Chapter 18: The Antimagic Dome

As the snowstorm subsided, the outside world returned to silence.

Not a single star showed in the dark sky. A transparent dome woven from countless golden runes covered the entire academy like an overturned cage.

The runes were fine and orderly, turning slowly through the air at a barely perceptible speed and giving off a reassuring glow.

Outside the barrier, the white snowstorm still raged, carrying ice blades and violent wind against that glow. But every time the white fury touched the golden screen, it was like striking an invisible wall.

Snowflakes vanished into nothing, and the cold wind stopped dead.

Only a silence remained, as if wiped clean.

“This is… an Antimagic Field? It’s this big… I heard the bishops mention it at the Church, but I never imagined it could cover this much.” Mia and Aelian looked out the window together.

‘It really is an Antimagic Field. At this scale… the mana consumption must be terrifying. And there’s no way one person could cast this.’

Little Nether couldn’t help but exclaim in Aelian’s mind. It was also his first time seeing an Antimagic Field of this size.

‘A sixth-circle spell, Antimagic Field. It can completely nullify spells of the fifth circle and below.’

Another spell he had never seen in the original work. At this point in the story, the Headmaster couldn’t have done this alone. He must have cast it with other teachers.

Aelian thought.

“All students, follow the teachers back to the dormitories!”

When Miranda said this, every student let out a breath of relief. If they had to stay in the banquet hall all night, no one could stand it.

Mia and Aelian walked together toward the dormitories.

Snow on the academy paths had risen past waist height. It was bitterly cold outside, like walking through an ice cave, and the wind stung their cheeks.

The barrier still hung in the sky. A huge pillar of light shot up from its center. That was likely where the Antimagic Field was being chanted.

Mia cast some spell Aelian didn’t recognize. It seemed to protect against the cold.

She glanced at Aelian, saw no reaction from him, and casually cast it on him too.

Warmth spread through Aelian at once. The wind could no longer hurt his cheeks.

‘A first-circle spell, Resist Snowstorm. You don’t even know this one. This lord is embarrassed to admit you’re my master…’

Little Nether mocked in his mind.

Aelian had no comeback. The textbook didn’t include this spell!

Even now, he only knew the first- and second-circle spells from the textbook. Any spell not included in the textbook was completely unknown to him.

There was only one dormitory area, and the students’ rooms weren’t far apart.

The teachers organized the students, clearing snow with magic while advancing slowly.

Before long, the group reached the dormitories.

The two parted ways with Karl. They struggled to open their door while keeping snow from collapsing into the room.

“Nothing beats the dormitory!”

As soon as Aelian entered, he collapsed onto the first-floor sofa like a slime.

“Once all the students are back in their rooms, the Headmaster will probably go out with some of the other teachers, right?”

Mia seemed to be talking to herself, or maybe to Aelian.

“The group they have chanting uses a fifth-circle spell. The academy teachers and the Headmaster together use a sixth-circle spell. The difference is obvious!”

Aelian sounded like he was comforting Mia. And it was true.

“But these blasphemers probably aren’t just here to fight the Headmaster. This snowstorm has barely hurt anyone. It’s only made it hard for us to move. Delaying us is probably their main goal.”

‘That brat is quick. They used a fifth-circle Ice Sealing Field, so your side has to answer with a sixth-circle Antimagic Field. No matter what, your academy is the one taking the loss.’

He rubbed his chin and put on a show of analyzing.

Actually, the ice storm incident had only been mentioned as background in the original story. His so-called analysis was just Aelian retelling the story from memory.

Mia poured two cups of hot water. She set one in front of Aelian and kept the other for herself.

Steam rose from the cups.

“Go on.”

Mia took a sip and nodded, acknowledging Aelian’s analysis. She motioned for him to continue.

“Mm… an Antimagic Field this size must consume an enormous amount of mana. Even with the Headmaster and the other teachers, casting something this big can’t be easy.

Following that line of thought, the blasphemers’ goal is obvious. They’re using the academy’s opening banquet, when Headmaster Moso Link came back to give his speech, to keep him here for a while.”

Aelian spoke a lot in one breath and felt thirsty, so he picked up the cup and drank.

“That way the Headmaster can’t return to the Demon Corridor in time? Maintaining the gate between the two places also requires focused chanting and a huge amount of mana…”

Mia picked up on it right away. Clearly she had followed his reasoning.

“The Demon Corridor has probably already been attacked.”

He looked at the barrier outside and the pitch-black sky. Inside the barrier, everything was still calm and peaceful.

As the natural shield of the Empire’s northwest, if the Demon Corridor fell, it would mean the entire northwest would suffer attacks from demons.

“Well… there’s nothing we can do right now. We can only trust the Headmaster.”

Aelian let out a soft breath, as if it had nothing to do with him. Though the timeline didn’t quite match, the result should be the same. The Demon Corridor would still fall, and pressure on the southern Empire would spike.

But Mia, beside him, had her brows tightly furrowed.

The southern Empire had always been the Church’s responsibility. As the Church’s Saintess, after graduation she would most likely have to take on the defense of the south.

Aelian finished speaking and saw that Mia hadn’t replied, so he turned his head to glance at her.

The magic flame in the fireplace flickered, casting shifting light across her profile. Her long eyelashes blinked, and she looked very cute.

She sat at the other end of the sofa, both hands around the cup of hot water, fingertips rubbing the cup unconsciously.

Her gaze rested on the golden dome of runes outside the window, brows slightly drawn, carrying a faint melancholy.

“Hey… Mia?” Aelian called.

Mia came back to herself, lowered her eyes, and took a sip of water. Her voice was softer than usual: “…I’m listening.”

“Your analysis is thorough,” she paused and looked up at Aelian. “If the Demon Corridor falls, the Empire’s northwest gate is wide open. The troops originally supporting the southern Empire will have to be redirected northwest. The Church’s pressure will increase sharply.”

Aelian also came back to his senses. The beautiful girl before him was a real Saintess. In his previous life, that would be equivalent to a military district commander…

She couldn’t stand apart like Aelian and simply trust the Headmaster. Her shoulders carried the lives of countless people in the southern Empire.

“So that’s why you’re in such a hurry to root out the blasphemers?” The words slipped out, and Aelian immediately realized they might sound offensive.

But Mia didn’t mind. She answered:

“The academy has long been infiltrated by blasphemers. If this time they really succeed in tying down the Headmaster and break through the Demon Corridor…”

Mia stopped speaking.

“…” Aelian opened his mouth, wanting to say something comforting, but found that any comfort would sound hollow right now.

“Cough… Mia, teach this young master that first-circle spell, Resist Snowstorm?”

Mia blinked, turned her head toward him, seeming a little surprised by the sudden request.

“You don’t know it?” she asked, with a hint of disbelief.

“It wasn’t in the textbook!” Aelian said righteously, though his face was still slightly red.

Mia was silent for two seconds. The corner of her mouth curved up in an almost invisible smile. It was probably the first genuinely amused expression she had shown all night.

“…Okay,” she said. “But you have to wear a dress for me.”

“Huh? Can’t you ask for something else?”

“No!”

Outside the window, the golden runes still turned slowly, keeping the snowstorm out.

Inside the dormitory, the fireplace still crackled, warm and cozy.

But the tension that had filled the air just moments ago had already faded.

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