Hearing this, Damien sat in the chair opposite the Demi-God.

It was a plush, velvet armchair, but he felt like he was sitting on a spike.

"The Central Continent," Astra began, staring out the window at the peaceful capital sprawling below.

"It has been at peace for many years. Since the last Great War."

"The Era of Prosperity," Damien said, quoting the standard history textbooks.

"Protected by the Four Demi-Gods and the Imperial Army."

"Protected," Astra scoffed. She looked tired. The grandmotherly facade slipped, revealing the ancient, battle-worn warrior beneath.

"Do you know what it means to be a Demi-God, Mozart?"

"I cannot say I do, Headmistress."

"It means you are a pillar," Astra whispered, her voice sounding like grinding stones.

"And pillars... carry weight. We hold up the sky so the children can play in the dirt."

She tapped her finger on the World Tree desk.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"But the sky is getting heavier."

Damien's eyes narrowed behind his mask. "I don't understand headmistress?"

"I am speaking about the Void and Abyss," Astra said plainly.

Hearing this, Damien's heart skipped a beat.

"The 'Swamp Gas' you found," Astra said, locking eyes with him. "Let me guess, it you actually encountered those cultist bastards?"

Damien debated lying. But looking at her nebula eyes, he realized a lie would be an insult.

"Indeed it is as you say, they seemed to have laboratory hidden there," Damien admitted carefully.

Astra nodded slowly.

"The barriers are of the world are thinning Mozart"

We tell the public that the Demon King is dead. We tell them the dungeons are under control."

"But you and I both know... the real monsters don't live in dungeons. They live outside the walls of reality."

She stood up and walked to a bookshelf filled with crumbling tomes. She pulled out an old, black leather book.

"There is an old poem," Astra said softly. "From the First Era. Before the Magic. Before the Empire."

She opened the book. Her voice took on a rhythmic, chanting quality, resonating with the mana in the room.

"When the Stars bleeds into the sea, The Golden Gates shall shatter free. The Pillars crack, the sky descends, And thus the Age of Heroes ends."

She closed the book with a heavy thud. Dust motes danced in the light.

"Although it's just my guess, but the so-called when the star's bleed into the sea translates into the when the stars fall"

"And you and I both know what stars in this world represent"

Damien stared at her.

If she was in the precense of the church of light or any other major church, these words were enough to get both of them charged which blashphemy

When the stars fall? In the world of the hero returns, stars are represented by the verious kingdoms of God of various gods hanging in the sky and illuminating the earth

So to say the the stars would fall means that the Gods would fall

'She knows,' Damien realized, a chill running down his spine. 'She knows the Invasion is coming. It's almost like she's just waiting for the clock to run out.'

"Why tell me this?" Damien asked, his voice low.

"I'm just a music teacher. If the sky is falling, shouldn't you tell the Emperor? Or the Army?"

"Or even the other Demi-Gods"

Astra smiled. It was a sad, knowing smile.

"The Emperor is busy counting his gold. And the Army is busy polishing their medals. They have forgotten what fear tastes like."

"As for the other Demi-Gods, those old geezers probably have their own plans"

She paused looking at him.

"But you... you still have fear in your eyes. And you have students who are strong enough to survive the fall."

She waved her hand, dismissing him. The oppressive gravity in the room lifted, returning to normal.

"Go back to your students, Professor. Train them well. The Tournament is coming up. Let them play at being heroes while they still can."

Damien stood up. He adjusted his coat and bowed deeply.

"I will prepare them, Headmistress. For the Tournament... and whatever comes after."

"See that you do."

Damien turned and walked to the elevator. The doors slid shut, sealing him off from the presence of the Demi-God.

As the elevator descended, Damien leaned against the glass wall, exhaling sharply.

"That was close," he muttered, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead beneath the mask. "

She suspects something is coming, but the disguise held. She thinks I'm just a perceptive mage."

He looked at the digital floor counter ticking down.

"She doesn't know who I really am."

…...................….

[Location: The Headmistress's Office]

Astra waited until the elevator reached the ground floor.

Then, she stood up.

She walked to the center of the room, to the beautiful Persian rug that covered the floor. She nudged it aside with her foot.

Beneath the rug, the floor was not marble. It was a pane of reinforced, translucent crystal.

Astra looked down.

Through the crystal, she could see the shaft of the tower extending downwards. Past the classrooms. Past the basement. Past the sewers.

Down into the deep earth.

There, sealed in a sphere of blinding holy light, was a tear in reality.

It wasn't a fracture nor crack like the one in the Flesh-Crafter's lab.

It was a Gate.

Massive. Pulsating. A swirling vortex of absolute blackness that writhed against the chains of golden light holding it shut.

[The Tartarus Seal: Level 10 Abyss Gate]

[Status: Critical. Containment failing.]

Astra watched the gate. She could hear it whispering to her. It had been whispering for fifty years.

It was the reason she never left the Spire.

"He's a good actor," Astra whispered to the empty room. "Better than his father ever was."

She looked at the spot where Damien had stood.

The System might have fooled her mana senses. The mask might have fooled her eyes.

But Astra had fought alongside the Voss family for decades. She recognized the tilt of the head. The arrogance in the posture. The specific rhythm of his walk.

And most importantly the smell of his mana.

"The mask is good," she murmured. "But the spirit is the same."

She looked back down at the abyss. A crack appeared in one of the light chains. Astra winced, clutching her chest as her own life force was drained to repair it.

She was dying her life force was the main conduit for sealing back this gate, the day it broke it meant her time was nearing its end

"Hurry up, Voss kid," Astra whispered, her voice trembling with exhaustion.

"I can't hold the door shut for a little longer"

She placed her hand on the cold crystal, staring into the darkness that wanted to swallow the world.

"We don't have much time left."

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