Morning came like it always did, unaware of the storm to come thrashing at its door.
The academy grounds buzzed with motion. Students in cloaks of every tower color moved through the open walkways and arched courtyards, books and scrolls in hand.
Teachers called out reminders about channeling rotations and leyline checks. Legion guards stood at every junction, watching, unmoving, their glyph-scarred armor catching the morning light.
The tension had settled into routine.
Eyes still watched, but they no longer followed every shadow. The world was pretending, if just for a moment, that it was normal.
And in the center of that normalcy, Soren and Elian walked side by side toward the Central Tower's northern entrance, each carrying a sealed case that hummed faintly with hidden power.
Their steps were slow and deliberate.
They said nothing. They didn't need to.
Elian's face was pale beneath her hood. Her braid was tighter than usual, her hands clenched around the case so tightly her knuckles blanched.
Soren's heart hadn't stopped pounding since they left the vault.
We don't follow his plan, he'd said.
But plans made in quiet halls were fragile things when exposed to the sun.
As they reached the checkpoint arch, a guard stepped in front of them. Void Legion. Broad-shouldered, etched with black sigils across the cheeks of his helmet.
"Hold it," the man said, voice firm. "State your name and purpose?"
Elian flinched, her grip tightening.
Soren stepped forward, pulling his ID badge from his belt and lifting it calmly.
"Disciplinary Committee. Escorting a late a student to her class. Found her sneaking around."
The guard narrowed his eyes.
Soren met the gaze with practiced calm.
"Priority clearance," he added. "Check the channel logs. It was filed this morning."
The guard stared for a beat too long.
Then nodded.
"You can go in."
They moved past.
Soren didn't exhale until they were halfway up the first spiral.
'Almost there. Just get to the tower. Just place the orbs. Just—'
Then the world broke.
Without warning, a pressure snapped inside Soren's chest like a string yanked from the core of his heart.
He collapsed to his knees, choking.
Beside him, Elian dropped her case, clutching her ribs as a wet, gurgling sound ripped from her throat.
A scream tore through the hall.
Students stumbled away from them. The hallway exploded into noise and panic. Feet scrambled and shouts arose. Teachers rushed in to help them.
But Soren couldn't hear them.
All he could hear was the sound in his head.
The Mediator's voice.
"Did you think you could fool me?"
Soren's eyes widened in horror.
"I already knew your plan. I just wanted to see how far you'd crawl."
"Anyway… it'll be easier for me to explain to the higher-ups why I sacrificed two of our own. Treason has such a poetic ring to it, don't you think?"
Soren screamed as pain split him in half.
Elian was coughing up blood, her eyes bleeding black tears, red streaming from her ears. Her hands twitched like they were no longer her own.
"No. No, no, no," Soren gasped. He crawled toward her as chaos roared around them. "Please! Not her!"
"Begging now?" the Mediator's voice whispered. "What will you offer me instead?"
"Take me!" Soren cried. "Take me, not her! I'll do anything. I swear. I'll serve. I'll follow, just please, not her!"
"Anything?" the voice purred.
"Yes!"
"Then here is my command."
"Kill as many as you can."
The moment the words were spoken, the orbs flared, every one of them.
Elian's body arched. A terrible light burst from her chest as dozens of tiny threads pulled out, like veins of gold being peeled away.
They shot into Soren's chest, piercing his skin, his soul.
He didn't scream. He was past screaming.
He could feel them burrowing into him, claiming him. His body convulsed, limbs seizing, vision burning white.
Elian went limp.
Fainted.
Still breathing.
Soren collapsed beside her, tears pouring down his face.
"Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you."
But the gratitude turned to horror in seconds.
His body wasn't just his anymore.
It swelled, cracked, reshaped.
Bones stretched, skin burned, glyphs erupted along his arms and neck and face. The runes were alive, carved in motion, pulsing like veins of light and shadow.
Then the rifts tore open.
Dozens of them.
Black and shimmering and wrong. They ripped through the air around him, twisted angles of light forming doorways to somewhere else. Somewhere lower.
And through them came the monsters.
Massive, shifting creatures with bone-blades for limbs and mouths that opened like flowers of teeth. Others oozed into being, flesh melting and reforming with every step. Glyph bound horrors with no names. Crawlers. Skinned aberrants. Inverted echoes of once-human things.
The first to emerge landed beside Elian.
She was unconscious.
She never even stirred.
The creature raised one arm, a jagged spine of glimmering black and plunged it through her chest cackling jubilantly.
Her body twitched once.
Then lay still.
Soren saw it.
He saw it all.
"No, NO!"
His voice was no longer his.
It echoed.
It split the air like a curse.
Teachers arrived first. Their blades drawn, glyphs blazing as they activated their wills.
Then came Moon Legion shock troopers, forming walls, casting counter-runes, engaging the beasts as they poured out.
The entire courtyard was drowned in chaos.
The four members of the Special Investigation Team appeared through teleportation rings, their armor glowing with binding magic and enhanced seals. Each moved with terrifying precision, cutting down monsters as fast as they came through.
But it wasn't enough.
Rifts kept opening.
And from the center of it all, Soren stood.
Or what had once been him.
His face was nearly gone, replaced by a lattice of golden light and shadow. His hands crackled with unstable glyph-fire. His body pulsed with energy he no longer controlled.
But his eyes were still his.
And they were wide with grief.
"Why…?" he whispered. "Why her?"
No answer.
Only the sound of the Mediator's voice, fading like laughter down a well.
"Because that's the price of disobedience."