The echoes of shattered glass and thundering curses do not vanish when the arena doors close. They sink into the stone, bleeding into the very foundation of the complex until even the quietest corridors smell of scorched ivy and iron. Some victories leave no banners, no cheers, and no triumph. They leave only the drag of tired boots across cold floors, a broken strategist carried on the shoulders of those who refuse to let him fall, and an icy realization that the board has shifted forever. The Faculty Masters played their hands, Pandora’s Box devoured its host, and the line between a trial and an execution was erased in a single night of demonic lightning. Now, as the complex stands paralyzed in the wake of the disaster, the storm retreats into the silence of the infirmary. But in a world ruled by ancient grudges and shifting godarches, even rest is merely an illusion before the next wave crashes down.
The floor beneath his feet did not exist.
“Silarias.”
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere at once within the suffocating, bottomless dark where his own breathing sounded far too loud and far too close.
“Silarias. Can you hear us?”
Freya.
A fierce, pale flash of light tore through the void. For a split second he saw a contour, an outstretched hand, lips moving at blinding speed. The words all reached him at once, slamming like a savage wave against the inside of his skull and vanishing before he could catch even one.
Then came Frey.
Then Odr.
Their voices slid in a chaotic spiral over each other, distorted by a constant shock pulse of unknown information.
“You must…”
“…listen…”
“…not yet…”
A sharp, severing pain rammed through his forehead. Silarias wanted to raise his arms, to grab his temples, but he could not even feel his hands.
Images crashed with the force of a lightning strike through his consciousness.
Golden light.
A face hidden behind a veil of shadow.
Stones melting away beneath his feet.
Too fast.
It was moving way too fast.
“I…”
His voice was no more than a hoarse, muffled echo.
“Wait…”
The void contracted convulsively. Two raw, monumental voices broke through it with brutal force.
“WAKE UP, YOUNG MASTER!”
The shout smashed with such destructive power through his mind that the darkness shattered into a million pieces.
Bansadarius.
Lucifer.
“WE HAVE WORK TO DO!”
The stone floor of the arena rushed up at him. Faustus lay there, motionless, while black condensation crept across the broken tiles. Silarias wanted to storm toward him, but a massive carbon hand grabbed him by the chest plate. Metal shrieked. His back slammed against the invisible walls of Pandora’s Box.
“This is not reality, my brother!” Lucifer’s voice roared deep inside his head, far away, as if shouting from the other side of a castle wall. “Silarias! Pull yourself together!”
A black arm shot through the glass.
Nyx was lifted off the ground. Her feet flailed through the air. Then she hit the stones.
The impact tore straight through his own soul.
“NYX!”
Silarias lunged forward. His hands morphed into monstrous claws. The plates around his chest warped as something glowing from within rammed against his ribs.
He saw her lying there.
Motionless.
Everything standing between them had to die.
“STOP!” roared Lucifer.
The arena tilted. The stands folded over one another like waves of stone and thousands of faces melted together. A walking stick spun through the dust.
Tap.
His arm refused.
Tap.
His legs stiffened.
Tap.
Standing before him was Leonardo.
Unafraid.
“Rest, my child…”
A hand approached his forehead.
“NatureNull.”
Pain.
It was as if every nerve in his body was set on fire at the exact same moment.
The arena vanished.
A warm hand rested against his cheek.
“You must grow stronger.”
A woman.
Her voice was soft, but the weight squeezed his chest so hard he forgot to breathe.
“Wait…”
The hand slid away.
“No. Wait. Who…”
A goat drifted upside down past him.
Silarias froze in the void. The animal lazily moved its legs through space, its mouth opened, and a hoarse, almost human laughter rolled through the darkness.
Silarias stared after it in utter astonishment.
“…what?”
“THE WHOLE barrel?!”
The goat vanished instantly.
A fierce streak of light burned straight through his closed eyelids.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU GAVE HIM THE WHOLE barrel?!”
A loud clack of glass on stone echoed. Somewhere right beside him, a chair scraped aside.
Silarias tried to open his eyes, but his body felt completely shattered and put back together the wrong way.
“But…” came Nyx’s voice.
His heart made a wild lunge against his ribs.
Nyx.
She was here.
“You gave me that leaf! And that barrel…”
“You were supposed to put that barrel down!” snapped another, unfamiliar voice.
