Fay perched atop the academy roof, seeking refuge from the chaos below. The dormitory erupted with noise—laughter, shouting, the constant shuffle of footsteps—making proper meditation impossible. She craved absolute silence, the kind of complete focus that had always centered her before.
She closed her eyes and began her meditation, but they snapped open almost immediately. A tingling sensation crawled across her skin, raising goosebumps along her arms. Someone was watching her from behind. The certainty of it sent a chill down her spine. She sprang to her feet and whirled around, heart hammering.
A man stood there, as if he'd materialized from the darkness itself. Brown hair framed his angular face, and his completely black clothing seemed to absorb the moonlight rather than reflect it. His hands produced a shadow-like substance that dripped onto the rooftop like oil, leaving dark stains that seemed to pulse with malevolent life.
"Who are you?" Fay snatched her twin blades, the familiar weight steadying her racing pulse. Her white armor blazed to life, and the blades ignited with matching light that cut through the surrounding darkness.
The man's smile widened dangerously, revealing teeth that gleamed too white in the gloom. "Calm down. I'm not here to hurt you. I don't want to fight—I want to make you an offer. A deal, one might say."
"A deal?" Fay's voice dripped with contempt even as fear coiled in her stomach. "I have nothing you can use against me. Nothing I want that you could possibly offer."
"Oh, but is that true?" The man's eyes turned pitch black as he stepped closer, each footfall silent against the rooftop tiles. Now that she could see him clearly, the darkness seemed to pulse from within him like a living thing. "I have your family. They're in an undisclosed location, safe for now. All I need is for you to do a few things for me, and they stay that way. Refuse, and I'll kill them." He paused, letting the threat sink in. "Or better yet—I'll turn them into shadow guards. Mindless puppets, forever enslaved to my will."
Fay's blood turned to ice. Her grip on her blades tightened until her knuckles went white, until the leather of her gloves creaked with the strain. Was he lying to manipulate her, or telling the horrifying truth? Images of her mother's gentle smile, her father's proud gaze, her younger brother's infectious laughter—all flashed through her mind. She couldn't take that chance. She could strike him down right here, right now—but then she'd never find her family. They would die alone and afraid, wondering why she hadn't saved them.
She stepped forward, hesitating. Her blade trembled in her grip, something that had never happened before, not even during her first real battle. One more step. If he was lying, she would end him without mercy. But if he spoke the truth, she had no choice but to follow, no matter where this dark path led.
"Good." The man's smile stretched wider, reaching his eyes, which had returned to their normal color. He was truly savoring this moment, drinking in her fear and desperation like fine wine.
Then she felt it—something foreign invading her body, worming its way through her defenses. She looked down at her armor and blades, patting herself frantically, searching for some physical manifestation of the intrusion, but found nothing. The sensation intensified, concentrating at the base of her skull like icy fingers wrapping around her brain stem. She reached back with one trembling hand, but everything felt normal. Her vision blurred, the edges going fuzzy and dark. She couldn't maintain her balance. Her legs buckled beneath her. Then darkness consumed her completely, and she knew nothing more.
---
Everyone gathered in dormitory 15, drawn by the sounds of destruction. Cade, transformed into his demon form, battled the two possessed girls with savage intensity. His movements were primal, animalistic, driven by pure instinct rather than training. Mina, Leo, and Quill converged to restrain him, struggling against strength that seemed impossible for someone his size.
"We need to put him in solitary confinement before he wakes up and slaughters everyone," Leo grunted, his muscles straining as he fought to hold Cade's thrashing form. All three of them hoisted him up and staggered toward the door, barely able to contain his violent struggles.
"So what do we do with him?" Leo's sword clanked against his back with each labored step.
"I don't know. There has to be somewhere, right?" Quill scanned the corridor desperately, her usual composure cracking. But this was an academy—a place of learning, not imprisonment. There was no cell, no cage strong enough to contain a bloodlusted, animal-like human who could tear through stone with his bare hands.
"I have a way."
All three whirled around, nearly dropping Cade in their surprise. A young man with dark hair and a pale, expressionless face approached them with measured steps. Soul. His presence always carried an otherworldly quality, as if he existed slightly out of phase with reality.
He stepped forward and opened his hand, palm up in a gesture of offering. "Put him down."
They obeyed without question, lowering Cade's motionless body to the ground with as much care as they could manage. Soul calmly picked up Cade as if he weighed nothing and closed his eyes in concentration. *I hope this plan works,* he thought, straining to harness his power in ways he'd never attempted before. Then, before everyone's eyes, Cade vanished into thin air.
Leo stared in shock, his jaw hanging open. "How did he—"
Mina gaped at the empty space where her friend had disappeared, her mind struggling to process what she'd just witnessed. "I don't understand. How much power does he have?"
Quill stood unfazed, though a flicker of interest crossed her features. She had witnessed more unbelievable feats from her older brother Raphael, whose abilities defied all conventional understanding. Compared to him, this was nothing—impressive, certainly, but not impossible.
"All right, Ellie, he's in there," Soul said telepathically, his mental voice steady despite the strain of maintaining the pocket dimension. "Do your thing."
