The first order of business was contacting Veric.

Me: Hey. Can I ask a favor?

Veric: What’s up?

So responsive.

Me: Could you visit Cynara at 105 Veratrum Row after school? At four?

Me: Tell her I want any of my stuff that’s still there.

Me: Also… I’d appreciate it if you could check in on how she’s doing, when you see her.

Veric: Did something happen?

Me: Well, it’s probably nothing to worry about… but we don’t really have a relationship where we talk about things. 

Me: I’d feel a lot better knowing you planned to go.

Since the Duval family relationships were so tangled and Veric already believed all kinds of nonsense about my secretly soft heart or something, I was quite confident that this series of messages would make her conjure up all kinds of things in her head.

Veric: Got it. I’ll let you know how things go today. 

Me: Thank you.

Good. Now to arrange everything else. 

I went to the costume store and found the same mask as in my dreams. It was made of a synthetic material that felt too cold and hard to be plastic, but too flexible to be glass. There was a hood of flexible black cloth attached to its back to help conceal hair and skin, coming down to cover the neck, too. It, and the other white masks on that rack, had temporary patterns drawn on them in a black ink that was easily wiped off. The sign on the rack read: 

PLEASE DO NOT WIPE OFF THE INK BEFORE BUYING.

We advise you to replace the patterns as soon as possible to avoid uninvited guests.

**Keep a blank mask at your own risk. **

[Deceiver] didn’t have any patterns in its mask form, so I didn’t really understand the danger, but I figured it was better to respect local practices. I assembled my costume in the dressing room, took it off, and reproduced it with [Honest Man’s Deception] before wiping the ink off my copy of the mask. After confirming that everything was in order, I dismissed the disguise, put the shop’s black cape and mask back into place, and left the shop. 

When the time came, I headed up towards the neighborhood of Veratrum Row, to the hiding place in the park that had served me so well in both my usages of [Bound Prophet]. Up in the tree branches, I leaned against the trunk and brought out [Incarnation] to surveil the area.

Among the members of the Silver Wing, Javier Baschet, Yugrazal Kamara, Nastaran Farzan, and Mehran Sattari were all in their residences. Xander Morgan was unsurprisingly absent. Cynara and Linden weren’t here.

Now I just needed to wait for Veric’s arrival.

Soon enough, I found her perspective entering my sensing range, confirmed through the eyes of the other people in the area.

So that was completely according to plan.

The only thing bothering me was the identity of the person whose eyes I’d used to confirm her presence there.

Hey, Veric, I’d implied through my messages that this matter was super personal, right? So you should’ve known to keep it discreet, right?

So why the hell did you bring Luka along?

Maybe he’d been busy yesterday, which was why he hadn’t been around in the visions that took place that day. But today was a new day, and my last vision hadn’t explicitly shown how things would go during the attack.

Ugh, I felt like an idiot for not just going through with the plan yesterday afternoon if I’d seen it worked. Just because I wanted to terrorize more people…

Too late to change my decision, though. Once you started riding the tiger, you could only see it through. And besides… hadn’t my last vision confirmed that I’d pull it off, somehow? I just needed to act with some sense. 

I placed [Honest Man’s Deception] on my face, changed into my disguise, and left my hiding place for Veratrum Row. Under the influence of the net amulet produced by my World Proof, I could see the ribbons of the sacrificial flow frame weaving through the air.

I raised my arms and grabbed the nearest ribbon, sending a wave of red energy into it. Under my influence, it fanned out into a hazy sheet that intersected with other flows in the area, through which my red energy could be transmitted.

With a thought, I sent all the force I could muster through those ribbons.

The wind howled and tore through the street with a scream. Every window on the block shattered. Glass rained down to the ground.

I raised my arm, pulled at the gradients of moisture hanging like curtains in the sky, and squeezed my hands together. Clouds gathered overhead, condensing to a dark and stormy gray. With my other arm, I reached for the flows of water I could feel flowing through the underground pipes and pulled with all my strength. The pipes burst; the entrances to the sewers were blown into the air. Transparent barriers flickered only to collapse as the surrounding infrastructure was blasted apart. Jetstreams of pressurized water knocked down fences and walls like chaff in the wind.

Servants and security guards were swept out by the currents, frantically grabbing onto floating debris in the water. I saw Mehran leap out a window and float precariously over the water like a leaf in the gale.

