Ariel didn't hesitate. Her expression was unnervingly calm—too calm for someone facing a horde of monsters. She raised both arms, her hands glowed with golden energy as the wind stirred her hair.
"Walls of stone, stronger than iron or steel,
Encircle my foes, their movement I seal.
Let none escape this crushing clasp—
Earth Domain: Terra Grasp!"
Her voice echoed unnaturally, as if amplified by something ancient. At her command, the ground rumbled violently. Cracks spider-webbed across the terrain as chunks of earth burst upward, reshaping into thick, jagged walls. They rose like fists from the underworld, curling around the snarling Geminis and holding them in place.
The creatures roared, caught off-guard as the rocky prison closed in around them, each stone shifting with an unnatural precision. Their claws scraped and slashed at the binding stones, but the rock didn't even chip. The ground itself seemed to reject their existence.
But Ariel wasn't done.
She narrowed her eyes and raised one palm toward the sky, her fingers curling with purpose.
"Flesh and bones shall burn by fire.
Untamed inferno, consume them in mire.
Ash to ash, death and fear—
Fire Domain: Lilith's Tears."
The moment the last word left her lips, the sky above the stone prison darkened as if swallowed by a storm cloud. Then came the fire.
It wasn't a simple flame. Burning drops of crimson flame rained down, like drops of magma. Each drop hissed as it fell, carving through the air like molten daggers.
As the fire hit the trapped Geminis, screams erupted. Horrid, beastly shrieks that pierced the ears and rattled the soul.
The flames didn't just burn; they clung, spreading like venom. Flesh sizzled, twisted, and peeled. Bone turned black, brittle.
The smell of scorched meat filled the air, unpleasant and choking. The light from the flames bathed the battlefield in a hellish glow.
One by one, the Geminis collapsed, charred beyond recognition. Their regeneration couldn't keep up. Their monstrous forms—once so terrifying—were reduced to ash.
Behind Ariel, the others could only stare.
"W-What the hell," Darren muttered, pointing with a trembling hand. "She's a mage? I thought she was a frontliner. But then how come both her magical and physical attacks are so powerful? Look—the Geminis aren't regenerating!"
The scorched earth where the monsters had stood now smoldered. Smoke curled into the sky. Their bodies were scattered piles of cinders.
Mario, who was still carrying Leon on his back, stepped forward. Shifting his glance between Jasmine and Ariel.
"Teacher Jasmine… if you knew someone this powerful, why didn't you call her sooner?!" He recalled all the things they went through. If the girl had been present, none of those students would've died.
Jasmine said nothing for a second. Her lips parted in shock. "I didn't know she was this powerful," she whispered. "I knew she helped Zane in the past... but this is something else entirely."
Mario's voice cracked as he stared at the girl. "Who the hell is she anyway?"
Celine, who was still watching Ariel in awe, answered slowly, her gaze never leaving the girl. "I checked the news earlier to know what was going on around the world. Her image appeared with four others as the only recorded Awakened Primordials—the second highest confirmed rank so far."
Mario recoiled slightly. "That puny kid?"
"Did you say Primordial?" Darren and Malric both glanced at her with open mouths.
[System Notice]
{Total Mana Points Used: 6,000
Mana Points Remaining: 9,000}
'So each incantation consumes three thousand mana points? That's a lot... I can probably manage three more incant—'
Before Ariel could finish her thought, a deep, thunderous roar split the air. It wasn't like the earlier shrieks and growls of the other Geminis. No—this one was different.
The sound rolled across the crumbled landscape like a wave, silencing everything in its path. The survivors turned their heads in response.
The roar came from the Scarbone.
It had been lurking on the edge of the battlefield all along, observing its prey.
Judging the strength of its new opponent. It turned slightly towards Ariel, as if processing information no one else could see. Then, without warning, it let out a second roar—this one far louder and more terrifying than the last. The broken windows nearby shattered into pieces, raining shards onto the cracked pavement.
[System Notice]
{Scarbone has activated the skill: Berserk}
The change was immediate.
Scarbone's eyes, already dark, turned into swirling pits of deep crimson. Its body, tall and gaunt, seemed to swell with pressure. Its bones bulged unnaturally as veins of red energy pulsed beneath its fleshless form. It wasn't looking at anyone in particular, but everyone could feel the weight of its hunger. The kind of hunger that didn't care for reason, only destruction.
Then, it moved.
