THE AURELIAN CHRONICLES SHARDS OF DAWN

Chapter 6 Malakor's Whispers and Insane Truths

An incredibly thick, metallic stench of blood woke Arthur up by force. He opened his eyes, gasping for air. Cold sweat drenched his entire face and shirt. His last memory was the excruciating pain in the underground armory that afternoon

before everything faded into total darkness.

Now he was lying on a narrow dorm bed. The room was pitch black. There was only a dim moonlight piercing through the crack of the stone window in the corner of the room.

Arthur tried to sit upright, but his head felt like it had been smashed with an iron beam. His right palm throbbed with intense heat. The crystal shard shaped scar on his skin glowed brightly, emitting an unnatural blood red light.

A blue screen exploded in front of his eyes. But its shape was completely distorted. The text vibrated violently, with black and red colors overlapping each other.

[Fatal Error. Soul Security System Breached.]

[Mission Canceled. Kill. Blood. Slit Their Throats.]

Arthur punched the empty air to dismiss the glitched screen. He turned toward the bed across the room. Finn was sleeping soundly, facing away from him. The chubby boy's soft snoring sounded steady.

But the moment Arthur blinked, the sight in front of him changed drastically into a nightmare.

The stone walls of the dorm suddenly bled fresh blood. Thick red liquid dripped heavily from the ceiling. Arthur stared at Finn's bed with eyes wide in horror. The boy's white sheets were now soaked in blood. Finn's head lay tilted, his neck sliced wide open from a sharp weapon strike. Finn's bulging eyes stared at Arthur with a blank, accusing look.

"Good, Arthur," a heavy, rusty whisper echoed right inside Arthur's skull. Malakor's voice crept into every corner of his brain. "You have taken one life. Now find that girl. Find that arrogant prince. Bring their hearts to me."

"Shut up, wtf," Arthur groaned, holding his head with both hands. He grabbed his own hair tightly. "I did not kill him, damn it. This is a fucking illusion."

"There are no illusions here," the voice chuckled softly. The laugh made Arthur's chest feel tight from a lack of oxygen. "You are a monster hiding behind a human boy's body. Take the knife in your desk drawer. Finish your task."

Arthur's right hand suddenly moved out of his control. The scar on his palm glowed even brighter. His hand reached for the drawer of the small nightstand next to the bed and pulled out a small iron dagger Finn usually used to cut fruit.

"Stop, asshole," Arthur gritted his teeth. He used his left hand to hold back his own right wrist. The veins in his neck popped out from the physical struggle against his own body.

His brain was flooded with images of a massacre. He saw himself tearing Lyra's stomach open. He saw himself decapitating Kaelen. The hallucination was so real that Arthur could smell his friends' blood. The system in front of his eyes kept blinking, giving insane instructions to kill everyone in this academy.

Arthur knew he would lose if he stayed in this room.

With the remaining consciousness and strength he had, Arthur aimed the dagger in his hand at the wooden desk and stabbed it deep into the surface. He then kicked the dorm door wide open and ran out into the cold academy hallway.

The freezing night air cleared his mind a bit. The hallucinations of blood on the walls slowly faded, but Malakor's whispers still laughed cynically in the corners of his brain. Arthur ran, stumbling down the empty corridor. His feet

were bare without shoes. His linen clothes were soaked in sweat. He ignored a few night duty students who stared at him in horror.

He only had one destination. The main tower.

Arthur charged up dozens of spiral stairs. His chest felt like it was going t burst. Two silver armored guards standing in front of the Headmaster's office door immediately crossed their spears to block the way.

"Step back, human. The Headmaster does not receive guests at night," one of the guards snapped.

"Move, damn it," Arthur yelled, his eyes glowing red. His hand was still emitting that bloody light. "I need to see him right now."

Before the guard could push Arthur away, the mahogany door behind them slowly opened. The sound of heavy footsteps came from inside.

"Let him in," Alaric ordered from inside the room. The man's voice sounded calm and extremely cold.

The guards lowered their spears. Arthur immediately barged in and kicked the door shut behind him. Alaric's office was lit by a large, warmly burning fireplace. The red robed man was standing near a giant glass window, holding a glass of red wine. He stared at Arthur with a bored expression.

"Explain it to me right now, asshole," Arthur panted. He raised his right hand high to show the glowing scar. "Whose voice is inside my head. What do you know about this damn mark, wtf."

Alaric sipped his wine slowly. He walked around his desk and sat back in his large chair. "Sit down and shut your mouth, Arthur. Your manners are absolutely disgusting."

"I do not care about your manners," Arthur slammed Alaric's desk incredibly hard. "I almost killed my own roommate tonight. Someone was telling me to slit everyone's throats in the dorm. My system screen is glitching like crazy. Answer

my question, or I will burn this room down."

