Novels by Puteri Bulan

"Kill him! He's just one guy!" the Red Wolf Mercenary Captain screamed, pointing his trembling sword toward the roof.Thirty soldiers forced their feet forward, trying to suppress the terror gnawing at their chests.But before they could even raise their iron weapons, the wooden building creaked violently. The support beams on the second floor snapped in two, threatening to collapse the entire blazing roof right on top of Mother Maria and the children."Mother!" Mia shrieked from inside the bedroom, clinging tightly to Mother Maria's neck amid the thickening clouds of black smoke.Mother Maria squeezed her eyes shut, pulling the young orphans close with the last of her strength. The old woman prepared to brace against the impact of the burning timber to shield the young lives in her arms.Erebus glanced at the collapsing roof without a trace of panic beneath his skull mask. His fingers rotated slowly in the night air."Void Absorption," Erebus whispered, his deep voice shaking the ear

"Don't let a single one of them escape!" the Red Wolf Mercenary Captain barked, roughly waving his hand.The burning torch in his hand flew through the air, slamming directly into the oil-drenched wooden wall of the orphanage.BOOM!A sea of red flames exploded in an instant, engulfing every door and window on the ground floor. A scorching heatwave surged into the night air, mercilessly devouring the modest wooden building.Thick black smoke began billowing through the gaps in the floorboards, enveloping the second-floor rooms where the children were sleeping."Mother Maria! It's so hot, Mother! I'm scared!" Mia shrieked hysterically, clutching her tattered ragdoll tightly in the corner of the room.The other young children woke up sobbing, coughing and choking on the dense smoke filling their lungs.Mother Maria gathered all the children into a warm embrace, using her frail body as their final fortress."Shh, stay calm, children... stay close to me..." Mother Maria whispered, her voi

"I-It wasn't me! I swear on the Crest family name, I wasn't the one who put that dagger in my ring!" Valen screamed in a panicked, shrill voice, his face deathly pale with not a trace of arrogance left. The young noble knelt trembling on the marble floor, staring hysterically at the Holy Silver Dagger glowing brightly before everyone. Archbishop Malakor stepped forward with a face flushed crimson with rage, slamming his staff of authority until it unleashed a pressure wave of wind. "Enough, Valen von Crest!" Archbishop Malakor barked in a thunderous voice that silenced the entire hall. "This evidence came directly out of your very own storage space!" Instructor Barton, who stood beside the dais, was suddenly drenched in cold sweat, attempting to step backward to save himself. "M-Perhaps some wicked magic moved that object, Your Eminence..." Barton squeaked in a violently trembling tone. Archbishop Malakor turned sharply, pointing at Barton with a finger trembling with rage. "Sil

"Take this trash to the Grand Hall at once!" Archbishop Malakor shouted, flicking his golden cloak. Circulating magic chains flared brightly, tightly binding both of Leon's wrists. Felix attempted to break through the line of soldiers, but the butt of a spear struck his chest, sending him sprawling onto the wooden floor. "Leon! This is a frame-up!" Felix screamed, his raspy voice cracking in the middle of the dorm corridor. "Silence, commoner!" Instructor Barton barked, kicking the ground near Felix's body. Leon allowed himself to be dragged by two heavily armored knights without resisting in the slightest. The pain from the magic chains' grip failed to break the focus of his soul even for a moment. Beneath his hanging bangs, Leon's brown eyes flashed subtly, absorbing the shadows of the corridor they passed through. Enjoy your brief victory, Valen, Leon thought, tracing an unseen smile. For the very stage you have prepared will become the execution ground for your own reputat

"Let her keep watch over me, Felix," Leon replied casually, lightly patting his friend's shoulder. Felix glared in disbelief, ruffling his own hair with an increasingly hysterical expression. "You're crazy, Leon!" Felix exclaimed, lowering his voice into a panicked whisper. "Elena is the most genius and influential mage in this entire academy! If her personal guards are spying on your every move, you won't even be able to go to the bathroom in peace!" Leon chuckled softly, wearing a remarkably convincing, naive, and resigned expression before Felix. "Why should I be afraid if I haven't committed any crime?" Leon asked innocently, tilting his head. "I'm just an ordinary scholarship student who happens to always be favored by luck." Felix facepalmed, sighing deeply as he gave up facing his friend's strange calmness. Let Elena stay busy chasing shadows, Leon thought, a subtle smile tracing his gaze. Elena's strict investigation would actually serve as the ultimate line of defense,

"H-Help! Someone please help us in here!" Felix screamed hysterically, pounding his last remaining strength against Sector 4's hard stone door. BANG! BANG! The booming sound of the splintering door echoed from outside the passage, followed by a sudden flash of white magic light illuminating the darkness. The colossal stone door finally burst into pieces. "Felix! Leon!" Instructor Barton shouted, feigning panic as he led the academy rescue team into the passage. However, Instructor Barton's footsteps froze instantly at the threshold. The instructor's face turned deathly pale as he took in the horrific sight before him: fifteen Rank-B Blight Orc corpses lying drenched in blood. In a dark corner of the passage, Leon blinked his eyes slowly, pretending to have just regained consciousness from fainting. "Ugh... F-Felix? Are... are we still alive?" Leon whispered in a weak, raspy voice, clutching his trembling head. Felix immediately hugged Leon's shoulders tightly, sobbing in reli

