Another female student, with short green hair and a broken arm, interjected tearfully. "They fought the Drakenar elite! The higher tiered ones with the power to level a city! If it weren't for them, we'd all be dead!"

Draegon and Rukia exchanged looks of disbelief.

"They might have exaggerated it a bit... but to hold off Drakenars of anywhere close to that level…" Draegon muttered. "That's beyond the strength of more than a few mana defense squads."

"Not surprising," Instructor Rukia voiced with the pride of a teacher. "They're S-Rankers. The kind who change wars."

More students began to speak, recounting the chaos: the rivers of molten rock, the storm of claws and flames, the moment Victor had teleported despite his battered body to keep the Drakenar leader from cutting down the retreating group.

Then one of them asked the question everyone was afraid to voice.

"Where are they now?"

The words hung heavy in the air.

And at this moment, another unexpected phenomenon occured.

The red circle was shrinking.

The glowing edges began to contract inward, destabilizing the spatial link.

"Wait—why is it closing? We never activated the disruption spell..." a mage yelled from the side.

"It must be from over there. The one responsible for it is most likely deactivating it," another shouted.

"Damn! It's collapsing way too quickly!"

Panic spread instantly.

"The others are not going to make it!"

"They will make it!"

"Keep it stable—someone reinforce the circle!"

But no matter what they tried, the circle kept shrinking.

In the next ten seconds, the number of students pouring through increased exponentially, as if the other side was throwing them out in desperation.

Bodies fell like rain.

"Wind Cushion! Keep casting!"

"Don't stop the recovery!"

The mages screamed over the thunder of the collapsing circle.

When the circle had shrunk to about seventy feet, tens were thrown through at once and now the total number of students that had returned were over five hundred in number.

By the time the dust settled, besides the students who were confirmed dead, only two names remained unaccounted for.

Victor.

Elyra.

Instructor Rukia spun toward the students. "Where are Victor and Elyra!?"

"They were right behind us... waiting for us to go through first," one of the students from the last returning ten, answered.

Every eye turned upward as their hearts pounded.

The circle was shrinking rapidly now:

Fifteen meters...

Twelve meters...

Ten meters...

Eight meters...

"Come on…" Draegon whispered under his breath while clenching his fists.

When the circle had nearly closed to a twenty-five-foot span of crimson light, a lone figure suddenly shot out.

"Someone's coming through!" a student shouted.

A wave of relief swept through the crowd.

"They made it!"

But when the falling figure came into view, every heart sank.

It was only one.

"Elyra!" Rukia gasped.

The green skinned girl fell from the heavens, screaming a single name—

"VICTOR!"

Before she could hit the ground, Draegon leapt again, catching her mid-air in a single bound. He landed gently, lowering her to her knees.

Elyra eyes widened with panic as she trembled.

"I have to go back!" she cried out while trying to push past him.

Draegon gripped her shoulder. "Calm down, girl!"

"NO! He—he's still in there!" she screamed. "The Drakenar leader grabbed him! He—he was almost through, but it pulled him back! Please, I can still make it—!"

"You can't," Draegon said firmly. "The circle's closing. You'll die if you try."

"I don't care!" she shouted. "He put his life on the line for all us all!"

The image of her father appeared in her mind at this moment. 'Just like he did...'

"I have to— I can lose another person..."

But her words were drowned out by the final whir of collapsing mana.

Above them, the red circle shrank to a single burning orb… then vanished.

The world fell silent.

No light... No rumble... No Victor...

Dozens of students began sobbing softly while others stared blankly upward, unable to process it.

Elyra's shoulders shook violently with rage as a varying set of complex emotions hit her all at once. "Again… It happened again..."

Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked upwards.

By the side, Instructor Rukia clenched her fists. 'I have failed as an instructor...'

Even Draegon, the unflinching Berserker, stood motionless... he had every intention of meeting the savior of the day but the cruelty of fate had other plans.

The mana defense officers and instructors began to lower their heads.

...

...

The docks of the academy was a mess of noise and disbelief as hundreds of students crowded around the entrace with their reflections rippling in the glass-like floor as the transport vessels from Sector K-22 arrived one after another.

