Chapter 26: Fight Ended by Transparent Barrier

Selene Frost moved faster than Arthur had ever seen her move.

It was not the elegant, measured speed she used in class when she was demonstrating a form. This was something else. This was desperation turned into motion. One moment she was ten feet away, eyes locked on Selby’s flickering barrier, the next she was in front of Arthur, her coat snapping like a flag. She raised her Grimoire with a single, fluid motion, the white cover catching the blue rune light, and slammed it shut with both hands.

The sound was like a glacier cracking.

A massive dome of shimmering ice instantly formed around the two of them. Around her and Arthur. It started from her boots and raced outward, a perfect hemisphere of white, glowing ice, humming with raw power. For a heartbeat it was flawless. The surface was smooth as polished glass, thick as a forearm, and it sang with the pure, compressed mana of a Tier 8 Grimoire. It should have stopped every single rock needle Tom had launched. In any normal fight, it would have been an absolute defense.

But there were too many.

Thousands of them. Not a volley, but a storm. Sharp, jagged, each one no longer than a finger but already glowing white-hot at the tip with concentrated mana. They did not whistle through the air. They hissed. They came from the floor, from the walls, from the ceiling, from the very stone under Arthur’s feet, all converging on a single point. His chest.

The dome held for less than three seconds.

Arthur saw the first stone punch through. A small, dark point appeared on the perfect white surface, then cracked outward. Then a second, a foot to the left. Then a third near the top. The humming turned into a high, strained whine as the ice tried to reform faster than it was being broken.

Then dozens more hit at once.

They slammed into her body like a hailstorm of knives.

Selene’s back arched violently.

"Selene—!" Arthur shouted. His voice broke halfway through her name.

He knew exactly what she was doing even before the first needle struck her. She had formed the shield not centered on herself, but centered on him. She had angled the dome so its thickest part was in front of Arthur, and its thinnest part was against her own back. She had made herself the outer wall. She had sacrificed her body to protect a Tier 1 student who had nothing left to give.

His voice cracked with raw panic as the first stone hit her leg. There was a sickening, dull thud, not sharp but heavy, and her knee buckled sideways. Blood sprayed across the frosted stone floor, shockingly red against the white, and instantly began to steam in the cold air. Another stone tore through her shoulder, spinning her half around. The heavy instructor coat, immaculate a minute ago, ripped and darkened. A third punched straight through her forearm, the arm that was holding the Grimoire up, and the book shuddered in her grip but she did not drop it.

Selene did not scream.

She simply stood there, arms spread wide, feet planted, shield flickering and dying around them as the rock needles tore through her like paper. Her silver-white hair whipped around her face with each impact, sticking to the sweat and blood on her forehead. Blood poured from multiple wounds now, running down her legs, dripping from her elbow, soaking into the frost. Her legs buckled, her knees shaking violently, but she did not fall. She refused to fall. She locked her jaw and stared straight ahead at Tom through the failing ice, her ice-blue eyes never leaving his.

Arthur tried to move forward, to grab her, to do anything, but the needles were still coming and if he touched her he would break her stance. His large mana pool was still empty, a cold hollow behind his ribs. He had never felt so useless, so completely far behind.

The needles finally stopped.

The last one clattered to the floor, spinning, its glow fading. The terrible hissing was gone, replaced by a high ringing in Arthur’s ears.

Selene’s shield dissolved completely, not shattering, but melting into mist that vanished in the cold. It left her standing in the center of the chamber, broken and bleeding, but still breathing. Frost clung to her eyelashes. Her coat was in tatters on one side. Blood ran freely down her right leg and pooled under her boot.

She looked at Arthur with the same calm, icy gaze she always wore in class when a student got an answer wrong and she was waiting for him to correct himself.

"I’m fine," she lied. Her voice was thin, but steady.

The words barely left her mouth before Selby finished her incantation from the side. She had not stopped weaving, even while Tom attacked. Her hands were raised, her black cloak with golden lining completely untouched by frost, her face calm and focused.

"....by the alignment of the stars, define this space. None shall pass, none shall trace. Aethel-Galdr! "

Her voice was clear and precise, and the words felt heavy, like old language that did not want to be spoken.

The air warped again. Not like before. This was not a silver dome. A massive, invisible barrier slammed down around Selene and Arthur. Arthur felt it more than saw it, a pressure change that made his ears pop, a low thrum that vibrated through his teeth. The dome was different this time, older, heavier, and far more absolute. Where Selby’s earlier barriers had shimmered, this one did not shimmer at all. It bent the light around its edges and made the air inside feel thick and isolated. It swallowed the entire vault chamber, floor to ceiling, and locked them inside. The blue runes on the walls outside the barrier seemed suddenly dimmer, as if they were looking at them through thick water.

Selene’s ice-blue eyes narrowed. She understood instantly. She stared at Tom through the barrier, through that invisible wall that now separated them, and her bloody hand tightened around her Grimoire.

Tom looked at the barrier, then at Selby, his expression mildly curious.

"You didn’t want to kill the boy?" he said to Selby. There was no anger in his voice. Only a faint note of reproach, like she had deviated from a plan.

Selby tilted her head, her hands still clasped. She did not even look at Arthur anymore. She was looking at Selene, at the way Selene was still standing despite her wounds.

"The girl is a bigger problem than you said," she said simply. "Her Ice Queen is annoying. If I try to kill him properly, she will keep interfering. Her pool is too deep. I’d rather avoid fighting her head on. How much time would you need to take the item?"

Tom’s professional smile returned, smooth and easy. He glanced toward the inner vault door, the one made of black crystal that was still half-open, its protection runes shattered.

"It’ll take a long time," he said smoothly. "There’s like a maze inside the library beyond the vault. A spatial fold. Lily built it herself. That’s why you are important. Your barrier work is the only thing that can map it without triggering the collapse."

He turned to look at the dark corridor that led deeper into the treasury, beyond the main vault, where no student had ever been allowed.

"So let’s go."

Without another glance at Selene or Arthur, the two of them stepped forward. They stepped through the barrier together, as if it did not exist for them. The Aethel-Galdr rippled once around their cloaks, recognized its casters, and let them pass. On the other side, they were free.

The vault door remained half-open behind them, the two dead intruders still lying in pools of blood that were now half frozen over, their Grimoires dark.

Selene Frost had just taken a full, concentrated barrage meant for Arthur, a Tier 1 student with an empty pool and a dull training blade.

And now she was trapped with him.

Arthur finally caught her as her legs gave out, his arms going around her shoulders. She was cold, terrifyingly cold, and shaking hard now that the adrenaline was fading. The barrier sealed behind Tom and Selby with a soft, final thud as the two of them disappeared into the dark corridor beyond, their footsteps fading quickly, leaving only the sound of Selene’s ragged breathing and the slow drip of blood onto frost.