Haras didn’t hesitate.

  Not a second wasted. No dramatic pause. No overthinking.

  She uncapped the Lipstick Mind Restorer and smeared it straight across Kintovar’s lips.

  Then, she pressed her lips against it.

  A pulse of neon light flashed between them.

  Risebelle looked away in disguist. “Ugh…Did you have to do it like that?”

  Haras pulled back with a loud “PWAH!” and wiped her mouth. “Hey! It’s science! Shut up!”

  Kintovar’s body tensed as nanites shot through her brain that worked rapidly to reconstruct what had been lost.

  Inside Kintovar’s mind, the world was a void. Empty. Silent.

  Then—a spark.

  A ripple of color and sound. Fractured images rushed past—a laboratory, a bright light, voices calling her name, Haras grinning while working on some ridiculous invention.

  In the distance, Haras stood and reached out a hand.

  “Come on, Kintovar.” Her voice was warm. “Time to show off your next invention!”

  Kintovar’s fingers twitched.

  For a moment, she just stared at Haras’s outstretched hand.

  Then—she reached back. The moment their hands met, the floodgates burst open.

  Memories crashed into her like a tidal wave—calculations scribbled in frantic brilliance, blueprints sketched. The device to defeat the Headmaster. The creations she designed to survive. The contingency plans. The final trump card.

  It was all there.

  She remembered now. She can’t be sleeping when everything she worked for was right in front of her.

  Meanwhile, Haras held up a finger to the group. “So, it might take about an hour for the effects to kick in, and then—”

  Kintovar shot up like a spring-loaded jack-in-the-box.

  “I don’t need an hour.”

  Haras flinched. “HOLY—” She nearly dropped the Lipstick Mind Restorer.

  Everyone froze.

  Kintovar’s orange hair whipped behind her with her pink sunglasses slightly askew. She adjusted them with one smooth motion and tilted her head down just enough for the lenses to catch the glow of nearby energy.

  Then, with absolute confidence, she shouted,

  “Dr. Kintovar is BACK, baby!”

  She pointed up towards the sky with one hand and the other was on her hip.

  Alan blinked. “Well, that was fast.”

  Haras threw her arms up. “YES! THAT’S MY GIRL! BACK FROM THE DEAD WITH STYLE!”

  The moment Kintovar finished her grand declaration, Roselle launched herself forward and tackled her into a hug.

  “Dr.Kintovar!!” Her small arms wrapped tightly around the scientist’s waist. “I—I thought you were gone forever!”

  Kintovar blinked. Then, she chuckled and placed a hand on Roselle’s head.

  “Forever? Pfft. Not with my level of planning.” She adjusted her sunglasses. “Still… I’m sorry for worrying you, kid.”

  Roselle squeezed tighter for a second before pulling away.

  Risebelle crossed her arms and looked off to the side. “Hmph. I wasn’t worried in the least bit.”

  Roselle pouted. “Risebelle! You were crying just like I was!”

  Risebelle stiffened. “Nope. Didn’t shed a single tear today.”

  Roselle’s pout doubled in size. ‘That big fat liar!’

  Haras snickered at the exchange. “Well, well, well. The ‘totally-not-worried’ Risebelle, everybody, her eyes can produce water, but they are not tears.”

  Risebelle shot her a glare. “Oh, shut up.”

  Haras grinned. “NEVERRR~!”

  Alan rubbed his chin and looked between Kintovar and Becky’s still-unconscious body. “So, uh, is this gonna work on her too?”

  Haras flipped the Lipstick Mind Restorer in her hands. “Oh, don’t worry! I’ve got enough juice for Round Two, but y--”

  Before Haras could finish her sentence, a wave of crushing psychic pressure slammed into them.

  From the smoke and lingering energy of the previous explosion, a silhouette emerged.

  The Headmaster.

  Her robes were in tatters. Her silver hair was disheveled. Thin cracks of yellow energy pulsed across her body. Her magic flared erratically.

  She staggered forward at first, but then her body corrected itself.

  Everyone tensed.

  Haras slowly lowered the Lipstick Mind Restorer. “…Huh. So she’s not dead.”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  The Headmaster lifted her gaze. Then—she laughed.

  A hollow, venomous laugh.

  “You…insignificant…pests…”

  Her fingers twitched.

  A pulse of pure psychic force exploded from her body, shoving everyone backward.

