2025-06-18 19:48:26The nightmare came again.
Burning skies. Screaming winds. Fields scorched black. Smoke rising in thick, twisting plumes that curled like claws into the heavens. Blood sprayed across broken ground like crimson rain. In the dream, Kai stood at the center of it all—laughing. A monstrous sound. Not his laugh nor his voice.But it came from his throat. He looked down at his hands. They dripped red. His fingers clenched, and magic crackled at his fingertips—too dark, too old. Something that didn’t belong in this world anymore. Bodies surrounded him. Friends? Foes? He couldn’t tell. A child with pale blue eyes tried to crawl away. He raised his hand again. The dream shattered. Kai sat in bed, gasping and sweat slicking his back and chest. His heart thundered in his ears. The dorm room was still dark, moonlight spilling across the cold stone floor. He touched his face and his arms, then his ribs…..they felt real and alive But the scent of blood still crawled in his nose. He stumbled out of bed, crossed the room, and locked himself in the bathroom. The mirror didn’t lie. There he was—messy hair, bruised eyes, ribs still bandaged. But as he stared, the lines blurred. The face in the mirror wasn’t his. It was older…harsher…..Cruel The Tyrant. He blinked, and the image was gone. “What am I?” he whispered. He clutched the edge of the sink until his knuckles turned white. The next morning, Class E was quiet. Too quiet. The other students glanced his way and quickly looked down again. Not out of pity—but caution. No one sat next to him. Not even Lina……She was absent. The professor droned about elemental convergence, but Kai couldn’t hear it. He couldn’t think. Not with the echo of that laugh still crawling through his skull. At lunch, he wandered the empty garden path behind the western tower—far from the eyes and whispers. There, he found her. Lina sat cross-legged on a stone bench beneath the ivy arch, her lunch untouched in her lap. Her eyes were rimmed red, though she tried to hide it when she saw him. “You okay?” he asked quietly. She nodded. But didn’t speak. He stepped closer. “You weren’t in class.” “I needed air.” They stood in silence for a while, the garden rustling around them like the world trying to breathe. Finally, she said, “They sent a letter.” Kai blinked. “Who?” “My parents. Or—who I thought were my parents.” Her voice shook, then steadied. “I’m adopted. I knew that. But I didn’t know… that I was part of them.” He frowned. “Them?” “The Order of Balance,” she whispered. “The same group that hunted the Tyrant.” The blood in his veins felt like it turned to ice. Lina looked down. “They told me to stay away from you. That I’m in danger.” “Are you?” he asked. Voice barely a breath. She looked up at him then….really looked. “No.” —— Later that day, Kai found himself drawn once again to the library’s restricted wing. The ward hadn’t been reset. Either no one had noticed the book was gone—or no one wanted to admit it. He found an isolated desk beneath a broken skylight. The sunlight streamed in strips across the old wood, and dust danced in the golden rays. Kai opened the grimoire again. This time, the page with the glowing glyph from the night before unfolded on its own. Lines rearranged. Words sharpened. And suddenly, he could read it. Memory Reclamation Protocol, Level VII. For hosts whose rebirth splintered identity. Activate with blood and intent. Kai hesitated. Then he pressed the pad of his thumb to the corner of the glyph. The skin split, just a bit. One drop of blood hit the page. A pulse of magic hit his chest like a hammer. ——- Flashes. Not dreams…..Not now…..Real. He saw a boy in red robes standing before a throne made of twisted bone and steel. He saw that same boy smiling as cities burned behind him. He saw himself—Rafe—locking a girl in chains and whispering promises of revenge. He saw betrayal. A dozen blades. Blood in his mouth. And then… A spell. A final incantation. Too powerful. Forbidden. Reincarnation. He had chosen this. He had planned to return. His eyes snapped open. “I was Rafe,” he whispered. “I chose to come back.” ——- That night, he wandered the dorm halls like a ghost, his thoughts a hurricane. He didn’t remember everything. But now he knew enough to be afraid of himself. Not because he might become the Tyrant again. But because… he understood him. And somewhere, deep inside, a voice whispered: You weren’t wrong, Rafe. You were just ahead of your time. He shook his head. “No.” He wasn’t going to be that monster. He wasn’t and he wouldn’t. But even as he said it, his fingers tingled with power. And behind his eyes… the world still burned.
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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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