CHAPTER 61: EX 61. TWO SECONDS

Eden stood frozen.

The moment that demonic gaze found him, it was as if the world narrowed to a single point of terror. His lungs refused to breathe. His thoughts spiraled into static. All his instincts screamed one thing:

Run.

Not heroically. Not strategically. Just pure, animalistic flight.

And deep down, a voice whispered the cruelest logic of all:

’You don’t need to outrun the demon. Just outrun the others.’

But before that voice could take hold...

"Eden! What do we do?"

Eleanor’s voice cut through the fog in his mind like a blade of clarity. He turned his head slowly, eyes meeting hers—full of fear, yes, but not only fear.

Trust.

He looked around and saw it mirrored in the eyes of every cadet. There were ten of them—young, panicked, trembling—but in all that fear, there was something else...

Hope.

Faint and fragile. But it was there.

It dawned on him like a slap to the soul:

They were looking to him.

Him.

Not just as a strong cadet. Not as the one who ranked 4th. But as something more.

A pillar.

His heart thudded hard in his chest as a distant memory returned—

He was ten, sitting cross-legged in front of a flickering screen, eyes glued to the live broadcast. A demon horde had descended upon a minor Federation region. The screams and cries of the citizens could be heard from the speaker of the tv.

But then, his father appeared on screen—standing tall, defiant and alone on the frontlines.

A pillar in chaos.

A protector. A hero.

A beacon.

That image had burned itself into Eden’s soul. And it was then he had sworn—

"I want to be that. I want to be hope."

And now here he was... surrounded by cadets who believed in him more than he had believed in himself.

How could he run?

No. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.

His jaw tightened. His eyes, once full of panic, now burned with purpose. He turned sharply to Eleanor, fire in his voice.

"Gather everyone. I have a plan."

Within moments, the cadets clustered together at his command. They didn’t ask what the plan was. They didn’t protest. They just moved.

Eleanor quickly erected a barrier—a wide dome of pale blue light around the group. Her aura shimmered with tension as she maintained it, sweat already forming on her brow.

Eden glanced at her.

"Are you sure it’ll hold?"

Eleanor didn’t hesitate.

"Absolutely. I won’t let it break."

Eden nodded once.

He looked back toward the forest, where

shadows moved and a cold pressure tightened around their throats.

"Then let’s hope this works," he muttered, eyes steeled with resolve.

Because this wasn’t just about surviving anymore.

It was about protecting.

And for the first time in his life, he truly understood what that meant.

****

As the demon blitzed through the dense forest, weaving between trees like a bolt of fury, its bloodied wings tore through the air with each beat. Behind it, Rebecca Skyfall surged forward in pursuit—lightning trailing her form like divine retribution—but it was falling behind.

The demon’s thoughts burned with one obsession:

Find the cadets and use there souls to heal itself.

It could already sense them ahead—twelve clustered heat signatures. Vulnerable ripe and easy to tear apart. It grinned, baring jagged teeth.

But then—

"What?"

The word slipped from its lips, unbidden.

The signatures—there wasn’t just one group anymore.

Now, there were dozens.

Scattered across the forest.

Each one distinct.

Each one... the same.

Its yellow eyes narrowed. Barriers—opaque domes—were launching upward into the air like glowing fireflies before crashing down in every direction, dispersing the energy signatures far and wide.

It could feel the heat of the cadets inside each one. Their panicked breaths, their racing hearts.

But how?

Up ahead, the real group—the one it had sensed originally—stood still, veiled in silence behind their own barrier.

The demon hovered midair, momentarily frozen, processing the deception at a rapid speed.

"What kind of trickery...?"

It hadn’t expected this. Not from cadets.

Because this was no ordinary tactic.

This was warfare.

Eden Feran stood behind the real barrier, watching. His breathing was calm, but his eyes were sharp as flint.

He had counted on the demon’s hunger. Counted on its instincts to lock onto life.

And so, he’d given it life—false life.

His Extraordinary talent, [Emberflow], allowed him to manipulate flame with delicate precision—not just to burn or destroy, but to mimic warmth, to simulate body heat in an eerily accurate way.

And with that gift, he created phantom cadets.

But it wouldn’t have worked alone.

Eleanor’s talent had made it all possible.

[Dome], another Extraordinary-rank talent it was still young and undeveloped, but had terrifying potential nontheless.

Her barriers didn’t just protect. They controlled.

Inside each false dome, she replicated the aural patterns of cadets. The emotional panic. The internal energy. It was like they were real—like each dome was a cadet group.

Even the demon had to admit—

This was impressive.

But only for two seconds.

Two seconds was all it took to calibrate and dismiss the decoys.

Before finally locking onto the real group.

Its yellow eyes sharpened as it focused on one particular barrier.

"There."

Although it had been weakened by the backlash from Leon’s revival, it was still an S-rank demon—one of the apex predators of the abyss. And petty tricks like this, no matter how clever, weren’t enough to truly fool it.

The demon then flew towards the real barrier containing the cadets.

Rebecca seeing this, screamed—

"NO!"

But it was already too late.

The demon reached the dome...

And as its clawed hand made contact—

The barrier vanished.

****

Back at the Guardian Override, the atmosphere was tense yet focused. Leon stood silently, holding Elizabeth gently in his arms as her pale form rested against his chest, her breathing still shallow but steady. Nearby, Adrian knelt before the override console—his hands moving quickly across glowing panels.

Leon glanced at Adrian, voice sharp but calm. "How long is this going to take?"

Adrian didn’t look up. Instead, he flipped the final switch with a firm click, and in that instant, the entire room lit up in a brilliant golden hue. The walls shimmered, circuits flared to life, and electrical conduits began to hum with power.

"Just two seconds," Adrian said.

And then, in a flash of radiant light—they vanished.