  “Did you really think I would fall to a cheap trick like that?” She took another step, then another. "Foolish. Pathetic."

  The Headmaster’s gaze suddenly snapped toward Kintovar. Her molten-silver eyes widened with disbelief.

  Her breath hitched.

  “No… No, it can’t be… YOU…?”

  Her body faltered. The psychic pressure that had been suffocating everyone vanished. No more crushing weight. No more tendrils.

  She staggered back.

  Her trembling hands reached out toward Kintovar as if she were trying to physically pull her back into the void.

  After crushing Kintovar’s Mind, she was still alive.

  Her psychic energy faded from her. The Headmaster collapsed to her knees, her usually unshakable composure now shattered.

  She looked up at Kintovar as if pleading for her to go back to the grave.

  Roselle’s eyes flicked between the Headmaster and Kintovar. “…What’s going on?” she murmured. “Is she giving up?”

  Risebelle narrowed her eyes. “I doubt it.”

  Alan squinted at the fallen woman.

  “She shouldn’t be so surprised,” Kintovar said with a smirk creeping onto her lips. “This was always going to be the outcome of the fight.”

  Then, she lifted a small gun which had an eerie blue glow. She aimed it straight at the Headmaster’s forehead.

  The Headmaster’s molten-silver eyes remained locked onto Kintovar.

  Kintovar tilted her head. “You strained your magic to the extreme trying to kill us all… and now,” she chuckled, “now, you finally realize just how overwhelmed you are.”

  The Headmaster didn’t speak.

  She just stared.

  Kintovar kept her gun trained on the Headmaster, her smirk steady—until something clicked in her mind.

  “I—” she started, but cut herself short.

  Her hands twitched. Slowly, she lifted them up and her fingers brushed against her ears.

  Her headphones. Her pink headphones.

  Her breath caught.

  Her headphones.

  ‘Oh no.’

  Her face paled as sweat pricked her brow. “…Where are my headphones?”

  Sybil hesitated. She swallowed hard, then spoke softly.

  “…They were destroyed.”

  Kintovar’s chest tightened.

  A flashback tore through the present—

  Kintovar’s Mind was broken by the headmaster. A ringing came in her ears. Darkness crept at the edges of her vision.

  Somewhere in the chaos—a beep.

  A single, rapid beeping sound.

  The headphones on her head was flashing red.

  And then—

  Sybil.

  Sybil, who had been sobbing moved despite her own grief. She had reached forward and tossed the headphones off of Kintovar’s head and into the sky.

  BOOM.

  The explosion was distant, but the impact felt close.

  Pink plastic and shattered circuits rained down like dead petals.

  The flashback faded.

  Kintovar’s pink sunglasses lowered, revealing eyes burning with unfiltered fury which pointed at the headmaster.

  "YOU!!"

  The gun in her hands quivered."You scheming, mind-crushing, power-hungry HAG!"

  The Headmaster flinched.

  "You stole my mind. You stole my time. And now my HEADPHONES?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG I HAD THOSE?!THEY WERE CUSTOMIZED! CUSTOM. MADE. PERFECTLY CALIBRATED TO MY BRAINWAVES!!”

  The Headmaster’s breath hitched. Kintovar shouted,

  "YOU CAN TAKE MY LIFE! YOU CAN SHATTER MY MEMORIES! BUT MY HEADPHONES?! HOHOHOOO NO...YOU’VE CROSSED THE LINE!"

  Kintovar’s gun locked onto the Headmaster’s forehead and now, she spoke without mercy.

  “You’re dead.”

  Kintovar pulled the trigger. The shot was aimed straight for the Headmaster’s skull.

  But the moment it touched her, It was swallowed by the golden aura that erupted around her body. The golden energy coiled and writhed like living flames

  Everyone felt a shift in the headmaster’s power. She rose to her feet with her molten-silver eyes burning. "Magic is known in five forms: Weak, regular, greater, advanced, and extreme."

  Her gaze locked onto Kintovar.

  "But there exists a level beyond extreme magic… a realm that no mage on this island has ever truly reached."

  She extended her hand.

  The air quivered. The golden aura around her pulsed.

  Risebelle gritted her teeth. “What the hell is she talking about…?”

  Alan narrowed his eyes. “A level beyond extreme magic? Wait…could there be?”

  Roselle shivered. “…That’s possible?”

  The Headmaster smiled.

