The Aethelgard Academy was currently running on what David Silver liked to call emergency life support. After his little stunt in the Grotto which had effectively turned the school’s Tier 6 mana batteries into expensive glass paperweights, the grand marble halls were illuminated by flickering lanterns.
They were low output and smelled faintly of burning oil. The defensive wards were gone, the hot water was a myth, and the instructors looked like they had not slept since the First Dimensional War.
David sat in the cafeteria and stared at a bowl soagy oats. It was slowly losing its battle with gravity. He felt a bit guilty about the blackout, but mostly he felt a crushing sense of exhaustion.
His brain was still trying to index the fifty thousand forbidden tomes he had inhaled in the Archive. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw golden gears and ancient equations spinning in the dark.
Relatable humor, David, he whispered while poking at his breakfast. You are a Sovereign in waiting, a reality warper, and a Master Rogue. And yet here you are being defeated by a bowl of soggy oats. The path to the throne is truly paved with disappointment.
— [Infinite Regeneration System] —
[Host Information]
↳ Name: David Silver
↳ Life-form: Human / Engine-Bearer
↳ Disability: Pain Nullification
[System Note: I have calculated that your guilt over the power grid is roughly 0.02 percent of your total emotional output. Your annoyance at the porridge, however, is at a staggering 84 percent. Your priorities remain consistently human.]
Shut up, David muttered. He ignored the blue screen and tried to find a spoonful of oats that was not cold.
Suddenly, the heavy oak doors of the cafeteria were kicked open with enough force to rattle the remaining window panes. BAM! The sound echoed through the hall. The room went silent. David did not even need to look up to know who it was.
The air in the room suddenly spiked in temperature. It was a violent and aggressive heat that made his skin prickle. It felt like someone had opened the door to a furnace.
Sterling Greyjoy did not just walk into the room. He manifested.
He was different than before. A week ago, Sterling had been a tall and arrogant Tier 4 swordsman. Now he looked like something that had been forged in the heart of a volcano and then polished to a lethal shine.
He was taller now, and his muscles were tight with unnatural strength. His golden hair seemed to be giving off a little smoke. His eyes were usually a proud blue, but now they were a bright, fierce.
But it was the aura that made the students step back. It was not just mana. It felt like a heavy weight pressing down on them.It was a roar of raw and unrefined power that smelled of old blood and burning scales.
"Dragon-Vein," a student whispered two tables away. His voice was trembling. "He actually did it. His father bought him a Dragon-Vein Injection. That fvcking cost a fortune!"
David’s Observation skill began to feed him data at a nauseating speed.
[Warning! High-Tier Biological Modification Detected.]
[Subject: Sterling Greyjoy.]
[Condition: Dragon-Vein Injection (Tier 5 Forbidden Alchemical Process).]
[Status: Mana output has jumped to Tier 4 Peak. Physical Strength: +300 percent.]
David watched as Sterling walked toward his table. The ground beneath Sterling’s boots did not just shake. It groaned. Every step sent out a wave of heat that burned the floorboards. Sterling was no longer just a bully. He was a walking Tier 4 weapon. He had been filled with the blood of a dying Fire-Drake to cross the gap that his own talent could not.
Sterling stopped at David’s table. He did not say a word at first. He simply reached down and grabbed the edge of the heavy oak table. With a casual flick of his wrist, he did not just flip the table. He shattered it! The wood exploded into splinters. They were sent flying by a burst of red mana.
David did not move. He sat on his stool with splinters of wood caught in his hair. His bowl of oats was now a messy stain on the floor. He looked at the ruined breakfast and felt his annoyance level jump to 90 percent.
"Get up, Silver," Sterling said. His voice was no longer a drawl. It was a deep growl that sounded like stones grinding together. "The games are over. That luck you have been hiding behind? I am going to burn it out of you. Fuck your luck."
David looked up and his golden violet eyes were calm. You look like you are having a very expensive allergic reaction, Sterling. Is the red eye thing permanent? Or does it go away once the dragon blood realizes it is inside a footstool?
The students gasped. Sterling’s face did not turn red with anger. It turned a stony and terrifying grey. He reached out with a hand moving with a speed that would have been invisible to a normal Tier 1. He grabbed David by the collar of his uniform and hoisted him into the air with one hand.
The heat coming off Sterling’s palm was intense enough to make David’s uniform sizzle.
My father paid a king’s ransom to restore the honor you stole in the circle, Sterling hissed. His breath smelled of sulfur and rot. I am no longer a student. I am a Dragon-Vein Warrior. My power has ascended to Tier 4 Peak. I could crush your windpipe before you could even think about casting a shield.
David felt the Static Core in his chest vibrate. He could have ended this in a microsecond. He could have used Miasma Touch to turn Sterling’s arm into a pile of black rot. But he remembered Rachel’s warning. He remembered the Great Eye.
Not yet, David thought. If I kill him here, the Inquisitors will be on me before I can even move and inche.
You are hurting my feelings, Sterling, David murmured. His feet were dangling six inches off the floor. And you are ruining a perfectly good uniform. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get drake blood stains out of wool? It is a nightmare at the laundry.
