The fourth bell never came.
Instead, something struck the outer barrier.
The entire academy shook.
Arthur caught the edge of his desk.
A second impact followed.
Glass rattled in its frame.
Somewhere in the corridor, a student shouted.
“Everyone to the western platforms!”
Another voice answered:
“The western platforms are already gone!”
Arthur went still.
Already gone?
That wasn’t how an academy drill sounded.
He crossed the room and opened the door.
The corridor had become chaos.
Students poured from their rooms.
Some were carrying weapons.
Others were still pulling on boots.
An instructor pushed through the crowd.
“First-years to the inner shelters! Move!”
Arthur stepped aside to let her pass.
Mira appeared at the opposite end of the corridor.
She was holding her coat over one arm and a short wand in the other hand.
“You heard it?”
Arthur nodded.
“The western barrier.”
“It failed.”
“I gathered that.”
Another impact shook the building.
Mira nearly lost her balance.
Arthur caught her elbow.
She steadied herself.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
A student nearby stared at them.
Arthur released her immediately.
“We should move.”
Mira nodded.
They joined the flow of students.
Then Arthur noticed something.
Nobody was heading toward the western side.
They were running away from it.
That made sense.
What didn’t make sense was the direction of the instructors.
Three of them were moving toward the breach.
Not away.
Arthur slowed.
Mira noticed.
“What?”
“They’re going toward it.”
“They’re instructors.”
“Exactly.”
He looked through the nearest window.
Red emergency lights flashed across the fortress.
Beyond them, the western towers were disappearing behind a wall of black mist.
Arthur’s stomach tightened.
The mist wasn’t moving with the wind.
It was moving against it.
Something was inside.
The shelter doors slammed shut.
Arthur and Mira were pushed into a crowded underground hall with dozens of other cadets.
Someone was crying.
Someone else was praying.
A boy was trying to force his sword into a sheath with shaking hands.
Arthur looked around.
No instructor had entered.
That bothered him.
He turned toward Mira.
“Where’s Seraphine?”
“West platform.”
“Of course.”
A loudspeaker crackled.
The academy’s emergency system came alive.
“Attention all cadets.”
Static.
“Outer barrier failure confirmed.”
A pause.
“Remain inside designated shelter zones.”
Another impact.
The lights flickered.
“Do not engage the breach.”
Arthur glanced at Mira.
She was already looking at him.
The loudspeaker continued.
“Repeat. Do not engage the breach.”
Arthur folded his arms.
“That sounded less like an instruction and more like a request.”
Mira frowned.
“Why?”
“Because they repeated it.”
Before she could answer, the shelter doors opened.
An instructor stumbled inside.
Blood covered one side of her uniform.
The room fell silent.
“Everyone stay calm.”
Nobody did.
The instructor looked toward the other teachers.
“Where is Instructor Voss?”
No one answered.
“She went back?”
The instructor’s face tightened.
“She didn’t come back.”
Arthur looked toward the ceiling.
The fortress shook again.
This time, something scraped across the outer wall.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
A sound like enormous claws dragging over stone.
Several students covered their ears.
Arthur didn’t.
He was listening.
Three scratches.
Pause.
Two scratches.
Pause.
Three again.
Not random.
A pattern.
Mira noticed his expression.
“What?”
Arthur didn’t answer immediately.
He remembered the symbol in Room 417.
Circle.
Three lines.
He looked at the shelter door.
Then toward the western wall.
“Do you know anything about the academy’s old ward system?”
Mira hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Can the outer barrier open from inside?”
Her eyes widened.
“Why would you ask that?”
“Because that thing isn’t trying to break through.”
Arthur pointed toward the ceiling.
“It’s looking for something.”
They never got to finish the conversation.
The shelter door exploded inward.
Students screamed.
A black shape crashed through the opening.
Arthur moved before he understood what he was seeing.
He grabbed Mira and pulled her sideways.
Something passed where her head had been.
A claw struck the stone floor.
The impact shattered three tiles.
Arthur rolled behind a pillar.
The creature emerged from the smoke.
It was smaller than the one he’d seen climbing the walls.
That didn’t make it less frightening.
Its body looked unfinished.
Four long limbs.
No visible bones.
Skin like wet charcoal.
Its head was covered by a cluster of pale eyes.
Too many.
One of them turned toward Arthur.