Alaric set his wine glass down gently. The man looked straight into Arthur's eyes. "You think you are a prophesied hero blessed with holy power. You think that mark on your hand is a symbol of the world's salvation."

Arthur fell silent. He was still panting.

Alaric gave a condescending smile. "How foolish. You are not the main character of a fairy tale at all, Arthur. You are nothing but a filthy vessel. A trash can that happened to be in the wrong place when the world portal opened."

"What do you mean vessel, damn it."

"The Shard of Dawn is not a physical object you can hold like a sword," Alaric explained in a flat tone. "It is pure energy left behind by a god. When the first shard shattered a thousand years ago, its energy fragments drifted, looking for a host to survive. And unfortunately, that energy chose your fragile

body when you passed through the wooden wardrobe in your world."

Alaric pointed at Arthur's hand. "That mark on your hand is no blessing. It is a seal keeping that energy from instantly blowing your soul apart. But that energy attracted Malakor's attention. That dark entity can smell your presence from

thousands of miles away. The whispers you heard tonight were Malakor trying to slowly take over your brain."

Arthur's body tensed up. The insane hallucinations earlier were the work of Malakor actively trying to corrupt him from the inside. He wasn't going crazy. He was being hacked by an ancient demon.

"Then how do I get this damn thing out of my body, wtf," Arthur demanded in a panic. "I am not going to be a murder puppet for a shadow monster."

"You cannot take it out," Alaric answered casually. "The only way to keep your body from destroying itself is to find the other two crystal shards and unite them in the crater of Mount Zenith. Only then will the energy in your body stabilize and leave to summon the Winged Lion, the protector of Eldoria."

"If you already knew the solution, why did you send me to the gladiator arena this morning. Why didn't you just tell me to go find those crystal shards."

Alaric chuckled softly. A highly cynical laugh, completely full of pure political cunning.

"Because I do not care at all about the Winged Lion or the overall safety of Eldoria," Alaric stated bluntly. "You are too naive, Arthur. Uniting those shards would take months. Meanwhile, the Elf rebel forces and the corrupt nobles under General Valerius's command are preparing to take over this academy next

week."

Arthur furrowed his brow. His brain struggled to process this insane fact. "What do you want to use me for."

"I need a weapon," Alaric leaned forward. His eyes glinted cruelly. "You are a walking time bomb. If the seal on your hand is broken by force, the Dawn Shard energy inside your body will detonate, incinerating a radius of dozens of miles around you. Including yourself, of course."

Arthur took a step back, his face pale. "You want to turn me into a suicide bomb, wtf. You are crazy, asshole."

"This is the politics of survival, Arthur," Alaric replied coldly. "I will keep you detained in this academy. If Valerius's army dares to breach the gates of Ignis, I will throw you into the middle of their ranks and detonate you. One trash human life exchanged for thousands of elite Elf troops. It is a highly

profitable business transaction for me."

"I am not going to let you do that, damn it," Arthur growled. He prepared to attack the old man in front of him, even though he didn't have any weapons.

"You do not have a choice." Alaric snapped his fingers softly.

Suddenly, Arthur's body went completely stiff. A glowing purple magic circle lit up on the floor right beneath his feet. He couldn't move his arms or legs at all. A high tier binding spell locked his muscles perfectly.

"I can freeze your mind whenever I want to," Alaric said, standing up. "Go back to your room. Sleep well. Because tomorrow morning, Instructor Vane is going to torture you even worse to make sure the energy inside your body ripens before the explosion."

Alaric waved his hand. An incredibly strong magical repulsive force slammed directly into Arthur's chest. The boy was thrown backward, crashing through the wooden door, and tumbled hard onto the stone hallway floor. The office door

immediately slammed shut and locked itself.

Arthur coughed violently, spitting onto the floor. His whole body felt numb. The blue screen in front of his eyes was still vibrating, displaying the corrupted red text. He finally understood his true position in this world. He wasn't a hero. He was just a piece of meat being fought over by a shadow monster in his head and a rotten politician in the real world.

Right as Arthur struggled to get to his feet, a sound pierced the silence of the academy night.

The sound was incredibly long, high pitched, and shook the stone walls of the tower. It was the sound of a war horn made from the bone of a giant monster. The horn wasn't being blown from outside the valley, but right from the direction of

the academy's main gate.

Arthur turned his head to look out the hallway window. His eyes widened in disbelief.

The dark night sky had now turned a burning red. A rain of flaming arrows rained down like the apocalypse, showering the dormitory roofs. The sounds of magical explosions and death screams instantly erupted and echoed from the lower floor student dorms.

The iron army had arrived much earlier than Alaric predicted. The betrayal had just begun.