The Vanguard Investigator stood in the middle of the courtyard. The wind was blowing his dark trench coat around his legs. He was holding a glowing white crystal in his hand.
"This is a Soul-Measuring Stone," the Investigator announced in a magically amplified voice. "It is calibrated to detect any traces of ancient, S-Rank mana. Every student will step forward and place their hand on it."
A wave of panic rushed through the students.
"System," Zen thought, his heart beating fast. "My core is only High F-Rank, but if that stone touches me, it will pick up the S-Rank residue left behind by the Primordial Void Breathing. Plus, a suddenly healed core will blow my cover entirely."
[Warning: The artifact will expose your true mana signature. Probability of capture: 99%.]
"Can you hide it?" Zen asked.
[Affirmative. I can execute a Total Core Inversion to mask your signature. Warning: Forcing your healed core to invert will cause extreme physical agony.]
"Do it," Zen ordered.
Before the Inquisitor could call the first name, Kaelen Thorne pushed his way out of the crowd. He was sweating. Kaelen knew he had hacked the teleportation pad yesterday. He was terrified the Inquisitor was here to investigate the malfunction. He needed a distraction immediately.
"Sir!" Kaelen yelled, pointing a shaking finger directly at Zen and Valeria. "It was them! They were the only ones in the unmapped zone yesterday! If there is an ancient threat, they are hiding it!"
The entire courtyard turned to look at Zen and Valeria. The Inquisitor's cold eyes locked onto Zen. He didn't ask any questions. He moved fast grabbing Zen by the collar and slamming the glowing crystal against Zen's chest.
"Let's see what you are hiding, boy," the Investigator sneered.
"System. Now!" Zen thought.
[Executing Total Core Inversion.]
It felt like a bomb went off inside Zen's chest. His mana core violently twisted itself inside out. The pain was blinding. Zen gasped, his eyes rolling back. He coughed up a mouthful of blood splattering it across the Investigator's boots. Zen's legs gave out, and he collapsed to his knees.
The Soul-Measuring Stone didn't turn bright with S-Rank power. It flickered and turned a dull, pathetic gray.
"A dying Low F-Rank," the Inquisitor grunted in disgust, looking at the stone. "His core is completely broken. He couldn't cast an S-Rank spell if his life depended on it."
But seeing Zen fall to his knees and cough up blood made Valeria snap.
Her possessive, yandere instincts violently flared up.
CRACK.
The thick glass of her fake spectacles split right down the middle. A faint red light glowed in her eyes. She didn't release her S-Rank mana… that would have triggered the stone. Instead, she released a micro-burst of pure, suffocating killing intent directly into the Inquisitor's mind.
The Inquisitor froze. The blood drained from his scarred face. Every survival instinct in his veteran body screamed at him. He felt like an invisible, massive blade was pressed directly against his spine.
Valeria stepped forward and slapped the Inquisitor's hand away from Zen. With her other hand, she quickie reached into her pocket and brough out a small, metal, black card. She held it up just high enough for the Inquisitor to see. It was a Classified Vanguard VIP Crest.
The Inquisitor's eyes went wide. He suddenly understood. This transfer student was highly protected Vanguard royalty, and the terrifying killing intent he felt was coming from her invisible, elite bodyguards hiding in the shadows.
"Do not touch him again," Valeria whispered. Her voice was calm, but it held a promise of death.
"My apologies, Miss " the Investigator stammered as he stepped back. He turned and glared furiously at Kaelen Thorne. "Are you trying to waste my time, boy? Get out of my sight."
Kaelen turned pale, shrinking back into the crowd looking like an absolute fool.
The Inquisitor cleared his throat, straightening his posture as he looked at Dean Alaric. "The scan continues. Line the rest of them up."
Dean Alaric nodded nervously, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Alright, you heard him! Orderly lines! Step forward one at a time. Those who have already been cleared are dismissed for the lunch period!"
As the rest of the courtyard groaned and shuffled forward in a tense queue, Jax pushed through the crowd, running straight toward Zen. Jax looked terrified for his best friend.
"Zen! Dude, are you okay?!" Jax panicked, reaching down to grab Zen's arm and help him up.
Valeria's cracked glasses caught the light. She stepped between them, her possessive aura flaring again. She hissed at Jax like a territorial predator. "Don't touch him. I am taking him home."
Zen wiped the blood from his mouth. Valeria was currently in hyper mode and wanted to isolate him. But if he let her scare Jax away, he would lose his only friend and his best source of information in the academy. He had to stop it.
Zen stood up straight, ignoring the throbbing pain in his chest. He looked at her. He didn't look like a weak student anymore. For exactly one second, he let his cold, dominant Emperor persona bleed through.
"Val. Enough," Zen commanded, his voice deep and absolute. "He is my friend. He stays."
Val froze. A visible shiver ran down her spine. Instead of getting angry, a dark blush spread through her cheeks. The absolute authority in his voice was exactly how the Emperor used to speak to her. She immediately lowered her head, acting perfectly submissive. "Yes, Zen. I'm sorry."
