CERISE'S POV

We burst out from the Nexus, our hurried footsteps echoing sharply through the long stone hallway. But as we sprinted, the situation grew exponentially worse—hundreds of spiders were actively spilling from the architectural crevices, crawling in dizzying, frantic patterns across the floors and walls.

"Where did all this come from?!" I panicked, instinctively recoiling as a massive, bristling tarantula dropped from the ceiling, landing squarely on my forearm.

I let out a sharp gasp. But before its fangs could pierce my skin, the arachnid suddenly combusted into a ball of localized heat, turning to ash midair.

I quickly looked over at Ashriel. He was systematically clearing a path ahead of us, twin torrents of brilliant flame dancing across his open palms. The spiders crumbled into harmless cinders wherever his fire blazed through the corridor.

He glanced back at me, his striking heterochromatic eyes briefly locking onto mine.

I offered him a quick, profoundly grateful smile. All thanks to Ashriel, I breathed internally. Out of my circle, at last!, he's always the most reliable when a crisis hits.

"W-woah!" Geo yelled, nearly tripping over his own feet as a cluster of skittering spiders suddenly converged into a living mound directly in his path.

Before the swarm could overwhelm him, Ashriel's fire whipped forward again, incinerating the cluster in a split second.

"Woohoo! Roasted! Burn, spiders, burn!" Geo cheered enthusiastically, pumping both of his fists into the air.

Unlike the rest of us who were fighting for our lives, he actually had the audacity to celebrate and treat Ashriel's combat prowess like a spectator sport instead of throwing a single offensive spell to help...

I shook my head in utter disbelief. Typical Gustavo.

Where on earth did these monsters originate? I questioned silently, pushing my legs to move faster as we continued our frantic retreat. Why are there so many?!

Ashburn Academy rarely experienced security breaches of this nature, let alone an apocalyptic plague of arachnids on this scale. What had started as a perfectly ordinary afternoon had instantly spiraled into a horrific, claustrophobic survival marathon.

How is this even possible? Unless... someone intentionally brewed this catastrophe to cause maximum chaos.

"Ew! Guys, look above!" Via shouted, pointing a manicured finger toward the stone ceiling. "EEK! THERE ARE WAY TOO MANY!"

We skidded to a temporary halt, collectively looking up. The entire ceiling was a moving, breathing tapestry of hundreds of overlapping spiders—and dozens of them had already detached, raining down toward the floorboards.

Is their supply endless?!

"Disgusting!" Via snarled, using pulses of her raw magick to swat away the descending arachnids before they could touch her hair.

"This way!" Kane commanded, his deep voice cutting through the panic as he executed a sharp right turn into an adjacent hallway.

In the distance, my eyes caught sight of a lone student struggling violently against the swarm. The arachnids were rapidly enveloping his lower half, aggressively climbing up his torso.

"Aghhhh...!" the boy screamed, his voice cracking in sheer agony.

I heard Ashriel let out a sharp, collective breath from beside me. "A student warden!"

Instantly, Ashriel summoned another wave of localized fire along the floor tiles. The flickering embers raced like a serpent toward the swarm, aiming to burn away the creatures pinning the poor boy down.

"Hold on—Skoll!" Kane barked, calling upon his wolf familiar.

The massive beast launched itself forward without a fraction of hesitation, sinking its jaws into the warden's uniform collar and violently dragging him clear of the blast zone an inch before Ashriel's flames consumed the space. The spiders were reduced to nothing but fine black ash.

Kane sprinted toward the fallen student to render aid. I immediately followed suit, leaving our friends to form a defensive perimeter and guard our blind spots against the oncoming horde.

"He needs immediate medical attention!" I called out anxiously, dropping to my knees beside the boy.

Kane was already stationed over him, steady and immovable as an anchor, securing the wounded student while his sharp eyes continuously scanned the perimeter for incoming threats.

"Geo, focus! There's another wave incoming from the western archway!" I heard Via screaming from behind us.

