Free Web NovelChapter 243: The Midnight Bell
The Imperial Academy was still bustling.
It was a quarter to midnight. Hundreds of cadets lingered around the half-dismantled booths. They were chatting, laughing, packing up displays, and winding down under the warm glow of the magical lanterns.
It was a picture of perfect, mundane security.
At the Gourmet & Ecology Exploration booth, the atmosphere was entirely different.
Ariana sat at the central wooden table. The scratch of her quill was the only consistent sound as she tallied the exhibition receipts under a single mana lamp. Bordon slouched on the leather sofa, snoring loudly with his tower shield against his knee. Elisha sat cross-legged on a desk, methodically waxing her bowstring. Mariella dozed in a chair.
Kael paced.
His armored boots clicked rhythmically against the stone floor. Back and forth. Five steps to the chalkboard, five steps back to the door.
Lucien stood by the large glass window. His arms were crossed. He stared out at the moonlit campus, running his Detection skill in a continuous, invisible radar sweep.
"Would you stop that?" Elisha finally snapped, glaring at Kael. "You’re going to wear a trench into the floor."
Kael stopped. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I can’t shake it. Princess Celestia has been missing for over six hours."
"The Imperial Guard probably took her back to the palace early to avoid the crowds," Bordon grunted, eyes still closed. "Standard protocol."
"Standard protocol dictates she informs the Academy Headmaster," Kael argued. "I checked the faculty office an hour ago. There is no official record of her leaving the grounds."
"Maybe she just slipped out?" Elisha suggested.
"She wouldn’t just vanish." Kael pulled a communication crystal from his belt. "Not without informing anyone."
Lucien didn’t look at Kael. He kept his eyes on the empty courtyard. The Imperial Guards were gone. The visiting Dukes were gone. Only students were left.
"She didn’t leave," