CREAK!
The blow from Boien landed. There was no dodging it this time. Lucian caught it on his forearm at the last second, and pain screamed up through the bone.
"Argh... my arm’s broken. This fat bastard is actually trying to kill me."
He staggered back, retreating from Boien step by step. Up on the second floor, Rumelia watched him weave and stumble, and her stomach twisted with dread.
"Lady Jeanne, don’t you see it too? Something’s wrong with the Young Master. He was winning at the start, so why is he cornered now?"
From above, Jeanne studied the fight, and what she saw troubled her more than she wanted to admit. "This isn’t about Lucian being weaker. That Kayden boy is stronger than he should be. But why? His family are magic casters, so why is he suddenly this dangerous in close combat?"
Among the row of academy deans, all eyes had turned to Boien, watching him dominate the fight so completely that Lucian couldn’t even find an opening.
"Isn’t this remarkable?" Patrik mused aloud, arms folded.
"The Kayden boy’s suddenly stronger without even touching his magic, and the Sarnel boy, who had the clear advantage a moment ago, can’t lay a finger on him."
While the deans of Tectra and Rapal traded praise for Boien’s sudden ferocity, Dean Lucy of Orvis sat with her thoughts running in the opposite direction. She’d seen enough of both boys to know the truth Lucian was the more gifted of the two, by a wide margin.
"How is a Kayden fighting like that with a build like his?" she wondered, unease prickling at the back of her neck.
"It doesn’t make sense. Boien’s suddenly stronger in melee than he’s ever been with his own family’s magic. Is this tied to whatever secret his bloodline is hiding?"
While the hall sat transfixed by the brutality unfolding below, a sharp, pained cry cut through the noise, Lucian’s voice, raw with agony. Dean Lucy’s hand flew to her mouth, and she turned toward the dean beside her.
Argh!!
"Hold on. Am I seeing this wrong, or has this fight turned genuinely brutal?" Patrik said, watching Lucian take blow after blow without answering back. "Why doesn’t the Sarnel boy just yield?"
"You’re not seeing it wrong. This has gone past a sparring match." Lucy’s eyes didn’t leave the Sanctuary. "But it’s not that he won’t yield. Look at where Kayden’s fists are landing, straight at his face, every time. Even if he wanted to surrender, he wouldn’t get the chance to say the words."
Between the two deans watching with mounting concern, the dean from Tectra saw nothing wrong with any of it.
"Why the long faces? This is exactly what you’d expect. He’s from House Sarnel, sure, but he’s still just a blind failure of a boy, one who won’t even pick up a sword."
Lucy wasn’t willing to accept that so easily. Too much about this still didn’t add up, least of all that white light. Without another word, she rose from her seat, already moving toward the front.
"Wait, Dean Lucy, where are you going?" Patrick caught her arm, holding her back.
"Let go of me, Patrick. I need to get down there. Now."
Patrik blinked, genuinely confused. "For what?"
"Are you blind too? Can’t you see how wrong that fight looks? Of course I’m going to stop it."
But Patrik didn’t release her. "Easy. There’s already a Saintess down there. If she hasn’t stepped in, that means the situation’s still under control. And if you go marching in, you’ll be insulting both the Saintess and House Kayden in the same breath."
"Orvis Academy has never bowed to nobility, and it never will."
Patrik shook his head. "Maybe you don’t fear the nobles. But do you fear crossing the Central Order of Lumielle enough to hold back, even to save that boy?"
Lucy went still at that. The Order of Lumielle wasn’t just a religious institution; it held its own territory in the city of Virelle, a city three times the size of the imperial capital of Bravenheart.
It wasn’t the Order’s fanatics that worried her most, though. It was geography. Virelle sat on the border between empires, and that position had made it into a vital economic hub. If the Order decided to hold a grudge against someone, they didn’t hesitate to choke off every trade route leading into that city.
Torn, Lucy sank back into her seat, eyes fixed once more on the fight she couldn’t look away from.
Down in the Sanctuary, Lucian’s entire body was a map of bruises. It wasn’t only his arm that had given out. The bone in his shin had shifted out of place too, and simply staying upright had become a battle of its own. Boien, meanwhile, was laughing.
He wrenched Lucian’s head up by the collar, sneering into his half-conscious face. "Hahaha... how does it feel, huh? Finally getting a taste of my real strength, blind boy?"
Lucian forced his hand into a fist and rasped through split lips. "Th... that’s... not... your strength."
"HA! Still running your mouth at me?"
THUD!—
Boien hurled him several feet across the floor without warning.
"Since you clearly don’t respect me enough yet, let me show you what I’m really made of. Take this, Blind Boy. INFERNO JAVELIN!"
WHOOSH!
A single massive spear of fire condensed in Boien’s hand and shot forward. Off to the side, Bishop Owen’s face had drained of color.
"Saintess, isn’t this far too dangerous for Lord Lucian?" he said, watching the scale of the attack Boien was about to unleash.
But Lumina only smiled wider as she watched the spear close in on Lucian. "It is. But he won’t die from something like that, not while I’m standing here. Just as I said, the more wounded he is, the more he’ll need me."
Her tongue slid slowly across her lower lip, her gaze fixed on him the way one might look at a meal. "Bishop Owen, go have my food prepared downstairs. I’ll need the strength for healing him properly afterward."
Bishop Owen bowed his head. "How many would you like, Saintess?"
