The Key of Order, as its name suggested, was a key — one of many enchanted items bound to and found on the Ascent Isles.
Despite their modern architecture, the Ascent Isles were a place of countless mystery and wonder.
The creators of the Apex Academy — the first Grandmasters — left behind numerous secrets and constructed places of unnatural phenomena.
For example, there were many rooms on the Ascent Isles that could move. Like actually move through space.
Their positions change constantly, making it impossible for someone to get inside directly. These were known as Dimensional Chambers.
The only way to enter them was to rush inside the moment someone was exiting.
Another fascinating place was the Hall of Echoes, where you could hear every conversation that had ever taken place on the Ascent Isles, as long as you were a part of them.
The Stairwell of Paradox was one more anomaly. No matter how far you climbed, you’d always end up on the same floor — unless you knew the trick to escape its loop… which was to jump out of the windows.
Then there was the Everwatching Mirror. It reflected not just your image but also glimpses of your past and future selves — although never in the order you might expect.
There were many other such things — like the Slate of Ten Commandments, the Reverse Time Candle, the Bridge That Leads Nowhere, or the Coin of Certain Loss.
But perhaps the strangest of them all was the Scholar’s End — a room that did not exist until you realized you were already inside it.
I had never encountered the last one even in the game.
And one particularly intriguing relic was what I had set out to find right now — the Key of Order.
It was a simple bronze key that could be inserted into any door, and if there was no keyhole, one would just magically appear.
When you twisted the key and opened the door, you could exit to any room on the Ascent Isles, as long as you had an image of the desired room in your mind.
Cool, right?
Of course. But there was a problem.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to remember exactly where the damn Key was.
Fuck my goldfish memory.
I knew Michael had found it in one of the Restricted Vaults in the Archives that was accessible only to an Ace.
He’d been searching for anything that might lead him to the truth about his parents’ disappearance.
Logs, documents, research papers — anything that could help him understand the Death-Zone where his parents vanished.
And in one of those Vaults, he found that Key.
It wasn’t a coincidence. Well, not entirely.
You see, the Key of Order wasn’t some one-of-a-kind relic.
In fact, there were twelve of them.
Three were in the hands of selected faculty members.
The rest belonged to senior Cadets — specifically, those who were part of a secret society known as the Order of Twelve.
The Order was a covert faction within the Academy.
It wasn’t very different from a collective in its function, but their goals couldn’t be more different.
They didn’t waste time on trivial things like enforcing their superiority or discrimination.
Instead, they focused on growing stronger, studying and sharing forbidden knowledge, subtly manipulating academy politics from the shadows, and carrying out the wills of the Grandmasters.
So how do you join them?
You don’t.
If you have undeniable proof of the Order’s existence, then you’re either already part of it… or you’re someone who was never supposed to know.
Each year, when the third-years graduate, those who had been part of the Order hide their Keys throughout the Ascent Isles.
A freshman who finds a Key is granted the right to know about them, to learn about the Order, and to become one of them.
And only those in possession of one of the twelve Keys could join, hence the name — Key of Order.
It wasn’t just a requirement. It was a necessity.
Why?
Because the Order’s base of operations was located on Crown Island — a smaller island floating right above the Main Island, directly over the Apex Tower.
Getting there was nearly impossible unless you had some means of teleportation because the island was protected by its own force field bubble, separate from the rest of the Ascent Isles.
Even the Instructors and the Cadet Council weren’t allowed there — let alone capable of reaching it.
Well, whatever. None of that mattered to me.
I wasn’t going to join the Order. Joining them meant following their rules, and I wasn’t the type to do as I was told.
I just needed that Key.
My original plan was to get into every Restricted Vault that even vaguely resembled the one where Michael got the Key in the game and search through them all.
It would’ve taken time — at least a day or two.
But fortunately, Michael had unknowingly made things easier for me.
As part of our deal, he added a condition — I had to retrieve the books he needed from the Archives.
Which meant all I had to do was check the Vaults containing those books. At least one of them was going to be the right one.
And just like that, what would’ve taken a day’s work turned into a few hours.
Heh.
Aren’t I a genius?
After Michael listed all the documents and books he needed, Damian showed us a map of the first two floors of the Archives and marked the areas where we’d find them.
We started with the first floor.
I used my golden badge to open the restricted Vaults and took out every document Michael requested.
It didn’t take long to gather most of what we needed.
And in none of those Vaults did I find the Key.
Which meant it was time to move on to the second floor.
But there was a tiny problem.
“You can’t go in there,” one of the guards said flatly to Michael.
We had taken one of the spires to reach the second-floor entrance, where three guards stood watch. One of them blocked Michael from stepping inside.
Turns out, the entire second floor was reserved for second-years. First-years weren’t allowed in — unless they were the Ace.
I shrugged. “Bye-bye.”
“Wait!” Michael groaned and handed me a list. “Just don’t forget anything. And do you remember all the marked places Damian showed us on the map?”
I gave him an offended look. “My memory’s bad, but not that bad. I saw them just a few minutes ago, Michael.”
He shot me a skeptical look.
“Of course,” he muttered. “I’ll be waiting in the reading room next to this building.”
“Sure.” I turned to leave but stopped midway. “Oh, by the way, Michael. You once said you have an X-ray Card on you, right? Mind lending it to me?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
I shrugged and lied through my teeth. “Might help me find your books faster.”
•••
The second floor was nothing like the first.
While the first floor was built like a city, this place actually looked like a library – if libraries were designed to be labyrinths.