Faster than before. Faster than anyone expected.
With a deafening crack underfoot, Scarbone launched itself across the ground, the concrete beneath its feet exploding in a burst of rubble and dust. Each step left behind deep, clawed footprints, as though the earth itself struggled to withstand the force of its rage.
It barreled toward Ariel.
Its skeletal spiky fist the size of a boulder, was aimed directly at her head.
Ariel barely had time to react.
She raised her arm, trying to block the incoming strike with a glowing barrier of mana, but the impact came like a wrecking ball. A sickening crunch echoed as the force of the blow shattered her forearm bone and sent her flying backward.
She crashed into a half-collapsed building, bursting through the outer wall in an explosion of brick and dust.
"Ariel!" Jasmine screamed.
For a second, everything was quiet. Then—
Ariel stood.
Blood ran down the side of her face, her arm bent unnaturally, but her eyes were steady. Focused.
'It's so painful I want to cry. My body hurts everywhere, especially my broken arm. But only I should know that. Isn't that right, big brother?' She may put up a front, but that didn't change the fact that she was a young girl who had yet to enter teenage.
"That girl…" Malric muttered with a stunned expression. "She just took a direct hit from that thing and still got back up."
Mario's jaw clenched. "Damn it… That bone-head's not playing anymore. It sent a Primordial flying like she was made of feathers."
It was clear that Ariel possessed immense power—but she lacked something just as important: experience.
She didn't fight like a trained warrior—there was no strategy, no finesse. Her punches were wild and raw, swung with the same reckless abandon she used when roughhousing with Zane. But even so, there was something frightening about her.
She was learning.
Fast.
A genius in motion.
If someone with real combat experience had been blessed with her abilities, the Scarbone might've been reduced to dust in under a minute. But Ariel was still new to this. Still trying to understand her abilities… and the monster standing before her.
The building she had crashed into earlier groaned as a piece of the upper wall caved in behind her.
Then, without hesitation, Ariel stepped out of the rubble, her silhouette glowing faintly through the settling dust.
She raised her broken arm, now hanging uselessly at her side—and activated her healing attribute.
A soft golden light wrapped around the limb. Bones snapped back into place with sharp pops, muscle and skin regenerating at an unnatural speed. Within seconds, her arm looked completely unscathed, like the brutal blow had never happened.
Now she stood tall once more, her eyes locked with Scarbone's glowing crimson gaze.
The wind howled past the hollow street, kicking loose bits of ash and paper across the broken concrete.
From a distance, Malric couldn't hold back his disbelief.
"How the hell is she so calm?" he muttered, sweat trickling down his temple.
"No matter what kind of crazy abilities she awakened with, it doesn't change the fact that she's still just a little girl. I nearly pissed myself the moment that monster looked at me."
His voice was filled with a mixture of awe and frustration, his hands clenched tightly at his sides.
Ariel stood firm, unmoved.
Her heart pounded, but her face showed no fear. Only focus.
'The system didn't say it has no weakness,' she thought as she analyzed the beast. 'It said it couldn't detect any. That's not the same thing… which means its weakness must be hidden—even from the system. If I had to guess… it's tied to its abilities. Specifically, the Berserk state.'
She could feel the pressure radiating off Scarbone like heat from a furnace. Every second it stayed in that mode, its power surged—but so did its instability. She had no proof, but her gut told her to take the chance.
"If you decide on something, don't include the possibility of failure. Go for it with everything you've got. Even if you were to fail, you'd have failed successfully."
Zane's words echoed in Ariel's mind like a mantra carved into stone.
She remembered that day clearly. She had tilted her head in confusion and asked, "Does that mean I have to be perfect at everything?"
Zane had smiled, not mockingly, but with the calm wisdom of someone who had already seen far too much for his age.
"Of course not. There are lots of things you'll mess up—on your first try, second, maybe even your tenth. But that's not what matters."
He crouched beside her, resting a hand on her shoulder. "What I meant was even if you fail ninety-nine times, as long as you succeed when it truly count—then you haven't failed at all. But if you succeed a ninety-nine times, and mess up only once… and that one time is when it truly mattered… that's when you've really failed."
Back then, she hadn't understood.
But now… standing in front of the Scarbone, a creature of death and malice, she finally did.
Right now wasn't just any moment. This was the moment. The one that mattered.
In the chaos, in the adrenaline, she had almost forgotten—
Zane.