In the same karaoke room, only a few seconds after the room had been enveloped in darkness, it took no time at all for the darkness to dissipate, gathering again towards the center, that is, where the girl was.
The next moment, the darkness completely disappeared and the girl emerged from it, in one of her hands was the bloodied body of the woman who had previously occupied this room.
As for the girl, her expression had changed from one of pride to one of disgust.
"Cowards with shameful and disgusting tactics. Puh!" She said, going so far as to spit on the floor out of the disgust she was feeling.
Even though she had managed to catch one of her targets, she was clearly not at all happy.
The "battle" really didn't last long, mainly thanks to the wide difference in strength between the girl, or rather, the head teacher of the Eitsirc Academy's magic branch, Tome Acorella, and the Laers Guild executives.
Even if the latter were rank (B) supers, the outcome would remain unchanged in the slightest.
However, apparently these people were already aware of this fact, after all, the moment Tome enveloped them in her spell of darkness, meaning that they no longer had a chance to escape, they, without hesitating even for a second, proceeded to purposely decontrol their energy.
This action caused their bodies to enter a state of imminent self-destruction, if one took into account that the energy within them was by no means small as all of them were rank (B) supers, it was already easy to imagine how dangerous the explosion of not one, but all four of them at the same time would be.
Of course, Tome did not stand idly by, but quickly forcibly stabilized the bodies of all four using her own mana. Normally, this would be enough, but for some reason, the moment Tome interacted with the energy inside them, their bodies went completely haywire, exploding immediately.
Due to how sudden and unexpected this reaction had been, she was only able fully concentrate to stabilize the energy thus saving one of the four people, the lucky one... or unlucky one depending on one you looked at it, this time being the only woman of the group.
"Laers Guild..." She said, one could notice that in her voice, there was an incredible amount of contempt and disgust.
What caused these emotions in Tome was not the fact that these people were part of the guild or that they had tried to enter the academy with dark intentions, in fact, that was really the least of it.
What really bothered her however, was how little human lives seemed to matter to said organization, using four people as if they were mere disposable objects.
*Ring*
At that moment, before her emotions reached the point where they could almost solidify, her smartwatch began to beep.
As if this sound brought her back to reality, Tome shook her head before letting out a sigh and answering the call.
"Hey, I felt a large energy fluctuation in Kluemwood, that must mean you're done, right?" Said a woman's voice coming from the small technological device.
"Yes, I'm done... although I was only able to secure one person, the others self-destructed, what's more, they did it with a technique that even I haven't seen so far." Tome replied, beginning to describe exactly what had happened, emphasizing the strange energy she felt inside these executives.
Although her emotions had caused her to get a little out of control, she managed to calm down quickly, after all, she knew what reporting these events was more important than whatever it was she was feeling.
"Strange energy that reacts violently and accelerates the process of self-destruction? Alright, I've got it written down, I'll notify the vice-principal and I'll also start investigating it personally." Said the woman again, although she wasn't finished, "By the way, I know this must have made you sick, so come to the manor, so you can rest for a while after so many missions."
The woman knew Tome well enough to know that her mood had taken a turn for the worse after whad had happened, so she wanted to cheer her up even a little.
"I appreciate the offer, but I really can't afford to waste much time, I still have a lot of missions to complete before I can pay off the debt I got from standing up to that stupid violent old woman." Tome said, looking out into the non-existent horizon of the room with an expression of a person serving a sentence.
"I managed to get cupcakes baked by Zena~" The woman said again.
Immediately, Tome's ears pricked up, though her expression didn't change nor did she stop looking at the horizon, her body made it clear that this last sentence had caught her attention.
"Well... I think I can afford a little break..."
With those words as her last, Tome then proceeded to make her way to a certain place away from the city, not without first restraining and hiding her prisoner, of course.
***
Back at the Eitsirc Academy, the talent examination was still in progress, the atmosphere in the surroundings was somewhat bustling due to the fact that the applicants couldn't help but chat among themselves about the results of the people who had already been evaluated.
Thanks to that fact, everyone had been able to see more exactly how these pillars worked.
An applicant had to approach their corresponding pillar, then, they had to press their hand against the pillar and release their energy at a steady pace.
And it was at that moment that the pillar would begin to change, depending on the applicant's results.
First, there was the grade the applicant was in, which was indicated by the three big lines on the body of each of the pillars, one line at the bottom, the next one in the middle, and the last one at the top.
If the bottom line was illuminated, it meant that the applicant was in rank (D), if it was the middle one, it meant rank (C), and the top part was rank (B).
