"In my office. Now."
Damian's voice left no room for argument.
I exhaled sharply. Second time today. Wonderful.
"Instructor," Damian added without looking back, "you're coming too. They're your students, your responsibility."
Cael nodded grimly and fell into step behind us.
We followed Damian in strained silence through the academy halls. I wondered what form of punishment he'd choose this time.
The moment we stepped into his office, Damian froze.
His gaze landed on the bouquet sitting neatly atop his chair.
White orchids.
Pink tulips.
Exactly where I left them.
"Flowers?" he murmured.
I kept my face blank, the picture of innocence.
Cael leaned forward.
"White orchids and pink tulips… Headmaster, did something happen?"
Damian narrowed his eyes.
"And why are you asking?"
"Because," Cael said knowingly, "they mean apology and… affection."
And that was enough to relieve his worry. His expression softened barely, briefly then snapped back to iron-cold neutrality.
He sat down.
"Back to the matter at hand," he said, voice sharp. "Explain why you two were fighting with enough force to obliterate the entire training ground."
"It's his fault," I said immediately. "And I wasn't even using my full power."
He scoffed.
"Delusional, aren't we?"
I glared.
"What did you just call me, you bastard? Say it again. I dare you."
He stood straighter.
"Gladly"
"ENOUGH."
Damian's mana slammed the room into silence.
"I don't want another word out of either of your mouths."
Cael stepped forward and bowed deeply.
"Headmaster, my deepest apologies. This happened due to my negligence. I never imagined they'd escalate to this level."
Damian drummed his fingers on the desk, thinking. Then:
"Cecilia Florence. Aseir." His tone sharpened like a blade. "From this day forward, the two of you will use 'Restoration' to repair the entire training ground. Every destroyed brick. Every shattered wall. Every inch."
I blinked.
"…Us?"
Damian nodded.
"You two caused the damage. You two will fix it."
"But he's in the Knight Department," I argued.
"He is also registered under the Magic Department," Damian said flatly. "Same as you."
I folded my arms, annoyed but smug. "At least I won't have to see his face besides fixing the training ground."
Damian smiled but it did not reach his eyes.
"Don't be too pleased. I'm not finished."
Fantastic.
"Last time you were suspended," he said. "This time, your punishment is different."
He leaned forward.
"You will attend every class. Without skipping a single one. And that applies to both of you."
"What?" I burst out. "That's not fair!"
"You should have thought of fairness," Damian said, voice cold and smooth, "before you turned the training ground into a battlefield."
He gestured toward the door.
"Dismissed."
Cassian and Vivian were waiting outside the office the moment I stepped out, both looking like anxious puppies.
Before I could reach them, that vermin shouldered past me with deliberate force.
I stumbled a step.
I wanted to shove him back hard but I refused to stoop to his level. Not now. Not in front of them.
Vivi hurried over.
"Lia, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. And not." I glared at Aseir's retreating back. "I can't believe I have to see that vermin's face every day from now on."
"What did the headmaster—" Cassian began.
Before he could finish, Damian's voice cut through the hall.
"Cassian Aurelius. Come into my office."
Cassian flinched but obeyed immediately.
Barely a minute passed before he returned, looking as if he'd aged a decade. Without another word, the three of us drifted toward the cafeteria, my punishment didn't officially start until tomorrow, so I planned to enjoy the last remnants of freedom by doing absolutely nothing. Lazing around was the only plan.
Somehow, as we talked, we ended up seated at the center table of the cafeteria as all the other tables were occupied. I don't like being in the centre with people staring at us openly. Yet I ignored them and focused on the ones sitting next to me, rather than those in front.
"So, what did the Headmaster say to you?" Vivi asked me and I asked Cassian.
"Why don't you go first," Cassian countered. "You went in before us."
I sighed.
"Fine. I have to work with that bastard to restore the training ground… and I have to attend all my classes. Regularly."
Vivian instantly beamed, bright enough to rival sunlight.
"You'll be in classes with me again!"
"That's nothing," Cassian said with a dry laugh. "You only have to fix the training ground. I have to live with him."
Vivian blinked. "Live with…?"
"He's in the same major as me," I groaned.
It was like we were competing over who was in the worst situation, and I didn't look like there would be any victory in this scenario, as both situations were bad.
I sighed as I pushed my chair back.
"Come on. Get moving. You two still have two classes left."
Vivian paused halfway to standing.
"And you? Where will you be going, Lia?"
"Archive." I stretched lazily. "Before I'm forced into academic slavery tomorrow."
Cassian laughed.
Vivian giggled.
And together, we walked out of the cafeteria, their chatter trailing behind me like sunlight I wasn't quite ready to admit I liked.
"You hate that boy," Nox said, his voice flat with amusement. "Down to the very core of your existence."
