Croy floated. His mind was awake, but his body was not there.
The Silencer!
Croy startled, but he couldn't move. He had no body; he could see and feel, yet touched nothing, nor did he have eyes with which to see. All around him was a black sea of nothing. Nothing.
'The Void?'
Was he here again? Was he dead? In the end, he had clearly been killed…
Dead? No.
'Dead?'
What was happening here?
'My head…'
'My parents… I am in the Void.'
Where were his parents?
He looked around. But not even the faintest outlines of his parents' figures could be seen. No, they couldn't be here. They had said goodbye to him on his first day at the Academy.
Why, then, was he here? Why was he alone?
'My head…'
Everything in his head hurt.
It was quiet. There was nothing. But… there.
A… buzzing?
'The man named Hisama!'
He had been there! He had shot him! Killed him.
What about the others? Inera was unconscious… would he kill her too?
'My head…'
'That bastard!'
What had he just been thinking?
Was he still at war? No, the war was over…
A soldier had killed him… No, not just any soldier… Who was he again?
'I am in the Void.'
'Mom? Dad?'
'My head…'
"Shhhh…"
A voice. A calming, beautiful voice. Peace.
A shock went through Croy's mind. He was in the Void! This was the place where he had always met his parents since he had joined the war.
But what was another voice doing here? It couldn't be the voice of his parents. He had long since forgotten them. The Void was nothing more than his subconscious… or was it?
What was that buzzing? Make it stop.
"Who are you?" Croy called out.
Finally, there was silence. Then something answered him. The voice. This unusually gentle voice of a woman.
"We finally meet."
Croy finally found his own voice again.
"Who are you? I need to get out of here! He's going to kill them too!"
"Who are you talking about?" the voice asked.
"That man. He says he's a soldier… but…"
"What is he, Croy?" the voice urged him.
"I… I don't know. A leftover rebel? A renegade soldier? A serial killer?"
"Does it matter?"
Croy forced himself to calm down.
Does it matter who that bastard was? Maybe. But Croy wanted to kill him. A hatred, one he hadn't felt since the rebels, rose within him.
'Suppress it! Don't let it in! You're not that person anymore.'
Silence again.
Croy took a deep breath in and out. Then he asked again.
"Why are you in my subconscious?"
He heard a soft laugh.
"This is not your subconscious. But your memories of your parents have kept me away for so long… I felt lonely."
"My memories?"
Once again, the voice ignored his questions. He had so many questions. None of this made any sense.
"But finally, we can talk to each other."
"Again, who the hell are you?"
The voice ignored his angry tone.
"It's time for you to learn to appreciate your gift. What a shame that it had to come to this before you could finally understand it."
"My gift? What are you talking about? What am I supposed to understand?"
Silence. Then the buzzing. It grew louder and louder until it filled everything in the Void and threatened to swallow Croy whole.
"Let me show you."
Croy's consciousness disappeared in a deafening buzz.
***
"Belmont! Dodge!"
Alisha heard the young Lord Jradan shout, but her eyes were on the mysterious man in civilian clothing. He had long, tied-back brown hair and held a Spellpistol, aimed directly at the unconscious boy beside Alisha.
At Croy Belmont.
Her brain barely registered what was happening. The man had drawn a military-grade weapon. And he pulled the trigger.
Blood spattered onto Alisha's cheek. It was warm. Horribly warm.
Trembling, she slowly turned her head. Belmont lay face-down, a pool of blood forming on the ground by his chest.
Dead? Did he kill him?
Alarms blared in Alisha's mind. She was a sensor. Her mana sense roared, and she barely managed to summon a barrier spell as another mana bullet collided with it and shattered the barrier.
The barrier from her smartwatch saved her.
The man with the Spellpistol tilted his head.
"You felt my mana?" he asked, surprised.
Only thanks to years of training under Emma's father did Alisha's body react at all.
An enemy was here. A murderer. She had to act.
And she was not alone. Jradan snapped out of his shock, his gaze on the enemy filled with contempt.
"Jradan, to me!" she called.
The young lord responded immediately. He raised his hand and aimed a spell at the enemy.
"Earth Bolt!"
A sharp pillar of stone shot up from the ground beneath the man with the Spellpistol. But he hardly flinched, merely took a step back. The moment his second foot hit the ground tough, another stone spear shot up behind him, ready to impale him. The man leaped up, did a backflip, and let the attack sail harmlessly beneath him before landing behind it.
"Mist Veil!" Alisha shouted.
Jradan ran to her just as a thick cloud of mist rose from her body like a smoke grenade. Jradan found her in the mist, and she knelt down beside Belmont's still body.
"What's happening?" Jradan asked.
He didn't seem scared, but tense and just as clueless as Alisha about who this man was and what he wanted.
She placed a hand on Belmont's neck. No pulse.
He was dead.
'A student killed just like that at the Academy, right in the middle of the Imperial Capital?'
"How can this be…," she whispered in shock.
Then she looked at Jradan. He, too, was staring at Belmont's lifeless body in horror.
"Who is that man?" he finally asked.
Belmont was dead, but their lives were still in danger. It seemed as though the man intended to kill them as well.
The only question was whether he wanted to kill them or if he had to because they had witnessed what he had done to Belmont. His target had clearly been the boy. Did they know each other?
But that question was irrelevant at the moment. She shook her head as a response to Jradan.
"Lady Clayford is still over there," she finally said.
