Calm And Reasonable

The black carpet with tendrils motif on the hallway have been burned and obliterated over and over again by the ongoing chaos, only for the automatic repair system to force them back to how they were, to repeat the same cycle.

"Don't you think that it's hypocritical of them to add such an elaborate system for the carpet, but not including the students along for its effect?" Lothair threw the last bit of his mummified bacon onto his open mouth as they walked. "Clearly, the demon's molecular structure isn't all that special. With enough effort, they should be able to do that, no?"

"You have been quite chatty for a while." Terma grinned quite happily now that the conversation won't be in a single direction anymore. "But for your question, no. Such a system will be deemed as healing media. You also don't want to get healed all the same, ey?"

"Of course, but won't it be fun if it happens?"

"Okay, you're actually scaring me now with how friendly you are now."

A stray acid projectile was on its way to hit Terma and Lothair. A second before the supposed impact, the projectile was instantly redirected away to the side.

Lothair darted his eyes to Terma's hands when it happened. Albeit a little bit too faint, he saw a tiny droplet of goo dripping from the edge of the knife. Lothair smirked as he caressed his chin, leaving the questioning Terma tilting his head.

"If you're wondering about my change of attitude." Lothair then glanced at the place where the acid projectile was redirected to. The thought of having to go back to the dorm naked made him a little bit restless. "Then you must already know that a demon won't act kindly without a great reason underlying their action."

"For some reason, I can't picture you doing that."

"Well, probably because it's my first time doing it."

"I'm honored to be your first then."

Seeing how smug the current Terma was, Lothair couldn't help but to take notice of the things surrounding him in an attempt to ignore the chest-puffing sheep.

"I see quite a lot of people carrying equipment away amidst the usual chaos. Any rumor of what is unfolding, Terma?"

"Something-something about holidays, X-mas and all of that."

"X-mas, huh, interesting. Didn't know this part of the Nether Country celebrates this kind of stuff."

"You seem familiar with it."

"My hometown celebrates it every year, it's quite lovely actually." With half-lidded eyes, Lothair stared at the wacky, demonic armaments that were moved over. "We don't decorate our poles with the remains of monsters and guts, though."

"What kind of ornaments do you use then?"

"Things like starfish, kukkuri flowers, and dead beetles." Lothair mentioned them with a prideful smile. "If possible, the lamp that carries the soul of the damned! Speaking of such, the day of the event should be tomorrow, huh."

Just as before they were able to take a turn on the intersection of the hallway, a group of students appeared on the corner, following a single demon who's presumed to be their leader.

It was a behemoth of a powerhouse with a height of 5 meters with muscle shapes vividly visible through the fabric of the student uniform. His hair perpetually manifesting in red flames that churns like the surface of the sun, anchored by the three horns that protruded on both sides with one of them gallantly arching to the front.

That particular demon's eyes met with Lothair's gaze.

"Well, well." The menacing individual closed the gap between him and Lothair a little bit closer whilst looking down with a straight posture, displaying an arrogant smirk. "Lookie here, the Nerd-Wick himself! How many months have passed since you stepped out from your comfy cocoon?"

A series of chuckles followed.

"Oh, Rayon! Wassap!" Lothair nonchalantly greeted. "Let me guess, you're the one who gave me that nickname, am I correct?"

Seeing how the usually meek demon suddenly became social managed to throw off the menacing demon for a bit, before he recovered his composure. "And what if I am?"

Lothair put on a gaping smile.

"Cause your naming sense sucks, duh!"

Veins began to tighten on every part of the Rayon's skin, as if it was waiting to erupt.

"A friend of yours?" Terma striked between the conversation, lazily pointing at the giant individual while facing Lothair.

Seeing how someone dared to ask for his name as if he was a nobody in the Magus Academy, another series of Rayon's veins tightened uncontrollably.

"Ah him? Just someone who likes to hold a barbeque event in the past. I was a part of it back then, so you can say that he and I are a little bit close."

"You act quite cocky all of a sudden, Lothair." Rayon forced a calm facade, even though the edge of his smile was twitching like crazy. "It doesn't matter, all I need to know is that my target practice has come back to me, and I'm itching to make use of it to the fullest."

"Impatient as always." Lothair shrugged. "That's why Deggy leaves, you know?"

As if Lothair's words struck the right chord, Rayon was engulfed in flame and anger. Not even a second had passed that a carriage-sized condensed chunk of flame was already accumulated, only a half second away before an impending impact.

In such a small time frame, both Lothair and Terma disappeared.

The flame on impact began to reverberate across the entirety of the hallway - spinning, expanding, and then ascending upward in such an intense burst of pure propulsion force, until the ceiling couldn't hold the stress any longer.

A giant pillar of flame erupted to the sky, painting the naked canvas of the sky to become the new blue.

The burning recreation of Tower of Babel was greatly displayed for everyone within the Magus Academy to witness.