He froze.
Not from fear.
Recognition.
The creature stopped.
Its claws remained pressed against the floor.
For one strange second, neither moved.
Then the creature lowered its head.
Arthur’s eyes narrowed.
It was bowing.
Just like the thing from the outer-wall trial.
A system notification appeared.
[Entity Recognition Detected.]
[Classification unavailable.]
[Behavioral response: Submission.]
[Cause: Unknown.]
Arthur stared at it.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The creature suddenly attacked.
Arthur threw himself sideways.
A claw cut through the pillar.
Stone exploded across the shelter.
Arthur hit the floor.
Pain shot through his shoulder.
The creature turned.
He reached for his sword.
Too slow.
It lunged.
Arthur raised his arm.
“Wait.”
The creature stopped.
Its head tilted.
Arthur’s heart hammered.
The entire shelter had gone silent.
The creature stared at him.
Arthur slowly stood.
He adjusted his collar.
There was dust on it.
He brushed it away.
“If we’re going to kill each other,” he said quietly, “I’d appreciate knowing why.”
Someone behind him whispered:
“Is he insane?”
Arthur ignored them.
The creature took one step forward.
Arthur took one step back.
Not retreating.
Measuring.
Its left front limb dragged slightly.
Injured.
Its breathing was uneven.
The eyes on its head weren’t moving together.
Three followed him.
Two watched the instructors.
The others stared at the ceiling.
Arthur understood.
It wasn’t hunting randomly.
It was searching.
For something above them.
“What do you want?”
The creature’s mouth opened.
No sound came out.
Instead, a thin strand of black mist escaped between its teeth.
Arthur’s left eye suddenly burned.
His vision changed.
The world became lines.
Mana currents.
Weak points.
Structural connections.
Glint of the Monocle.
Except this time, the spell showed him something it shouldn’t have.
A thread ran from the creature’s chest.
Not mana.
Something older.
The thread continued upward.
Through the ceiling.
Through the academy.
Toward the highest tower.
Arthur’s breathing slowed.
The creature wasn’t connected to the academy.
It was connected to something inside it.
The system appeared again.
[Foreign Contract Detected.]
[Contract origin: Unknown.]
[Warning: Do not sever.]
Arthur stared.
A contract.
That explained the behavior.
Something had sent the creature.
Something had bound it.
And whatever controlled it was inside Gallows Edge.
“Arthur.”
Mira’s voice brought him back.
She stood several meters away.
Her wand was raised.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying not to make this worse.”
The creature suddenly turned toward the eastern wall.
Its body tensed.
Arthur followed its gaze.
Nothing.
Then he heard it.
A heartbeat.
Not his.
Not the creature’s.
Something enormous.
Deep beneath the academy.
One beat.
Then another.
The creature began trembling.
Arthur understood.
It wasn’t afraid of them.
It was afraid of whatever was below.
A voice shouted from the corridor.
“Cadets! Get down!”
A spell struck the creature.
It screamed.
Arthur’s eyes widened.
The spell hadn’t come from an instructor.
He saw the caster.
Julian Hawke.
Julian stood at the doorway with a drawn sword.
“You idiot!” Mira shouted.
The creature turned.
Arthur moved.
“Julian!”
Too late.
The creature lunged.
Julian blocked with his sword.
The impact threw him across the room.
His back hit the wall.
His sword flew from his hand.
The creature raised its claw.
Arthur’s mind raced.
The system had suspended the conduct requirement.
But that didn’t mean he had unlimited power.
His mana reserves were low.
Shadow Thread was weak.
Echo of the Parlour could barely stop debris.
He needed one clean opening.
Arthur looked at the creature’s injured limb.
Then at Julian.
Then at the ceiling.
The foreign contract pulsed.
There.
A weakness.
Not in the creature.
In the connection.
Arthur extended his hand.
Shadow Thread appeared.
Thin.
Barely visible.
The creature turned toward him.
Arthur moved his wrist.
Smoothly.
Precisely.
The thread slipped around the black contract line.
Arthur pulled.
Nothing happened.
His arm shook.
The line resisted.
The system flashed.
[Optimization requirement detected.]
[Current technique insufficient.]
[Recommended action: increase precision.]
Arthur gritted his teeth.
“Helpful.”
The creature raised its claw toward Julian.
Arthur pulled harder.
