SYSTEM ASCENSION

TWO DAYS LATER

Rumors moved faster than the wards could seal.

By breakfast, half of Rowen Academy thought Elias Morail had been expelled for summoning portals. By lunch, he’d been kidnapped by a rival family. By dinner, he was dead, and the board was covering it up to avoid panic.

The truth, eight arms, a tear in reality, a spirit calling him ”my child”, didn’t make it into the whispers. It was too big. Too absurd, so it was kept hidden.

Nevertheless, the name ”Elias” lingered on pupils’ minds like a plague.

For the past two days, security around the academy increased. Not just securities, but elite protectors, A rank raiders and a single S rank to lead them.

Claude and Kael were discharged from the ward the next morning. Healers cleared them free. Council meeting was suspended. Instructors told them to rest. Neither of them did.

They were questioned. Again and again, because the board members hadn’t left, and neither had the crown prince.

*ROWEN ACADEMY — EASTERN BARRIER WALL — DAWN*

The cold air by the outer wall tasted like ozone and cold iron. The energy around the barrier was denser.

Tell Merrin stood with one hand pressed flat against the barrier stone, eyes closed. From this small act, he detected if the barrier had been weakened or bridged in the past.

Twenty feet down, Joe Winger walked the perimeter with Halvorsen, both of them staring at readings on a tablet that kept glitching.

Joe tapped the screen. ”Readings are clean,” he said, not sounding convinced. ”No breaches nor tampering. That makes no sense.”

”We can’t tell that to the tear in the ward,” Halvorsen muttered. ”Or to the mysterious invader.”

Anny Grater was by the central pillar, heels swapped for boots, crouched as she ran her fingers over the foundation runes. She hadn’t spoken all morning. She just kept frowning.

She approached the duo with the tablet.

”A talking crawler still bothers me. I’ll go take a look around the academy again.”

No one objected. In fact, they seem to love the idea. She walked away.

Joran Zaela wasn’t helping. He leaned against a tree fifty paces back, smiling. With Elias gone, his problems were basically fixed. He didn’t need to lift a finger.

And in the middle of it all, Tyler sat on a chunk of displaced stone like it was a throne, swinging his legs, tossing a piece of star-iron up and catching it.

He looked bored.

Claude and Kael stood off to the side. Not part of the inspection, but not dismissed either.

They hadn’t been given orders. They just... weren’t allowed to leave.

Claude was made to describe the image of the crawler that had taken Elias. He could only vaguely call some things, thus, a defined image wasn’t provided.

Kael kept his eyes down. Every time he looked up, his father’s gaze caught him and held. Joe hadn’t said a word to him in two days. That was worse than yelling.

Claude was still pale. He held himself upright through sheer spite. The healers said he needed another week. Tell said he needed to be here, so he was here.

Tyler caught the star-iron again and pointed at the wall with it.

”Owen,” he called.

Acting Principal Owen stood near the gate, looking like he’d aged ten years in two days. He turned. ”Your Highness?”

”You said one occurrence beneath the administrative wing.” Tyler’s voice was light. Conversational. ”Show me.”

Owen’s throat moved. ”The site’s been sealed—”

”I didn’t ask if it was sealed,” Tyler said, still swinging his legs. ”I said show me.”

No one argued.

Tyler stood up from his piece of stone, brushed dust off his cloak, and started walking back toward the school. The rest followed. Board members, Halvorsen, Owen. Claude fell in step beside Tell without being told. Kael trailed a pace behind, eyes still on the ground.

The path from the eastern barrier cut through the training fields. Students were out, pretending to spar, pretending not to stare. The whole academy had learned to look busy when the board walked by.

Kael kept his head down. Easier that way. Didn’t have to see his father’s questioning looks.

Then something made him look up.

Maybe it was the way the other students near the main hall went quiet. All at once. Like someone had cut the sound from the world.

His eyes widened.

Standing at the top of the steps to the central building was a figure he knew. And didn’t.

6’10, but somehow looked taller than Kael remembered. Broader in the shoulders. Hair shorter than it normally was, like someone had taken shears to it and given him a clean cut. No more messy strands hanging in his face. Just an undercut.

New uniform. Dark. Student Council, cut sharp at the collar and cuffs. He wasn’t wearing the jacket. He was holding it, draped over one arm. The first time Kael had ever seen him without a hood.

Demigod face. That was the only word for it. And a plaster on the side of his lip.

He turned his head slowly and looked at them.

Kael’s breath caught. His hand moved before his brain did, and he reached out.

”Elias?”

The rest froze and turned around, expecting Kael to repeat what he said, but the boy just shoved past them and dashed forward.

”Elias!”

Elias watched him approach, not moving till they were an inch apart. Kael pant slowly from the short run, staring up at him.

”You’re...alive...”

Elias looked ahead. Claude was also giving him the look. Pure terror. He smirked and returned his attention to Kael. ”Were you expecting me to be dead?”

”I...it was...that thing...”

”My mother.”

”Sorry?”

”That was my mother.”

Kael was left speechless.

”Your...”

Elias walked past him, to the people who were staring cautiously at him. A student who had been taken into a portal suddenly standing here and looking like he went for a field trip was baffling.

Tyler, however, didn’t mind this. He skipped forward and reached out his hand.

”Hi! I’m Tyler.”

His act forced Elias to stop and stare at him. The boy gave off a strong aura. Apart from that, something else struck Elias’ mind.

”Are you a prince?”

Tyler raised a brow. ”Was that obvious?”

”No.” Elias muttered.

In truth, Elias wasn’t familiar with the boy at all, nor would he know a royal if the person didn’t say it, but after inheriting Rezeal’s abilities, he naturally acquired the man’s memories. That includes how he lost his parents, life in the orphanage, the lab, black empire, the trial, killing his partner to save himself in an ambush and getting the sheath ability, his pain, down to his thoughts and the time they spent together.

These memories and emotions mixed with Elias’s own.

Although he had never met Tyler, he had seen a memory of Daevon, the emperor, reaching for Zeal in the orphanage before he was pulled into the portal.

Tyler was, in short, a copy of his father.

Elias walked past him before he could say anything else and moved to Owen.

”Elias...” The man was happy, and wanted to confirm his eye. ”Report.”

Elias tilted his head like he was trying to remember the words.

”Numbered six. Elias Morail.”