2025-06-18 19:49:19Rain fell on Arcadia that night.
A soft, cold drizzle that soaked the stone paths and smeared the stars above. It trickled along windowpanes, whispering like secrets too old to remember. Kai sat alone at the edge of the training grounds, the grimoire hidden in his coat, heart thudding beneath soaked fabric. “I was Rafe,” he murmured again, the words tasting strange in his mouth. He didn’t feel like a Tyrant. He didn’t want to feel like one. But the pieces were falling into place.He remembered the spell now…..Not all of it—but enough. Rafe had been betrayed. Not just by enemies. By friend…by someone he trusted, someone close. In his final moments, he hadn’t fought back. He hadn’t screamed. He had smiled. Because he had already planned his return. A reincarnation spell buried deep within his bones. His mark—the Tyrant’s sigil—wasn’t a curse. It was a beacon. A promise. He would return, and when he did, he would finish what he started. Kai clenched his fists, raindrops slipping through his fingers like time —- Inside the administration tower, headmaster Voren leaned over a desk of dusty scrolls and old relics. His hands trembled slightly as he unrolled the parchment from the vault—a sealed record, marked with the Order’s crimson wax. The seal of Rafe. The Tyrant. His second-in-command, Professor Halden, stood silently behind him. “It’s confirmed, then,” Voren said, voice low. Halden nodded. “The mark. The spell signature. The power fluctuation. It’s him.” “Has he shown signs of instability?” “Not yet. But it’s coming.” Voren’s gaze hardened. “Then we act before he remembers everything.” ——- Kai sat in the library again before dawn, the grimoire open to a new section—this one written in a spikier, more elegant hand. A personal note. From himself. From Rafe. If you’re reading this… then the world wasn’t ready. You will be blamed. Feared. Hated. But you were right, Rafe. You were always right. Finish it. He stared at the ink. There was no remorse in those words. No hint of sorrow or redemption. Just certainty, confidence and conviction….Kai slammed the book shut and stood, breath ragged. He didn’t want to be Rafe. Not the one in those memories. Not the man who turned cities to ash and wore a crown of fear. But there was something seductive about the certainty in those words. Finish it. —- Lina found him later in the abandoned greenhouse. Ivy curled through the broken glass walls, and wildflowers bloomed where no gardener touched them. She stepped carefully, quietly, as though he might shatter like glass if startled. He didn’t turn when she entered. “You haven’t been in class,” she said softly. “I’ve been… remembering.” She waited. Then, with barely a breath: “You were him. Weren’t you?” He didn’t answer right away. His shoulders tightened. Then— “Yes.” Her face didn’t twist in fear. She didn’t step back. She walked forward and sat beside him on the cracked marble bench. “I had a brother,” she said. “He died during the siege. One of Rafe’s attacks. At least, that’s what I was told.” Kai turned sharply, pain lancing through his chest. “I didn’t—” “I know. You’re not him.” He looked at her. “But I was.” She didn’t look away. “But you aren’t.” —— That night, a notice appeared on the announcement board. The Trials of Intent that’s open to all first-year students. Ten will be chosen and one will be elevated. The rest… will fall. It was a test. A way to control the narrative. To expose him, or to break him. Kai understood that instantly. The school wasn’t going to wait for him to lose control. They were going to provoke it. He stood before the board, students whispering all around him, some keeping their distance like he carried a plague. Others stared openly. One of them was Cyrus. Cyrus of Class A. Golden boy. Smiling perfection. He stepped forward, hands in his coat pockets, and leaned in like they were old friends. “You planning to enter?” Cyrus asked. Kai didn’t answer. “You should,” Cyrus said. “Be a shame to have all that power and not put it to use.” Kai turned to face him. “And you? You entering?” Cyrus’s smile widened. “Of course. Someone’s got to keep the monster in check.” Then he walked away. —— That night, Kai couldn’t sleep. Not because of fear but because of purpose. The Trials would be dangerous. But they would give him something else…..clarity and control. He needed to know who he was now—not just who he used to be. He returned to the mirror in the bathroom and stared hard at his reflection. “I am Kai,” he said quietly. “I’m not him.” But as the words faded, so did his certainty. He reached into his coat and pulled out the grimoire again. He flipped to the final pages. There, in a hidden fold, was a diagram. A memory spell. A full restoration—sealed until he was ready. His fingers hovered over it. One touch…..And he’d know everything. He pulled his hand back…..Not yet. —— The next morning, the names were posted. Kai’s name was first. So was Cyrus’s. Lina’s was there, too. He stared at the list until the ink blurred. Ten names. Ten trials. This was more than a test. This was the beginning. The beginning of everything.
