A short distance from the front lines, Umber lay motionless in the mud. His breathing was slow, but steady.
Lusian remained unconscious.
Sophia knelt beside him while Emily continued pouring the last traces of mana she had left into his body.
Larriet stood guard nearby.
Adela, Aureus, Kara, and Isabella maintained a defensive formation, eliminating the few undead that still wandered through the village.
A few minutes later, the instructors began to arrive.
Clara was the first to reach them.
The moment she saw Lusian lying there and Umber covered in wounds, her expression hardened.
"How are they?"
Emily barely looked up.
"Lusian is still unconscious... but he's breathing. Umber will survive as well."
Clara slowly released the breath she had been holding.
"That's enough."
She turned toward the other instructors.
"Secure the perimeter. Search the entire village. I don't want a single enemy left hiding."
The instructors immediately scattered.
The main battle was over, but no one lowered their guard.
Sophia remained silent beside Lusian.
She gently brushed the damp hair away from his face.
Only then did she speak.
"Thank you for protecting him."
Emily slowly shook her head.
"You don't need to thank me, Duchess."
She tightened her grip around Lusian's hand.
"I was only protecting my fiancé."
For a brief moment, Sophia simply looked at her.
Then she turned toward Clara.
"Tell me what happened."
Clara lowered her head.
"We failed."
She offered no excuses.
"The cult prepared an ambush none of us could have predicted. Without Lusian... and without the students... none of us would have survived."
Sophia said nothing.
Her eyes wandered across the battlefield—the corpses, the ruined buildings, and the ritual markings carved into the ground.
She remained silent.
The sounds of battle were beginning to fade.
The last undead fell one after another beneath the knights' blades while the instructors secured every street in the village.
Just as it seemed the battle had finally come to an end...
An explosion shook one of the nearby houses.
The roof burst into the sky.
Wood and stone fragments scattered in every direction.
A torrent of demonic mana erupted from inside like a black pillar.
It wasn't spreading.
It was compressing.
As though countless invisible streams of energy were being pulled into a single point.
Clara immediately looked up.
"What...?"
The instructors all turned at once.
Even Larriet's fur stood on end.
Emily felt the mana before anyone else.
The color drained from her face.
"It's him...!"
She gripped Lusian's hand tightly.
"He's the one... He's the one who hurt Lusian!"
She didn't have to say his name.
Sophia was already on her feet.
She asked no questions.
She said nothing.
She simply began walking toward the ruined house.
With every step, waves of mana pressure rippled through the air.
A staggering figure emerged from the wreckage.
It was Jerges.
His robe had been torn to rags.
Blood covered his entire body.
His breathing was ragged.
Yet he was smiling.
It wasn't the smile of a victor.
It was the smile of a man who had nothing left to lose.
Around him, the demonic mana continued to condense.
The black ritual lines, still visible beneath the mud, began glowing once more.
Like roots.
Like veins.
Every bit of power the ritual circle had gathered before it was destroyed flowed back toward its creator.
Clara's eyes widened.
"He's absorbing the sacrificial mana!"
Jerges let out a raspy laugh.
"Do you understand now...?"
His voice was broken.
Every word seemed to tear blood from his throat.
"If I return..."
He spat onto the ground.
"...the High Council will execute me."
Slowly, he raised his head.
His eyes locked onto Sophia.
Years of hatred burned within them.
"It was always the same...
You...
The great Sophia Douglas.
The child prodigy.
The kingdom's heroine.
The beast tamer everyone admired."
His body began to twist.
His skin dried and cracked.
His veins blackened.
Demonic mana wrapped itself around every bone in his body.
"Do you know what I received?"
A bitter laugh escaped his lips.
"I was a genius too.
One of the finest of my generation.
But I was born with this gift...
Necromancy."
"And because of that...
My own family cast me aside.
The academies shut their doors.
The nobles spat at me whenever I passed.
The same people who call you their savior...
called me a monster."
The dark energy continued compressing.
The corpses scattered across the plaza began to tremble.
The air turned icy cold.
"They gave me a place.
They accepted me.
The cult was the only one that ever saw my worth."
His smile twisted into madness.
"So where was your justice then, Sophia?
Where was the kingdom you swore to protect?
Where were its heroes when they destroyed my life?"
Sophia stood perfectly still.
She did not answer.
