Amazel descended from the spectral sky, her bat-like wings folding as her boots touched the cold stone of the school's central courtyard. The institution loomed around her, a collection of Gothic towers piercing the perpetual twilight, their silhouettes stark and imposing. Shadows seemed to bleed from the worn, pitted walls, and the dim lanterns flickering in the corridors did little to push back the gloom. An unsettling energy, a mixture of stagnant magic and youthful rebellion, hung thick in the air.
She raised her right hand, two fingers pressing against her throat as they glowed with a viridian light. When she spoke, her voice, amplified by magic, did not just echo; it thrummed through the very stone, a command that vibrated in the bones of every being within the walls.
"All students and teachers. You have one minute to assemble in the courtyard."
The result was instant chaos. Doors slammed, footsteps pounded, and a tide of confused bodies surged into the open space. Amazel's sharp eyes scanned the crowd, her expression neutral. 'Some are still missing. Their defiance is noted.'
With a deliberate motion, she drew an ornate wand from a pocket dimension. Raising it high, she uttered two words that sucked the warmth from the air.
'Summon Spectrals.'
An eerie wail answered her, seeming to come from the shadows themselves. The lanterns flickered and died, plunging the courtyard into a deeper gloom. Students cried out, clutching each other in panic. Even the teachers' faces paled; their attempts to calm the students were feeble against the rising tide of supernatural dread.
From the deepest shadows, claws of solidified darkness dug into the stone floor. Deformed, shifting figures pulled themselves into existence, their forms barely holding shape.
"Ayyyaaa!!!" "Aaahhhh!!! Mommy!!!"
Younger students screamed and cried in horror. Older students and teachers tried to appear strong, but inside, they were all terrified.
Amazel approached the lead spectre. "Present every last teacher and student of this school before me," she commanded, conjuring a small, pulsating orb of pure arcane energy. "In exchange, I will feed you this."
The spectre drifted forward, its formless head tilting as it sniffed the intoxicating energy. Then, with a silent shriek, it shot toward the school's main building. The other phantoms followed, a wave of terror flowing inward.
In a private chamber, a portly elf and an Aerynder teacher clinked their glasses of wine. "Do you think we should go?" the Aerynder asked, a note of unease in his voice.
Bore, the elf, took a long sip. "Why should we? Let the weak Arkdemon who can't control a single classroom parade her impotence. We answer to a higher standa—"
His words were cut short as a claw of ice-cold shadow materialised from the wall, seizing both of their throats.
"Argh! Ahh! Help! Argh!"
The spectres dragged them, screaming and struggling, from the room. Their bodies bounced painfully off sharp corners and stone steps, leaving smears of blood in their wake, the spectral entities showing no more mercy than they would to livestock.
Across the school, the same scene played out. The missing students and teachers were unceremoniously hauled into the courtyard, dumped at Amazel's feet.
"Good work," she said, and tossed the energy orb into a far corner. The spectres fell upon it in a frenzy of ethereal hunger.
Cough!
The fat elf, Bore, staggered to his feet, his fine robes torn and bloody. He pointed a shaking, accusatory finger. "You! Bitch! Is this how you treat your colleagues and students?! I wi—"
"Shhh…" Amazel put a single finger to her lips. A flick of her wand sealed his mouth shut and froze his body in place. "You, Mr... whatever. Explain your absence."
"Mmmph! Ummmph!" he grunted against the spell.
She waved her hand, releasing the silencing charm but not the paralysis. "I am Bore, Master of Biological Arts! I was engaged in deep study! I don't have time for the whims of an administrator who can't even remember her own staff's names!"
"Deep study?" Amazel's smile was a wry, dangerous thing. "Then enlighten us. How do Arkdemons, Angels, and Devils achieve flight?"
Bore smirked, sensing an easy victory. "A child's question. They flap their wings."
"You are... wrong," she said, her smile never fading. "The wings guide their direction. True flight is achieved by channelling and expelling energy through them." Her smile vanished, replaced by a glacial stare. "What a profound shame. You fail to understand the fundamental mechanics of the very races you teach about."
Students and other teachers looked at Bore and whispered amongst themselves.
Veins bulged on Bore's forehead. 'Crap! A technicality!' Humiliation curdled into spite. 'If you embarrass me, I'll drag you down with me.'
"Before you correct others, look at yourself! You can't manage simple paperwork! You can't maintain order! You are a joke of a principal!"
For a moment, silence reigned. Then, Amazel felt the last vestige of her patience shatter. The kindness Hecate had identified as her weakness evaporated, flash-frozen by the glacial cold of the General she once was.
"Hmm… you are right. I was wrong," she said, her voice dangerously soft. "I was foolishly kind. I thought mercy might inspire responsibility. Today, I correct that error." She pointed at Bore. "I will purge this institution of all slackers and incompetents, starting with you."
"YOU BITCH!" Bore roared, finding his voice. "You can't! The contract protects us! You cannot fire anyone for three years! You can only issue warnings!"
Amazel's aura erupted. It was a physical weight, a pressure of ancient power and glacial cold that forced every single person to their knees. "Who am I?" Her voice was no longer soft; it was the cracking of a continent of ice. "I am Amazel, the Glacial Witch. Former Duke of the Underworld. General of the Stygian Legions. My authority does not come from a piece of paper. It comes from the Queen herself, and it is absolute."
She stomped her wand on the ground.
'Frost Burn.'
"Aaahhhh!!! My hands!!! Please save me! Please! I will do whatever you sa—"
Bore's terrified scream was cut short as ice enveloped him, crawling from his feet to his head in an instant. He became a perfect, horrified statue for a single moment before shattering into a million glittering particles of ice.
