"Prince Damon," one of the girls said, her eyes widening in sudden realization.
"Don't Prince me," Damon shot back calmly as he dropped Rika to her feet.
The four girls began retreating, their steps uneven as they glanced at one another, occasionally looking toward the classroom's entrance as though considering whether running would be a better option.
But then they stopped seeing Nyra and Daichi right behind them at the entrance.
"I'm not even gonna ask why—"
"What?!" Rika exclaimed, turning toward him. "These bitches were about to roast, ice, and dice me, and you don't even wanna know why?!"
"Just let me finish," Damon muttered. "As I was saying... regardless of why, the reason doesn't matter. Why? Let's put on our thinking caps. Rika is from Earth, born and bred."
"Rika is from Earth. Born and bred."
Rika slowly turned her face toward him, one eyebrow raised and her mouth hanging slightly open at his choice of words.
"She must've gotten here somehow. Oh, I dunno..." Damon paused, looking around the circular classroom. "Who here has access to travel to Earth with ease?"
The four girls exchanged glances as if colour began to slowly drain from their faces. One opened her mouth slightly, then closed it. Another looked toward the doorway, then returned her gaze to Damon, her eyebrows drawing together as she tried to follow his reasoning.
Meanwhile, Daichi began shrinking, his large hound body gradually returning to its smaller form. He hopped toward Nyra halfway through the transformation, landing in her arms as she instinctively caught him.
"This guy!" Damon said, pointing two fingers directly at his own face.
"Yes, she," he added, gesturing to Rika, "is under my care. Well, technically my mom's, so that makes it even worse for you. I really don't care why you did it, but if you apologize to Rika, I'm sure she'll let it go and won't tell my mom. You know... the Queen."
The four girls went still.
Rika, however, looked at Damon as though he'd just suggested something utterly ridiculous. "Apologise?"
She pushed his shoulder aside. "Fuck that."
"Rika—"
She was already walking. Her shoes struck the polished floor as she approached the girl whose hands had previously been engulfed in flames.
The girl swallowed with stiffening shoulders, "Rika, I apolo—"
"Say no more."
PAOW!
Rika drove a brutal right hook straight into the girl's face. A sickening crunch echoed through the classroom as a heavy stream of blood gushed from the girl's nose.
The force sent her flying backward until her head slammed squarely against the magical light barrier, her eyes rolling back until she had no irises left visible. She slid down the transparent shield, sitting almost lifeless against the base.
'Might as well just have killed her,' the unfiltered thought appeared in Damon's mind.
For a moment, the classroom went silent. Then—
"RAYNE!"
Two of the girls rushed toward her, dropping to their knees.
"Rayne! Are you okay?!"
One placed a hand against her shoulder while the other tried to lift her head. Rayne's eyes had rolled upwards, and a thin stream of blood ran from her nose.
Rika stood over them with her fists still clenched and a tightening frown.
"You f—"
"Urm... Damon?" Nyra's voice interrupted her. She had turned toward the classroom entrance, her attention fixed on something approaching from the corridor.
Damon snapped his head around, instantly sensing the approaching Ki.
'...Kael.' His eyes widened slightly. 'Thank God he's alive after that robot incident, but...'
He looked at Rika. Then at the classroom door. Then back at Rika.
"...Yeah. We have to go now." He stepped forward and lifted Rika over his shoulder.
"No, we DON'T! Do I look satisfied to—?!"
A thin band of light wrapped around her mouth, muffling the remainder of her protest. Damon adjusted his grip and turned toward the exit. Nyra immediately followed, Daichi sitting comfortably in her arms as the three hurried out of the classroom.
Rika continued struggling against Damon's shoulder, her muffled complaints accompanying them down the corridor, but Damon ignored every single one. And thus, the Prince of Eternum positively kidnapped his own guest, with all their footsteps echoing down the hall.
Elsewhere in the corridor, Kael Veylor walked with the weary steps of a man who had already experienced far too much for one lifetime. Coupled with a tempestuous mind of bitter thoughts.
His hands rested inside his pockets, his glasses sitting neatly across the bridge of his nose as his expression remained almost completely blank.
'Sometimes I love this kingdom. Sometimes I hate it. I had two holes torn through me, but of course, the second I recover, I'm sucked dry.'