Next was the talent, or rather, the potential of each of the applicants, although the way in which each pillar evaluated a postulant differed due to class differences, that did not affect the results at all.
For example, in an esper, only one aspect was evaluated, which was the potential of his ability itself, in a pugilist, it was the quality of his body and his affinity with qi, as for mages, it was both the affinity and the control they had with mana.
It was in this assessment that the pillars differed, with the pillar for espers beginning to give off a green glow from the cracks in their body when a postulant touched it, just as if they were veins and the energy of a postulant was blood, the more "veins" that lit up, the better the esper's potential.
The pillar for pugilists on the other hand, the moment it came in contact with a pugilist's qi, a golden colored flash would appear inside, and depending on the purity of the color and the size of the flash, the pugilist's potential was judged.
Finally, the pillar for mages, this had a small circle inside several larger circles, for a total of seven circles, which lit up in a blue color when a mage released their mana into the pillar, starting with the smallest circle and expanding outward.
Although the way of evaluating was different depending on the pillar, the scores were divided in a manner quite similar to that of the pre-test, starting with Average, Outstanding, Excellent and Special.
So far, the evaluations had been positive, with most of the postulants achieving the Outstanding and some even the Excellent grade, although that was to be expected since those who had been evaluated first were none other than the postulants who had obtained a perfect score on the pre-test.
Of course, while those postulants were carefree thanks to their results, that was not the case for the others, who felt pressured by seeing such good results, and that the examiner had said he would disqualify more people if they got a double Average grade only made it worse.
However, they could do nothing more than mentally prepare for the evaluation.
After a few minutes, Sarah's turn came, so she proceeded to calmly advance to her corresponding pillar, placing her hand on it before releasing her mana.
"Ah, Miss Abner, for best results, I need you to focus all your attention on the pillar, so you will need to release the levitation spell you are using." Said the examiner suddenly, stopping Sarah.
Hearing his words, the mage turned her head slightly to look at Jay, who apparently knew what was coming and just smiled, making it clear that he didn't really mind.
*Pam*
With that sound, Jay fell to the ground, causing other applicants to look at him strangely, though he only let out an "I'm fine" in response.
The next moment, somewhat more relaxed due to Jay's attitude, Sarah released her mana into the pillar.
*Chhk*
Immediately, a bright blue liquid lit up the circle, continuing to the second, third and so on, coming uninterrupted all the way to the fifth circle, which was the point where Sarah seemingly reached her limit, a few beads of sweat running down her face.
"Hm, a good handle for a mage in the (C-) grade, with a strong but controlled mana flow, not bad at all." Commented the examiner, "Excellent talent."
"Still... I'm not done yet!" Sarah said suddenly, raising her voice at the same time as the mana inside her kicked in to the limit.
At that moment, the flow of mana that was filling the pillar and barely seemed to be able to fill the fifth circle moved wildly, filling the sixth circle almost forcibly.
Unfortunately, without even a second having passed, all the circles went out at the same time, indicating that Sarah was no longer able to keep it up.
However, the examiner's expression changed completely upon seeing this.
"...Apparently I judged too early, you undoubtedly possess a Special grade talent. You will continue to maintain your perfect score." He added, smiling kindly.
It was not only the examiner who was surprised, but all the other applicants were also impressed to see this, it was the first time someone had gotten a Special rating after all.
Faced with this, Sarah only let out a satisfied sigh before bowing slightly to the examiner and returning to the field along with the other applicants who had already been evaluated, not before lifting Jay up again with her levitation spell of course.
'I knew she wasn't a normal mage...!' Thought Myrin, who had been watching Sarah's evaluation closely, excited that her suspicions had been confirmed as true.
Even among those with perfect scores, she had been the first to achieve that grade, so she hastily added Sarah's name to her list and placed her in the "Top 100 supers I should watch out for."
The evaluations continued, with the applicants consciously trying to do their best to achieve a Special score after seeing Sarah's example, though of course this was easier said than done.
Finally, it was the turn of the person both Jay and Sarah were most looking forward to.
A tall, silver-haired, serious-looking young man then began to walk toward the pugilist's pillar, attracting the attention of most of the applicants.
The reason he attracted the attention of the others was not only because of his appearance, but also because it was as if he had appeared from one moment to the next, making them only now be aware of his presence.
'James Mahar, descendant the Emperor's Gate... such a young age and he's already able to hide his presence from other supers, how promising.' Thought the examiner, watching as the young man approached.
Under the watchful eye of all present, this pugilist began his evaluation.
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