Kai noticed immediately that the car carrying him to the school did not bear Greenthorne's sigil. That alone told him everything he needed to know. It was intentional. They were keeping this quiet. Perhaps they wanted the world to believe he was still free while, in reality, he was being delivered to the most gruesome place in the entire city.
The Academy rose beyond the Upper City like a blade of black stone thrust into the sky. It was not beautiful. It was not welcoming. It was built to manufacture weapons.
This was the Imperial Military Academy of Greenthorne — an institution founded after the Collapse, as old as the present civilisation itself. Rebuilt by the pioneers and later reinforced under Council authority when Beast manifestations began escalating beyond prediction, it had one purpose: control the chaos and turn it into something useful.
The gates did not open when Kai arrived. Nothing about the place suggested welcome. He stepped out of the car when instructed by the military officer seated beside him, boots meeting cold stone.
A lattice of pale blue light swept across his body, humming as it scanned measurements Kai did not understand. Dracon purred softly in his arms. A series of sharp beeping sounds echoed from a large screen nearby — rapid, relentless — before stopping abruptly.
"Unclassified," the man behind the scanner muttered, eyes narrowing.
"What is?" Kai asked, confused — and then it clicked. Dracon. Of course. Mysterious Dracon of unknown origin.
"Let him in. He's here on Council orders," the driver said through the window.
The guard hesitated, glanced at Kai, then at the surveillance camera above, and finally waved his hand. The gates buzzed and creaked open.
Kai got back into the car. They drove inside, deeper and deeper into the compound. It felt like hours before they finally reached the part of the Academy that wasn't deserted.
The Academy did not resemble a school.
It resembled something darker. Something oppressive. And Kai felt it — the same suffocating sensation he had felt the first day he was brought to the orphanage.
Terror.
Cadets sparred in the central yard — not playfully, not ceremonially. This was real combat. Blades clashed. Shockwaves ripped across stone floors reinforced with sigil-etched metal. One boy was hurled into a wall and didn't rise for several long seconds. No one rushed to help him. He staggered up on his own.
Here, weakness was punished. Then corrected.
A wave of distress crept up Kai's spine. He wanted out. He wanted to leave.
But more than that, he wanted strength.
No — not wanted.
He desired it.
And this place, no matter how brutal it appeared, was the perfect furnace. Desire overpowered fear. If this was what it took, then he would stay — even if it meant not seeing Meena for a very long time.
The thought of her tightened his chest. A quiet sadness settled in.
The air itself felt tense, heavy with restrained power. A boy stretched out his hands toward a woman who stood calmly with two fingers intertwined near her lips.
"Fight!" A man standing at the corner with a baton and a whistle shouted.
The boys shadow expanded instantly, widening across the stone, and from it rose a crystal lion — an A-Class Beast.
"Go!" It lunged towards the woman.
She responded by tracing a thin line through the air, moving with controlled grace. She twirled, light on her feet, her movements almost dance-like. Beautiful, even.
Then a massive white serpent burst forth from her side and coiled around the crystal lion. The lion roared as the fight erupted in a violent clash of force and instinct.
Kai watched, mesmerised.
Could he learn to hide his Beast like that? To summon it strategically, instead of letting it overwhelm everything?
The military officer tugged at him, pulling him away from the spectacle. They moved up wide white stairs toward a large iron door. The officer banged on it repeatedly.
Without warning, the door burst open as if struck by an invisible force.
Inside, seated behind a heavy desk, was an enormous, muscular man with yellow hair. His eyes were closed, hands clasped together. The air in the room felt oppressive — thick, as though it could collapse inward and crush anyone standing inside.
Kai hesitated.
The officer shoved him forward.
The man behind the desk did not speak.
"Sir, a new recruit," the officer announced, his earlier superiority completely gone.
Silence lingered.
Then the seated man growled.
A heavy puff of smoke escaped his nostrils, quickly filling the room. It stung Kai's eyes and lungs. He waved his hand in front of his face, struggling to breathe.
The officer did not move.
Kai wondered if he had already broken some unspoken rule.
"You do not disperse the fumes," the man finally said, his voice deep, rough — almost animalistic.
Kai froze mid-motion, dropping his hand and standing stiffly, fighting for air.
"What is your name, recruit?"
"Kai… Kai Lannister," he managed between strained breaths.
"Mr. Lannister," the man continued, "do you know the class of your Beast?"
"No, sir."
"Can you manifest it?"
Kai's mind went blank.
Dracon.
He suddenly realised Dracon was no longer on his head as usual or even there. In everything that had happened, he hadn't noticed when he disappeared.
"You can't?" the man pressed.
Then he rose slowly from his seat.
Kai followed the movement upward.
The man was tall.
Very tall.
"Your Beast is sealed," he said calmly. "I did that the moment you entered this room."
"What?" Kai was confused, he wondered what the man meant by what he said...how did he manage to seal his beast without him knowing?.his stomach tightened.
"You have time to learn. The Council has just sent your file." The man stepped forward slightly, shadow falling across Kai. "I am about to turn you into the finest soldier in history. Do you understand?"
Kai stared at him for a moment before answering softly, "Yes, sir."
And despite everything — the smoke, the fear, the suffocating pressure — his thoughts drifted back to Meena.
He wondered what she was doing.