“Don’t come near me!!!” the girl screamed, her voice quaking with a mixture of fear and desperation. Her wide, panicked eyes darted around her, searching for an escape, but all she saw were faces filled with suspicion and dread. She clutched the artifact to her chest as if it were her only lifeline.
“It’s fine, just calm down,” Delphine urged, her voice gentle and soothing, though it wavered with the tension in the air. She hesitated, then took a cautious step closer, hands raised in a non-threatening gesture. “We won’t hurt you. We just want to help.”
“Lies!!” the girl shrieked, her voice cracking under the weight of her terror. She tightened her grip on the artifact, her knuckles turning white as she glared at each professor surrounding her. Her body trembled, but her eyes burned with a fierce determination, as if daring them to make a move.
“We’re not lying,” Alaric intervened, his tone a careful balance between firmness and empathy. He took a step forward, his expression serious but not unkind. “Just hand over that thing, and I promise, we’ll let you go. No one here wants to hurt you.”
Alaric’s mind was racing….. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing—a servant’s words coming true, and this girl, of all people, at the centre of it.
And of course, He recognized her immediately; she wasn’t just any student.
She was one of the victims of Kennedy’s molestation, a girl who had already suffered more than enough.
‘What the hell is going on here?’ Alaric’s thoughts churned with confusion and frustration. Why was she doing this? What had driven her to such an extreme? Could it be that Kennedy had somehow coerced her before his death? But Kennedy was dead—he had made sure of that. So who else could be manipulating her?
As Alaric wrestled with his thoughts, Aether, in his usual drunken stupor, seemed entirely detached from the gravity of the situation.
His hazy gaze was fixed on Helena, who was diligently tending to the wounded. Without her healing powers, she was forced to rely on basic first aid, her hands moving with a careful, practised precision that spoke of her experience.
‘Hmm… How should I seduce her?’ Aether mused the dire circumstances of their predicament he wasn’t giving a fuck about that!
The chaos swirling around him was nothing more than background noise.
His focus was solely on Helena…. His current target.
He understood seducing her was the only way to escape from this predicament.
He felt he had already made his way into her heart, but something was missing—some crucial element he couldn’t quite grasp.
He was close, so close, but that final inch felt more daunting than crossing an entire mile!
Aether was so lost in his thoughts that he barely noticed when Raven Noir appeared beside him, her presence as sudden as it was unexpected.
“Do you really think so?” she asked, her voice low and probing.
Aether blinked, momentarily disoriented. “What are you talking about?” he replied.
Raven pointed toward the girl clutching the artifact, “Don’t you think something feels… off about this?”
Aether stared at her, “To be honest, you are the one that feels something wro—mmfff” His words were abruptly muffled as Victor, ever watchful, clamped a hand over his mouth, silencing him before he could say something foolish.
Raven tilted her head, her sharp eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion.
Aether shot Victor a quick, questioning glance, then cleared his throat loudly. “What exactly do you mean?” he asked, doing his best to sound coherent despite his muddled thoughts.
Raven continued, her tone laced with suspicion, “I mean, if they planned everything so meticulously, do you really think they’d just place her out in the open like this, practically gift-wrapped for us to find? It feels… too easy.”
Before Aether could respond, Aqualina stepped in,
“Yes, you’re right, but this search only happened because Aether said otherwise we might not be able to find the traitor”
Raven considered Aqualina’s words, her expression was thoughtful, “Yeah…”
Aqualina then turned her gaze toward Aether, who was still leaning heavily on Victor for support. Her lips pressed into a thin line of irritation as she leaned in close to Aether and whispered sharply, “You just went along with him without even telling me?”
Aether flashed her a lopsided, mischievous grin, his fingers twitching as if about to pinch her cheek in a playful retort. But before he could make his move—
“DON’T COME NEAR ME!!!” the girl’s voice rang out again, high-pitched and frantic. Alaric, his patience finally snapping, decided he couldn’t wait any longer. He moved with lightning speed, grabbing the girl’s hands and trying to wrest the artifact from her grip.
But before he could secure it, the artifact suddenly emitted a chilling, mechanical voice that echoed through the stadium, freezing everyone in place.
“Now you’ve done it!”
BOMF!
The girl’s head exploded with a sickening pop, spraying blood and gore across the stunned onlookers.
“….”
For what felt like an eternity, no one moved. The students stood paralyzed, their faces ashen, unable to comprehend the horror that had just unfolded before their eyes.
Alaric, his expression grim and unyielding, knelt down and carefully picked up the artifact from the girl’s lifeless hands. He stood up slowly, his eyes sweeping across, meeting each student’s gaze with cold determination. “Don’t feel pity for her,” he said, his voice hard as steel. “She was one of the causes of your friends’ deaths. She knew what she was doing.”
The students, heads bowed in a mix of fear and reluctant understanding, nodded slowly. The initial shock was giving way to a grim resolve. The thought of finally escaping this deadly situation was a faint but growing light at the end of a dark tunnel.
With a look of deep irritation, Alaric thrust the artifact toward Aether. “Now, turn it off,” he ordered his patience worn thin by the day’s events.
But before Aether could take hold of it, Raven swiftly stepped in, snatching the artifact from Alaric’s hand. Her eyes narrowed as she examined the device with intense focus.