He adjusted his glasses. 'I wish I hid my talents. I wish I was bad at my job. But then I wouldn't have my job. What an unfortunate contradiction. We have a generation of Nobles who act nothing like Nobles. Arrogance. Entitlement. Absolutely no understanding of responsibility or simple etiquette unless they're being performative. Indifference. Yes... I'll treat them with indifference. I'll—'
Inside, Rayne slumped against the barrier, blood dripping steadily from her shattered nose while her eyes remained rolled deep into her head. The bright sunlight streaming through the windows caught the polished surface of his tinted glasses, completely masking his eyes in impenetrable shadows.
He stopped in the doorway, towering over the scene. He stood completely still, staring down at the unconscious student.
The light streaming through the classroom's enormous windows reflected across his glasses, concealing his eyes beneath two bright, almost perfectly white surfaces.
For several seconds, he said absolutely nothing.
Then he opened his mouth; each word he spoke showed a voice brimming with suppressed rage.
"Was it internal? Or external?"
One of the girls kneeling beside Rayne immediately looked up.
"It was the—!"
A single blue vein bulged on Kael's forehead. Then a second one snapped into view beside it, throbbing violently. Even with his lips pressed tightly together, the distinct, chilling sound of his teeth grinding echoed across the silent room.
"Did I ask who?"
His voice was cold, yet each word came out with such restrained fury that, even when his mouth closed, the students could almost hear his teeth grinding together behind his lips.
"Internal. Or... external."
A third vein began forming near his temple.
"It was an internal incident, sir," a lady sat beside Rayne replied.
Without another word, Kael stepped past them into the classroom. He stood dead center in the circular arena, reached into his pocket with two fingers, and flicked his wrist. A cluster of holographic projectors expanded into the air, casting blue data logs across the room.
"Then I really don't care."
"You're a teacher! You should—"
"I should what?!" Kael roared, spinning around and cutting off a girl who hadn't even spoken yet. His voice bounced off the tiered walls with blistering venom. "I almost DIED several weeks ago, and now I'm back here dealing with this garbage... Go report to your father, your mother, or whatever filthy Noble house you come from! Nothing will change. Why? Because I'm too valuable. Trineum CANNOT afford to lose me. I'll be—"
"Sir Kael!" Ms. Eldara froze at the classroom entrance, her orange eyes wide with shock. "What's going on here?!"
Kael paused mid-sentence, his upper body still leaned over the petrified student he had been yelling at. He slowly straightened up, his face an unreadable mask of cold exhaustion.
"Didn't you hear me? Take her to the infirmary now," Kael snapped, his voice dropping back to a normal level of icy. "We all have duties we're meant to fulfill, and I'm actively fulfilling mine."
He gestured toward the holograms surrounding him.
"Did you really have to wait for me to tell you to take her there? You—"
Kael Veylor raised his hand, and for one fleeting moment, it seemed as though he might finally regain his composure.
He didn't.
Down at the far end of the corridor, safely out of sight, Damon, Nyra, Rika (still muffled by the light band), and Daichi leaned against the wall, listening to the muffled rant echo down the hall.
Nyra crossed her arms, letting out a heavy sigh. "I don't understand why he's always so frustrated." She looked thoroughly unimpressed.
"Why did you bring me into it?" Damon asked, turning to his sister.
Nyra turned around, a barely concealed snarl flickering across her face. "They're seniors! What do you want me to do? Stop them myself?"
"Ur... yeah?" Damon replied, eyebrows twitching slightly. "Isn't that what you'd normally do?"
"Look, big bro, I'm trying not to get into any more trouble," Nyra grumbled, crossing her arms. "I don't want Mother getting angry at me for a change, and my attempt to maintain a peaceful streak has been successful. So don't ruin it."
Damon paused, a somewhat confused look in his eyes, and his mouth turned down.
'Hm...' he thought.
"Also," Nyra added, looking away, "you asked me to think before I do things. For my... resolution."
Damon stared at her. 'And to think I almost forgot about that. Guess she really took it to heart.'
A subtle smile touched his lips and he reached over and patted her head softly.
Just as a smile began to beam on Nyra, Rika started thrashing over Damon's shoulder again. He dropped her back onto her feet, and she immediately opened her mouth to yell.
Damon held a hand up, stopping her mid-breath. "Don't even start with the 'I can handle myself' speech.' You said it yourself... they were about to dice you."
