🩸Kael stepped softly off the rooftop.His bare feet barely touched the cold concrete.The night pulsed around him — dense, heavy, dirty with dark thoughts.
Behind him, the soldier's shadow remained kneeling, twisted in its own pain, held in a posture of submission.The torture had been complete. All that remained was obedience.
Kael felt nothing anymore.
Seth whispered in his mind with a dangerously calm tone:
"You saw the professor's eyes, didn't you?""That wasn't just suspicion. That was trust. Trust that he'd be the one to expose you."
Kael walked silently through the service hallway of the academy building.Faint magical paintings barely lit the walls, but the shadows protected him.He commanded them with thought. With will.
— "Valein," Kael whispered.
The name sounded like a sentence.
Professor Valein. Rigid. Cold. Meticulous.He had been the only one who, during the initial scan, paused too long on Kael's shadow.
"You saw it. He watched your reflection. He got close."
"What happens if you're no longer the only one who knows what you are?"
Kael reached the professor's office door. At that hour, everyone was asleep. Everyone… except him.
From inside, a faint click — a metal pen tapping against a data board. Valein was working. He was always working.
Kael raised his hand.The soldier's shadow rose and slipped under the door like black liquid.Inside, there was no sound. Just a pause in the tapping. Then:
— "...I knew you'd come."
Kael stepped in.
The professor didn't turn around. He stared at a screen pulsing with Kael's silhouette — the words "Unstable Reflex. Unknown Entity" highlighted in red.
— "I can't fully understand what you are… but I know it's not magic. And it's not system-bound."
Kael said nothing.
Valein sighed. He turned slowly. No spell activated. No weapon drawn.
— "I won't tell anyone. Not yet. I just want to know… do you know what you're becoming?"
Kael stepped closer.
His shadow was already rising up the walls, crawling, coiling, shivering with hunger.
— "I know very well," said Kael.
— "Then… is it your choice?"
Kael gave a small shake of his head. Almost sad.
— "I don't choose anymore."
That was enough.
The soldier's shadow leapt like a spear.It pierced the professor's side silently.It wasn't the blood that mattered. It was his eyes — still open. Shocked.
Not terrified. Just disappointed.
— "A shame," he whispered.
Then silence.
Kael placed a hand on his chest. His heart beat steadily. Without guilt. Without regret.
"You were a child. Now, you're a beginning," said Seth. "This is your path."
In the background, Seraphine sighed… not in fear. In jealousy.
Kael left the professor's body in the chair. He closed his eyes.
— "You weren't the last to ask. But it'll all be fine."
The soldier's shadow settled behind him, silent.
Kael walked out of the office.
He stepped like an ordinary student.Just a boy among boys.But behind him… the shadows were learning to kill in silence.