Chapter 332  A Stranger 

Once the flames settled down all that was left was the melted ground along with burned corpses of the demon beasts. I mildly took a look at them and found that this time their cores had been destroyed well.

Honestly, this was one successful attack—it did far more damage than I expected it to. Or well, I would like to believe that was the case.

The attack did more damage than I expected, that much was true. However, it was by no means a "successful attack". After all, just like the demon beasts I'd taken quite a beating as well.

I had burn marks all over my body, my fingers had turned completely black. I couldn't feel my left leg even though it was there, and most of my clothing was gone too. If I hadn't used the Resistance spell then I would be in the same condition as these beasts.

I let out a sigh as I waited for the melted ground to cool down a bit. I had killed all the beasts that were near me so it would probably take a few minutes for the new ones to reach me.

I hoped that the lava on the ground would cool down or else I'd have to use my elemental magic again, and I really didn't want to waste mana at this point.

[Are you fine?] I heard Req's voice in my head.

'Yeah, more or less.'

[Doesn't look that way to me.]

'I don't care about how it looks to you.'

I sensed that she grew slightly frustrated about that, but didn't say anything.

[Also, look above in the sky. There's something weird happening there.]

'Hm? What do you mean by weird?'

[I'm not sure, but I can feel that lot of mana is gathering at one place and there's this weird effect there, I don't know how to explain it but…uh, it's like the space there is wrapping.]

That description was giving me a really bad feeling, and I wanted to prove myself wrong so I decided to look up.

Henceforth I made up my mind and titled my head to look up in the sky. And there I saw it.

Right above my head, there was a portal that was opening and would soon connect the human realm and the demon realm. From that portal will come millions of new demon beasts, and rain down on us.

"Oh fuck…" those words came out of my mouth almost on their own.

***

Back in Havenreach, Anya had gotten used to the new lifestyle. Or it would be more appropriate to say that she had no other option but to get used to it.

As of now, she sat on a seat next to the window inside a classroom of the academy building. Apparently, this new academy was called Silver Garden Magic Academy.

All the students enrolled here had come from the four great magic academies all over the world which were the Stardust magic academy, the Crystal Leaf magic academy, the Wyvern Hall magic academy, and the Zaforths magic academy.

Once the calamity hit the world all the students from those academies were teleported here to enroll in a single big magic academy called Silver Garden, and Anya was one of those students.

The class had just finished and she was staring out from the window as she let out a sigh.

There were a lot of things on her mind, after all, it had been a month since they were teleported here and Zero went missing and even now there was still no sign of him.

Anya was starting to get depressed—or well, it would have been normal if she was. Surprisingly, she had been in a better condition these days.

It was not as if she had completely forgotten everything about Zero, she still thought about him every night before sleeping. Whenever she was procrastinating thinking about him was the only thing she did.

But during the day when she was with her friends, she laughed, studied, and tried to enjoy her time with them. The change was rather sudden, even Leon and Ellyn were not able to understand this development at first.

However, it was not as if this change in her behavior had come out of nowhere. There was something that caused this change—or perhaps someone. That's why with time everyone has gotten used to this new way of living.

"Heya Anya," someone called for her, making Anya shit her attention back into the classroom.

Next to her seat stood a guy who was about the same age as Leon. With black hair and eyes along with a fair skin tone, he was rather on the handsome side.

"The classes for today are over, should we go out to eat something? Ellyn and Leon are coming too," he said.

"Hmmm, I think I'll pass," Anya replied.

"What is this? Being all gloomy again?" the guy said as he leaned on Anya's table.

"Are you thinking about your brother again?" he asked. Anya didn't say anything but replied with a nod.

"Thought so," he said. "I've already told you this before, but thinking about him won't do anything. Whatever the outcome may be, you will have to accept it and move forward. I mean, you can't stay depressed all the time, you still have your parents after all."

While she was thinking about what he'd said, Ellyn and Leon also joined the group.

"Come on Anya, let's go. It's not fun without you," Ellyn said.

"She's right, and see, the weather today is especially lovely," the guy said while looking outside the window.

Anya let out a sigh, realizing that there was no arguing with these guys. "Fine, fine. I'll go," she said.

From the way she talked to this guy, it seemed like she had been on friendly terms with him since their conversation was usually casual.

And she was grateful to him as well. After all, when she was at the darkest point in her life, drowning in depression and staying holed up in her room for days, he was the one who'd helped her to come out from that place.