Richard exhaled imperceptibly at William's acceptance. "The Bloodfire Academy's honor binds this pact," he declared, golden sigils materializing around his avatar. "Lex can attest - breach this accord, and the Education Ministry will..."

  "Relax, kid." Lex materialized a cigar-shaped energy construct between spectral fingers. "Their reputation's worth twenty of those matrices. Now quit stalling - our girl's bleeding territory by the second."

  William's divine realm pulsed forward, spatial distortions rippling across the observation plane. His invasion conduit - thicker than Bloodmane's combined channels - stabbed toward Bella's embattled domain. Not toward enemy connections, but directly into the human-held territory.

  "Madness!" Richard's projection flickered with alarm. "He's invading our own!"

  Lex's comms crackled with William's response before he could react: "Multiplexing invasion vectors through her anchor points. Minimal collateral - I'll handle disengagement."

  The revelation stunned both mentors. Before they could protest, William's cloaking fields destabilized. A continental mass emerged from folded space - 4 million km2 of churning biological matter that dwarfed surrounding realms. Observing demigods recoiled as gravitational eddies disrupted their projections.

  Thoma Bloodmane's roar shook the dimensional plane: "CHEATERS! You field elder-ranks in novice guise!"

  Lex's retaliatory laugh carried crystalline malice. "Cry harder, scaleback! My student's five months into godspark ignition. Can't handle human genius? Recall your whelp's carcass from the Azure Maelstrom!" The threat hung heavy with unspeakable implications, silencing Thoma's protests.

  Warfront Insertion - Bella's Perspective

  Molten sulfur rain sizzled against Bella's armor as she directed another phalanx of blade-demons. Her twin krises glowed white-hot, severing an ogre champion's leg mid-charge. "Hold the gorge! The seventh hellforge mustn't..."

  An alert shrieked through her neural link - new invasion conduit detected. Battlefield schematics showed the breach emerging...behind her crumbling frontlines. Between four enemy channels.

  "Richar!" Her psychic scream cracked volcanic bedrock. "What fresh idiocy is this?!"

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  The instructor's response carried forced calm. "Reinforcements. William's conduit. Trust the process."

  "Trust?!" She bisected a two-headed ogre warlock, its acidic blood melting three nearby blade-demons. "He's given them a fifth beachhead!"

  Her tactical display confirmed worst fears - William's conduit pierced through her domain's geothermal weak point. Any competent adversary would...

  Enemy forces proved her right. Three ogre battalions redirected toward the new breach, trampling their own ratling auxiliaries in the rush. Bella watched in horror as 50,000-pound siege engines rolled toward the undefended insertion zone.

  Then the sky turned black.

  William's War Log

  [Invasion Conduit Stabilized]

  [Scouting Phase Initiated: Venom-Dart Drakes Deployed]

  [Enemy Force Redirection Detected - Adjustment Protocol Engaged]

  His consciousness split across ten thousand bio-drones infiltrating four enemy realms. While others focused on Bella's obvious frontlines, William's scouts mapped logistical networks - magma-forges supplying ogre armaments, werewolf dens housing alpha breeding pairs.

  Primary swarm descended through the "undefended" breach. Leapworms hit ground running, literally - their impact craters became instant fortifications. Acidic bile melted approaching ogres into siege-engine lubricant.

  Bella's tactical feed updated in real-time:

  [Allied Forces Detected: 4,221,307 Biomass Signatures]

  [Designation: "Swarm"]

  [Combat Efficiency Rating: 887% Baseline]

  Her blade-demons froze mid-swing as the tide turned. Where 50,000 ogres charged, 10 million leapworms answered. Two-headed champions fell to corrosive feint attacks - one head distracted by decoy swarmlings while the other dissolved under focused acid jets.

  Command Hub Reactions

  Richard's analytical constructs short-circuited. "Four million... How...?"

  Lex puffed his energy cigar smugly. "Told you he'd manage 100k ogres."

  "Manage?! He's farming them!" Richard gestured at tactical displays showing William's forces deliberately herding enemies into biomass conversion pits. "That's not reinforcement - it's industrialized harvesting!"

  The elder mentor shrugged. "Semantics. Your student lives, his grows stronger. Everyone wins."

  "Except the Bloodmanes."

  "Especially the Bloodmanes."

  Bella's Reassessment

  Her blade-demons now fought alongside...things. Biomechanical horrors that dismantled ogres with disturbing artistry. One winged construct landed nearby, vocalizers producing William's voice through clattering mandibles:

  "Apologies for the mess. Your geothermal taps make excellent swarm nurseries." The drone gestured with a bladed forelimb toward collapsing enemy lines. "Shall we discuss territory reclamation rates? I propose 70-30 split on recovered lands."

  Bella stared at the drone, then at the carnage surrounding them. Her blade-demons had become spectators in their own war. "Who...what exactly are you?"

  "Partners." The drone launched skyward, acid trail spelling temporary coordinates. "Bring your best negotiator to these coordinates post-battle. I have proposals regarding your...underutilized hellforges."

  As the drone disintegrated mid-flight, Bella realized two truths: Her academy owed William far more than a bloodline matrix, and nothing in the cosmos would ever be the same.