As the flaming rage was still cackling like a massive turned-on stove, both Lothair and Terma had already reappeared right behind the amassing group who follows Rayon as their leader.

"Phew, that flame is bigger than I expected... ahaha." Lothair donned a wry smile as he shaded his eyes from the blinding pillar with his hand, wondering if taunting was the right thing to do after seeing Rayon's flame in its truest action. "Is there any limit to your 'instantaneous movement' spell?"

"Repetitively and for a big chunk of distance? Definitely." Terma chuckled.

"I guess you need to push through your limit then."

Catching the slightest of their sound, Rayon immediately lobbed a chunk of his fire to Lothair and Terma position. Even though he was supposed to be blinded by the raging fire, the trajectory shows a considerable amount of control and precision as it passed through his crowd of followers and bystanders without damaging any of them.

But just like back then, both Lothair and Terma disappeared. But this time, their instantaneous movements were a little bit slower than the last, removing the possibility of a true instantaneous teleportation. Because of that, Rayon was able to determine their next move and acted accordingly.

He charged onward with his bulking mass of muscles in such a speed that it should be impossible for someone that big to even move half that fast. This time however, his action wounded many of his followers and others. Although none of them were killed, it showed how Rayon was willing to take more risk in moderation before his target slipped out from his sight.

He then converted all of his fire and momentum into an even more volatile and unrelenting projectile.

Terma with an insane reaction speed and a mysterious instantaneous spell that was able to make him move faster than any senses could grasp - Rayon with genius battle instinct and absolute fire power, who also seemed to possess a reaction speed that could rival Terma.

It was clear from the beginning that this was the battle of reaction of speed.

Seeing the flame that was soaring faster than the speed of sound, Terma began to cast his spell once again. Strained due to the immediate usage without any proper break, he seemed to be activating a lesser version of what he usually uses with the decreasing consumption of his Ayin. Probably to avoid the risk of accidents and to maintain the flow of escaping.

Rayon, who knew of this limit, immediately casted a huge explosion to propel himself forward and catch up to the projectile he threw.

Hurling his arm fully condensed in magma-like substances and blasted the projectile with his bare hand, splitting the speedy ball of anger into hundreds of shrapnel like a disastrous buckshot - with every single of the flaming shrapnel moving at different speed, but faster than both the former form of projectile and Rayon's self-boost combined.

A second after the follow up, Terma added another layer of his spell.

The first step he took after this change was heavy, enough to shatter the ground and the eardrum of the one he was carrying.

But all of the steps beyond that were lighter than air itself.

Yet possessed the force of a great stampede.

The next thing they knew, Terma was already farther than all of the impact of the shrapnell, as the aftermath of his action managed to damage the the infrastructure more than all that Rayon did - leaving a dense trail of spiral path that went throughout the broken ceilings, walls, and the ground of the hallway.

With his movement slowing down, Terma faced back to Rayon that was already the size of a grain due to the distance. Before they finally dipped out of this plane, both Terma and Lothair gave their pursuer a little departing gift of peace-sign gestures.

Rayon let out a deafening wail of wrath that began to deafen with every second passing by due to the distance between him and the duo.

"You purposely taunted him to see if I would save you, isn't it, Lothair~??" Terma extended the last syllable with a tone of amusement, and a slight hint of anger.

Lothair put on an irritating toothy smile. "You must be imagining. You can see clearly that I'm just a meek and weak magus who's on the verge of getting unjustifiably annihilated."

"Now that I remember it, who's this Deggy person?" Terma touched his cheek with his index as he slightly tilted his head. "His rage escalates faster than how fast you change your attitude the moment it was brought up."

"It's just someone that usually follows him. Sick of his temperament and crude way of oppressing, the guy showed himself the exit from the social circle."

"Speaking of social circles, what makes both of us then?"

"A mantis and a wasp."

Both of them then arrived at the front entrance to the library. It was particularly uncrowded today. Just before Lothair could show his ID, one of the armored guards who sighted Terma immediately brandished his weapon.

In almost an instant, Terma swung his knife which precisely cut the veins and the bone of the neck. There was a sign of regeneration shown by the body but it was immediately nullified for mysterious reasons.

"Code Vladis, Code Vlad—"

Before the other guard could send his message telepathically to somewhere else, his neck was cut open, sprouting a blood shower to the surroundings.

Lothair in particular, was soaked in red because of that shower.

"Huh, now I know why the knife has blood in our first meeting."

"Hmm?"

"Nothing."

Looking at the guard's reaction, it was probably not the first time Terma did this. The reason was probably because he didn't possess any permit.

Lothair was wondering why he hadn't been kicked out of the academy. Then again, it was probably because the top dogs of the faculty member didn't care, and it left those underperforming guards to try and apprehend this murderhobo

"Well, I guess there are already too many students to keep on track properly to begin with."

Terma immediately snapped out of his usual knife-admiring session. "Hmm? You says something?"

"Nothing."