Gather 'round, everyone, bring your popcorn and cola for a grand spectacle (First update, asking for votes)! : Miserable me, I got blasted again today. The monthly ticket ranking is practically a platform for backstabbing; everyone's blasting everyone else.

But getting blasted is worse than blasting others, so... shower me with those monthly tickets!! ...

The final day of the Mahora Academy Festival was incredibly lively, for everyone involved. Ordinary people enjoyed the everyday hustle, while the extraordinary enjoyed... an especially thrilling commotion.

"Negi-sensei, is what you said true?" While hurrying toward the World Tree, a magic teacher asked the young boy beside him. Accompanying them were several other magic teachers and middle school girls. They were assembled to protect the secret of the magical world from malicious exposure—the faction of Mahora magic teachers and students, along with the Three's superhuman legion, who were determined to fight the Chou-Rinrin forces to the very end.

"Yes. So, as long as we can suppress that location, we still have time!" Negi nodded solemnly. Thanks to a hint from Evangeline not long ago, he knew the method to defeat Chou-Rinrin.

Even if their combat strength was insufficient, they still had a chance of winning. Chou-Rinrin's plan was this: when the World Tree's magic reached its maximum level, she would use the "Confession Prohibition Mana Concentration Point" surrounding the World Tree to deploy a magic circle spanning several kilometers in diameter. Then, using the World Tree's vast magical power, she would activate the "Forced Cognition Magic." Since the Mahora World Tree is one of the world's rare magical holy sites, activating the magic circle here would cause a sympathetic response in the dozen or so other equivalent magical holy sites across the globe.

At that point, the cognitive magic would spread throughout the entire world! Of course, the so-called Forced Cognition Magic wouldn't force people to completely believe in the existence of magicians; it would only make them believe to a certain extent in magic and supernatural abilities—a state of semi-belief. Although it was merely at the level of simple hypnosis, because it was world-class, this state of semi-belief was already enough for Chou-Rinrin.

Even if magic initially remained the world's secret, those closer to magic would soon accept it as real. Soon after, the upper echelons of various nations would investigate and confirm it. At best, within half a year, everyone in the world would take the existence of magic for granted...

as a matter of course. It must be said that Chou-Rinrin's plan was utterly audacious. If successful, the resulting consequences would be profoundly earth-shattering; whether they were good or bad was uncertain, but no matter what, it would introduce elements of instability into the world.

Moreover, Chou-Rinrin had plotted for so long, and her plan was virtually flawless—not only meticulously interconnected but also extremely secretive. Not a single operational detail had been leaked until now. If Evangeline hadn't given the prior warning, they might have been scrambling defensively when they finally faced the event.

But things were different now! Since they knew Chou-Rinrin's steps, the countermeasure was relatively straightforward. Furthermore, although Chou-Rinrin's plan was perfect in many aspects, it had one fatal weakness: she must rely on the World Tree's magic!

To complete the cognitive magic covering the entire world, ordinary magical power wouldn't suffice; only the World Tree would work. Therefore, Chou-Rinrin absolutely had to seize the World Tree before executing her plan, claiming its power for herself. Conversely, as long as their Mahora side could secure control of the World Tree first—even by holding just one of the six key points—Chou-Rinrin's magic circle could not be completed, and her plan would fail entirely.

Thus, this was a battle for the World Tree; whoever controlled it would seize the world! Chou-Rinrin's adherence to her word was a stroke of luck in their misfortune for the Mahora magic teachers. If she had struck earlier...

No, even if she had launched her plan a day earlier, with the magic not yet full, the cognitive magic might not have achieved the desired effect, and Mahora would have been alerted to her actions. It seemed that even for a Martian who couldn't lie, her adherence to her word was dictated by the fact that the appointed time hadn't arrived yet. Relatively speaking, the Mahora side was in a less precarious position than Chou-Rinrin.

They only needed to defend a single point, or even if they couldn't defend it, attacking the magic circle at that point would halt Chou-Rinrin's scheme. Chou-Rinrin, however, needed complete control of the World Tree. So, even if their overall combat strength still lagged behind Chou-Rinrin's, their chances of success remained above sixty percent!

"Excellent, Rindo is already engaging the opposition, and the Headmaster is also positioned well," one of the magic teachers said, putting away his communicator, a wide smile of pleasant surprise on his face as he spoke to the person beside him. "Now it's up to our team." Originally, the best strategy against Chou-Rinrin's plan would have been for all of them to combine forces. However, to prevent being completely wiped out by one of Chou-Rinrin's tricks as a contingency, and to disperse the enemy's combat strength, they had split into three groups.

