Kade clenched his fists. "We need to get the students out. If a Herald is coming—"
During the time Axel hadn't woken up, the Aether Shades were the creatures the Phantom Creed had to fight always to protect Axel and therefore they knew almost everything Axel knew about them.
The Aether Shades had made countless of the Phantom Creed from each generation die and therefore they were always cautious when they heard one had appeared. It was the only reason why Kade seemed to be panicking.
"No." Axel stopped Kade with just his words.
"But–"
"No one leaves." Axel finally looked at Kade. "If the barrier collapses while the students are escaping, the Aether Shades will walk into open grounds."
Kade's face twisted. "So we trap them inside instead?"
"We buy time," Axel said. "That's all we can do. And if I handle this now, they'll never even know they were in danger."
Rin stared at Axel's back, a chill crawling up his spine.
Axel wasn't scared and neither was he panicking.
If a normal Resonant was to have sensed this kind of pressure they'd have started escaping with the students, that was what Kade was trying to do and yet Axel was doing otherwise. Axel was preparing to fight it. And this was what terrified Rin the more.
The glyphs flashed again but this time faster like a warning bell.
The lights flickered again. Black enveloped the hallway again.
Rin's breath hitched. "Axel…?"
Something moved in the dark, not footsteps. It was more like dragging. There were sounds of soft scrapes, like claws over the tiles.
A voice drifted down the corridor. It was smooth, calm but wrong.
"Child of the Starfall…"
Rin froze. Every syllable felt like a whisper against his skull.
Axel's shoulders tensed.
The darkness thickened. Then it shifted—no, shaped itself—into a tall, slender figure wrapped in what looked like cascading curtains of shadow. Its face was masked, smooth and featureless except for one vertical crack where a single eye glowed dimly.
A Herald.
Even Kade trembled. "It crossed the barrier… How…?"
The Herald's was eye fixed on Axel. Everything else in the world went silent as if it was a showdown between two cowboys.
"You have delayed long enough," it murmured. "Your power bleeds through the cracks. And now, even this realm feels your pulse."
Rin didn't understand any of it, but Axel clearly did. His jaw tightened.
"You're early," Axel said. "The cycle hasn't reset."
"The cycle bends," the Herald replied. "Because of you."
Rin felt like his insides were twisting. Axel wasn't reacting like someone facing a monster. He was reacting like someone facing an old problem he hoped would never return.
"Leave the students out of this," Axel said.
The Herald's single eye widened just slightly.
"Then come with me."
Rin's heart stopped.
"No!" Rin stepped forward before he even realized it. "He's not going anywhere with you."
The Herald turned its gaze to him.
That small movement almost crushed Rin where he stood.
Kade hissed, "Rin! Back up!"
But he couldn't move.
The Herald studied him, the air around it vibrating with a cold intelligence.
"This boy…" it whispered. "He's tethered to you."
Axel's eyes darkened. "He's nothing to you."
"To me?" The Herald tilted its head. "Perhaps."
Its eye glowed brighter.
"But to them? He may be everything."
Axel moved before the Herald finished. One blink and Axel was between them, star-patterns burning across his arms like constellations igniting.
His voice dropped to a tone Rin had never heard.
"Touch him… and I erase you."
The Herald paused—not afraid, but acknowledging the threat.
"A warning," it said softly. "The more you protect, the more you will lose."
Rin felt his chest tighten.
Axel didn't flinch.
"Say what you came to say."
The Herald lifted one shadowy hand. The symbols in the air flickered, rearranging into a final pattern.
A crest.
A sigil.
Rin didn't recognize it.
Axel did.
He stiffened, eyes widening, the closest thing to fear Rin had seen from him.
"No…" Axel whispered. "That's impossible."
The Herald stepped back, its form dissolving into thin slices of mist.
"Your presence has awakened the Sovereign."
Its voice echoed as it faded.
"And he is coming."
Then it was gone.
The lights returned with a harsh snap.
The glyphs vanished.
The hallway was silent once more.
Kade stared at Axel. "The Sovereign…? Axel… that means—"
"I know," Axel cut him off.
Rin looked between them helplessly. "Who is that? What does it mean? Why do you look like he's—"
Axel closed his eyes, pain flickering across his face.
"He's the greatest archnemesis of the creator of the two divine beings whose power now runs through me."
Rin felt a chill crawl up his spine.
"And now," Axel said, voice low, "he's coming back for war… after losing once already."
"He told me I was tethered to you. What was that supposed to mean?" Rin asked, brows tight with confusion.
"Only people with a true flame-beast bloodline can resonate with the beings inside me."
"So you're saying… I have that bloodline?"
Axel stepped a little closer. "Which clan are you from?"
"Clan? I grew up in an orphanage. All I know is what one caretaker told me. A rift tore open in my village when I was a baby. I was the only survivor."
Axel's expression darkened. "They tried to kill you from birth," he murmured. "This is exactly why I never wanted you trailing after me."
"What is this bloodline thing you're so scared of?" Rin asked, curiosity overriding his fear.
"You don't want to know," Axel said quietly. "Even if you did, it'd destroy the life you have now. And you haven't awakened yet. You shouldn't be anywhere near this."
"This is my life," Rin snapped. "And I want the truth. Otherwise I'm telling the whole school about you fighting Aether Shades with those freak powers."
Axel stopped. The temperature in the hallway seemed to drop.
"Try it," he said softly, "and we'll be holding your funeral tomorrow."
He walked past Rin without another glance. "Kade. We're going."
Kade shot Rin a cold stare as he followed. That was when Rin realized he'd misplayed everything. Axel wasn't someone who could be cornered.
He wasn't someone you threatened at all.