Not a single word.
Her gaze remained completely cold.
Jerges laughed again.
"Of course...
You don't even consider me worthy of an answer."
"Then...
I'll die as the monster your world created."
He spread both arms wide.
Every last trace of demonic mana rushed into his chest.
The ground began to crack.
His bones snapped.
His flesh slowly peeled away.
Clara stepped forward.
"Everyone, fall back!"
But Sophia had already moved.
She still hadn't spoken a single word.
She gave only one command.
"Larriet."
The golden lion roared.
Thunder struck the ground with his hooves.
The sky answered with a deafening clap of thunder.
And the true battle began.
The ground exploded.
Every remaining fragment of demonic mana gathered during the ritual compressed into Jerges' body.
His skin split apart.
His muscles withered away at an impossible speed.
His flesh shrank tightly against his bones until only a corpse-like face remained.
Two green flames ignited within his empty eye sockets.
A black staff appeared in his hands as though it had grown from his own skeleton.
The air became deathly cold.
Every corpse scattered throughout the village began to tremble.
Clara shuddered.
"He became a Lich..."
Jerges slowly raised his staff.
A twisted smile spread across his skeletal face.
"Now...
No one will ever look down on me again."
He struck the ground.
Dark mana surged throughout the entire village.
The corpses that had fallen only minutes earlier rose once again.
Knights.
Cultists.
Destroyed undead.
Even mangled bodies began dragging themselves through the mud.
Thousands of empty eyes lit up at once.
"Rise..."
The Lich's voice echoed like something crawling out of the underworld.
"Kill them all!!"
The entire undead army advanced.
An endless tide.
The knights instinctively stepped back.
"They're getting up again!"
"They won't stay dead!"
"Just how much mana does that monster have?!"
Jerges laughed.
"As long as corpses exist...
my army will never disappear."
Then...
Sophia stepped forward.
She calmly mounted Thunder.
The lightning steed struck the ground with one hoof.
Lightning raced across his body.
Larriet walked to her side.
The massive golden lion let out a deafening roar.
The two magical beasts awaited a single command.
Sophia raised one hand.
She prepared no offensive spell.
She didn't need one.
Her mana began spreading around both beasts.
It wasn't an element.
It wasn't a spell.
It was her unique ability.
Magic circles appeared beneath Thunder and Larriet.
Sophia's mana flowed into them.
"Pack Enhancement."
The air exploded.
Larriet's golden fur blazed with brilliant light.
His muscles swelled.
Every breath released visible shockwaves.
Thunder reared.
Lightning no longer danced only across his body.
Now the entire sky answered his presence.
The instructors stared in disbelief.
"So... that's the true power of the Grand Duchess...?"
Clara silently watched the scene.
She understood immediately.
Sophia's Omega Affinity drastically reduced the tremendous mana cost of her unique ability.
She could strengthen multiple magical beasts simultaneously without exhausting herself.
Jerges understood as well.
"So that's the famous Supreme Beast Tamer..."
He smiled.
"Let's see whose army prevails."
He slammed his staff into the ground again.
Thousands of undead charged forward.
Sophia slowly lowered her hand.
"Larriet."
The lion vanished.
No one could follow his movements.
An instant later...
the first line of undead was launched into the air.
Every swipe of his claws tore through three or four enemies at once.
Shockwaves carved entire streets through the horde.
Jerges answered by raising his staff.
Gigantic skeletons emerged from beneath the mud.
Each wielded enormous weapons corroded by time.
"Crush him."
Larriet roared.
He leaped.
His body slammed into the first giant with monstrous force.
The impact reduced a nearby house to rubble.
At the same time...
Sophia rested a hand on Thunder's neck.
"Go."
The lightning steed vanished inside a flash of lightning.
Every stride left violent electrical explosions behind.
Lightning spread through the rain itself.
One step.
Dozens of undead were reduced to ashes.
Two steps.
An entire street was cleared.
Jerges raised a wall of bone.
Thunder smashed through it without slowing down.
The barrier exploded into dust.
The Lich barely managed to retreat.
For the first time...
his smile vanished.
He realized he wasn't fighting an ordinary mage.
He was facing the woman who had turned two Level 75 and Level 78 magical beasts into monsters capable of overwhelming entire armies.
And she still wasn't using her full strength.