Rika went dead silent, her teeth grinding.
"I see you're angry, but you have nowhere to put it, so you're practically brimming," Damon said smoothly, reaching into his coat. "Well, while that's happening... have this."
He held out a small, metallic device.
Rika squinted at it. "What's this?"
"A special kind of earbud."
"For what? GPT?"
"What? No!" Damon said in disbelief, with a slow crawl in his voice for clarification.
Nyra tilted her head in confusion as Daichi leaped off her shoulder, landing back on Damon's coat. "What's GPT?"
Rika ruffled her messy red hair with a sigh. "Your Friendly Academic Spiderman."
Daichi's voice whispered directly into Damon's head: 'Why did you suddenly remember you and Natsuki sharing a GPT?'
Damon essentially slapped Daichi out of his mind, completely severing the mental bond for a second, and turned back to Rika.
"What's this for?" Rika asked again when she opened her eyes, ruffling her hair.
When she looked up, Damon was holding his phone out, taking pictures of her face.
Rika glared at him. "What are you doing?"
"Breathing."
"Cut the shit with the suspense, Damon!"
"Calm down," Damon said calmly. "My former bully just got bullied, and I have a phone in my hand. I'm going to take a picture. There are many people on Earth who would want to see this. Imagine your face printed everywhere."
Rika's eyes dimmed slightly, but she immediately began dusting herself almost distractingly. "My printed face should be everywhere... but my foster parents don't care enough to look for me."
Damon froze. Without turning his head, his eyes drifted toward Nyra in a subtle side-eye. Nyra was already looking back at him with the exact same quiet realization.
The silence stretched for a while as the sun moved slowly and the angles of the sunlight changed.
"...I'll delete it," Damon said softly.
Rika shrugged, waving a hand. "It's fine. It's a lot better here anyway. On Eternum, and I always thank you for letting me stay. But you still haven't answered my question. What's the earbud for?"
Damon let out a slow sigh. "The working theory is that Kagarth attacked us. Tolrex is finding it harder and harder to trace where that robot came from—remember the copycat that beat up Klaven?"
"Yeah?"
"Tolrex says waking up Volcav's growing difficult and the tech team can't pinpoint the other one's origin," Nyra chimed in.
"Didn't you say it came from Kagarth?" Rika asked.
"Yeah, but that's just because it appeared during Kagarth's timing," Damon explained. "There's a possibility of coincidence, so Mom isn't gonna do a thing about it unless she has hard evidence proving where it came from. Until then... just wear the telepathic earbud. Cythera has one, Nyra has one, almost everyone does. Even Lior and Mirea."
Rika looked at the small metallic piece for a moment, then slid it into her ear.
Damon grunted, turning to walk down the hall.
"Wait," Rika called out. "How does this thing know if I wanna talk to you, her, or anyone else?"
Damon groaned, rubbing his temple. "It's instinct. Urghh... you ask too many questions. Let's just go."
"Oh, sorry I'm not as advanced as you, Prince Damon," Rika mocked sarcastically.
"If you wanna talk to me, just give it to me straight and avoid the sarcasm," Damon grumbled.
Behind them, Nyra simply let out a soft, amused laugh as the three walked down the corridor together.
The group stepped outside into the open expanse of the academy grounds, surrounded by the towering glass arches and ivory stone of Trineum's inner courtyard.
A gentle breeze drifted through the compound, rustling the leaves of the surrounding trees and sending loose petals fluttering across the polished walkways. Off to the side, crystal-clear water fell from a series of staggered obsidian statues of ancient heroes, spilling into a wide, shimmering pool. Groups of students roamed the pathways, their voices blending into a low, ambient hum that drifted across the compound.
Damon walked with Daichi perched comfortably on his hair, as a low vortex of wind spun lazily in the palm of his hand.
"What are you doing?" Daichi asked telepathically.
"Practicing the sound-bending," Damon murmured, keeping his voice beneath the breeze. "Ms. Eldara did it so casually earlier; it looked something like this. I'm beginning to feel the vibrations, but..."
He pushed a fraction more Eterna into the circulation, trying to isolate the frequency. But the breeze flickered violently for a split second before collapsing into thin air.
He let out a short, quiet exhale. "I'm not there yet."
Ahead of him, Nyra and Rika were walking side by side, their voices drifting back in casual conversation.
