No one moved.
The courtyard still smelled faintly of ozone and scorched stone, the place where the divine envoy had ceased to exist marked by a shallow crater. Bits of cracked marble lay scattered like bones.
Kael stood at its center.
Alive.
Unmarked.
Untouched.
Someone dropped to their knees.
Another student began to cry.
The Headmaster was the first to recover. Slowly, carefully, he stepped forward, his expression no longer that of a kind educator but of a man standing before something he did not understand.
"Seal the area," he ordered quietly.
Professors snapped into motion. Barriers rose along the courtyard's edges, translucent walls humming with magic. The students were herded back, whispers turning frantic.
"A divine envoy…"
"He killed it."
"No system. No class. Nothing."
Markus stood frozen where he was, staring at Kael as if the boy he grew up with had been replaced by a stranger wearing his face.
Kael felt it all—the fear, the confusion, the curiosity—but it slid off him like rain.
He had seen worse reactions.
The Headmaster stopped a few paces away.
"Kael Arctyros," he said slowly, enunciating each syllable. "You will come with us."
Kael met his eyes.
"No."
The word wasn't loud.
It wasn't defiant.
It was final.
The Headmaster's jaw tightened. "This is not a request."
Kael tilted his head slightly. "Then it's a mistake."
A ripple of unease spread through the faculty.
One of the professors—a tall woman with a crimson mantle—stepped forward, hand hovering near her staff. "Headmaster, allow me—"
Kael looked at her.
Just once.
Her breath caught.
Whatever she saw in his eyes made her step back.
"Enough," the Headmaster said sharply.
He exhaled, then softened his tone. "Kael, you've just committed an act that will shake the entire continent. Killing an envoy is… unprecedented. We need answers."
Kael's gaze drifted past him.
To Eryndra.
She stood apart from the others, pale fingers clenched tightly at her side. Her eyes weren't afraid.
They were searching.
She took a step forward.
"Why do you look like you know me?" she asked quietly.
The question hit harder than any divine attack.
The courtyard seemed to fade.
Kael remembered her standing in the rain, blood soaking into the ground beneath them. Remembered the way she smiled even as the world burned behind her.
Don't apologize, she had told him. You tried.
He swallowed.
"I don't," Kael said.
It was a lie.
A small one.
Eryndra frowned, clearly unconvinced, but before she could speak again, the sky rumbled.
Not thunder.
Something deeper.
Older.
Every professor went rigid.
The Headmaster closed his eyes. "They're angry."
Kael almost smiled.
Good.
A voice echoed across the courtyard—not loud, but everywhere at once.
> "ANOMALY."
Students screamed.
Several collapsed under the pressure alone.
The air itself bent.
> "YOU WERE NOT PERMITTED TO RETURN."
Kael looked up.
For the briefest moment, the clouds parted enough for him to see it—not a god's true form, but a projection. A vast silhouette of fractured light and countless eyes.
"I didn't return," Kael said calmly. "You left."
The pressure spiked.
Stone cracked beneath Kael's feet.
The Headmaster dropped to one knee.
> "YOU WILL BE CORRECTED."
A symbol burned into the sky.
A deletion mark.
Kael felt the pull again—stronger this time. The universe itself trying to reject him, to overwrite him with nothing.
He didn't resist.
He remembered.
The frozen world.
The silent stars.
The god he strangled while everything else stood still.
The pull snapped.
The symbol flickered.
Then shattered.
Silence fell like a blade.
The divine presence recoiled.
> "…Impossible."
Kael lowered his gaze.
"You already tried to erase me," he said. "I survived your ending. What makes you think your beginning can kill me?"
The projection vanished.
The sky slowly returned to blue.
No lightning.
No punishment.
Just absence.
The Headmaster stared at Kael as if seeing him for the first time.
"You're not a regressor," he said hoarsely.
Kael didn't answer.
Because the truth was worse.
Eryndra stepped closer, ignoring the professors trying to stop her.
Her voice was soft. "When I look at you… it feels like I forgot something important."
Kael met her eyes.
And for the first time since waking up—
He felt tired.
"You did," he said quietly.
Her breath hitched.
Before she could ask more, the Headmaster raised his hand.
"That's enough for today," he said. "Kael Arctyros will be placed under observation."
Kael turned away.
Observation.
Containment.
Fear wearing a polite mask.
As he walked past Markus, his friend finally found his voice.
"…Kael," Markus said, almost pleading. "What happened to you?"
Kael paused.
Just for a moment.
"Everything," he said.
And kept walking.
High above the Academy, far beyond mortal sight, the gods gathered in silence.
For the first time since they learned to reset worlds—
They were afraid of what came next.