Chapter 16— Unholy Alliance.
Chapter 16—Unholy Alliance.
The impact shattered the spatial lock. The suffocating pressure crushing the room collapsed instantly. Lyra was freed, snapping back to her feet as her wind mana surged around her like a miniature storm.
Rylan turned his cold gaze toward Kaelen, his eyes glowing with a deadly violet aura.
"A commoner who understands the internal structure of a Level 4 spatial seal... You are far more dangerous than this Iwanome brat."
"You talk too much, assassin," Kaelen said, straightening up, his expression unreadable despite the blood trickling down his waist.
Tsubaki scrambled to his feet beside him, breathing heavily, his sword trembling slightly. For the first time in his life, the proud noble prodigy was standing shoulder to shoulder with a commoner he had despised just an hour ago.
"Kaelen...," Tsubaki muttered between clenched teeth. "What do we do? He’s Rank 2 of the Senior Elites. His spatial magic will shred us before we can even reach him."
A dark smile curled the corners of Kaelen’s lips.
[ STATUS WINDOW ]
[ Name: Kaelen ]
[ Level: 12 ]
[ Remaining Raw Energy: 130 ]
[ Special Ability: Void Echo (New) ]
"He thinks he controls the space in this room," Kaelen whispered under his breath, low enough that only Tsubaki could hear. "But he forgets one thing: I just absorbed the source of his power."
Kaelen raised his right hand. The violet lines of the System flared to life beneath his skin, crackling with dark electricity.
BZZZT
Rylan’s eyes widened in disbelief. The air around his hands began to warp and distort, entirely refusing to obey his commands. The spatial magic he was gathering was sucked directly toward Kaelen’s palm like a black hole.
"Impossible..." Rylan stammered, losing his composure for the very first time. "The relic was supposed to be destroyed!"
"It isn’t destroyed," Kaelen said, his voice dropping to an icy tone. "It just found a new master. Tsubaki, NOW!"
SWOOSH
Tsubaki’s silver blade flashed through the distorted air like a streak of lightning.
Deprived of his spatial control by Kaelen’s Void Echo, Rylan was caught completely off guard. He barely managed to raise his left forearm to block, but the raw speed of Tsubaki’s strike severed his magical defense.
SLASH
Blood sprayed across the shattered stone floor as Tsubaki’s edge cut deep into Rylan’s chest.
"Argh!" Rylan hissed, staggering backward against the ruined doorframe.
He clutched his bleeding torso, his eyes wide with disbelief as he glared at Kaelen. The violet aura around Kaelen’s right palm was still hungrily consuming the surrounding mana, destabilizing every spell Rylan attempted to weave.
"You... both of you will pay for this," Rylan spat, his voice trembling with rage.
SWOOSH
Before they could close in for the finishing blow, Rylan crushed a dark obsidian talisman between his fingers. In a blinding flash of a second, his magic signature vanished into thin air an emergency short-range teleportation rune..
The infirmary plunged into a heavy, suffocating silence.
The room was in absolute ruins. Cragged stone walls, shattered wooden cots, and the acrid smell of ozone and burnt blood filled the air.
Lyra lowered her wind-infused daggers, her breathing heavy as she rushed to Kaelen’s side.
"Kaelen Are you alright? Your flank..."
"I’m fine," Kaelen muttered, gritting his teeth as he pressed a hand against his reopening wound.
In reality, his mind was focused entirely on the blue screens flashing before his eyes.
[ COMBAT CONCLUDED ]
[ Hostile Target Neutralized / Forced Retreat.]
[ Raw Energy Balance: 110 Points Remaining. ]
[ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: Level Up Available. ]
[ Current Level: 12 -> Level 13 ]
[ Stat Points Allocated: Agility +3, Perception +2. ]
Kaelen felt a subtle surge of warm current flowing through his veins, dulling the sharp pain in his side and restoring his stamina.
Beside them, Tsubaki stood motionless, his silver sword dripping with Rylan’s blood. His shoulders were trembling slightly, not from physical exertion, but from the brutal reality setting into his mind.
He lowered his blade slowly, turning his pale face toward Kaelen.
"He escaped," Tsubaki whispered, his voice stripped of all his previous arrogance. "He will report to the High Command. They know the link was broken..."
"He won’t report immediately," Kaelen said coldly, stepping forward until he stood just a foot away from the noble prodigy. "He failed his mission, got outsmarted by a commoner, and was wounded by you. If he goes back empty-handed, his masters will execute him for incompetence."
Tsubaki looked up, his silver eyes locking onto Kaelen’s. "What do we do then? The Academy Instructors will be here in less than two minutes after all this noise."
"We stick to the script," Kaelen replied, a dark, calculating smile playing on his lips.
"Rylan was an infiltrator who tried to assassinate the heir of House Iwanome. You fought bravely to defend yourself, and I—the weak commoner simply got caught in the crossfire."
