“Everyone, united we stand! United we stand!” Ferdi shouted inside the card-player-soul club. “The harder things get, the more we need to show the composure of true card players!”

“It’s at times like this that we need to remain calm even if a mountain collapses right in front of us! Everyone, show some courage! You’re surrounded by comrades who have fought beside you for years—your brothers-in-arms! We stand with you! We stand united!”

“So what if we’re trapped inside the Academy? Show some spirit! As long as we stand together, there’s nothing to fear!” Ferdi yelled, pounding the table.

And yet, the card-player-soul club remained deathly silent.

“Oh, come on! What’s gotten into all of you?” Seeing their reaction, Ferdi pressed on. “I have a proposal. To liven things up, how about we play a thrilling, white-knuckle round of Divine Cards??”

No one said a word.

“Hey, what are you all doing? You look like the world’s already ending, but nothing has even happened yet! We’re still sitting here in the card-player-soul club, all our comrades are fine, and we can still gather around and play cards together. Doesn’t that mean everything’s still okay? Why are you all sitting there with faces like corpses??”

Ferdi slapped the table.

“Enough! Stop acting like this! So we can’t go home for a little while. It’s not like we’re going to die. The Academy will definitely find a way to solve this. We’re students of Carillian Academy, and there are plenty of extraordinary people among us. What are you so afraid of? Quit looking so miserable and play a round of cards!”

“All right, Andre. You’re up. Set an example for everyone—we’re having a duel!”

“Huh? Maybe not, Brother Ferdi.” Andre rubbed his nose. “I don’t think this is the time to be playing cards.”

“Then what is it time for? Sitting around worrying?” Ferdi clicked his tongue. “All this anxiety isn’t going to help. It’ll only make things worse. You might as well distract yourselves and do something else.”

“Uh...”

He had a point.

Andre glanced at the silent card players around him, then took out his deck.

“All right. It’s not like there’s anything we can do anyway. If the sky falls, the tall guys can hold it up. Dead-last underachievers like us won’t be much help, so we might as well do something else to take our minds off it.”

With that, Andre and Ferdi sat down across from each other.

“Then let the duel begin!”

“I summon ‘Demon’s Hand’ in Attack Position.”

Andre took the first turn and played a warrior card.

“Fine, then I’m going all out right from the start. Big Explosion!”

To make the moment more dramatic, Ferdi slammed the card onto the table.

Rumble.

The instant the card struck the tabletop, a muffled crash sounded nearby.

The watching card players exchanged startled looks.

Holy shit.

Had a card spirit manifested?

Had “Big Explosion” actually materialized??

“Could it be that my card-playing skills have finally reached the pinnacle, transcending the mortal realm and awakening a soul within my cards??”

Ferdi was still wondering whether his mastery of the game had reached such heights that his cards had answered his call when the ceiling beams suddenly trembled and dust rained down.

“That isn’t your cards answering your call, Brother Ferdi!” Andre was the first to come to his senses and snapped the others out of their daze. “I think the building is about to collapse!”

Why did the others need to be snapped out of it?

Because Ferdi had not been the only one to arrive at such an absurd conclusion. Playing cards had rotted all their brains. The moment the other card players saw what was happening, their first thought had been exactly the same as Ferdi’s—they had assumed the deck was manifesting its power.

“Holy shit!?”

Ferdi finally realized that this had nothing to do with his deck.

The building itself was collapsing.

Unless they ran immediately, they would be crushed beneath the falling beams and roof.

“Everyone, run!” Ferdi hurriedly shouted to the card players who were still standing there in a daze. “Get outside!”

“Andre! Aiden! Organize everyone and get them out of here!”

Only after confirming that every card player within his field of view had evacuated did Ferdi prepare to leave as well.

Then he spotted a figure beneath one of the chairs.

“Larif? What are you doing? Hurry up and run!”

Ferdi had no choice but to go over and try to pull Larif out.

They did not even know why the building was collapsing. Remaining inside would only become more dangerous by the second.

Crack!

Sure enough, in the next instant, a black, fluid curtain pierced through the roof and poured down into the room. It punched straight through the card table where everyone had been gathered moments earlier.

After piercing the table, the gray-black fluid continued flowing downward and bored through the floor.

“Holy shit?!”

