Maybe all the terrible luck he’d built up finally paid off.

This time, Caelum barely needed a few rerolls before landing a genuinely strong technique.

[Fusion Complete]

[Technique Acquired: Void Art]

[Void Art: Consumes a massive amount of Cursed Energy to banish any object into the Void]

"Banished into the Void" essentially meant erasing something from the world entirely.

As for what exactly the Void was?

No idea.

At the very least, it definitely wasn’t part of the Cursecraft world.

Getting a technique of this level from the fragments of a mere Grade Two Cursed Spirit was already more than enough for Caelum.

Completely satisfied, he stopped fusing and allowed the sphere of light to merge into his body.

Void Art was now his.

The two regrouped at the school gates.

Beep beep beep!

The instructor’s phone suddenly rang.

"Hello?"

"...Understood."

After hanging up, the instructor unconsciously clenched his fist.

Something fierce burned in his eyes.

Excitement.

"Emergency mission."

While one side openly held the line, the other struck from the shadows.

An eye for an eye.

Blood for blood.

The massacre at Cursecraft Academy was never just Astra’s problem.

What the Cursed Spirit faction had done had crossed the bottom line of the entire Sorcerer world.

This blood debt could only be repaid in blood.

Astra had suffered devastating losses.

But the other three academies had not.

The major Sorcerer families had not.

The foundations of the Sorcerer world itself remained untouched.

If the Sorcerer world showed no response, the Cursed Spirit faction would only grow bolder.

And Astra would never swallow this humiliation.

On the surface, Astra was still struggling to contain the outbreak of Cursed Spirits across Blackreach.

Behind the scenes, however, Astra’s upper ranks had already begun moving.

After Abel convinced Noctis and his family to cooperate, the four academies and the major Sorcerer families finally reached an agreement.

Temporary reinforcements would be sent to Astra.

The target?

The complete extermination of the Cursed Spirit faction.

Mordren was not the only one capable of striking first.

Astra was no pushover.

Neither was the Sorcerer world.

Returning the favor in kind was only natural.

The other three academies and the major Sorcerer families moved quickly.

Within only a few days, all reinforcement Sorcerers had secretly gathered within Astra.

At that exact moment, every Astra Sorcerer with Grade Two combat ability or above received emergency deployment orders.

After all, Grade Two Sorcerers already counted as half a high level combatant.

Restricting the operation to only Grade One Sorcerers was unrealistic.

There simply weren’t enough of them.

Caelum was still paired with his instructor.

Their mission was to eliminate a hidden Cursed Spirit faction outpost roughly one kilometer away.

Intelligence suggested the site housed at least two Grade Two Cursed Spirits, requiring a minimum of two Grade Two Sorcerers to handle safely.

With Caelum and the instructor together, the mission should have been effortless.

"Move!"

The battle had begun.

Both sides would inevitably deploy their top combatants.

For Caelum, this was the perfect chance to profit from the chaos.

He quietly felt excited.

At the same time, he was curious to see how things would unfold.

Astra’s surprise attack would absolutely catch the Cursed Spirit faction off guard.

But wiping them out completely?

That was unlikely.

Who knew how many Cursed Spirits the faction had absorbed over the years?

In terms of sheer numbers, the Cursed Spirit faction undoubtedly held the advantage.

The difference wasn’t even close.

Even an ordinary Grade Two or Grade Three Sorcerer required careful selection and years of training.

Cursed Spirits, meanwhile, were constantly born from humanity’s negative emotions.

From that point alone, the academy side was already at a disadvantage.

The Cursed Spirit faction could afford losses endlessly.

The academy side’s advantage lay in quality.

Recognizing this reality, Astra developed a strategy built around maximizing its strengths.

The plan was simple.

Split apart the various Cursed Spirit faction strongholds with overwhelming speed.

Exorcise as many Cursed Spirits as possible before the enemy could react.

Then regroup rapidly and form an encirclement around the faction’s headquarters.

One decisive strike.

That was the academy faction’s strategy.

Both stages were critical.

Eliminating the Cursed Spirits.

And surrounding the enemy headquarters.

If either failed, the entire operation would collapse.

Speed was equally essential.

If they failed to reduce the number of enemy Cursed Spirits quickly enough, the academy forces could end up surrounded by reinforcements during the final assault.

On the other hand, if they focused solely on exterminating Cursed Spirits without forming the encirclement in time, the enemy leadership could escape.

Everything would be wasted.

Which meant every Sorcerer involved had to stay focused and move as fast as possible.

Clear the designated outpost.

Move immediately to the next.

Use superior quality to crush the enemy’s numerical advantage.

Casualties were inevitable.

Mistakes were unavoidable.

A hastily assembled plan could never be perfect.

There was no such thing as flawless timing in the real world.

For Astra, knowing the plan was workable was enough.

This counterattack had to happen.

Boom!

The rusted metal doors of an abandoned warehouse were kicked open.

Several Grade Three Sorcerers inside jumped in shock and scrambled to react.

"Who’s there?!"

A blade flashed like flowing water.

In an instant—

Blood sprayed everywhere.

Three Grade Three Sorcerers collapsed simultaneously.

Caelum flicked the blood from his blade and immediately locked onto a pitch black room deeper inside the warehouse.

Several shadows shifted within.

The aura of Cursed Spirits leaked outward.

The instructor no longer held back.

The moment Caelum breached the doors, he attacked as well.

Cursed Energy surged around his fists as he shot into the dark room like a blur.

It felt like a stone smashing into still water.

The combined pressure of Cursed Spirits and the instructor’s Cursed Energy exploded outward from the room.

Boom!

The sound of fists colliding with flesh and Cursed Energy shook the warehouse.

Three Cursed Spirits smashed through the walls and flew outside.

The instructor burst out after them.

His expression had turned grim.

"The intel was wrong."

There were not two Cursed Spirits.

And they were not Grade Two.

There were three pseudo Grade One Cursed Spirits.

More importantly, the instructor himself was only a pseudo Grade One Sorcerer.

Adding Caelum, who was considered Grade Two level, they stood almost no chance against three pseudo Grade One Cursed Spirits.

The instructor was not a prodigy like Zephyr or Sylas.

He could not overwhelm multiple opponents at the same level.

That was under normal circumstances.

What came next was not normal.

Even facing this situation, the instructor remained incredibly calm.

His composure fully displayed the mentality of an experienced veteran.

Without hesitation, he drew a dagger and stabbed it directly into his own chest.

After pulling it out, he didn’t even attempt first aid.

He simply sealed the wound with Cursed Energy.

"For the next thirty seconds, I’ll cripple these three Cursed Spirits."

He looked at Caelum.

"After that, finishing them off is your job."

The moment he finished speaking—

Boom!

An enormous wave of Cursed Energy erupted from the instructor’s body!