The Thirteen Knight

Chapter 7- Binded Freedom

They let me out two days later, but it didn't feel like a discharge. It felt more like a prisoner transfer. The doctor gave me a final scan, checking my ribs and the lingering burn scars on my arm, before producing a bulky grey bracelet from a locked drawer. He clamped it onto my left wrist with a heavy click that sounded like a jail cell closing.

"Biometric monitor," the doctor explained, tapping the plastic casing. "It tracks your heart rate, blood pressure, and neural activity. It also functions as a proximity sensor. If you leave the Academy grounds without authorization, it will alert security immediately. And if your vitals drop below a certain threshold, it alerts the morgue."

He looked me dead in the eye, his expression completely devoid of sympathy. "Do not take it off, Mr. Royce. You are under medical observation, which means you are technically property of the research division until further notice."

I nodded because I didn't have a choice. I was a Zero with a barcode now.

Walking out of the infirmary into the bright sunlight of the main campus was jarring. The air still smelled like mana and cut grass, a sickeningly sweet combination that made my head pound. Students were rushing to their afternoon classes, holding heavy textbooks and glowing staffs, laughing about things that felt a million miles away from the life I was living. I pulled my sleeve down to cover the grey bracelet and kept my head down, trying to blend into the flow of traffic.

But I could feel the stares. News travels fast in a school full of telepaths and wind-whisperers, and everyone knew who I was now. I was the guy who survived the Loading Bay Explosion. I was the Null who walked away from a demon attack without a scratch while the walls melted around me.

"That's him," I heard a girl whisper as I walked past the central fountain. "The Zero who survived the blast."

"I heard his soul is inverted," a guy replied, not even bothering to lower his voice. "That's why the demon didn't eat him. He tastes like ash."

They moved out of my way as I walked, parting like water. Before the accident, they used to ignore me like I was part of the scenery, just another piece of furniture in the background. Now they looked at me like I was a bomb that hadn't gone off yet. It was better than being invisible, I guess, but it made it incredibly hard to move around without being noticed.

I went straight to my dorm room, a small, stale-smelling box in the basement of the boys' dormitory. I sat on my bed and stared at the wall, the silence of the room pressing in on me. I had survived the fight and I still had my ID card, but I was trapped.

I pulled the dead Imp Crystal out of my pocket. It sat in my hand like a piece of cold charcoal, lifeless and dull. It was useless now as a power source, but it was proof. It was physical evidence that my hypothesis was correct. A Zero can handle demon energy because we offer no resistance to it; we are the perfect conductors for the chaotic power that kills the natives.

I put the crystal away and looked at my left wrist. The grey bracelet blinked at me. Blink. Blink.

If I wanted to build the Mark Two, I needed to get back to Sub Reactor Bay 7, but if this bracelet tracked my location, the security team would see me going into a restricted area. They would come asking questions I couldn't answer. I needed to know what this thing could do, so I dragged my tool kit out from under the desk. I didn't have magic to scan the enchantments, but I had a precision screwdriver and a complete lack of respect for authority.

I carefully pried open the casing of the bracelet. It was tamper-proof for magic users, likely rigged to explode if it detected a mana probe, but the plastic clips popped open easily with a flathead. The circuitry inside was a hybrid of tech and mana runes, a standard tracking beacon powered by a small mana crystal.

I grabbed a spool of copper wire from my drawer. If I couldn't take it off, I had to trick it. I created a simple loop circuit, stripping the wire and connecting the input of the GPS node back to its own output. It was a basic feedback loop that would feed the bracelet its own last known coordinates repeatedly. As long as the loop was active, the central server would think I was sitting quietly at my desk studying.

It took me ten minutes. My hands were steady, finding comfort in the simple logic of wires and solder. I snapped the casing back on and watched the green light continue to blink. To the system, I was a model student. To the world, I was a ghost.

