The Thirteen Knight

Chapter 10- Finding Another Sealed Crystal

I spent the next three nights staring at the wall of my dorm room. The air was thick with the smell of burnt ozone and flux. I didn't sleep. I couldn't.

The Mid Term Assessment was coming, and if I didn't have a weapon, I was dead. Or worse, expelled.

On my desk sat the twisted, melted remains of the first gauntlet. It was a mess of fused steel and copper. It had saved my life, but it was a failure. It was too big, too clumsy, and it relied on heavy hydraulic pistons that I had ripped from cargo loaders. It was built like a tank, and that’s why it almost killed me.

I realized something while fighting that Wasp. I can't be a tank. I’m a Zero. My greatest strength is that they can't sense me. I need to be fast. I need to be invisible.

I looked at the prize I had salvaged from the incinerator belt: the shin guard of the Shadow Wasp. It was black, jagged, and harder than any steel I’d ever worked with. But the real treasure wasn't the hard shell—it was what was underneath.

When I pried the plating apart, I found it lined with a strange, grey organic mesh. It looked like dried meat, but when I ran a small current through it from a battery, it snapped tight. It was demon muscle fiber. Reactive. Lightweight.

The Zodiac Knights use magic to summon their armor from light. I didn't have magic, but I had biology.

I spent hours carefully stripping the fibers from the shell. I wove them together with copper wiring, creating a flexible undersuit that looked more like a complex medical brace than a gauntlet. I took the hardest pieces of the black chitin and cut them into small, overlapping scales, attaching them to the mesh.

The new Apostate Armor wasn't a bulky glove anymore. It was a compacted bracer.

A sleek, matte-black band that wrapped tight around my right forearm. It looked simple, almost like a piece of fashion jewelry or a heavy wrist guard. But inside, the circuitry was waiting.

The theory was simple: when I plug a power source in, the demon muscle fibers will react to the energy surge. They will expand and contract, pulling the chitin scales over my body and locking them into place instantly.

It wouldn't be a magical transformation. It would be a mechanical rapid-deployment.

I snapped the final casing shut. It clicked with a satisfying sound. The gauntlet was finished. It was light. It was hidden under my sleeve.

But it was dead.

I looked at the empty circular socket on the top of the wrist. It was a hungry mouth waiting for food. The dead Imp crystal I had was useless, just a grey rock.

I needed a live one. I needed a Sealed Demon Crystal. And I knew exactly where to get one.

The morning of the Assessment was grey and cold. The sky looked like a bruised ceiling.

The Grand Arena was packed. Thousands of students were filing in, their voices buzzing like a hive. I walked alone. I wore my standard Academy uniform, the grey jacket buttoned up to my chin. My left hand was in my pocket, but my right hand was hanging loose, the sleeve pulled down to hide the Apostate device.

"Hey, Null."

I sighed. I didn't even have to look.

Kaelen stepped in front of me. He was a third-year Pyromancer with messy red hair and a grin that made you want to punch him. He was surrounded by his usual group of lackeys.

"I heard a rumor," Kaelen said, blocking my path to the prep area. "I heard you got caught in that blast at the loading bay. Something about a gas leak?"

He leaned in, smelling like expensive coffee and cinnamon. "You're lucky, Royce. A rat like you usually gets squashed when the house falls down."

"Excuse me," I said, trying to step around him.

He moved to block me again. "Where are you going? The janitor closet is that way."

"I have the exam," I said quietly.

Kaelen laughed. It was a loud, barking sound that drew attention.

"The exam? You? You're a Zero. You have no mana. What are you going to do, sweep the Golem to death?"

I felt the cold metal of the Apostate Armor pressing against my skin. It was dormant, but just having it there made me feel different. I wasn't empty. I was loaded.

"I need the credits," I said, keeping my head down. I played the part. The sad, pathetic Null.

"Pathetic," Kaelen spat. He stepped aside, shoving my shoulder as I passed. "Try not to die. It's a lot of paperwork for the professors."

I walked into the prep area. My heart was beating steady. The biometric bracelet on my left wrist blinked green. I was calm.

I found my group. Group 4. The "Remedial" section. It was full of nervous first-years and students with weak Links. They were shaking, clutching their wands and staffs.

"Candidates, step forward!"