Silarias forced one eye open.
Warm, diffused light poured through high windows. Pale, luminous roots crawled along a vaulted stone ceiling above him. Small crystals hung from copper holders, lighting up in a rhythmic pulse. In the corners of the room floated translucent gem screens full of pulsing rune graphs, magical vital stats constantly shifting in shape and form.
On the wooden tables and windowsills around the bed sat an unusually large number of woven baskets stacked high, overflowing with fresh fruit, healing elixirs, magical herbs, and personal get-well cards from various alliances.
He was lying in a bed. A heavy blanket covered his lower body, and a translucent thread ran from his arm to a polished crystal pulsing violently.
“There was a scroll on top of it,” the strange woman said sternly.
On the other side of the bed stood Nyx. Her black hair was tied in a chaotic cloud, dark circles under her eyes. She clutched an empty wooden barrel tightly. Just a single moist green crumb fell out of it, hitting the stone floor with a soft tick.
The woman facing her, the healer Rapha, looked at the crumb, and then at Nyx.
“One piece,” she said ice-cold. “From a single leaf.”
The red on Nyx’s cheeks drained at blinding speed.
Rapha wore a long, dark dress beneath a sturdy leather apron full of silver instruments and vials. Her eyes drew Silarias’ attention immediately: embedded in both irises was a piece of crystal. Two unequal halves of a single severed stone.
Nyx hastily flipped the barrel over and stared at the crumpled label.
“Iðunn’s… Haomamane… What actually is that, Rapha?”
“You are asking me that now?!”
Rapha’s voice almost cracked, but her movements remained professional. She stepped directly to the bed and placed her fingers on Silarias’ wrist while moving a medical crystal over his chest with her free hand to monitor his vitals.
“That substance is meant for when the connection to the body weakens! When a soul can no longer find its way back! A tiny corner of a leaf is enough to pull an entire infirmary out of a spiritual coma!”
Her gaze shot to the empty packet beside the polished crystal. The loose end of the supply line hung over the edge of the barrel.
Rapha froze.
“Nyx… how did you administer this?”
Nyx looked from the packet to the barrel.
“I moistened everything, just like that piece in the packet…”
Rapha said nothing.
“And when that packet ran out, something new had to go onto that wire, right?” Nyx hurried on anxiously. “But I already forgot one. By accident! So I thought, if I just put that wire inside the barrel, I wouldn’t have to keep doing it one by one. Then at least I could stay with him and…”
She saw Rapha’s face. Her voice trailed off.
Rapha yanked the loose end straight out of the barrel and shut off the supply at the crystal.
“You hooked up the entire supply directly?”
Nyx nodded barely perceptibly.
Rapha suddenly went rigid beside Silarias’ bed, her hands trembling with adrenaline.
“There aren’t even writings about this! There is no medical literature for what you just did! You gave him a dose equivalent to enough medication for an entire army! Maybe even two! We have to take into account that he might…”
She abruptly held her breath and stared at the glowing crystals.
Nyx slammed the barrel onto the floor. Her voice broke with panic.
“Wait… I didn’t… I didn’t kill him, did I?”
“I don’t even know what a whole leaf does!” Rapha shouted, adjusting the dangerously bright crystal readings. “Let alone a whole barrel!”
Nyx stood motionless. Her hands trembled.
“I thought… he just wouldn’t wake up, Rapha! For two days! He just lay there motionless…”
Silarias let his eyelids close again from a wave of dizziness.
Two days?
He heard her breathing. Right beside him.
He opened his eyes again and forced his blurred gaze upward.
Her black hair.
Her pale face.
The tired eyes darting between him and Rapha.
Alive.
She was alive.
“Nyx…?”
Her head turned toward him instantly.
“Sil? Are you awake?”
His breath hitched. He tried to sit up, but his arms shook so violently he barely lifted off the pillow.
“No… wait… you…”
Nyx was already sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Sil, calm down. I am here.”
He grabbed her wrist. His eyes darted across her face, down her neck and to her shoulders. As if he had to find the damage somewhere. As if his sight was tricking him and she could fall apart at any second.
“But I saw… he grabbed you… Nyx, I saw it!”
His voice broke in the middle of her name.
