At the Main gate.
The main gate no longer looked like an entrance—it looked like the end of something.
The stone pathway was drowned in red. Bodies lay scattered in unnatural positions, some twisted, some still, some barely whole. Armor was shattered, weapons lay abandoned, and pieces of what had once been people were strewn across the ground. The air felt heavy, thick with silence after chaos, as if even the wind refused to pass through.
At the centre of it all was Oryn.
He knelt on the cold stone, unmoving. His hands rested weakly on his thighs, fingers stained, trembling without strength. His head was bowed, eyes fixed on the ground beneath him—but he wasn't really seeing it. He was somewhere else, lost in the shock, unable to process what stood around him.
Right beside him lay Elvin's body.
"N-no… this can't…"
He whispered to himself, trembling violently, as if saying the words might make the horror disappear.
Elvin's form was still, his clothes torn, and a deep wound marked his stomach—clean, brutal, final. The kind of strike that didn't give a second chance. His face had lost all expression, frozen in a quiet that felt wrong for someone who once lived so fiercely.
Oryn didn't touch him.Didn't speak.Didn't even cry.
It was as if something inside him had broken so completely that even grief couldn't find its way out.
Behind them, the shattered fountain stood like a broken monument. Its stone was cracked, water no longer flowing—just silence and ruin.
And there, in its shadow…
someone was hiding.
A boy.
Breathing quietly. Watching.
It was Elvin.
Not the one lying on the ground—but another. Alive. Trembling. His back pressed against the broken stone, eyes wide with fear and confusion. He stared at the scene, at Oryn… at the body that looked just like him.
He didn't step forward.
He didn't call out.
Instead, he smiles.
A smile which came when someone accomplish something.
And so, the gate stood still, caught between death… and something far more unsettling.
✧✧✧
"She had really done it."
Looking towards the Oryn, the boy—Elvin whispered to himself.
"I should have told her to not go this far... I guess."
The boy spoke as he walks behind the walls, hiding and clenching his fist to his sword, thinking about something.
The massacre at the main gate was brutal and traumatizing which was excepted as the one who entered the main gate was "The Lady in Red,".
"I should have known this, before everything was planned."
The main intention of Elvin was to accomplish his plan. The plan of becoming the hero of torminas. Thus, all the current situation which is either it is bad or good for students, going on is in the hands of Elvin right now.
"Noone can came in between my dreams."
It all started six years ago, in the Hall of Trials—
—When his dreams were crushed by a curse child.
✧✧✧
Almighty, the arcanists who is willingly wanting to teach cure one is none other than me.
Those words echoed into Elvin minds from that day.
The jealously which the boy with purple hair felt was unimaginable.
All the hard work which he had all the time was in vain due to that curse child. His dream of becoming one of the students of Draves was gone.
"But..."
But there was one hope.
"If he became close with the curse child then... he can get noticed by Mr Draves, right?"
Right...
He thought about it not once, not twice but until this very day but Draves didn't acknowledge him even after six whole years, so he decides to give up on that dream but his hatred towards Curse child was never gone.
Every time he smiles, He become jealous. Every time he gets excited, He become jealous. Every time he laughs, He felt jealous. Every time he gets sad, He became jealous. Every time he cries, He felt jealous. Every time he got hurt, He became jealous.
He became jealous. He became jealous. He became jealous. He became jealous. He became jealous. He became jealous. He felt jealous. He felt jealous. He felt jealous. He felt jealous. He felt jealous. He envies him.
"—Hk"
God is unfair...
What did he do wrong? What did he lack? What did that bastard did?
Such thoughts overwhelm him for past six years, but everything changes at the day when rigour town was attacked.
The day when he saw himself sitting on the throne. The day where he met that women—Iris.
"Hey, stand back or else."
Elvin trembled as she walks towards him smiling.
"Or else..."
Elvin eyes widened as he saw her coming close.
"Look, I can kill you here."
Iris spoke narrowing her eyes towards Elvin.
"..."
"I just want you to sell us your university."
Elvin eyes widened as he listened to the words.
The fear in his eyes was long gone.
"Sell the university..."
"Yay"
Elvin shifted his gaze behind her for once and then directed his hand towards his hair and spoke.
"You frighten me."
"...", Iris stood looking towards him.
"And in return."
Elvin spoke gazing in her eyes as his fear was long gone.
"In return you will get ???. "
Elvin directed his hand towards his chin and then stood.
"???, Nice deal. I guess..."
Silence followed as Iris looked towards his face.
And then she smiles.
"You are just like the one she told me."
And thus, he sold his friends, his teacher and the university for his long-awaited dream and carried out the plan with some help of Elders as they can object him due to his roots in high-class Nobel family.
"And now I just need to go to the roundtable room."
He was walking stately making no noises of his foot but as he was roaming his eyes, a strong wind flew in the direction of the second gate and as his eyes followed the path.
Massive tornadoes spiraled violently into the sky, tearing through everything in their path. Pieces of stone, wood, and debris were dragged upward, disappearing into the roaring winds. The ground trembled beneath him.
"This… wasn't part of the plan," he muttered, his voice unsteady.
For a moment, he hesitated, his mind racing.
Then one thought cut through everything.
Oryn.
"If anything goes wrong, he will be only one who will defend me for it."
Without wasting another second, Elvin turned and rushed back.
He found Oryn exactly where he had left him—kneeling among the destruction, completely still. His head was lowered, his eyes fixed on nothing, as if the world around him no longer existed.
"Elvin is dead…" Oryn muttered faintly, his voice hollow and distant.
Elvin stopped in his tracks.
A chill ran through him.
He stepped closer. "Oryn…"
No reaction.
"Oryn!" he called again, louder.
For a few seconds, nothing happened.
Then slowly, Oryn's head lifted. His eyes trembled as they focused on Elvin's face, confusion flickering within them before turning into disbelief.
"Elvin…?" his voice cracked. "You're… alive?"
Elvin stiffened.
He's gone insane, he thought.
Still, he forced out a quick reply, "Yeah… I survived."
But his tone hardened immediately.
"This isn't the time for talking."
Grabbing Oryn by the arm, Elvin pulled him up and dragged him toward a broken wall nearby. Dust shifted as they moved, and the distant winds began to press harder against the ruins.
"Stay here," Elvin said firmly, pushing him behind the crumbled stone. "Don't move."
Oryn didn't respond.
He just sat there, silent… his eyes still distant, as if he hadn't fully come back.
And in the distance, the tornadoes roared louder.
✧✧✧
Draves and the Principal stepped out of the dimly lit room, the door closing softly behind them. The hallway outside felt tense, as if something unseen was already moving. Draves extended his hand, passing a small object to the Principal, his expression sharp and focused. "Someone is suspicious," he said quietly. "This is our time to intervene in the battle."
The Principal adjusted his grip on the item, nodding once. "I'll head to the basement storage. The file should still be there." His voice remained calm, but urgency lingered beneath it.
Draves gave a short nod. "Alright. Be quick."
They parted ways.
As Draves walked forward, a sudden roar filled the air. He stopped.
In the distance, near the dormitory gate, massive tornadoes twisted violently into the sky, tearing apart everything around them. But what froze him in place wasn't just the destruction—it was above them.
A giant portal loomed in the sky, dark and swirling, pulling the tornadoes into itself like they were nothing.
Draves' eyes widened.
"What… is happening?" he whispered, the weight of something far beyond control settling into his voice.