Upon hearing the word 'specimen,' Varon stopped writing. He slowly raised his head. His eyes glinted.
"I'm listening."
"Rumors have spread in the girls' dormitory. Students say they saw shadows moving on the wall last night. Some heard the whimpering of an animal."
The guard paused.
"The Dormitory Warden wants to report to the Headmaster and request a full inspection with the 'Royal Guard'."
Varon leaned back in his chair. A crooked, terrifying smile settled on his lips.
So it's there... how clever. Who would have thought? Hiding a monster right in the middle of the girls' dormitory.
So his guess had been right. Maria had interfered.
Varon stood up and went to the window. From there, the dormitory building was visible.
"Tell the Warden to hold off for now. Say I will investigate the matter 'quietly' myself so as not to cause public panic. We don't want the Royal Guard getting involved in my research, do we?"
"Yes, Sir. What are your orders?"
Varon took out several thick silver rods engraved with purple circuits from the metal cabinet by the window.
"Field Containment Units".
"That creature is weak. It can't travel long distances. Rumors say shadows were seen, so it means it has lost control."
He put the rods in his bag.
"My containment devices have limited range. I can't activate them from here. I have to be close."
He turned and put on his coat. His movements were calm, deliberate, and full of confidence. A hunter who knows the prey is in the trap and has no way to escape.
"Find a secluded area near the dormitory. Somewhere out of sight. I'm going to the lab to get my equipment, and we'll take it there."
"But Sir, if the students see..."
Varon silenced the guard with a look.
"I can't wait for that little girl to hide the creature somewhere else again. No one will see anything... and even if they do, it doesn't matter. Because it's clear who the culprit is!"
He picked up his bag.
The game is over, Maria. I'll take back my specimen, and I'll discipline my assistant.
***
The remedial class was like an educational dungeon. A small, dim, and cold room.
The professor, an old man whose voice droned monotonously like a fly, was writing basic mana history formulas on the board.
Maria sat in the last row. Her foot tapped restlessly on the floor.
Two more hours… Just two more hours and I'll go back to Sarah.
She pressed her pen onto the paper so hard the paper tore.
Then, the air in the class grew colder.
Not the cold of the winter wind; a cold that came from underground.
The sunlight shining through the window seemed to turn pale and gray.
The shadow of Maria's chair began to tremble. Like a puddle of water disturbed by a stone, it rippled and stretched.
The ground beneath her feet vibrated. A slight tremor, like the pulse of a creature.
The professor stopped writing.
"Earthquake?"
Maria froze.
Earthquake? Attack?
No, neither! It wasn't an earthquake. It was resonance — the violent vibration of mana when two opposing forces (an absorber device and an unstable core) clash.
The dormitory... Varon turned on his device.
Maria jumped up. Her chair fell to the floor with a loud noise.
The whole class turned toward her.
The professor frowned:
"Maria! Sit down! Class isn't over ye—"
Maria didn't wait. She didn't even pick up her bag.
"Sorry. It's an emergency."
She ran to the door with speed, opened it, and entered the hallway.
The professor's shout remained behind her:
"Come back! You'll be expelled!"
But Maria didn't hear. She only heard the silent scream of shadows coming from the direction of the dormitory.
***
Fifteen minutes earlier
The room was in silence and semi-darkness. The curtains were drawn.
Sarah sat on the chair facing her bed, looking worriedly at the black creature.
The creature was asleep, but a restless sleep. Its tails twitched in its sleep.
In an instant, the creature opened its eyes.
Its ruby eyes were no longer drowsy. They were wide — empty and unfocused. Like someone hypnotized.
Its ears perked up. It heard a sound Sarah couldn't hear. A voice with a magical frequency calling it from outside the building.
Come... Come...
Varon's device was activated.
The creature rose like a puppet whose strings were pulled. Its body moved stiffly and mechanically.
Sarah half-rose.
"Hey... easy. Where are you going? Maria said to stay..."
Sarah reached out her hand to calm it.
But it was as if the creature didn't see her. It no longer had a will of its own. Drawn by the device's pull.
With a sudden leap, it jumped off the bed, colliding with Sarah in its path, and Sarah fell to the floor.
The creature turned for a moment, and its gaze fell on Sarah sitting on the floor. A look that seemed to apologize or ask for help.
Then the creature dove toward the room window.
CRASH!
The window glass shattered with a tremendous sound.
Sarah screamed and covered her face with her hands.
When the shards of glass fell away, Sarah ran to the window in terror.
The creature had jumped from the third floor but hadn't hit the ground. It was sliding on the shadow of the building's outer wall, moving with incredible speed toward the secluded eastern courtyard (behind the equipment warehouse).
Sarah gripped the window sill. Cold wind and glass shards scratched her face.
"No... don't go..."
