Nobles lifted skirts, knocking over tables and goblets as they rushed the exits. Servants screamed. Guards tried to form lines only to break as another wave of heat rolled across the room.
The ballroom itself groaned.
It had once been fitted with layered anti-magic barriers and ancient runes etched into the walls and pillars, designed to sever spellcasting at its source.
Normally, magic worked like a thread.
A mana string.
The caster released power, the invisible line forming between them and the spell while it manifested and stayed intact until the spell landed.
The barriers' job was simple, brutal, and effective.
Cut the string.
Spell dies.
But the relic didn't use mana strings.
It burned on an entirely different principle, ancient energy drawn straight from the artifact itself.
No thread.
No interruption.
No stopping it.
That was why war relics were forbidden.
And why battlefields vanished when they were used.
Another fire pulse tore across the ceiling, cracking enchanted stone like glass.
Outside the chaos:
The Veythros family came sprinting.
Lucien swore.
Demetrius shoved past fleeing nobles.
Abella clutched her dress, eyes wide.
And behind them, absurdly calm
Kealith Veythros walked with his arm slung over Jacob Berfolt's shoulder, drink still in hand.
He squinted at the smoke.
"Wow," Kealith said casually. "You really went all out with the pyrotechnics for the party."
A pillar exploded.
Fire roared.
A golden flash darted through it.
Kealith blinked.
"…oh look. Two noble kids are fighting."
Another blast.
A familiar black tail whipped through the smoke.
Kealith's eyes bulged.
"Wait."
He spat his drink across the marble floor.
"ARE THOSE OUR KIDS?!"
Jacob choked, visibly drunk. "WHAT?!"
Lith was already moving.
He grabbed Jacob by the collar and took off running straight toward the explosions.
"MOVE YOUR LEGS, DUKE; YOUR SON IS ABOUT TO LEVEL THE CASTLE!"
Guards shouted after them.
"MY LORDS, IT'S TOO DANGEROUS."
Lith didn't slow.
Jacob didn't stop.
Both fathers sprinted headfirst into the meltdown while nobles fled the opposite direction.
Back in the ballroom:
Marcus barely had time to register the look in Ikurus's eyes before the boy moved.
One second he stood there in the crowded ballroom, calm and almost amused beneath the glow of chandeliers and polished gold, and the next he was a blur.
He launched forward like a predator finally tired of pretending to be tame.
Guests gasped, nobles stumbled and ran, and music somewhere in the distance came to a violent, awkward stop as Ikurus slammed into Marcus with enough force to send them both skidding across the marble floor.
Glasses shattered.
Someone screamed.
Marcus hit the ground hard, breath punched from his lungs as Ikurus slid with him, dragging him across the ballroom like a ragdoll before planting a foot directly into his face.
The room fell silent.
Ikurus stood over him, one foot pressed firmly into Marcus's cheek, his posture relaxed, almost lazy, like this was a mild inconvenience instead of public assault.
His bright gold eyes burned down at him.
"You know," Ikurus said, voice smooth and sharp, "for someone who talks this much, I expected you to last longer than three seconds."
Marcus snarled, trying to shove him off.
Ikurus pressed down harder.
"I may not radiate mana," he said, tilting his head slightly, "which is why you probably thought I was an easy mark."
A low hum filled the ballroom.
Dark violet-black flames curled into existence in Ikurus's palm, wrong-looking fire that seemed to devour the light around it instead of giving any. Nobles backed away as the air itself grew heavier.
Ikurus compressed the flames tighter and tighter, the fire shrinking until it became dense, concentrated power focused at the tips of two fingers.
He pointed them directly at Marcus's face.
Foot still on his cheek.
Smile faint.
"But boy," he said, leaning down slightly, "do I have a surprise for you."
Marcus's face lost all color.
Before Ikurus could fire-
"IKURUS!"
Lith hit him from the side like a battering ram.
The duke tackled his son off Marcus, both of them crashing across the marble as the dark flames vanished instantly. At the same time, Jacob rushed forward, grabbing Marcus by the shoulders and hauling him up.
"What in every god's name were you thinking?!" Jacob snapped.
Lith looked equally murderous.
"Have you lost your damn mind? In the middle of a ballroom?!"
Guests stood frozen, pretending not to stare while absolutely staring.
Ikurus, somehow still calm while pinned beneath his father, brushed dust from his sleeve and pointed toward Marcus like a man filing a customer complaint.
"He and his little gang threw piss on me."
Silence.
Deep, holy silence.
Several noble looked personally offended just hearing the sentence.
Ikurus shrugged.
"You can check the bathroom cameras. I'm many things, but creatively dishonest isn't one of them."
Jacob slowly turned to Marcus.
Marcus looked like he wanted the earth itself to open and save him.
It did not. Earth is lazy.
Jacob grabbed Marcus firmly by the arm.
"We are leaving. Now."
As Marcus was dragged backward through the crowd, red-faced and furious, Ikurus met his eyes and mouthed silently, slow enough for him to read every word.
"You're. so. fucked."
Marcus's face twisted with rage.
His hand clenched around the gem.
Without thinking, without caring who saw, he raised it and pointed it straight at Ikurus.
"YOU!"
The gem flared.
"Marcus-!"
Too late.
The blast exploded from it in a violent surge of magic, slamming through the ballroom like a cannon shot. Jacob and Lith were thrown aside by the force, crashing into tables as more nobles screamed and fled.
Dust and shattered glass filled the air.
And in the center of it
Ikurus stood smiling.
Bright gold eyes glowing.
Completely unbothered.
He looked at Marcus like a man watching a child proudly eat glue.
"That's a good little idiot," he said, his voice low and pleased.
A shockwave ripped through the castle, blasting fire and stone out through the far wall in a thunderous explosion.
Marcus was launched like a comet across the ballroom, carving a molten trench through the floor.
Ikurus stood in the smoke, tail swaying slowly.
"Your turn," he said quietly.
Fire and starlight collided in a blur.