Professor Valerius was on the podium. He looked bored. He hated proctoring the low-level exams. When he saw me, his eyebrow twitched.

"Royce," he announced, his voice amplified by magic. "I am surprised. I expected a withdrawal form."

"I'm present, sir," I said.

"Very well. Summon the Constructs."

The floor of the arena rumbled. The heavy iron gates opened, and five Magitech Golems rose up on hydraulic lifts. They were seven feet tall, made of iron blocks and stone. They were crude, designed to take a beating.

But in the center of their chests, protected by a thick iron grate, was a glowing red light.

The Sealed Demon Crystal.

It was a generic Type-4 Core. Mass-produced. Stable. But it was demon energy. It was exactly what I needed to wake up my suit.

"Begin!" Valerius shouted.

The arena exploded into noise. The other students in my group started screaming and firing weak spells. A fireball hit a Golem and did nothing. A wind blade bounced off the stone armor.

My Golem locked onto me.

Clank. Clank.

It started walking. It was slow, but heavy.

I didn't cast a spell. I didn't run. I just stood there, my hands empty.

"He's frozen!" someone shouted from the stands.

The Golem reached me. It raised a massive iron fist. I waited. I needed it to commit.

The fist came down.

I didn't use magic. I used the reflexes I learned from dodging steam pipes in the tunnels.

I dropped to my knees, sliding on the sand. The fist sailed over my head, the wind of it messing up my hair.

I scrambled forward, right between the Golem's legs. I stood up fast. I was inside its guard, pressed right against its metal chest.

The Golem paused. Its sensors were confused. I was too close for it to punch effectively.

I grabbed the iron grate on its chest with my left hand. It was hot.

With my right hand, I didn't punch. I flicked my wrist.

A small, hardened steel lockpick slid out from a hidden slot on the Apostate bracer. It wasn't magic. It was a tool I made from a dental pick.

I jammed it into the maintenance release slot under the grate.

Click.

The latch popped open.

The Golem shuddered. Its programming registered a "Maintenance Override." It froze for a second, rebooting its logic core.

That was all I needed. I reached inside. The heat was intense. My fingers brushed the smooth, vibrating surface of the crystal.

I grabbed it.

"Mine," I whispered.

I didn't just yank it out. If I did, the Golem would shut down instantly and everyone would see. I needed it to look like an accident.

I twisted the crystal, disengaging the safety lock. Then I pulled it out, hiding it immediately in my palm.

At the same time, I kicked the Golem's knee joint—the exposed servo—as hard as I could.

It didn't hurt the Golem, but it messed up its balance while its gyroscope was offline.

The Golem tipped over.

I dove away, rolling across the sand just as the massive iron machine crashed face-first into the ground where I had been standing.

BOOM.

Dust flew everywhere.

I lay on my back, panting, clutching the stolen crystal tight in my hand.

I slipped it up my sleeve and into a lead-lined pocket inside my jacket before the dust settled.

The Golem didn't get up. Without its heart, it was just a pile of scrap.

The arena went silent.

Professor Valerius stood up on the podium. He frowned. He waved his hand, casting a diagnostic spell. A blue light scanned the Golem.

"Structural failure," Valerius muttered, looking annoyed. "Cheap manufacturing. The core containment must have ruptured."

He looked at me with disgust. He didn't suspect a thing. A Zero couldn't destroy a Golem. Therefore, the Golem must have simply broken on its own.

"Target Neutralized due to... technical error," Valerius announced. "Candidate Royce. Pass."

Laughter rippled through the stands.

"Look at that," Kaelen shouted from the balcony. "The Null has the devil's own luck! The thing died of boredom!"

I hung my head, acting ashamed. I walked toward the exit tunnel, letting them laugh.

"Just luck," I mumbled as I passed the other students.

But inside my jacket, against my ribs, the Sealed Demon Crystal was warm. It was humming.

I felt the Apostate Armor on my wrist react. It sensed the food nearby. The demon muscle fibers buzzed against my skin, eager to expand.

It wanted to unleash the armor. It wanted to show them what I really was.

Not yet, I thought, clamping my hand over my wrist to stop the vibration.

I walked into the darkness of the tunnel. A smile crept onto my face that nobody could see.

I had the lock. Now I had the key.

Tonight, the Apostate Knight returns.