The direction of the creature's escape was clear. Straight toward where it shouldn't go.
Sarah realized there was nothing she could do anymore. The disaster had begun.
The black creature reached the secluded courtyard. A place enclosed by the high walls of the Academy and pine trees.
In the center of the courtyard, four metal rods planted in the ground emitted a trembling purple light. This was Varon's new trap: "Absolute Absorption Field."
Varon was hidden in the shadow of the wall, turning the dial of the control device with a cold smile.
"Come, little one... come to Papa."
The creature entered the field.
Purple light ringed around it to restrain it and pin it to the ground.
But Varon hadn't calculated one thing:
This creature wasn't a "healthy specimen." It was wounded and highly unstable. Its magic core was on the verge of collapse due to fever and pressure.
When the pressure of Varon's device hit the creature's body, instead of calming it, it was like a match falling into a gunpowder keg.
Varon thought he had succeeded and finally reached his precious specimen.
But the creature was terrified and writhing in pain.
The creature opened its mouth.
It screamed, a sound that couldn't be heard, only felt.
BOOM!
The shadows around the creature exploded.
Not like smoke, but like solid, sharp blades.
The purple light of Varon's device turned into deadly sparks.
The ground beneath the creature's feet cracked. The surrounding stone walls, which had stood for centuries, cracked like glass, and deep black fissures ran across them.
The shockwave of the shadow explosion tilted the pine trees from their roots.
Students in the main courtyard, hearing the explosion and seeing a column of black dust rising into the sky, screamed.
"Attack! The Academy is under attack!"
"What is that?!"
The monster now stood in the center of this black storm. It was no longer small and cute.
Shadows had wrapped around it, making it larger, terrifying, and uncontrollable.
Its ruby eyes had now turned the color of blood.
This was no longer an escape. It was a rebellion.
The safe and aristocratic Alverin Academy had now become a battlefield.
Maria ran against the flow of the crowd.
Terrified students were fleeing screaming from the dormitories toward the central safe building. The sound of the Academy's magic alarm (continuous loud bells) filled the air.
"Monster! There's a monster behind the dorm!"
"The walls cracked! Run!"
Maria pushed through and moved forward. Her lungs burned, but her legs didn't stop.
Too late... damn it, too late.
Near the dormitory entrance, she saw a familiar face in the crowd.
Sarah, with a tear-streaked face and pajamas covered by a coat, looked around frantically.
"Maria!"
Seeing her, Sarah broke through the crowd and ran toward her. Her cold hands grabbed Maria's arm.
"Maria... it broke the window! It... it suddenly went crazy!"
Sarah panted. Her voice was full of tremors and terror.
"I tried to hold it... but it was like it was hypnotized! It jumped out!"
Maria grabbed Sarah's arm to calm her.
"Did you see which way it went?"
Sarah pointed a trembling hand toward the black smoke rising from behind the building.
"That way... toward the 'Secluded Eastern Courtyard'. Where the walls are high. Maria... I heard an explosion. Is it dead?"
Maria looked at the column of black dust.
"No. It's not dead. It's fighting."
Maria let go of Sarah's hand and prepared to run. But Sarah didn't let go of her sleeve.
"I'm coming too."
"It's dangerous, Sarah! Go to the shelter!"
"It was my fault! I was watching it! If anything happens to it..."
Maria looked into Sarah's determined eyes. Fear was in them, but not flight.
There's no way to separate our worlds anymore. Lab, dorm, class... all have become one battlefield.
Maria nodded.
"Follow me. But don't get close."
Maria and Sarah reached the edge of the courtyard and took cover behind a half-collapsed wall.
The scene before them was a pure nightmare.
The courtyard ground was cracked like broken glass. The surrounding pine trees, as if hit by an invisible storm, were tilted, their branches broken.
In the center of this destruction, a mass of dense, wild shadows swirled.
The small creature was no longer small.
Shadows surrounded it, turning it into a shapeless, large monster writhing in pain and roaring. Each roar created a wave of mana pressure that shook the windows of nearby buildings.
It was terrified. Like an animal trapped in a snare with no choice but to attack anything that moved.
Students on distant balconies screamed in terror and fled. Some were injured by falling debris and broken glass from the buildings.
The Academy was in complete chaos.
But...
Amidst all this noise and dust, one person was calm.
From the right corner of the courtyard, where the dust of the explosion still hung in the air, a human shadow stepped onto the field.
Not running, not screaming, and not afraid.
Master Varon.
He, with his same white lab coat, his hands calmly clasped behind his back, entered the "killing ground."
The wind from the monster's magic flapped his coat, but he didn't even blink.
His steps were measured and sure. Like a surgeon entering the operating room; or a hunter who knows his prey has no escape.
Varon looked at the rampaging creature. A faint smile settled on his lips.
"I won't let you escape again."