The Warrior's Burden
Unlike the privileged students who saw the Academy's training fields as a place for show, Seraphina viewed them as a forge. She was rough, driven by instinct, and possessed a natural aptitude for the colossal Greatsword—a weapon few women, or men, had the raw strength to wield. Her true power, however, lay in her unyielding loyalty to her adopted brother, Orion. She was his shield, his blunt instrument, and his fiercest defender.
In the previous timeline, Kaelen's relentless psychological warfare against Orion had only served to galvanize Seraphina, turning her into a deadly, focused enemy. This time, Kaelen would not attack Orion directly through her; he would attack the system of their loyalty, creating a situation where Orion's rising arrogance would naturally leave Seraphina exposed and alone.
Kaelen knew Seraphina's deep, central insecurity: she was an orphan, common-born, and constantly feared she was not academically worthy of the Academy, believing her place depended entirely on Orion's future greatness. She relied heavily on the weekly, complex Mana Synthesis Exercises to prove her worth to herself. And Kaelen knew precisely when and how that exercise would go terribly wrong.
The Sabotage of the Mana Grid
The target was the Third Training Annex, a specialized arena used exclusively for the Warrior-class Mana Synthesis Exercise, scheduled for the afternoon. This exercise required students to channel ambient mana through a localized Mana Grid to amplify their physical strikes against automated combat golems. It was complex, heavily regulated, and usually foolproof.
Kaelen, cloaked once more in his Shadow-Weaving technique, slipped into the Annex's maintenance tunnels well before dawn. He bypassed the weak security wards using one of the new, subtle artifacts acquired by Silas's Silent Cadre: the Scroll of False Wards.
His target was the Primary Condenser Array, the heart of the Grid. The array was designed to handle a clean, stable flow of non-elemental mana. Kaelen didn't damage it; he simply introduced a minute, crystalline shard of highly unstable, low-grade Chaos Dust—a byproduct of his own Dark Heart cultivation.
The Dust itself was inert unless exposed to high-pressure, fluctuating energy. During the routine exercise, the Grid would function normally. However, Seraphina's specific physical attack style—a powerful, kinetic impact that generated an unusually high-frequency mana wave—would cause a sudden, critical Mana Feedback Spike in the system. The Chaos Dust would react violently, forcing the Grid to overload and causing a localized, spectacular, and completely unprecedented magical malfunction.
It will not injure her, Kaelen calculated precisely, monitoring the array's flow with his Stygian Mana sense. It will only ruin the exercise, expose her to public ridicule, and, crucially, look entirely like her fault.
The Public Humiliation
Kaelen positioned himself in the Annex's viewing gallery, near a group of gossiping minor nobles. He affected an air of supreme, disinterested boredom, occasionally glancing at the arena below.
The exercise began. Seraphina, her face set in fierce determination, entered the ring. She was using a borrowed Greatsword—her own weapon was still in transit—and her posture was tight with focus.
Orion, still wearing the counterfeit Sunsteel Gauntlets, was sitting prominently in the front row. He looked distracted, already impatient with the low-stakes training, his arrogance beginning to show the corrosive effect of Kaelen's psychological poison. He was reading the forbidden Aura Overdrive scroll Kaelen had left him, attempting to decipher its dark secrets while ignoring his sister's moment of focus.
Seraphina launched her attack. She moved with unexpected grace, channeling pure kinetic energy into a sweeping arc.
FZZZZZZT!
The moment her mana wave hit the target golem, the Condenser Array went haywire. The arena's lights exploded. The Mana Grid shrieked, emitting a torrent of uncontrolled, sputtering energy, and the combat golem—instead of simply stabilizing—suddenly exploded in a cascade of shattered metal and wild sparks.
The Annex plunged into chaos. Students screamed, diving for cover. Professors rushed forward, attempting to stabilize the now-failing Grid.
Seraphina stood alone in the center of the wreckage, coated in soot, her borrowed Greatsword lying uselessly beside her. The shock on her face was quickly replaced by a devastating sense of shame.
Professor Valerius—the same man Kaelen had humiliated days ago—stomped into the ring, his face crimson. He saw the ruined golem, the sparking grid, and the sole student standing amidst the damage.
"Seraphina! What in the seven hells did you do?" Valerius roared, ignoring her obvious confusion. "You have ruined the entire Annex! Did you deliberately overload the grid? Your control is not just poor; it is catastrophic! You are a danger to yourself and others!"
