The seasons turned, and the brothers Van Hellsin grew in skill and reputation.
By their second year at the Academy, Thorwald had become a figure of genuine respect. He led his combat squad to victory in the inter-dormitory competitions, earned commendations from three different Masters, and was spoken of as a future Centurion. His Pneuma had matured into something formidable—a golden blaze that could enhance his physical abilities to superhuman levels or project outward as waves of concussive force.
More importantly, he had become beloved. The other students sought his counsel, his instructors trusted his judgment, and even the servants smiled when he passed. Thorwald Van Hellsin was everything the Academy hoped to produce: powerful, disciplined, loyal, and fundamentally decent.
Kami remained an enigma.
His second year brought new privileges—he was allowed to attend more practical training sessions, to interact with other students during supervised exercises, to leave his tower for several hours each day. But the isolation had marked him. He moved through the Academy like a ghost, present but separate, watched but never truly seen.
His abilities had grown terrifyingly precise. Under Maximus's tutelage, he had mastered techniques that made the old Masters uncomfortable. He could drain the Pneuma from a single drop of blood, could sense life-force through walls and closed doors, could touch someone in passing and steal just enough vitality to leave them tired for hours without them ever knowing they'd been fed upon.
But he used these skills only as directed, only in controlled circumstances, always under observation. The perfect prisoner in his perfect cage.
The tension between Kami and Cassius had evolved into something colder and more dangerous. They no longer confronted each other directly. Instead, Cassius worked through proxies and politics. He convinced several influential students to petition for Kami's removal from shared lectures. He spread carefully worded rumors about the dangers of allowing a Devourer to train alongside normal students. He gathered allies among the noble families, building a coalition that pressured the Academy to limit Kami's freedoms further.
"He is afraid of you," Grand Master Maximus observed during one of their sessions. "And his fear makes him shrewd. He knows he cannot defeat you in direct combat—your Devourer nature gives you too many advantages in a duel. So instead, he works to isolate you, to turn the Academy against you, to create conditions where your removal becomes inevitable."
"Should I challenge him?" Kami asked. "End this with a formal duel?"
"And prove his point? That Devourers are violent and dangerous?" Maximus shook his head. "No. You must outlast him. Prove through patience what he cannot prove through politics—that you are safe, controlled, trustworthy."
But patience had its limits.
The breaking point came in the spring of their second year, during the Festival of Ascension—a weeklong celebration where second-year students demonstrated their progress through public exhibitions. Families were invited, senators attended, and the Academy showed off its finest prospects to the Empire's elite.
Thorwald's exhibition was spectacular. He faced three fourth-year students simultaneously in the Arena, his golden Pneuma blazing as he enhanced his speed and strength to levels that drew gasps from the crowd. Though he eventually lost—three against one was too much even for his formidable skills—he fought with such grace and power that the audience rose to applaud him.
Grimwald and Bera sat in the honored family section, their faces shining with pride.
Kami was not scheduled for any public exhibition. Too dangerous, the Masters agreed. Too unpredictable. Better to keep the Devourer out of sight during such a high-profile event.
But Cassius Tiberion had other plans.
On the festival's third day, as students and families mingled in the Academy gardens, Cassius approached Kami with a formal challenge scroll.
"I, Cassius Tiberion, heir to the Tiberion Senatorial line, do hereby challenge Kami Van Hellsin to a duel of honor, to be conducted under Academy rules and witnessed by the assembled Masters and guests."
The garden fell silent. All eyes turned to Kami.
"I decline," Kami said calmly. "I have no quarrel with you worth settling with violence."
"You have no choice," Cassius replied, his smile cold. "Academy law states that any formal challenge issued during the Festival of Ascension cannot be refused without forfeiting one's status as a student. Either you fight me, or you are expelled for cowardice."
Kami saw the trap immediately. If he fought and lost, it would humiliate him and prove Cassius's superiority. If he fought and won—especially if he won using his Devourer abilities—it would terrify the watching families and senators, proving Cassius's argument that he was too dangerous to remain at the Academy.
And if he refused, he would be expelled anyway.
"Clever," Kami acknowledged. "You have engineered a situation where I lose regardless of my choice."
