The Sunken Garden.
In the original novel, and throughout the first arc of the apocalypse, that was the only place in the entire Academy—perhaps the entire city—that remained completely untouched.
While the rest of the campus was being painted red with the blood of students, not a single rift opened there. Not a single demon set foot on its grass.
To anyone reading the story for the first time, it felt like a holy sanctuary. A divine miracle.
"How is this possible?"
That was the question that haunted the forums for years. The fans of Hero of Aetheria constantly argued about the "Sunken Garden Plot Hole."
They wondered why an open, high-mana zone—the kind of place that usually acts as a lightning rod for dungeons—was ignored during the first wave.
However, It was later revealed that the garden wasn't a sanctuary. It was a territory.
There was an S-Class monster dormant there that every other creature, from the lowest goblin to the highest demon general, was instinctively terrified of.
They didn't avoid the garden because it was "holy"; they avoided it because stepping inside meant instant, erased existence.
The problem was that the first arc of this novel was dragged out for nearly 200 chapters. For two hundred chapters, the readers were led to believe it was just a "safe zone." When the monster finally revealed itself, it was a massive shock.
She had been blending in. Trying to live a quiet, hidden life among the humans, pretending to be nothing more than a weak, sickly girl. She didn't want to hurt anyone.
She just wanted to exist.
But no.
The author was a hack. He needed a stepping stone for the Hero's growth. So, he forced a confrontation. He turned her into a "Calamity" that had to be "purified."
After a bloody, heart-wrenching fight, Kaelen killed her, standing over her corpse with that same arrogant, self-righteous smile.
The author fucked her over just to make the Hero's power shine.
But it won't be like that now.
Because I'm going to find her before the "hidden plot" ever triggers. I'm going to find her before she even wakes up.
I ran as fast as my battered legs would carry me.
The Sunken Garden was on the literal opposite side of the campus, roughly 800 meters from the central courtyard. That might not sound like much, but the Aetheria Grand Academy was a monster of an estate.
It was so vast that it highest point pierced the clouds, it was the largest educational facility not just in the kingdom, but in the entire world.
To reach the other side, I had to navigate a literal war zone.
"Move! Out of the way!" I screamed, lunging past a group of panicked freshmen who were paralyzed by the sight of the sky tearing open.
Five minutes.
I knew running 800 meters in five minutes with a broken jaw and shattered ribs was impossible. Even an athlete would struggle, and I was currently "Trash" incarnate.
But I wasn't planning on running the whole way. Not with this battered body.
I knew the layout of this world better than the people living in it. And right now, at the backside of the Academy's main administration building, was the only person who could get me to the Sunken Garden safely.
The Heroine.
In the first wave of the Apocalypse, she was the only one who remained completely unscathed. It wasn't because she was lucky or because she found a "safe zone".
It was because she was a monster in human skin.
As of now, she was already stronger than that so-called MC, Kaelen.
I ran towards the back of the building and rounded the corner of the stone masonry.
There she was.
Lyra Y Astrea.
Just like in the early chapters of the novel, she was sitting there without a worry in the world.
The massive stone walls of the Administration Building acted as a sound barrier, and because the first wave of rifts had yet to appear in this specific sector, the screams of the students couldn't reach her yet.
To her, it was just another quiet afternoon.
She was leaning against the trunk of a silver-leafed oak, her silver-blue hair falling over her shoulders like a waterfall of silk. She was completely invested in a thick, leather-bound book—The Advanced Mechanisms of Mana Flow.
I didn't have time to be a gentleman. I didn't even have time to be a decent human being.
To get across the other side in a collapsing world safely, I needed a cheat code, and Lyra Y Astrea was the most powerful one available.
She was the "Ice Empress," a woman whose talent for mana manipulation was so refined it bordered on the divine. Right now, she was the only thing stronger than the disaster besides teachers.
I stopped just out of her line of sight, leaning against the cold masonry of the administration building. My breath came in shallow, jagged hitches.
I looked at her—so calm, so untouched by the gore currently painting the central plaza—and then I looked at my own pathetic state.
It wasn't enough. To a woman like Lyra, a bruised "trash" noble was just an eyesore. I needed to look like a survivor of a massacre.
I reached up and gripped the fabric at my shoulder. With a sharp rip, I tore the sleeve clean off, exposing my pale, thin arm to the biting air.
Then, I reached for my face. My fingers came away slick and hot with the blood leaking from my broken jaw and split lip.
I didn't hesitate. I smeared the crimson across my shoulder, my chest, and down my arm, making the bruising look like the result of a desperate struggle against something inhuman.
I looked like a man who had crawled out of hell.
Perfect.
I walked toward her and stumbled, my legs shaking with genuine exhaustion, and collapsed.
I didn't just fall; I let my weight hit the grass right in front of her, sliding until my head was inches from her polished leather boots.
"Help..."
"The... the monsters... the students..."