"You truly are an insolent brat, Selena Vance!" General Raymond Sterling snapped, his voice trembling violently.Inside the Main Command Tent—which had now lost all of its heating—the General sat hunched over in a leather chair with a thick blanket draped over his shoulders. His breath puffed out icy vapor, and his pale face strained against the bone-chilling cold.The complete failure of the main heating furnace caused all the high-ranking officers of the combat faction to lose face before their own subordinates. And amid the suffocating panic, Raymond needed someone to blame for his own incompetence.Selena stood tall in the center of the room, her white cloak lightly dusted with snow, yet her gaze remained sharp and piercing. She showed not a shred of fear despite being surrounded by ten fully armed elite soldiers."I am merely reporting the facts on the ground, General," Selena replied in a calm, icy tone. "The fortress's heating system didn't collapse because of the support facti

"Break down that rotten door right now!" Officer Bruno snapped, swinging his broadsword with all his might toward the wooden frame of Barracks E.SLAM!The heavy impact slammed against the outer wall of the shack, but instead of crashing into the warm room inside, Bruno's hands were deflected by an invisible barrier's recoil.Officer Bruno staggered back three steps, his eyes wide with shock.He rubbed his eyes, stinging from the blistering lash of the minus-seventy-five-degree blizzard.The scene before him abruptly transformed in the blink of an eye.The wooden shack that had previously radiated a golden glow and spring-like warmth had morphed into an old ruin encased in a meter-thick layer of ice.Its roof was caved in, its walls riddled with dead fractures, and not a single shred of life remained within.Barracks E looked like an empty, ice-bound tomb abandoned for years."O-Officer... what's happening?" whispered one of the elite soldiers behind Bruno, his teeth chattering violen

"You can't just seize Barracks E whenever you feel like it!" Toby shouted, spreading his arms wide in front of Sector E's wooden gate.A roaring gale slammed into the fortress's outer barrier, making it rattle violently. The temperature plummeted at a terrifying rate, crashing past minus seventy-five degrees Celsius in seconds.Needle-sharp shards of ice pelted down from the pitch-black sky, piercing anything left out in the open.Crack! Crack!The fortress's iron perimeter posts fractured and shattered into pieces under the sting of the extreme cold.Selena Vance was forced back two steps. She tightened her white cloak, channeling her internal ice mana to compensate.Yet even the genius ice mage's mana bogged down, barely able to keep up with the raw fury of the 6th Floor's element."This isn't a normal blizzard anymore," Selena whispered, her breath turning directly into ice crystals in the air. "The Eternal Ice Storm... it's a Mythic-grade disaster that only occurs once every hundr

"Grab your picks and drag those lower-caste corpses out of the barracks!" Officer Bruno bellowed, crossing his arms over his chest with a wide, sly grin. His heavy, triple-layered fur coat whipped violently in the bone-chilling dawn wind of the 6th Floor. Behind Bruno, fifty elite combat faction soldiers stood trembling, their faces pale as ghosts and their lips blue. They were forced to endure the extreme cold because the heating crystals in their Thermal Armor had completely run out since midnight. "They've probably been frozen stiff like ice statues since last night," Bruno chuckled, spitting into the snow. "Two hundred tons of ice blocks was the perfect death sentence for trash like them." A shallow arrogance that proved to be short-lived. SLAM! The heavy wooden door of Barracks E suddenly slammed wide open from the inside. Bruno narrowed his eyes, preparing to enjoy the sight of lower-caste students crying in despair or reduced to frozen corpses. But the sly grin on Bruno

"Hunt him down to the absolute ends of the 6th Floor! If you find him, flatten his shack to the ground!" Officer Bruno’s roaring order echoed through every corner of the main fortress's military headquarters. Yet the threat of that manhunt felt like a ridiculous joke in the face of the intensifying blizzard. Just two hours after the order was issued, the temperature outside plummeted past minus fifty degrees. The military's heating crystals ran completely dry, causing the elite soldiers' Thermal Armor to freeze stiff, turning into iron traps that froze their blood. The combat faction nobles no longer cared about manhunts or class pride. Their teeth chattered violently, their lips turned blue, and the mana in their bodies froze solid, leaving behind excruciating pain. In the darkest corner of the Dark Logistics Market, a figure draped in pitch-black robes sat relaxed atop a wooden crate. Austin-02—the Ghost Merchant—blew gently on a cup of hot herbal tea that radiated a faint gol

"Do you think lower-caste crumbs like you have the right to keep a talisman this good?!" Julian barked, pressing his blade deeper into Toby's neck. A drop of fresh blood trickled slowly down the skin of Toby's neck, freezing instantly upon contact with the bitter night cold of the 6th Floor. Though fear churned his stomach, Toby clung tightly to the cloth pouch filled with Thermal Talismans against his chest. The items in his arms were no ordinary heating devices. They were the sole factor standing between life and death for over a dozen of his companions in Barracks E who were freezing to death. "These belong to all the students of the support faction!" Toby shouted, his voice trembling yet firm with resolve. "I won't give them to an arrogant person like you!" Julian's face, pale from the biting cold, instantly flushed with surging rage. For a noble scion of the combat faction, being defied so bluntly by a lower-caste student was an intolerab