"Who? Cassian?" I raised a brow. "I don't hate him."
"Not him. The other one."
My jaw tightened instantly.
"Don't remind me of that bastard. Who does he think he is?"
Nox chuckled softly.
"I know exactly why you hate him. I didn't expect it either, someone exactly like you."
"He's nothing like me." I scoffed. "Maybe in his dreams."
"You noticed it," Nox continued, ignoring me. "The same eyes. The same darkness. A predator recognizing another predator."
I clicked my tongue but didn't deny it.
I had seen it—the glimpse of raw emptiness behind his gaze.
As if the world had carved him hollow.
Just like me.
But that didn't mean anything.
"So what? Just because we're alike doesn't mean I have to get along with him."
"If you listen to me," Nox said, stretching lazily, "I'd say you two are perfectly compatible. He could even be your soulmate."
I glared so hard his smirk only grew wider.
"As if I'd let that vermin be my soulmate." I crossed my arms. "And why are you acting like this today? It was you who told Damian to call me out yesterday."
Nox shrugged, expression entirely too innocent.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Liar," I muttered. " Also quiet down. I need to focus on finding your core."
I placed the fragment of his core on my palm and activated Detection, my mana weaving through the air, searching again for anything that resonated with it.
Nothing.
Not a single flicker.
I exhaled slowly, eyes narrowing in frustration.
There.
A flicker.
So faint I almost brushed past it.
I froze mid-spell, breath catching.
"Nox," I whispered.
His red eyes snapped open. "You found something?"
I focused harder, threading my mana deeper into the archives' silence.
This time, the resonance pulsed weakly, scattered, but unmistakably his.
A heartbeat without a body.
A whisper of power too familiar to ignore.
"It's faint," I muttered, adjusting the spell, "like it's buried under something else. But it's there."
—
Unfortunately, my morning peace didn't last.
That vermin was already waiting at the destroyed field, arms crossed, looking like he wanted to gut someone just for breathing near him.
"Late," he said coldly.
"You're lucky I bothered showing up at all," I replied. "I contemplated all night whether to kill you or not."
He clicked his tongue. "Coward."
I stepped closer. "Call me that again and I'll rearrange your bones alphabetically."
"Oh? Big words from someone who couldn't last another minute yesterday."
I glared. "I was toying with you."
"Then toy again." He tilted his head mockingly. "Unless you're scared."
"Scared?" I laughed. "Of you? Please. I've fought things with more personality in graveyards than you."
We moved to opposite ends of the ruined field.
Except opposite for us still meant glaring, scowling, and insulting each other under our breath.
"Don't screw up the spell," Aseir warned.
"Please," I shot back, "your mana signature is so unstable the ground might reject you and spit you back out."
"At least mine isn't corrupt."
"At least mine isn't pathetic."
We raised our hands at the same time.
"Restitutio"
Mana surged. The shattered earth shivered, re-aligning. Rubble dissolved. Deep scars knitted back together.
But because it was us, even repairing something felt like a duel.
Aseir pushed more mana just to outdo me.
I pushed more mana only to spite him.
The ground trembled harder.
He and I weren't even halfway through fixing the field and we were already back to threatening each other's bloodlines.
"Move your mana output two degrees to the left," he snapped. "You're overcompensating."
I glared at him. "I will rearrange your spine if you comment on my mana one more time."
"Try me."
"Oh? You want to go hand-to-hand? Fine. I'll bury you so deep your ancestors will feel it."
He stepped forward.
I stepped forward.
Our foreheads nearly clashed.
He scoffed. "Typical. All bark."
"Keep talking," I said sweetly, "and I'll show you what my 'bark' does to bones."
A muscle in his cheek twitched.
Then he said it.
The one thing he shouldn't have said.
"Well, if you're not a coward, then explain that thing loitering around you all the time."
My smile froze.
My mana snapped like a taut wire.
Nox, floating behind me lazily tilted his head, crimson eyes gleaming with sinister amusement.
"Oh?" he purred. "This should be good."
He continued, sharp and cold, "If you're so strong, why do you need some shadow-creature following you like a parasite?"
The air grew colder.
I took one silent step toward him.
"In your next sentence," I said calmly, softly, dangerously, "choose your words carefully."
He scoffed.
"You're the one hiding behind a monster. What? Afraid you can't stand on your own."
He didn't finish the sentence.
Because Nox appeared behind him, no sound, no warning, just a smile that promised violence.
Aseir froze.
"…Hello," Nox said cheerfully. "I've been called many things. 'Loitering thing' is a new one."
His pupils constricted.
He tried to move.
Nox tapped a finger to his shoulder and he stopped breathing.
"Let's clear something up," Nox murmured, leaning close, voice dripping with dark amusement. "I don't follow her because she's weak."