Nyx leaned toward him and Silarias wrapped his arms around her with a sudden, desperate jerk. He pulled her against him, buried his face against her shoulder, and burst into tears.
Not softly.
His whole body shook.
“I thought you were dead!”
Nyx froze for one short second. Then she wrapped her arms tightly around him.
“Sil…”
“He struck you down and you didn’t move anymore and I couldn’t… I was still standing there, in that box, and Lucifer said something, but I couldn’t hear you! I couldn’t hear you at all anymore!”
The words stumbled over each other. He tried to breathe, swallowed a sob, and started again before Nyx could answer.
“I wanted to get to you. Truly. But everything was in the way and then… then suddenly I was so big and I couldn’t stop, I didn’t know how, I…”
His fingers clamped into the fabric on her back.
“I thought I lost you.”
Nyx pressed her cheek against his hair. Her own eyes filled up.
“You didn’t lose me,” she whispered. “I am here. Do you feel it?”
She took one of his hands and placed it against her cheek.
Silarias looked up. His face was wet, his breathing short and irregular. He stroked her skin with trembling fingers and broke down again.
“But it was so real…”
“I know.”
Nyx pulled him back against her.
“I am here.”
Rapha remained standing on the other side of the bed. She held the medical crystal steady above his back and silently followed the changing lines on the nearest screen. She did not interrupt them.
Only when Silarias’ breathing slowly became less frantic did she place her fingers against his wrist again.
“There,” she said more calmly. “Stay sitting for a moment.”
Silarias barely let Nyx go. One hand remained firmly closed around hers while Rapha moved the crystal along his chest and shoulders. The light lines above the bed converged, shifted, and slowly settled back into an even rhythm.
Rapha exhaled deeply.
Then she turned her head toward the empty space right beside the headboard.
“No,” she suddenly muttered under her breath to herself and the seemingly empty room. “We are not going to cut him open to look.”
Silarias’ heart made a panicky jump.
What?!
“Who are you talking to?!” Nyx asked confusedly.
“Not to you,” Rapha answered curtly, her crystal eyes fixed strictly on the empty space. “And no, curiosity is not a medical necessity.”
Silarias hastily wiped his wet face with his free hand.
Cut him open?
He looked at the silver instruments on her apron.
No. Absolutely not.
He threw the heavy blanket aside with a wild swing and sprang resolutely out of bed. The crystal connection on his arm lit up briefly. With a soft click, the wire disconnected automatically and retracted into the holder beside the headboard.
“Look! Nothing wrong! See? Totally fine!”
His voice was still hoarse from crying, but with exaggerated conviction he started a small, triumphant victory dance.
On the exact second step, his left leg refused to cooperate.
His knee buckled.
“Sil!”
Nyx shot forward and caught him under his arms before his face hit the stones. His full weight pulled her along a step, but she planted her feet firmly and held him up.
Silarias hung sideways against her.
A brief silence fell.
Rapha looked at his legs.
Then at his face.
“Totally fine,” she repeated dryly.
Silarias coughed.
“Yeah… that second piece still needs a moment.”
Rapha pointed immediately to the bed.
“Sit.”
This time he did not protest.
Nyx helped him back onto the edge while Rapha dropped to her knees. She moved the crystal along his left leg, had him lift his foot, and followed the reaction of the pulsing symbols. Then she checked his eyes and the light lines above the headboard once more.
Silarias looked past her toward the empty space she had just been talking to.
There was nobody there.
As far as he could see.
“Uhh… Nyx…”
He scratched the back of his head in confusion.
“Who is that lady? And where exactly are we…?”
Rapha stood up. She straightened her clothes and leather apron with both hands and made an unusually formal, perfectly straight bow, the crystals in her eyes gleaming beneath the root vaults.
“I am Rapha,” she said in a measured, formal voice. “Head Healer of the Medical Wing of this University.”
She studied him briefly.
“Do you remember how you ended up here?”
Silarias frowned.
“In this bed?”
“Here.”
He looked at Nyx.
“Uhh… no?”
Rapha nodded as if confirming something.
“Ah. Possibly some memory loss following the incident.”
Nyx looked up immediately.
“Memory loss?”
“Amnesia,” Rapha clarified. “That can involve various periods. Sometimes only what happened right before waking up is missing. Sometimes a longer period. A few weeks… in some cases even years. But we do not determine that based on a single question.”
