Evelyn Cessna

Biography

Choosing a protégé and entering the rescue

Evelyn enters Astrea as a stern combat professor already famous for her power, then becomes interested in Brandon while observing the first-year Battle Royale. She wants a talented protégé, but his tactical composure matters as much as raw output: he conceals his mana, reads the field, and makes decisions she cannot immediately explain. Evelyn accepts his condition that she help Amy without demanding every answer first, even though she does not yet trust him. The choice begins a mentorship founded on mutual scrutiny rather than effortless confidence. (Chapters 25, 29–41)

That decision immediately draws Evelyn into the Osborn rescue. She illuminates and searches the hotel with Celestial constructs, flies reconnaissance with Celestial Wings, and arrives in time to help defeat Francis after Brandon and the others have been pushed to their limits. Afterward, she continues training Brandon, helps stabilize him during a dangerous mana episode, and allows Claire into their simulations. Evelyn suspects that her protégé is connected to a wider conspiracy, but she does not force a confession. During the festival crisis and their later private spar, she protects the academy while demonstrating how completely an S+ ranker still outclasses him. (Chapters 41, 44–55, 61–67, 116, 130, 134–145)

Calamity, Evangel, and the auction

During the calamity, Evelyn expands a barrier around the academy's students and leaves its safety to investigate the unfolding danger, but she cannot find Brandon after the changing room collapses. His disappearance becomes one reason she joins the Imperial Army, where she eventually serves as a field marshal. Much later, Brandon encounters her inside the syndicate under the name Evangel, with black hair and altered features concealing her identity. Evelyn is conducting deep-cover work, yet their reunion revives the teacher-student relationship; she introduces the Pseudo Swordsmanship she developed and drills him in its irregular mana timing before the operation begins. (Chapters 157, 159, 231–233, 237–242)

At the underground auction, Evelyn operates as the task force's strongest assurance while continuing her Evangel cover. She clears syndicate chambers, opens a star-filled Zone, and combines Celestial attacks with close-range sword work against Rodd and Lancelott. The fight exposes a weakness in her limited Zone control and ends catastrophically when a Wraith overwhelms the force and leaves her critically wounded. Although she had reached Tier 7 and SS- shortly before the raid, her damaged core thereafter alternates between uncontrolled output and no response at all. Hospital treatment cannot resolve the unease beneath her apparent recovery, and she begins doubting both her power and her worth as Brandon's teacher. (Chapters 231, 246–259, 269, 289)

Academy instruction and Permafrost

Evelyn returns as an Imperial Academy instructor and publicly identifies herself as a current SS- ranker. Her Affinity Maximization lecture explains not only how mages intensify their natural element, but also why the practice can overload a core or disrupt other mana without sufficient development. Bellion places her in charge of the Aetherwild camp, where she monitors the cadets, investigates hostile mana in the mist, prevents instructors from exploiting exhausted students, and takes open pride in Brandon's performance against the wyvern. At the same time, breathing difficulty and chest pain reveal that her auction injury remains active beneath her command posture. (Chapters 302, 306, 310–311, 314, 317, 322, 324–327)

Scans reveal cracks and disrupted flow in Evelyn's core, and surgery appears to patch and stabilize them, but her doubts persist. She nevertheless returns to instruction and ranker work, reconnecting with Yi Jihyeon, a former superior whose bond with her resembles an estranged mother and daughter. Yi's death leaves Evelyn grieving and isolated until Brandon follows her and insists she need not endure the loss alone. Evelyn then becomes his Permafrost mentor, guiding mana through his pathways and helping him shape the unfamiliar affinity. She gives him the sword used during the auction, turning their training into a tangible inheritance even while corrosion continues within her own core. (Chapters 327, 329, 334, 345–350, 367–373, 377)

The Wraith Seed and a posthumous lesson

Evelyn spends Christmas with Brandon's household after bringing Lianna, whom she believes to be a new friend, into the celebration. Soon afterward, the hidden damage from the auction reveals its true nature: a Wraith Seed has been growing in her injured core. Her skin pales, her hair turns white, her eyes blacken, and crystalline nails form as her core consumes itself. Evelyn briefly remains lucid enough to apologize and close her eyes in acceptance. With no method left to halt a transformation that would create a Wraith of her strength, Brandon drives Evelyn's own gifted sword through her core, killing his mentor before the conversion is complete. (Chapters 379–383)

Evelyn's death becomes both a public scandal and the basis of Brandon's arrest. Wraith-like changes in her body, her compromised medical history, missing records, and Runic Cadaver Analysis complicate the claim that he committed an ordinary murder; at trial, he admits the killing but explains the Wraith Seed and the larger infiltration behind it. Her final contribution arrives after the proceedings, when Vanessa gives Brandon an unopened Christmas package found in Evelyn's room. Its flash drive contains Permafrost pathway guidance, swordsmanship research, and a recorded farewell. Brandon later trains from those files, allowing Evelyn's quiet, exacting instruction to continue after her death. (Chapters 387–398, 406)

Appearance and personality

Evelyn normally has long dark-purple hair, cold-cyan or azure eyes, and flawless features that make her comparable to Astrea's other celebrated beauties. She alternates between formal academy clothing, Imperial Army uniform, and more relaxed dresses, while her Evangel disguise gives her black hair and an altered facial structure. During her Wraith conversion, her appearance changes violently: her skin becomes cold and pale, her hair turns ghostly white, darkness spreads through her eyes, and her fingernails lengthen into dark crystalline points. (Chapters 35, 44, 232, 346, 383, 398)

