Chapter 24: Prove Your Worth
They walked deeper into the labyrinth.
The silver light of the Moon Section faded behind them, replaced by a warmer glow bleeding through the black stone ahead. The air had grown dry enough to catch in the throat, and the temperature continued climbing with every step.
Caelus walked beside Veyra, his thoughts already several steps ahead.
He glanced at her.
She had barely spoken since the fight. Her eyes occasionally settled on him before returning to the path, the same quiet scrutiny she’d carried since the valley.
"So," Caelus said as they walked, "are you actually serious about making me your disciple?"
Veyra’s eyebrow rose.
"Weren’t you against it a while ago?"
"I was joking."
"That wasn’t how it sounded."
Caelus smiled pleasantly. "I didn’t think someone as mighty as you would actually take a crippled D-potential as a disciple. It seems I underestimated your generosity."
Veyra’s expression twisted.
"Please stop talking like that."
His smile widened.
She sighed. "You’re arrogant, spoiled, and a D-rank potential. Your affinity is difficult to master, and your attitude toward people who outrank you leaves much to be desired."
Caelus’s smile faded slightly.
Veyra continued walking.
"Then show me."
They reached the massive gate at the end of the passage.
She stopped before it.
"You want me to teach you? Prove you’re worth teaching."
Veyra raised her hand.
Purple needles of condensed sound formed around her fingers and shot into the gate. The needles struck the gate and detonated inside it, blasting the massive doors apart and opening the path beyond.
Heat rolled from the chamber.
Veyra looked through the opening.
"Kill them all."
Caelus followed her gaze.
Golden masks filled the chamber beyond.
"All of them?"
"Every one."
He looked back at her.
"Alone."
Veyra stepped aside. "No help from me."
Caelus stared into the chamber. "That’s quite a lot for a D-rank potential."
"Then you can’t do it."
His eyes narrowed.
"Will you teach me chantless incantation?"
Veyra’s expression changed.
"If you survive this, I’ll teach you."
His hand slipped into his storage ring.
"Then I need ten high-grade healing potions."
Veyra stared at him for a moment before throwing the vials toward him.
Caelus caught them and stored them immediately.
He pulled one back out and drank it. The injuries he’d suffered earlier healed almost instantly.
She looked toward the chamber.
"Planning to drink all ten?"
"Maybe."
Then he stepped forward.
Caelus lunged.
His sword tore through the nearest creature’s throat. The mask cracked beneath the impact, and the creature collapsed in a shower of pale fragments.
He didn’t slow down.
Another blurred behind him.
Caelus turned before it could close the distance.
Its arm came down.
He caught the attack on his blade, redirected it, and stepped past its shoulder. The creature’s own momentum carried it into another.
Their masks collided.
Caelus drove his sword through the opening.
He kept moving.
The problem wasn’t killing them, it was keeping track of them.
Every time his attention settled on one creature, another began moving somewhere outside his immediate focus.
Water spread from beneath Caelus’s boots.
A thin layer covered the stone.
Ripples moved across its surface.
He didn’t need to look at every creature anymore. The water gave him a second sense, every disturbance marking movement across the chamber.
A ripple cut sharply to his right.
Caelus turned.
A creature was already halfway through its charge.
He stepped aside and let it pass.
Another came from behind.
The water moved first.
Caelus ducked as its arm swept over him.
He drove his sword into its side.
The creature collapsed.
More creatures moved.
Caelus backed toward one of the chamber’s narrower passages, forcing them to approach from fewer directions. One lunged, and he slipped aside at the last moment, sending its claws into another creature. Their bodies collided, giving Caelus just enough time to cut through the first one’s mask before the second recovered.
Another came.
Then another.
He kept moving.
A strike slipped past his guard and smashed into his ribs.
Something cracked.
Caelus staggered, pain flashing through his side.
He pulled a potion from his ring.
The creature lunged again.
He drank while moving.
Heat spread through his chest as the broken bone began knitting back together.
He gritted his teeth.
Another creature came from his blind side.
