Chapter 309: A Person Inside The Smoke
...green.
The Summoner section exploded.
⸢ CORRECT — SUMMONER-D: 2,000 ⸥
Kasto jumped from his chair and grabbed Anita around the waist. Anita screamed as he lifted her, then struck his shoulder until he set her down.
"We got all of them!"
"I know! Put me down!"
"You said I’d panic!"
"You did panic!"
"But I was right! Hahaha!"
Lancet rose with the rest of the Summoners and applauded until his palms stung.
Kasto spotted him in the stands and spread both arms. "Didn’t have to think of the crowds as robots, did I?"
Lancet taunted him by making robot gestures.
The final scoreboard filled the air above the platform.
⸢ CLASS GROUP-D — KNOWLEDGE QUIZ RESULTS ⸥
⸢ Summoner-D: 2,000 ⸥
⸢ Enchanter-D: 1,800 ⸥
⸢ Elementalist-D: 1,700 ⸥
⸢ Specialist-D: 1,600 ⸥
The speaker waited for the cheering to settle.
"Summoner-D has achieved a perfect score! Twenty questions, twenty correct answers and two thousand points!"
Miss Maecil stood near the front of the Summoner section with both fists raised above her head. Professor Phiodor remained seated across the arena, looking offended as always.
Kasto and Anita returned to their seats under a storm of praise.
Lancet caught Kasto’s fist when he reached the row.
"Not bad."
"Not bad?" Kasto repeated. "We carried the entire Class Group."
Lancet gave him an eyebrow raise. "Welcome to the team."
The rest of the day passed through questions, arguments and students discovering painful gaps in their education. Class Groups-C and -B completed their rounds before the platform emptied.
That night, while everyone talked about how the Quiz actually ended up being entertaining, Lancet thought about a coffin.
The following morning, Class Groups-A and -S took the platform.
Their competition drew a larger crowd. Older students answered faster and argued less, though the questions had also grown more difficult. Several involved old wars, advanced channel theory and political agreements Lancet had never heard mentioned in class.
Class Group-A finished first.
Specialist-A took the lead by one question.
Class Group-S followed after the midday break.
Vernon Heavenblum answered questions across nearly every category. Espel was present for Enchanter-S and she answered everything that was asked with a straight face. She was never dazed once.
The final question ended.
The speaker raised both arms as the Class Group-S scoreboard settled.
⸢ Enchanter-D: 2,000 ⸥
⸢ Elementalist-D: 1,700 ⸥
⸢ Summoner-D: 1,600 ⸥
⸢ Specialist-D: 1,600 ⸥
"Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the eighth challenge of the Inter-Class Competitions!"
Applause moved through the arena.
"The next competition will be announced later today as the board is yet to reach a decision."
Students stood and began collecting bags, books and half-finished drinks. Lancet remained seated long enough to stretch the stiffness from his legs.
Lancet started to rise. But just then, the platform shook.
DRRRMMMMM— BOOOM!
A deep blast rolled through the Academy.
The sound struck from beyond the arena walls and snapped every conversation apart. The floating scoreboards flickered. Several drone cameras jerked sideways before regaining balance.
Even though the platform was suspended above, the shockwave of something from the ground below had shaken it so severely.
Students froze between their seats.
A second sound followed, not another explosion but the hard crack of stone breaking under pressure.
Someone shouted from the upper rows. "Smoke!"
Lancet turned and hurriedly climbed the rows of seats alongside other students. They looked down the platform and into the earth where the academy stood.
A dark column rose beyond the eastern Academy buildings. Fire burned inside it, bright enough to show through the black smoke even under the afternoon sun.
The platform immediately erupted into noise. "What’s going on?"
"Are we under an attack?"
"Which building is that?"
"Stay in your seats!" an instructor shouted.
No one listened.
Students flooded the aisles. Some rushed toward the transport tubes while others climbed onto benches for a better view. Professors began pushing through the crowd, issuing orders that vanished beneath hundreds of frightened voices.
Lancet stared at the smoke. Since those were the eastern buildings of the Academy, there were three possible buildings where the fire was coming from.
The old library, the faculty archives... and the Academy Museum.
His heart struck once against his ribs. The system opened before he called it.
⸢ Ashen Rebirth completed. ⸥
Lancet quickly bounded down the seats. Kasto grabbed his sleeve. "Where are you going?"
"To see."
"Hold on! I’m coming with!"
Lancet pulled free and joined the rush toward the eastern exits.
Min Tu followed before he could tell her not to. Anita and Kasto came behind them, with Luke forcing his way through the crowd from another row.
The transport tubes were already packed.
Lancet abandoned them and leaped out of the platform like a flying monkey. That was definitely illegal but no one had seen him.
He used his magic to soften the landing.
Students started to jump as well, and before Lancet knew it, he had started a waterfall of pupils from the platform to the ground.
By the time Lancet reached the Academy grounds, professors had formed a line across the eastern path.
Smoke rolled over the rooftops ahead. The museum’s alarm bells rang without rhythm.
"Move back!" an instructor shouted. "All students return to the platform!"
A fresh burst of fire rose above the building. The heat reached them from across the courtyard.
Students screamed and stumbled away from the front line, but the fire did not spread. It climbed straight upward, gold at its center and copper-red around the edges.
Lancet pushed between two taller students.
The Academy Museum stood beyond the fountain with half its roof missing.
Stone blocks had fallen across the surrounding lawn. Glass from the upper windows glittered over the paths. Smoke poured through a wide hole above the central exhibition hall, carrying strips of burning cloth and old ash into the air.
Professors and guards gathered near the entrance. Several of them had weapons drawn.
Dean Ordenance arrived from the western path with his coat open and one hand already lit with Grace. Danistasia moved beside him, cold spreading beneath every step.
"What happened?" Ordenance demanded.
A museum curator stood near the broken doors, bleeding from one side of his forehead. "The history exhibit."
Danistasia’s gaze rose toward the burning roof. "Was it attacked?"
"No." The curator struggled for breath. "A coffin opened."
Ordenance turned toward him. "What coffin?"
"Look!" Someone pointed to the sky. "There’s a person inside the smoke!"
All eyes followed the finger. Indeed, they saw something moving inside the smoke.
Students pointed. A figure rose through the hole in the roof.
Fire covered her from head to foot, but it did not hide her shape. It formed robes around her body, feathers along her shoulders and a crown that swept from her brow like golden horns.
Her copper-red hair lifted behind her in the heat. The smoke bent away from her face.
She climbed into the sky as though the burning museum had become the mouth of her grave.
A shadow opened behind her.
It stretched across the roof, vast wings reaching over both sides of the building while no physical creature stood there.
The gathered students fell silent. Even the guards and professors stopped advancing.
The woman turned slowly above them, eyes burning white-gold. Fire ran along the rigid feathers framing her temples and gathered beneath her feet, holding her over the shattered museum.
An old professor near the front took one step backward. "No."
The woman beside him gripped his arm. "Is that her?"
Whispers passed through the students.
"The statue..."
"It’s been fifty years already?"
"That’s Solaris Ashen."
"Is it really her? Holy shit."
"My grandfather said she died attacking Carrion Spire."
"She did."
A Year-S student stared up with his mouth open. "Then how—"
The curator sank to his knees.
"The Phoenix Reincarnate," he whispered. "The Phoenix Reincarnate has been reborn."