2025-06-18 17:10:48It began with footsteps,quick and too many for a single person.Too quiet for friends.
Kai woke before his eyes opened. That edge-of-sleep awareness that smelled of danger. His body, trained by fear even if his mind wasn’t ready, jerked upright. Cold sweat clung to his spine. The shared dorm was dark except for the flickering blue of the ward-stone embedded in the ceiling. The others slept but something was wrong. He reached for the blunt dagger under his cot.Another step…too close.He moved without thinking—ducked, rolled, and barely missed a fist crashing down where his head had been. He scrambled to his feet. Five shapes. All masked. All silent. Magic pulsed between them, low and crackling like a growl beneath the surface. One of them spoke. “Tyrant’s spawn.” The words weren’t loud, but they carried. Kai’s breath caught. He didn’t ask questions. He bolted. Down the narrow hallway, past the communal washroom, boots slapping hard on stone. The walls blurred beside him, but he knew the route.He knew where to go when he had nowhere else. The library. The main library of Arcadia was ancient, carved into the mountain’s hollowed heart. It rose like a cathedral inside the stone, silent and dark after hours. None of the lights were on. No librarian to stop him. The archway let him in like it was waiting. He slammed the doors shut behind him and threw the iron bar across them. The heavy thud behind the wood meant the masked figures had reached the doors. They didn’t shout. They didn’t knock. They just… waited. Kai stumbled deeper into the library, past towering shelves of books so old they seemed to hold breath. The light here came from the glowing glass orbs high in the dome—dim now, barely pulsing. He ducked into the forbidden wing. Past the faded warning sigils, past the velvet ropes no one enforced anymore. This was where he’d found the book.This was where it had started. The section of arcane history. Dark magic. Sealed texts. The “dangerous knowledge” professors mentioned in whispers. The smell here was different. Not like dust and parchment—but metal. Smoke. Blood. He didn’t slow down. Until something caught his eye. A light. Not glowing or warm—but pulsing. Erratic. The book. It was back where he’d left it, perched on the pedestal at the room’s center. Waiting. Kai approached, slower now. His heart raced—but not from fear. From recognition. He touched the cover. Snap. A sound behind him. Sharp. Close. He spun—too late. A figure lunged from the shadows. Kai raised his arm, instinctually blocking with the book itself. It burned in his hand—sigils flaring red as the figure’s blade connected and stopped mid-swing, as if caught in invisible threads. The attacker jerked backward. “What?” Kai looked down at the book. His fingertips glowed faint gold. Not red. Not dark. But… something different. The figure didn’t wait. He lunged again. This time, Kai moved with intent. He ducked, rolled under the table, kicked backward—connected with shin and heard a grunt. He rose fast and hurled a chair across the room. It shattered against the second attacker now entering. Kai reached for a spell—not knowing how he knew, only that he did. Words spilled from his lips like a song long forgotten. “Armae Lux… Constrictum!” The air snapped. A glowing rope of light coiled around the nearest masked student, pinning their arms to their side. They shrieked, falling to the floor. The others hesitated. “Did you see that?!” “He doesn’t know that spell—he shouldn’t—” “That was from Rafe’s lexicon.” “No,” Kai whispered, voice hoarse. “It’s mine now.” They ran. Not all of them. One stayed—frozen. Unmoving. Kai recognized the hesitation. A girl? She wore the same mask, but her build was smaller. He stepped toward her. “Why are you doing this?” No response. But her hands trembled.The blade at her side hung limp. “Who sent you?” he asked again. Nothing. Until she turned and ran. Kai didn’t follow. He couldn’t. His knees buckled. The adrenaline faded. Pain hit him all at once—his side where the blade had grazed him, his ankle from the sprint, his lungs from the cold air inside the chamber. The book pulsed softly. He looked back to it. Then down at his hands,the gold glow had faded. But something was still there. A faint shimmer beneath the skin. He wasn’t imagining it. The magic had responded to him not as Rafe but as… something else. Back in the dorms, dawn crept through the slits in the stone walls. The ward-stone blinked, signaling morning. No one spoke of what had happened. No one had seen the attackers leave. And Kai said nothing. He woke before the others. Dressed. Limped through the hallways like a shadow. The wound on his ribs bled slowly through the tunic. But he didn’t stop. He found the classroom before it opened. The hallway empty. Professor Velin was there early, as always. Kai stood before her. “Someone attacked me last night.” She didn’t blink. “Who?” “I don’t know. But they called me Tyrant’s spawn.” Silence. Her eyes—cold, steel-gray—narrowed. She stepped aside to let him in. He sat at the back of the room, bleeding into silence. Later, during break, Lina found him in the infirmary. He hadn’t called for her. But somehow, she knew. She always did. He sat on the edge of the cot, tunic off, ribs wrapped in a half-effort bandage. She gasped softly. “Why didn’t you tell me?” “I didn’t want you involved.” “You think I’m not already involved?” He didn’t answer. Her hands moved gently over the wound. Magic shimmered along her fingertips—healing light, soft and pale green. “It’s not deep,” she said quietly. “But it will leave a scar.” Kai looked down at her. She was focused and careful…..not angry not afraid. “Someone’s going to kill me,” he said softly. “Not if I can help it.” He smiled then. Just a crack in the armor. But it was real. “You should be scared of me.” “I’m not.” “Why not?” She met his gaze. “Because I know you.” He didn’t believe it. But it was enough. For now. By evening, the rumors had grown fangs. “Someone broke into the restricted section.” “I heard a spell was used that hasn’t been taught in fifty years.” “Headmaster is furious.” “They think it was a rogue professor.” “They think it was him.” Kai kept walking. He didn’t flinch when they stared anymore. He just moved. Silent. Burning. Becoming.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
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
You may also like
Monster Hunters
Datdepressedguy 15.6K viewsSupreme Ancestor
Kingfisher12.8K viewsMonster Girl Ranching in Another World
Magic_31.7K viewsWelcome back Transmigrator
MaryahLu18.6K viewsThe Awakening
Felix J59 viewsThe Prince of Prophecy and the Bladeless Sword
Sarah Nurlatifah626 viewsThe Last Mystic: Awakening in the Modern World
A knight in skirt 63 viewsThe Unbeatable Sword God's Legend
Alendra Danuarta402 views