***
A Few Minutes Earlier
In another place not so far, Emir, dripping with blood of all colors, darted through the ruin, instinctively navigating the empty platforms and tunnels.
He didn't need to think about it—his mind had already mapped the fastest routes to the SOS signal.
A professor, no doubt trapped by a horde of constructs, was holed up somewhere with the last unaccounted-for student.
The situation was clear enough: if Emir didn't intervene in some way, it would be a notable loss for the Academy.
More importantly, it would be a personal loss, one that could result in penalties he had no intention of facing.
Four students had already fallen, but they had been the weakest of the class—expendable, irrelevant in the not-so-grand scheme of things.
Impure.
This one, however, was different.
They mattered.
More so did the professor.
