Matthew and Tryg sat at an empty table, they had grabbed chicken legs along with a cold soup to eat and an orange juice. Everything indicated that this would be a school like any other, except for the tournaments and competitions that were held from time to time.

  Once they finished eating they decided that they wanted to tour the school and get a better idea of ??it, today's classes had already ended so they had the whole afternoon free for themselves. Walking through the hallways on the third floor of the school, Matthew saw some strange symbols painted on the wall of one of the classrooms, several students were in front of the symbol, they seemed to be writing it down in their notebooks, even Jonathan was there.

  "Do you know what this symbol is?"

  Matthew asked Jonathan who had barely seen it.

  "No, nobody knows in fact, a different one appears every day in a different place in the school. We all think it could be a special spell left by the headmaster himself or even by Merlin”

  Matthew nodded, looking at the symbol, memorizing it to look for it in the library later. Matthew was going to speak again when he felt a familiar magic appear at the entrance of the school, turning to look at the entrance he could see several students running towards a figure that was slowly walking towards the school, it was Merlin.

  “It seems he's finished with whatever he had to do…”

  “I hope everything went well”

  -Break-

  Merlin arrived at the teachers' meeting room, the 10 teachers of the school were already waiting for him patiently sitting at a large table.

  “I'm sorry for the delay, teachers, as you know Corinth suffered an orchestrated attack a few days ago”

  “Don't apologize Master, we understand that you had to protect and help Miss Arlene”

  Irene spoke showing respect towards her former teacher Merlin, she had been one of the many students that Merlin had had over the years and as his student she felt that she had the obligation to show her the utmost respect possible.

  “Thank you very much, Irene. I really didn't expect it to take so long, but this time Damnatus' followers were very well prepared to attack.”

  “What about the guilds? Didn't you show up to help?”

  David, the geography teacher asked, but Merlin just shook his head giving a slight sigh.

  “Not the guilty ones, young David. The guilds have every right to feel fear these days, Damnatus' followers are getting stronger and stronger as are those corrupt creatures. Little by little Damnatus is gaining power in this world and that inspires them to attack more often and with more ferocity”

  “But that is why the guilds were created, to openly fight against the forces of Damnatus, the fact that they are running now simply shows how useless they are!”

  John Kutcher, the master of research of magical beings, raised his voice. It did not seem fair to him that the dark guilds broke their vows when they needed them the most.

  Edward sighed tiredly as he heard his masters argue, he understood that the dark guilds felt frightened and almost hopeless, after all these years fighting against the forces of Damnatus and still could not recover even one percent of the ash land, who would not feel hopeless, perhaps only the benign can continue to have hope until the end, but the other races are already tired of fighting without any victory.

  “So it is true? “Is Damnatus about to break out of his prison?” Donna asks worriedly.

  Lately there have been rumors that Damnatus was almost on the verge of breaking out of his prison and the proof of this was the corrupted creatures that were getting stronger and stronger.

  “I'm afraid I can't give you a clear answer, but what we do know is that they haven't tried to attack the school so that means they're still not very sure of their power”

  Merlin stated, sure that Damnatus' followers weren't strong enough to attack them directly yet.

  “I think he's right, if they were as strong as they say they would have already attacked Salusbreath”

  “And if they are just waiting, what if they just want to catch us off guard?”

  Solis Sunshine, the magic discovery and potions teacher, asked. She is 30 years old, with dark skin, white hair and grey eyes. She was wearing a dark green, low-cut dress and a large, very striking hat. Merlin looked at her, understanding her comment. It was not impossible that the followers of Damnatus were simply waiting for the right moment.

  “In that case we can only be prepared for the worst…”

  Everyone in the room fell into a deep silence. Merlin's statement not only carried a lot of weight but was also true. For many years they had fought fiercely but still had not managed to make the slightest change. And if the followers of Damnatus had become stronger, they only had one destiny left: death.

  Tears began to run down Donna's cheeks. She was the youngest teacher at the school and the one with the least experience in dealing with these issues. Solis, who was at her side, consoled her by hugging her, but she herself was on the verge of tears.

  “Really, isn't there anything we can do, Master?”