  "You’ve spent your lives believing you knew the limits of magic… that ‘Extreme’ was the end goal for us mages.”

  Her fingers curled.

  "You were wrong."

  The golden energy around her condensed and grew heavier.

  The Headmaster raised her hands and chanted with her staff raised,

  ‘True psyche… beyond the limits… show me my real self. ‘

  A massive psychic circle flared to life beneath her feet. The circle expanded toward the sky as if declaring her ascension to the heavens.

  The golden aura around her blazed and swallowed entire body in a storm of radiance.

  After a blinding flash, the light peeled away, revealing a changed woman.

  Her once silver hair was now pure gold. Yet, it remained the same length. Her once aged features were now untouched by time.

  Her silver eyes were now golden. Not just in color—they glowed.

  Her robes were gone. In their place was a form-fitting woven with gold and violet threads, glowing lines of psychic inscriptions pulsed along the seams. Hovering golden psychic rings now encircled her wrists and ankles. A halo-like psychic emblem formed behind her head, shifting and changing shape in fluid motion.

  She descended with her feet no longer touching the ground. She floated, standing upon invisible force.

  The power was immense.

  The group staggered. Even Kintovar, furious as she was felt it.

  The Headmaster lifted her hand.

  She spoke and when she did, it was more youthful. “I have finally done it… I have achieved Zenith Magic.”

  The awe-inspiring sight of the headmaster in her Zenith Magic form left everyone in a state of shock.

  Haras let out a low whistle.

  The Headmaster extended her golden hand and her aura twisted around her like a living storm.

  “This… this is what true mastery looks like,” she declared. “I achieved this form using the mana extractor’s power. Thanks to Elena’s linking magic, I’ve been connected to it this entire time.” She smiled coldly. “The mana has been flowing into me, feeding me power as the fight goes on and now….”

  She grinned. “I can fly without effort. I can reach the city, and there is not a damn thing you can do to stop me.”

  Silence.

  Haras frowned. “Well, that sucks.”

  Risebelle muttered, “This is bad.”

  Alan sighed and crossed his arms. “Great…That’s fantastic.”

  Roselle bit her lip.

  But then—

  Kintovar let out a slow yet amused chuckle. She adjusted her sunglasses and tilted her head. “You know…every single time… I have to prove myself when it comes to my technology.”

  She flipped her small gun in her hand. “I invent something groundbreaking, and people scoff. I build something revolutionary, and people doubt.”

  Kintovar thought of the countless dismissals and all the fools who said, ‘Magic will always surpass technology.’

  “Unfortunately…I didn’t create anything that could prepare me for this one; however…”

  The scientist grinned.

  “I’ve still got a trump card to play.”

  Kintovar pointed one finger up into the air and then shouted, "Extreme Technology: Quantum Mindsuit!"

  The air trembled with a sharp, mechanical whirr.

  Something was coming. Fast.

  Everyone’s heads snapped up to scan the sky.

  A dark shape hurtled toward them like a missile.

  BOOM!

  A suitcase slammed into the ground in front of Kintovar and kicked up a cloud of dust.

  Haras blinked. “…Was that supposed to happen?”

  Kintovar grinned. “Absolutely.”

  The suitcase let out a soft, electronic beep. Then—

  Click. Hiss.

  It snapped open.

  Inside, nestled within a precisely molded compartment, lay the Quantum Mindsuit.

  It was aseamless fusion of blue and silver with patterns that pulsed with a soft, rhythmic glow. The material was unlike anything seen before—not quite metal, not quite fabric. It was something new.

  Alan let out a low whistle. “That looks expensive.”

  Roselle became starry-eyed “That looks… really cool!”

  The Headmaster, floating in her Zenith Magic form narrowed her golden eyes. “A suit? That’s your answer?”

  Kintovar stepped forward. “Oh, Headmaster… you don’t get it, do you? This isn’t just a suit. It’s the pinnacle of my research.”

  Kintovar spread her arms wide. “Now… show them what true power is all about…” She snapped her fingers.

  “Haras!”

  Haras grinned. “Yeah! Let’s do thi—wait, WHAT?!”

  The Quantum Mindsuit lurched. Its blue and silver patterns flared to life as if recognizing its chosen wearer.

  Haras barely had time to react before the suit launched out of the suitcase—straight at her.

  “WH-WHAAAA—?!?”

  Project Mage