2025-08-20 15:50:05
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Chapter 31: First Round Chaos
The tournament grounds of Arcadia…Yeah, no, they weren’t anything like the training pits.The air felt different. Heavy, tense. The kind that crawled up your skin and made your stomach twist even if you weren’t the one stepping onto the field.Rows of tiered seating wrapped around the dueling field, climbing higher and higher, crammed full of bodies. Students, professors, alumni who came back just for this show, even outsiders from the city. Everyone wanted to see blood or glory—or both.The field itself was obsidian tile, glowing faintly with pulsing runes. Every tile carried a hum, like the whole floor was alive, waiting to drink in the fights. The academy crest hung above in polished banners, but scattered among the stands were other sigils too. Family crests. Personal emblems. This wasn’t just a school event anymore. It was politics, money, pride, all crammed into one stage.It wasn’t just a tournament. It was a showcase. A test of reputations.The opening bell rang. Low. Resonan
Chapter 30: Cyprus’ Warning
The courtyard was empty.Kai sat alone on a bench, his posture loose, almost careless, but his hands were clenched hard in his lap. The grimoire rested beside him, closed, though he knew closed never meant silent. Sometimes he swore it breathed.He told himself he was calm. That he was only sitting here because he didn’t feel like going back inside yet. That the ache in his chest—the one left from shaping the Heart-Shield for Lina—was already fading.But the truth was in his fingers. Trembling, stiff, like something in him still remembered the tearing sensation of carving away a piece of himself.He hadn’t meant to. Not exactly. The calculation had been cold and simple: if she lived, the plan continued. If she died, the plan unraveled. It should have been that simple.Except when he’d felt her pulse falter, when he’d seen the light fading from her eyes, the choice hadn’t felt calculated at all.He didn’t want her to die.And that thought—that weakness—was worse than any wound.The whi
Chapter 29: The Heart-Shield Spell
Kai didn’t sleep. Not even for a second.He sat there the whole night, stiff-backed on that damn bench in the courtyard, grimoire heavy across his lap. The air cut cold but he didn’t feel it, not really. What he felt was smoke. The battlefield wouldn’t let go of him—smoldering villages, corpses, voices. Every time he blinked, he kept hearing Rafe’s laugh behind them.By dawn, Kai was so exhausted. But he stood anyway. He had to.The training hall was quiet when he entered. Dust. Steel. The faint smell of torches burning low, still new, still weak in their flames. Shadows stretched long on the floor like old scars.And Lina. Of course she was already there.She had her training gear on, her braid loose against her shoulder. The moment she saw him, she tilted her head, lips pulling in something that wasn’t quite a smile. “You look worse than usual.”“I didn’t know that was possible,” Kai muttered. His voice scraped dry.“Did you even sleep?” she asked, walking toward the center.“No.” H
Chapter 28: Training With Ghosts
The book stared at him.It was just a book. Leather cracked, red veins faintly glowing. Sitting in his drawer like it belonged there.But it breathed. He swore it did.Kai sat on the bed with his head in his hands for a while. He could still feel Rafe’s laugh in his bones, the blood in his eyes, the throne. Every time he blinked, the smell of incense and iron lingered. He hated it. Hated how real it felt.And the damn grimoire was still waiting.He pulled it out anyway.The cover was colder than he remembered. His fingers numbed against it. He thought about throwing it into the fire. He didn’t.Because Lina’s face came back—her ridiculous stubbornness, standing there saying she’d enter the tournament too. She’d get herself killed.He needed more. More than this half-trained shadow magic. More than what he was now.Kai set his jaw and opened the book.The air dropped. His breath fogged in front of him. Pages fluttered, symbols writhing like insects, shifting before he could lock his ey
Chapter 27: Blood Memory
The letter felt heavier than paper had any right to.Kai’s fingers tightened against the parchment.The word sat alone on the page:“Remember.”No signature. No context. Just the single command.Lina frowned from her seat. “That’s… it?”He didn’t answer. His pulse was pounding in his ears. The room seemed to tilt, the edges of his vision closing in.She stood, stepping closer. “Kai—”The air shattered.There was no other word for it—reality cracked like glass struck from within. The faint torchlight warped, bending toward him, and the world’s colors bled into crimson and gold.The paper in his hands grew warm. Then hot.Lina’s voice was a distant echo. “Kai! Drop it!”But his hands wouldn’t obey. His grip locked around the letter as if some invisible force joined it to him. The warmth turned to a burn, but it wasn’t his flesh that hurt—it was deeper. Like someone had reached into his chest and was dragging something out.The walls of his dormitory faded. The scent of stone and old par
Chapter 26: The Cloaked Spy
The north dormitory was too quiet—for tournament week. Usually the halls rattled with bootsteps, bursts of laughter, and the ring of steel. Tonight, it was nothing. Kai moved in silence. That’s when he noticed it.His door.Slightly open.Kai stopped walking.The silence around him sharpened. He could hear his own breath. The wards’ light flickered again, like something was still disturbing them. Whoever it was, they were inside.He reached for the dagger strapped against his hip, fingertips brushing the hilt as he stepped forward—slow, deliberate.Not the sound of furniture shifting. Footsteps. Someone was moving.Kai pushed the door open in a single…...A cloaked figure crouched at his desk, fingers moving through the drawers with quick, practiced movements. The hood kept most of their face hidden, but when they lifted their head for the briefest moment, the light struck their eyes.Cold and Sharp.Not the startled glance of someone caught in the act, but the steady calculation of
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