The night moved in a cycle.

Every fifteen minutes, a new wave of thralls came. They would charge at the barrier, attack it, test it. Then stop. Wait. Watch.

And then again.

It was like someone was commanding them—making sure they didn't all rush at once. As if they wanted to exhaust the defenders slowly. Break their spirit.

Inside the barrier, some students began to lose hope. Their hands shook as they held weapons. Their mana was running low. Some started whispering that the barrier wouldn't last till dawn.

In the center of it all stood Alicia.

Her uniform was torn at the sleeves, her hair a mess, face smeared with dust and blood—not her own. She looked nothing like the noble girl people once thought her to be.

She stared at the thralls pressing against the barrier—pale, bloodstained, and broken.

Some of them still had faces she recognized.

Merchants. Servants. Guards. One had even been the man who sold flowers near the east fountain.

Alicia's fingers clenched tightly around her sword.

She could hear her heartbeat in her ears.

She could hear their soft cries too—the ones that didn't sound like monsters, but people. People begging without words. Begging to be saved. Or ended.

She stood frozen for a moment.

Should she kill them?

They were no longer human. That much was clear.

But they had been.

They had names, lives, families. And she… she couldn't stop thinking about that.

Each time she raised her blade, the question returned:

"If it were someone I knew… what would I do?"

Some students had already chosen. They struck hard, fast, and without hesitation. Others still hesitated every time.

Alicia hated it.

She hated this war.

But more than anything, she hated that no one was coming to help them. That the Academy had been left to the students alone.

Her knuckles turned white as she gripped her sword again.

She knew the next wave would come soon.

And she had to choose—

To protect those inside.

Or

To spare those who were once alive.

There was no easy answer.

And the cycle kept repeating.

***

We stood on a two storey house near the Academy, looking at the grave situation, it was in.

Well, it wouldn't have been that grave, if Alicia just gave the command to kill the thralls.

Because she knows that they were once the people of this city, she is hesitating to kill even one of them.

On the other hand, she must have given the task of finding a method to convert them into normal beings, to the other second years of the research department.

Among those seniors, one, who knows how to maintain the barrier around the academy, must be frantically trying to rebuild it, after taking this huge amount of damage from the thralls.

Barrier is like a thin covering if mana around a particular space.

Due to its spherical nature, one cannot dig a hole from outside the academy to enter into it.

The barrier around the academy is layered in structure, with more than a 100 layers of thin mana coverings.

Each layer has resistance against specific type of mana, and can detect intruders, if they have that specific type of mana energy on them.

Well, it was created many years ago, and due to lack of maintenance, it has corroded somewhat.

That's the only reason why these thralls have managed to leave such a large amount of dents all around the barrier.

It wouldn't be long before, the barrier is completely breached.

And after that, no one can be saved, because the chaos would have spread every where.

The remaining survivors are currently residing inside the academy, but not for long.

As ,I glanced at Monica, who had a depressed look on her face.

She knew that this is a disaster, which she could have prevented if she had been keen on what I was indicating a bit earlier.

We brought that naked girl along with us, as her life could be put in danger, if we had left her there.

My course of action was clear from here on.

Enter the academy, avoiding the swarm of thralls.

Find out the Saintess candidate.

Convince her of that fact, by making a deal with her.

Gather her tears, put it in the evaporator I made.

Then, spread it through out the city through the sprinklers I have placed at specific sites of the city.

By this, only the thralls would be converted back into humans, but the dead can't become alive.

There is one more thing that would be occuring right as we speak.

Aster, our MC and Astoria, the girl with the daggers would be fighting Laurel at a different site.

He figured out that she was the one controlling the thralls, so he thought that everything would subside if they just kill her.

Unfortunately that's not the case.

Anyway, first of all, I had to make a way through this crowd of thralls into the academy, safely, cause I am not immune to being converted to a thrall, if I am bitten.

I kept my hand on Monica's shoulder, indicating her that it was time.

She nodded, despite having her expression down.

As she chanted something, golden mana flew out of her as if radiating electricity.

Her hair and body, started turning golden too, akin to her beastification into the lioness.

Her claws grew out, and after complete beastification she roared a thousand times louder than when she was fighting inside that cave.

The thralls looked towards her, but they were too late to react, as a single wave of electrification send the thralls flying a few meters away.

The explosion was loud enough to attract the other thralls, but they didn't bother attacking her, instead they kept on attacking the barrier, as if being programmed into doing a single function.

It was an opening for us to enter into the academy.

I carried the girl, named Trisha, and ran towards the academy gates, after the opening.

The thralls who were already knocked out started getting up, and moving towards us.

I had already reached at the gates, and after giving signal to Monica, we both entered the gates at the same time.

Or so I thought.

Until I realised that only Monica could enter.

The barrier reacted differently when I tried to enter, and became completely like a wall, as if rejecting me.

The thralls were moving fast towards us, as I shoved Trisha into the barrier.

Fortunately she wasn't rejected, and safely entered the Academy.

Well, it wasn't fortunate for me though, as I stood there, being rejected every time I tried to enter the gates.

"Grrer....."

I looked behind only to see the thralls hurling around me, ready to jump at any moment.

"Ah, I am fucked."

*********************

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