After the Fluve Field collapsed, the university decided to give all 301 survivors a break. It wasn't generosity. We weren't supposed to come out alive. They only expected maybe a hundred to endure, if that. Instead, we dragged out three hundred and one battered bodies, scarred minds, and enough trauma.
So they gave us a week and a half to "recover." That's what they called it. To me, it felt like sitting on a cliff's edge, staring at the storm gathering on the horizon.
Mother didn't stay.
Of course she didn't. World Commanders don't linger around their children when they have entire battlefronts to run. She met me and Xaessiarerich once, looked us both over like she was inspecting armor for dents, and left. I didn't even get anger out of her absence. Just… emptiness. She's not exactly a good mother. The fact she even bothered to show her face surprised me. Maybe she was curious if we were still alive. Maybe she wanted to confirm we wouldn't embarrass the Argemenes by dying too early.
I didn't ask.
In those days, I stayed away from most of the others. They spent their break in cafes, parks, libraries, wherever they could remind themselves of normalcy. I couldn't. After Lucaren, I realized something painful.
I was weak.
I was almost useless. Lucaren had torn through me like I was paper and the only reason I survived was because of the Argemenes' tradition of the Flux I wasn't supposed to show anyone. My strings were laughably bad in open combat. They were easy to sever if someone figured out their rhythm.
That wasn't acceptable, so I trained.
Every day, from dawn until my body screamed, I practiced with my strings. I tried new methods like weaving them into nets, braiding them into spears or coiling them into whips. I practiced pinning dummies to the ground, wrapping targets mid-air, cutting through blocks of steel until my fingers bled from the tension. I wasn't just experimenting. I was tearing apart everything I knew about myself and rebuilding it piece by piece.
And then there was the Crown.
The three Fluvehearts the Frostclave Stag had given me were useful. When I pressed them into the thorned circlet above my head, something shifted. The thorns pulsed once. The vines coiled tighter. And I felt… whole.
The Argemenes symbol had always been a rose crowned in thorns, and now I understood why. The Concept Flux wasn't like the flashy powers of other Houses. It wasn't about raw destruction or beauty. Xaessiarerich had the Blackened Rose. Her skin bloomed with roses whenever she invoked it, with petals that spread and devoured. I had the Crown of Thorns resting above me.
Our ancestors hadn't just wielded power. They'd weaponized fear. That's why we had the tradition to never reveal the Concept Flux unless they were one step from death. If the Radiance Houses ever learned the truth, the Argemenes would be exterminated. They'd scorch our name from history before we had the chance to seal their glory. Now, I carried that crown fully awakened.
It frightened me.
Because for all its strength, it wasn't mine to control freely. The Crown only activated when my life was on the line, when death was already reaching for my throat. That meant I couldn't test it and explore the depths of what it could do. All I had was the memory of Lucaren screaming, the vines tearing through his flesh, the sound of his body turning to dust as Flux Corrosion hollowed him out.
The days crawled by. March 22nd, 23rd, each one blurred into training, sweat freezing on my skin as snowflakes fell. Sometimes Xaessiarerich came by, sometimes she didn't. I avoided Thales not because I hated him, but because I didn't want to explain how I knew a lot about the Azure Sword and the details I knew from the story.
By March 28th, I could weave strings fast enough to bind a moving target in mid-leap. By the 30th, I could shape them into shapes strong enough to resist direct blasts. None of it felt like enough, but it was progress. In the lore of MoDS, Phasnovterich's power didn't exist. The Crown of Thorns wasn't meant to be complete yet here I was, carrying something no scriptwriter had planned for.
March 31st arrived with the chill of anticipation. Ten days of silence had hardened into something sharp in my chest. The break was almost over, the Season Change loomed, and I knew that the next act was waiting for me. And I wasn't the same man who had stumbled out of that Fluve Field. In ten days, I managed to understand my strings more.
°°°°°°
April 1st arrived with the thaw.