I stole a fleeting glance back at my friends. They were doing a phenomenal job holding the line, systematically obliterating every spider that dared approach the sector where Kane and I were treating the casualty.

I frantically fumbled through my uniform pockets, searching for a specific glass vial. As I leaned closer to the student, my eyes widened in sheer horror. His skin was riddled with a grotesque number of punctured, swelling lesions.

Oh dear, he has far more venomous spider bites than I initially anticipated!

I drew a deep, stabilizing breath, consciously forcing my racing heart to slow down.

As an apprentice training directly under the academy's premier witch doctor, I had the golden rule drilled into my skull from day one: maintain absolute emotional composure under extreme psychological pressure. If you succumb to panic, your cognitive processing fails, you lose absolute control of the variables, and the patient dies right in front of you.

"The necrotic venom is spreading rapidly through his circulatory system. We need to neutralize the toxins immediately," I stated with absolute clarity, though I couldn't stop the deep, worried frown from etching into my features.

"Captain..." the student wheezed, his voice a frail whisper as he recognized Kane. "T-the courtyard... it's completely..." He attempted to force himself upright, but Kane placed a firm, heavy hand on his shoulder, gently forcing him back down.

"Don't waste your energy speaking. We already know the situation," Kane replied, his tone firm, authoritative, yet laced with an undercurrent of reassurance.

My fingers finally wrapped around the correct medicinal vial, and I popped the cork with my teeth. I carefully elevated the student's head, trickling the glowing blue fluid down his throat while ensuring he wouldn't choke on the mixture. The second the final drop vanished, the boy let out a ragged, violent cough, his eyes rolling back as his body went completely limp.

Fortune found us this time!

Fortunately, my chronic over-preparedness paid off; I always kept a surplus of emergency counter-toxins and sedative serums on my person for situations exactly like this.

"Rest now," I murmured softly under my breath, knowing he was already too far under to hear me. My chest tightened with an oppressive weight, but I rigidly forced myself to remain composed. Panicking is entirely useless right now.

"Ashriel," Kane called out, his dark pink eyes flashing with a sudden, brilliant intensity. "Take the lead on the frontline outside. Gather any surviving wardens and establish a defensive bottleneck at the field."

With practiced, effortless grace, Kane hoisted the unconscious student onto his broad back, simultaneously drawing his signature firearm with his free hand, readying himself for the gauntlet ahead.

"H-how about you—" Ashriel started to protest, but the sheer, icy finality in Kane's glare made him instantly freeze mid-sentence.

Kane shot him a look that communicated everything without a single syllable: Go. Now.

Understanding the silent command, Ashriel gave a sharp nod and darted back toward Geo and the others. He unleashed a colossal wall of fire, tearing down the length of the hallway and carving a pristine, ash-lined escape route for the others.

"Geo, Via, Sythria—evacuate to the courtyard now!" Ashriel ordered.

With a collective nod of understanding, the four of them dashed toward the eastern exit, leaving Kane, Skoll, and me alone with the casualty.

"There's still a window of time to transfer him to the infirmary," Kane muttered, his calculating eyes tracking the structural integrity of the crumbling hallway. The stonework actively vibrated with the sickening sound of thousands of skittering legs.

I pulled a silk handkerchief from my pocket, gently wiping the cold sweat from the unconscious student's forehead. "But isn't the infirmary under siege as well? Will it even be safe there?" I questioned, a seed of doubt planting in my mind.

Kane offered a slight, tight nod. "The medical wing already has high-tier reinforcements stationed there, remember?" he hummed, his voice low. "The alchemic defensive barriers we anchored to the foundations should hold for now. It's a safe zone. We can reinforce the perimeter wards manually once we secure him inside."

Ah, right. I forgot.

