Trouble returned faster than Cale expected.
A new organization had begun attacking cities, villages, and travelers…
And every time they defeated someone, they carved a name into the ground:
SHADOW NEXUS
Cale's fake group.
The group he created just to keep people away from him.
Now someone was trying to make his organization look evil.
The next day, a girl named Sera Linhart enrolled at the Magic Academy.
She was a quiet genius who specialized in magical machinery.
Princess Lyra and Princess Seraphina showed her a strange artifact they found under the city the one left by the scientist who kidnapped Lyra.
Sera called it the Arafat:
A device that controlled magic around the kingdom.
It was broken.
She spent a full week repairing it.
But the moment she fixed it.
The evil organization that was imitating Shadow Nexus attacked the academy.
They waited until both princesses had left the campus, leaving the school weakened.
Without the Arafat operating, all magic in the academy was unstable.
Students couldn't cast spells properly.
Teachers were struggling.
Sera looked terrified.
"The Arafat regulates magic! If it's taken away… people can't use magic safely!"
The attackers stole it.
Everyone panicked.
Everyone except Cale.
He watched everything silently from the top of a building, acting like he wasn't involved at all… but seeing every move.
Down below, five members of the fake Shadow Nexus surrounded a group of students.
"Looks like your real protector didn't show up," they taunted.
Cale sighed.
"Wearing black during the day is crazy… You're supposed to do that at night," he said casually as he stepped out of the shadows.
The five impostors froze.
Cale simply walked through them.
Five blows.
Five bodies falling.
All done before anyone blinked.
Cale found Sera hiding behind a broken wall.
She clutched the Arafat tightly.
"I'm going this way," Cale said.
Alright," Sera replied, confused but trusting him.
She threw the repaired Arafat into the air.
When it activated, a wave of energy flooded the campus.
Everyone gasped
"We can use magic again!"
Cale's true Shadow Nexus members, who had been hiding, charged into the battlefield and defeated the impostors who were pretending to be them.
But their leader the mastermind was still somewhere in the academy.
Cale spotted him through a shattered window on the second floor.
The boss grinned when he saw Cale.
"You again I thought you died in that underground explosion."
Cale stepped into the ruined hallway.
"My name is Cale Vermillion," he said quietly.
"And you're annoying."
The boss lunged.
He didn't last ten seconds.
Cale knocked him through the window.
The man fell but survived long enough to see Cale walk away before collapsing.
Below, the academy continued burning.
Flames ate the classrooms, the library, the training grounds.
By morning, the Magic Academy was nothing but ash.
With the academy destroyed, all students from two kingdoms were sent to compete in the Goddess's Trial, a tournament meant to test their ability to summon creatures and fight without killing anyone.
Out of twenty participants, three died during their summons.
Everyone was terrified.
Everyone except Cale.
He stood quietly at the edge, observing everything like a background extra.
During the chaos, a mysterious witch approached him.
"You. Come with me.
She opened a door to a space between two realms a place where the spiritual and mortal worlds overlapped.
Inside stood an evil being holding the witch hostage.
"She keeps this realm balanced," he growled. "I won't let her go."
The evil figure attacked Cale with full power.
Cale sighed.
"Why does everyone drag me into these things?"
He raised his hand.
I. Am. Atomic.
The realm cracked apart.
Light swallowed the monster.
The dimensional space shattered.
The witch began to fade, her purpose fulfilled.
"You will face greater dangers soon…" she whispered before vanishing.
One Week Later
Cale sat back in his house as if nothing happened.
A cup of tea.
A quiet room.
Finally, he could pretend to be a background character again.
If only fate would let him.