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  Irene asked. In the 50 years she has been alive, she has seen great battles and lived the terror of growing up under the tyranny of 3 Kings of Chaos. She has suffered so much that she has come to think there was no hope, but at the end of the day, under Merlin's guidance, she has managed to see how the races are recovering from the influences of Damnatus. The fact that Merlin is now saying that there is no chance seems unreal to her.

  “At least we benign ones have run out of ideas, we just hope to fight fiercely in the hope that one day a second Tempus will rise”

  Edward closed his eyes resigning himself to his fate, the idea that someone like the great hero Tempus would appear after 10,000 years was impossible for him. Besides, he didn't like the idea of ??having to repeat the cycle and lock Damnatus away for another 10,000 years, because not even the great Tempus could defeat Damnatus and could only lock him away in a dimensional prison.

  “I… think that's all for this meeting, please go and rest properly, tomorrow you have classes to give”

  Edward ended the meeting not wanting to stir things up any more, the teachers were visibly affected by Merlin's words, having their idol tell them that there was no other option but death wasn't very encouraging after all.

  —Break—

  A month quickly passed, Matthew and Tryg dedicated themselves to attending all the classes, hoping to be taught something new, especially the selective combat and magic combat class they took in the second week after starting. The class was taught by Professor Berly Coldbone, a former A-rank guild member, when the former salusbreath combat teacher died she took his place voluntarily.

  Matthew and Tryg quickly stood out in that class, occupying the first places by a large difference in ability, this made Professor Berly skip a few classes and directly taught them how to use their carrier magic to enhance their skills. Although, she made sure to make it very clear that she did this not out of favoritism, but because she could not leave the students stagnant in something they already knew, if there were others who were also more advanced than they should be then she would do the same with them.

  Classes continued normally until the end of the first month of classes, in the middle of the night of the last day of the month, what the teachers feared the most happened, Salusbreath was attacked.

  It was 12:30 in the morning when the attack began, first a deafening roar was heard, followed by a great tremor that shook the houses and some mocking laughter. Matthew quickly got up taking his sword that was lying right next to his bed, when he left his room he saw Tryg ready with his axe in hand. The two quickly left his house seeing a disastrous scene.

  Several shadows flew through the dark sky of the students' houses, casting large amounts of spells towards the students, at the top of the shadows a figure rose, barely visible, covered by a dense black and red mist, and behind that figure two large red eyes looked out, almost the same size as the school.

  “Have you ever seen how beautiful my children are? Let me show you their beauty.”

  A delicate voice echoed throughout the houses and a large red light rose above that figure covered by the fog, illuminating a colossal dark yellow dragon that was looking directly at them.

  “Get to know them well…”

  The immense red light descended rapidly towards the houses. The students did not know what to do in the face of such an attack. They just stood there watching as the light descended at great speed.

  “You dare attack the city in my presence, Witch Vera?”

  Merlin's voice was heard throughout Salusbreath and a large white wave spread from the school, colliding with great force with the red light of the now known witch Vera. The attacks cancelled each other out, but causing a great blizzard that ran through all of Salusbreath.

  “But look who we have here…”

  From the darkness of an alley, a witch came out walking towards Matthew and Tryg. It was the same witch they had met in the forest a month ago.

  “Alcina…” Matthew said without remembering her name

  “...IT'S ALMENA!”

  “Whatever, you're the piss”

  Almena showed clear frustration, but quickly changed to a triumphant and arrogant smile.

  “Now that Miss Vera is among us, you have no chance against her. She's the greatest witch that has ever existed!”

  ‘This time I will take them to Miss Vera, I’m sure she will be very pleased with these two!’ Almena thought

  Matthew was silent for a few seconds, Almena was right, they couldn’t fight Vera, only the masters or Merlin could face her.

  “You’re right, we can’t fight that Vera… but you’re not Vera, are you?”

  After saying that, Tryg threw his axe quickly, hitting Almena in the head with the handle. Before Almena could react, Matthew was already in front of her and connected 2 powerful blows imbued with magic, the first was a blow to the abdomen which made her double over in pain, the second was to the face causing her to fall to the floor stunned. ‘It’s only been a month, how did they get so strong and fast’ Almena thought surprised. When she was finally able to compose herself she only saw Tryg falling from the sky hitting her in the abdomen with his knees.

