Ethan found Prince Alexander in the Academy chapel.
The prince knelt before the altar, hands clasped. Morning light filtered through stained glass, painting his golden hair in shades of blue and red. He looked younger somehow. Fragile.
Human.
"I know you're there," Alexander said without turning around.
Ethan stepped from the doorway into the chapel proper. His footsteps echoed off stone walls. "Your Highness."
"Just Alexander. Please." The prince's voice was strained. "I need... I need to talk to someone who might understand."
This is it. His moment of clarity.
Ethan moved closer but kept his distance. Alexander's violet eyes had been pure black too many times recently. "Understand what?"
"The voices." Alexander's hands trembled. "They're getting stronger. I can feel myself disappearing."
The words were a surprise to Ethan. In his original life, Alexander had never reached out for help. Never admitted the voices existed. He'd suffered alone until Vexus consumed him completely.
"How long?" Ethan asked.
"Months. Maybe longer." Alexander finally turned. His violet eyes were his own, but exhaustion lined his face. "At first, it was just whispers. Suggestions. Now it's... more."
"What does it want?"
"Everything." Alexander's laugh was bitter. "My body. My mind. My soul. It promises power, but I can feel the hunger underneath. It wants to use me to hurt people."
Ethan sat on the bench behind Alexander. Close enough to help, far enough to run if needed. "Has it succeeded? Hurt people through you?"
"Not yet. But yesterday..." Alexander's voice dropped to a whisper. "Yesterday I almost struck a servant girl. She spilled wine on my sleeve and I felt this rage. Not mine. Something else's."
The possession is accelerating.
"Tell me about the voice," Ethan said. "What does it sound like?"
"Like me, but wrong. It knows things I don't. Speaks languages I've never learned." Alexander gripped the prayer rail. "Sometimes I wake up and hours have passed. I don't remember what happened."
Lost time. Memory gaps. Classic signs of demonic possession advancing to the next stage.
"Alexander," Ethan said carefully. "Have you told anyone else about this?"
"Who would believe me? My father thinks I'm stressed from Academy life. The healers say it's normal for someone my age." Alexander turned to face him. "But you believe me. I can see it in your eyes."
Because I've seen this before. Watched it destroy you.
"I believe you," Ethan said. "And I think I can help."
Hope flickered across Alexander's features. "How?"
"Meditation techniques. Ways to strengthen your mental barriers. My... my father taught me some methods." Another lie, but necessary. "For dealing with stress and pressure."
The truth was more complex. In his original life, Master Donovan had taught these techniques to resistance fighters. Ways to resist magical influence and mental intrusion. They wouldn't stop a demon lord, but they might slow the process.
"You'd do that? Help me?"
"Yes."
Alexander's relief was visible. For the first time in months, he looked like the prince Ethan remembered from before. Noble. Kind. Worth saving.
"When can we start?"
**********
They met in secret over the next week. Empty classrooms. Unused corners of the library. Places where a prince and a commoner could talk without drawing attention.
Ethan taught Alexander breathing exercises first. Simple techniques to calm the mind and strengthen focus. Then visualization methods - building mental walls, creating safe spaces in his thoughts.
The prince was a quick learner. Desperate motivation made him absorb every lesson.
"Focus on your breathing," Ethan said during their fifth session. "Count each breath. When the voice speaks, acknowledge it but don't engage. Let it pass through like wind."
Alexander's eyes were closed, face peaceful for once. "It's working. The whispers are... quieter."
For three days, it seemed like a miracle.
Alexander attended classes normally. Smiled at other students. Even laughed at Kaleb's jokes during combat training. The violet in his eyes stayed clear and bright.
Ethan allowed himself to hope.
Maybe this time I can save him. Maybe the techniques will be enough.
He should have known better.
**********
The Autumn Feast was Academy tradition. Students and faculty gathered in the Great Hall to celebrate the changing season.
