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 94: The Void Within
The battle was over.At least that’s what they said.But Kai opened his eyes, he wasn’t really sure if he'd made it through, or even if making it mattered much now.The infirmary stayed quiet except you could hear the wounded groaning. Those stone walls had cracks all over from the spells hitting hard. Bloodstains covered the floor. Some looked old, some still fresh. Healing charms glowed faintly, like weak candles. Arcadia's halls used to be something grand, now they were just a wreck, their smell hung heavy. Iron and smoke mixed with all that despair.Kai sat on the cot's edge. He stared down at his hands. They were steady. Too steady. Not trembling, not clenched. Just… empty.He tried to remember what those hands had done. He could see flashes: blades colliding, fire tearing through the night sky, screams that cut deeper than any weapon. Then nothing. A blank silence where his heart should have been.There should have been relief—he had won. The Circle was shattered, their lea
Chapter 93: The Price Of Victory
Silence.It fell heavy across the battlefield after the Circle leader’s body hit the ground. The clang of steel, the shouts, the spells muted, as if Arcadia itself had paused to take a breath.Kai stood over the corpse, his blade slick with blood, his chest heaving like it might split open. Sweat and ash dripped into his eyes. He barely noticed.All he felt was the tremor in his hands.The tremor of ending a ghost that had haunted two lifetimes.But victory didn’t taste like triumph. It tasted like iron, like ash, like something stolen.A ragged cry went up from the Inversion lines. Students cheered, voices breaking with relief. For a moment, hope pierced the smoke.But Kai didn’t smile.Something inside him was breaking.Shadows clawed at him, not in hunger just felt empty, like something vital got ripped away. His mind went blurry, memories slipped right through his fingers like water. Faces, voices, names all melted into nothing.He staggered, dropped to one knee. His blade clatter
Chapter 92: The Heartbreak Duel
The tunnel opened into ruin.Kai stepped over rubble, shadows clinging to his heels like armor, Lina’s weight still hot in his memory where he had carried her to safety minutes ago. She lay behind the lines now, her breath shallow, healers working frantically.And Kai, he walked into the night alone.The sky above Arcadia was fire and ash. Towers burned. The academy’s banners once bright blue and silver hung torn and blackened. Magic clashed in the air like storms colliding, the ground shuddering with every explosion.But Kai’s eyes found only one figure in the chaos.At the heart of the battlefield, amid the storm of blades and fire, stood the man. Cloaked in black, helm thrown aside, his face bare beneath the moonlight.Sharp jaw. Cruel mouth. Eyes like poisoned steel.The man who killed him.Kai’s breath caught, the ghost of Rafe surging through his veins like ice. His hand tightened on his sword.The Circle warriors pulled back, clearing space as if sensing what this was. Not a
Chapter 91: Lina’s Last Stand
The tunnels shook with the force of a hundred boots.The Circle wasn’t waiting. The survivors had barely laid Alden’s body down when the walls began to tremble with the sound of war drums echoing through the stone. Torches flared as runners rushed in, panic flashing in their eyes.“They’re here,” someone gasped, blood dripping from their jaw. “They’re coming from every tunnel…. every passage. We’re surrounded.”The chamber erupted in fear.The wounded cried out. The unarmed backed against the walls. The fighters gripped their weapons, though their hands trembled. They had nothing left to give and yet the Circle demanded everything. Kai stood at the center, his shoulders slumped low. Aldens last words kept banging around inside his head. He felt every single gaze locked on him, every hopes rested on his shoulders. The weight of it made his chest tighten up something fierce.You are not ready.That amulet throbbed warm against his skin. He itched to yank it off, crush it under his b
Chapter 90: The Last Lesson
The smoke never cleared.Every corner of the tunnels stank of blood and burning stone, of iron and charred skin. The Inversion’s fighters dragged themselves back into the central chamber, one by one, broken and bloodied. Some leaned on each other, some stumbled in alone, eyes hollow, too stunned to speak.Kai stood in the middle of it all, sword hanging limp in his hand. The light from Lina’s flames danced across his face, but his eyes were shadowed.He had promised them a safe haven. What he gave them instead was a graveyard.The silence was heavier than the battle had been. Every cough, every groan of the injured scraped against him like a blade. He couldn’t breathe without feeling the weight of every death.And still—the amulet pulsed against his chest. Heavy. Whispering.You could have saved them. If you weren’t afraid.Lina reached for him, her hand hovering near his arm but not quite touching. She had blood smeared across her cheek, her hair clinging to her face with sweat.
Chapter 89: The Siege Of Shadows
The first scream wasn’t just loud, it was sharp, the kind that split through stone and marrow alike.Kai was on his feet instantly, blade in hand before thought caught up. The underground chamber had been too still, too quiet, a false kind of peace after days of battle. He had almost convinced himself the tunnels were safe. Now, the sound of steel, spellfire, and terror made the lie obvious.The Circle had found them.Across the chamber, Lina was already up, her hair loose, shadows of torchlight brushing her face. Her eyes met his. No questions, no hesitation. Just the unspoken truth between them.“Kai.” Her voice was steady despite the chaos building outside.“Stay close,” he said.The wall to their right buckled before he finished. The stone shuddered, cracks spiderwebbing across it, then shattered outward with a deafening roar. Dust filled the air. Torches flickered and died.Hooded figures poured through the breach, weapons gleaming, their chants echoing like the voices of exe
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