Chapter 48: Arrival
After the colossal eye vanished, night once again descended, shrouding everything in darkness. The official wizards, including Mentor Lorna, who had just been battling the giant bats, instantly assumed new roles, transforming into rescuers for the surviving students.
Suspended in midair at the highest point of the ship, Lorna faced the shattered section of the hull. He stretched out his arms, closed his eyes tightly, and chanted words in an unknown tongue. Suddenly, a thick black membrane appeared around the edges of the gaping hole. As Lin Wei watched, the membrane rapidly spread, and within a few blinks, it had sealed the breach completely. In Lorna’s hands, the fatal gap was swiftly restored to its original state.
Elsewhere, the other official wizards leading the academy teams also displayed their own skills, slowly repairing and retrieving the battered ships, even those that had sunk into the sea.
“Surviving students, gather on the deck!”
Lorna’s voice echoed throughout the Shadow Forest liner.
“Hm?” As Lorna gently descended onto the deck, his gaze immediately fell upon Lin Wei.
Lin Wei hurried over to join him. “Mentor Lorna.”
Lorna nodded, glancing at him with mild surprise but said nothing.
“It’s finally over—this nightmare,” someone murmured.
“I never thought I would survive…”
One by one, the surviving students began to emerge from below deck. Some looked wretched, others were gravely wounded, but every face bore the exhilaration of new life born from despair.
“There are quite a few survivors…” Lin Wei observed them, surprised. “Out of the original fifty-seven students, there are still a dozen or so left… Hm?”
His eyes suddenly narrowed.
“Felincia…”
The prodigious young witch, Felincia, now appeared on deck as well. Unlike the other survivors, she looked completely composed, even more so than Lin Wei himself.
“No… I can sense residual traces of wizard power around Felincia…” Lin Wei narrowed his eyes, his spiritual force now at 1.3, giving him a keen sensitivity to such fluctuations. “If I’m not mistaken, she must have used some item imbued with wizard power. This Felincia, her identity in the mundane world must be closely tied to wizards.”
Felincia seemed to sense Lin Wei’s gaze and instinctively looked his way. Noticing his relatively good condition, she nodded lightly and smiled.
“Children, I am deeply sorry. None of us, myself included, could have foreseen this sudden danger,” Lorna said, his expression somber. “I know some of your companions may have perished. It was not just the new students, but even your senior, Unes, who fell in the recent battle…”
At these words, the surviving girls instinctively covered their mouths. That elegant, graceful senior Unes… was dead?
“There is little use in mourning now. What you must do is compose yourselves and prepare for your studies at the Shadow Forest Academy,” Lorna continued in a low tone. “Soon, the surviving mortal servants will be sent below to clear out the bodies and the water. As for you, return to your cabins.”
“Mentor Lorna!”
A sudden female voice rang out among the dozen or so students.
“Felincia…” Lin Wei glanced at her intently.
Lorna looked at Felincia with a trace of approval and encouragement. She was the only backup student with a fifth-grade aptitude in this selection, and she had managed to survive the chaos. “What is it?”
Felincia’s expression was serious. “Mentor Lorna, what caused everything that just happened?”
At her question, nearly every surviving student pricked up their ears, Lin Wei included. He was especially intrigued by the existence of the golden giant eye.
Surviving such an unexpected catastrophe, their hearts gnawed by terror, every student was desperate to understand the reason behind it all.
Lorna was silent for a moment. “The world of wizards is far more brutal than you imagine. Death is commonplace. As for the origins of this incident, you will come to understand them gradually after arriving at the Academy. That is enough for now. Dismissed.”
Disappointment flickered through the eyes of the students.
“There’s clearly something he can’t say…” Lin Wei keenly sensed Lorna’s mood. “As I suspected, even the ruling Wizard Academy Alliance has a common and dreadful enemy!”
…
Seven days later.
Twelve enormous liners sped across the endless ocean.
“Are we finally arriving?” Lin Wei stood on deck, gazing at the shimmering sea. A faint scent of earth seemed to reach him.
“Lin Wei.”
Felincia had somehow appeared by his side, the sea breeze tossing her long hair across half her face, making her look all the more striking in the sunlight.
“Felincia.” Lin Wei greeted her with a polite smile.
“Once we reach Shadow Forest Academy, we freshmen must look out for each other,” Felincia said, gently tucking her unruly hair behind her ear.
Lin Wei nodded. “Of course.”
“Lin Wei,” Felincia’s tone suddenly shifted, “I always feel there’s something special about you. There’s a familiar aura around you.”
Lin Wei’s heart skipped a beat, but his face remained calm. He only smiled lightly. “Perhaps it’s just your imagination?”
Felincia seemed uncertain herself, biting her lip. “Maybe…”
Watching her fall into thought, Lin Wei pondered, “A familiar aura? So that’s why she’s been paying attention to me… But what could it be about me that she finds familiar?”
“Could it be… the Shadow of Holy Light?!” A flash of shock crossed Lin Wei’s eyes.
The Shadow of Holy Light was one of his greatest secrets, second only to the intelligent core.
“Could Felincia be connected to the Shadow of Holy Light?” Lin Wei kept his expression steady, though his thoughts raced. “It seems I must pay close attention to this woman.”
…
Clang!
The Shadow Forest liner docked at the shore.
“At last!”
“This nerve-racking journey is finally over!”
Smiles lit every student’s face. All they had endured was for this moment—to reach the mysterious Wizard Academy.
“Candidates for Shadow Forest, gather here and do not wander. The Academy will soon send someone to receive us!”
Since Unes’s untimely death, Mentor Lorna had been forced to take on all the duties of commanding the students himself.