The Anomaly's Path

The journey back from the edge of the Sealed Valley was exhausting.

We didn’t take the main roads. Carrying Malva in my arms while running through a war zone was hell on my shoulders, but stopping wasn’t an option. The sky above was a bruised, rotting purple, and every few hundred yards, the pressure in the air spiked hard enough to rattle my teeth.

Roan set the pace ahead of us, picking the route through the outer streets. He knew the layout of the commercial areas better than anyone, cutting through alleys, behind broken shops, and past smashed street lamps to avoid the main monster paths.

Elisabeth stayed on my left side, her violet eyes scanning the fog. Her blood power pulsed quietly around her hands whenever a stray beast moved in the shadows. We ran into several Grade 3 and Grade 4 beasts along the way, and even two massive Grade 5 armored beasts that burst out of a cafe wall.

Roan’s spear and Elisabeth’s blood spikes cut through them without slowing us down, though the constant fighting was starting to drain our mana. We didn’t stop to check the bodies. We just kept moving.

"How much further?" I shouted over the howling wind, shifting Malva’s weight. Her face was pale, her breathing weak against my chest.

"Just past the shops," Roan called back, leaping over a fallen stone pillar. "The Central Plaza is right through the main arch."

When we finally ran through the entrance of the plaza, the smell of blood hit us like a wall.

The Central Plaza, the heart of Aegis Prime where the festival had been held just hours ago, was completely unrecognizable.

The wide, open square was stained dark red and black. Overturned food stalls, smashed wooden carts, and broken festival booths were scattered everywhere. The floating glass lanterns that used to light up the night lay shattered across the ground, their faint blue glow fading out.

The fight here was already over, but the cost was everywhere.

Dead beasts were piled high across the open ground, mostly Grade 3s and Grade 4s, but among them lay the huge, broken bodies of several Grade 5s and even a few massive Grade 6 beasts, their thick hide torn open by powerful spells and heavy weapons.

Their black, burning saliva pooled deep on the floor, hissing against the stone.

The cost of holding the square was horrifying. Dead bodies covered the whole plaza, students in torn, blood-soaked uniforms lay beside dozens of civilians, merchants, and tourists who had been killed before help arrived.

Wounded students sat slumped against broken pillars, holding their torn arms or deep claw wounds while healers quickly wrapped bandages. A few surviving third-years knelt among the bodies in silence, their hands covered in dirt and blood.

In the middle of the destruction, near the shelter building on the edge of the plaza, terrified civilians were being led through the doors.

Elian was standing near the shelter entrance, his hair wet with sweat and beast blood. He was leaning heavily on a barricade, his eyes filled with exhaustion. Beside him stood two teachers I recognized from the training grounds.

Master Jaxen was a big, scarred Grandmaster High rank who taught the third-year fighters with his bare fists. Professor Fanya was a sharp-eyed Grandmaster Mid rank with a cold stare.

Seeing the bodies scattered across the square hit with a quiet, heavy weight. It wasn’t my first time seeing death. I had seen people die, and I had killed people myself back in the Path trials. But knowing it could happen didn’t make standing in the middle of it any easier.

The stench of blood, the raw sight of torn bodies, and the quiet sobbing of survivors wasn’t something anyone ever got used to.

I noticed Sylvia too, directing a group of council members who were carrying wounded civilians through the doors.

"Leo!" Sylvia turned the moment she noticed my gaze on her, her ocean-blue eyes locking onto us. As we approached, her sharp glance dropped instantly to my arms.

"Who is—" Sylvia stopped short, her eyes narrowing as she recognized Malva’s pale face. "Is she dead?"

"No, she’s not dead... just unconscious," I said, stopping a few feet away and letting out a heavy breath. "Damon, that bastard dropped out of the sky like a meteor near the valley wall. The shockwave caught her directly."

"Damon?" Sylvia’s eyebrows pulled together, a flash of cold concern passing over her face before she cut herself off, shaking her head to snap back to the immediate priority.

She didn’t waste breath with any more useless questions. She pointed toward the open doors of the shelter building. "Put her inside. Third room on the left."

I didn’t argue. I carried Malva straight through the doors into the warm, stuffy air of the stone shelter. Dozens of terrified civilians were huddled against the walls, crying quietly while healers moved between cots.

I found an empty bed, laid Malva down gently, and stepped back as a female student hurried over to check her pulse. Since Malva had only lost consciousness from the raw shockwave and wasn’t in immediate life-threatening danger, I knew she was in good hands.

Nodding once to the healer, I turned and headed back out.

When I stepped back outside into the cold air of the plaza, Roan, Elisabeth, Sylvia, and Elian were standing together near the barricades.

"Glad to see you’re still breathing, Leo," Elian said, an exhausted smirk flickering across his face. "For a second, I thought you took off and left us to handle the mess."

"And miss all this fun?" I scoffed, tossing a glance over the bloodied square. "We had to circle around the ridge to clear the worst of the fog. What’s the actual state of the city? The arrays out there are dead?"

I raised my wrist, tapping my mana-link watch.

"Don’t bother," Elian said. "Short-range messages still work inside closed areas like the Academy grounds, but the long-range network is dead. The corrupted mana from the valley overloaded the main towers along the outer wall. We can’t send or receive messages across the city right now."

"What about the teachers?" Roan asked, stepping up beside me, his hands still in his pockets. "Where are they while we’re working our asses off here?"

"Scattered," Sylvia replied coldly, taking a step closer. "Master Jaxen and Professor Fanya helped us hold the attack here. The civilians in this area are locked inside the shelter. But the rest of the city is a mess."