Lady Clayford lay only a few meters away. In the mist, only her outline was visible, but Alisha could at least make out her chest rising and falling slowly. She was still unconscious.
Where were the Academy's staff? Shouldn't they have shown up by now? After all, she had already defeated Inera some time ago.
Speaking of which… why hadn't Belmont's automatic smartwatch barrier activated?
So many questions, so few answers, and no time.
Jradan looked at Belmont for a few moments more, then at Lady Clayford, and grimaced. He gripped his Spellspear with both hands and looked toward where the man had been outside the mist.
"I'm taking him out," he said coolly.
Alisha had to protest.
"No. You don't know how strong he is, and Lady Clayford is unconscious. We should take her and retreat, alert the police and the Academy."
But Jradan was already stepping forward with conviction, his face determined.
"He won't let us leave," he said.
"Stop it! We don't have time for this!" Alisha scolded.
But he wasn't entirely wrong. This man was clearly a murderer. This wouldn't be easy. But precisely for that reason, they couldn't afford to risk a reckless fight now.
Alisha was confident in her abilities through years of training, her background, and her weapons. Even at sixteen, she was one of the court's best sensors and would become one of the best spellcasters in a few years; she was sure of that.
She would surpass her father. She couldn't do that if she lost here and now.
But something inside her screamed that they should not engage in this fight. And she would listen to herself.
"You take Lady Clayford, I'll–"
A tiny flicker in her mana sense interrupted her. Her green-yellow mana allowed her to be a sensor, equipped with a nerve and sense that other spellcasters hardly possessed. Years of training had taught her to perceive this sense actively.
Earlier, she had only accidentally detected the man as he entered the parking garage, which meant he could mask his mana presence. But now her senses were on high alert.
And still, she felt only the slightest flicker from her flank.
"Right!" she shouted.
Jradan barely managed to summon a barrier, but it didn't hold completely. The Mana Bullet pierced the barrier but was then stopped by the automatic barrier of Jradan's smartwatch.
Alisha leapt up and drew her daggers. A man stepped out of the mist. His face was grim and emotionless, as if he were simply doing his job.
Jradan's barrier had been triggered. That meant the bullet would have at least knocked him unconscious – probably even killed him. This man had come to take them out as well.
Now Lord Jradan, Lady Clayford, and Alisha had no second chances. Alisha still hadn't managed to maintain a passive barrier as Belmont always did, and apparently, Jradan hadn't either.
The next strike could be their last.
"Convinced?" Alisha whispered tensely, her gaze fixed on the enemy.
Jradan nodded briefly.
"Yes. But you take Lady Clayford – I'll hold him off."
Then he sprang forward before Alisha could protest. There was no time for it. Jradan's spear began to swing, and he disappeared into combat with the mysterious man.
Alisha hurried to Lady Clayford, hoisting her over her shoulder with a groan, and ran through the mist. She left her behind a pillar to find cover.
Then she turned around. Jradan's body flew out of the mist and landed next to her, but he immediately got back on his feet. His face was smeared with blood, and his uniform was torn at the arm.
Alisha's mana sense twitched again, and she jumped aside as a bullet shot out of the mist and flew past her.
Then the attacker followed. He stormed out of the mist, directly at Alisha. But the Spellpistol with which he had just shot was nowhere to be seen.
Did he intend to engage in close combat? But up until then, he had no cover.
She threw the first Spelldagger, and the man dodged to the side - right into the path of the second dagger.
He was faster than expected. While he didn't entirely evade it, and the dagger cut his cheek, he continued running unperturbed.
Yet that small cut was all Alisha needed.
"Resonate!" she shouted.
The Spellrunes on both daggers, still in flight, lit up. Then they changed their trajectory midair and returned like boomerangs, aiming directly at the man's back.
But before the two weapons could pierce him, they struck a mana barrier.
Alisha's eyes widened.
'A passive barrier'
Why hadn't she considered that?
"Same trick!" Jradan's voice rang out beside her, and he charged forward to intercept the attacker.
His Spellspear thrust forward, faster than Alisha could see. But the man grabbed the spear with one hand and pulled it aside. With the other hand, he aimed directly at Jradan as mana gathered in it.
Jradan grinned.
"Swing!"
The runes on the spear glowed yellow, and the man visibly froze in shock. Jradan took advantage of the moment and landed a hard punch to his face. The man staggered back.
Alisha seized the opportunity. Both of her daggers returned to her, directly into her hands, blood trickling from a small cut on them. She sprang forward, ready to finish off the murderer.
But her blades simply passed through him. Suddenly, the entire body of the man dissolved into glittering, dark blue mana.
'A doppelgänger?'
A shot rang out behind her, one her mana sense hadn't detected. She whirled around. Jradan's face was pale.
He fell forward with a thud.
Behind him, the figure of the man revealed itself, Spellpistol in hand.
He cast an indifferent glance at Jradan's body, then looked at Alisha.
"You're Princess Kadutor, aren't you?" he asked suddenly.
Alisha couldn't respond. Her body refused to move. The man pointed the pistol at her.
Fear filled her. This was not a situation where she could prove her abilities. This wasn't training. This wasn't what her confidence was built upon.
This feeling was foreign to her. It was unknown. And it paralyzed her.
This was a life-or-death struggle. And she was now near death.
When she didn't answer, the man shrugged.
"I'll have to explain that to the boss, I suppose."
Green mana gathered in the barrel of his pistol.
Then the parking garage exploded.
In pulsating, ominous, humming, violet-black mana.