Her strict voice and blank expression conceal an introverted, competitive, and socially awkward woman who struggles to explain herself in meetings or form ordinary friendships. Evelyn takes private pride in Celestial magic, enjoys sweets and pastries, and sometimes relies on cigarettes when pressure becomes overwhelming. She is also deeply self-critical, blaming herself for failures and measuring her teaching against an obscured benefactor from her youth. Yet her conduct remains protective and generous: she risks herself for students, gives Brandon knowledge and a weapon, and continues worrying that she is abandoning him even while dying. (Chapters 29–40, 45, 159, 248, 269, 289, 339, 367, 377, 383)

Magic and abilities

• Celestial affinity: Evelyn is described as the only active mage with the Celestial affinity. She creates golden light, radiant orbs and spears, coats her body or sword in hollow celestial energy, and can move in flashes that leave golden particles behind. Her constructs provide illumination, ranged bombardment, piercing force, and close-combat reinforcement. (Chapters 33, 41, 51, 248, 254–255, 346, 350, 373)
• Celestial Wings: A detached-looking pair of radiant golden wings grants sustained flight and allows Evelyn to carry another person during reconnaissance. The wings do not freely correct every forced movement: when an ice projectile shifts her gravity and trajectory, she is driven downward despite being too durable for the attack itself to seriously wound her. (Chapters 41, 45, 51)
• Celestial Zone: Evelyn can isolate a battlefield inside a star-lit domain saturated with celestial energy, where she feels broad control and can fill the space with light and spears. The Zone has a time limit, and her imperfect command becomes exploitable during the auction; Rodd's barrier timing and Lancelott's pressure prevent her from converting nominal superiority into a clean victory before it begins to collapse. (Chapters 254–255)
• Pseudo Swordsmanship: Evelyn's self-developed style lets a mage bridge the close-combat gap against duelists by changing mana flow, speed, and force midway through a swing. Feints, minimal preparatory movement, short bursts, and her sensitivity to tiny mana changes make attacks appear to skip from initiation to completion. It depends on precise control and efficient reinforcement rather than removing a mage's physical vulnerability. (Chapters 238–239, 242, 254, 373, 406)
• Affinity instruction and mana perception: Evelyn can sense dense or concealed mana, examine the paths within another mage, and teach Affinity Maximization without hiding its risks. She recommends the advanced practice only after roughly the fourth or fifth core tier because overloading or losing control of other mana remains possible. Her pathway guidance helps Brandon begin manifesting Permafrost, though the affinity itself belongs to him rather than Evelyn. (Chapters 37, 62, 254, 302, 310, 373, 377)
• Damaged-core limitation and Wraith conversion: The auction wound cracks Evelyn's core and leaves its output fluctuating between violent surges and total failure. Surgery patches the visible damage, but hidden corrosion and the Wraith Seed remain. By Chapter 383, the seed is consuming the core and transforming her body; the process is irreversible with the knowledge available to Brandon and ends only when her core is pierced. (Chapters 255–256, 289, 327–334, 341–342, 377, 382–383)

Power progression

Relationships

• Brandon Locke: Evelyn chooses Brandon as her protégé, becomes his combat and mana-control mentor, and gradually fills an older-sister or parental role in his life. He respects her judgment intensely, inherits her sword and teaching archive, and is forced to end her Wraith transformation himself.
• Vanessa Grace: Vanessa is Evelyn's longtime academy friend and, by Evelyn's own lonely assessment, often her only ordinary friend. Their teasing contrasts with Evelyn's reserve, while Vanessa visits her in the hospital, supports her students, and later delivers Evelyn's unopened Christmas gift to Brandon.
• Yi Jihyeon: Evelyn once served under Yi and avoids her with the discomfort of an estranged daughter, but their attachment is genuine. Yi's effort to acknowledge Evelyn's birthday precedes her death, leaving Evelyn to confront how much affection she had kept at a distance.
• Jin: Jin is the obscured benefactor associated with Evelyn's early Celestial training and with the standard she keeps trying to imitate. Manipulated or missing memories prevent Evelyn from clearly recognizing that history, so the relationship influences her growth without becoming a fully conscious reunion.
• Lancelott: Lancelott is Evelyn's principal opponent during the auction. He recognizes the danger of her Celestial affinity, exploits the limits of her Zone, and helps create the battle in which the Wraith attack leaves her core fatally compromised.
• Lianna Venice: Evelyn believes Lianna is a rare new friend and brings her to the Christmas gathering. Lianna instead uses the relationship to inspect the corrosion around Evelyn's core and draw closer to Brandon's circle, turning Evelyn's social isolation into an avenue for manipulation.

Items

• Evelyn's Sword: Evelyn gives Brandon the sword she used during the auction as part of his Permafrost and swordsmanship training. He later uses that same weapon to pierce her transforming core, making it both a mentor's inheritance and the instrument of her death. (Chapters 377, 383)
• Evelyn's Christmas Drive: The flash drive in Evelyn's unfinished Christmas package contains Permafrost pathway notes, swordsmanship research, and a personal video for Brandon. Vanessa finds and delivers it after the funeral, and Brandon uses the recordings to continue learning Pseudo Swordsmanship. (Chapters 397–398, 406)