The resistance safe house felt like borrowed time.
Ethan sat by the window, watching Academy search lights sweep the forest. Four hours since their escape. The cult knew exactly who had infiltrated their meeting.
"They'll expect us to run," said the scarred woman who'd greeted them. Lady Vera, Donovan had called her. "Stay hidden until the search dies down."
But Ethan's fragment pulsed against his ribs with growing intensity. Something was building inside the metal. A pressure that made his bones ache.
"We can't wait," he said. "Other students are in danger. If the cult places those prepared fragments..."
"You're in no condition to help anyone," Vera replied. She studied his face with sharp eyes.
Maya looked up from the map she'd been studying, also noticing Vera's assessment. Her golden eyes widened. "Ethan. Your face! You look older than when you arrived. Months older."
He touched his cheek. The skin felt different. Rougher. When he caught his reflection in the window glass, a stranger looked back. Sharper jaw. Deeper-set of eyes. The face of someone who'd grown through one year in one night.
"The fragment is accelerating," Lydia said quietly. "Each use ages you faster than before."
"How much faster?" Kaleb asked.
"At this rate?" Lydia's amber eyes were troubled. "Months per day. Maybe more."
The weight of that truth settled over the room like cold fog. Ethan was burning through his life at impossible speed. But students were still at the Academy. Still vulnerable to corruption.
"We have to go back," he said.
"That's suicide," Lady Vera said bluntly. "The entire Academy is hunting you."
"Then we move carefully. Use the passages Donovan showed us." Ethan stood up from where he was sitting by the window. "Five fragments are still hidden. We find them first."
The fragment pulsed again. This time, the sensation was different. Like something stirring after long sleep.
Pain shot through Ethan's chest.
He gasped and stumbled. The fragment burned against his skin. Silver light leaked through his shirt.
"What's happening?" Maya reached for him.
"Don't touch me," Ethan managed. The light was growing brighter. Hotter. "Something's wrong."
The cabin around them began to fade. Reality blurred at the edges. In its place, other scenes emerged. Other times. Other faces.
Visions crashed over him like waves.
He saw a young woman in ancient armor. She held the complete Kingmaker Blade, its silver fire blazing like the sun. Around her, demons poured from cracks in the earth. She fought with impossible skill. Cut down creatures that should have been unstoppable.
But with each swing, she aged. Hair turned gray. Skin grew lined. By the battle's end, she was an old woman. The blade consumed her final breath as she drove it through the last demon's heart.
Another vision. A man in a king's crown. He used the blade to reshape his kingdom. Ended wars. Healed the sick. Built a golden age that lasted decades.
But the power corrupted him. He began using the blade for smaller things. Personal desires. Petty revenge. Each selfish act aged him years. When he finally died, the blade abandoned him. Let him crumble to dust.
More wielders. Dozens of them. All chosen. All convinced they could master the weapon's cost. All failures in the end.
The visions reached a crescendo. Every past wielder spoke in unison.
"Why do you seek power?"
The question echoed through Ethan's mind. Through his soul. The fragment waited for his answer.
For myself? To become strong enough to survive what's coming?
The thought tempted him. He could use the blade's strength to protect himself. Ensure his own survival above all else. Let others pay the price for their weakness.
But Maya's face flashed through his mind. Kaleb's nervous smile. The Bronze-ranked students who'd looked to him for hope. All the people who would die if he failed.
"Not for myself," Ethan said aloud. His voice carried across dimensions. "For everyone I couldn't save before."
The fragment blazed with silver fire.
Power flooded through him. Not the partial awakening he'd experienced before. This was complete union. Man and weapon becoming something greater.
His consciousness expanded. He felt every Divine Weapon fragment across the continent. Sleeping pieces of power scattered like seeds. His awakening called to them.
One by one, they began to stir.
Across the continent, fragments chose new wielders. The age of Divine Weapons was beginning again.
But with power came cost. Ethan felt his body changing. Bones lengthening. Muscles developing. His face shifted from boyish to adult in moments that felt like years.
When the transformation ended, he was taller. Broader. The reflection in the window showed someone who'd aged one year. Not only accelerated aging of fragment use, but also power growth.