“Mehran!” Nastaran shouted, poking her head out from the window of a nearby building. She waved her hand frantically. “Help me out! I’ll pay you back!”

Mehran only hesitated a moment before steering himself over. I grabbed a nearby ribbon of wind and sent down a pulse of crimson red. The wind roared, flinging Mehran through the broken remains of Nastaran’s window in a shower of glass and blood. Nastaran shrieked and quickly ducked out of sight.

Farther down the street, a mage in a long green robe had manifested a floating boat outside a manor window. He held a glowing staff in one hand, warily pointed in my direction; with the other hand, he guided Javier Baschet on board. Javier hadn’t had time to put on his glasses, and his long green hair was coming undone from its ponytail. With a gesture of the hand, I sent a wave of wind and water crashing towards their boat. Javier flinched, raising his arms to cover his head, as the mage threw up a barrier to protect the boat. The force of the rising water smashed against the barrier and sent the boat careening far and away. 

No need to chase them. Instead, I looked at Yugrazal Kamara, who was emerging from the front doors of her manor with a spear in hand. It had a shaft of ebony wood and a spearhead of bone. A sinister purple light arose around her, and a ghostly horse appeared by her side. Hung around its neck was a rattling bell upon an iron chain. The water I sent their way passed through them like phantoms. Yugrazal’s eyes were dark, expectant. Slowly, she began walking my way.

Unfortunately for her, she wouldn’t be the first person to reach me.

The eyes of all the draconic gargoyles and reliefs in the area flashed blue. Above us, the sky split open.

Principal Crescent Sun appeared in the air above me, radiating such an intense pressure it was difficult to breathe. Her eyes crackled with light as she held her hand out towards me.

Hastily, I wove a breeze to carry my voice to her. My throat was dry. Still, I made sure to pitch my voice lower and change its timbre.

“I have a message for the Great Dragon. Will you hear me out?”

With a flick of her hand, space refracted around me, and I found myself held helplessly in the air before her. A heavy pressure squeezed my whole body until I could barely move.

Principal Sun tilted her head as she sized me up, then lifted her lip in a contemptuous curl.

“What could some insignificant dreg like you possibly have that is worthwhile to say?”

But at least, her hand wasn’t around my throat.

I swallowed, hoping my disguise would hide the movement, and spoke.

“Don’t you think it would feel good to deal Iyiria’s nobles a big blow, just once?”

Principal Sun’s mouth smoothed out into a neutral line. She narrowed her eyes without saying another word. Even though I wasn’t manipulating it anymore, the wind and rain around us screamed.

I pressed on with the words I’d memorized from my second vision.

“One of the Saintess candidates, Verica, was targeted by unknown enemies during a recent trip. Now the nobles want to swallow up the Dragon Shrine under the guise of ‘protecting’ it. But what if Verica protects them from that very same threat? In addition to helping her position in the Shrine… Don’t you think it would throw those noble bastards’ plans into disarray?”

The blinding glow from Principal Sun’s eyes was dimming, enough that I could make out her pupils again.

“Why should the Dragon care about the petty affairs of mortals?”

“It doesn’t have to,” I said. “But I think if Verica was the Saintess, she’d care about the Dragon’s happiness more than anyone else would. So, for the Great Dragon’s happiness… how about we smash this place up a little until the ‘hero’ arrives?”

Principal Sun stared at me for an excruciatingly long moment before her lips curved into a foreboding smile.

“How fascinatingly sincere you are on such a strange proposal. Impersonate the Order, hurt the nobles, and help the Dragon Shrine, all at once. And why would you want that? Who are you?”

She reached out with one hand, touching my mask.

In my second vision, I’d used my World Proof to swap to another identity before she could take it off. She hadn’t been able to dispel its power, just as her blessing couldn’t reveal my base form in KP-04. Still, it had exposed my ability to disguise myself. I wanted to avoid that this time.

“Madam Principal,” I said, “even if you take that mask off, as long as I’m not willing, you’ll never see my true face.”

Principal Sun’s fingers came to a standstill upon the mask. Her eyes flashed blue.

“Are you an agent of Lemiria? The Saivanad Empire? The Tizemitian Federation? Hmm… Iyiria itself? The Saintess? The Great Dragon? Or… it is truly just affection for that girl, Veric? — Ahah.”

