The ride west was quiet. The landscape blurred into rolling forests and golden meadows, Maple Academy looming like a fortress in the distance. Its towers gleamed under the early morning sun, pristine and orderly from the outside, betraying nothing of the horrors within.
Lyra rode beside me, her healer's instincts already uneasy. Thorne, silent as ever, sat slightly ahead, eyes scanning the treeline as though danger could spring from the leaves themselves. Even the wind felt wrong—too sharp, carrying the faint metallic tang of blood.
"Maple Academy," I muttered under my breath. "West Academy in the council's reports. Breached, but they didn't say by how much."
Lyra frowned. "Do you think it's Dox?"
I didn't answer immediately. My senses had already detected traces of corrupted mana ahead. It wasn't faint—someone had been using human bodies as conduits. That kind of signature didn't lie.
As we approached the outer gates, the first sign of the academy's corruption became clear: the guards, pale and rigid, moved like marionettes. Their eyes were vacant, staring past us rather than at us. The aura clinging to them was unnatural—a combination of fear, pain, and something else. Something cold and controlling.
"Stay close," I whispered to Lyra and Thorne. My hand hovered near my dagger, but I had a plan. Observing first, acting second.
The courtyard was empty of students, save for one or two twisted figures staggering unnaturally. Cracks ran across the stone floor, etched with faint runes that pulsed with faint violet light—the same corruption I had seen beneath Luminar.
We slipped inside through a side entrance, moving silently through long halls that smelled of antiseptic and burnt incense. The walls were lined with portraits of academy founders, but the eyes in those paintings seemed to follow us, judging, condemning.
Then we found the first lab.
---
The room was dim, lit only by flickering lamps that cast sharp shadows across the equipment. Tables lined the walls, covered in strange instruments and glass tanks filled with glowing fluid. Inside each tank floated a student—or what had once been a student. Limbs were twisted, eyes wide open, veins pulsing unnaturally with glowing mana.
Lyra gasped, covering her mouth. Thorne's fists clenched so tightly his knuckles whitened.
I stepped closer, my stomach twisting. This was Dox's work. He had been experimenting on human bodies to force mana mutations, enhancing power through pain. A few teachers were among the victims, recognizable by their robes and insignias, now grotesquely fused with demonic energy.
One student, partially transparent, looked at us and whispered in a broken voice, "Kael… help…"
The voice snapped me to attention. I knelt beside the tank, sensing the mana streams coursing through the boy. His essence was trapped between life and something else—neither fully human, nor fully demon, just a vessel.
"Can you release him?" Lyra asked, her hands trembling as she scanned the tank with her healing magic.
I shook my head. "Not yet. Someone has bound their essence to the machinery. If we touch it without severing the control sigils, they'll… collapse entirely."
Thorne growled. "We don't have time to play nice. We can't just stand here!"
I placed a hand on his arm. "We need information first. Let me read the runes."
Focusing, I let my mana seep into the sigils. The energy screamed, like a chorus of tortured souls. My vision blurred, and for a moment I saw Dox standing in the shadows, smiling beneath a dark hood, eyes gleaming silver. He was enjoying this.
"Why are you doing this?" I whispered aloud, though he would not answer.
---
We explored further. Each hallway was lined with more victims. Some were frozen in mid-step, limbs fused with metal braces or arcane conduits. Teachers were no different—one of them, Mistress Calden, had been forced to wear a harness that fed her mana into a crystalline core. She reached toward me, her eyes pleading.
"Kael… please…"
I clenched my jaw. I wanted to scream, to rip everything apart with my hands, but I forced myself to remain calm. The moment I let anger take control, Dox's traps would activate.
Lyra murmured spells quietly, trying to stabilize a few weaker students, giving them a moment of clarity. Their eyes flickered with recognition before falling back under Dox's cruel control.
"This is worse than I imagined," Thorne said quietly.
I nodded. "And it's coordinated. Nox is at Luminar, Lindon at the Warrior Academy, Van at the South… and Dox is doing Van's dirty work here. They're testing humans as mana conduits, probably preparing an army for something bigger."
Lyra's face paled. "But… this many? They could control hundreds!"
I clenched my fists. "And they will, unless we stop them."
---
We reached the central lab—larger, colder, more clinical. At its center, Dox's personal experiment chamber hummed with energy. Inside floated three teachers and six students, fully merged with conduits and arcane machinery. One of the conduits pulsed directly at me—twisted energy like an arrow aimed at my chest.
I felt the weight of responsibility crush me. "We need to act fast. I can sever the control lines, but it will take time."
Lyra stepped forward, determination in her eyes. "Then we'll hold them off while you work."
Together, we set up a defensive perimeter. I focused on the sigils, channeling my mana through the conduits to disrupt Dox's control. The energy fought back like a living thing, shrieking in pain and anger. Sweat ran down my face.
Thorne intercepted two corrupted teachers who lunged at us, blades swinging with unnatural strength. Lyra sent waves of healing and protective energy, keeping me focused. Slowly, painfully, the first student's spirit untangled from the machinery. Their eyes cleared, and they gasped, human again.
"Kael!" Lyra shouted. "Two more are ready!"
The next hour passed like a blur. Every time I freed one, the pulse of the room grew stronger—Dox was amplifying the others, feeding off the chaos. My arms burned, my mana core screamed for rest, but I ignored it. This was not the time.
By the time we cleared the chamber, three students and one teacher were freed, but the rest remained trapped. The pulse had begun to fade, but I knew it was only a temporary reprieve.
Exiting the academy, the sun had fallen lower, casting long shadows across the walls. Maple Academy seemed peaceful again, but I could feel the lingering energy of Dox's experiments. It was a stain that would take time to cleanse.
Lyra walked beside me, exhausted but determined. Thorne stayed silent, his eyes scanning the forest.
"We can't wait for reinforcements," I said quietly. "This isn't just a lab. Dox is building something… something that will hurt everyone if we don't stop it. We need to find him."
Lyra nodded. "And the others—Nox, Lindon, Van… they'll know we've been here."
I clenched my jaw. The pulse of the corrupted mana, the faint echo of screams, haunted me. My mind raced ahead to the others. Amara, Elian, Arden, Vex, Luminor—they needed to know. Every academy was under siege. And now, the darkness was closer than ever.
As we rode back toward Luminar Academy, the sky turned crimson, the wind whispering through the trees. Somewhere in the shadows, Dox was watching. Somewhere else, Nox waited, smiling beneath his rift.
The war was no longer distant. It had begun in earnest.
And I knew the first real strike would come sooner than we expected.