"Ethan?" Maya's voice sounded far away.
He blinked. The cabin was real again. His friends stared at him with a mixture of awe and fear.
"I'm still me," he said. His voice was deeper now. More mature. "But the fragment is fully awakened."
"The light," Lady Vera breathed. "It could be seen for miles."
Through the window, Academy search lights had stopped moving. They pointed toward the forest. Toward their location.
"They're coming," Donovan said grimly. "Everyone. The cult. Academy guards. Anyone who felt that magical surge."
Footsteps crashed through the forest. Voices called orders. Lights bobbed between trees like angry stars.
"How many?" Kaleb asked.
"Too many to fight," Vera replied. She moved to a weapons rack. Selected a crossbow with practiced ease. "But we can slow them down."
"No." Ethan's new voice carried authority he'd never possessed before. "No more running. No more hiding."
He drew the Kingmaker Blade fragment.
But it wasn't a fragment anymore. Silver metal had grown from the original piece. Now he held a proper sword. Short by normal standards, but complete. Perfect. The blade hummed with power that made the air itself sing.
"We go back to the Academy," Ethan said. "Tonight. While they're all out here searching."
"That's madness," Vera protested.
"It's the only way. Those five fragments need to be found before the cult can corrupt them. And the students need to know what they're facing."
Maya stepped beside him. Her staff fragment glowed in response to his blade. "Where you go, we go."
Kaleb drew his practice sword. Still just steel, but his grip was steady. "Together."
Lydia nodded. "The Academy's wards will hide us better than this forest."
Lady Vera looked at each of them. Young faces marked by determination and fear. "You're all insane."
"Probably," Ethan agreed. "But we're also right."
They gathered their few possessions. Outside, the search parties were getting closer. Soon this sanctuary would become a trap.
"There's a path," Donovan said. "Old smuggler's route. Leads directly to the Academy's eastern wall. If we move fast..."
They slipped from the cabin like ghosts. Behind them, search lights swept the clearing. Voices shouted discoveries. But the resistance was already gone.
The path wound through forest that seemed alive with watchers. Every shadow could hide an enemy. Every sound might signal discovery.
But Ethan's awakened blade provided guidance. It pulled him toward the Academy. Toward the other fragments waiting to be claimed.
"There," Maya whispered.
The Academy walls rose before them. Ancient stone that had protected students for centuries. Tonight, it would shelter fugitives.
They climbed the eastern wall using handholds worn smooth by generations of rule-breakers. Academy grounds spread below them. Empty courtyards. Dark buildings.
But not truly empty. Ethan could feel eyes watching from windows. Guards patrolling routes they thought were secret.
"They know we're here," he said quietly.
"How?"
"The awakening. It marked us. Anyone with magical sensitivity can track the resonance."
Even as he spoke, figures emerged from building shadows. Academy guards. Cult members. Students who'd chosen the wrong side.
They formed a loose circle around the eastern courtyard. Waiting.
"Surrender," Professor Thorne's voice carried across the space. "You're outnumbered and outmatched."
Ethan counted enemies. Twenty at least. Maybe more hidden in the darkness.
"Odds aren't everything," he said.
The Kingmaker Blade sang in his hands. Silver light pushed back shadows. Around him, his friends readied their weapons.
Maya's staff blazed with divine radiance. Kaleb's sword gleamed with the reflected light from the Kingmaker Blade. Even Lydia's hands sparkled with prepared spells.
They were outnumbered. Surrounded. Hunted by people who should have been allies.
But for the first time since his return, Ethan felt ready for what was coming.
The blade had chosen him not for his strength, but for his sacrifice. Not for what he could take, but for what he would give.
"Last chance," Thorne called.
Ethan raised the awakened blade. Light blazed across the Academy courtyard. In that radiance, truth became visible. Cult marks on hidden skin. Possessed students with empty eyes. The corruption that had spread through their sanctuary.
"We know what you are," Ethan said. His voice carried to every corner of the grounds. "And we're here to stop you."
But for now they had to accept defeat and plan for what's to come. The enemy wouldn't kill them, it might cause an uproar but they will be held with strict hands or even threatened.
"We give up!" He exclaimed loudly, smiles on his face.