Chapter 85: Seris Vale [4]
"A destiny of Sovereign, but... It’s not Elowyn."
Hearing Luke’s words, Mira perked up and asked,
"What do you mean?"
Luke ignored Mira and muttered to himself,
"Strange..."
Seeing that Luke was not answering her, Mira moved in front of him and punched his gut.
Luke’s eyes widened. He wanted to dodge, but it was too late.
-BANG
Luke took a few steps backward and looked at his fiancée with a questioning gaze.
In response, Mira scoffed and turned to leave, murmuring,
"Hmph, do not come talking to me, saying I am ignoring you."
Luke smiled helplessly.
Ever since the vampire incident in District Kazi, Mira had been punching him whenever he lost in thought, accusing him of ignoring her.
But Luke did not mind. He knew how to quell her sudden outbursts. He knew it was her way of stopping him from overthinking things.
"Seriously, she is such a..."
He sighed as his eyes sharpened.
"Whose destiny was that just now?"
The evening light filtered through the window, casting long shadows across the dormitory floor.
Dust motes drifted in the golden beam, stirred by the faint breeze from the open balcony.
Outside, students laughed and called to one another, their voices distant, unaware of the weight pressing down on the room.
...
On the other side, in the academy’s training grounds.
Elowyn walked through the shadows of the trees while holding her sword.
She was heading toward her usual training spot, which was hidden inside a small forest on the academy grounds.
The path was familiar, lined with old oaks and thick underbrush that swayed gently in the evening breeze.
Elowyn felt a slight pain in her head.
She closed her blue eyes and rubbed her temple, trying to ease the discomfort.
The pain was not sharp, but it was persistent, a dull throb that pulsed behind her eyes.
Suddenly, the air around her changed.
When she opened her eyes, they were no longer blue.
They glowed crimson, burning with an intensity that did not belong to her.
She turned toward the north and muttered,
"Who’s that bitch?"
Although she murmured softly, her voice contained a trace of unknown power, a weight that pressed against the air itself.
The leaves on the trees around her trembled, and the wind seemed to pause.
Then her eyes turned back to blue, as if nothing had happened.
The forest around her was still. The evening air, once cool and calm, now felt heavy.
Elowyn walked forward two steps before her mana suddenly increased.
She paused abruptly and asked herself,
"I broke through to [Gold 2] already?"
...
A little farther away from Elowyn, in the same forest, three students were sparring with each other.
Their movements were sharp, their swords clashing in the dim light filtering through the canopy.
Sweat dripped from their foreheads, and their breathing was heavy but controlled.
Just then, they all heard three words.
"Who’s that bitch?"
The words echoed from all directions, bouncing off the trees and filling the clearing with an unnatural resonance.
The three students stopped their sparring mid-swing, their weapons frozen in the air as if held by an invisible hand.
The clashing of steel, the heavy breathing, the quick footsteps, all of it ceased at once.
The clearing fell into a deep, unnatural silence, the kind that pressed against the ears and made the hairs on the back of the neck stand up.
Then slowly... they started to laugh.
If one were to hear that laughter, they might think it was just some teenagers laughing at a joke.
The sound was light at first, almost cheerful.
But if one were to see the state of the boys, they might be terrified.
Their eyes were wide. Their faces were pale. Tears streamed down their cheeks as they laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
The sound grew louder, more strained, more desperate.
As time passed, their voices turned hoarse, cracking under the strain of the madness that had taken hold of them.
Pure madness.
They could not stop. They could not breathe. They could only laugh, their bodies shaking uncontrollably, their minds trapped in something they did not understand.
...
Meanwhile, inside the academy’s Vice Principal’s office.
Seraphina sat in a chair while checking recent training programs for Class B’s and Class C’s.
Her finger tapped on the desk while her other hand supported her head as she leaned forward in a lazy posture.
The room was quiet, save for the soft rustle of papers and the distant hum of the academy’s barrier.