She laughed, mirthful and cruel.

“How cute. For her to have such a good friend at her age. Very well. On behalf of the Great Dragon, I accept.”

Even without rummaging through my head as roughly as in the first vision, I guess she still retained some way of skimming through my mind. Should I be grateful that she seemed less inclined to use that mind-bending power if her identity wasn’t directly exposed?

Principal Sun lifted her head towards the sky. Heedless of my previous efforts to summon the storm, a gap opened in the clouds, letting through a piercing ray of sunlight that enshrouded me in a golden halo. The raindrops around us glinted as they reflected the light.

Then, from beyond the clouds, a golden sword strike cleaved through the sky with such great force it momentarily cleared the rain. 

Struck by that sword, Principal Sun let out a snarl as she was thrown back. She slammed into the crumbling roof of a nearby building. She staggered back to her feet and faced me down as if seeing a great foe.

“A secret art of the Temple Knights?” she shouted. Her voice rang unimpeded by the violent storm around us. “Who, exactly, are you?!”

She hadn’t released the force keeping me suspended in the air. It spun me around to face her. It also let up enough that I could finally gesture more freely.

Since the Dragon of Sorrow was helping me set the stage so well, then I had to do my part.

Under the gazes of everyone below, I spread my arms out and let out a low, contemptuous laugh.

“Do you not know what the Order of the Black Sun stands for? How could the Temple Knights be a fit steward for such precious knowledge? Today, you, the Dragon Shrine, and the so-called nobles of Iyiria shall behold what happens to those who stand in the way of my ideals!”

From the sunlight pouring down, lions and horses with sun-like rays for manes materialized with eyes blazing. They let out silent roars and charged down, catching fleeing stragglers in their fangs or trampling them underfoot with their hooves. Mehran and Nastaran were dragged out of their hiding places; Yugrazal, now mounted upon her ghostly horse, fled the area as she was pursued by a horde of beasts.

“A paltry secret society such as yours will never be enough to defeat the Great Dragon,” Principal Sun declared.

“Oh?” I sneered. “But can you be so confident about those laughable noble scions cowering behind you now? If the next generation of power is cut down to the root, how can Iyiria possibly protect the Dragon Shrine from hidden blades?”

Principal Sun lifted her hands. A flickering white star appeared between them, expanding, gathering motes of light, until it was akin to a burning moon in a galaxy.

“The noble families have never been necessary to protect what must be protected.”

She tossed the star up into the air. The galaxy around it expanded, and the stars within fell towards the golden beasts like a miniature meteor shower. The two forces clashed in a perfectly choreographed struggle.

Thanks to my vision, I had a bit of an idea of what she wanted to next, so I decided to help her set the stage.

“Oh, Principal Sun, how very noble it is to step forward to protect the people. But did you really think that I, knowing a Myth-rank resided in the city, would foolishly step forth alone?”

As Principal Sun narrowed her eyes, I lifted one hand to point at the sky.

Right on my cue, the gap in the clouds widened. A colossal sword of light was forming in the air. Seven disembodied hands grasped the hilt; seven stars rotated behind it like a halo of the sun. The rain falling around us, catching the light in their mirror-like surfaces, turned to liquid gold.

Principal Sun’s mouth parted in shock.

“Is that… But no, why would it be…!”

Maybe this sword symbolized a lot more than just “something that looked really cool.”

With a grim expression, the principal leaped up into the air once again, surrounding herself with a blue glow.

“For a Myth-level power to descend without first paying respects to our Council of Myths? You really have no respect for Iyiria’s sovereignty at all. Come! Let me see what gives you the confidence to appear before me today!”

The sword flared incandescent white, and it descended to meet the principal’s attack with a calamitous cry.

In the ensuing shockwave, the galaxy-like barrier she’d put up earlier dissipated like smoke. Without anything to apparently hold them back, the golden beasts she’d summoned started running rampant once again. In the sky above, Principal Sun “fought” a fierce battle against the golden sword, looking for all the world like she couldn’t spare even a moment of attention to protect the people below any longer. The force from their clashes rang deafeningly through the air.

Contrary to the apparent desperation of that struggle, the force holding me aloft gracefully lowered me down with all the ease of brushing dust off the table. It set me down on the lip of a crumbling roof, where I had a birds-eye view of the havoc that the principal was wreaking on the neighborhood.