The courtyard was deathly silent, save for the terrified whimpers of the remaining staff. Amazel's gaze swept over them. She pointed to several others. "You, you, and you... are fired. Leave my sight before my mood changes."
They scrambled over each other to flee.
She then turned her gaze to the injured students, who flinched as one. "You, I will forgive. Once. Challenge my order again, and do not expect mercy."
She raised her wand once more. "Creation: Fortress Walls! Creation: Earth Golems!"
The very earth trembled in response. Massive walls of granite and iron erupted from the ground, encircling the entire school with a resounding boom. Simultaneously, soil and rock gathered, shaping themselves into a phalanx of spear-wielding soldiers, their eyes glowing with dull, obedient light.
Her voice echoed, final and unyielding. "New rules are now in effect. This is a boarding school. Work is assigned weekly. I do not care about your methods; I care only that it is done before the deadline. Teachers will also conduct research. Each month, we gather to share our findings."
A wicked smile finally graced her lips. "One last thing. Entry and exit are forbidden. However... if anyone successfully escapes, I grant them a hefty reward. Consider this a personal challenge."
A young Arkdemon student tentatively raised a hand. "M-Mom— I mean, Ma'am!" he stammered, earning horrified glares from his peers. "How can we possibly get past them? It's impossible!"
Amazel looked at him, her smile genuine for the first time. "It is meant to be tough. But not impossible. Use your knowledge. Use your wit. That is the only lesson that truly matters." With that, she beat her wings and ascended to her office, leaving a reformed and terrified school below.
---
The black phoenix soared over the jagged spine of the world, where mountains of pure white ice clawed at the sky. His violet eyes, glowing with eerie light, scanned the frozen expanse below until they found it: a lake of such startling, vivid blue it looked like a shard of fallen sky, a perfect mirror reflecting the desolate beauty of the South Pole.
"Acheron! Awaken!" Hades's command was not a request but a decree, and the land obeyed. Snow slid from peaks in thunderous avalanches. The frozen surface of the lake shattered like glass. Then, the liberated water began to churn violently, each drop flying upward to coalesce into a towering form of a Titan with pale skin, white hair, and a face eternally cast in sorrow. This was Acheron, the river of grief, son of Night and Erebus.
He bowed deeply. "An honour to meet you, Lord Hades. I am Acheron."
"You know me," Hades stated, his voice a low rumble.
"Yes. My brother, Charon, delivered an oracle to me and my sister, Lethe. He foretold your coming and our purpose. I am grateful to be part of this grand design."
"…Hmm." A gesture from Hades's wing tore a portal of swirling violet energy into the air. Without another word, Acheron stepped through, returning to the realm he was born for.
'Surprising. Charon is far more competent and proactive than he appears,' Hades mused. He turned north, where the lamentations of Cocytus called.
He crossed from the frozen continent to the chill ocean in a heartbeat. Suddenly, his senses screamed a warning. He banked sharply left, a concentrated torrent of water slicing through the air where he had been, shearing a single black feather from his wing.
More watery lances erupted from the depths. Hades wove through them with preternatural grace, then retaliated, unleashing a ray of dark blue flame from his beak. The beam pierced the ocean's surface, and where it struck, the water turned instantly into a vast, rising cloud of superheated steam.
The sea answered with fury. The waves grew violent and uncontrollable, a mountain of water rising as something colossal ascended from the abyssal plains. The Kraken emerged, a living leviathan whose skin was like weathered seabed stone. Dozens of tentacles, each capable of crushing a fortress, coiled and thrashed. Its eyes, two red suns of pure malice, locked onto the black phoenix.
The tentacles shot forward, whipping through the air with the force of a typhoon. Hades cloaked himself in twilight flame, his wing-feathers sharpening into obsidian blades. He dove, twisted, and spiraled through the onslaught, a master of aerial evasion. One tentacle came too close, and his sharpened primary feather sliced it cleanly in two. But before the severed piece could hit the water, it had already regenerated.
'As expected from the legendary beast Kraken,' Hades thought, a sliver of respect in his cold mind. 'A protracted battle with a beast of this power would attract far more attention than I can afford. Discretion is the better part of valour.'
His form flickered, then vanished completely from sight and sense.
The Kraken thrashed in confusion, its tentacles smashing a nearby glacier to rubble in its rage. It unleashed torrents of water into the empty sky, its furious roar—"KRAAAAAHHH!!!"—echoing across the southern ocean. Finding nothing, it sank back into the crushing depths, leaving only tumultuous waves in its wake.
---
Orcanon knelt in the sapphire throne room. "Your Majesty, Hades... escaped the Kraken. He vanished."
"Escaped?" Oceanus's eyebrows rose. He stroked his beard thoughtfully. 'This is unexpected. The Kraken's strength is equal to a mid-God Chief. I hoped to gauge his power...' He let out a long sigh. 'No matter. There will be other opportunities.'
The graceful Titaness Tethys entered, her milky skin and blue hair a vision of the sea's serenity. "What is it, Tethys?" Oceanus asked, his emerald eyes upon her.
"Your Majesty, Lord Pontus summons you."
Oceanus shot to his feet, his composure broken. "What?! Lord Pontus calls for me?"
"Indeed, my lord. Lord Pontus himself."
'Pontus? He hasn't stirred from the abyssal depths since the war with the Sky... What could possibly warrant his attention now?' The possibilities, each more grave than the last, flashed through his mind. He turned to Orcanon, his voice regaining its command. "Continue gathering intelligence!"
As Orcanon bowed, Oceanus hurried from his palace, the summons of the Primordial Sea itself pulling him toward the unknown deep.