"Mm... not many. Eight will do."
He lifted his head and beckoned a young priest standing nearby, murmuring Lumina’s instructions to him. The priest hurried off at once, though not before his face flickered with something close to horror.
Up above, Rumelia’s fear had turned to panic.
"Lady Jeanne, the Young Master’s in danger!" she screamed, desperate for Jeanne to act.
Jeanne was already moving. She’d leapt from the second floor the instant the flame ignited, sprinting toward her brother, but the distance was too great.
"Damn it. At this range I can’t land a clean strike, and I doubt I could even break through the Saintess’s Sanctuary." Jeanne’s face had gone pale, her thoughts racing. "What in the Goddess’s name is she actually doing?"
Lucian, meanwhile, could see nothing at all. He couldn’t even find the strength to rise.
This week... why does everything keep getting worse? Even standing is more than I can manage now.
My sight’s gone again, just like before.
A massive spear of fire, coming straight at me.
I can already feel the heat...
My arm’s broken. My leg’s broken...
Is this really how my life is supposed to go?
Something in him loosened its grip. He stopped fighting to move, letting his body go slack, as though he’d finally made peace with whatever came next.
But then.
Out of the darkness closing in around him, familiar shapes and colors surfaced once more, words he recognized rising up from somewhere deep inside.
✦ [GODDESS INTERVENTION DETECTED: █████]
[CONGRATULATIONS! The Conductor has successfully drawn Goddess █████’s attention.]
✦ [GODDESS █████ DEMANDS HARMONY IMMEDIATELY GRANT THE CONDUCTOR THE {PROMETHEUS} BLESSING]
[HARMONY DENIES THE GODDESS █████’S REQUEST. REASON: THE CONDUCTOR HAS NOT YET COMPLETED THE MAIN QUEST]
✦ [GODDESS █████ INTERVENES WITH HARMONY TO GRANT THE PROMETHEUS BLESSING IMMEDIATELY]
[HARMONY IS CONSULTING THE OTHER GODS TO REACH A DECISION]
✦ [GODDESS OPHELIA HAS ALSO JOINED THE REQUEST FOR HARMONY TO IMMEDIATELY GRANT THE CONDUCTOR THE {PROMETHEUS} BLESSING]
[THE OTHER GODS ARE DELIBERATING...]
...
[HARMONY HAS REACHED A DECISION...]
[THE PROMETHEUS BLESSING WILL BE GRANTED. HOWEVER, THE CONDUCTOR WILL RECEIVE A SEVERE PENALTY UPON ACCEPTANCE]
[HARMONY: FIRST PENALTY. THE {GOD-EYE} TALENT WILL BE TEMPORARILY SEALED. THE CONDUCTOR WILL LOSE HIS SIGHT AGAIN FOR A TIME]
[HARMONY: SECOND PENALTY. THE DIFFICULTY OF THE CONDUCTOR’S MAIN QUEST WILL BE INCREASED]
[THE OTHER GODS HAVE AGREED TO HARMONY’S DECISION]
[HARMONY: THE CONDUCTOR IS REQUESTED TO DECIDE IMMEDIATELY]
The strange text hovered before him again, and Lucian understood none of it, not really. But he understood this much: if he let go now, there would be no continuing, not for him, not for anyone still counting on him. Something in his chest, past reason, past fear, screamed the answer before he’d even finished thinking it.
GIVE IT TO ME.
[HARMONY: THE CONDUCTOR’S DECISION HAS BEEN CONFIRMED]
...
✦ [CONGRATULATIONS! NEW BLESSING UNLOCKED: {PROMETHEUS} TIER ???]
[PROMETHEUS: TALENT {SOL INVICTA} TIER ??? HAS BEEN ACTIVATED]
SIIING!—
A piercing tone rang out, so sharp and so loud that everyone in the hall clapped their hands over their ears.
Jeanne, still shielding her ears, kept running toward her brother without slowing. The great spear of fire was still hurtling toward him, closing the distance fast.
Then, beneath the ringing, a light bloomed from Lucian’s body, white bleeding into gold.
It gathered itself slowly into the shape of a figure with six wings, standing over him, wings spread wide, shielding him from the incoming spear.
BOOM!—
The fire slammed into the wings with brutal force, smoke billowing outward across the hall, but when it cleared, there wasn’t so much as a scorch mark on them.
"What the hell... what is that thing..."
"What do you mean thing, BLIND BOY?"
Boien’s voice cracked with terror as he shouted it, but Lucian couldn’t answer even if he’d wanted to. His whole body had locked rigid, every muscle refusing to obey him, speech itself beyond his reach. Without warning, the winged figure turned and began advancing on Boien.
"Th-that’s... too fast! Damn it... what are you... what do you think you’re doing..."
The figure rose to its full height, well over two meters tall, and closed the distance in an instant. One hand closed around Boien’s throat and slammed him into the floor with bone-cracking force.
"ARGGHH!" Boien’s scream tore out of him. One impact, and the sound of fractures spreading through his body was audible across the hall.
But the winged figure wasn’t finished.
A blade of pure light took shape in its free hand, blazing bright enough that every eye in the cathedral turned toward it, transfixed. Among them, Dean Lucy’s gaze wasn’t just caught. It was crawling with something closer to dread.
"Hei.." she muttered under her breath, unable to look away. "You’re all so busy staring at that thing that none of you are asking the real question. Where did that white-and-gold light come from in the first place?"