Nyx barely heard the last part.
The room around her seemed to fall silent. The healer’s words kept clattering in her head, but she picked out only a single fragment that sliced through her chest like an icy dagger.
“But sometimes… years…?”
Her breathing stopped.
No… what if he’s missing pieces? What if he doesn’t remember anything of what we’ve been through? Of us.
Rapha cast one more attentive look at the crystal readings and lowered her instrument.
“You will remain under observation because of this phenomenon,” she said emphatically to Silarias. “Even if you already think you are feeling better. What happens with that amount of Haomamane, we do not yet know.”
Silarias nodded hastily.
As long as no one was cutting anything open.
“You can go out into the hallway with her for a moment,” Rapha continued. “Not alone. Not to class. And definitely not training. You stay close, because I want to check you again shortly.”
“Yes,” Nyx said immediately. “I am staying with him.”
She slung her arm around Silarias and let him lean firmly against her shoulder.
“We are going.”
Rapha looked at her sternly.
“The hallway, Nyx.”
“The hallway.”
Nyx pushed the heavy oak double doors of the infirmary wide open with her free hand.
As they took their first step into the long hallway, Silarias looked at her with a vague gaze.
“Wait… where are we actually?”
Nyx panicked all over again. Her voice cracked and she started stammering wildly.
“Uh… you are Silarias! The Ward, Sil! Oakhaven! Juro and Vespera, the Outcasts… remember?!”
She hastily searched his eyes, but gave him not a second to answer.
“And Nicola! We rescued Nicola, Lyn and Blitz were there! And Vulkan, first that whole deal with him and then Valeria… we rescued her together! Balamore and Izamaru! That whole mess with the Hunemerions!”
Silarias opened his mouth, but Nyx rattled right over it with wide, frightened eyes.
“Cinderpulse! All those lights and then Wacko Jacko! Miki and Ren’s birthdays, Sil! Then those Inquisitors and that monk… he blew up and you stayed behind with Beat and Aurelius! We didn’t even know if you guys were still alive!”
Her voice faltered at the memory. She pulled his arm tighter over her shoulder and immediately kept going.
“And then that tournament! Flamo, Photo and Beto! Your stupid names! The Shinto Dojo, Jeshua, the Pandavas… and Faustus came to help you! You still remember who Faustus is?!”
“Nyx…”
“And the Bastion! My father, Uktar… that whole situation! You to the Hellverse and I to the God Realm! After that we came here, to the university! Fukarou, our hideout, Ponich! Oslo made our gear and Leonardo took us underwater to eat!”
She finally drew a sharp, startled breath.
“And then the classes… Juro, that box… Sil, you slept for two days and now we are here and… and I…”
A hoarse laugh interrupted her.
Nyx froze.
Silarias looked at her, his tired face slowly breaking into a warm grin. He squeezed her hand softly.
“I remember all of it, Nyx.”
Her lips stayed half-parted.
“Everything?”
“Everything you just screamed at me in one breath, yes.”
He laughed again and leaned slightly heavier against her.
“You are my moon and I am your sun…”
“But… you asked…”
“I asked
where
we were at the university!” he laughed out. “Which wing! Which hallway! I have never seen this place before!”
Nyx slowly turned her head toward him.
“Sil…”
And at that exact moment, his legs gave out beneath him.
Silarias tripped over his own dragging feet. Nyx tried to catch his weight, took a step forward, and got her foot hooked behind something heavy.
Together they pitched forward.
Only when Silarias landed did he see it.
Right in front of the infirmary door, Beat, Apollo, Vulkan, Nicola, Aurelius, and even little Miki and Ren were sleeping on the hard stone floor. They were all lying in a pile like knocked-over bowling pins, completely wiped out from waiting.
Silarias had landed on top of the stack.
A muffled groan rose from beneath him. Somewhere between two cloaks, a hand shot up.
Silarias scrambled over them in astonishment and looked around with wide eyes.
“And… haha… wait… class…?”
Nyx pushed herself up and sighed in relief. The panic slowly faded from her face.
“Sil, don’t worry. They suspended everything after that whole deal with you… Vespera is kind of in trouble.”
Silarias glanced almost casually down the enormous hall.
Around them, the others on the floor slowly began to groan, stretch, and wake up one by one.