"I have engineered justice," Cassius corrected. "Now, will you fight? Or will you slink back to whatever hole spawned you?"
Thorwald pushed through the crowd, his face dark with anger. "This is dishonorable, Tiberion. You know Kami cannot—"
"Cannot fight without revealing his true nature?" Cassius interrupted. "Cannot face me without resorting to the predatory techniques that define his kind? Then perhaps he should not be here at all."
Kami placed a hand on his brother's arm, feeling Thorwald's Pneuma surging with protective fury. "Peace, brother. I will accept the challenge."
"Kami, no—"
"It is time," Kami said quietly. "I have hidden for two years. I have been patient, careful, controlled. But Cassius is right about one thing: the question of what I am must be answered. Let it be answered in the Arena, with witnesses, under Academy law. At least then, whatever happens will be legitimate."
The duel was scheduled for the next day at noon, giving both participants time to prepare. That night, Kami sat in his tower room with Thorwald, Grimwald, and Bera. His family had been granted special permission to visit, given the circumstances.
"You do not have to do this," Bera said, her voice tight with worry. "We can leave Aurelius tonight. Return north. The Academy has no authority in our province."
"And live as fugitives?" Grimwald shook his head. "The Empire would hunt us. No, if Kami fights, he must do so according to their rules, in their Arena. At least then, he has the protection of Academy law."
"What will you do?" Thorwald asked his brother. "Cassius's Pneuma capacity is immense. If you try to match him in a conventional duel, he will overwhelm you with raw power."
"I will not fight conventionally," Kami replied. "I will fight as a Devourer. Not to kill, not to permanently harm, but to demonstrate control. I will drain him just enough to win, then return his Pneuma exactly as I took it. I will prove that I am not the monster he believes me to be."
"And if you lose control?" Bera whispered. "If the hunger takes over?"
Kami met his mother's eyes. "Then you will have your answer about what I truly am. And the Academy will do what it must."
The Arena was packed the next day. Word of the duel had spread through Aurelius like wildfire—the Tiberion heir versus the Devourer, aristocracy against abomination, the Empire's golden boy facing its darkest secret. Senators filled the honored seats. Families crowded the stands. Even common citizens had bribed their way in, eager to witness the spectacle.
The Seven Masters sat in judgment, with Grand Master Maximus at the center, his ancient face unreadable.
Cassius entered the Arena first, his white training robes pristine, his dark hair bound back, his Pneuma already beginning to glow with gathering power. The crowd cheered. Flowers were thrown. He was their champion, their proof that nobility and power aligned, that the natural order prevailed.
Then Kami entered from the opposite gate.
He wore simple black robes, unmarked and unadorned. His strange features were impassive, his dark eyes scanning the crowd without emotion. His Pneuma was almost invisible—he had suppressed it so thoroughly that even Masters struggled to sense it. He looked small, insignificant, utterly outmatched.
The crowd jeered.
Master Quintus stood to announce the rules. "This is a formal duel under Academy law. The match continues until one combatant yields, is rendered unconscious, or is judged unable to continue by the Masters. Lethal force is prohibited. Permanent injury is prohibited. All other techniques are permitted. Begin when the bell rings."
The two duelists faced each other across thirty feet of sand.
"Any last words, Devourer?" Cassius called out. "Any begging for mercy before I humiliate you in front of the entire Academy?"
"Just one question," Kami replied. "When this is over, when you have lost, will you finally leave me in peace? Or will your family's hatred demand you pursue me unto death?"
Cassius's smile was cruel. "You will not win, monster. And when you lose, I will petition for your expulsion. The Empire does not need creatures like you."
The bell rang.
Cassius moved first, as expected. His Pneuma exploded outward in a brilliant display, his entire body glowing white-blue with concentrated power. He enhanced his speed and launched forward like an arrow, crossing the Arena in heartbeats, his fist blazing with enough Pneuma-enhanced force to shatter stone.
Kami did not dodge. He simply... shifted his presence.
It was a technique Maximus had taught him, an application of void-based Pneuma manipulation. Instead of moving his body, Kami created a brief absence where he stood, making himself nearly impossible to perceive or target. Cassius's devastating punch passed through empty air, his perception subtly altered so he struck where Kami appeared to be rather than where he was.