The infirmary was statistically ground zero for vulnerability during a campus crisis. Because of that reality, the alchemists from my specific department had designed a comprehensive contingency plan semesters ago, weaving ancient protective wards directly into the room's architecture. No matter how catastrophic an academy emergency became, that single sanctuary would always remain an unassailable fortress.

Skoll suddenly let out a low, vibrating howl.

The wolf pointed his snout toward a narrow, obscured auxiliary corridor where the concentration of spiders was significantly thinner. He was signaling a clean, uncompromised path to the medical wing.

"Skoll found a blind spot!" I noted, a surge of relief bleeding through my voice. "Good boy! We can reach the infirmary through the service tunnels without pulling any aggro!"

Without exchanging another word, we followed the wolf's lead, running as fast as our legs could carry us through the labyrinthine halls, dodging massive, monstrous arachnids that snapped at our heels from the left and right.

The moment we breached the heavy oak doors of the infirmary, we were instantly greeted by Doctor Doru, who was flanked by a team of frantic nurses administering anti-venom to dozens of agonizing students.

Doctor Doru took one look at our casualty and immediately intervened, insisting that his staff would handle the boy's recovery, commanding Kane and me to redirect our focus toward saving the rest of the student body.

Before leaving, I pulled a volatile glass vial from my satchel, smashing it directly against the threshold of the infirmary entrance to release a thick, glowing cloud of warding poison mist. Meanwhile, Kane stood guard at my back, efficiently obliterating any incoming arachnids that tried to breach our position.

"If any of those pests try to cross this threshold, they'll choke to death on their own venom," I stated bluntly, stepping over the charred remains of a spider.

We can't stay here to defend them manually, but at least this alchemic barrier will buy them time.

⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☽ ◯ ☾₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆

Minutes later, Kane and I found ourselves sprinting down a secondary cross-hallway.

As we ran, I noticed Kane's gaze continuously drifting toward the massive, arched glass windows lining the corridor. His brow was pulled into a deep, troubling furrow.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I glanced out the window—and the air was instantly sucked from my lungs. "The Alchymia... it's in absolute shambles!"

My feet skidded to a dead halt against the stone. "N-no way..."

A violent tremor took hold of my hands. This can't be happening. This is a nightmare.

A massive structural fracture tore through the Alchymia; half of the department's centuries-old stone walls had completely collapsed inward. Thick, rolling plumes of suffocating black smoke billowed into the afternoon sky. Below, in the ruptured courtyard, dozens of witches were locked in a desperate, losing battle against a tidal wave of arachnids—and the terrifying truth was, the vast majority of the monsters were actively pouring out from the ruined depths of our own department building.

Before I could stop them, hot tears of pure devastation welled in the corners of my eyes.

I felt a thick, comforting coat of fur press firmly against my calf. I looked down through a blurred gaze; Skoll was leaning into me, a matching, sorrowful frown marring the wolf's features.

I squeezed my hands into tight, white-knuckled fists.

Every single vial we labored over, every rare historical scroll, every cherished academic memory... all of it was currently turning to ash and smoke right before our eyes.

Everything we meticulously built... all the innocent lives trapped inside...

An overwhelming wave of despair threatened to drop me to my knees as I watched the grand architectural history of my department continue to disintegrate into rubble.

"Cerise," Kane's voice materialized right beside my ear. He stepped into my space, his presence warm and grounding. "We will rebuild it. Piece by piece."

I quickly used the back of my hand to wipe the tears from my eyes before looking up into his stoic face.

"But standing here mourning the stonework won't alter the reality of the present," Kane continued, his voice tight with controlled emotion, though his volume remained entirely level. "We have to move."

I took one final, agonizing look at the burning building, shutting my eyes tightly to lock the grief away. He's right. Mourning can wait. Right now, there are still lives left to save.

I exhaled a long, shuddering breath, locking eyes with the Captain. "Alright. Let's go."

But before we could take a single step away from the window, a chorus of bloodcurdling screams echoed from a massive communal hall just down the corridor.