The crowd of nobles began to whisper and point. Commoner girl fails. She's just brute strength. She doesn't belong here.
Seraphina turned instinctively to her brother, Orion, for support, but Orion was still engrossed in the forbidden scroll, momentarily oblivious to the disaster he should have been preventing. When he finally looked up, he saw the chaos, but he only registered two things: the embarrassment of the scene and the failure of his sister to perform flawlessly.
"Seraphina, what were you thinking?" Orion snapped, his voice sharp with frustration, not concern. "You need to control your power! This makes me look bad!"
The words, though simple, were a devastating dagger to Seraphina's core. Her entire identity rested on being Orion's capable support. His reaction was not concern for her safety, but annoyance at her public failure. He immediately turned back to his scroll, leaving her alone to face the consequences.
Kaelen watched this crucial moment, his Dark Heart silently rejoicing. The seed of doubt is planted. Not about her ability, but about his loyalty.
The Calculated Rescue
As Valerius dragged Seraphina away, screaming about expulsion papers, Kaelen made his move. He didn't follow them. Instead, he approached the wreckage.
He quickly scanned the destroyed golem, making a show of intense focus while the professors were occupied with the Grid. He then discreetly collected a single, microscopic sliver of the Chaos Dust—the evidence of his sabotage—and vanished the moment before the forensic mages arrived.
Hours later, Seraphina was sitting alone in the common courtyard, head bowed, the Greatsword resting unused beside her. She had been publicly shamed, threatened with expulsion, and, worst of all, abandoned by the one person whose support mattered: Orion.
Kaelen found her there, the setting sun casting long, dark shadows over her defeated frame. He sat opposite her, keeping a respectful distance.
"The failure was not yours, Seraphina," Kaelen said, his voice quiet and devoid of his usual arrogance. It was the voice of a pragmatic confidante.
Seraphina looked up, her eyes red-rimmed. "Go away, Varrus. Haven't you and your friends enjoyed the show enough? I am a failure."
"Nonsense," Kaelen countered, leaning forward. "You are the strongest student in this Academy. Your output wave was immense. But the grid itself was flawed. I examined the wreckage. There was a micro-fracture in the Primary Condenser Array, a tiny structural fatigue flaw I've only seen in ancient schematics. Your power simply hit the exact flaw and caused a sympathetic resonance. It was bad luck, not bad control."
He paused, letting her digest the possibility that she wasn't completely incompetent. He was not giving her the truth (sabotage); he was giving her the plausible scientific explanation that allowed her to cling to her pride.
"The professors won't admit this because it means they must apologize for the faulty equipment," Kaelen explained, his tone conspiratorial. "And Orion won't defend you because, frankly, he's too consumed by his own ambition to notice the details of your strength. He wants glory; you only want to protect him."
He looked down at the Greatsword. "You deserve better than to be scolded for using your power too effectively."
Kaelen then reached into his jacket and pulled out a small, exquisite, and rare Arcane Maintenance Kit. It was the highest quality, easily worth a Duke's ransom—a gift from his newly acquired funds.
"The Greatsword you were using was a loaner, Seraphina. That kind of power needs a worthy weapon. Take this kit. It contains everything needed to maintain and attune a Tier-Three blade. Use it on your own Greatsword when it arrives. Practice alone. Study the maintenance diagrams within—they'll teach you how to analyze and correct the flaws in the equipment around you, so no one can ever blame you for their incompetence again."
He placed the kit on the stone bench between them. It was a material gift, given with no demands. This is not a debt of loyalty, but a debt of kindness, Kaelen thought. A simple, unconditional act of validation—the one thing Orion failed to provide.
"I don't want your charity, Varrus."
"It's not charity. It's investment," Kaelen said, standing up. "The continent needs warriors who are self-sufficient, not those who wait for a flawed Hero to validate them. I see greatness in you, Seraphina. Don't let a broken grid and an arrogant brother crush it."
He walked away, leaving the kit, the plausible explanation, and the chilling truth of Orion's selfishness to simmer in her mind. Seraphina was not corrupted like Lyra, nor morally trapped like Elara. She was isolated. Kaelen had inserted the wedge of self-doubt and the seed of disillusionment with Orion. When the real challenges began, she would remember the one person who offered validation without expectation—the newly rebranded Kaelen Varrus.
The four pillars of the future Hero party were now all compromised, weakened, or indebted to the Regressed Tyrant.