Everyone watched in tense silence as Raven studied the artifact. Then—
Crack
Crack
Crack
Crack
The four crystal balls embedded in the ‘X’-shaped artifact suddenly detached and fell to the ground, shattering into fragments. The sharp sound of breaking glass was followed by a collective gasp as panic surged through the students. Instinctively, they clutched their heads, bracing for the worst.
“What the hell did you do?!” Jack roared, his voice thick with anger and fear.
But nothing happened. No explosions, no deadly traps, no catastrophic events followed.
Raven, calm and composed, nodded slightly as if confirming something to herself. “As I suspected,” she said, her voice cool and steady. “Those were just dummies, meant to throw us off.”
Aether frowned, taking the artifact from her hands and examining it closely. After a moment, he sighed, his shoulders relaxing slightly. “Yes, she’s right. The only thing functioning here is the controller.” He pointed to a yellow crystal embedded in the device that glowed faintly, a soft light that seemed to pulse with restrained power.
“What do you mean?” Alaric asked.
Aether, instead of immediately responding, turned his focus to the artifact, his eyes scanning the intricate symbols etched into its surface. After a moment of intense scrutiny, he nodded to himself as if confirming a theory. “It’s a wireless network… ah,” he mumbled, more to himself than anyone else.
“Wireless… What?” Alaric’s frown deepened, the unfamiliar term sparking irritation.
Aether shot a quick glance at Aqualina before explaining, “When someone trapped Aqua, they used a more basic version that required wired connections for data transfer. But now,” he pointed to the complex circuit symbols, “these circuits are more advanced. They’re transmitting data directly through the air… no wires needed.”
“What do you mean?” Delphine’s voice held a note of impatience, still couldn’t get it.
Before Aether could formulate a simpler response, Raven stepped in, her voice steady and composed. “He’s saying that those crystal balls were functioning without needing to be physically connected to a power source or each other. They were operating independently, communicating through the air.”
“….”
A heavy silence settled over the group as the implications of Raven’s words began to sink in.
“If it’s just a controller,” Aqualina mused, her expression thoughtful, “then we should be able to turn off the dome without needing to find and deactivate the other crystals, right?”
Raven shook her head, her gaze shifting to the artifact with a hint of wariness, “We don’t know exactly what kind of circuits are inscribed on those crystal balls. If we attempt to disable the controller, it could trigger something in the crystals themselves—maybe even something catastrophic. It’s too risky to act without more information.”
Aether turned to Raven, surprise flickering in his eyes. “You know a lot about this kind of stuff,” he remarked, not hiding his admiration.
Raven remained silent, her face unreadable.
The students and professors who had just begun to relax after their initial relief now found themselves on edge, their hopes dashed by the complexity of the situation.
Before panic could fully set in, Aether who had been staring at the map suddenly pointed to the academy map, specifically at four locations within the major circles, “I believe the real crystals must be located at the centres of these domes. We need to organize four teams to head to each of these locations.”
Alaric stared at Aether, feeling a strange mix of frustration and helplessness. Here he was, a Vice-Principal of one of the most prestigious academies, reduced to taking orders from a servant. ‘What kind of curse have I been saddled with?’ he thought bitterly. Yet, despite his annoyance, he knew there was no other choice.
“Alright,” Alaric said, his voice regaining its usual authority. “We’ll form teams. Elite students will stay here to protect the students, while the professors will search for it”
Just as he began organizing the teams, a sudden, panicked shout echoed through the stadium. “V-Vice-Principal!!”
Alaric spun around to see a guard staggering into the room, his body a horrific sight. Blood streamed down his torn uniform, his limbs grotesquely mangled, with parts of his chest ripped open, exposing the raw, torn flesh underneath. The sight was so shocking that several students gasped, their faces draining of colour.
Everyone horrified!
Helena instinctively moved to rush to the guard’s aid, but Finnian grabbed her arm, his expression stern. “You’re not allowed to use your powers, remember?” he whispered urgently.
“…” Helena hesitated, her heart aching with the need to help, but she nodded reluctantly.
The guard, his voice weak and trembling, managed to gasp out, “T-That monster… it’s moving…” His eyes rolled back, losing their colour, and with a final shudder, he collapsed, lifeless, on the ground.
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Alaric stared at the lifeless guard, his eyes narrowing in cold calculation.
He had sent a few guards to investigate the bell after hearing Aqualina’s report, thinking that, at worst, the children might have been frightened by a few oversized spiders. He never anticipated the situation would escalate into something so… grotesque.
His gaze shifted to the Elite class students, their faces pale with barely concealed fear. Alaric sighed, “You guys will search for the crystal,” he commanded, his voice hard as steel. “A few professors will stay behind to protect the children. The rest, come with me…”
Meanwhile…
In the shadowy depths of the academy, something malevolent stirred.
A swarm of spiders, their movements unnervingly synchronized, scuttled through the dark corridors, their countless legs tapping against the cold stone floor in a chilling symphony.
Suddenly, a sharp ‘crack’ echoed through the halls. One of the crystals, small, shattered violently.
“Hmmm? Looks like someone found one of my toys,” a mechanical voice chuckled, the sound reverberating with a twisted sense of amusement.
“Well, it will take some time before they find the rest of my toys.” As the mechanical noted the remaining three crystals.
The spiders gathered before a massive, ominous door….. it was the entrance to the Origin Pillar.
The mechanical voice hummed thoughtfully as if contemplating its next move. “Let’s find my final piece for perfecting ‘The Thing,'” it said, the words dripping with sinister intent.