Whatever grudge Crescent Sun had, she didn’t just limit it to Veratrum Row. Independent of my flow-weaving, the storm was increasing in fervor. Wind and rain sliced through the air like knives. Ornamental trees were uprooted from the once-sculpted landscape, smashing wildly into surrounding structures before tumbling away with the water. The areas downhill of us were flooding so fast that people were clinging to chimneys to resist being swept away.

Yugrazal was nowhere in sight; she must have escaped on her ghostly steed. I didn’t see anyone else left in the neighborhood, either — no one, that is, except Mehran and Nastaran, clinging on for dear life to a chunk of rubble in the middle of the flooded street. The floodwaters sent waves crashing over their soaked and pitiful forms. The golden beasts under Crescent Sun’s command circled about, menacing them whenever they attempted to make a move.

Nastaran had moved behind Mehran, shrinking back so that he was directly between her and me. Mehran didn’t seem very happy about that. Nonetheless, he squinted his eyes against the wind to look up at me, raising his voice to shout.

“What do you intend to do with us?”

Was that the euphemistic way of asking why the principal’s beasts had only driven them to misery and not death?

I laughed lowly.

“Today, I want a true spectacle to unfold.”

Though right now, aside from my use of the sacrificial flow frame to point fingers straight back at the Order, this show was basically Principal Sun’s one-person arrangement.

Then, in the distance, I sensed it. A disturbance in the flow.

Darting uphill and against the current, a blue streak cut through the water, leaving a wake of frothing white behind it to dissolve into the flood.

The phantom of a serpentine dragon leaped out of the water and landed on the rubble beside Mehran and Nastaran, revealing Veric’s figure within. Her long bangs fluttered in the wind, revealing the magenta teardrop mark on her forehead now blazing with light.

With all the unyielding spirit of a knight undertaking an oath, she dropped to one knee and clasped her hands in prayer.

“O lady of sorrows! Hear my cry! Grant protection to those who need it most!”

A swirling barrier of blue materialized around Mehran and Nastaran, pushing the beasts around them away. They slowed down, circling around the barrier like hunters eyeing their prey.

I did a quick scan for Luka, who was nowhere in sight, and tilted my head down to meet Veric’s determined expression. Had she left him behind to help other people impacted by the attack?

“What’s this?” I said. “The ultimate objective has delivered herself right to my doorstep. Did you feel like playing the hero today?”

Veric set her mouth in a firm line. 

“If you couldn’t defeat me in KP-04,” she said, “then you definitely can’t defeat me today.”

Yeah, it was hard to fight someone who was endlessly regenerated by water when they were in the middle of a huge storm. And that was even before getting to her dragon phantom or the new tricks she’d shown in the exam…

But I’d basically come here today to get beaten by her like a dog, so there was nothing for it.

It was just that Principal Sun had put me up on this roof and I didn’t know how to get down without showing my extremely identifiable wings or doing an undignified, character-breaking climb down the side of the building, so I guess I had to provoke her to come to me.

“Then let’s see how capable you really are,” I said, reaching out for the flowing ribbons around me.

First, I diverted the flood around Veric, a perfect spot of protected land in the middle of the flood. Had to make it look like an enemy trying to deprive her of her strengths, after all. Then, I tried weaving a crude wind barrier to keep the rain from falling near her. 

But Veric didn’t wait for me. I felt a resistant force against my flow-weaving, and then the floodwaters tore out of the path I’d constructed for them. The waters swirled around Veric and lifted her up in a great wave. A flick of the dragon phantom’s tail, and she leaped from the crest of the wave onto the roof where I was standing.

As she straightened up, she curled her hands into fists. Wickedly long claws emerged from the dragon phantom overlaying them. She glared at me, stepping forward with such unyielding will that I couldn’t help but take a step back.

“Your Order killed too many innocent people,” she said. “I won’t let you do the same today.”

With that, she attacked.

I guess the principal was keeping an eye on the situation, because she helped me look at least like I was attempting to put up a fight. As I scrambled away from Veric to the other side of the crumbling roof, golden beasts leaped up to stand in her way. The principal didn’t go easy on her, either; they dogpiled her to such an extent that I could see their claws and hooves drawing blood.

But Veric, undaunted, pushed through them with a roar. The long, serpentine tail of her dragon phantom lashed out like a whip, sweeping the beasts away like so many leaves in the wind. In just a few bounds, she’d cornered me on the edge of the roof.

