Villain's Odyssey: Enslaving heroines, Conquering Villainesses-Chapter 93: The Chaos

"What the hell is happening?" Tracy muttered through gritted teeth, adjusting the unconscious Nora’s weight on her shoulder as she stared at the door before them.

The entire academy had descended into complete chaos, and the timing couldn’t have been more suspicious. It had all started just minutes after Asher had left with that Natalia girl. At first, everything seemed perfectly normal—the usual routine of admiring glances from guys checking her out, some bold enough to actually approach her. Tracy had grown accustomed to the attention, even found it mildly amusing at times.

But then, without any warning whatsoever—

BOOM!

The explosion had been deafening, echoing through the corridors and shaking the very foundations of the building. Tracy’s head had snapped toward the source of the blast, her heart already beginning to race.

The infirmary.

That realization had sent a chill down her spine. What could possibly be happening in the infirmary that would cause such destruction? The medical wing was supposed to be one of the safest, most peaceful places in the entire academy.

Something was definitely wrong—terribly, horribly wrong.

It was literally impossible for this sort of thing to happen under normal circumstances. The academy had security measures, protective barriers, trained staff. Unless...

BOOM!

Before Tracy could even begin to process what might be happening, the second explosion hit with even more force than the first. The shockwave caught her completely off guard, flinging her from the top of the stairs like a ragdoll. She tumbled down the steps, her body bouncing painfully against each stone step until she finally crashed onto the floor below.

A groan of pain escaped her lips, but her training kicked in immediately. Some instinct, honed through countless hours of combat practice, screamed at her to move. She rolled hard to the left just as something whooshed through the air where her head had been moments before, moving at a speed that would have been fatal if it had connected.

When she looked up, her blood ran cold. Something blazing hot but strangely white was descending toward her like a meteor. Without thinking, she threw her hand forward, using her power to solidify the air into a protective barrier.

BOOM!

The impact was devastating. She hadn’t had enough time to create a proper defense—everything had happened in the span of heartbeats. The hastily formed air shield cracked under the assault, and the force sent her flying backward through the air until she collided with one of the metal poles that served as night lamps for the dormitory. The collision was so violent that the thick metal pole actually bent in the direction she’d come from, curving like a bow under the impact.

"Ahh!" The cry of pain tore from her throat as she hit the ground, immediately pressing her hand against a torn section of her uniform where blood was already beginning to seep through. But there was no time to assess her injuries properly, no time to catch her breath or tend to her wounds.

She had to understand what was happening, and she had to do it fast.

Tracy forced herself to her feet, ignoring the sharp pain that shot through her ribs, and immediately spotted the source of her problems. A girl was rushing toward her with inhuman speed, moving so fast that Tracy could barely track her movements with her eyes. The girl’s entire body was encased in some sort of brilliant light, but as she got closer, Tracy realized it wasn’t just light at all.

It was fire. Some sort of disturbing white fire that radiated heat so intense she could feel it burning her skin from several feet away.

"What’s happening?!" Tracy shouted, quickly manifesting her spear as the flaming figure continued to close the distance between them.

Instead of meeting the attack head-on, Tracy made a split-second decision. She leaped upward, solidifying the air beneath her feet to create invisible steps, and began running up into the sky itself. It was one of her more advanced techniques, requiring precise control and timing.

The white fire girl anticipated this move, launching herself upward to intercept Tracy’s trajectory. But Tracy had expected this counter-attack. Instead of solidifying the next step up, she let herself fall, using gravity to add momentum as she swung the blade of her spear downward toward her opponent’s midsection.

The girl suddenly released a massive surge of heat, forcing Tracy to push herself backward through the air to avoid being incinerated on the spot.

"Tsk," Tracy clicked her tongue in frustration as she landed, looking down at her academy uniform. The fabric was badly burned, with several holes singed completely through the material.

"What are you? Why are you trying to kill me?" she demanded, hoping for some kind of answer that would make sense of this nightmare.

Instead of responding with words, the girl simply manifested two wicked-looking daggers in her hands. Both weapons immediately became coated with those same disturbingly hot white flames, the heat so intense that the air around them shimmered like a mirage.

Tracy felt her annoyance spike into genuine anger. She looked around the courtyard and realized with growing horror that most of the other students were being attacked by what appeared to be... other students?

No, that wasn’t quite right. Those things didn’t look like normal students at all. Their skin had turned a sickening shade of green, and their movements were wrong—too jerky, too aggressive, too mindless.

"Wait, did that one just bite that guy?" she asked herself in disbelief, but there was no time to confirm what she’d seen.

Her head tilted instinctively to the side as a fist wreathed in white-hot flames whistled past her ear, close enough that she could smell her own hair singeing. Tracy immediately encased both her hands in dense, compressed air and drove a powerful punch into the girl’s torso.

The impact doubled her opponent over, and the flames around her flickered and extinguished for just a moment. But it was only a moment—the next instant, the fire came roaring back with even more intensity than before. Tracy had already received major burns on her knuckles from that single punch, the compressed air not quite enough protection against such extreme heat.

She had no choice but to jump backward several feet, creating distance between herself and the blazing inferno that used to be a student.

"What is happening?" she asked aloud, her voice filled with frustration and growing fear as she took in the chaos surrounding them.

"KRAAAAH!"

The inhuman roar made her spin around just in time to see another student launching itself at her, aiming directly for her neck with clawed fingers. Tracy spun her spear in a defensive arc and struck the attacking student with the blunt end, right at the base of the skull—a move that should have knocked anyone unconscious instantly.

It didn’t work. The student, whose skin was now that same sickening shade of green and whose mouth was open in a continuous, mindless roar, simply swung its hand toward her neck as if the blow hadn’t affected it at all. Tracy kicked it backward and twirled to the right, barely avoiding an attack from another possessed student coming at her from the side.

More were approaching from every direction. It wasn’t just her being targeted—the fire girl was also being swarmed, but she was burning the attacking students to a crisp with absolutely no remorse or hesitation.

"Damn it, I have to stop her," Tracy thought desperately. "Those are still students, even if something’s wrong with them."

She reinforced her leg with ether, drawing on her power to enhance her physical capabilities, and delivered a kick with such tremendous force that one of the possessed students was launched backward through the air. It collided with a nearby building with enough impact to crack the stone walls.

Tracy then spun around and stabbed her spear into the ground, using it as a pole vault to launch herself airborne and avoid a downward slashing attack from clawed hands. She landed with her right leg aimed straight for another creature’s head, driving it into the ground with crushing force.

Moving with practiced efficiency, she stood up quickly and rushed forward to punch another approaching attacker in the gut, stopping its charge completely. As yet another came at her, she spun and kicked it in the back of the neck, using its own momentum against it.

Then she leaped upward again, solidifying the air to form an invisible platform that she stepped on, launching herself over the crowd of possessed students and flying straight toward the fire girl.

Before her opponent could notice the aerial approach, Tracy spun around in mid-air and delivered a devastating kick right across the girl’s face. The impact sent her spinning through the air until she collided with a wall with such tremendous force that she crashed straight through it, rolling deeper into the building until she finally hit a huge metal support beam that knocked her out completely.

Tracy immediately rushed in and grabbed the unconscious girl before any of the possessed students could reach her.

Then she ran, searching desperately for Asher, carrying the unconscious Nora on her shoulder.