Kane and I exchanged a sharp, instantaneous look before bolting toward the source of the commotion.

"CLEAR THE HALL IMMEDIATELY!" Kane roared, his commanding voice echoing like thunder over the heads of the panicked witches scrambling inside the space.

Without a second thought, the students scrambled for the emergency exits, trampling over each other to escape the massive horde of giant spiders that had successfully cornered them inside the grand hall.

Oh dear, there are way—way too many of them...!

Kane clicked his tongue in deep annoyance. Before the leading line of arachnids could bridge the distance to his position, he raised his firearm, angling the barrel directly toward the center of the floorboards.

In a split second, he pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

A colossal, concussive explosion rocked the chamber, clearing the entire hall in a single, devastating movement. As the thick gray smoke began to dissipate, the air hissed violently with an immense discharge of residual alchemic energy. Every single spider in the radius was instantly incapacitated, their twitching bodies sizzling with arcing currents of dark pink lightning.

That's Kane for you.

I quietly observed him from the side, my heart skipping a beat.

Kane's custom firearm was still actively emitting those signature, violent currents of electricity around its barrel. His weapon was lightyears away from an ordinary firearm; it was a custom-designed, highly versatile conduit engineered specifically to channel his absolute mastery over energy-based alchemy. His signature creation, aptly named Brontes, was as brilliant as it was lethal—an invention he had conceptualized and built entirely by his own hand.

I had witnessed him wield it on countless operations, yet its sheer destructive output never failed to terrify me. It discharged thunderous, specialized ammunition crackling with high-voltage fury, each individual round precisely calibrated to match his exact combat intent.

Honestly... his brilliant, tactical mind and that devastating weapon were a flawless match. Almost terrifyingly perfect.

And yet, no matter how many times I watched him command a battlefield... he still managed to completely take my breath away.

"Cerise?" Kane's voice broke through the fog of my thoughts, snapping me back to reality. "Are you still with us?"

I blinked rapidly, shaking myself out of the trance.

To my absolute mortification, I realized Kane was staring directly into my face, and even his wolf familiar was tilting its head at me in silent confusion.

A sudden, intense heat flushed across my cheeks as the realization hit me: I had been openly, hopelessly staring at him like an idiot in the middle of a warzone.

"A-ah... eh..." I stammered, aggressively slapping my own cheeks with both hands to break the blush. "R-right! Sorry! Lost my train of thought!"

Kane simply narrowed his eyes at me, his expression a mix of suspicion and mild amusement.

Oh dear, my brain just completely fizzled out like a failed potion. Someone please open a trapdoor and let me melt straight into the floorboards! I need to focus—FOCUS!

I heard him let out a quiet sigh before he turned his back to me and began walking toward the exit. Phew! Thank goodness he didn't press it!

We began pacing out of the ruined hall together, but our bodies instantly locked up as a horrific, structural sound echoed directly above us.

CRACK—!

I snapped my head up just in time to see the massive, multi-ton crystal chandeliers swaying violently from the ceiling, their iron supports snapping clean off the stone.

"That's—"

Before my nervous system could even formulate a physical reaction, a heavy, solid weight slammed directly into my torso, throwing me backward.

"Ah—Kane?!"

I let out a sharp gasp as our bodies hit the stone floor, a torrential rain of shattering glass exploding all around us like a storm of crystal shards.

He's... he's h-holding me?!

His powerful arms were wrapped tightly around my frame, acting as a human shield to protect me from the descending, lethal chaos above.

Oh. My. Alchemy.

"Cerise, I apologize—"

"D-don't be!" I squeaked, rapidly scrambling out of his embrace the exact second the debris settled, my face burning hotter than Ashriel's magick.

I quickly looked around the space to mask my embarrassment. The grand chandeliers were completely destroyed, plunging the massive hall into near-total darkness. The only remaining illumination bled from the high, arched windows where the fading evening sun cast an eerie, orange glint across the fractured glass scattered over the floor like a sea of fallen stars.