Ethan sat with Maya and Kaleb at a Silver section table. Even here, they were watched. Lydia had joined their alliance three days ago, and her presence at their table drew curious stares.
"He's been better," Maya observed, nodding toward the Gold section where Prince Alexander sat with other nobles.
She was right. Alexander looked relaxed. Present. He participated in conversations and actually seemed to enjoy himself.
"The meditation techniques are working," Ethan said quietly.
"For now," Lydia added. Her amber eyes were worried. "But suppression isn't the same as cure. The demon is still there, waiting."
As if summoned by her words, Alexander suddenly went rigid.
His violet eyes flickered. For a moment they stayed normal, then began to darken at the edges.
"No," Alexander whispered. The word carried across the hall despite the noise. "Not here. Not now."
Other students began to notice. Conversations died as attention focused on the prince's table.
Alexander's hands gripped the edge of the table. His knuckles went white. "Get away from me," he said to the students sitting nearby. "All of you, get away."
"Your Highness?" Cassia Flameheart reached toward him. "Are you…"
Alexander's backhand sent her flying.
The Great Hall erupted in shrieks.
Alexander stood slowly. His eyes were completely black now. When he spoke, his voice trembled.
"Such lovely little lambs," the thing wearing Alexander's face said. "So full of life. So easy to break."
Students scrambled away from the Gold section. Chairs overturned. Plates shattered on stone floors.
"Guards!" Professor Thorne shouted from the faculty table. But his voice carried satisfaction rather than alarm.
He's pleased. The shadow cult wanted this to happen.
Alexander - no, Vexus - turned toward the fleeing students. Shadows erupted from his skin like smoke. They reached for the nearest targets with hunger that made the air itself scream.
A Bronze section girl tripped in her panic. The shadows wrapped around her ankle, dragging her back toward certain death.
Ethan moved without thinking.
His fragment pulsed against his ribs as power flowed through him. The world slowed. His enhanced reflexes carried him across the hall in heartbeats.
He caught the girl just before the shadows could claim her, rolling them both away from Vexus's reach.
"Well, well," the demon said through Alexander's mouth. "The anomaly reveals himself at last."
Months of careful hiding, blown in an instant.
Every eye in the hall turned to Ethan. Students who'd watched him grow taller overnight. The faculty who'd suspected his true nature. All of them seeing him move with inhuman speed and precision.
"Fascinating," Professor Thorne murmured. "Simply fascinating."
Vexus laughed. The sound shattered the remaining wine glasses and made several students collapse. "Did you think your little meditation tricks would stop me? I am wrath itself. I am the fury that burns worlds."
More shadows poured from Alexander's form. They reached for other students, hungry for pain and terror.
Ethan drew the Kingmaker Blade fragment.
Silver light blazed through the Great Hall. The fragment had grown since he claimed it, fed by his life force and desperate need. Now it resembled a proper sword hilt with six inches of gleaming blade.
"Impossible," Vexus hissed. "That weapon was destroyed."
"Just a fragment," Ethan said. Power aged him with each word, but students were dying. "But enough."
He moved forward, fragment blazing like a star. Each step cost him weeks of life, but the shadows recoiled from its light.
"You cannot save them all," Vexus said. "I will take this body. I will use it to open the gates. And when my brothers walk this world again, your precious world will burn."
The demon raised Alexander's hand. Dark energy gathered around his fingers, promising death.
Ethan tensed, ready to pay whatever price was necessary.
Then Maya stepped beside him, her staff fragment blazing with pure white light.
"He's not alone," she said.
Kaleb appeared on his other side, practice sword raised despite the futility. "We stand together."
Even Lydia moved forward, fire magic crackling around her fingers.
For a moment, hope flickered in the Great Hall.
Then Vexus smiled with Alexander's face.
"How touching," the demon said. "But far too late."
The shadows exploded outward like a bomb.
And in the chaos that followed, Prince Alexander Valorian disappeared.