Ferdi stared in disbelief.

More and more of the gray-black fluid poured into the building, hardening into wall after wall of gray-black crystal. Ferdi knew that if the substance landed on a person, it would slice them cleanly in half.

He hurriedly tried to drag Larif out.

“Larif, stop hiding! Run! We’re all going to die if we stay here!”

Larif said nothing. He merely crouched beneath the chair with his arms wrapped around his head.

“Damn it!”

Ferdi had not noticed when Larif had crawled under there.

Perhaps Larif had already been acting strangely when they first returned to the card-player-soul club.

Ferdi knew that this club member named Larif was naturally anxious. He was usually quiet and withdrawn, and his honest, docile nature made him a frequent target for bullying by his classmates.

That had changed after Vinny learned what was happening and led the card players to confront the students who had been bullying Larif.

Vinny had not done anything that violated Academy rules.

He had simply planted one foot atop a rock, hurled a challenge letter at the offending students, and shouted, “This young master despises people who bully the weak more than anything! You want a fight, then come fight this young master! I promise I won’t bully you—I’ll take all three of you at once! If you’re men, follow this young master to the arena and let’s settle this! And if you don’t have the guts, then stop relying on superior numbers to pick on someone who’s alone!”

Once Vinny stood up for Larif, the bullies—who only dared prey on easy targets—immediately lost their nerve.

They never troubled Larif again.

After that incident, everyone in the card-player-soul club had come to admire and respect Vinny immensely.

The card players also looked after Larif in their everyday lives, treating him like their own little brother.

The card-player-soul club might have gathered the least talented students in all of Carillian Academy—the ones with the least ambition and the least desire to compete—but it was also the club with the fewest internal conflicts or disagreements.

“Come on, Larif! Get out from under there! We don’t have time to waste!”

With no other choice, Ferdi grabbed Larif and pulled him out by force.

He knew the cowardly boy had to be terrified.

Larif had probably been trembling in fear ever since learning that the chaotic black cloud was about to spread over the Academy while they were trapped inside with nowhere to flee.

But it was already too late.

Just as Ferdi was about to drag Larif through the doorway, the roof overhead shattered. Black rain pierced through the opening and formed a curtain that sealed off the entrance.

“Brother Ferdi!”

The card players outside immediately panicked.

“Holy shit!” Ferdi cursed. “Andre, I got hit by a trap card! Looks like I’m cashing out here today! Take everyone and go! Find an instructor!”

“Brother Ferdi!”

“Just go!”

Crack!

At that moment, the eaves above Ferdi shattered, and gray-black matter poured inside.

“Damn it!”

Ferdi shoved the trembling Larif away.

At that critical instant, the wall exploded inward.

A figure charged through the opening, seized Ferdi and Larif—one in each arm—then smashed through the opposite wall and carried them outside.

“Brother Ferdi, are you all right??”

When the card players saw that an instructor had rescued Ferdi and Larif, they hurried forward.

“Ah... Yeah... An emergency escape card, huh?” Ferdi panted after his narrow escape. “I’m alive, at least. Larif nearly got me killed.”

“You need to leave immediately. This area is no longer safe.”

The instructor who had saved them looked back at the building, which had now been completely pierced through by curtains of gray-black matter, and gave them the order.

“Thank you, Instructor!”

Several students supported Ferdi while several others carried Larif away.

“Andre, doesn’t Larif seem seriously out of it?”

“Damn it, this kid...”

Andre glared at Larif, who remained curled into a ball, his expression filled with frustrated disappointment.

“Do you realize you nearly got Brother Ferdi killed??”

“That’s enough, Andre. There’s no point talking about that now.” Having finally caught his breath, Ferdi shouted, “Let’s hurry up and get out of here before that crap pouring from the black cloud wrecks us!”

“Someone help carry Larif. We’re moving!”

“Aiden, your Spirit Soul is the reconnaissance-type [Wind Message], right? You take the lead!”

“Got it! No problem, Brother Ferdi! Leave it to me!”

“Damn, is that blasted cloud spreading this fast??”

Ferdi glanced upward.

He had not realized it until he looked, but the black cloud had already caught up with them. The entire sky overhead had been swallowed by chaotic gray-black darkness.

“Everyone, the Academy isn’t safe anymore. Stay alert!”

