The Academy was no longer a sanctuary of stone and magic. It was a hive of buzzing hornet-tempers. Within an hour of the Prince being carried off the field, the heavy obsidian gates had slammed shut. High-level barrier spells—translucent domes of shimmering gold—rippled over the campus, sealing us in.
"Lockdown," I whispered, watching the flickers of light from my dorm window.
[Notice: The 'Witch Hunt' Arc has begun.]
[Condition: The Academy is under Martial Law. Commander Valerius has been granted 'Absolute Authority' to find the intruder.]
This was exactly what I wanted. Under Martial Law, Valerius wouldn't be following the rules of the Academy; he would be following his own dark instincts. And I was about to give those instincts a very specific direction.
I slipped out of my room, using the [Phantom Cloak] I had just purchased. The shadows in the hallway seemed to stretch and wrap around me, turning my form into nothing more than a smudge in the air.
I reached the faculty spire in minutes. The air here was thick with the scent of ozone and incense. Valerius's office was at the top, a room built of cold iron and warded against sound. I didn't need to break in. I just needed him to walk out.
Clang.
The heavy iron door swung open. Valerius stepped out, his face a mask of exhaustion and barely contained fury. He was alone, his guards left inside to finish the paperwork for the Prince's "accident."
I pressed myself against the freezing stone wall. As he passed, I didn't strike. I didn't breathe. I simply flicked the [Mirror of the False Truth] coin toward his shadow.
The silver coin didn't make a sound. The moment it touched his shadow, it dissolved into a mist of grey smoke that snaked up Valerius's leg and vanished into his spine.
Valerius stumbled. He gasped, his hand flying to his temple as if struck by a sudden migraine.
[Notice: 'Mirror of the False Truth' active.]
[Memory Implantation: Successful.]
Inside Valerius's mind, the last ten minutes of the duel were being rewritten. He no longer saw me touching Marcus. Instead, he "remembered" seeing a figure in a tattered purple robe—the signature garb of the Void-Heralds of the Demon Cult—standing in the rafters of the arena. He "remembered" seeing that figure cast a dark, needle-like spell at Marcus's chest right as the Prince swung his sword.
Valerius's eyes went wide. His breathing became shallow.
"The... the Heralds," he hissed, his voice trembling. "They were there. They tried to kill the Prince... right under my nose!"
His loyalty to the cult was based on fear and the promise of power. Now, he believed his "masters" had betrayed him by acting without his knowledge. He believed the cult was cleaning house—and that he was next on the list.
[Fate Altered: You have turned the Traitor against his Masters.]
[+1,800 Karma Points awarded!]
I watched from the shadows as Valerius drew his sword, his eyes darting frantically around the empty hallway. He wasn't looking for a commoner student anymore. He was looking for an assassin in purple robes.
"Guards!" Valerius roared, his voice cracking with panic. "Sound the Great Bell! Search the rafters! Check the ley-line chambers! The Cult is inside the walls!"
The Academy erupted. The Great Bell began to toll—a deep, resonant BONG that shook the very foundations of the dorms.
I slipped away, moving back toward the North Wing. The chaos was my shield. While Valerius was busy hunting ghosts and turning the Academy upside down, I could finally focus on the one person who could actually ruin my plan: Elara.
As the Saintess-candidate, she was currently the only one with the mana signature capable of "unlocking" the seal I had placed on Marcus's core. If she succeeded, Marcus would wake up, and he might remember enough to point the finger back at me.
I found her in the infirmary, lit by the flickering glow of a hundred candles. She was kneeling by Marcus's bed, her forehead pressed against his limp hand, her body radiating a soft, golden light.
"Heal," she whispered, her voice cracking with effort. "By the Light of the First Sun... Heal!"
[Notice: Elara is attempting to 'Purge' the Void Mana.]
[Current Progress: 15%... 18%...]
She was stronger than I remembered. Her "Saintess" blood was reacting to the Void mana like an immune system. If I didn't stop her, she'd have him awake by morning.
I stepped out of the shadows, my [False Aura Mask] still active. I didn't look like a threat. I looked like a worried student who had come to check on his "friend."
"Lady Elara?" I said softly.
She jumped, her golden light flickering and dying out. She turned to me, her eyes red-rimmed from crying, her face pale with exhaustion. "Kaelen? What are you doing here? The Academy is under lockdown!"
"I was worried," I said, walking closer, my voice dripping with fake concern. "I saw the Prince fall... I haven't been able to sleep. Is he... is he going to be okay?"
Elara sighed, wiping a tear from her cheek. "I don't know. There's a... a coldness in his chest. A void that eats every drop of light I give him. I've never seen anything like it."
I looked at Marcus. He looked smaller in the infirmary bed, stripped of his white armor and his golden crown. He looked human. And that made him even more dangerous.
"Maybe you're trying too hard," I suggested, stepping right up to the edge of the bed. "The instructors said it was mana-backflow. If you keep pushing your light into him, won't it just clash with his own energy?"
Elara froze. "I... I hadn't thought of that. But if I don't help him, who will?"
"Let me help," I said, reaching out a hand. "In my village, when someone has a mana-fever, we don't use light. We use grounding."
I didn't wait for her permission. I placed my hand over Marcus's heart—right over the spot I had struck earlier.
[Notice: You are using the 'Heart of the Forest' to mask your intent.]
Instead of Void mana, I let a tiny, microscopic sliver of the Heart of the Forest's green energy seep into his skin. To Elara, it looked like a soothing, natural vitality. But I wasn't healing him. I was "anchoring" the Void seal. I was wrapping the "nothingness" in a layer of "life," making it invisible to her divine detection.
"Oh," Elara breathed, watching the green glow. "His heartbeat... it's stabilizing. Kaelen, how did you—"
"Nature always knows best, My Lady," I said, pulling my hand back.
[Notice: The Seal is now 'Stealthed'.]
[Estimated Time to Recovery: 1 Week.]
One week. That was all I needed. In one week, the first "Grand Tournament" would begin, and Marcus would be watching from the sidelines as I took his place.
"You're a strange boy, Kaelen Voss," Elara said, looking at me with a new kind of intensity. Her intent turned a soft, swirling pink. [Gratitude].
I hated that color. It was the same color she had shown me before she sold me out to the Emperor in the future.
"I'm just a commoner who got lucky, My Lady," I said, bowing low. "I'll leave you to your prayers."
As I walked out of the infirmary, I felt the [Seal of the Void Sovereign] on my finger pulse with a cold, satisfied hunger.
The Prince was silenced. The Commander was paranoid. The Saintess was deceived.
The board was set.