Chapter 80: The Silent Duel: Lilith’s Challenge

The storm that swallowed Shibuya had finally passed.
For the first time in weeks, Tokyo Magical Academy felt peaceful again.
No alarms. No gunfire. Just laughter echoing through the halls.

Morning sunlight poured through the windows, warming the marble floors.
Students whispered, some still shaken from the city’s recent chaos, others simply happy to see their teacher alive.

Kanata leaned against the doorway, watching his students practice basic barrier spells in the courtyard.
Rinko and Elyana stood at the front line, coordinating the younger students with surprising discipline.

“Alright, hold your focus!” Rinko shouted.
“Mana rotation must stay steady—don’t let it flicker!”

Elyana added cheerfully, holding a staff almost too big for her.
“If you can maintain the barrier for ten seconds, Sensei promised extra lunch!”

Kanata raised an eyebrow.
“I did?”

Both girls looked back at him innocently.
“You did now.”

He sighed.
“Brats.”

Despite himself, he smiled. The days of battle and bloodshed seemed like a distant dream.
Here, surrounded by laughter, Kanata almost believed peace had returned.

The cafeteria smelled of curry and coffee.
Kanata sat across from Celestine, who had buried herself in paperwork as usual.

“You’re overworking again,” he said, sipping his tea.
“Says the guy who fought a god last week,” Celestine replied dryly.

They shared a faint laugh.

“How’s Aine?” Kanata asked.
“Still in recovery. The Shibuya fallout exhausted her mana completely.”

He nodded quietly. Aine had risked her life to coordinate the defense.
Even for the stubborn commander she was, that battle left scars no healing spell could fix.

Before Celestine could continue, the academy’s alarm system flickered—just once—and then went silent again.

“Strange… no breach detected,” she murmured.

Kanata frowned, his instincts tightening.
The last time the alarms flickered like that, it wasn’t a system error. It was a warning.

At sunset, the courtyard glowed gold and crimson.
Rinko and Elyana had stayed behind to clean up the training grounds when a faint hum filled the air.

Runes—ancient, circular, violet—began to appear beneath their feet.

“Elyana, move!” Rinko shouted, pushing her aside just as the air split open.
A surge of dark mana erupted, forcing both of them back.

From the distortion stepped a woman cloaked in black and violet, her presence swallowing the sunlight.

Her long gray hair shimmered with silver-purple tips.
Her amethyst eyes glowed like stars buried in twilight.

Lilith Arcrayne.

“So this is the academy where the ‘Brave Dragon’ hides,” she said softly, her voice echoing like a song through the courtyard.

Rinko raised her wand instantly.
“Who are you?!”

Lilith tilted her head, smiling faintly.
“A teacher, just like your Kanata-sensei. Only... I teach the meaning of despair.”

A purple wave of energy burst from her fingertips, striking the ground and sending Rinko flying across the courtyard.

“RINKO!” Elyana screamed, catching her mid-air before she hit the wall.
Cracks of mana flared where the girl’s barrier had broken.

Lilith turned away, disappointed.
“Pathetic. Is this what the next generation of mages looks like?”

The air rippled—then shattered.
Kanata appeared between them in a flash of blue light, his right arm already wrapped in new runic seals.

“I leave you kids alone for ten minutes and this happens?”

His golden eyes locked onto the intruder.
“Lilith Arcrayne… I should’ve known.”

Lilith’s smile didn’t waver.
“We finally meet, Tendou Kanata—the man who ruined my brother’s life.”

Kanata’s expression hardened.
“Caine…?”

“Fifty years in a frozen cell,” Lilith said, her tone sharp as glass.
“He believed in you. Followed you. And in the end, you let them chain him like an animal.”

“That was his choice,” Kanata replied coldly.
“He accepted judgment for what he did.”

“No,” Lilith whispered, her aura flaring.
“He accepted punishment for following you.”

A gust of black wind erupted, tearing apart the training dummies.
Students screamed and fled as Celestine’s voice echoed over the intercom.

“All units, evacuate immediately! Do not engage the intruder!”

But Kanata didn’t move.

“You came here to fight me, didn’t you?”

“No.”
Lilith’s eyes darkened.
“I came here to make you watch as your precious students suffer the way my brother did.”

She raised her hand—and with a flick of her fingers, Rinko’s body froze midair, suspended by invisible strings of mana.
Her eyes widened, unable to breathe.

“Stop it.” Kanata’s tone turned icy.
“Now.”

Lilith smirked.
“Make me.”

For a moment, silence ruled the courtyard.
Then—Kanata’s footsteps echoed once. Twice.
The air began to quake.

“You said you teach despair…” he muttered, voice low.
“Then I’ll be your first and last student.”

He snapped his fingers.
Blue light exploded across the field as the sealing runes on his right arm disintegrated.

Lilith’s smile widened.
“So you accept my duel.”

“Not for pride,” Kanata replied, stepping closer, his aura flaring like a dragon’s heart.
“But because you laid a hand on my student.”

The clouds above began to swirl, lightning flickering violet and gold.
Two powers—Arcane Nullification and the Cursed Dragon Arm—clashed invisibly, the air itself screaming between them.

“This is between us,” Lilith whispered.
“No gods. No armies. Just strength.”

“Fine by me,” Kanata growled.
“But don’t expect me to hold back.”

The final barrier shattered—
and as night fell over Tokyo, the two strongest mages of their generation vanished into a storm of light and shadow.