Getting out of the academy was easier than I'd expected. After the tournament, I couldn't just sit there and do nothing. Saving Luten was my chance to finally do something right.

  Selena led us through an underground passage known only to the royal family, while Reynor used his time magic to freeze the patrols in place.

  We traveled east for over a day, taking only short breaks. Aura stayed close the whole time, her shoulder brushing against mine as if by accident. Her eyes tracked every flicker of exhaustion or doubt on my face. Her whispers haunted me: "You showed everyone what you're made of at the tournament. He crawls back powerless, and they still can't take their eyes off him. Tell me how that's fair."

  Cassandra kept silent the entire way, like she'd seen something she couldn't say. Darius kept flexing his hands, covered in scars from recent transformations. He sensed a fight coming and craved it. Selena deliberately kept her distance, throwing cold, appraising glances my way now and then. She'd never forgive me for how I'd changed after Luten disappeared.

  "Stop." Cassandra froze over something in the tall grass. "There was a fight here."

  A clearing opened before us, soaked in viscous blackness like tar-blood. In the center lay what remained of a demon: torn flesh, entrails spilled outward, limbs scattered as if from an explosion. This wasn't a kill. This was an execution.

  The thing's skull had been flattened to pulp. Empty sockets where eyes had been. Someone had gouged out its eyes with bare fingers. The spine was broken in three places, each shard of bone stabbing outward like a jagged blade. Whoever did this didn't just kill the creature. They'd torn it apart in pure rage.

  Cassandra dropped to her knees, touching the ground beside the carcass. Her gift of foresight sometimes worked in reverse, letting her read echoes of the past from a location.

  "The life force... it's gone. Usually traces of energy linger after death, but here there's nothing. Complete void. And no magic. This wasn't killed with any magical weapon."

  "Luten. This is his work."

  Darius whistled low.

  "Your brother always impressed, but... doing this without a single drop of magic? You really sure about that?"

  I stayed quiet. I didn't know if I was sure. But I felt I was right. Something was happening to Luten. Something even the otherworlders didn't understand.

  The base appeared around a bend without warning, like a mirage: rows of gray modular buildings behind a bluish glow of a force field that pulsed like a living thing. A tall man in a gray jumpsuit met us. Implants flickered blue along his temple. His badge said "Raze."

  "The elite class from Arcanum Academy?"

  His smile was perfect. Polished, like everything else about him.

  "We received notification of your arrival ten minutes ago. Director Kronen contacted us through a secure channel."

  "Where's the other class? Where's my brother?"

  Raze measured me with his gaze.

  "Your colleagues are undergoing standard training procedures. You'll have a separate wing and a program suited to your... status."

  He led us through the main entrance, bypassing security protocols. Inside, the complex was all sterility and order: chrome surfaces, holographic indicators, silent doors. Nothing like the temporary barracks I'd spotted outside.

  "Your accommodations."

  Raze pushed open the doors to a residential block. Inside: private rooms for everyone, individual showers, soft beds, fresh clothes.

  "Use whatever you need. Briefing tomorrow at seven. Rest well."

  Morning found us at a rare shared breakfast. Cassandra refused food. Bad feeling, she said. Reynor mechanically chewed regulation biscuits, eyes fixed on the window. Selena entered last, tablet in hand, lips pressed thin.

  "Director Kronen sent instructions." She tossed the tablet on the table. "Fascinating reading."

  I pulled it closer. The text was pompously official, but the point was clear: we were to proceed immediately to the abandoned village of Nordheim, thirty kilometers east of the base. Check for demon infestation. "To optimize the educational process." Not a word about returning to the academy.

  "He doesn't want us coming back."

  Darius just voiced what everyone was thinking, reading over my shoulder.

  "And he's pushing hard to send us as far from here as possible."

  "Far from Class Thirteen. From Luten."

  I looked up at Selena. She nodded, fists clenched.

  "You're not the only one worried about your brother, Elliot."