The crowd gasped.
Cassius spun, confusion flashing across his face, and attacked again. A barrage of Pneuma-enhanced strikes, each one powerful enough to kill an ordinary person. But each one met nothing, Kami flowing around the attacks like smoke, his void-nature making him almost impossible to hit.
"Stop hiding!" Cassius roared, frustration building. "Fight me!"
"As you wish," Kami said quietly.
And for the first time in the duel, he stopped suppressing his Pneuma.
The change was immediate and terrifying. The air around Kami seemed to darken, to pull inward, as his Devourer nature manifested fully. Every person in the Arena felt it—that pulling sensation, that instinctive knowledge that they were in the presence of something that fed on life itself.
Cassius felt it most of all. He stumbled back, his eyes widening, genuine fear breaking through his aristocratic composure.
Kami raised one hand, and the pulling intensified. Focused. Directed.
Cassius's Pneuma—that brilliant blaze of power he had spent years cultivating—began to stream toward Kami like water flowing downhill. Not fast, not violent, but inexorable. No matter how Cassius tried to contain it, to hold his power close, it was drawn steadily toward the void standing across from him.
The crowd watched in horrified silence as Cassius Tiberion, the Academy's finest second-year student, was slowly drained of his Pneuma by the Devourer.
Cassius fell to one knee, his brilliant aura dimming. Then to both knees, his strength failing. His face went pale, his breathing labored.
"Yield," Kami said. "I have taken enough to prove my point. Yield, and I will return it."
But Cassius, driven by pride and terror, channeled everything he had left into one final desperate attack. He poured his remaining Pneuma into his hand and struck the Arena floor, creating a shockwave that radiated outward, hoping to catch Kami in the blast.
It was exactly what Kami had been waiting for.
As the shockwave approached, Kami absorbed it—consumed the Pneuma contained within it, drinking Cassius's final attack like wine. And in that moment, with all of Cassius's power flowing into him, Kami felt the hunger surge with terrible strength.
More, it whispered. Take more. Drain him completely. Make him understand what it means to be prey.
His hand extended toward Cassius almost of its own accord. The pull intensified. Cassius gasped, collapsing fully now, his Pneuma draining so fast that his skin began to pale and tighten.
"Kami!" Thorwald's voice cut through the hunger's roar. "Brother! Remember your promise!"
The words reached him. Barely. A lifeline thrown across an abyss.
With an effort that felt like tearing his own soul apart, Kami cut off the drain. Then, in full view of the assembled Masters and crowd, he did what no Devourer in history had ever done.
He gave it back.
All the Pneuma he had taken—he released it in a controlled stream, flowing it back into Cassius's depleted form. The aristocrat's color returned, his breathing steadied, his Pneuma signature stabilizing at exactly the level it had been before the duel began.
Kami had taken nothing. Proven his point. And returned his opponent to full health.
The Arena was silent.
Then Grand Master Maximus stood. "The duel is concluded. Kami Van Hellsin is the victor. Cassius Tiberion is defeated but unharmed." He paused, his ancient eyes fixed on Kami. "And for the first time in Imperial history, a Devourer has demonstrated the ability to feed and then freely release his prey. Let this day be recorded in the Academy's archives."
The crowd's reaction was mixed. Some applauded hesitantly. Others whispered in fear. Still others looked at Kami with something new—not acceptance exactly, but a grudging acknowledgment that perhaps he was not quite the monster they had imagined.
Cassius lay on the sand, staring up at the sky, his face a mask of conflicting emotions. He had lost. Been defeated. Been drained. But he had also been spared, been healed, been shown mercy by the very creature he had sworn to destroy.
He did not thank Kami. But as he was helped from the Arena by his attendants, something in his eyes had changed.
The hatred was still there. But now it was tempered with something else.
Understanding, perhaps. Or fear of a different kind—not fear of a monster, but fear of something that transcended the simple categories of good and evil that Cassius's worldview required.
Kami Van Hellsin was not just a predator.
He was a choice walking in human form.
And that, somehow, was more terrifying than any simple monster could ever be.