Sterling slammed David back down into his stool. The force of it cracked the stone floor beneath the chair. Tomorrow. High Noon. The Central Arena. A formal duel for Noble Honor. If you do not show, the Inquisitors will hunt you down for cowardice. They will strip your family’s title on the spot.
Sterling leaned in and his, eyes locked onto David’s. And do not worry about the power grid, Silver. My father has donated a set of Tier 7 Sun-Cores to power the arena just for us. The whole world is going to watch me erase the stain of the Silvers from this Academy.
As Sterling turned to leave, his cape snapping in the heat shimmer of his own aura, David noticed something.
He activated the 100,000x multiplier on his Spirit-Sense for a fraction of a second.
Underneath the roaring red mana of the dragon blood, there was a thin and jagged line of black noise coiling around Sterling’s neck. It was a vein, but it was not a dragon vein. It was a vein of absolute darkness. It was flickering with the same static corruption David had seen in the Grotto simulation.
[Alert! Corruption Signature Detected.]
[Detection: This is not just dragon blood. The injection has been laced with ’Void-Rot’ to accelerate the integration process. Subject is being consumed from the inside out.]
David’s eyes narrowed. The static corruption was not just a glitch in the school’s computer. It was a physical infection. And Sterling’s father had been desperate enough to use it on his own son just to beat a Static Core loser. He had traded his son’s life for a power jump.
He is not just ascending, David whispered as Sterling walked out of the hall. He is being hollowed out. He is a dead man walking.
David?
He turned to see Rachel standing in the shadows of the cafeteria entrance.She walked over and her Spirit-Sense eyes were shimmering with worry.
You saw it, did you not? Rachel asked while looking at the spot where Sterling had been standing. The black vein.
It is the same stuff from the Grotto, David said while standing up and brushing the splinters from his lap. The Ancient War data. It is physical, Rachel. Someone is bringing it into the world. It is fucking dangerous.
Count Greyjoy is part of a Void-Cult, Rachel whispered. Her voice was barely audible. We have suspected it for months. The Dragon-Vein is just a cover.
They are using Sterling as a test subject for the Void-Integration process. If he beats you tomorrow, it will be the proof they need to start injecting the rest of the noble students.
David let out a long and slow breath. The stakes had just jumped from a school rivalry to a biological warfare crisis.
They are sacrificing their own kids just for a power jump, David said. His voice was cold. That is a special kind of evil. Even Joyce would think that is a bit much.
The Inquisitor is arriving tonight, Rachel warned. She stepped closer and David could see the way her suit strained across her chest. If he sees you fight tomorrow, he will be looking for any sign that you are a Vessel. But if you lose, Sterling or whatever is inside him will kill you.
Relatable humor, Rachel, David said with a dark smile. I am stuck between a Void-infected dragon boy and a Tier 7 priest who wants to dissect me. It is like my life is a series of choose your own disaster novels.
[System Note: Statistically, your best option is to win the duel while making it look like Sterling had a heart attack from too much ego. I have already calculated several Lucky Break scenarios.]
We are going to need more than luck, David thought.
He looked at his hands. He could feel the Ghost-Hand mastery and the Hydro-Cutter data fragments swirling in his mind. He was Tier 1, but he was carrying the power of a Tier 10 Sovereign. And tomorrow he was going to have to walk a razor’s edge.
I am not going to lose, Rachel, David said while his gaze fixed on the doors. But I am not going to play their game either. If Count Greyjoy wants to see his masterpiece, I will show it to him. But I am going to be the one who decides how the story ends.
Rachel looked at him and her winter-storm eyes softened for a brief second. Just do not die, David. The world is a lot more interesting with a Static loser in it.
She turned and left. She disappeared into the dark corridors. David sat back down on his cracked stool. The silence of the cafeteria returned. He looked at the black splinters of the table on the floor. He felt the Aeon Catalyst humming. The multiplier was ready to turn his every thought into a reality.
The Duel of Rusted Sparks, David murmured. Sterling wants to restore his honor. I just want to survive long enough to have a decent breakfast.
He stood up and headed toward his dorm. He had a lot of work to do. He needed to practice his Vibration Reinforcement on a training sword. He needed to find a way to hide the Void-Rot in his own blood from the Inquisitor’s eyes. And most of all he needed to find a way to save Sterling or at least end his suffering before the corruption turned the arena into a graveyard.
As David walked through the dark quad, he saw the faint and red glow of the Sun-Cores being installed in the Central Arena. The stage was set. The dragon was hungry. But the Static was finally ready to scream.
High Noon, David whispered to the shadows. I hope they like fireworks.
The countdown had begun. And in the heart of Aethelgard, the gears of the Universal Engine were starting to turn. They were fueled by the blood of a dragon and the will of a boy who was tired of being stepped on.
Tomorrow the world would watch. And David Silver was going to make sure they saw something they would never forget. He walked back to his room while his face was pale about the duel but his eyes were concealing a secret. He was ready to fight.