Chapter 14— The Broken Link.
Chapter 14— The Broken Link.
The silence that followed the sound of Tsubaki’s footsteps was more suffocating than the gravity of the corridor. Kaelen could feel the blood pounding against his temples, each pulse reminding him of the urgency of the situation. In his right hand, the broken silver chain was still vibrating with a residual violet glow, warm and sharp like a burning ember.
Kaelen instantly commanded:
{System. Total concealment. Mask the signature of the relic and clean up the residual energy. Quick.}
[ Passive concealment activated. Consumption: 5 Raw Energy. ]
[ Energy signature masked. ]
Kaelen slipped the broken chain inside his boot, against his ankle, then wiped away the streak of dark blood trickling down his chin with the back of his sleeve. He let himself slide to the ground, ruffled his hair, and adopted the posture of a broken escapee, huddled over his burlap sacks.
The heavy wooden door of the storage room opened with a sinister creak.
Tsubaki stood on the threshold, his silhouette bathed in the low moonlight of the corridor. His silver sword was drawn, the bare blade shining with a glacial glint. His silver eyes, cold and analytical, swept across the small, dusty room before landing on Kaelen.
"M-My Lord..." Kaelen stammered, his voice trembling with frightening accuracy. His eyes were wide with feigned terror, his hands clutching his knees. "What’s happening? Has the arena started again?"
Tsubaki did not answer immediately.
He took a slow step into the room, the floorboards not even creaking under his weight. He raised his blade, bringing the tip of the steel within inches of Kaelen’s throat. The reflection of the moon on the sword illuminated the falsely struggling eyes of the commoner.
"A shadow slipped into my quarters," Tsubaki said in a low voice, like a razor sliding over silk. "A foul magic, and the only vermin close enough to crawl under my walls, I think it’s you."
"A shadow? I... I don’t know what you’re talking about!" Kaelen exclaimed, pressing himself a little closer against the wall, breathing heavily. "I’ve been sleeping here ever since the warden threw me the key! If there are monsters in the castle, please, don’t leave me here!"
Tsubaki narrowed his eyes. He projected his magical senses into the room, searching for the slightest trace of the divine flow or dark energy that had attacked him a minute earlier. But the System was doing its job to perfection; all he could detect was the residual wind mana of Lyra still floating on Kaelen’s clothes and the boy’s extreme physical fatigue.
After a long, heavy silence, Tsubaki slowly lowered his sword, but his gaze remained fixed on Kaelen’s.
"If I discover that you are linked, closely or remotely, to what just happened, I will cut off your head myself. Rat, don’t forget it," Tsubaki said.
He turned and left the room, slamming the door behind him. Kaelen waited until he no longer heard the slightest sound in the corridor before releasing his breath. The cowardly smile vanished instantly from his face, replaced by a dark mask.
Once certain he was alone, Kaelen pulled the silver chain out of his boot. The System interface immediately lit up before his eyes, tinged with a warning orange color.
[ Secondary Mission: Steal the relic. Status: (Partial) ]
[ Loot Analysis: Conducting link of the divine relic. ]
[ Capacity: 15% of the original artifact’s energy. ]
[ Required Effect: The execution protocol "Death of the host" is temporarily suspended for a duration of 24 hours. ]
Kaelen let out a joyless laugh.
"Twenty-four hours... The System really gives me no break."
[ Notification: To absorb the rest of the relic (85%), the host must break the protective barrier of Tsubaki-iwanome. Immediate physical proximity required during combat flow. ]
In short, he had to face Tsubaki. And not from the shadows this time, but head-on. The problem was that Tsubaki was going to guard his pendant with extreme vigilance after tonight’s attack. Time was working against him, and dawn was already showing its first pale rays through the storage room window.
A few hours later, the Academy bell rang for the gathering.
The survivors met in the central courtyard, a paved space of black stones surrounded by high gothic walls. The atmosphere was heavy. Lyra joined Kaelen, her face tired but relieved to see him alive. On the opposite side, Tsubaki stood alone, his pendant hidden beneath his tunic, his gaze fixed on the horizon, occasionally drifting down toward Kaelen.
A massive, scarred man wearing heavy black plate armor walked toward them. It was the Head Instructor of the Elite class. His eyes shone with a sadism that had nothing to envy the Director of the arena.
"Congratulations on surviving the night," the instructor said in a stentorian voice that made the air vibrate. "But do not think you are here to rest. At the Academy, weakness is a crime. And we are going to evaluate your real skills immediately."