Hastily, I coated my arm in aura underneath my cloak and brought it up to block Veric’s first blow. The force rattled my bones. Her second blow tore through the black cloak I was wearing, and her third one drew blood from my side as I ducked under her arm and backed away from the edge of the roof.

My retreat was interrupted by the dragon tail that came whipping for my head, and I was forced to do a sorry roll to the side. Veric’s fist smashed down on the clay tiles next to me, sending shrapnel flying everywhere, and I was only saved from her aggressive onslaught by a fresh wave of golden beasts launching themselves at her form. 

Had she always been this strong, or was it just that I’d never fought her at full force in close combat like this?

Golden light burst in the sky above us, bright as the sun. A moment later, it faded. I glanced up to see a huge hole torn through the storm clouds, revealing the bright blue sky behind it. The mysterious sword summoned by the principal had shattered, its mirror-like shards dissipating into the air.

Okay. That was a good signal to retreat, right? 

As if following my thoughts, a last surge of golden beasts materialized around me, rushing at Veric like a last-ditch attempt to hold her off.

Taking the opportunity that the principal had given me, I reached into my cloak and grabbed the Five Elements Escape Talisman. As I let go of the sacrificial flow frame and focused on the talisman’s use, the storm and wind around us calmed down a bit, and a warm current of energy flowed forth from behind my navel and into the yellow paper in my grasp.

“You may have gained the advantage today,” I snarled, “but don’t think you’ve seen the last of me…!”

The shadows in the area darkened without any change in light. [Inevitable Survivor] flared so hot on my neck it burned.

Faster than I could think, my body reacted, throwing itself to the side.

A burst of pain bloomed from underneath my collarbone. I stared dumbly at the familiar black sword jutting out from my chest. 

There was dark and assimilating energy spreading from the blade into my body. I’d felt it before. It was just like the visual catastrophe in KP-04.

Luka planted his foot in the small of my back and ripped his sword out in a bloody spray. I stumbled away and collapsed, sprawling limply away. As my breath stuttered, the flow of energy in my body did, too, but I held onto the escape talisman somehow, scraping my knuckles against the roof. 

Beyond the cavalcade of golden beasts, Veric raised one hand up to the sky. A ray of pale light pierced through the remaining storm clouds to clothe her in a radiant halo, and she brought her arm down like an executioner’s blade, pointing straight at me. 

“Seal!”

I flinched away. 

However, it wasn’t me that she sealed— 

But the talisman in my hand. 

A thin layer of blue light wrapped around it like a film, and the flow of energy I’d been struggling to circulate was instantly cut off. 

Fuck. 

This hadn’t happened in my second vision. Was it because Luka had bought her time to react to my attempted escape? This damn bastard…! 

If I revealed my identity to them here, it would surely bring them pause. But if I did… then wouldn’t all this effort have been for nothing? 

As I coughed up blood into my mask, another wave of golden beasts condensed out of the light and charged at Luka and Veric, driving them back. 

A cool voice spoke into my ear. 

“You’ve miscalculated badly, little imposter. But since I’m pleased with today’s results… let me give you a hand this time.” 

The remaining storm clouds thickened and turned black. Rain began pouring down harder than ever. 

Each drop of water was like a tiny mirror catching the light. Like pearls of gold, they reflected the yellow talisman materializing in the air in front of me now, a perfect replica of the one Veric had just sealed away. 

“Take it,” said Principal Sun’s voice.

My breath rattled as I pushed myself up to my knees. Pain radiated through my chest, lancing along my spine. 

With my free hand, I reached out and grabbed the materialized talisman. I didn’t feel a single iota of energy stir. Nonetheless, I squeezed. 

Space refracted around me in a chaotic burst. There was the principal in the sky, looking down at me with burning eyes. There was light pouring down alongside the rain, millions of glittering facets reflecting space. There was Mehran and Nastaran, absent the barrier that had been protecting them, steadying each other in the subsiding flood as they gazed up at Veric’s radiant silhouette. There was a broken shadow tracing itself through each shard. 

More chaotically than any gaze broken by the Kaleidoscope, the refractions around me spun and turned upside down. The landscape shifted. 

And just like that, Principal Sun sent me away.

Chapter 61 Back to Index