Damon looked up at the sky, his hands sliding back into his pockets. "School's almost over. Maybe I'll get to speak to Natsuki today—"
A small, genuine smile was just beginning to touch the corner of his lips when he felt a sudden tug on the hem of his uniform sleeve.
Damon froze. 'If one more person ruins one more happy thought...'
"Prince Damon," a polite voice called out.
Damon looked down to see a familiar face standing beside him. It was the light user—one of the five boys who had fought Doran Volcav back in the Atrium.
"You?" Damon asked, his eyes narrowing slightly. "What's the problem?"
"You don't mind settling a dispute, do you? It's nothing serious, but... I think you're the best person to answer it."
Damon stared at him deadpan. "What dispute? Why me? I don't wanna do anything that keeps me here even a minute after school ends."
The light user adjusted the bridge of his glasses calmly. "That all depends on how fast you answer."
Damon let out a heavy, reluctant sigh, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "Let's go."
A few paces ahead, Nyra and Rika stopped in their tracks, watching as Damon slouched off to the left behind the glasses-wearing student.
"Where is he going now?" Nyra muttered, raising an eyebrow. The two girls slowly turned around, trailing quietly behind him to see what kind of mess he was walking into this time.
A small crowd of younger students had gathered near a small statue. Three stood at the centre, arguing while the others watched, occasionally murmuring in agreement.
"Queen Thessa's a Sovereign, I'll give you that," a Sunspire boy said, folding his arms. "But King Cassian has mastered fire to a degree most Sovereigns couldn't even comprehend. You Woewynians act like your Queen's title automatically settles everything."
A girl from Woewyn scoffed. "And you Sunspire students act like mastering one element makes your king untouchable. There's a reason Queen Thessa has ruled Woewyn for centuries without another kingdom daring to challenge her directly."
"Centuries of ruling don't mean centuries of winning fights," a Kagarth boy interrupted. "King Zoltar doesn't need to overpower either of them. Our technology can neutralise abilities before they're even used. What's the point of having overwhelming Eterna if you can't control it?"
Another Kagarth boy stepped forward, visibly irritated. "Exactly! And don't bring up the Trineum Festival. Just because Prince Damon defeated Zenro doesn't mean Queen Thessa could defeat King Zoltar. You're comparing two completely different fighters!"
"You sure about that?"
The last Kagarthian who spoke felt a sudden chill crawl up his spine. A shadow lengthened across the stone path in front of him, stretching unnaturally. He spun around and froze.
Prince Damon was standing right there, staring down at him with a tilted head and intensely focused eyes.
The boy took two instinctive steps backward, choking on his own breath. "Prince Damon... I—I didn't know you were there."
"You didn't have to," Damon said softly, his face carrying a calmly unsettling but effortless smirk.
The light-user stepped smoothly between them. "I brought Prince Damon here because he knows the Queen best. Surely he can settle this."
A few paces back, Rika leaned toward Nyra. "Why's Damon looking at him like that?"
Nyra's eyes narrowed, tracking the subtle shift in the air. "Because there's something off about his Ki. He's uncomfortable with Damon's presence. He wants to do something about it, but he can't."
Rika blinked. "You can tell that from his Ki? I gotta learn this shit."
The Kagarthian boy clenched his fists tight, his jaw setting as he glared past the light-user. "Him? You're acting like family bias doesn't exist."
"I've never seen my mother fight before," Damon began, his tone deceptively casual.
"But I've seen Bravira destroy a planet in absolute blind fury, only to bow to her in the exact same breath without a word leaving her mouth. I've seen Thorpax shift entire landmasses as casually as rearranging furniture. Draven doesn't even let a single speck of dust touch her when he's around. Varnex goes completely feral with fire when he's drunk, but the second he's near her, he's instantly sober."
Damon paused.
"I mean, you could argue it's all just out of deep respect. But then I gotta ask."
He lowered his head slightly, bringing his gaze directly level with the Kagarthian's.
"Why would people powerful enough to protect entire worlds still crave the feeling of being protected by her whenever they're in the same room? And they don't even try to hide it."
Damon stopped completely.
An eerily long minute stretched across the courtyard. The wind seemed to die down entirely.
