The outdoor training ground baked under afternoon sun. Forty students spread across the field, practicing formations and combination attacks. Sweat mixed with dust as voices called instructions over the clash of practice weapons.
Ethan worked through sword forms at the field's edge. Each movement felt different now. Stronger. Faster. The Kingmaker Blade fragment had changed his body in ways that went beyond height and muscle.
His peripheral vision caught everything. Maya's shadow tendrils coiling around practice dummies. Master Donovan barking corrections at struggling students.
And Prince Alexander.
The prince stood alone near the academy's tower wall. His violet eyes tracked the other students with predatory focus. Something moved behind his gaze. Something hungry.
The demon's getting stronger.
Alexander's lips moved in silent conversation. His left hand trembled. When a younger student stumbled nearby, the prince's eyes flared with sudden malice.
"Formation drills!" Master Donovan shouted. "Groups of four. Mixed combat and magic."
Students scrambled to form teams. Ethan found himself paired with Kaleb, a nervous Bronze-ranked girl named Sera, and …
"Hello, Ethan."
Prince Alexander smiled with his perfect teeth and an empty eyes.
"Your Highness," Ethan managed.
They took position at the far end of the field. Other groups spread out across the training ground. Master Donovan explained the exercise, which was capture the banner while defending your own using standard Academy tactics.
"I'll take point," Alexander said. His voice carried that same cultured tone, but something underneath made Ethan's skin crawl.
The exercise began.
Alexander moved like fluidly through the attacks. His sword work was flawless, precise, but wrong. Each strike carried killing intent barely held in check. When opposing students tried to block his attacks, he pressed harder than necessary.
Too hard.
"Your Highness," Sera gasped after barely avoiding a strike to her head. "Maybe we should…"
Alexander's backhand sent her sprawling. Blood trickled from her split lip.
"Stay down," he said pleasantly.
Kaleb stared in shock. "Alexander, what…"
The prince turned toward him. In that moment, his violet eyes went completely black.
Not Alexander anymore.
"Such weak little things," the thing wearing Alexander's face said. Its voice carried harmonics that hurt to hear. "No wonder humanity fell so easily."
Kaleb stumbled backward. Fear painted his features white.
Ethan stepped between them. "That's enough."
"Is it?" Alexander tilted his head. Studying Ethan like an interesting specimen. "But we're just getting started."
The prince's sword moved in a blur. No longer practice movements, just going for the kill.
Ethan's blade met it inches from Kaleb's throat. Steel rang against steel with a very shrill sound.
Around them, other students had stopped their exercises. Whispers spread across the training ground.
"Faster than I expected," Alexander mused. "Your transformation is quite advanced."
It knows about the fragment.
"I don't know what you mean," Ethan said.
"Don't you?" Alexander pressed forward. Strike after strike, each one deadly serious. "The Kingmaker Blade leaves such obvious marks on its wielders."
Ethan gave ground. His enhanced reflexes were the only thing keeping him alive. But each parry revealed more skill than a sixteen-year-old should possess.
"Curious," Alexander continued between strikes. "You fight like someone with decades of experience. Someone who's seen the future and lived to remember it."
Ice filled Ethan's veins.
"Tell me," Alexander said as their blades locked. "How did you survive your execution?"
It knows. The demon knows what I am.
Master Donovan was running toward them, shouting for them to stop while other students scattered. Only Kaleb remained close, too shocked to move.
"You look surprised," Alexander said. His black eyes glittered with amusement. "Did you think we couldn't sense temporal magical displacement? That we wouldn't notice when someone changed the timeline?"
Ethan broke the blade lock and spun away. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Of course you don't." Alexander laughed. The sound made nearby students flinch. "But you're not supposed to interfere. This timeline is wrong. Very wrong."
The prince's next attack came wreathed in shadow. Not the controlled darkness Maya wielded. This was malevolent and hungry. It reached for Ethan with tendrils that whispered promises of pain.
Ethan's fragment pulsed against his ribs. Power flowed through him in a blink. His sword moved in patterns that belonged to a master swordsman. The Valorian Water-Dance. Techniques that student shouldn't learn till their third year.
He cut through the shadows like they were smoke.
Alexander stepped back. For the first time, uncertainty flickered across his features.
"Impossible," the demon breathed. "How are you accessing that level of power?"
"Master Donovan is coming," Ethan said. "You should stop this."
"Should I?" Alexander's smile returned. "But we're having such an interesting conversation."
The prince raised his sword again. This time, real killing intent radiated from him like heat. Students screamed and ran. Even Master Donovan slowed his approach, hand moving to his weapon.
He's going to kill someone. Maybe everyone.
Ethan felt the fragment's hunger growing. It wanted him to fight. To show this demon what real power looked like, but using that strength would age him years. Maybe decades for such a worthless fight.
How much time do I have left? How much can I afford?
"Ethan." Maya's voice cut through the chaos. She stood at the field's edge, staff fragment glowing in her hands. Pure light radiated from the crystal, pushing back the shadows that writhed around Alexander.
The prince hissed and stepped away from the light. "Another anomaly. How delightful."
"Leave him alone," Maya said. Her golden eyes blazed with power.
"Or what?" Alexander laughed. "You'll shine at me? Light magic is useless against…"
Maya's staff flared. Brilliant radiance washed across the training ground. Alexander screamed and fell to his knees, hands pressed against his eyes.
The shadows writhing around him evaporated like mist.
For a moment, the real Alexander looked out through violet eyes. Confused. Terrified. "What's happening to me?" he gasped.
Then the moment passed. Darkness flooded back into his gaze.
"Impressive," the demon said, standing slowly. "But temporary. We'll continue this conversation soon."
Master Donovan finally reached them. "What in the Light's name is going on here?"
Alexander's expression shifted back to princely confusion. "I... I'm not sure. We were sparring and I must have gotten carried away. My apologies."
The perfect mask. No trace of the thing that had spoken through him moments before.
"Perhaps we should call the healers," Master Donovan said. His eyes tracked the scattered students, the scorch marks on the ground where Maya's light had touched earth.
"No need," Alexander said brightly. "Just tournament nerves. I'll be more careful."
He walked away with perfect royal composure. But as he passed Ethan, he whispered words that chilled blood.
"We know what you are now. And we're coming for you."
The training session ended early. Students clustered in nervous groups, whispering about shadow magic and impossible displays of power. Master Donovan tried to restore order, but fear had settled over the field like fog.
Maya found Ethan near the equipment shed. Her face was pale, exhausted from channeling the staff's power.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"I think so." Ethan looked toward the academy where Alexander had disappeared. "But we have a problem."
"What kind of problem?"
"The kind that knows I don't belong in this timeline."
Maya's golden eyes widened. "What does that mean?"
"It means," Ethan said quietly, "that our enemies know exactly what we are and they're not going to let us change anything."
Above them, afternoon clouds gathered. Thunder rolled across the academy grounds, the sound of a storm approaching.
The sound of a war that had already begun.