  Her voice softened. It hit harder than it should have. I'd always suspected she had feelings for Luten, but hearing this half-confession...

  "We need information. Raze might know something."

  Following Cassandra's lead, we cornered the otherworlder handler in the corridor, surrounding him like wolves circling prey. Questions rained down, but Raze answered in monosyllables, professionally dodging direct answers. His smile grew more strained until he cited "security protocol" and vanished behind an automatic door.

  That evening I sat on the edge of my bed, studying a map of the area. Eastern sector, abandoned village, and nothing about where Luten's class was actually training. The door creaked softly. Aura, as always, appeared without warning or sound.

  "You're not sleeping at all."

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  She sat beside me, offering a cup of herbal brew.

  "This will help you relax."

  Our fingers touched when I took the cup. The warmth of her hand lingered on my skin a beat too long.

  "Thanks."

  I took a sip. Sweet, with a bitter edge..

  "You always know what I need."

  She smiled and gently adjusted the map so she could see.

  "Just taking care of you. Is this... the eastern sector? That's so far."

  "What bothers me is they're sending us in the opposite direction from Class Thirteen. Something doesn't add up."

  Aura touched her temple thoughtfully, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. That gesture got me every time.

  "Selena seems worried too. Especially about your brother."

  "She's... always favored him."

  I tried to hide the bitterness in my voice. Apparently not well enough.

  Aura shifted closer, almost imperceptibly. Her shoulder pressed against mine now, her gaze understanding.

  "The academy's a strange place, isn't it? Some get everything. Others get scraps. How many times have your spells been stronger than the princess's? And who got the professors' praise?"

  I shrugged vaguely, feeling my tense muscles relax from her closeness and the warmth of the tea. Being with Aura was easy. She understood me without needing words.

  "You know what surprises me?"

  She touched the map, her finger tracing a circle around the otherworlder base.

  "For creatures without magic, they've built something... impressive. Maybe magic isn't the only path to power and progress."

  "You think we should abandon magic?" I laughed, but it came out nervous.

  "No. But maybe some traditions deserve to die? Birthright titles. The wall between those born into power and those who aren't."

  I drank more of the brew, feeling my eyelids grow heavy. Aura's words made sense. Wasn't this exactly what I'd been thinking, watching Selena and others get everything just because of birth?

  "Luten wouldn't agree with you. He always believed in the system."

  Aura gently took the cup from my weakening fingers.

  "But you're not Luten."

  Her whisper came so close I felt her breath warm on my cheek.

  "You've always thought deeper, seen further. That's exactly why I..."

  She caught herself and squeezed my shoulder softly.

  "We all need rest. Tomorrow's important."

  She stood, and the room seemed to grow colder. At the door, Aura turned. Her silhouette stood sharp against the light.

  "Don't let worry about your brother eclipse your own future, Elliot. Maybe searching for Luten is a chance to find yourself."

  After the door closed behind her, I lay there for a long time, staring at the ceiling. Her words echoed in my mind, mixing with images of Luten, Selena, the demon in the forest. As always after our talks, I felt a strange duality. Like my head had cleared and tangled further at the same time. This feeling had become familiar when it came to Aura.

  Morning came with commotion. Escort robots waited at the exit from our quarters: six silent figures with multifaceted lenses that reflected the whole world, weapons built directly into their metal forearms. "For your safety," the instructor said. But we all understood: for control.

  "Your objective: reach the village of Nordheim. Clear the area of possible infestation. The robots will provide support and route security."

  "Total surveillance." Selena whispered, adjusting her gear straps. "They won't let us out of their sight."

  Darius appeared beside me, pretending to check his equipment.

  "We'll distract the robots. Reynor will create a time pocket, and you can slip away."

  "What about the rest of you?"

  I didn't look at him, pretending to adjust a shoulder strap.

  "We follow the route. Play obedient students. Find Luten and get back."

  "And if I don't come back?"