"A-are you alright?" I asked Kane, my voice trembling slightly.

"I'm fine," he muttered, rubbing his shoulder with a slight, involuntary wince.

I opened my mouth to offer a medical assessment, but he suddenly stood up, his posture instantly locking into a rigid, lethal combat stance. "Someone's here."

The hairs on the back of my neck stood dead on end. You have got to be kidding me.

I scrambled to my feet, my heart hammering against my ribs. "Kane, what are you—"

I flinched as a sharp, high-frequency CLICK echoed through the dark room. Kane had activated Brontes. The firearm buzzed with a low, menacing hum as volatile arcs of pink lightning danced wildly around the barrel.

"Kane?" I called out again, dropping my voice into a cautious whisper.

But he didn't answer me.

Instead, his piercing, hyper-focused gaze was locked entirely onto... eh?

A completely blank, empty stone wall?

Without a shred of hesitation, he pulled the trigger. The thunderous echo of the gunshot blasted through the hall, followed by the violent hiss of alchemic energy tearing through the empty air.

"Kane! Stop!" I cried out, panic rising in my throat as I reached for his arm. "You're going to bring the entire ceiling down on us—there's absolutely nothing there!"

He whipped his head toward me, his brow heavily pulled together in frustration.

"They're standing right there," he insisted, his voice low as he began charging the weapon's power cell for a secondary blast. "Standing completely still."

My confusion deepened into absolute dread.

"What?" I followed the trajectory of his aim, squinting through the shadows, but there was absolutely nothing but empty space. "B-but I don't see anyone—"

The words died in my throat as a sudden, suffocating pressure materialized directly above my skull.

Acting entirely on survival reflex, I violently shoved Kane out of the drop zone while simultaneously flicking my wrist to agitate my enchanted bracelet. In a flash of light, the silver links twisted and expanded, transforming instantly into a massive, glowing ring-blade.

I hoisted the weapon above my head just in time, a deafening CLANG echoing through the chamber as I successfully parried a lethal strike descending from the darkness.

"Please," my voice trembled violently under the sheer physical weight of the downward pressure. "D-don't come any closer," I hissed through gritted teeth, sparks flying wildly as my weapon clashed against the attacker's cold steel.

The physical force behind their strike was powerful. My knees nearly buckled under the weight as they pressed the blade down harder, attempting to crush my guard.

But I held my ground.

With a surge of adrenaline, I executed a sharp twist of my wrist, utilizing the ring-blade's centrifugal mechanism to forcefully deflect their weapon and repel them. The attacker's body sailed backward, landing with an eerie, unnatural grace at the far end of the hall—as if the kinetic force of my deflection meant absolutely nothing to them.

I stood there, chest heaving as I drew ragged breaths, my fingers tightening around the central handle of my ring-blade.

"Tch. What an exquisite coincidence," Kane muttered, his voice dropping into a dangerous, icy register. "They actually have the absolute audacity to ambush us in the middle of a campus-wide crisis."

My eyes locked onto the silhouette standing at the end of the corridor, clad entirely in solid black fabric from head to toe.

'We conducted an investigation regarding the three missing witches and ended up in a massive brawl with a pack of devourers, which led to a high-speed chase after a witch cloaked entirely in black.'

A black cloak...

My eyes widened in sheer, paralyzing realization.

"The traitor..." I whispered, the words barely audible over the roaring of my own pulse.

My gaze darted frantically between the cloaked figure and Kane. Kane was right. But why manifest now? Of all the moments they could have chosen—why choose this exact time?

"Give it up," Kane announced coldly, leveling his weapon. "You're entirely outnumbered."

The traitor offered no response. They didn't flinch, nor did they show a single shred of hesitation, even as Kane's firearm clicked, entering its high-voltage charging phase.

Instead, they silently shifted their weight, raising a beautiful, crystal-red sword, pointing the tip directly at our chests.

