I'm going to die
Rhazar appeared before me in a blink.
I didn't even have time to breathe. One moment he was across the field smiling like a god among corpses and the next, he was standing right in front of me. His shadow fell over mine.
I had already concluded I was going to die.
There was no strategy left. No logic. Just the cold, suffocating truth pressing against my chest.
I was done.
A slow exhale escaped me as I stared up at him. My lungs hurt. My ribs screamed. My heartbeat sounded distant. I hadn't even done much. I hadn't even gotten a step closer to my revenge. Was all this a waste .
"I failed," I whispered. "It's not even up to a month…"
My voice broke. "I'm sorry, sis. I'm sorry, Mom."
For a second, I thought he'd end it snuff me out like an insect. But instead, Rhazar's expression shifted. His eyes flickered toward the distance, sensing something.
Then he hopped back lightly, like a predator avoiding something unpleasant.
The air split apart.
Ian appeared where Rhazar had stood.
The ground cracked under his feet as his aura erupted outward a beast's aura, raw and feral, strong enough to make the air vibrate. His presence dwarfed everything else on that battlefield. He wasn't human anymore. His body had grown, his silhouette larger, sharper half man, half monster.
Every survivor could feel it. That primal fear. That flicker of hope.
Ian's sword was drawn, his eyes burning with a fury that could tear mountains apart.
Rhazar's smile didn't fade. Instead, his form began to shift bones shrinking, edges softening, until he looked like a boy again. Innocent. Sweet. Deceptively harmless.
"Ian," he said, voice light, almost cheerful. "Nice of you to join us."
I could feel the tension crackle between them ancient and bitter.
At the moment it seemed Rhazar was listening to something. He smiled and said "it seems like my work here is done".
The words hit me like thunder.
And suddenly… we all felt it.
The island trembled. The floating landmass the academy, the homes, the dorms, the sanctum itself quivered like a dying heart.
It was still afloat, but something was wrong.
It felt lighter. Incomplete. Like a piece of its soul had been stolen.
Ian sensed it too. His eyes snapped toward Rhazar.
"What did you do?"
Rhazar smiled. Slowly. Deliberately.
"Oh, nothing much," he said, his tone dripping with mockery. "I just stole something. And guess what? I killed more than half of your students and still got what I wanted."
His grin widened. "Isn't that blissful, Ian? You're really useless."
Ian's aura surged, the ground beneath him fracturing.
Rhazar's voice cut through the storm sweet, cruel, and calm.
"I killed Clara Valecrest, and you couldn't do Anything, because you came late . I killed your students one by one gave them slow, agonizing deaths and you were still late. Again."
He laughed softly. "And you call yourself one of the pillars of this pathetic world? Laughable."
Rhazar turned, eyes glinting as he looked at me and then at Yelena's unconscious body, at Seris lying pale and still.
"It's been a pleasure, everyone," he said, voice soft as silk. "And for the rest of you students you got lucky."
His gaze lingered on me.
"I'd like to see how you grow… especially you, Valecrest. And Frostbane."
He grinned. "You impressed me the most."
Then his figure began to fade, melting into the air.
A faint echo lingered behind, playful and venomous.
"See ya, Ian."
And he was gone.
The silence that followed was unbearable.
A moment later, the horizon rippled with light soldiers and healers from House Maelora appeared in a rush. Aria and Darius Valecrest among them, faces pale as they ran toward the wreckage. The parents. The representatives. The survivors.
They were all too late.
I staggered forward, my legs trembling, vision blurring from exhaustion. My mind was spinning, trying to register who was still alive.
Then I froze.
Something was wrong.
Someone was missing.
I scanned the destruction again the broken bodies, the medics screaming for stretchers, the faint glimmer of mana fading from the field.
Kael.
I didn't see him. Not a glimpse. Not a sound.
"Where the hell…" I muttered under my breath. "Where did he go?"
The sky above flickered.
Then everything went dark.