"Ha ha ha. From the look on your face, it seems I was right about this year's recruits." The camp commandant's deep laugh filled the room. He leaned back in his chair with his gaze fixed on the person sitting on the other side of his astronomically large desk.
His desk was an impressive piece of dark, polished wood. Its lustrous sheen was unmistakable, reflecting light like a mirror and showing how well it was cared for. Even a layman could tell that it was a desk of supreme quality, and rightly so. For a man of the commandant's physique and caliber, the desk he used daily had to be able to take the occasional smash from a peak tier four awakened without taking any damage.
The other person looked up from the magical artifact she was holding, a genuine look of surprise on her face. The commandant's grin widened, noticing her full expression.
"Please don't spoil the surprise for me, Miss Alyra. You know I want to know the results at the same time as the recruits." He held a hand up to stop her from saying what she was just about to.
Mistress Alyra obliged, but her surprised look slowly morphed into one of genuine confusion, like she couldn't believe what she was seeing on the artifact she held.
It was an artifact in the shape of a book that, based on its link to each examiner's score recording tool, displayed the live rankings of the recruits as their kills were recorded. So far, the rankings had been fairly stable, without much variation within the top ten.
There were outliers like Zephyr and Cedric who tickled her interest with their ranking, along with a few others—profiles of various kids laid spread out before her on the desk.
But all these weren't enough to surprise her... except this. What she was seeing now went beyond just tickling her interest. She was shocked.
She looked back at the rankings again, and the individual didn't seem to be stopping, prompting her to stand up abruptly, startling the commandant who was fantasizing about the satisfaction he'd get if his guesses were correct. He enjoyed playing this game each year. He'd make his guesses and wait till the results were out to feel the shock along with all the recruits.
The silly expression on his face was wiped off instantly. Mistress Alyra was on her feet still staring at the artifact, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.
She reached out to feed mana into a pearlescent orb in the middle of the commandant's desk, barking an order to the person on the receiving end as the communication spell activated.
"Feed the view from sector 9-J to this office right now!"
"—Mistress!! Thank the gods. What are your orders, madam? The footer we sent to deliver the message hasn't returned and we still haven't gotten our echo stone to work." The receiver quickly responded.
"What?" Mistress Alyra asked in confusion. "What are you talking about?!" she whispered, her voice taking on a sharp, icy edge. Even the commandant slowly rose from his seat, walking to look out the windows.
The person on the other end paused, dots starting to connect in his head. He immediately launched into a quick and concise explanation.
"Mistress, about five minutes ago, the live feed from one of the sectors went off. We went through the normal procedures for such an event, sending the report via the echo sphere. It behaved as if the message went through, but it wasn't until just a few moments ago that we realized the message hadn't gone through at all. We tried other echo spheres, thinking it might be the occasional rift interference, but it didn't work, hence we sent someone out to the office to reach you."
"..." Mistress Alyra's eyes were cold as she slowly looked up at the camp commandant.
He grabbed his greatsword off its rack on the wall, about to head out immediately when an earth-shattering explosion rocked the building right from its foundations.
The building, solidly built from rare rocks, metals, and minerals, was no match for the explosion, crumbling down like a house made from cards.
The waves of the explosion leveled every nearby building, everyone and everything included. The pillar of light that kept the dome running flickered repeatedly, but still held. It seemed not every part of the Central Building was built the same.
As the dust settled, the core of the building— built like a building within another building— stood gallantly without any damage whatsoever. Whatever had been used to build this core was of a different caliber of toughness.
A bestial roar tore through the rubble as the camp commandant jumped straight out of the core building, his office also undamaged.
He flashed towards an empty space in the rubble and swung his greatsword glowing with layers and layers of magical spells.
A gasp of surprise and a cry of pain was heard before a head appeared seemingly out of nowhere, spinning through the air like a ball. The commandant was already at another section by then. The same thing repeated. Another head in the air.
He released a pulse of magical energy that revealed the rest of the masked invaders in succession, scrambling their cloaking spell. Like a phantom, he descended into their midst, reaping lives like a harvester with a sickle. All his movements were precise, hitting each person with only the amount of power required to kill them instantly.
They all seemed to be willingly laying down their lives to buy time for the masked figure at the forefront who was running straight towards the golden pillar of light emanating from the core building.
The commandant noticed and, with a roar, immediately let out a flurry of advanced fire arrow spells at the assailants.
It wasn't even a contest, making him doubt how they got into the rift in the first place. These were tier threes at most, and that was even being generous.
He used his hands to carve a path out of the crowd of burning humans, dashing out with a jump. The intruders' screams of agony resounding through the rubble. They were flash-burned alive, their insides cooked instantly from the advanced spell.
The commandant was content to chase after the last cloaked figure since he was heading directly towards the core building, into the maws of Mistress Alyra.
She wasn't even considered one of the most talented of her generation in the Ryvelin family, but yet, he shuddered at what she was capable of. He had seen her in action only once, but it left a lasting impression on him. It was also what spurred him to join the ranks of the Ryvelin family soldiers. And since then, he could confidently say he hadn't regretted it.
The masked figure in black sensed that he was being led on, but it seemed he couldn't care less, or he was just that confident in taking on whatever was thrown at him.
CRACKLE!
The masked figure's hair stood at attention as he felt the charge in the air. He leapt back immediately, dodging the lightning strike that charred the spot where he had been.
His eyes narrowed as he searched the surroundings for his enemy. He spotted a girl of about sixteen staring right at him, already in the motion of slinging another spell.
As his legs touched the ground, he felt a surge of electricity spread through his body. He couldn't even cry out before his body shriveled up like a dry twig.
Nobody paid any attention to him as he fell to the ground, dead. Both Mistress Alyra's and the commandant's eyes were locked onto another area.
A soft chuckle was heard as another figure slowly came into view, clapping.
"That's a Ryvelin for you. Finishing off a tier three like a piece of cake, and at the age of sixteen too..."
"Silent Blade Squad's No. 29 of the Umbral Tower... A pleasure to meet you, Mistress Alyra."
He greeted with a murderous grin.