Frantic to adhere to the Headmaster’s command, the Elders ceased their mana infusion into the portal. Yet, their actions came too late.
The once pink and stable gateway suddenly began to mutate horrifically. Its bubbling energies darkened to a sinister red, like drops of blood in an alchemist’s potion. This transformation signaled the abyss’s malevolent takeover, turning the portal into a bleeding wound in the fabric of reality. It’s edges bled and tendrils appeared.
The portal turned into the familiar eye shape Lassim had just witnessed.
Headmaster Ferrum’s voice boomed across the courtyard with a command that carried the weight of impending doom, "Get the students to safety, now!" His order sliced through the confusion, but the surge of demonic entities from the portal gave no one time to respond.
The first line of defense, the Elders nearest the portal, conjured barriers in a desperate bid to stem the hellish tide. A flood of creatures poured forth from the portal and slammed into the barrier with their bodies, pushing against it and even being crushed against them with the weight of those behind.
The Elder’s efforts to forge a temporary bulwark against the onslaught, a mosaic of magical shields shimmering with vestiges of hope kept reinforcing the wall.
Then, amidst the impending chaos, Elder Valeria emerged. With a swift activation of her own [Aegis], a colossal wall of ice ascended. Its surface etched with ancient runes of power, many times more intricate and elaborate than Lassim’s, embodying her formidable mastery over her self-created technique.
The students, caught in the maelstrom of terror, scattered. Their screams pierced the air as they fled from the nightmare unfolding before them. Training on captured prisoners of the abyss was one thing, but a real and actual invasion by Dragal forces hadn’t occurred for three thousand years on the Veridian Continent.
The younger and more vulnerable students closest to the portal were scooped up by elemental forces under the control of the academy Elders. They were whisked away from the academy’s grounds and hurtled towards the relative safety of the city outside.
But the true horror had just begun... It was then that a slug-like entity from the abyss made its entrance.
The portal strained and distended grotesquely to accommodate its massive form. As it forced its way into the world, the monster’s sheer power shattered the combined Elders’ protective barriers as if they were made of glass. The members of it’s legion were crushed under it’s weight between it and the barriers that shattered.
With the destruction of the line of defense against the portal, the academy’s grounds become a battlefield.
The creature’s humanoid form on the top of it’s slug-like body was in full view. A Elder that was too busy trying to maintain the wall with their nature element happened to be too close. The slug-like creature’s speak-like appendages shot forward and impaled the Elder at the head and heart, quickly draining their life and mana.
"Mmmm.... Delicious...LEGION! CONSUME!" The most unnerving and creepy voice fell from the mouth of tusks of the creature.
The abyssal legion, unbridled and unrestrained, flooded through the portal. Unlike their weakened brethren in the elemental plane, these creatures are at their full might, a relentless army of darkness pouring into the world.
The slug-like creature, a Lieutenant of the Dragal’s abyssal legion, was one of thousands in their ranks. It’s monstrous figure radiated a power that only the Headmaster could truly respect and face off against, that of the Spirit Transcendent level.
It surveyed the chaos it wrought. Its vertical eyes gazed, cold and calculating, as it locked onto Headmaster Ferrum.
Unwilling to let the situation grow out of control and let this beast slay more Elders, Headmaster Ferrum radiated his full power. In a display of unmatched speed and strength, he was at the lieutenant’s side in the blink of an eye. With all the power he could muster, he swung upwards with his axe at the demon.
The impact was monumental, sending the slug-demon hurtling upwards with a sonic boom. Its massive form silhouetted against the sky before vanishing into the clouds above, far from the eyes of those below.
He shouted, "I’ll leave the portal to you! CLOSE THE DAMN THING!" Without waiting for a response, he propelled himself into the stratosphere, following the trajectory of the demon. He ascended rapidly, leaving in a sharp flash of light shooting upwards as he pursued the lieutenant to prevent any further harm to his academy and the world below.
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The Elders and Vice Headmaster, spurred by the Headmaster’s decisive action, rallied. They attempted to save students while Vice Headmaster Evelyn focused on willing the extensive and complex arrays of the former elemental plane to collapse.
She knew that the abyssal portal was still connected to the elemental plane and could use this method, with extreme difficulty, as a potential way to disrupt the portal; forcing it to close.
The blood-hued portal continued to unleash a torrent of demonic creatures into the Myriad Spirit Academy as chaos erupted. The courtyard, once a place where 6 months ago, these same students were inducted into this place of learning and camaraderie that now became a battleground stained with fear and blood.
The Elders, seasoned warriors at various levels of the Spirit Ascension stage, sprang into action wearing faces of grim determination. They erected barriers of elemental energy, trying to stem the flood of abyssal legionnaires pouring through the portal. Elder Valeria, still present with her powerful [Aegis] technique, formed a massive wall of ice, attempting to hold back the onslaught.
Her tower shields appeared in each hand as she went into melee combat, piercing several of the more formidable demons with the bottom edges that formed into deadly icicles.
Despite everyone’s efforts, the tsunami of creatures attacking made the situation turn grim. The students, only at the Spirit Induction stage, were ill-equipped to face the might of these abyssal beings. The air was filled with the sounds of combat and elemental magic. The desperate cries of the young warriors rang out.
Screams pierced the air as demonic claws, teeth, dark energy-beams and venom-filled projectiles found their marks.
Several students, overwhelmed by the sheer power and ferocity of the invaders, fell where they stood, their bodies lifeless on the academy’s sacred grounds.
The scene was heart-wrenching as friends and comrades were torn apart before each other’s eyes. Friendships and potential extinguished by the unyielding consumption and incursion of the abyss.
The Elders, while powerful, were stretched thin trying to both protect the students and combat the invading force. They moved with swift precision. Their spells and attacks carved through the enemies, but for every demon felled, more seemed to surge through the portal.
Amidst the turmoil, pockets of students tried to band together, their youthful faces filled with terror or resolve. They launched their own spells and attacks, guided by their slim training and practice duels, but the reality of their situation was cruel.
Their powers, potent against the usual creatures of their own realm in moderately safe missions they carefully selected, barely scratched the invaders. These demonic bodies were hardened by the abyssal energies of their home dimension and empowered by being cultivation stages higher than the student’s own.
The academy, once a beacon of light and knowledge, was now a vision of despair. The courtyard was lit by the eerie bloody glow of the portal and the fires of destruction. Putrid ooze and student’s blood flowed.
The academy, a place of growth and learning, had become a nightmarish battlefield where the future of many young souls was brutally cut short.
The city outside, forewarned by the Headmaster’s message to the entire continent, collected what students appeared and braced for the onslaught as the abyssal forces spread. A tide of malevolent beings threatening to engulf and destroy everything in their path and as they followed the scent of the mana-filled Nexarians.