Caelus twisted too slowly, and its claws tore across his shoulder. Blood ran down his arm as he drove his sword through its mask. He pulled the blade free and swallowed another potion without breaking stride.
Another blow caught him across the ribs.
Caelus staggered, nearly dropping his sword.
His body screamed at him to stop.
He remembered nights spent training until his muscles tore, only to force them through another round after they healed. Countless mornings when his body had refused to become what he demanded of it. Blood spilled against training dummies stronger than he was. Faces watching him struggle and deciding he was still not enough.
None of that had prepared him for the betrayal.
None of it had prepared him for waking in this world with the people he loved gone.
But pain was simple.
Pain had edges.
Pain could be endured.
Caelus raised his sword.
"Again."
The chamber seemed to shrink around them.
Caelus’s breathing had become ragged. His left arm barely answered him, and blood ran from several cuts beneath his torn clothes.
Another creature rushed him, and Caelus cut it down before turning toward the next.
He was running out of strength.
The potions were repairing him, but the damage was accumulating faster than his body could recover.
He reached for another vial.
His fingers slipped.
The vial struck the stone and shattered.
The liquid disappeared between the cracks.
Caelus stared at the broken glass.
"Damn it."
A creature came through the spray of fragments.
He raised his sword but the impact drove him backward.
Something cracked in his chest.
His knees nearly gave out but he forced them straight.
The creature attacked again.
Caelus stepped inside its reach and buried his sword in the base of its mask.
He didn’t pull the blade free immediately.
His hands were shaking.
He looked across the chamber.
Still too many.
He laughed once under his breath.
"You have got to be kidding me."
Eve watched him from the edge of the chamber.
His movements had become rougher. His breathing was uneven, and his sword arm shook whenever he raised the blade.
Yet every time a creature slipped past his guard, he forced himself forward again.
Another attack came.
Caelus barely avoided it.
Eve’s fingers tightened around her blade.
He missed one creature. It attacked. He barely survived.
A creature lunged.
Caelus moved but his body didn’t.
His sword rose halfway.
The creature’s arm came down.
Violet light flashed.
The creature vanished beneath a compressed shockwave.
The remaining creatures turned as Veyra stepped into the chamber, a dozen violet needles hovering around her.
Caelus looked at them through blood-streaked vision.
"I had that."
"You were about to become a corpse."
"Still counts."
Veyra’s expression hardened.
The needles fired.
Violet streaks crossed the chamber.
One creature’s mask shattered before the shockwave tore through its skull. Another folded inward as a needle detonated inside its chest. A third simply vanished beneath the impact, leaving fragments scattered across the stone.
Within seconds, the chamber was silent.
Veyra crossed the distance and caught Caelus before he fell.
"Open your mouth."
"I can—"
She shoved a potion between his teeth.
"Drink."
Caelus swallowed.
The potion spread through his body.
His ribs began knitting together.
Eve appeared beside them and took his weight when Veyra released him.
Caelus’s head dropped against Eve’s shoulder.
He was still trying to stand.
Eve kept one arm around him.
His weight had become heavy.
His hands were still wrapped around the sword.
Even half-conscious, his fingers refused to loosen.
Eve remembered the way he’d fought.
Every time his body broke down, he simply drank another potion and went back in.
Like tomorrow was someone else’s problem.
Her gaze lingered on his bloodied face.
"Idiot," she muttered.
It was the first thing she’d said but Caelus was too exhausted to hear her.
Veyra stood over him.
The boy who had entered the chamber as a D-rank potential was now covered in blood, his clothes torn, his body barely holding together.
Yet his sword was still in his hand.
Veyra looked toward the ruined chamber.
He had not defeated the horde.
But he had lasted far longer than he should have.
And when his body had reached its limit, he had continued anyway.
Her gaze returned to him.
"Don’t worry."
Caelus cracked one eye open.
"About what?"
"I’ll think about making you my disciple."
His mouth twitched.
"That’s supposed to reassure me?"
"It’s the best you’re getting."
His eye closed again, and a faint smile touched his bloodstained face.