Jerges slammed his staff into the ground once more.
Demonic mana spread across the village.
The corpses began rising again.
One.
Ten.
Fifty.
Hundreds.
Skeletons clawed their way out of the mud while freshly slain bodies stood again with unnatural movements.
A tidal wave of death surged toward Sophia.
She didn't move.
She only watched.
"Thunder."
The lightning steed neighed.
A bolt of lightning descended from the clouds, enveloping his body.
He vanished.
An instant later, thunder exploded across the village.
Thunder tore through the first ranks of undead at impossible speed.
Every impact unleashed chains of lightning that jumped from corpse to corpse.
The undead convulsed.
Their movements slowed.
They froze...
for only a single second.
It was enough.
"Larriet."
The golden lion roared.
His massive body crashed through the undead like an avalanche.
His claws shredded flesh.
His jaws crushed bone.
Every swipe destroyed multiple mana cores at once.
Those corpses never rose again.
Thunder reappeared farther ahead.
Another bolt of lightning.
Another charge.
Another wave of paralyzed enemies.
Larriet arrived immediately afterward.
He tore them apart before they could move again.
It was a perfect rhythm.
A deadly dance.
Thunder opened the way.
Larriet turned it into a graveyard.
The instructors could only watch in silence.
They exchanged no commands.
None were needed.
After years of fighting together...
each knew exactly what the other would do.
Jerges smiled.
He drove his staff into the ground again.
More corpses rose.
"Rise!"
The earth split open once more.
But his smile disappeared almost immediately.
The newly risen undead barely managed to stand.
Thunder was already upon them.
Lightning locked them in place.
Larriet arrived a heartbeat later.
They were torn apart.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Jerges accelerated the spell.
Dark mana poured from his body like a flood.
Every second, more corpses rose.
But every second...
Thunder and Larriet destroyed even more.
The balance began to shift.
The mountain of corpses shrank.
The streets slowly cleared.
Jerges took a step back.
"No..."
He poured more mana into the spell.
More corpses.
More.
More.
Thunder tore across the plaza wrapped in lightning.
Larriet roared behind him.
The last twenty undead were reduced to pieces before they could even raise their weapons.
Jerges' breathing grew heavier.
The green flames in his eyes flickered.
For the first time...
he felt fear.
He looked across the battlefield.
Not a single corpse remained standing.
Only shattered remains littered the plaza.
At last, he understood the difference between them.
He needed time to build an army.
Sophia only needed two beasts.
And those two beasts destroyed the dead faster than he could ever raise them.
He took another step back.
Then another.
He tightened his grip on the staff.
"No...
Impossible..."
Jerges retreated again.
His breathing was ragged.
The staff trembled in his hands.
The corpses he had worked so hard to raise lay shattered across the plaza.
Not a single one remained standing.
He looked at Sophia.
She was still motionless.
Mounted atop Thunder.
Larriet stood at her side, his golden fur bristling, his fangs stained with blood.
An unbearable pressure descended upon Jerges.
"You...!" he spat with hatred.
"Damn you!"
His voice trembled.
Not with rage.
With frustration.
"I was a genius too! I had the same talent as you! But while everyone worshipped you... they cast me aside! Just because I chose necromancy!"
His eyes turned bloodshot.
"My family abandoned me! The academy rejected me! No one would even listen! Where was justice?! Where was it?!"
Sophia watched him in silence.
There was no contempt.
No pity.
Only terrifying calm.
Jerges took another step backward.
For the first time...
fear overcame his pride.
"W-wait..."
He slowly lowered his staff.
"We can talk...
I know where the other rituals are.
I can help you.
I can tell you where they are...
Just...
just let me live..."
Sophia stepped down from Thunder.
Her footsteps echoed across the rain-soaked stone.
She stopped a few meters away.
"Do you know the difference between us?"
Jerges slowly raised his head.
Sophia met his gaze.
"I never judged you for practicing necromancy."
She paused.
"I judge you because you dared to hurt my son."
The world seemed to stop.
"Larriet."
The lion vanished.
Jerges barely had time to widen his eyes.
A massive claw tore straight through his body from head to toe.
There was no explosion.
No resistance.
Only the sound of flesh being ripped apart.
His body collapsed onto the stone in two pieces.
Larriet calmly returned to Sophia's side.
She never looked back at the corpse.