Jax stared at Valeria, then at Zen, looking completely confused. But Zen just patted Jax on the shoulder.
—
Later that day, during their lunch period, the three of them sat together. Valeria sat entirely too close to Zen, but she stayed quiet, allowing Jax to talk.
"You really dodged a bullet, man," Jax whispered, leaning over the table. "Kaelen is strutting around the hallways like a king today. The rumor mill on the student forums is going crazy."
"What are they saying?"
"Word is his family's lawyers already strong-armed the school this morning," Jax replied, keeping his voice low. "People are whispering that they scrubbed the teleportation logs before the Vanguard even landed. Everyone suspects he hacked the pad yesterday that caused the spatial fracture, but because there's no digital proof left? He is completely untouchable."
Zen looked across the cafeteria. Kaelen was sitting with his rich friends, laughing loudly. "Nobody is untouchable," Zen said coldly. "What class do we have next?"
"Melee Arts and Aura Flow," Jax said, checking his terminal. "With Instructor Graves. It's basically a weapon sparring class."
Zen smirked. "Perfect."
—
Instructor Graves was a strict, old-school veteran. He hated arrogant students and valued perfect technique over raw mana output.
During class, he had the students practice the Vanguard Heavy Cleave on reinforced training dummies.
Kaelen stepped up. He completely ignored the proper footwork and just blasted the dummy with his raw B-Rank mana. The dummy shattered. Kaelen looked incredibly smug, expecting praise.
Instructor Graves sighed. "Sloppy. In a real fight against an equal opponent, your terrible balance would get you killed."
Kaelen got defensive and arrogant. He spotted Zen in the crowd and sneered. "Raw power is all that matters, Instructor. Why don't you let me demonstrate on Arclight? He survived a High E-Rank dungeon, surely he can hold a blocking pad for one of my swings."
Instructor Graves allowed it strictly as a single-strike blocking drill. Zen was given a heavy kinetic-absorption shield. Kaelen was given a wooden training greatsword. It was not a spar, so the rank gap was legally allowed for a demonstration.
Kaelen gripped the wooden sword. He fully intended to channel a hidden burst of B-Rank mana into the blade at the last millisecond to break Zen's arms and make it look like an accident.
Kaelen charged and swung with devastating force.
Zen didn't brace. He used his centuries knowledge of weapon mastery and the Emperor's Stride to shift his footing by two inches. As the massive wooden blade came down, Zen casually angled the edge of his shield to strike the exact harmonic weak point of Kaelen's terrible, unbalanced swing.
Because Zen didn't block the force, but redirected it, all of Kaelen's explosive B-Rank momentum violently backfired.
SNAP.
The wooden sword shattered into splinters. The kinetic whiplash violently disarmed Kaelen, lifting his feet off the ground and throwing him flat on his back in the middle of the training mat. He laid there gasping for air.
The entire class went silent. Zen didn't use any magic. He didn't even break a sweat. He just looked down at Kaelen coldly and handed the shield back to the Instructor.
Instructor Graves smirked, looking at Kaelen on the floor. "As I said. Sloppy."
—
The academy day finally ended. Valeria insisted they go straight back to her townhouse so Zen could rest. Once they were inside, she walked Zen to his bedroom. "Get some sleep, partner," she said sweetly, closing his door.
But Valeria didn't go to her room.
She walked down the hallway pressed her hand against a hidden panel, on the wall and stepped into a warded soundproof panic room. The sweet caring expression instantly vanished from her face. She looked like the cold, ruthless Goddess of War once again.
She walked over to a metal table and turned on a high-tech holographic communicator. Four pillars of light shot up into the dark room. The projections of the other four Goddesses flickered to life.
To her left was Nyx, the Spymaster. Her avatar was made of swirling purple data streams. Next to her was The Healer, wearing a pristine white lab coat over a Sanctum Domain uniform. On the right was Lyra, the Grand Mage, holding a staff of pure starlight.
And in the center wearing a crown of golden fire was The Empress.
The air in the room was instantly toxic. The five women disliked each other, united only by their shared grief and their obsessive love for the dead Emperor.
"We do not have time " The Empress said, her voice echoing with authority. "The Void Singularity… the entity that killed him five hundred years ago… is showing micro-fractures across the globe. We need to prepare our armies."
"I am already tracking it," Nyx said, her purple digital eyes narrowing as she looked directly at Valeria's hologram. "But my satellites picked up something else yesterday. A massive, unregistered S-Rank anomaly inside District 7. Right in your backyard, Valeria."
Valeria kept her face perfectly blank. She adjusted her cracked glasses. "It was nothing," Valeria lied smoothly. "A group of scavengers set off an unstable magical artifact in the unmapped zone. My Vanguard dealt with it."
Nyx tilted her head clearly not believing her. "Is that so?"
"Stay out of my territory, Nyx," Valeria warned, her voice dropping into a deadly growl. "I have everything under control."
Valeria ended the connection. The room went dark. She wasn't going to tell them the truth. She wasn't going to let the four women anywhere, near the academy. Because Zen was hers.
And she was going to prove it.