The silver pods hissed open, releasing the survivors of Batch N and O looking battered, exhausted, and covered in the grime of their ordeal.

Some had bandaged arms while others were still dazed from trauma. The instructors and healers immediately rushed forward, guiding them to the medical bays, while the rest of the students craned their necks, looking for familiar faces.

Danny hair was disheveled and his face was filled with worry. He had been standing there for almost an hour, refusing to move even when the crowd surged around him. The moment the thirtieth pod docked, he shoved his way through.

"Move, move—! Out of the way!" he barked while grabbing the railing as the door slid open.

Inside, only a handful of students stumbled out. Danny's gaze darted frantically from face to face. "Victor?" he called out. "Victor, where the hell are you, man?"

There was no answer. Just the hiss of depressurization and the distant wailing of a girl reunited with her friend.

Behind him, Selene arrived with her usual swagger gone. Her bright silver streak of hair had dimmed under the soft blue lights of the dock. "Danny…" she murmured, scanning the crowd, "I don't see him either."

Kai and Kairo came next and shook their heads. Aria's usually pompous expression was nowhere to be found. Her hands fidgeted restlessly as her eyes flicked toward every new batch that arrived.

Rylan and Reed trailed behind with pale faces.

They had all heard the news. Thirteen dead. Six hundred saved. But there was no name list yet. No confirmation. Just whispers.

"I heard they lost people!"

"Did you see Ayra?"

"OMG! I can't find Malik!"

Voices were still heard in the background as people looked around for their friends.

When the final pod finally docked, the tension became unbearable. The students surged forward with murmurs turning into desperate questions.

Danny's heart hammered. He could almost feel his pulse in his ears.

The door opened and a few instructors stepped out instead of students with slightly disheveled looks.

Danny froze. "Where's Victor!? This can't be the final transport pod, right?"

The instructor hesitated before speaking. "Well, every student who made it back are accounted for. Except the deceased and the one that failed to make it back..."

Selene's stomach twisted. "Who?"

The man's eyes flicked toward the floor, unable to meet their gaze. "Victor Revenant."

The words hit harder than a punch.

Danny took a step back while shaking his head. "No. No, that's wrong. Check again. He's probably still out there." His voice broke. "He's not—he can't be—"

"I'm sorry but your friend…" The instructor whispered.

"No, don't say it!" Danny barked. "Victor is very strong! You think some incident at the K-22 sector could take him down?"

Danny turned towards one of the students before anyone could stop him.

"You!" he grabbed one of the students. "Where's Victor? Victor Revenant! Where is he?!"

The student's face fell immediately. He didn't answer. He just lowered his head, unable to meet Danny's eyes. That silence… that silence was worse than any scream.

Danny's chest tightened. "No, no, no, no—don't give me that look." His voice cracked. "Where is my friend?!"

The student flinched. A girl stepped forward with a burn mark down her neck. She spoke in a trembling voice.

"He… he didn't come back."

Selene froze completely.

For once, her face which was always full of snark and mischief, looked utterly blank—like her mind had gone white with noise.

"What… do you mean didn't come back?" she asked quietly.

The girl's eyes welled up. "We—we were ambushed by elite Drakenars after getting abducted into a glowing red portal in the skies of Sector K-22. He stayed behind. He—he made sure the rest of us got out."

"Stayed behind?" Reed's voice dropped. "You mean he's still out there?"

Rylan clenched his fists. "This is a prank, right? Maybe he's on the next shuttle."

But the girl only shook her head again. Around them, the other returning students began recounting what had happened in fragments and pieces.

"He slaughtered hundreds upon hundreds of Drakenars…"

"He covered our retreat."

"He fought back their leader who was like hundred times stronger than the regular Drakenar—"

"He made sure the rest of us got into the portal when it was shrinking... he literally threw us in..."

"After that… there was nothing."

The words blurred together, forming a terrible picture in Danny's mind.

His hands dropped slowly to his sides.

The crowd's chatter faded, replaced by an eerie, suffocating silence.

No one moved.

No one breathed.

Then, softly, someone nearby muttered, "He saved over six hundred people. Only thirteen were lost… but if he's gone too…"