Just then, her amber eyes shone slightly as she turned her head toward the window.
A frown appeared on her brow.
She leaped out from the open window and moved toward her private villa.
Just now, she had sensed a large spike of mana.
She had also sensed a wild presence, unstable but unmistakable. It was not hostile, and yet, it was strong.
Within seconds, she reached her villa and entered it.
The door swung open silently, revealing the dimly lit interior.
The air inside was cool, carrying the faint scent of old wood and dried herbs nearby.
Her eyes widened slightly as she saw two figures covered in blood.
It was Cael and the dark green-haired girl.
The girl was unconscious, her body limp in Cael’s grip, but her body was still radiating mana, pulsing with a rhythm that did not match her breathing.
"What now?"
Seraphina asked, her voice calm despite the scene before her.
Hearing her words, Cael turned his head and smiled slightly.
"Nothing much, just completed the mission."
Seraphina did not respond.
Her eyes paused on the bloody crack on Cael’s arm, and the other wound still seeping red through his torn sleeve.
Before Cael could say anything, she knocked him unconscious with a swift strike to the back of his neck.
His body went limp, and he crumpled to the floor beside the girl.
A wave of cold mana pulsed from Seraphina’s hand as ice began to spread across Cael’s and the girl’s wounds, freezing the blood, sealing the cuts, and stabilizing their conditions.
She looked at the girl, who was missing her right arm and had multiple piercings on her body.
The wounds were clean, precise, deliberately placed to disable rather than kill.
Seraphina muttered,
"Ugh, what a mess."
...
Cael opened his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.
The room was white, sterile, with faint markings of healing inscriptions along the walls.
He tried to sit up, but his whole body spasmed in pain. Every muscle screamed. Every bone ached.
Bandages covered him from shoulder to wrist, wrapped tightly around his torso and legs.
All his injuries were healed, and yet his body was in extreme pain.
He instantly lay back down.
The fight with the dark green-haired girl replayed in his mind.
The white needles. Time Deceleration. The moment he cut off her hand.
The teleportation to Seraphina’s villa. He had pushed himself further than ever before, and his body was paying the price.
"I need to strengthen my body,"
He muttered to himself.
The door opened as Seraphina walked in, her amber eyes calm but observant.
"You awake?"
Cael shrugged as much as his injured body allowed and said,
"As you can see."
Seraphina crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe.
"What about that girl?" Cael asked.
"No need to worry. We patched her up. She will need three or four days to wake up."
Cael’s eyes widened in surprise.
"That long?"
He had seen how tough her body was. She had taken hits that would have killed a normal [Gold] ranker.
For her to need four days of recovery, something was wrong.
Seraphina’s expression did not change.
"Well, according to the doctors, she had been using her powers to the limits of her body for a long time. Over the years, her body reached its breaking point."
Cael shook his head and denied it.
"No way. Even if she was using powers beyond her body, her physique is no joke."
Seraphina ignored his words and continued.
"The State of Resonant is great, but it is also a poison."
"Like a drug. Once you get the taste of it, you want to use it again and again, until you lose control of your emotions and only do what you want to do."
"Like a machine with a mission and no emotions."
She shook her head and changed the topic,
"Anyway, do not think about it. Take a few days of rest."
"Your body is even worse than the girl’s. I will try to find any useful techniques."
"Bye now."
Seraphina turned and left, closing the door behind her.
The room grew quieter without her presence.
The only sounds were the soft hum of the healing inscriptions along the walls.
Outside the window, the sky was dark, the stars hidden behind a thin layer of clouds.
A new day was coming, but for now, there was only silence and the slow work of recovery.
Cael sighed and muttered while feeling the pain spreading through his body,
"If only there were a skill that could help me transfer my pain and injuries to another..."
He paused his words,
"Wait."
His eyes widened.
"That’s it."
________
[A/N: Unedited Chapter.]