I narrowed my eyes at the weapon. Without a doubt, that's an Alkemi blade. Within our realm's magickal classification, most Alkemi witches were practically the only subset who specialized in physical, material weaponry during combat, unlike the other branches of witchcraft.

Skoll let out a low, defensive growl, stepping protectively in front of us. I stabilized my breathing, hoisting my ring-blade back into a classic defensive guard.

The tension in the chamber thickened until the air felt like a piano wire stretched to its absolute breaking point. I bit my lower lip, staring intently at the adversary. We aren't escaping this hallway unless we physically neutralize them first. They are a traitor to Ashburn. They have to be apprehended right here, right now.

I took a deep breath and flicked my wrist, triggering the inner mechanics of my ring-blade. The circular weapon responded instantly, spinning in a slow, whirring orbit around the central handle gripped firmly in my palm. A glowing, alchemic green liquid began to pump through the transparent chambers of the blade, illuminating the steel with a sickly, iridescent light.

Tick... tick... tick...

A series of faint, mechanical clicking sounds echoed from the weapon as the internal pressure valve gathered energy. The moment the mechanism locked into place with a heavy click, the weapon was fully primed.

I dropped onto one knee, grounding my center of gravity as I stabilized my sightline. I aligned my trajectory, and without a fraction of warning, I pulled the trigger mechanism.

Kane's firearm discharged at the exact same millisecond.

Our respective projectiles shot forward in a flawless, synchronized arc—a dual streak of corrosive green fluid and crackling, electric pink lightning slicing through the darkness, heading dead center toward the cloaked figure.

But an instant before the lethal volley could connect—

The traitor executed a swift, fluid snap of their heavy cloak, enveloping themselves in the fabric like a shield. My toxic bullets dissolved instantly upon contact with the material, and Kane's high-voltage bullet dissipated into a harmless puff of white smoke midair.

I swallowed hard, a cold sweat breaking across my forehead. Shoot! Their gear is enchanted!

Without giving them a chance to counter, Skoll launched his massive frame forward. The wolf lunged with terrifying velocity, aiming to utilize his immense physical weight to pin the attacker to the stone floor.

But the traitor possessed supernatural speed.

With a blinding spin, they avoided the trajectory and delivered a brutal, precise strike that sent poor Skoll crashing violently into the stone wall right beside us.

I didn't waste another second waiting for Kane to recover. Gritting my teeth, I charged forward, throwing my entire weight into an offensive strike. Our weapons collided with a high-pitched, deafening ring of steel against steel, sending bright sparks cascading into the shadows. I pressed my weight against their blade, forcing them into a suffocating close-quarters lock.

I stared directly into the narrow slit of their mask, trying to pierce the darkness.

"Who are you?!" I demanded through gritted teeth, my voice shaking with rage. "Do you have any concept of the catastrophic damage you've caused?! You are actively destroying innocent lives!"

The traitor remained entirely silent.

But beneath the thin, translucent black fabric of their mask, I caught a sudden, brief flash of an unnatural, glowing crimson light radiating from their eyes.

And within a split second—

My breath hitched. The space in front of me was entirely empty. They vanished—?!

"CERISE!" Kane's voice roared.

Before my brain could even register the warning, a devastating, high-impact kick slammed directly into my abdomen.

"ARGHHH!"

The sheer kinetic force ripped the ring-blade from my grip, sending me sailing backward through the air. I crashed violently against a massive stone column, the impact rattling my spine before I crumpled onto the floorboards, completely gasping for oxygen.

Oh, goodness gracious! Is this what Geo meant when he said they almost shattered his backbone?!

Panting heavily, I desperately fought through the white-hot pain, pressing a hand against the stone column to force my body upright. I wiped a streak of blood from the corner of my lip, guarding my fractured side with my free arm.

Kane was already engaging—his movements a blur of lethal, blinding speed. He was firing Brontes repeatedly, the thunderous blasts illuminating the corridor in rapid succession.