I grabbed my bag and slipped out the window, moving through the maintenance tunnels I knew by heart. The Mark One had failed because of heat; the Imp Crystal outputted too much raw energy and the scavenged cooling unit couldn't keep up. I needed a heat sink, something that could absorb the excess demonic radiation without melting into slag. Gold was a good conductor but too soft, and steel was too brittle. I needed Mythril, or at least an alloy with Mythril in it, but a single ounce cost more than my entire tuition.

I couldn't buy it, and I definitely couldn't steal it from the vault again since security would be tripled. I was stuck until my comms unit buzzed, nearly making me drop my bag.

It was Randar, my Dwarf supervisor.

"Boy," his voice rasped over the speaker, sounding like gravel in a blender. "Where are you? The shift roster says you're on medical leave, but the sensors say you're in the dorm."

"I'm resting, Randar," I lied, leaning against the cold stone wall of the tunnel. "Just woke up."

"Good, because I need you. Medical leave or not," he grunted. "I don't need you to lift heavy things. I need you to crawl. The blast in the loading bay knocked out the ventilation for the Incinerator Level. The scrubbers are jammed, and nobody fits in the vents but you."

My ears perked up. The Incinerator Level was where they dumped the high-level magical waste, and more importantly, it was where the Zodiacs dumped the debris from the fight. They wanted the wreckage gone before the press saw it.

"Is it safe?" I asked, trying not to sound too eager.

"Safe as a milk run," Randar said, which in Dwarf-speak meant it was incredibly dangerous. "The fumes are toxic, but you'll have a mask. Double pay. And I'll sign off on your Observation log so the doctors don't yell at you."

This was the chance. If I could get down there before the incinerator fired up, I could salvage the materials. The Shadow Wasp's chitin was harder than steel and heat resistant enough to survive the magma of the underworld. If I could harvest the Wasp's shell, I wouldn't need Mythril. I could build the Mark Two out of the demon's own skin.

"I'll be there in ten minutes," I said.

"Good lad," Randar said and clicked off.

I moved fast, ignoring the flare of pain in my ribs. I reached the service elevator for the lower levels and pressed the call button. The Mark Two needed to be sleeker, lighter. Instead of a tank, I would build a predator.

The elevator doors slid open, and I froze.

Sylvia was standing there.

She wasn't wearing her uniform. Instead, she was dressed in a grey hoodie and sweatpants, looking like she was trying desperately to blend in. She held a laundry basket in her good arm, but her eyes were wide with panic when she saw me.

"Chase?" she said, stepping back slightly. "What are you doing down here? You're supposed to be in bed."

"I... Randar called," I stammered, pointing at the tool bag on my shoulder. "Emergency repair. The ventilation is busted in the Incinerator Level."

Sylvia frowned, glancing between me and the elevator panel. "You're going to the Incinerator Level?"

"Yeah," I said, narrowing my eyes. "Why are you here? The laundry chutes are on the upper deck."

She looked away, shifting the basket nervously. She bit her lip, debating whether to lie or tell the truth. Finally, she sighed, her shoulders slumping.

"I lost something," she whispered. "In the confusion after the fight. My family ring. I think it got swept up with the debris when the clean-up crew came through."

She looked back at me, her eyes desperate. "It's the only thing I have from my mother, Chase. I heard they dumped everything into the incinerator. I have to find it before they burn it."

I stared at her. The perfect student, the elite mage, was breaking the rules and sneaking into a restricted zone just like me.

"You can't go down there, Sylvia," I said, trying to be the voice of reason. "It's toxic. You don't have a mask, and your arm is still messed up."

"I have a filtration spell," she insisted, stepping forward to block the door so I couldn't leave without her. "Please, Chase. You have access. Take me down there. I can't do it alone."

I looked at her, really looked at her. If I took her, she might see what I was doing. She might see me scavenging demon parts and putting them in my bag. But if I said no, she would probably try to find another way down and get herself killed. Or worse, she might report me to get the access codes.

I sighed, realizing I was a sucker.

"Fine," I said, stepping into the elevator and holding the door open. "But stay close to me. And don't touch anything glowing."

She smiled, a genuine look of relief washing over her face. "Thank you," she said, stepping in beside me.

The doors closed, and we started the long descent into the belly of the school, heading straight toward the fire.