Rindo was leading several magic teachers to attack one point, the Headmaster himself was tackling the second point, and their team—which concentrated nearly eighty percent of Mahora's fighting strength among the magic teachers and students—was spearheading the assault on the third point. This distribution maximized their win probability, while abandoning the other three points didn't matter. Currently, Rindo’s group was already locked in combat with Konoe A.

Konoe and Chachamaru, while Chou-Rinrin's super robot army had made a grand entrance, blocking the offensive push by the other magic teachers. The two sides were evenly matched, resulting in a stalemate that wouldn't be decided quickly—a mutual restraint. On the other flank, the Headmaster was already engaged with the enemy commander, Chou-Rinrin.

Given the Headmaster's strength, it would be difficult for Chou-Rinrin to defeat him. Conversely, Chou-Rinrin possessed abilities that remained opaque even to them, meaning winning against her would also be troublesome. This, too, was essentially a standoff.

But this meant the enemy's main generals seemed to be pinned down. All that remained were the robot forces. With the combat power of their main team, dealing with a few robots should be easy.

Once they reached the designated attack point, victory would be sealed! "Still, I have a nagging feeling we've forgotten something. Everyone, be careful, don't let your guard down," although most felt victory was near, one of the magic teachers spoke with a grave concern.

"Ah, for Chou-Rinrin to make such an oversight, this isn't like her at all," high above Mahora in the sky, two figures stood. One was a little blonde loli, and the other was a dark-haired young man. The one speaking was the blonde loli, a knowing, playful smile on her face.

These two were naturally Lin Luo and Evangeline. With their abilities, monitoring the progress across the entire academy city was effortless. Currently, due to the leak of the operational plan and the superior military deployment by Mahora this time, Chou-Rinrin was momentarily at a disadvantage.

"Stop talking about it. Isn't it because you told Negi Chou's plan that they were prepared? With the strength Chou-Rinrin currently has, this will be a tough fight," Lin Luo retorted, rolling his eyes slightly.

However, he vaguely felt Chou-Rinrin wouldn't be that simple, and there was also... Evangeline smiled faintly. "I just wanted to make this game more evenly matched.

A one-sided game isn't fun." "You two are quite relaxed, just standing here watching the show." Just then, a voice spoke from nearby. Both turned their heads to see that Albert had appeared nearby without them noticing. "You're no different," Lin Luo replied.

"That's not the same. I'm only here to observe," Albert said with an enigmatic smile. You really have the nerve to say that...

Lin Luo was speechless, deciding it wasn't worth engaging with the black-bellied man. Suddenly, a young girl's voice came from behind the black-bellied man, "Sensei, help!" Lin Luo froze for a moment. The voice sounded somewhat familiar.

Upon closer inspection, he realized that, inexplicably, Aisakaya Yo was being held captive by Albert—the presence of this ghost was truly faint, as even he had only just noticed. "Hey, hurry up and let go of that ghost!" Lin Luo snapped at Albert, immediately demanding he release her. That old man really had some nerve, holding onto his ghost...

er, his student. "Oh, she's your student?" Albert let go and laughed heartily. "I saw this little one wandering around the World Tree like a headless chicken, so I just brought her along for the ride.

I was bored anyway." "... You sure are convenient." After Albert released her, Yo immediately floated over, hiding behind Lin Luo, speaking cautiously with lingering fear, "Sensei, that person is so scary..." "It's alright. With your teacher here, you'd be safe even if you stomped on his face," Lin Luo comforted her with a smile.

"Speaking of which, it's been a while, Yo." "We just met yesterday." "No, that was only from your perspective." Nearby, Albert also walked over and resumed teasing Evangeline. "Why is our little kitty quiet today? You used to be quite lively." Evangeline's eyebrow twitched.

"There's nothing much to say to a guy like you." Albert swept his gaze over Lin Luo and Evangeline a few times, then laughed as if having a sudden realization. "I see. You've already found a lover.

That explains it. Compared to an old friend, a lover is always much more important." Veins popped on Evangeline's forehead. Indeed, it was best not to speak to this man; it only led to more irritation.

Perhaps... would killing him make things better? While these few were talking, Negi's team finally reached the designated location.

To their surprise, there were no guards there. Apart from a few scattered students, there wasn't even a shadow of Chou-Rinrin's robot troops. "Did we make a mistake?" Everyone felt uneasy.

Logically, this situation shouldn't be possible. "Regardless, let's first check for any trace of the magic circle. In any case, controlling the World Tree won't be wrong." Hearing this, the group nodded.

However, just as they were about to act, a girl materialized ghost-like beneath the World Tree. With her back to them, she gazed up at the tree. "Speaking of which, this tree is truly beautiful, don't you think?" Then, the girl turned around...

A