She paused, her eyes shifting toward the rising columns of smoke in the distance. She crossed her arms and let out a short, heavy breath.

"Professor Zane and Professor Valerio are stuck at the VIP shelter, keeping the shields up over the nobles and non-combatants. They can’t leave. Professor Eleanor is organizing the second-year fighters along the middle residential area."

"And Vice President Helene?" I asked.

"She took command of the main tower," Sylvia said, her voice steady despite the tension.

"She locked down the whole command room and took control of the Academy’s defenses. Right now, she’s holding the main line, keeping the barriers working so the whole area doesn’t fall apart at once. But without the main relay tower working, she’s doing it blind. The Grade 8 Gate is still pouring out monsters."

I gritted my teeth. "So we’re holding a broken net."

"Pretty much," Elian sighed. "The Gate boss is still stuck at the ridge, thank God. Morgana and Damon are holding the edge of the cliff, but the weaker beasts, from Grade 6 down to Grade 3, are pouring through the broken wall and spreading through the city streets."

He tapped his brass map, pointing at the red marks scattered across it.

"We cleared the main wave here for now, so this area is stable," Elian continued, looking back up.

"The eastern market area is being handled by Alice, Riven, and Lyssaria’s group. The residential area is mostly cleared thanks to Cordelia and Caster, with Marius covering their backs in the narrow alleys. But the western plaza... that’s where the worst breach is right now."

"Who’s there?" I asked, though deep down I already knew the answer.

"Seris," Sylvia said, her eyes locking onto mine. "She took a team to hold the western plaza wall alongside Professor Veyra, Amelia, and Nyra. They’re protecting the main evacuation route to the shelters. If that wall falls, thousands of civilians will be trapped in the open."

I frowned immediately, interrupting her.

"Wait, Nyra and Amelia?" I asked, my brows furrowed. "Shouldn’t those two be with Arthur?"

"No," Sylvia said, shaking her head. "Arthur refused to let them follow him. He forced them to stay with Seris’s team."

"He moved out alone?" I stared at her, genuinely surprised. "Where the hell did he go?"

"We don’t know," Elian replied. "He split off from the eastern courtyard. He didn’t tell anyone where he was going, but the last report showed him heading straight toward the outer wall."

My jaw tightened. What the hell is that fool thinking? Not only did he leave his team behind, but he’s running straight toward the valley completely alone?

I hadn’t spoken a single real word to Arthur since the exams. I had no idea what was going on inside his head these days, or what kind of death wish he was nursing. But running off on his own in the middle of a Grade 8 disaster was reckless.

I shook my head, unable to even understand what he was thinking.

"She’s been holding that breach for over twenty minutes," Elian added, snapping my attention back to the urgent reality in front of us. "They’re getting pushed back hard. If that wall falls, the beasts will surround this whole plaza from the side."

A quiet, heavy silence fell over us for a second.

Roan broke the silence with a low whistle, looking sideways at me with a lazy smirk. "Well. Sounds like your girl is putting on quite a show on the west side."

"Shut up, Roan," I muttered. "We’re moving to the western plaza. We’ll help Seris hold the line."

Elisabeth, who had been standing quietly near us, clicked her tongue softly. She stepped forward, her eyes fixed on me with cold certainty.

"I’ll also go with you," Elisabeth said, her voice smooth and steady. "The western plaza needs fighters to push back the wave. Sylvia, Elian, and the instructors can hold this area and protect the shelter. You don’t need to waste time here."

I looked at Elisabeth for a second. She didn’t explain herself, and she didn’t need to. She knew as well as I did that Seris’s line was about to break.

"Alright," I said. "Roan, let’s move."

Roan stretched his neck, a sharp, shit-eating grin breaking across his face. "Lead the way, boss. Gotta make sure we protect your little princess over there like the big damn heroes we are, right?"

"Shut up and run," I muttered, already moving. Without another word, the three of us turned away from the Central Plaza, cut through the ruined western arches, and sprinted into the streets toward the front line.

_

Meanwhile, on the outer edge of the Academy...

Arthur leaned his shoulder against a broken stone wall, his chest heaving as he gasped for air. Black, foul-smelling beast blood dripped from his broadsword, hissing against the ground beneath his boots.

Around him lay the torn bodies of half a dozen Grade 4 beasts, their dark blood soaking into his clothes. His hands were sore, his body aching from hours of fighting, but he held his ground, refusing to fall.

Further ahead, near the valley ridge, the air was thick with heavy pressure.

The aura coming from the Gate made his skin crawl. A dark, terrible presence hung over the peak like a storm cloud, something so huge and dangerous that Arthur knew, with certainty, stepping into the valley meant death.

He wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t going to throw his life away. If he wanted to help, he had to stand his ground right here, at the inner wall, and kill every monster that tried to push deeper toward the Academy.

Arthur wiped sweat and dirt from his forehead with his sleeve, letting out a sharp, tired breath. He tightened his grip on his sword, feeling the hum of his power beneath his skin.

A faint, weary smile touched the corner of his lips. I’m being completely reckless, aren’t I?

He couldn’t help but wonder what Leo would say if he saw him right now. Leo, who always moved with such cold, sharp focus. Would he make fun of him? Would he call him an idiot for running around without a team?

Arthur chuckled softly under his breath, a tired sound lost to the howling wind. It didn’t matter. Leo had already faced his own darkness and walked out the other side. Now, it was Arthur’s turn to stop running from the ashes of his past.

Gripping his broadsword tightly, Arthur stepped out from the shadow of the archway, his eyes fixed on the next wave of beasts coming out of the fog.