Chapter: 29. The Twilight Returns
Star Academy.
“This is Team A2, the target is secured.”
The man in a white academy uniform reported through the earpiece while signaling his teammates behind him to retreat.
“You… are not students of the academy… who exactly are you?” The target mentioned by the man—Amakusa Shinkou—struggled to ask.
His limbs were bound by some specially made cords, hoisted up like a piece of cargo.
The others seemed to know him very well, aware that he had no combat abilities, so they were completely unconcerned about whether he would attempt a sneak attack with any powers.
If we set aside his identity as an ability user, Professor Amakusa was merely a man in his seventies.
In front of this well-trained team of ability users, he was of little consequence.
“How did you manage to circumvent the academy’s systems to get in here…?” Professor Amakusa still questioned in confusion.
“Professor, it seems the network security of your academy is not as perfect as you imagined.”
A tall man who was holding Professor Amakusa replied in a low voice.
Implied was that these people had hacked into the Star Academy’s systems.
Upon hearing this, Amakusa Shinkou looked as if he had heard something unbelievable and couldn’t help but murmur, “No… it’s impossible… the academy has…”
“This is Team A1, the feint operation is going smoothly, all the ability users from Star Academy have come over to our side, Team A2, please take the target and retreat immediately—”
Suddenly, the voice on the communicator cut off.
Then came the sound of a lost signal, a rustling noise.
Each member of the ability user team showed grave expressions and rushed toward the rooftop of the main building.
Here was Star Academy.
An absolute base for ability users.
Any unexpected situation could signify danger approaching.
Thus, they had to retreat at once to complete their mission.
“Can’t we use our authority to retreat?”
“No, Ghost is fully supporting Team B, and—”
The apparent team leader glanced back at Professor Amakusa behind him.
“The target won’t cooperate with our ‘wish’.”
“Our way of retreat is on the rooftop, there’s a Generation 3 ‘Starcraft’, we can use the spatial folding capability onboard to evacuate.”
“I hope Team A1 can successfully hold off the ability users for us…”
After their exchange, they had already reached the rooftop.
They pushed open the heavy metal door leading to the rooftop.
A gust of wind mixed with rain hit them fiercely.
“…Rain?”
The unexpected scene made the team leader pause for a brief moment.
This was the top floor of the main building of Star Academy.
At some point, a heavy rain seemed to have enveloped Star Academy.
The dark clouds obscured the moon and stars in the night sky.
However, their target remained in place.
In the center of this platform stood a machine that seemed to come from the future—the “Starcraft: Generation 3.”
It was predominantly silver in color, covered in hexagonal nano armor, with a profile that was a hybrid of a fighter jet and a spacecraft, sharp-edged yet streamlined.
The cockpit was not completely sealed; the canopy opened like petals on either side, and the interior had already gotten wet from the rain, but the operation system glowed with a cold light, proving it was still functional.
This was a research achievement of Star Academy.
A type of “extraordinary item” engineered to serve as a vehicle, possessing time and space control capabilities.
After the “End Fragment Crisis”, both Special Circle SEMA and the three major academies began to focus their research on “machines,” that is, inorganic entities. At that time, the vaccine project had not yet been launched; they placed their hopes on these soulless existences, as if they were the most formidable means to counter the End.
“Why is it… raining…” The team leader was still troubled by the scene before him.
But his teammates urged, “Captain, there’s no time! We need to activate the Starcraft and leave immediately!”
“…Start the core immediately, secure the professor in the auxiliary cabin, we must depart the platform within ten seconds.” Coming back to his senses, the team leader immediately ordered.
Two team members sprang into action.
One pushed Professor Amakusa into the rear cabin and activated the restraint frame, while the other leaped into the main cabin, placing his hands on the holographic control panel and inputting the startup permissions.
As the engine started, a glow of magic power burst forth from the body of the aircraft.
The rooftop floor experienced slight vibrations, and the air around began to tremble violently, accompanied by a low-frequency humming sound—that was the sign that the abilities were about to activate.
“Spatial folding countdown: 5 seconds!”