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Chapter 47: Duel Of The Masks
The summons came at dawn.Kai hadn’t slept, not really. His body still carried the ache of his last match, wounds mended only halfway by Lina’s touch. He sat at the edge of his bunk, shadows clinging faint at his wrists like smoke waiting to burn, a knock at his door.Kai.” A guard’s voice, flat, rehearsed. “By order of the Council, you’re to report to the arena floor. Immediately.”The door shut again before he could answer.Across the room, Cyrus leaned against the wall, arms crossed, a dangerous smirk on his face. “They don’t waste time, do they? Barely let you bleed before they throw you back in.”Kai said nothing. He stood, fastening his dagger to his belt.Lina stirred awake on the cot across from him, her hair tangled, her wrists still marked red from the Council’s punishment yesterday. She sat up fast, eyes wide. “The tournament’s suspended. They can’t—”“It’s not a tournament match,” Cyrus cut in, voice edged. “This is theater.”Lina’s chest tightened. “Then refuse. You’re st
Chapter 46: Lina’s Test
The infirmary was supposed to be sealed after curfew. Everyone knew it.Two nights ago, the Council had turned it into law: only Class A and B had unrestricted access to supplies. Anyone else, no matter how wounded, had to wait, file requests, or bleed. And if someone ignored that? Discipline—public and humiliating.But Lina had seen the students limping. Class E kids with shirts darkened by blood. A boy coughing up clots, another dragging a twisted leg, one girl with her arm strapped against her chest with torn fabric. No one would help them—not the infirmary, not the Council, not anyone above them.That image sat in her chest like a stone.So here she was, standing in front of the lock on the infirmary doors, long after the torches had been dimmed in the corridors. Her palms were slick. Her heartbeat drummed so loud she was sure someone would hear.She pressed her hand against the carved ward etched into the lock.The metal shivered. A faint click.The door opened with a sound that
Chapter 45: The Circle’s Agenda
Morning came without rest.Kai hadn’t closed his eyes once. He sat in the same position he’d held through the long hours of night—back straight, dagger in hand, eyes locked on the door. The mark beneath his collarbone still pulsed, faint and steady, as though it knew what he had decided in the silence. He hadn’t agreed to Cyrus’s terms—not aloud. But he had sheathed his dagger. That was enough.Now he had to see what Cyrus would bring.⸻The knock came just after dawn. Two taps. A pause. Then one more.Kai rose without hesitation. He didn’t bother opening the door like a student might—he slipped the lock, eased it back just enough for shadows to slide in. Cyrus ducked through with his usual smirk, already dressed in crisp uniform blacks, as though curfew-breaking and rule-bending had no place on his conscience.“Morning, sunshine,” Cyrus said lightly. “You look well-rested.”Kai’s silence was its own blade.Cyrus rolled his eyes. “Fine, fine. Straight to business.” He reached into hi
Chapter 44: Shadow Visitor
The dormitory at night was never truly silent.Even with the curfew and the Council’s guards patrolling every corridor, Arcadia breathed through its stones. The old walls carried the echoes of storms, the restless tossing of students trapped in their beds, whispering rumors until sleep claimed them.But Kai heard none of it.He sat at the edge of his bed, the candle on his desk burning low, shadows stretching long against the walls. The mark beneath his collarbone throbbed faintly, a pulse that wasn’t his heartbeat. It stirred whenever the world grew quiet, as if silence gave it permission to speak.His hand hovered over it, never touching, never soothing. He didn’t need the reminder. He knew what the Circle wanted. He knew what the Council was doing. He knew what the whispers were turning him into in the minds of every student here.Rafe. Tyrant. Monster.The chains inside him rattled with every thought.The candle sputtered. Died.Darkness settled across the room.And that was wh
Chapter 43: Tournament Interrupted
The next morning arrived gray and dreary, almost as if the sun itself didn't want to participate in the turmoil brought to Arcadia.The courtyard usually filled with loud voices echoing around from shouts and students preparing for duel practice was silent. Benches lay overturned in confusion from the night before's panic; scorch marks still burnt the flagstones; the banners that flew formally over the arena had wilted, half-burnt.Kai stood on the railing directly outside the dormitory, fingers grasping the cold iron. Using the same eerie stillness he used in combat, he observed the grounds. Every guard in sight wore a double, freely engaged in patrol motioning in stiff formations with their weapons drawn even though there were no visible enemies.But the air itself relayed a different history. A history laden with fear, laden with distrust, tension wound so tightly that with a spark, the tension would surely release explosive amounts of energy.The Grand Duel Tournament had been s
Chapter 42: The Professor’s Secret
The corridors still reeked of smoke.Kai moved through them like a blade half-drawn—silent, sharp, every step a promise. The detonations had quieted, but Arcadia still trembled. Students had been shoved into dormitories, the wounded carried toward the infirmary. Guards lingered with their grips white on their weapons.The fire wasn’t gone. It lingered in the air, in every stare that followed him. Whispers pressed against the walls like a curse:The Tyrant lives.Lina kept pace beside him, her face pale under streaks of soot. Ash blackened her fingers from dragging first-years out of rubble. She held his sleeve like she feared if she let go, he would vanish back into shadow.But Kai wasn’t walking toward safety. Not the dorms, not the infirmary. His path pulled him elsewhere.And judging by the steady tread behind him, someone knew.The professor was waiting.⸻Professor Halvors stood in the empty classroom like a man summoned for judgment. Usually his robes were precise, his tone clip
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