---
Inside the dark mindscape, Ellie stood alone with her patient. Though young—barely ten years old—she possessed phenomenal blood powers that had manifested early and grown rapidly. Soul trusted her completely, knowing she was the only one who could attempt this dangerous procedure. She walked her small body over to Cade's crumpled form and sat beside him, her expression serious beyond her years. Closing her eyes, she began the delicate work of filtering out the corrupted blood from his veins, replacing it with her own purified essence. A large sphere of blood gathered in her hand—Cade's tainted blood, drawn directly from his pores in dark rivulets. In her other hand, another sphere formed—the purified blood he needed to return to normal, glowing faintly with her life force.
Sweat poured down her face, stinging her eyes, but she didn't dare break concentration. She had never attempted anything like this before, never pushed her abilities to such extremes. Yes, she was talented—she could create living constructs from blood and perform feats no normal ten-year-old could manage, feats that would make grown blood mages weep with envy. But this was different. This was life and death. One mistake, one moment of lost focus, and Cade would die. Or worse, the corruption would spread to her.
While removing Cade's blood, she simultaneously replaced it with her own, carefully measuring how much she could spare without harming herself. Too much and she would collapse. Too little and the corruption would remain, festering in his veins like poison.
Finally, after nearly thirty minutes of agonizing work that felt like hours, the procedure was complete. As soon as it ended, as soon as the last drop of purified blood entered Cade's system, Ellie collapsed. Her small body crumpled like a puppet with cut strings, utterly spent.
---
Soul's eyes opened, and he gasped slightly from the effort of maintaining the mindscape for so long. He made Cade reappear in the hallway. Cade fell to the ground, but Mina caught him with practiced ease and threw him over her shoulder, cradling him protectively.
"Both of you leave," she said, glaring at Quill and Leo with an intensity that surprised them both. "Neither of you had anything to do with this in the first place. I don't want you to—"
Leo smiled warmly, cutting off her apology before it could fully form. "Oh please, don't apologize. We were just wandering the halls with nothing to do before all this chaos erupted. You gave us some excitement, a story to tell. Thank you."
"We'll be visiting you soon," Quill added as she and Leo departed, their footsteps echoing down the corridor.
But there was one more threat to deal with—the two possessed girls who had been fighting Cade in his demon form. Mina stormed back into dormitory 15, her jaw set with determination.
Both girls bore multiple leg injuries—deep gashes that still oozed blood and countless bruises that had already turned purple and black. But Cade had suffered damage too, sporting several bruises of his own that would hurt like hell when he woke.
"Cade!" Mina shouted, her voice sharp with command.
Cade leaped back and reverted to his normal form, the transformation rippling across his body. This had been the first time he'd used his demon transformation—his father had never permitted it, had forbidden it absolutely. But these two girls had touched his precious blades, the weapons passed down through his family for generations, and hurled them across the room like common trash. That was a line no one should ever cross, a violation that demanded retribution. Now, with them injured enough and his energy depleted, his demon form dissolved. His blades returned to normal, losing their demonic edge. His muscular frame shrank, he grew shorter—back to normal in nearly ten seconds.
Cade crossed his blades in an X, ready for the girls to attack, his breathing heavy but controlled. But before they could reach him, lightning coursed through their bodies in brilliant arcs. Both girls convulsed violently, their black eyes rolling back to show only whites.
"You—" they tried to speak, their distorted voices barely forming words that sounded like they came from multiple throats at once. The electricity surged harder, making them spasm uncontrollably, their limbs jerking in unnatural directions. Soon their jaws locked, foam gathering at the corners of their mouths, and they collapsed unconscious.
Cade turned around, lowering his blades slightly. Mina stood with her hand outstretched, crackling with residual energy that danced between her fingers. She had used her lightning abilities to shock them both, hoping the electricity would disrupt whatever dark force controlled them. After all, they were possessed by something—shouldn't electricity fix that, burn it out of their systems? And if she was wrong, if this didn't work, they'd have to find another solution. But at least they were neutralized for now.
---
After nearly a few hours of tense silence, Madison was the first to wake. Her eyes had returned to normal, the unnatural blackness gone. She sat up in her bed slowly, looking around in confusion, her head pounding with a dull ache. What happened? She rubbed her eyes, trying to clear the fog from her mind. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep and telling both Amy and Mina to look after Cade, to make sure he didn't do anything reckless. But now when she looked around, Mina was the only one awake, sitting vigil beside Cade's bed. Cade slept in his bed, his breathing deep and regular, and Amy was also unconscious, her chest rising and falling peacefully. Then she noticed someone new—a pale boy with dark hair whom she'd never seen before.
"Who is he?" Madison directed the question toward Mina, her voice hoarse from disuse.
"He is our new roommate," Mina said, her tone carefully neutral.
"A new roommate? That's interesting, but—" Before she could say anything more, before she could ask the hundred questions forming in her mind, exhaustion overwhelmed her like a wave. Her eyes grew heavy, impossibly heavy, and she fell back asleep, her body demanding rest to heal from whatever had happened to her.