Chapter 59 Double Edged
Chapter 59 Double Edged
"Malphas, change," Ravelyn muttered, her voice dropping all the warmth it didn't possess anyway.
The shadow beast didn't hesitate. The pathetic, household-cat-sized ball of fluff expanded exponentially, bones popping and shadows stretching until a massive, terrifying night-stalker stood in its place. Razor-sharp talons dug into the tunnel dirt, and its eyes burned like twin coals.
Without casting so much as a single glance at Lucius or Kieran, Ravelyn leaped onto Malphas’s back.
"Get us out of here."
With a violent burst of blinding black light, Malphas launched forward, his massive wings cutting through the heavy air as he flew straight out of the collapsing tunnel, leaving the two golden boys in the dust.
Down in the dim twilight of the cavern, the silence was suffocating. Kieran waited, letting the sound of Malphas's retreating wings fade completely before he slowly turned his head to face the angel. His dark eyes were entirely devoid of their usual mocking humor.
"I don't know what kind of game you're playing, Light Bearer," Kieran said, his voice dropping into a lethal, quiet register. "But if you hurt her, I will personally tear down the angel faction piece by piece."
Lucius frowned, his jaw tightening so hard the bone looked ready to snap. He adjusted the collar of his white and gold uniform, the five rings on his sleeve catching the dull light. "I don't want to hurt her, Kieran. And you can't hoard her to yourself like some underworld prize."
Kieran raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms. "Oh, really?"
"She needs to train both sides of her bloodline," Lucius shot back, taking a defensive step forward. "If what the Elder said regarding her identity is true, we have a deadline. We need to help her master both the light and the dark before her birthday."
Kieran let out a dry, humorless chuckle, running a hand through his messy dark hair. "Oh. So you know about the prophecy."
"Of course I know," Lucius snapped, his pristine mask completely fracturing. "The Inner Sanctum isn't blind."
Kieran shrugged, a cold, dismissive smirk returning to his lips. "Good for you. Since you know so much, do us all a favor and keep your knowledge to yourself."
"You're being reckless," Lucius yelled, his golden halo flaring with frustrated heat. "I don't think you are fully aware of the catastrophic threat Ravelyn poses if she isn't properly trained. She could destroy the entire academy balance!"
"I am perfectly aware," Kieran said. He took a slow, deliberate step closer to the angel, his shadow bleeding across the floor until it touched Lucius’s boots. "And I don't need your input on how I handle her. See, Lucius, this is the exact difference between you and me. I look at Ravelyn and see a person. You look at her and see a threat."
Before Lucius could even open his mouth to retort, Kieran vanished, dissolving into a thick, arrogant cloud of black smoke.
Lucius was left standing entirely alone in the collapsing cavern, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white.
Up in the stratosphere, the air was brutal, biting, and smelled heavily of incoming lightning.
Ravelyn sunk her fingers deep beneath Malphas’s thick, shadow-woven fur, anchoring herself as the beast flapped his massive wings through the heavy clouds. The wind whipped her hair violently across her face, stinging her cheeks, but she barely felt it. Her mind was a chaotic, spinning mess, wandering over every single lie she'd been fed since she arrived at this cursed school.
A person, she thought, a bitter, snarky sneer forming on her lips as she stared down at the shrinking academy grounds below. Right. Kieran didn't see a threat. He just saw a really entertaining puppet.
Every late-night training session, every slow smirk, every time he’d helped her control her power—it wasn't out of the kindness of his black demon heart. He knew exactly what she was. He knew her ancestors' blood was staining his family's history, and he’d kept her on a leash anyway.
And Lucius? The golden boy was apparently just waiting for her birthday to turn her into some kind of weapon for his precious Coalition.
"They want a hybrid masterpiece?" Ravelyn whispered into the howling wind, her grip tightening on Malphas until the beast let out a low, understanding rumble. "They’re going to get a nightmare instead."
Ravelyn gave Malphas a slight nod, tightening her grip on his fur. "Down. Let's get this over with."
She propelled Malphas downward, cutting through the thick gray clouds. With a loud, ground-shaking thud, the massive shadow beast landed right in the center of the academy's open field. Dirt and gravel sprayed outward as Malphas instantly shrunk back down, shifting from a terrifying night-stalker into a harmless, cat-sized ball of fluff in the blink of an eye.
The field was already crawling with students. Hundreds of exhausted, soot-stained applicants had gathered after the sudden termination of the impromptu evaluation.
Despite the fact that Ravelyn had been completely sidetracked by a literal ancestral calling, she had managed to slaughter enough high-tier shadow beasts in the opening minutes to secure a ridiculous body count.
"Look who finally crawled out of the brush," a sneering voice called out.
Seraphine stood a few yards away, surrounded by her usual circle of high-born sycophants. Her pristine silver uniform didn't have a single speck of dirt on it, though her eyes flared with cold irritation the moment she spotted Ravelyn. "I heard a massive blast near the restricted sector. I assumed the low-tier trash finally blew herself up."
"Disappointed?" Ravelyn shot back, not even slowing her pace as she walked past the group. She didn't have the emotional bandwidth for Seraphine's playground insults today. "Next time I'll try to aim the explosion closer to your face."
Before Seraphine could do more than hiss a response, a massive, hovering holographic projection flared to life above the center of the courtyard. The automated evaluation board was compiling the final ranks.
The crowd went entirely silent as the names began to shift, sorting by lethal efficiency and raw mana output.
Lucius’s name sat predictably at the absolute top, followed closely by Kieran. But as the system processed the final anomalous spike from the sector blast, the runes began to glitch. A harsh, golden light flashed violently against the screen.
\[ID: RAVELYN — FIRST WING ELIGIBILITY: REVOKED\]
\[CRITERIA: THREAT LEVEL EXCEEDS STANDARD CURRICULUM\]
\[NEW PLACEMENT: THIRD WING — ADVANCED COMBAT & COGNITION\]
A collective gasp rippled through the courtyard.
"Third Wing?" someone muttered from the crowd. "She hasn't even finished basic ether-channeling! That's the Inner Sanctum's bracket."
Ravelyn stared up at the glowing text, a cold, humorless smile touching her lips. The academy didn't promote people out of generosity. They double-promoted people when they realized a specimen was too dangerous to leave unmonitored in the lower ranks.
They wanted her in the Third Wing so she would be forced into the same advanced combat rooms, the same dark-ether lectures, and the same predatory tracking simulations as the elite upper echelon.
She turned her head slightly, sensing a shift in the air.
Kieran had just stepped into the edge of the courtyard, his dark uniform loosely thrown over his shoulders, his eyes locking onto the board before drifting directly to her. A few paces away, Lucius appeared, the five rings on his sleeve gleaming under the midday sun as his jaw tightened at the official system announcement.
They wanted her close. They wanted her trained, caged, and watched.
Ravelyn adjusted her torn collar, her mismatched eyes reflecting the cold gold of the holographic board. If she was entering the Third Wing, she was going to be sitting right next to the executioners' sons every single day.
"Perfect," she whispered into the freezing air, her snark entirely replaced by a lethal, quiet resolve. "Let the classes begin."