Chapter 10: The Arcane Enforcers & The Midterm That Shouldn't Exist
Chapter 10: The Arcane Enforcers & The Midterm That Shouldn't Exist
Location: Academy Auditorium / Doom Dome
The new professor—Kael the Red, Empress of Timelines and Collector of Grudges—stood at the center of a hovering arena she summoned during breakfast.
"I call this the Midterm of Truth," she announced. "And pain. Also, truth."
Liana watched from the bleachers, sipping cursed coffee and whispering to the System.
"Are we even legally allowed to do this?"
[Technically? There are no rules anymore.]
Below, the students—gathered and nervous—were grouped into randomized teams for combat-simulation-examified-scenarios. (Kael's phrasing.)
Mordain floated over in a cape that was 20% shadow, 80% drama.
"I took bets. My money's on the vampire. She smuggled in a cursed axe."
"The slime girl just multiplied and high-fived herself."
"Gods help us," Liana muttered.
Round One: Solve the Puzzle or Be Devoured
The walls rearranged themselves into a maze made of:
Hexagrams,
Riddles in Old Elvish,
And something that looked like IKEA instructions, but screamed when folded wrong.
One group attempted to brute-force it.The vampire read the puzzle, wrote "None of the above," and teleported out.The demon girl tried seduction. The puzzle blushed. It still devoured her.
Kael cackled. "Magnificent. Next!"
Meanwhile, in the Boiler Room
The janitor—whom no one had seen for weeks—opened a hidden panel behind the furnace.
Inside: a vault marked "DO NOT EVER, EVER OPEN."
He stared at it.
The mop in his hand twitched.
"You again," he growled.
It hissed back.
Back in the Arena: Round Two – Spell Duel
The slime girl challenged the lich in poetry combat.
Vault Girl accidentally cast a spell so advanced it started teaching itself.A new school of magic formed mid-duel and began handing out pamphlets.
Liana yelled, "Stop evolving disciplines during testing!"
Vault Girl smiled awkwardly. "It was only supposed to be a flashbang…"
Elsewhere: The Arcane Enforcers
The student council, now rebranded and overly armed, patrolled the academy with matching cloaks, badges enchanted to glare, and scrolls that screamed policy violations at 110 decibels.
They caught two students illegally dating.
They also tried to arrest a summoned ghost who quoted legal loopholes.
The ghost now teaches Ethics.
Final Event: The Question That Shouldn't Exist
The students were handed a single question:
"If you could erase one rule of reality... what would replace it?"
The vampire wrote: Thirst Tuesdays.The demon: Unlimited detention. For the world.The slime: Slime supremacy.Vault Girl paused. Her pen glowed. So did the question.
The paper burst into blue flame, turned into a crow, and whispered:
"She is almost ready."
Everyone stared.
Kael grinned. "Perfect."
Liana: "What in the actual hell was that?"
System chimed:
[Prophecy update. Stage 2 initiated. Vault Girl's compatibility with ancient world-thread magic is… 99.6%.]
"…I hate everything," Liana whispered.
Aftermath
Kael declared the exams a rousing success. Five students were hospitalized, one ascended briefly, and the phoenix wrote a memoir on the experience.
Mordain added two new curses to the student handbook. One just causes hiccups that echo across dimensions.
Liana collapsed onto her office couch.
The janitor knocked on the door.
He held the mop like a sword. And a bottle labeled: "Anti-Elder-God Degreaser."
"We need to talk," he said.
End of Chapter 10