[Caroline's Pov]
A whole hour had passed since the principal ventured out, and although I had never believed myself to be an anxious person, it couldn't be helped that I now had problems calming down.
No matter what I did, my mind wouldn't stop running through the possible scenarios and, more importantly, the things that I could do in case it happened. Which, sadly, was never much.
This kind of situation was one of the things that I honestly hated the most. Because I had no semblance of control over what was happening.
Looking around the large room, it had to be said that in this empty state, without any chairs set up, I couldn't help but feel like this room wasn't exactly optimal in case we were breached. Due to the fact that it was simply a big, open area with a large stage in the front, there would be nowhere to hide if someone did get in.
"Hey, Caroline, why don't you sit down with us?"
"I'm good."
"Alright..."
Despite Robert trying to coax me into relaxing a bit, joining the rest of my class who was all now sitting down in the middle of the room in a ring, an act that I interpreted as a way to ease their minds, my restless mind wouldn't allow me to do the same.
Because in that ring, there was a certain person that I somehow knew didn't carry the same feelings as the rest of us.
Despite her appearing to be looking a bit down, which wasn't weird when thinking about what had happened at the border, I couldn't help but feel like there was something more to it.
These last couple of weeks, the blue-haired girl had somehow gone from extreme grief to all of a sudden just springing back into action, hanging out with us as if nothing happened at all.
And because I didn't understand it, I didn't like it.
Seeing her now, pretending to look as shaken as the rest of us, it was impossible to stop a certain dark thought from appearing, but as it felt incredibly far-fetched, it didn't take long until I had repressed it.
A thought that revolved around her connection to a certain someone, a person that we had very abruptly found out wasn't what he made himself out to be.
'Haaa... How stupid...'
It was truly astonishingly foolish that even now, due to the absurd situation, we had found ourselves in, I couldn't help but wish that our lost classmate was here. That I wanted to see the comforting smile of...
*BAM!*
Suddenly, the large doors to the unofficial auditorium opened up, instantly making all of my classmates rise to their feet, readying themselves for whatever was coming. In the corner of my eyes, I could see all the other students doing the same, with some of them even bringing out their weapons in advance.
"Greetings!"
'What the fuck...?'
In the large doorway, a single man stepped forward, elegantly dressed in a gray suit, wearing a white mask that covered his face. In his one hand, he was holding something, dragging it across the floor as he slowly made his way forward, not caring about all of the students staring at him.
Then, noticing the red lines that were created by the thing he was dragging, my mind finally allowed me to accept what I was seeing.
'That... that's a person...'
"Stop right there!"
The five teachers that had been left behind to protect us finally reacted as well, with one of them dashing forward, ready to intercept the white-haired man. Yet, he didn't even seem to care.
*Clang!*
Having brought out his sword in the middle of the dash, the black-haired teacher was baffled when his attack had suddenly been stopped by an iron spear, a spear that was held by a muscular, green-haired man wearing brown leather armor.
To this, the masked man that I know to be James, as well as our old classmate, spoke with indifference.
"Ah, you can get rid of him."
"As you wish."
It didn't even take a moment before the spearman had pushed our teacher back a bit, before promptly taking advantage of the reach of his weapon, and thrusting it right into his neck.
A fountain of blood emerged from the demolished throat, creating a huge pool of blood in the middle of the room.
*Splurt!*
"You... bast...."
*Thud*
Throwing his body to the side, the green-haired man ignored the last words that our teacher was trying to give, opting to simply look at his master once again.
At this point, all of us had made ourselves ready to fight, more than aware that if we didn't, things would most likely simply escalate even further. However, yet again I was surprised to see that although everyone else had brought out their weapons from their spatial storage, Stella was just standing there in a daze.
'She's... smiling? What the fuck...'
"Although I wholeheartedly enjoy seeing the passion of you young students, I'm afraid that I don't have time for that."
Unfortunately for us, the masked man spoke once again, and it didn't take long until a group of green-haired men and women arrived at the entrance, all wearing the same kind of brown leather as the broad-shouldered man who had killed our teacher. Their faces, however, were covered by white masks, all very reminiscent of the one James was wearing, except they didn't have the red stripe or the blue tear below the black eye sockets.
'Forty? No, at least fifty...'
It didn't take long until everyone realized that it was pointless to fight them, as their numbers were almost equal to ours, and, more than that, it was clear that they were also a lot stronger than us. Not even the teachers dared to make a move, not wanting to risk the invaders going on the offensive, which would likely result in a lot of us dying.
Now standing in the middle of the room, making sure that everyone saw him and could hear him, James spoke with extreme clarity.
"As long as you all listen closely, I will promise that almost all of you will survive. First of all, and although I assume that you could figure that out by yourselves, no one is allowed to leave the room. If you do..."
"You fucker!"
All of a sudden, one of the sophomores couldn't hold himself back anymore, allowing us to see a big, bulky man running forward with a large mace in his hands.
"Brad! Stop!"
But it was already too late.
"... unfortunate."
A thick line of mist emerged from James' body, and a second later, a huge, black scythe with purple runes appeared in his hands, while at the same time dropping the bloody mess that he had been dragging around.
*Thud*
The room fell silent, seeing the headless body of our fellow student limply fall down on the floor.
"Haaa... So, anyway, unless you want more of you to meet the same fate as this young man, please do behave."
[Arthur's Pov]
"Huff...huff..."
'We can't win...'
No matter how strong I and Sophie were in comparison to other students, there was still no way that we could beat real fighters with seemingly lots of experience.
Even now, while we were surrounded by the spear-wielding fighters, they weren't even proactively trying to kill us, rather just making sure that we wouldn't be able to escape from the tree-filled park, which honestly was more like a very small forest.
"Arthur..."
Then, out of nowhere, I could see Sophie's body shudder a bit, and as we had been fighting side by side, it wasn't hard for me to see the tears that started running down her cheeks.
"Sophie?! Are you hurt?!"
Although we had been fighting for quite a while, because our opponents had gone easy on us, fighting as if they didn't want us to get hurt, I hadn't thought that either of us had gotten seriously injured. So it couldn't be helped that my heart started running wild when I saw the state of the love of my life.
However, she only shook her head.
"No, I'm fine... but... I think someone just died..."
"What do you mean?"
Despite me being confused to hear her suddenly say something like this, I still trusted Sophie more than anything. Therefore, I only felt a need for some clarification.
"Someone from our class just died."
Somehow, seeing the look on her face, I knew that she was speaking the truth. A truth that only made the frustration inside my heart grow even stronger.
'Fuck...!'
[3rd person Pov]
The goddess in the sky, the current mother of all the mortals belonging to Tella had woken up.
Yet, the first thing she got to see after her long slumber was more than enough for her to wish that she had never woken up at all. Even despite remembering the prophecy that had been given to her a long, long time ago, it had still been for naught.
The union between the boy hidden by the church and the young man known as James had merely served to create yet another tragedy.