Aden burst out of his room with blood still drying on his sleeves, breath sharp and uneven. His vision pulsed every few seconds, a dull throb matching his core's angry rhythm.
He ignored it and kept running. Every step jarred his ribs, each inhale scraped against the ache in his chest.
The academy courtyard was quieter now. The banquet music floated through distant halls, muffled by stone walls and indulgence. The nobles were still busy drinking and pretending the world was safe.
Aden knew better.
Claire Remes.Eastern forest.Public hounds.
The book hadn't just predicted it. It spelled it out like a script he was supposed to follow. And now, moving through the dimly lit courtyard, he felt a cold certainty gripping his spine.
He cut across the garden paths, boots pounding on stone. The guards patrolling the outer walls barely noticed him pass. No one expected the most famous heir in the empire to be sprinting half dressed and bleeding into the trees.
Aden ran until the trees blurred into dark streaks. His lungs burned. His ribs stabbed with each breath. But he kept pushing. The book's words repeated in his skull like a curse.
Claire dies here.Tonight.Unless you stop it.
A scream broke through the forest ahead.
Aden tightened his grip on the sword and sprinted faster.
He burst into a clearing lit only by fractured moonlight. His boots skidded slightly across the damp leaves.
He saw Claire immediately.
She was cornered beside a crooked fallen log, hands trembling as she tried to conjure a spell. Weak sparks flickered between her fingers and died. Her breathing was frantic.
Five Public hounds surrounded her in a loose ring, slowly closing in.
One tightened his grip on his blade. "Just knock her out already."
Another smirked. "Patience. We get paid more if she suffers."
Claire's voice cracked. "Stay back!"
Her spell fizzled again.
Aden stepped forward, voice sharp. "Move."
All five hounds jerked toward him.
The one in front stiffened. "What the hell… Vasco?!!"
Another cursed under his breath. "Shit. Why is he here!"
A third whispered, panicking, "Why is he here!, what happened to the plan?!!"
Aden ignored all of them.
He didn't even look at Claire.
"Run," he said.
She blinked at him. "What?"
"I said run."
She hesitated. Aden's tone sharpened. "Claire. Go!"
She finally obeyed, stumbling at first, then sprinting into the trees as fast as she could.
The hounds reacted instantly.
"Stop her!""Don't let her escape!"
Aden stepped directly into their path, blade raised.
One hound spat, "Get out of the way!"
Aden's answer was short and flat. "Try me"
The first hound charged him with a wild downward slash. Aden stepped left and parried, letting the blade slide off his own. A clean countercut across the man's shoulder sent him stumbling back.
Another hound tightened his grip. So he really can fight without mana?He lunged.
Aden blocked, but the impact rattled his bones. His ribs flared in pain. He swallowed it and moved.
Two more attackers rushed him.
Aden pivoted, ducked under a wide swing, and slammed his elbow into a masked jaw. The crack echoed through the clearing. The attacker dropped.
Another blade came for his ribs. Aden twisted, the sword barely missing him. It sliced across his coat, grazing skin.
Move or die.
He snapped forward and cut across the attacker's thigh. The hound screamed and collapsed onto one knee.
The remaining three exchanged a quick glance.
"He's not using aura… why?""Doesn't matter. He bleeds like everyone else.""Fine. Kill him."
They rushed him together.
Aden backed up a step.Ribs throbbing.Vision slightly fuzzy.
Focus.
One hound tried a horizontal slash. Aden blocked high, but a second hound thrust toward his stomach. He twisted and let the blade scrape across his side instead of impaling him.
Pain burned through his torso.
Aden gritted his teeth. This is bad. Really bad.
He forced a counterattack, catching one hound's wrist and twisting it harshly. The man dropped his weapon with a gasp. Aden elbowed him in the throat, sending him to the ground choking.
Two left.
Another hound stepped in close and slashed at Aden's face. Aden leaned back, the blade missing by inches. He grabbed the man's forearm and dragged him sideways, lining him up with his partner's incoming strike.
The partner couldn't stop in time.
His blade plunged into the wrong body.
The stabbed hound gasped, choking on disbelief. His partner froze.
Aden didn't.
He stepped in and cut the second hound across the throat in one clean motion.
"No… no, this isn't right," he muttered. "You weren't supposed to be here. You weren't in the plan."
Aden stepped closer, breathing hard.
The hound raised his blade weakly.
"You're supposed to die!. Why aren't you using aura? Why are you even… here."
Aden stared at him coldly.
The hound's inner thought almost seemed to leak out in his strained whisper. "this is the worst outcome."
The hound kicked Aden's injured side.
Aden's breath snapped out of him. Pain exploded across his ribs.
He dropped to one knee for a second.