His eyes gleamed red, then brighter, almost glowing.
"I follow her because she's the only one strong enough not to break under my existence."
Mana crackled. His knees almost buckled.
I sighed.
"That's enough."
"Sorry," he said with the least sincerity possible. "He insulted me, Lia. I feel wounded."
He shoved Nox's hand away, glaring at me with cold fury but underneath it, a flicker of something else.
Recognition.
Understanding.
Fear.
And
Familiarity.
Nox looked between us, amused beyond reason.
"Oh, this is fun," he whispered. "Two predators circling each other."
That thing.
That thing behind her
I thought it was a spirit.
A familiar.
A shadow construct.
But the moment his fingers touched my shoulder, I knew.
It was a monster.
Not the kind that lurks in caves or slips through cracks between worlds.
No.
The kind that smiles.
The kind that understands blood better than words.
The kind that looks at a person and sees their weaknesses laid out like organs on a table.
His mana slid into my nerves like ice.
Cold.
Intimate.
Familiar.
It reminded me.
"You're the only one strong enough not to break under my existence."
His voice was playful.
Like a child dangling a limb of a captured animal.
But all I heard was this:
'You're not strong enough.
She is.
You are nothing compared to her.'
I should've attacked him.
Should've torn him apart.
Should've shown him I'm not prey.
But I couldn't move.
Not because of fear—
No, fear I understand.
Fear is clean.
Predictable.
This was recognition.
A predator doesn't fear another predator.
It acknowledges them.
And Her…
She didn't flinch.
Didn't blink.
Didn't even tense when that creature hovered behind her like a shadow stitched to her bones.
She just stopped him. As if he were a misbehaving pet.
As if the monster wasn't capable of killing every living soul in this place.
As if she were the dangerous one.
My hand trembled from realization.
Her eyes
Cold.
Empty.
Dark at the edges like mine.
But deeper.
Sharper.
Older.
I have walked battlefields.
Bathed in blood.
Watched the life drain from countless eyes.
And yet
Her gaze was worse.
She looked at me the way an apex predator looks at something that might, possibly, be worth the effort of killing.
Or sparing.
I almost laughed.
For the first time in years…
Someone made my instincts scream.
Someone made me wonder—
Is this what it feels like to be prey?
Or… to finally meet an equal?
When she stepped toward me earlier, mana humming like a blade singing—
I felt it.
The pull.
The darkness in her called to the darkness in me.
I wanted to fight her.
To tear her apart.
To see what colour her blood is when she stops holding back.
Something broken like me. Something hollow like me.
I clenched my teeth. I hate her.
I loathe her very existence.
I want to kill her.
The worst part wasn't over.
In fact—it was only the beginning.
Neither of us knew that Damian had issued one infuriating order to the entire academy:
Cecilia Florence and Asier are to be seated together in every class.
No exceptions.
No escape.
Which is how, even during lunch, the vermin ended up sitting right beside us, close enough for me to hear his breathing and hate every rhythm of it.
The air around our table was suffocating.
Sharp.
Silent.
Vivi even attempted to cut through the tension with a smile.
"S-So… what's your name?" she asked, voice lighter than her nerves.
I expected him to ignore her completely.
To keep brooding with that stone-carved expression, pretending he was above mortal conversation.
But instead—
He answered.
"Asier," he said quietly. "I don't have a family name. I was raised by the Temple Bishop."
My spoon paused mid-air.
A faint murmur slipped out before I could stop it.
"…Temple?"
Nox's hand landed on my shoulder immediately firm, grounding, warning me before my emotions slipped their leash.
"Control yourself, Lia."
I exhaled slowly, forcing the tremor down.
Vivi continued, oblivious to the storm building between us.
"Then I'll introduce myself next!" she chirped.
"My name is Vivian. I don't have any family either, I'm a commoner."
He gave her a small nod.
Polite.
Stoic.
Detached.
I clenched my jaw.
My hatred for him was a living thing dark, swelling, poisonous.
Something that could swallow this entire academy whole if I let it.
It was pure luck, pure divine intervention that the class was going to start soon.
Because if it didn't?
I would have bloodied his annoyingly pretty face without a second thought.
The moment I stepped into the classroom, I felt it.
A shift.
A pressure.
Dozens of eyes cut toward me like tiny blades.
Whispers broke out instantly.
"She's here—"
"And he's behind her—"
"Headmaster must be insane putting them together—"
"Do you think we'll survive today?"
I ignored all of it.
I only cared about one thing:
The empty seat beside mine.
A cursed seat.
Damian-made.
Doom-bringing.
Because the moment I sat down, he followed like a shadow poisoned with arrogance.
He dropped into the chair beside me without asking, without looking at me, without anything resembling humanity.
