They had come here to wage war against the Cursed Spirit faction.

Instead, the world itself had played a cruel joke on the academy Sorcerers right in front of the enemy headquarters.

At this point, it no longer mattered whether the future shown by the foresight technique was real or not. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Everyone understood one thing.

Strike first or die second.

Whether Caelum truly intended to attack them no longer mattered either.

In that instant, the academy Sorcerers reached a silent consensus.

Take him down first.

A bead of cold sweat slid down Oryn’s temple.

This is bad.

Caelum had figured it out instantly.

Naturally, a Sorcerer whose specialty was predicting the future understood it even more clearly.

Just as Caelum realized, this was the backlash of tampering with fate itself.

"ROAR!"

The deafening cries of countless Cursed Spirits echoed through the battlefield.

The Sorcerers snapped back to reality.

Several had already finished their hand signs in secret, expressions firm and decisive.

They launched their techniques at Caelum immediately.

"Wait!"

Zephyr and Sylas both rushed between Caelum and the Sorcerers, desperately trying to stop the situation from spiraling any further.

But against this many elite Sorcerers, their words carried no weight at all.

No one stopped.

The instant Caelum removed his glasses—

Boom!

An overwhelming surge of Cursed Energy exploded from his body.

The ordinary looking boy with almost no presence finally revealed his true strength.

At that moment, his existence became impossibly overwhelming.

Like he himself had become the center of the world.

The sheer magnitude of his Cursed Energy left every Sorcerer present horrified.

"Binding Technique: Release!"

Under the Binding Technique, Caelum’s power had always been suppressed to half.

Now that the binding had been fully released, not only did his original strength return—

Every effect was doubled.

In other words—

His dual Heavenly Restriction was amplified once more.

Tenfold Limit Art could now unleash twenty times maximum Cursed Energy output.

The same enhancement applied to every other technique as well.

Everything doubled in power.

With Caelum’s monstrous physique and reaction speed, Sorcerers already struggled to cast techniques against him.

Now that his power had risen another level, the difficulty became outright absurd.

Caelum held no naive hope that these Sorcerers would choose to trust him.

The moment several Sorcerers completed their hand signs and prepared to attack—

Whoosh!

His figure vanished.

His speed was now even more terrifying than before.

From Caelum’s perspective, the world itself seemed frozen.

Then—

Bang bang bang bang!

Bloody explosions erupted throughout the crowd of Sorcerers.

Crimson blood scattered like rain across the battlefield while a mist of gore drifted through the air.

Every Sorcerer who attempted to strike first was instantly blown apart before they could even release their techniques.

Not a single person reacted in time.

In only a moment, dozens of Sorcerers exploded into clouds of blood right before everyone’s eyes.

The psychological impact was catastrophic.

Terror tore through the surviving Sorcerers.

One thing worth mentioning—

The other Special Grade Sorcerer present also died during Caelum’s assault.

One punch.

Instant death.

No resistance whatsoever.

The gap between Special Grades could be enormous.

By all definitions, Caelum was now unquestionably a Special Grade Sorcerer.

The only reason he remained classified as one was because there simply wasn’t a higher rank.

"H... how..."

"What just happened..."

"Monster!!"

The surviving Sorcerers couldn’t comprehend how anyone could possibly be this strong.

Some tried to step backward, only to realize their trembling legs refused to move.

Blood dripped from Caelum’s fists.

His eyes were ice cold.

Completely different from the harmless person he had pretended to be before removing his glasses.

Without the disguise, Caelum now resembled a tyrant descending upon the battlefield.

Anyone who stood against him would die.

For Zephyr and Sylas, the psychological blow was especially devastating.

Students and teachers from their own academy had just been slaughtered in front of them.

Yet faced with this nightmare, they could not make a choice.

On one side stood the academy and the entire Sorcerer world.

On the other stood their closest friend.

They didn’t even have the mental capacity left to wonder why Caelum possessed such terrifying strength.

Nor did they care anymore whether he had hidden it for some ulterior motive.

Someone as powerful as Caelum should have inspired awe.

But looking at the massacre before them, they couldn’t feel anything close to joy.

Never in their lives had they imagined facing a situation like this.

From the moment Caelum released the binding until now, only a few breaths had passed.

Yet in those few seconds, the academy forces had already suffered devastating losses.

Caelum turned toward the incoming horde of Cursed Spirits.

Then charged straight into them.

Instantly—

Bang bang bang bang!

A tidal wave of blood erupted skyward.

Hundreds of charging Cursed Spirits exploded into bloody mist in the blink of an eye.

Blood rained endlessly from above.

The ground became carpeted with mangled flesh and shattered corpses.

The scene was horrifying beyond words.

The dual Heavenly Restriction under full Binding Release was even stronger than Caelum himself had expected.

He didn’t even need techniques anymore.

Any Special Grade Sorcerer could be crushed effortlessly with pure physical force alone.

The sheer speed and durability of his body had reached an incomprehensible level.

"Everyone, the operation is canceled!"

Oryn forcefully suppressed the terror in his heart.

His expression hardened with resolve.

He had already accepted death.

"Run! As many as possible!"

"I can buy you two seconds at most!"

Two seconds was still better than none.

The remaining Sorcerers did not hesitate.

They turned and fled immediately.

Revenge against the Cursed Spirit faction no longer mattered.

Staying here meant certain death.

Only Zephyr and Sylas remained rooted in place, fists clenched tightly.

Oryn scanned the space before him, desperately trying to track Caelum’s movements at superhuman speed.

Suddenly, he lunged forward.

Gathering every ounce of Cursed Energy into his fist, veins bulging across his body, he unleashed a full power punch toward empty space.

The air exploded from the force.

Oryn couldn’t see Caelum directly.

But with foresight supporting him, he could predict Caelum’s movement trajectory.

Bang!

His punch was caught.

No matter how hard he pushed, he couldn’t move Caelum even slightly.

Caelum’s figure finally emerged from the high speed blur.

"I respect your resolve."

But respect did not spare lives.

The moment those words fell—

Caelum’s fist pierced straight through Oryn’s heart.

Perfectly reenacting the exact future shown by the foresight technique.

"Cough...!"

Blood poured from Oryn’s mouth.

Yet he smiled faintly before collapsing lifelessly to the ground.

In exchange for his own life, he had truly bought two seconds.

Unfortunately—

Those two seconds meant nothing.

Caelum had no intention of allowing any Sorcerer here to survive and return home.

Now that he had completely turned against the Sorcerer world, mercy toward his enemies would only become cruelty toward himself.

If these Sorcerers survived today, they would only come after him again someday.