The hound raised his sword.
"Just die already!!"
Aden's eyes narrowed.
No.
He pushed off the ground, exploding upward. His blade arced in a clean, vicious line across the man's throat. Blood sprayed. The hound collapsed.
Aden turned to the spear wielder. The man had recovered and charged, roaring.
Aden exhaled slowly.
Fine. Come here.
He stepped forward, dodged the thrust by inches, grabbed the spear's shaft, and yanked. The hound stumbled in. Aden drove his sword through the man's chest.
The clearing went silent.
Aden stood in the center, covered in dirt and blood, lungs burning, vision flickering. His hands shook around the hilt.
His core pulsed again. Sharp. Angry.
He swayed.
Aden stood over the bodies, his breath fogging in the cold air. The clearing reeked of iron and damp earth. His shoulder throbbed. His ribs burned with every inhale. His grip was slipping from sweat and blood, but he forced his fingers tight around the sword.
One hound was still alive.
The last one. The one he'd cut down earlier at the edge of the clearing. The man lay slumped against a tree trunk, coughing through the blood pooling in his throat. His mask had cracked, revealing a twisted grin beneath it.
Aden walked toward him, boots crunching softly on the leaves. Every step sent a dull shock of pain through his side, but he kept going.
The hound looked up, wheezing out a laugh.
"You look like hell… Vasco."
Aden's jaw clenched.He grabbed the man by the collar and hauled him upright. The man gasped in pain.
"You're going to tell me why you were after Claire," Aden said. His voice came out low, tired, edged with something raw. "And why the hell your people came after me."
The hound spat blood on the ground.
"You know…" he rasped, voice strained but mocking,
"you lost the moment you stepped out of that room."
Aden slammed him against the tree. A wet thud.
The hound groaned.
"Talk."
The man coughed again, blood spraying across Aden's arm.
"You're already dead," the hound whispered. "Doesn't matter if I talk or not."
Aden's grip tightened. His vision flickered with irritation and exhaustion.
"You came for me," Aden said. "Seven assassins in my room. Five of you here. That's not random. Someone wants something."
"Someone always wants something," the hound muttered, voice slurring with pain.
"Tonight… they wanted her."
His eyes drifted to the path Claire had run down.
"And when we couldn't get her, we could just twist it. Make everyone believe you snapped. The academy guards would find you drenched in blood, surrounded by bodies. Easy story."
"We are always Two-steps ahead of you Vasco"
Aden's stomach twisted.
"You were planning to frame me."
The hound laughed, even as blood bubbled through his teeth.
Aden froze.
The forest wind shifted.
And then he heard it.
Voices.
Distant at first, then clearer.
"Over here!"
"Lanterns up!"
"Track the sound!"
"Someone's this way!"
Boots. Dozens of them. Branches snapping under hurried footsteps.
The academy guards.
Aden turned his head slightly, listening to the rhythm of their approach. Fast. Organized. Getting closer by the second.
The hound let out a faint chuckle.
"Too late… heir of Vasco. they would love to hear my alibi!"
Aden shoved him back against the tree and stepped away.
He looked at the man. Then at the direction of the approaching guards. His pulse hammered a warning through his weakened core.
If they found this hound alive, even barely, he would twist everything. The book had said it. This man had repeated it. The plan was clean. The story simple.
Aden Vasco. Surrounded by corpses. A blood-soaked sword. And a living witness pointing at him.
The perfect trap.
Aden's fingers tightened on his hilt.
He didn't want to do it. Not like this. Not while exhausted, half-broken, and trying to hold himself together.
But he wasn't going to let himself be turned into the empire's next villain.
Not tonight.
Aden stepped forward.
"Lights up! Check that clearing!"
"There's movement ahead!"
"Close in!"
The hound saw the decision in his eyes and grinned.
"Too late," he whispered. "They're here."
Aden exhaled once. Quiet.
Then he drove the blade through the hound's heart.
A soft, final thud of steel meeting flesh.
The man's grin faded slowly, a surprised chill passing through his gaze before it went blank. His body sagged against the tree.
Aden pulled the sword free and stepped back, panting.
Torchlight flickered between the trees, bouncing off the wet leaves and blood-stained dirt. Multiple lantern beams cut through the darkness as the first line of academy guards broke into the clearing.
They froze.
Aden stood there, breath heaving, covered in blood that wasn't all his, surrounded by bodies and the metallic scent of death. His sword dripped into the dirt.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then three guards raised their spears.
"Drop your weapon!" one shouted.
"NOW!!"
More poured in behind him. Twenty at least.
Aden stared at them, chest rising and falling, blade still in hand.
All he could think was:
He had walked into the Fire knowing that it would burn him.
He was simply in a
Point Of No Return