I squinted through the smoke, my eyes widening in sheer confusion.

What on earth...?

He was discharging his weapon erratically, but his aim wasn't focused on a single point. His trajectory was completely scattered across the room—as if he were frantically tracking a high-speed target that was entirely invisible to my eyes.

The firearm discharged arc after arc of pink lightning, lighting up the stone corridor like a continuous thunderstorm.

But there was absolutely no target. He was shooting at empty air.

"Kane, who are you shooting at?!" I shouted, terror bleeding into my voice.

I narrowed my eyes, shifting my analytical focus away from his targets and zeroing in on his behavior. His shots appeared random, but his eyes told a different story. His pupils would flick, lock onto an empty space, and immediately track to another corner—as if he were reacting to movements a fraction of a second before they occurred.

Each shot was fired as a pure, reactive reflex—not an instinctual choice. It looked exactly as though he were perceiving a physical entity that didn't actually exist in our reality...

Wait a minute.

I sucked in a sharp, freezing breath, my fingers digging into the stone column.

What if his attacks aren't actually missing? What if... I am simply the one who can't see the target?

Kane let out a guttural curse, twisting his frame to discharge another high-voltage round that narrowly missed a primary structural pillar.

"Don't move!" he roared suddenly, screaming into the empty floor.

The blood in my veins turned to absolute ice.

Kane's respiration was dangerously shallow. His pupils were completely dilated. To any outside observer who didn't know his tactical genius, he would look like an absolute madman losing his mind in an empty hallway.

Kane's hypervigilance... I reasoned frantically. His unique psychological wiring allows him to register danger triggers, but he never guesses. He is always alert, meaning his eyes process threats instantly. But if someone or something is actively hijacking his sensory perception... he would be completely neutralized.

A terrifying alchemic theory crawled up my spine.

This isn't an invisibility spell. It's a localized sensory misdirection—or perhaps, a targeted distortion field directly manipulating his optic nerves.

"Skoll," I whispered to the wolf recovering beside my leg. "Cover my flank."

The wolf let out a low growl of compliance. I immediately reached deep into my uniform pocket, pulling a miniature, marble-sized glass sphere out. A thick, volatile green vapor was violently swirling within its transparent shell.

"Alchemic smog bomb... high-grade... thirty-second density," I whispered to myself, balancing the capsule between my fingers. "Let's see how you operate when we completely ruin your vision, too."

Without a second of hesitation, I hurled the sphere directly at my feet and smashed it beneath the heel of my boot.

CRACK—POOF!

A colossal, dense cloud of toxic alchemic vapor erupted instantly, flooding the structural space. The long hallway was completely swallowed by a sickly green fog, dropping visibility to absolute zero within a matter of moments.

I dropped into a low crouch, reclaiming my ring-blade, my heart hammering against my ribs in pure anticipation. My eyes scanned the green haze with predatory focus, searching for the slightest anomaly in the cloud—until I caught a flicker. A sudden, shifting shadow of black fabric, accompanied by the faintest metallic glint of a crimson blade slicing through the fog.

I heard the distinct sound of a suppressed cough; the attacker was reacting to the toxic compounds in my smoke.

There you are!

My ring-blade buzzed to life, the outer edges radiating a sharp green glow as I locked onto the target's coordinates. I aggressively slammed one of the primary trigger buttons on the hilt, discharging a high-velocity toxic arrow slicing through the mist like a streak of emerald light.

But a millisecond before the projectile could find its mark, my heart dropped into the abyss. The traitor executed a supernatural dodge, and the shifting wind of their movement cleared the fog, revealing the true trajectory.

The target had manipulated the space.

I hadn't shot the traitor. I had shot Kane.

The toxic arrow buried itself deeply, violently into Kane's left shoulder. He dropped heavily onto one knee with a strangled, agonized grunt, Brontes clattering uselessly against the stone floor.