Towering bookshelves stretched endlessly, forming an intricate maze that was impossible to navigate at a glance.
Sections were marked on the ceiling, but even here, it was so dark you wouldn’t see a thing without a bright flashlight.
Scattered throughout this maze were more Restricted Vaults.
But as I passed, I noticed even rarer items like Memory Stones, Scrolls of Soul Imprints, and Storage Drives.
Memory Stones were crystals capable of storing memories. By holding it in your hand, you could recall something in your head and the stone would record it.
They were used for knowledge that couldn’t properly be expressed in books.
Scrolls of Soul Imprints, when activated, summoned an AI-like holographic projection of the person who had left their imprint.
You could ask these holographic avatars questions, and they would answer to the best of their knowledge from when they were alive.
And Storage Drives were… well, storage drives. Not everything was magic.
Unlike the mostly empty first floor, the second floor was packed with second and third-years. Mostly third-years.
Unlike us freshmen, the upperclassmen were already so serious about their studies and missions.
Occasionally, I caught glimpses of torchlight flaring between the shelves or Cadets jumping across them to navigate the maze.
Now, I’m not proud to admit it, but I got lost within minutes.
After some trial and error — and asking around — I also had to resort to jumping atop bookshelves to find my way.
As I moved, I spotted flying tomes rearranging themselves, a quill scribbling on sheets of paper on its own, and a book that was literally whispering something in an unknown language.
A cute senior girl passing by advised me, “If a book ever whispers to you, don’t answer.”
I wholeheartedly agreed.
•••
Soon, I reached the section I wanted to go to.
Once again, I used my badge to open the Vaults and searched through them one by one.
“Aha!”
After nearly fifty minutes of rummaging and cursing, I finally found it.
Tucked behind a book, there it was.
A bronze key, with a photograph attached to it.
The photo showed a picture of what looked like an empty conference room with a large round table.
Behind it, cursive writing read:
‘You are chosen by us, Cadet. The Order welcomes you. Unlock a door using the key while imagining this room in your mind, and you’ll achieve greatness.’
I scoffed.
Achieve greatness. Yeah, right.
It sounded like a recruitment pitch for a cult. Which, in a way, the Order was.
Shaking my head, I pocketed the photograph and took the bronze Key in my hand.
Then, I stepped toward the Vault door, closed it, and held the Key up to it.
Immediately, a keyhole appeared on its smooth metallic surface.
I focused and pictured a room in my mind, then twisted the Key and swung the door open.
“…Woah.”
I was speechless.
Beyond the door was a room filled with bookshelves, several couches and chairs, and a table at the center with a lamp glowing softly atop it.
It was a reading room.
The very same one where Samael had found the Summoning Card of Asmodeus in the game.
This was another reason I needed the Key of Order.
Aside from its importance to my long-term plans, I also needed it to find this specific reading room.
The problem was, there were thousands of reading rooms scattered across the Archives.
The game never specified exactly which one Samael had entered where he found that Card. I remembered its layout from the inside, but I had no clue where the reading room actually was.
So I tried this.
I used the Key and imagined the reading room from the game.
I wasn’t sure it would work. After all, I had never seen the room in person — only on a screen.
But, well. It worked.
I took a deep breath and stepped inside, shutting the door behind me and cutting off its connection to the Vault.
Now, if I remembered correctly, the Card was hidden inside one of the secret compartments in these shelves.
But I wasn’t about to go looking for it by hand.
Because, as I might’ve said numerous times already…
I wasn’t confident I could resist Asmodeus’ tempting whispers of power, revenge, fame, women, and god knows what else.
So instead, I summoned a Card I had borrowed from Michael earlier.
And as soon as it manifested over my head, my eyes lit up, glowing softly like distant stars.
My vision shifted.
Immediately, I could see through objects. It wasn’t quite X-ray vision, but it was exactly what I needed.
I scanned the shelves, looking through the wood and paper, until—
There.
I found a hidden compartment.
And inside it—
“Huh?” I scowled in confusion.
It was… right there.
The Summoning Card of Asmodeus.
“This is strange,” I muttered, scratching my chin.
I leaned in, eyes narrowing as I studied the rune markings on its surface.
It was exactly the same as I remembered from the game.
No doubt about it.
For a second, I was tempted to pull it out, to inspect it more closely. But I crushed that thought before it could fully form.
No.
If I accidentally awakened the Demon of Lust, there was nothing I could do to protect myself from him.
“Arghh, but then how?”
How did Jake achieve that much raw power?
If he wasn’t possessed by Asmodeus, what caused his sudden transformation?
If it wasn’t the Demon of Lust himself, then who was behind it?
…I guess, there were countless treasures and artifacts in this world capable of granting sudden power to someone.
And while none came to my mind at the moment, it wasn’t exactly improbable that Jake could’ve found one such treasure.
I bit my lower lip. “Just what the hell did he do?”
…Never mind.
If he hadn’t made a deal with Asmodeus, then whatever was happening with him wasn’t my concern.
“I’ll let Michael deal with it.”
Yeah. That was the smart move.
Jake’s personal grudge for Michael was way bigger than his hatred for me, anyway. He’d go after him first.
Besides, I had my own dear Shadow to worry about.
With this Key of Order in my possession, I now had everything I needed to crush Juliana’s plans.
…And kill Rexerd.
I shot one last glance at the Summoning Card of Asmodeus, still safely hidden in its secret compartment.
“I’ll deal with you soon,” I murmured, then turned around and used the Key to leave.