Kyaset did not hesitate.
Fein stood within the temporal sanctum, watching layered futures collapse into a single acceptable outcome. His fingers moved once.
"Phase Two," he said calmly.
"Begin."
Across multiple lower strata, seals opened.
Not portals—leases.
Creatures that had no place in ordered worlds slipped through fractures Kyaset had cultivated for years. Not mindless beasts, but predators refined by extinction events and failed timelines. Monsters that hunted civilizations, not people.
Their destination was singular.
Aetherion Academy.
The first alarm rang too late.
The sky above the academy darkened as massive shadows tore through the upper wards, shrieks rippling across the city perimeter. Defensive arrays flared instantly—teachers and elders reacting on instinct, moving to contain the threat before civilians could even comprehend what was happening.
"Elder teams, perimeter containment!"
"Professors—students into the inner sanctum, now!"
The academy moved like a war machine.
Exactly as Kyaset intended.
While every protector was pulled outward—
The knife slid inward.
Lysera felt it before it happened.
Not danger.
Absence.
Her perception skipped.
The world didn't fade—it rewrote itself in real time. The courtyard twisted into a false horizon, colors flattening, sound muting. Her systems screamed warnings as illusion layers stacked over one another, each calibrated to sever judgment, emotion, identity.
Break the anchor, a foreign will whispered.
She will fold.
Lysera staggered.
For the first time since awakening—
She couldn't tell what was real.
Arios moved instantly.
He didn't think.
Didn't analyze.
He felt her slip.
His hand caught her wrist, grounding her as the fragment of the mastered White surged through his veins—not erupting, but stabilizing reality around them like a fixed point existence could not ignore.
"Lysera," he said sharply. "Look at me."
The illusion fractured.
Not shattered—rejected.
Lysera gasped as perception snapped back into place, crimson eyes flaring as judgment reasserted itself. She turned just in time to see the intruder step fully into reality.
A Kyaset operative.
Masked.
Temporal distortion rippling around his limbs.
Confidence already cracking.
"Tch," the intruder muttered. "Interference…?"
Arios stepped forward.
His sword cleared its sheath.
The air bent.
A whisper of the White slid along the blade—not destructive, not overwhelming—inevitable.
"How dare you," Arios said quietly, voice steady with a fury far older than his age, "try to take my sister."
The intruder's eyes widened.
Arios raised his sword.
"Void Slash."
He brought it down.
The slash did not travel.
It arrived.
Space folded inward as the void sought its target across all valid positions. Retreat failed. Distance failed. Time failed.
The intruder barely managed, "Not—good—"
And then—
He was erased.
No explosion.
No scream.
Just absence where he had stood.
Lysera stared.
So did the wind.
Far away, Fein felt it.
The connection severed violently.
His expression twisted—not in shock, but in pure irritation.
"Useless," he snapped. "I should have gone myself."
Time compressed.
And Fein descended.
The moment Fein manifested over the academy, reality strained.
Not breaking.
Bowing.
Arios felt it like a weight pressing against his spine. Lysera's system flared, recalculating survival odds as time itself bent around the intruder's arrival.
Fein smiled.
"So," he said pleasantly, eyes locked on the twins, "the heirs stand together."
He stepped forward.
"Come quietly," Fein continued. "You'll live longer."
The world froze.
A hand clamped around Fein's wrist.
Old.
Steady.
Unyielding.
Fein turned.
Principal Philis Evongoth stood beside him, cane in one hand, the other gripping Fein with strength that did not belong to age.
"I have nothing to do with you, old man," Fein said coldly. "Don't rush your death."
Philis slammed his cane into the ground.
The sound echoed like a verdict.
He opened his eyes.
And the academy stopped.
Wind ceased.
Monsters froze mid-roar.
Time itself held its breath.
"It's best you leave now, Fein," Philis said calmly. "We both know if I release my energy here… you won't leave in one piece."
Fein clicked his tongue.
"No use threatening—"
Philis released a fraction of his aura.
The pressure descended like a collapsing sky.
Fein's smile vanished.
"…Tch."
He tore free, retreating backward through warped space.
"Count your time, old man," Fein said darkly. "This is not over."
And he vanished.
Silence reclaimed the academy.
Slowly, motion returned.
Arios lowered his sword.
Lysera exhaled.
Philis did not turn around immediately.
But when he did, his gaze lingered on the twins far longer than before.
The war had crossed a line.
And now—
Everyone knew it.