“Good—”
“4”
“3”
“2”
“1—”
But just as the Starcraft was about to activate its abilities, the entire rooftop’s lights flickered for a moment.
Before those inside the cabin could sense the danger approaching—
A black flame, disregarding the pouring rain, splashed around the Starcraft like spilled ink.
The rising black flame disrupted the magic power, dulling the light of the aircraft in an instant.
“Who are you?” A low and cold voice came from above.
The ability user seated in the cockpit hadn’t even had time to summon his magic power.
A luminescent radiance resembling the aurora passed over the aircraft in the rain night.
The inorganic body of the craft remained unscathed, but the men inside felt their magic power drained away in an instant.
“Tell me, who unleashed this domain, controlling this rain’s fantasy creature, which one of you is its contracted beast?”
Kanade slowly descended from the sky.
When he landed, he stepped into the pooled water, creating a crisp sound that echoed on the silent rooftop.
Raindrops, equivalent to beans, were silently devoured by the black flames surrounding him as they approached, as if even the wind and rain instinctively avoided his presence.
He stood in the storm, seemingly in a world devoid of wind and rain.
The rooftop lights were dim, and Kanade’s golden eyes burned like flames in the rainy night, reflecting in the puddle beneath him, as if a god had descended.
“Damn, it’s an S-rank…”
Even with their magic power depleted, the team leader still clawed his way out of the cockpit and raised his gun toward the S-rank ability user before him.
Though he knew it would have no effect, it represented his determination to fight to the death.
Kanade seemed to sense this too.
The resolve of this man holding a gun was caught by his keen intuition.
“Then let me fulfill your wish.”
Kanade coldly raised the blade of life in his hand, its colorful glow flowing like floating silk was flicked—an aurora-like sword light consumed the unleashed bullet, piercing through the heart of the team leader.
He was no longer the Kanade of former years.
In all these years, the lives he had personally taken, whether they were fantasy creatures, ability users, or even ordinary people—countless.
Since he had plunged the blade into the heart of the girl he loved most, he had no real feeling about taking others’ lives anymore.
“Captain—” The other members inside the cockpit shouted upon seeing this.
The aurora-like sword light pulled back from the man’s chest, and blood sprayed from the wound, staining the colorful light, transforming it into dazzling star dust that bloomed in the darkness, shining like fireworks.
His body slowly fell.
“Next is you—”
As Kanade slowly turned his gaze to the inside of the Starcraft.
“Tell me, who unleashed this domain?” Kanade stepped forward coldly.
This was a domain he could not forget.
Because he had once spent a life-and-death moment in this domain with someone he loved the most.
It was a former member of the fantasy creature that had once killed her.
And now, its power had unexpectedly appeared in Star Academy, coincidentally after the invasion incident—
There was evidently a connection between the two, or even it was one of theirs.
Sunlight illuminated the terrified faces of the men in the cockpit.
It also shone upon the professor Amakusa stuffed into the auxiliary cabin.
—Amakusa Shinkou?
Kanade recognized this face; it was the target he planned to approach, one of the most influential elders in Star Academy currently.
—Why is he here? Is the intruder’s target him?
—No, wait, before this…
Kanade’s steps halted.
The rain had stopped at some point.
Replaced by—
Kanade suddenly turned his head; behind him was a setting sun slowly descending.
The golden afterglow coated the entire island in a layer of brilliance.
At the same time.
The man who had just fallen dead suddenly sprang up, dived into the Starcraft.
Revived, he suddenly activated the aircraft, the light-emitting engine instantly providing tremendous thrust, launching the entire Starcraft like an arrow shot from the ground.
The first to react, Kanade slashed at the aircraft with a black flame blade—
However.
A scarlet blood blade fell from the sky, blocking the path of the black flame blade.
In that brief moment, the Starcraft had already shot out of Star Academy’s airspace with an unimaginable speed.
Professor Amakusa had been successfully taken away.
But Kanade was not in a hurry; he slowly raised his head.
“…Is it you?”
“Long time no see, Tsukimi classmate…”