Tsubaki stared at him, realization dawning in his eyes. "And my relic? The missing mana?"
"You’ll tell them the assassin’s strike shattered your ancestral core during the fight," Kaelen whispered, leaning in closer. "It keeps your house’s pride intact, gives the Academy an enemy to hunt, and buys us time."
[ SYSTEM ALERT: Hostile Magic Signatures Approaching Rapidly. ]
[ Estimated Time of Arrival: 15 seconds. ]
Tsubaki swallowed hard, looking at his dead gray pendant, then back at Kaelen’s pitch black eyes. For the first time, he realized he was no longer the master of this game.
"Fine," Tsubaki gritted out, sheathing his sword. "An alliance. But if you betray me, Kaelen..."
"You don’t have the luxury to threaten me anymore, prodigy," Kaelen cut him off, collapsing back onto the floor and letting his face slide back into the mask of a terrified, trembling commoner just as heavy footsteps thundered down the corridor.
"Now... pretend you just saved my life."
The heavy oak doors of the infirmary were blown inward by a gust of pressurized mana.
Three Senior Instructors, led by Head Instructor Vance himself, burst into the room with weapons drawn. Behind them, a dozen elite guards flooded the corridor, their enchanted spears glowing with sharp, defensive light.
Vance’s sharp, weathered eyes swept across the devastation the cracked stone walls, the blood-soaked floor, and the broken spatial runes still flickering faintly in the air.
"What in the world’s name happened here?!" Vance’s voice echoed through the ruined hall like a thunderclap.
Kaelen lay on the cold stone floor, curled on his side, clutching his blood-stained bandage with trembling hands. He kept his breathing shallow and ragged, force-feeding his muscles a desperate, uncomfortable quiver.
[ ACTING PROTOCOL: Deception Mode Active. ]
[ Heart Rate: Artificially Elevated. ]
[ Facial Expression: Terror & Shock. ]
Beside him, Tsubaki stood tall, though his face was deathly pale and his sword remained sheathed. His silver eyes flashed briefly with hesitation before he recalled their script.
"Instructor Vance...," Tsubaki began, his voice surprisingly steady despite the sweat dripping from his chin. "An assassin infiltrated the campus."
Vance stepped forward, his heavy boots crushing splinters of wood beneath his feet. He knelt by a pool of dark blood on the floor Rylan’s and dipped two fingers into it.
"Magical signature... spatial element," Vance muttered, his brows furrowing deep into his forehead. He snapped his head up, locking his piercing gaze on Tsubaki. "Where is the attacker?"
"He used a short-range teleportation talisman and escaped," Tsubaki answered smoothly, drawing upon every ounce of his noble upbringing to mask the lie. "It was Senior Elite Rylan."
A collective gasp rippled through the guards standing in the doorway. Vance’s eyes narrowed to sharp slits.
"Rylan? Rank 2 of the Senior Class?" Vance stood up slowly, his aura flaring with cold anger. "Why would a top-ranked student target the infirmary?"
Tsubaki raised his left hand, presenting his silver pendant. The once-shimmering gemstone was now a dull, cracked piece of gray rock utterly lifeless.
"He was after House Iwanome’s ancestral core," Tsubaki lied, his voice laced with manufactured bitterness. "He ambushed me while I was inspecting the commoner’s injuries. During our duel, Rylan unleashed a spatial strike that shattered the core’s matrix... completely draining its power."
Vance took large steps forward, inspecting the dead artifact in Tsubaki’s hand. He reached out to feel the residual mana, but as expected, there was nothing left. Kaelen’s Void Echo had devoured every single strand of its origin power.
"A spatial assassin targeting high-grade noble artifacts inside the Academy..." Vance gritted his teeth, his hand tightening around the hilt of his broadsword. He then turned his cold gaze down at Kaelen.
"And you, commoner. How did you survive a Level 4 spatial assault from a Senior Elite?"
Kaelen let out a weak, ragged cough, shrinking back against the wall as if Vance’s gaze alone was enough to bruise him.
"I... I didn’t do anything, sir," Kaelen whispered, keeping his voice raspy and fragile. "The noble Lord Tsubaki... he stepped in front of me. He blocked the black needles with his blade. If he hadn’t, I would have been shredded to pieces."
Vance stared down at Kaelen for three agonizing seconds. Kaelen kept his eyes wide, filled with raw, unadulterated fear, letting the blood trickling from his flank speak for his helplessness.
[ PERCEPTION CHECK: Instructor Vance. ]
[ Target’s Suspicion Level: Decreasing (12%). ]
[ Assessment: Target believes the commoner was merely a collateral target. ]
Vance let out a heavy sigh, dismissing Kaelen with a wave of his hand.
"He’s just a rat who got lucky. Guards! Get the medical squad in here immediately. Seal the campus perimeter! No student or instructor leaves the gates without my personal seal."