Aden stood in the middle of the bloody clearing, chest heaving, sword still dripping.
He was completely surrounded.
Twenty academy guard corps formed a tight circle around him, weapons drawn, faces pale under the moonlight. Their eyes kept flicking to the corpses — torn apart, guts spilled, heads missing. Then back to him.
A 16-year-old kid in a blood-soaked red Vasco robe, covered head to toe in someone else's blood and his own.
The sight was terrifying.
This was exactly how the book said it would go. If they took him in now, trial, framing, execution — his fate was sealed.
He was on his last straw. Body shaking. Core screaming from the forced aura. Legs barely holding him up.
The captain of the guard stepped forward, voice tight but trying to sound calm.
"Drop your weapon, Vasco!"
"Stand down!"
"Let's not do anything rash here…"
They were scared shitless. And why wouldn't they be? They just walked in on a kid who solo'd eight trained assassins from The Public, ripping them apart like it was nothing. To them, he was still Lucius Aden Von Vasco — strongest heir among the great houses, son of Duke Ed Vasco, the Monarch of Death himself.
No one wanted to be the first to move.
Aden's mind raced.
He didn't want this. Didn't want to become the monster they already thought he was.
But surrendering meant dying according to the book's script.
He had pushed his body way past its limit tonight — aura and that tiny bit of mana he accidentally touched earlier. Everything hurt. Breathing hurt. Thinking hurt.
There was only one way out.
Kill them all and run.
As much as he hated it… that was the only path left.
Aden slowly raised his sword into the most famous Vasco stance — Dawn of Life. The offensive form that signaled the start of a massacre. His red robe fluttered slightly in the night wind, blood still dripping from the hem.
The guards visibly flinched. Several took half a step back. Sweat rolled down their faces even in the cold air.
The captain's voice cracked a little. "Vasco… don't. We don't want to do this."
Aden didn't reply. His eyes were cold, sword steady despite the tremors in his arms.
The standoff stretched.
Every guard gripped their weapons tighter, ready for the bloodbath that was about to start.
Then —
A bright white light erupted in the sky right above the clearing.
The voice transmission thundered through the trees like thunder.
In the next breath, a figure materialized in a swirl of mana right at the edge of the clearing — opposite to where Aden was standing.
Lana Ares, the newly appointed Archmage and headmistress of Grieckel Academy, had arrived.
She took in the carnage with one sharp glance: bodies torn apart, blood soaking the ground, and the lone blood-covered figure in the red Vasco robe holding the Dawn of Life stance.
The entire forest went dead silent.