As the party approached the door, Shanris again protested against breaking in. This time, the party was talked out of it; though it was by the door and not Shanris. When they checked to see if it was locked, the door spoke to them and politely informed them that the Headmaster was not in and that they should try back later. After some conversation with the door, the party decided that they shouldn’t try and break in. None of them knew what else the door could do and didn’t care to find out first-hand.
The party then decided to head back downstairs. They noticed that the stairs down were not blocked by any walls, so they proceded down them. Interestingly, as soon as they went from the 16th floor down to the 15th floor, a wall blocked them from going back up. This continued until they were down into the dorm floors.
At this point it was evening and the party went to the local tavern, as was their custom at this point. The first thing they did was speak to the local guardsmen, informing them of the events of last night and that they anticipated an attack. The guards agreed to move their base of operations into the tower. Denise accompied them back to the school, preparing a room for the two guards that were not on duty yet and setting patrol routes for the other two who were.
After that, the party passed time as they normally did until they decided it was time to head back to the school. Once they had arrived, they split up. Shanris walked around outside the walls of the school keeping watch, while the others were out in the courtyard listening to Denise play. It was then that the calm ended and the storm began.
The tower began to vibrate, as if an earthquake was happening. Suddenly, three beams of light shot out from the crystal and into three separate points in the woods. The vibrations continued to increase and the party was dumbstruck. Aside from Hayate, that is, who was just dumb. While the rest of the party stood staring, he ran into the tower and climbed the stairs as high as he could, making it all the way up to the 10th floor before the vibrations increased to the point where he lost his balance and was thrown out a window. Miraculously, he was able to grab onto a flag pole after falling a story or two. His troubles were not over yet, however.
It was at this point Shanris noticed that large amounts of the spirits they had seen the night before were coming from all around and headed straight at the school. Unlike the night before, they had no intention of being hidden. There were hundreds of them, and they all formed a circle around the tower. Once their circle was complete, they all charged the tower and all hit it at the same time. This caused the crystal to shatter, sending crystal shards high and wide.
Shanris came out of his awe-struck state and, realizing the danger he was in, rushed the outer wall of the tower as fast as he could and was able to tuck and roll up against the wall in time to avoid the shards. Denise, Clarance, and Percy had witnessed Hayate’s accident and were already inside the tower running to his rescue, putting them out of harm’s way.
Hayate, however, could do nothing to avoid the shards and received severe lacerations all over his body. However, his life was in danger and that sense of urgency gave him the willpower and strength he needed to hold onto that pole in spite of the pain until the other party members arrived to rescue him. The party regrouped outside in the courtyard, taking care to watch where they step. The rest of the night was spent watching for an attack, but nothing came. The damage was obviously done though, and it was determined that the town should be evacuated first thing in the morning. Whatever power had set itself against the Academy had shown that it was more than a match for it and that any defense the party could muster would be a minor inconvenience at best.
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