For a heart-stopping second, there was only the sound of their ragged breathing echoing in the Lawless silence of the cave. Sergeant Kira filled the entrance, a solid, unmovable barrier of enchanted armor and righteous fury.
"The hunt for the White Wraith ends tonight," she repeated, her voice cutting through the quiet.
Alex's mind raced. He couldn't nullify a sword. He couldn't nullify her physical strength. His power worked on the abstract, on the Laws that governed reality, not on the reality itself. But here, in this cave, the rules were different. The normal Laws didn't apply.
Lyra acted first. She hurled the heavy lantern at the Regulator. Kira batted it aside with a gauntleted hand, but the distraction was all Alex needed.
He didn't try to target Kira. He targeted the space between them. He focused on the last lingering echo of her voice, on the very concept of sound traveling through the air of the cave. He reached out with his will and did what came naturally.
"Null."
The effect was instantaneous and absolute. The cave didn't just go quiet; it became a void of silence. The sound of Kira drawing her sword vanished. The scuff of her boots on the stone floor disappeared. It was as if the universe had pressed mute. Kira's lips moved in a shout, but nothing came out. Her eyes widened in shock and confusion.
He had nullified the Law of Sound Transmission within the cave.
In the utter, disorienting silence, Alex grabbed Lyra's arm and pulled her deeper into the cavern. He could feel the strain of maintaining the effect; it was like holding his breath while running. Without the normal Laws to act as a framework, his nullification was a raw, draining effort.
Kira recovered quickly, her training overriding her confusion. She charged after them, her movements eerily silent. She was fast, far faster than Alex had anticipated.
He pushed Lyra behind a stalagmite and turned to face the Regulator. As she swung her blade, a shimmer of energy—a Law of Unerring Strike—guiding its path, Alex didn't try to dodge. He met the spell itself.
As the sword descended, he focused on the Law guiding it and whispered, "Null."
The enchantment flickered and died. The sword, now just a piece of sharpened metal, wavered in its course. It still sliced through the sleeve of his tunic, drawing a line of fire across his bicep, but it missed its lethal mark.
The pain was sharp and real. It grounded him. His power wasn't just for unraveling door locks and well-covers. It could save his life.
Kira, shocked by the failure of her enchanted strike, hesitated for a fraction of a second. That was all the opening Lyra needed. She swung the heavy journal, encased in its leather binding, and struck the Regulator hard on the side of her helmet.
The dull, silent thud was felt rather than heard. Kira staggered.
Alex didn't waste the chance. He didn't know if he could nullify a person, but he could nullify what empowered her. He looked at her armor, at the Laws of Fortification and Unyielding Defense woven into the metal. He saw their intricate patterns, the pride of the Scribes' craftsmanship.
He placed his hand on her chest plate and poured his will into a single, focused command.
"Null."
The shimmering field of protective magic didn't just fade; it shattered. The finely crafted steel of her armor didn't vanish, but it became just steel—heavy, cumbersome, and vulnerable. Kira gasped, stumbling under the sudden, un-magical weight.
Alex released his hold on the silence. Sound crashed back into the cave—their panting, the clank of Kira's now-ordinary armor, the drip of water.
"Stay down," Alex said, his voice rough. "The next time, I won't be so gentle. I'll nullify the Law of Cohesion in the air around your head. I don't know what that would do, and I don't think you want to find out."
Kira stared up at him, her face a mixture of pain, fury, and something new—fear. She was seeing past the student, past the fugitive. She was seeing the power that could unmake the very foundation of her world.
Without another word, Alex took the dazed Regulator's sword and tossed it deep into a dark crevice. He then took Lyra's hand.
"Let's go."
They ran from the cave, leaving Sergeant Kira struggling to get up in her deadened armor. The moon was high, illuminating their path back through the woods.
"He'll know," Lyra said, her voice tight with adrenaline. "Valerius will know she failed. He'll know we know."
"Then we don't go back," Alex said, the decision clear as he clutched his bleeding arm. "Going back to the academy is a death sentence now. The mentorship, the observation... it's over. The game is over."
"Where will we go?" Lyra asked, but her eyes already held the answer.
Alex looked north, towards the distant, jagged peaks of the Mournful Mountains. "We find Corbin and the others. We tell them what we've learned. The Fulcrum isn't a god. It's a thief. And it's time we gave the stolen world back."
He was no longer a student, no longer a ghost. He was a revolutionary. And the war for reality had just begun.