  He finally met my eyes.

  "Then we come for both of you."

  I nodded, fighting a sudden lump in my throat. Despite all our disagreements, despite Aura and her speeches, I knew: my real team was right here. They were risking everything for me. For Luten. For what actually mattered.

  "Thank you."

  Dawn was breaking outside the window. Ahead lay the road, the unknown, danger. I was ready.

  The escape turned out surprisingly simple. Reynor created a time pocket: five seconds repeating over and over for the robots while Selena pulled the air from the space between us, creating a distracting vortex. I slipped through a maintenance hatch that Darius had learned about from the service staff the day before.

  Circling the base perimeter, I finally saw it whole. Gray modular buildings arranged in perfect squares and rectangles, like parts of a vast machine. Precise, efficient... and utterly soulless. The shimmering force field surrounded everything, a barrier between their world and ours.

  Watchtowers with surveillance drones rose at regular intervals. Landing pads for helicopters sat between buildings. Not a single sign of life or nature. Only technology, metal, and plastic. An alien world in the middle of our forests.

  "Follow the markers."

  Before I left, Reynor had whispered instructions:

  "I scouted the area last night. Northern sector. Something strange there."

  The markers were barely visible: overturned branches, stripped bark, boot impressions. But I followed them like breadcrumbs from a fairy tale. The trail led away from official routes, winding between boulders, descending into dry streambeds, climbing rocky slopes.

  The further I went, the stranger everything felt. My metal magic turned sluggish, erratic. Something in this place was suppressing magical power. What the hell was happening?

  Something else hung in the air. Unnatural silence. No birds, no insects, no wind. I didn't notice at first that I'd stopped hearing my own footsteps. The ground here swallowed sound like a sponge.

  Around the next bend, the world changed. A small valley lay before me, surrounded by cliffs. In the center stood ruins of some ancient structure, covered in strange symbols that looked both like and unlike the runes of the pseudo-gods. Looking closer, I saw figures on the slope: bodies in Class Thirteen uniforms strewn across the rocks like discarded puppets.

  "Luten!"

  My shout dissolved in the valley's unnatural silence. Heart in my throat, I scrambled down the slope, leaping over stones. Bodies. Bodies. Bodies. Val. Aris. Kyle. All unconscious but alive. Small comfort. What had happened here?

  I found him in the valley's center, among the wreckage of robots. The same models that had escorted us that morning. Their frames were torn apart, crushed, and turned inside out. Metal melted as if from monstrous heat.

  Luten knelt on one knee, clutching his side. Blood seeped between his fingers. His shirt hung in tatters, revealing burns and gashes. But worst of all was his gaze: empty, distant, inhuman. He was tracking something in the air that I couldn't see.

  "Brother!"

  The air above the valley trembled, and I finally saw what he saw. A helicopter descending with an otherworlder logo, something monstrous writhing beneath it. A demon. But not ordinary: limbs grafted with steel, half its skull swapped for chrome and wire. A hybrid, created at the intersection of magic and technology.

  "An experiment. They want to see who wins."

  Luten's voice came out in a rasp of pain as I approached. No. This wasn't training. Not an accident. This was an arena. And my brother was the test subject.

  The demon detached from the helicopter, dropping straight toward us. I activated my magic on instinct, gathering metal from the nearest robot wreckage into a shield. But something went wrong. The runes on the ancient stones flared red, and my magic... vanished. Simply evaporated, like water on hot iron.

  The metal still obeyed me, but only from my last dregs of energy. I shaped not a shield but a long curved scythe blade with a handle forged from the titanium alloys of robot frames. The weapon fell at Luten's feet the moment the demon crashed into the valley.

  "Don't die."

  That was the last thing I managed to say before magical exhaustion hit me like a wave of darkness.

  The last image burned into my fading mind: Luten rising from his knees, gripping the handle of the scythe I'd made. But his eyes... those weren't my brother's eyes.

  Everything went dark.

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