  “She talks too much” Tryg said taking his axe

  Tryg and Matthew looked at Almena's unconscious body without knowing what to do with her, they didn't like the idea of ??having to kill her after all she had only attacked them with paralyzing and non-lethal spells. Without thinking much about Almena, the two jumped towards the roofs of the houses to get a better look at what was happening.

  The witches were flying everywhere casting some kind of explosive spell. The new students ran to seek shelter while the older ones were in charge of distracting the witches so the new ones could escape, it was almost as if they had practiced this hundreds of times, they didn't mind risking themselves in order to protect the new students.

  It didn't take long for the teachers to appear and protect the students. Professor Irene looked down from the top of the school and cast a huge spell that covered all the houses, it was a great magical barrier. The Sir of the mustache appeared and disappeared in all the streets, he was taking the less capable students and taking them directly to the school.

  Professors Donna and Solis stayed with the higher grade students, fighting at their side and slowly retreating towards the school, while the rest of the teachers fought in the front line against the wizards.

  "It's useless, why do you cling to this miserable living condition you have? Every day you are hunted like animals and then killed and displayed before all the towns. Why fight for something like that? Even the guilds have already understood that there is no point in fighting, they will never make a change..."

  Vera asked Merlin, for her all of them were already destined to die, but both Merlin and the other masters opposed that destiny with great ferocity, as if they had another option besides surrendering.

  "The heart of people is something that Damnatus will never be able to dominate, as long as there are people with courage and justice in their hearts, there will always be someone who raises their voice against Damnatus. Do not underestimate the hearts that were afraid yesterday, because those will be the brave hearts that will face you tomorrow"

  Vera, tired of listening to Merlin, raised her hand giving a signal to the yellow dragon to attack, the dragon opened its snout, generating a large ball of lightning.

  Merlin, seeing the imminent attack, raised his staff, creating a large blue vortex. As the yellow dragon was about to fire his attack, a red dragon's head came out of the vortex, biting directly into the yellow dragon's neck and causing his attack to deflect away from Salusbreath.

  "Fiegnis!" Matthew exclaimed, looking at the red dragon he had met in the Fallen Kingdom.

  "Despicable bastard, you not only betrayed the dragon clan, you also allied yourself with Damnatus' bootlickers, you are a disappointment to the dragons, Dhigg!"

  Fiegnis roared in anger at seeing one of the 3 traitors of the dragon race, he quickly passed his body through the vortex that Merlin created and engaged in a fierce battle with Dhigg.

  Once Fiegnis passed through the vortex, several more people began to emerge from the vortex. In front of them was a gray-haired but strong man, holding a black flag with a red Phoenix painted in the middle. It was the dark guild that was directly allied with Salusbreath.

  "Don't let them go unharmed. Make them pay for their audacity in attacking Salusbreath."

  Vera, seeing that one of the guilds actually came to help, as well as one of the three legendary dragons, wanted to retreat immediately. She didn't want to risk losing her followers in this battle.

  Vera put her hands together and began to recite a spell before Irene's watchful eyes.

  "Oh no, you won't!"

  Irene quickly waved her hand and the barrier she had created to protect the students changed color to gold. This was a spatial seal that didn't allow anyone to use teleportation or fast travel spells.

  "Well done, irene" Merlin said seeing the barrier above them.

  Vera seeing herself stopped simply snorted in contempt. 'It will have to be the hard way then...'

  Vera was preparing to face Merlin again, who was also preparing himself, but just at that moment one of his followers passed by shouting in front of her and Merlin, the follower was being attacked by two children, Matthew and Trygve.

  "If you can't knock them down then you just have to ride them!"

  Matthew shouted being heard by Vera and Merlin, then he jumped off the witch and used a sound spell to propel himself and attack another witch.

  "HAHAHA, FROM NOW ON CALL ME TRYGVE, THE WITCH TAMER!"

  Trygve pulled the witch by the hair causing him to change direction towards where the other witches were.