The instructor clapped his hands. A massive screen of runic magic rose in the center of the courtyard, spitting sparks of blood-red mana.
"For your first class, we are going to test your responsiveness under pressure," the instructor said. "A duel of submission or immediate death. The pairs have been chosen at random by the Academy system."
The magical letters began scrolling at full speed on the runic screen, shuffling the candidates’ names.
Kaelen felt a strange vibration in his boot. The broken chain was reacting. Kaelen’s System had just discreetly hacked the Academy’s network to force fate.
The screen stopped abruptly with a magical whistle. The first two names appeared in letters of blood:
[ COMBAT 1: TSUBAKI-IWANOME vs KAELEN ]
A murmur rose among the nobles. Lyra held her breath, horrified, turning her eyes toward Kaelen.
Tsubaki, meanwhile, slowly uncrossed his arms. A cruel, almost predatory smile stretched across his lips as he placed his hand on the pommel of his sword. He stepped toward the center of the courtyard, his silver eyes fixed on the screen.
[ SYSTEM ALERT: Combat condition fulfilled. ]
[ OBJECTIVE: Touch the relic during combat. ]
[ TIME REMAINING BEFORE EXECUTION: 22 hours, 15 minutes. ]
Kaelen lowered his head, feigning to tremble with fear as he stepped toward the arena under the sneers of the other nobles. But beneath his unruly locks of hair, his eyes had turned pitch black and cold as the void. The hunt was on.
Tsubaki didn’t even bother to draw his silver sword. He stepped forward with a slow pace, the black wooden scabbard resting on his shoulder, wearing the disdainful smile of a Noble preparing to crush an insect..
"Show me that shadow magic, rat..." Tsubaki whispered in a voice only Kaelen could hear. "Or die here."
In a flash of speed, Tsubaki struck with the scabbard of his sword, aiming for Kaelen’s temple.
Instead of blocking or using his magic, Kaelen feigned panic. He threw himself clumsily backward, letting the scabbard graze his cheek while rolling ridiculously into the dust of the courtyard.
The crowd of nobles burst into laughter. To them, it was nothing more than a show of humiliation.
But Tsubaki wasn’t laughing. His silver eyes narrowed. This wasn’t the first time this commoner had dodged his strikes through pure luck. Annoyed, Tsubaki picked up the pace, unleashing a series of lightning-fast strikes.
Kaelen took the blows, stumbled, rolled on the ground, allowing himself to be bruised to feed the crowd, but every movement was a scientific calculation to draw closer to the prodigy’s chest.
Vexed by this battle dragging on against a talentless commoner, Tsubaki’s patience shattered.
"Enough playing!" Tsubaki spat.
With a hiss of glacial steel, he finally drew his silver sword. Wind mana wrapped around the blade, creating a lethal thrusting point aimed directly at Kaelen’s chest. It was a killing blow, designed to end it once and for all.
It was exactly what Kaelen was waiting for.
Instead of dodging, Kaelen allowed the tip of the sword to pierce his right flank. The pain was searing, hot blood soaking his tunic, but Kaelen didn’t step back. He used the blade embedded in his flesh as an anchor, locking his left hand around Tsubaki’s wrist and pulling himself close against him.
Before Tsubaki could notice this insane sacrifice, Kaelen shoved his right hand beneath the prodigy’s tunic, grabbing the eye-shaped pendant directly.
The moment Kaelen’s skin touched the violet stone, a shockwave invisible to the crowd surged through both of their bodies.
[ Relic Absorption in Progress... ]
[ 35%... 60%... 100%. ]
[ Fragment of the Divine Relic fully assimilated. ]
[ Execution Protocol: Cancelled. ]
[ Raw Energy Gained: +150. ]
Tsubaki’s eyes widened, his face turning deathly pale. He felt the power of his pendant vanish instantly, turning into nothing more than a dead, gray stone. He looked up at Kaelen, horrified.
Just inches from his ear, as blood dripped from his wound, Kaelen shed her mask as a cowardly commoner. His eyes turn black, it’s like emptiness, and an icy voice of absolute blackness, murmured
"Thank you for the gift." Prodigy.
Before Tsubaki could react or scream, Kaelen let himself be violently thrown backwards, dropping the pendant and screaming in pain as if he had just suffered the blow of his life. He collapsed heavily on the cobblestones, holding his bloody side and groaning like a dying victim..