The team returned to the Academy under a red twilight sky. Though the mission was marked "low threat" in the official logs, none of them felt peace. The silence left by the abyssal tear echoed louder than any battlefield.
Kaen sat alone on the edge of the rooftop, gazing into the distance. His coat fluttered in the wind, the stars beginning to blink above. His eyes, calm and unreadable, held reflections of things no one else could see.
Zian stood a few feet behind him, arms crossed, pretending to watch the horizon too. But her golden eyes kept drifting toward him—subtly at first, then longer with each glance.
She didn't understand when it had started. Maybe it was back in the forest when he'd stood before the illusion beasts without flinching. Or maybe it was during the simulation, when he'd whispered something about being watched and no one else believed him—but she had.
It wasn't love. Not yet. But something had shifted.
He wasn't just her teammate. He wasn't even just the boy with godlike power.
He was... Kaen. And lately, being around him stirred something strange in her chest—an ache she couldn't stab or shadow away.
"Something bothering you?" Kaen asked without turning.
Zian tensed. "No. Just… thinking."
He glanced over his shoulder. "That's dangerous for you."
She rolled her eyes, but smiled faintly. "You're not funny."
"Never tried to be."
Their eyes met for a second too long. Zian looked away first, cheeks faintly flushed—a rare break in her perfect composure.
Elsewhere, Lirien watched from the shadows, arms folded. She noticed everything. The glances. The pauses. The quiet smiles. Her fingers tightened slightly around her sleeve.
That feeling again. It had been growing ever since they'd formed the pact. And yet, Kaen remained untouched—emotionally distant, unreachable even when standing inches away.
He doesn't belong to this world, she thought. But I still want to stay beside him.
Meanwhile, deep within the sealed catacombs beneath the Academy, a dormant glyph flickered once—just once—before vanishing again.
Something ancient had recognized Kaen's return.
And something else had started watching Zian.
But none of them knew yet, that love and war would soon become inseparable.