"K-KANE!" I screamed, my voice fracturing as I stumbled toward him, my heart attempting to burst from my chest. "No, no, no—Kane, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to—!"

Hot tears instantly spilled over my cheeks.

My hands hovered frantically over his wound, my fingers trembling as I reached for the protruding arrow—then completely froze in terror.

"Don't... don't pull it out," Kane rasped, his teeth gritted in sheer agony. "Leave the arrowhead inside."

Right. I knew that. Doctor Doru had hammered basic battlefield trauma aid into our heads. Never extract a foreign object without a coagulant ready. Oh goodness... why was my medical knowledge completely escaping me when I needed it most?!

My hands shook violently as I pulled my silk handkerchief, attempting to stanch the initial bleeding.

"I—I didn't mean to..." I pressed the fabric firmly against the edge of the puncture wound, my voice breaking into a sob. "Just breathe, Kane. Focus on your respiration. I will fix this. I promise you."

His skin was rapidly losing its color, a faint, sickly green luminescence threading through his veins beneath his collar—the signature hallmark of my own specialized neurotoxin.

I shut my eyes with absolute force, locking out the panic. Deep within the chambers of my consciousness, I called out a specific name.

Melusine.

My serpent familiar materialized from my shadow, her scales radiating a brilliant, pulsating pink light. She rapidly slithered across Kane's chest, rearing her head back to hiss a sharp, high-frequency sonic incantation. The atmospheric pressure in the room instantly tightened. The sickly green glow traveling beneath Kane's skin began to dull, violently receding as Melusine's restorative magick systematically counteracted the poison.

A wave of relief hit me so profoundly that my knees genuinely gave out, forcing me to sag against his frame.

I could feel the venom neutralizing, though his shoulder still radiated an intense, inflammatory heat. I required Melusine to maintain her magickal suppression for a few more moments before I dared execute a clean extraction of the arrow.

"Good girl," I choked out to my familiar, my voice cracking with unshed tears. "Just suppress it... just buy me enough time."

With trembling, hyper-focused fingers, I grabbed the shaft of the toxic arrow, slowly, meticulously drawing it out of his shoulder muscle. "Stay conscious, Kane. Keep your eyes on me. Just stay with me—"

"Tsk. So remarkably easy to manipulate. So incredibly eager to trust what your eyes perceive."

My entire body froze.

A sudden shift in the ambient temperature signaled a presence directly behind my shoulder. I violently whipped my head around.

"You aren't locked in combat with me," the traitor's voice echoed through the dark hallway—a cold, low, heavily distorted cadence that made it entirely impossible to determine their true identity or gender. "You are simply locked in a losing battle with your own perception."

The rogue witch stood there, the ominous red glow of their eyes piercing through the fabric of their black mask.

My eyes widened in absolute horror as my gaze dropped to their hand. A brilliant metallic object was being casually tossed and caught in their gloved palm.

The grandis brooch.

NO!

"You—!" I roared, preparing to launch myself forward, but before my muscles could even contract, the cloaked figure vanished into thin air, leaving absolutely no trace of their presence behind.

I let out a heavy, devastated sigh, abandoning any foolish notion of a pursuit.

I turned back to the boy in my arms. Kane completely sagged against my torso, his breathing shallow and violently shuddering against my collarbone.

I aggressively pressed my hand over his bleeding wound. "You're going to be fine, do you hear me? Focus on my voice..." I pleaded, a heavy, miserable scowl twisting my features as I took in his pale complexion.

I secretly squeezed my free hand into a tight fist, my fingernails digging into my palm.

The traitor had escaped. The critical evidence was gone. And Kane was grievously wounded because of my own hand.

I held his shivering body close against my chest with trembling hands, my eyes burning with a fresh wave of tears as a familiar, suffocating sensation filled my lungs.

Guilt.

And frustratingly, this emotional poison bled through my soul way faster than any toxin I had ever brewed.