We'll settle this later."
And Dusk… slowly exhaled. "We survived," he said. "You're lucky. But I definitely deserve a raise."
But everyone knew. This was just the beginning.