Though the sun was on its normal trajectory toward evening, the shadows seemed to lengthen at an unnatural speed. A single bead of sweat slowly drilled a path down his neck. The boy clenched his fists, swallowing hard against a dry throat as Nyra's eyes locked onto him with a razor-thin frown.
"This is quite a childish argument," Damon continued, his voice dropping into a quiet, conversational tone that carried an immense weight. "And obviously, that's just my opinion. I haven't seen any other kings in battle, and I actually mean no disrespect... but I'd hate the fact that my mother was somehow weaker than some king who can't even fulfill his own promises."
Damon tilted his head further. "You're from Kagarth, right? Remember when your king almost handed me a fake orb?"
Another terrifying pause.
"What's your name?" Damon asked, staring down the frozen boy.
Kaizen's voice cracked. "Kaizen... Kaizen Veyr."
"Kaizen Veyr," Damon repeated slowly, as if he was tasting the syllables. "I'll remember that name."
Without waiting for a response, Damon turned his back entirely and raised his left hand, quietly resuming his practice of manipulating sound.
"Ur—thanks for your time, Prince Damon," the light-user bowed quickly as Damon started to walk away.
Damon waved a hand lazily over his shoulder without turning back. "You're welcome. No problem at all. C'mon, Nyra. It's almost time to leave."
Damon walked past Nyra, but her eyes remained glued to Kaizen. The boy's posture had shifted; the initial terror bleeding out of him, replaced by a dark, ugly, disgusted frown as he stared at the back of the Prince's head.
Daichi noticed it, sat on Damon's head, and turned around with a low growl.
Nyra turned and fell into step beside her brother. "Why was he so uncomfortable around you?" she whispered.
"I have no idea," Damon murmured back, still focusing on the swirling air in his palm. "But... I'm beginning to feel—idk, everything's happening all at once— but it's just a feeling, maybe, Kagarth's the culprit. Behind the contaminated Atlantean waters, I mean. More and more Kagarthians have given me that exact look today. It's just a gut feeling."
Nyra kept walking, her gaze fixed straight ahead, while Rika jogged slightly to catch up with them.
A few yards behind, Kaizen turned back to his friends. One of them let out a nervous breath. "It doesn't matter. Nothing he said means anything. It's just his opinion. Who's to say he isn't biased?"
Another boy nodded eagerly. "Yeah. You said it yourself. He's her son. He's bound to be."
Kaizen let out a harsh, bitter chuckle, his face twisting with spite. "Who cares if the Queen is stronger? She's just—"
His voice suddenly caught a freak amplification wave, the final words exploding outward with deafening clarity—
"—A FILTH OF A WIDOW ANYWAY!"
The final part of the boy's insult bellowed across the courtyard as though he had screamed directly into a hidden microphone.
Damon's wind vortex in his palm suddenly snapped into absolute, deadly stability.
"Oh, you just bent sou—" Rika muttered with widening eyes. "Oh, shit."
The entire school ground plunged into a dead, suffocating silence.
Nyra and Damon stopped walking in absolute, eerie unison. They stared straight ahead, their bodies freezing like statues.
Far off to Damon's right, Cythera—who had been resting lazily against a tree branch, looking completely unbothered—snapped her head toward Damon without moving an inch of her body. In the background, Mirea and Lior jolted upright on alert.
VWOOMMM.
The sound was a low, catastrophic frequency born from the raw, suffocating pressure bleeding off the siblings.
CRRACCKKK.
Beneath their boots, the solid stone courtyard brutally fractured, deep spider-webbing fissures shooting outward in jagged lines. Simultaneously, Damon's glowing blue and Nyra's fierce crimson aura violently erupted into the open air, tearing and clawing into one another like rabid beasts as they stood next to each other.
SCHRRR-KCKKK.
The sheer force of their compressed energy rippled outward like a shockwave. Nearby academy windows violently imploded, glass spraying inward like glittering shrapnel.
"Ah—!" A lady exclaimed, covering her head from the falling glass, and so did other students.
An unnatural gale tore across the courtyard, howling so ferociously that the surrounding trees bent backward at impossible angles.
Slowly and terrifyingly, Damon and Nyra turned their heads around in perfect synchronicity. Their eyes were completely devoid of restraint, burning with an unholy, abyssal fury.
And as their collective gaze locked onto Kaizen Veyr, they asked the same question in voices that chilled the air to absolute zero:
"What did you say?"