“Brother Ferdi... do you really think we’ll make it home alive?”

One of the card players had gone pale around the lips. His legs were trembling so badly that they looked ready to give out beneath him.

“Don’t say things like that!”

“What are those black clouds? And what’s with that invisible wall? Even the instructors can’t do anything about them. What can useless failures like us—people who do nothing but coast through the Academy—possibly accomplish?”

“I told you to stop saying things like that!” Ferdi snapped.

Emotions were contagious.

If they kept indulging in that fear and speaking so hopelessly, it would spread to everyone else.

“What do you mean, ‘coasting through the Academy’? We’re legends of Carillian Academy! The one and only, absolutely unique band of card players! We’re all going to make it out safely—and Vinny will too!”

At that moment, Aiden, who had been leading the way, suddenly stopped.

“Aiden, what’s wrong? You’re our eyes! Don’t tell me you’re falling apart too!”

“N-No, that isn’t it, Brother Ferdi.”

“Then keep leading us!”

“It isn’t that I don’t want to.” Aiden stared blankly ahead. “Brother Ferdi... I don’t think there’s anywhere left for us to go.”

“What do you mean? The shrubland park is right in front of us. How can there be nowhere to go?”

“Brother Ferdi, there’s no way through the park.” Aiden opened his mouth uncertainly. “I just scanned the area with [Wind Message]. Every route ahead is a dead end. There’s no exit.”

“What are you talking about? How is that possible?”

Ferdi was the first to advance into the shrubland.

Only after reaching the center of the park did he discover, to his horror, that gray-black fluid falling from the chaotic cloud had divided the park in two. It had formed a massive fluid wall that completely blocked every path ahead.

“It can do that too?!”

Ferdi stared in disbelief.

“Brother Ferdi, what are we supposed to do now?” Aiden was equally lost.

“If only Brother Vinny were here,” Andre muttered.

For some reason, Andre felt certain that Vinny would have found a solution as long as he were with them.

“Will the Goddess perform another miracle for us this time?”

“Don’t panic! Don’t panic!”

Ferdi waved for everyone to follow him back to the original entrance of the park.

“This road is blocked, so we’ll find another one!”

“Don’t lose heart. Stay with the group. As long as we survive, we’ll find a way!”

*****

“Your Eminence! Your Eminence, please wait for us!”

Mason, Mongel, and several female students hurried after the pink-haired girl.

“How did this happen?” Margaret murmured as she gazed at the chaotic darkness blotting out the sky.

“Your Eminence Margaret, please don’t run off on your own,” Mongel said, hurrying to catch up. “Otherwise, we won’t be able to guarantee your safety.”

“No. If this continues, many people are bound to find themselves in danger. I have to help them!”

“But protecting you must take priority!”

“Mason, have the Church of the Dawn’s rescue teams still not arrived?” Margaret asked.

“I don’t know. But judging from the current situation, even if they’re already here, it’ll take them some time to get inside,” Mason replied.

“And why did this happen?” Margaret asked. “Mason, didn’t you tell me that someone had already notified the Academy about the Church’s astrological prediction?”

“Yes. Mongel was supposed to inform the Academy.”

Mason gave Mongel a puzzled look.

“Well...”

Mongel’s gaze immediately began darting away.

“Mongel, what is that supposed to mean?” Mason felt a terrible premonition rise within him.

“I... I...”

Mongel stammered.

“Mongel, what exactly happened?” Margaret frowned and questioned him sternly. “Did you notify Carillian Academy about the Church’s astrological findings or not?”

“I... forgot.”

Mongel did not dare meet Margaret’s eyes.

“You forgot??”

Margaret’s eyes widened.

“What? Mongel, are you joking?” Mason stared at him in astonishment. “How could you possibly forget something like that?”

“I’m truly sorry. I had too many things to remember that day, so I...”

Mongel clenched his fists, still unable to raise his head.

“Your Eminence, blaming him now won’t help,” said several female students with Church backgrounds who were following behind them. “We should focus on finding a way out and wait for the Church’s rescue teams.”

Margaret said nothing.

She simply stared in silence at the chaotic darkness consuming the sky.

At the same time, Shicodale stepped out of his dorm and looked up at the nightmare unfolding overhead.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.