The first strike came fast—faster than any of the guards who preceded him.
Ardyn's blade arced like silver lightning, the air around it bending from the sheer pressure. His Talent wasn't just martial; it was command incarnate — every movement dragged gravity with it, as if the world itself bowed to his sword.
But Kael was faster.
He rolled beneath the strike, fingers snapping a glyph into the pillar. The stone cracked, then began to shift.
"The mechanism's responding!" Kael called, sweat slicking his brow. "I just need a little more—"
Lia leapt into Ardyn's path, blade raised in a high guard.
She barely blocked the second strike.
The shockwave threw her backwards, but she flipped midair, landing with a skid, and returned with a lunging riposte. Her blade sparked against Ardyn's.
"Interesting," Ardyn muttered. "You've grown, little one."
"I'll grow past you," Lia spat, her eyes blazing. "You'll never touch him again."
"Touch?" Ardyn sneered. "I was here to end him."
He dashed forward.
But he never reached Kael.
Seren was already between them.
Her arm swept in a crescent. Mana roared.
A mirror glyph erupted mid-air, capturing Ardyn's blade—and then twisting it backward. Ardyn's arm recoiled, pain blooming in his shoulder.
"You," he said, finally recognizing her. "The exiled Myth."
"I see your memory works when you're afraid," Seren said.
Then she moved.
Glyphs circled her hands in layered rotations—five, no, seven, spinning like orbiting stars. With one command, she compressed them.
The hallway behind her detonated in a wall of force, throwing enemy mages backward, pinning some to the stone with their own ricocheted spells.
Kael's fingers pressed the final seal.
The pillar clicked.
A hidden panel retracted, and a stone slab groaned open beside them, revealing a dark tunnel sloping down.
"That's it!" Kael shouted. "Go—Lia, Seren, now!"
Lia darted into the passage first. Seren turned, eyes locked with Ardyn.
He was already recovering. Already smiling.
"This isn't over," he said.
"No," she replied coldly. "It's just starting."
She vanished into the tunnel after them.
Kael was the last to enter.
Before stepping through, he paused. Looked back once.
Above, the torches flickered again, casting Ardyn's silhouette in distorted flame. The smell of ash filled the air.
This place, Kael thought, is a cage pretending to be a kingdom.
He stepped into the dark.
And the stone door sealed shut behind them.
---
The Tunnels Beneath Vireen
They ran for what felt like hours—winding through collapsed catacombs, forgotten aqueducts, and old passageways lined with rusted gates and crumbling symbols.
The silence felt heavier here. Ancient.
"This path hasn't been used in over two centuries," Kael said, brushing dust from a carved marker. "Back then, it was a scholar's retreat—an escape route for Learners in times of war."
"How do you even know this?" Lia whispered.
"I read the archivist's restricted logs last year," Kael said with a shrug. "It was... interesting."
Seren eyed him, breathing slightly strained. "You're more dangerous than I thought."
"I'm not dangerous," Kael said. "They just don't like that I remember everything."
The air grew colder.
They turned one last corner—and light poured in.
A cracked stone archway opened to the cliffs, where sea winds howled and stormclouds gathered. The sun hadn't risen, but the sky was glowing violet—dawn was close.
"We're out," Lia gasped.
But then—
A soft ping echoed behind them. A ripple of energy.
A tracking seal.
Kael spun. "No—!"
A distant roar exploded from the tunnel mouth. From the shadows, five more enforcers appeared—different from before.
And leading them—
Was not Ardyn.
It was a woman in royal silver, her eyes glowing with gold, a divine mark on her brow.
A High Talent.
Seren's jaw clenched. "She shouldn't be here. She's—"
"Royal enforcement," Kael finished. "We're not just fugitives anymore."
"No," the woman said as she raised her hand, channeling a power Kael had never felt before. "You're enemies of the Realm."
Light burst from her palm.
The cliffside shook.
Kael grabbed Lia and leapt from the rocks—into open air, the sea crashing far below.
Seren followed a heartbeat later, glyphs sparking beneath her feet.
The world turned upside down.