His fingers began bleeding.
He could feel the mana leaving his body.
Five percent.
Ten.
Fifteen.
Still nothing.
Julian looked at him.
“Vale!”
Arthur didn’t answer.
“Do something!”
“I am.”
“Then hurry!”
Arthur’s teeth clenched.
He wasn’t strong enough.
Not yet.
So he stopped trying to overpower the contract.
Instead, he studied it.
Glint of the Monocle sharpened.
The lines became clearer.
The contract wasn’t a rope.
It was a sentence.
A command.
A condition.
Arthur almost laughed.
Of course.
He understood contracts.
Not magical ones.
But people were people.
And rules were rules.
Every contract had language.
Every language had loopholes.
Arthur followed the line to its source.
There.
One clause.
A tiny gap.
The creature was forbidden from harming a bearer of the academy’s highest authority.
Arthur looked toward the instructor’s bloodstained badge lying on the floor.
Then toward Julian.
He understood.
The creature hadn’t attacked the instructor.
It had only attacked the cadets.
Arthur grabbed the badge.
He threw it toward Julian.
“Catch!”
Julian caught it instinctively.
Arthur shouted:
“Hold it up!”
“What?”
“Just do it!”
Julian raised the badge.
The creature stopped.
Its entire body locked.
Arthur smiled.
There was his loophole.
The contract wasn’t protecting the person.
It was protecting the bearer of the authority.
Julian was now holding the badge.
Arthur pulled the Shadow Thread.
This time, the contract snapped.
The creature screamed.
A wave of black energy tore through the shelter.
Arthur’s ears rang.
The creature collapsed.
Silence followed.
Then the system appeared.
[Conduct-compatible solution recognized.]
[Violence avoided through contractual interpretation.]
[Shadow Thread optimization: 7%.]
[New property acquired.]
[Shadow Thread: Clause Severance.]
Arthur stared at the final line.
He had expected an improvement.
He hadn’t expected a new technique.
Julian slowly lowered the badge.
“What did you just do?”
Arthur looked at him.
“Apparently, I read the fine print.”
Julian stared.
Then laughed once.
Not mockingly.
Almost disbelieving.
“You’re insane.”
Arthur glanced at the unconscious creature.
“That’s possible.”
A minute later, the shelter doors opened.
Seraphine entered.
Her sword was drawn.
Blood covered her sleeve.
Her eyes immediately found the creature.
Then Julian.
Then Arthur.
Her gaze stopped on the academy badge in Julian’s hand.
The color drained slightly from her face.
Arthur noticed.
“You know what that thing was.”
Seraphine didn’t answer.
Arthur took a step toward her.
“More importantly, you know why it bowed to me.”
Seraphine’s expression hardened.
“Not here.”
Arthur looked around.
Hundreds of cadets were listening.
“Then where?”
She walked toward him.
Quietly, she said:
“Room 417.”
Arthur’s eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
Seraphine looked directly into his eyes.
“Because three months ago, you asked me the same question.”
Arthur felt cold.
“You remember?”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell me?”
Seraphine’s jaw tightened.
“I told you to forget.”
Arthur stared at her.
“And I did.”
For the first time, something like regret crossed her face.
“No.”
She lowered her voice.
“You didn’t.”
Arthur waited.
“You were made to.”
Before he could ask anything else, the emergency bells stopped.
The academy lights returned.
The creature’s body vanished into black ash.
Arthur looked down.
Among the ashes lay a small piece of obsidian.
He picked it up.
A symbol had been carved into its surface.
A circle.
Three lines.
The same symbol from Room 417.
Arthur closed his fingers around it.
Seraphine saw.
Her expression changed.
“Put that down.”
Arthur looked at her.
“No.”
The instructor’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“Arthur.”
He slipped the fragment into his pocket.
“I think I’ve been obedient long enough.”
For several seconds, Seraphine said nothing.
Then the system appeared in front of Arthur.
Only he could see it.
The letters were gold.
[Hidden condition fulfilled.]
[The sealed memory has noticed you.]
[One fragment will become available.]
[Do you wish to remember?]
YES / NO
Arthur stared at the two choices.
For the first time since waking in this world, he wasn’t afraid of discovering what the old Arthur had done.
He was afraid of discovering what he had wanted to do.
His finger hovered over the answer.
Then he selected:
YES.