I could feel his mana brushing against mine icy, sharp, instinctively hostile.
Like two blades being forced to share one sheath.
Vivian sat behind us already worrying herself to death.
"Lia…" Vivian whispered, leaning forward. "Will you be okay?"
No.
But I nodded anyway.
He remained silent.
Cold.
Still.
Except for the way he kept glancing at me from the corner of his eye as if calculating the number of ways he could slit my throat if class suddenly ceased to exist.
I returned the favour.
With interest.
Our gazes met.
A spark dark, lethal crackled in the air.
The entire row flinched.
I didn't care.
I was too busy imagining punching that bastard through the wall.
The door opened.
The Instructor walked in and saw us sitting together, froze and audibly groaned.
"Oh, ancestors preserve us…" he muttered under his breath.
He cleared his throat, forcing a professional smile that looked like it physically hurt him.
"Alright, class! Today we'll practice controlled mana exchange between pairs—"
Half the class paled.
But he continued anyway.
"And yes, before anyone asks, Miss Florence and Asier will be partnered. Permanently. Headmaster's orders."
The room exploded.
"NO WAY—"
"They'll kill each other or us—"
"Should we evacuate now—?"
"I'm too young to die—"
He slammed a hand on the desk.
"QUIET!"
Silence dropped like a guillotine.
He rubbed his temples. "Just… try not to destroy anything today."
"Can't promise that," I muttered.
He didn't bother lowering his voice.
"I'm not holding back if she starts it."
Every student and Vivian simultaneously slapped their hands over their mouths.
We stood.
Facing each other.
Mana rising.
Tension suffocating.
Each breath felt like the prelude to a battlefield.
The Instructor gulped.
"Begin… gently."
We didn't move.
We simply stared.
Hard.
Cold.
Predatory.
Two storms waiting for the smallest reason to devour each other.
And then
Nox's voice echoed in my mind, amused:
"At this rate, Lia, people will start assuming he's not just your enemy… but your soulmate."
My grip tightened.
His aura flared.
And the class held its breath
Waiting for the inevitable explosion.
His mana surged first.
Cold.
Ruthless.
Like a glacier splitting open.
Mine rose in answer dark, dense, razor-sharp.
The Instructor barely had time to shout—
"STOP—WAIT—NOT YET—!"
Too late.
Our mana slammed together.
And the world exploded.
Wind detonated outward, shaking the windows so violently that the glass nearly cracked. Desks screeched across the floor. Students dove under them, screaming.
Blue lightning tore through the air.
Black flames curled around my feet.
Asier's silver aura split the ground tiles.
Two storms are colliding.
Collapsing.
Devouring.
And then
Something snapped.
No, not snapped.
But Aligned.
Our mana didn't repel.
It clicked together.
Perfectly.
Flawlessly.
Like two halves of the same lock falling into place.
And the room went dead silent.
Every spell in the air froze.
The flames around me dimmed to glowing embers.
His lightning softened into shimmering threads.
Our auras merged into one swirling sphere: gold, silver, black, blue hovering between our palms, pulsing like a heartbeat.
The students stared in horror.
Vivian's jaw dropped.
The Instructor looked ready to faint.
My thoughts slammed to a halt.
No.
No, this isn't….this can't be
Mana synchronization wasn't random.
It wasn't luck.
It wasn't something you could fake even if you wanted to.
It happened only between two people whose mana recognized each other on the deepest level.
One soul finding its mirror.
Its counterpart.
Its other half.
He looked just as shocked
eyes wide, breath caught, aura flickering violently as if rejecting what instinct had already accepted.
"What…" he whispered, voice cracking. "What is this—?"
I stepped back so fast my heel cracked the floor tile.
"No."
No no no no…
This was impossible.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
My mana trembled, reaching toward his.
His did the same.
Instinct.
Pure instinct.
Two predators circled only to realize the other had the same scent.
"Y-You two—d-do you understand—mana synchronization—this is—this means—"
"I KNOW WHAT IT MEANS!" I snapped, panic laced through every word.
"I refuse this," he growled.
"Whatever this is—I refuse."
But the synchronized mana sphere pulsed bright, beautiful, alive.
A horrifying reminder.
The class whispered tremulously.
"They're soul-linked?"
"Cecilia and Asier?!"
"Doesn't that mean… fate?"
"Oh gods… they're terrifying AND destined."
Nox materialized behind me, invisible to everyone but me.
His grin was infuriatingly wide.
"Well, well. Look who found their soulmate."
"Shut up."
"You hate him, he hates you. One of the most powerful forms of synchronization. How romantic."
"Shut. Up, please."
His eyes met mine again.
Cold.
Sharp.
Raging.
A perfect mirror.
A perfect match.
And the mana sphere between us pulsed again as if claiming us
before either of us could run.
To be continued....