The first sign of the Goddess of Nature's arrival was always dramatic. One moment, snow blanketed everything in a quiet shroud of white. The next, it dissolved. I stood at my window that morning, watching as patches of green sprang out of the earth like they had been waiting, suffocating under winter's fist. Buds exploded into blooms. Birds sang with throats that had been silent for months. It was like watching the world inhale again after nearly choking.
Spring had arrived.
Every three months, the seasons shifted on Altera Earth. Today, winter was swept aside and life surged back. For most people, every Seasonal Change was a holiday. Families gathered, lovers exchanged gifts and festivals painted the streets with color. For me, it was more complicated. I didn't celebrate often, but Thales had asked me back in the Fluve Field to watch the Spring Ceremony with him and so I kept my word.
Walking the university halls, I could feel the stares. It wasn't paranoia. People always looked at me. At 180 centimeters, I towered over most students. Being taller than professors didn't help. The whispers followed too but I was used to it. My face was apparently "memorable." Handsome, they said. It's a word that meant nothing when people only saw the name above your head or the bloodline behind your existence.
I caught Thales waiting further down the hallway, leaning against the wall with that bored posture he always carried, like the entire world was a bad play he had no choice but to sit through. When he spotted me, he pushed off and exhaled sharply.
"Finally. Took you long enough."
"You could have come to my room."
He gave me a flat look. "And risk being caught in your orbit? No thanks."
I almost chuckled at that, but before I could, I asked the question that lingered in my head.
"How's the House of Erdict handling things?"
His expression soured instantly, the faintest crease forming between his brows.
"Annoying. Obsessive. Pick your poison. They've been breathing down my neck since we got out of the Field. Apparently, they're 'concerned.' Asking if I managed to retrieve the first clue of the Azure Sword."
"And what did you tell them?"
"The truth would have been suicide so I lied. Said I failed. They bought it. Either way, if they knew it resonated with me, I'd already be dead or worse. You know how the Houses handle liability."
House Erdict wasn't merciful, not even to its own. If not for his father's rank, Thales would have been chewed up and spat out long ago.
"You're not wrong."
His lips tugged into something bitterly close to a grin. "Of course I'm not wrong. But enough about them. You ready to go?"
I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.
"I'm glad we passed the First Evaluation Test."
He gave me a sidelong glance. "Correction, you passed. A hundred out of a hundred. Me? I scraped by with eighty."
That made me stop. "You? Only eighty?"
"You don't have to rub it in."
He scowled, which only made it funnier.
"I'm not rubbing it in. It's just… unexpected."
"Yeah, well, not all of us are prodigies wrapped in tragic mystery," he muttered under his breath, though I caught every word.
I couldn't help but laugh softly. "That's a new title. You should write it down."
"Shut up."
Still, he wasn't wrong about one thing. Because of our scores, we unlocked a rare privilege of leaving the university grounds. The Season Change was already a public holiday, but students who failed the evaluation were confined to the campus for their "safety." For us, the gates opened wide.
We reached the Fast Travel Room, the kind of place one only stepped into if you were confident about where you wanted to end up.
"So, where exactly are we going?"
Thales smirked, tapping a console of glowing sigils.
"You'll see."
The air shimmered, reality folding over itself like wet paper. My body lurched and then suddenly, the world stretched wide again. The snow and gray skies of the university were gone. Instead, sunlight poured like molten gold and in the distance, three towering pyramids sliced into the horizon. We stood atop a skyscraper, the city sprawling beneath us, glass and stone rising where desert sands stretched endlessly beyond.
Thales spread his arms slightly, as if presenting the view.
"Welcome to Giza, Egypt."
"You're joking."
"Nope."
"You brought me to the pyramids?"
"Of course. Where else would you celebrate the Goddess of Nature sweeping away winter? I figured we'd do something dramatic. Seasonal rebirth, ancient wonders, the whole aesthetic."
I shook my head slowly, a smile tugging at my lips despite myself. "You're ridiculous."
"And you're welcome."