Chapter 96: Defeat

Alden’s eyes flicked across the two figures standing in the ruined snow and opened his status window.

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[Opponent]

Name: Isabella Ashford

Level: 78

Rank: B+

Class: Mage

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[Opponent]

Name: Theodore Silverhart

Level: 73

Rank: B

Class: Warrior

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’Both of them are only B-Rank according to Soul Rendering.’

Which meant by this world’s standard system, they were somewhere around S or above. Top Spires from the Upper Academy. He had written these two himself. He knew exactly how strong they were.

That wasn’t the problem right now.

The problem was the black smoke tightening around his neck.

Alden pressed his knuckles against his forehead, his breathing already wrong. The longer Act VI stayed active, the harder it became to find the edge between his own thoughts and what was growing underneath them. Something dark and loud and very hungry that wasn’t him. Something that looked at Isabella and Theodore and saw targets.

’If I lose consciousness here,’ he thought, ’I’ll hurt them.’

’Or maybe even worse.’

Isabella’s voice came through the cold air. "Are you ready, handsome?"

Nobody moved.

Then Alden dropped into a deep crouch, wings tearing open behind him with a sound like a sail catching wind.

WHOOSH.

He shot straight up.

The snowfield exploded outward from where he’d been standing, a ring of frost blasting across the ground as his body launched into the sky. He drove his wings down hard, climbing fast, breaking through the cloud layer in seconds.

Below him, Isabella watched him go. "...Running?"

Theodore was already crouching. "I’ll bring him back."

"Theodore." Her voice stopped him before he launched. "Do not kill him."

"I know." He gave a short nod. Then detonated into the air.

BOOM.

Alden glanced back over his shoulder and felt his stomach drop.

Theodore was fast not just for a student but like something built and trained for speed. The space between them shrank despite everything Alden’s wings could do.

He pushed harder. The cold air tore at his face and the dark smoke coiled tighter around his torso with every second, feeding on the exertion.

Killing intent building up from somewhere deep below conscious thought.

No.

His vision washed red for a fraction of a second.

Don’t lose yourself. Don’t.

The smoke crept up his jaw. His eyes flickered. He could feel the edges of his own mind going soft, the boundary between what he wanted and what Act VI wanted blurring in the cold and the speed and the exhaustion.

Theodore was close now. Very close.

The last thing Alden held onto was the decision not to turn around.

Then the dark took the rest.

_________

Inside the main auditorium, you could hear four hundred students breathing.

Darius stood at the high podium with the face he made when things went too far for students to see and he had to decide how much truth to tell the room.

He had spent the walk over deciding what to say.

What really happened on the mountain pass could not leave this room. If the students learned their Vice-President had been a vampire for three years right among them in their halls and meetings, the panic would be impossible to control. He knew how bad fear could get when people found a target for it.

So he altered the shape of it without changing the core.

Augustus had betrayed the kingdom. He had allied with rogue vampires and launched an ambush. Seris and her companions had fought to hold the line. Alden had arrived as reinforcements and turned the battle.

Every piece of that was true. The parts he left out were the parts about Seris being a vampire, which would have burned everything down.

"I have an urgent announcement."

The murmurs stopped.

"Crown Prince Augustus Solaris committed treason against the realm today."

The auditorium erupted. He let it go for a few seconds. Then raised one hand.

"He aligned himself with a rogue vampire force and launched a coordinated assault against our students." A pause. "The threat was contained before the enemy reached our perimeter."

Some of the tension released from the room.

"Vice-President Seris and her companions fought with courage to protect each other. The remaining vampire elements may attempt a secondary assault at any time. I have contacted the Upper Academy and requested the immediate deployment of the Spires."

The name landed with weight. A new tension replaced the old one.

"All students will report to their designated defensive sectors immediately. We will not allow this academy to be touched."

The crowd came to their feet with a unified sound that filled the hall from floor to ceiling.

"YES, HEADMASTER!"

The doors at the back burst open before the echo died.

Professor Helena came through fast, communication crystal in hand, her face the color of someone who has just read something they weren’t sure how to say out loud.

"Headmaster. Urgent dispatch from the Upper Academy."

Every head in the room turned.

"The Spires have already deployed."

Darius looked at her. "Already?"

"They reached the coordinates before our vanguard could assemble." She caught her breath. "The vampire threat has been neutralized."

The relief that came through the crowd was immediate and physical. Students grabbed each other’s arms. Someone near the back actually cheered.

But Helena wasn’t finished.

Darius saw it in her eyes before she spoke. The hesitation that meant there was something else, and it wasn’t good news.

"There is one more matter."

He waited.

"The Spire has subdued Alden, and he is being taken to the palace for judgment."

The celebration stopped. Every sound in the room died at the same moment, as though the word had cut the air out of it entirely.

"What?" Leon’s voice was the first thing that came back, cracking slightly on the single syllable.

’Restrained? But why?’ Nicholas didn’t speak at all. His jaw went tight.

Roselle stared at Helena. "He’s being sent to the Palace. For judgment."

_________

Back on the mountain pass, Theodore landed in the snow.

He set Alden down carefully against a frost-covered rock and straightened up, adjusting his coat. Isabella was already there, one arm crossed over her chest, watching Theodore with the exact expression she wore when something had taken longer than she’d expected.

"You certainly took your time."

"He was troublesome." Theodore looked down at Alden. "More than I expected."

The boy was unconscious. His hair had gone back to ordinary dark brown. The abyssal smoke was completely gone. The gauntlets had dissolved. He looked like a student who had pushed himself until his body simply stopped cooperating, which was essentially what had happened.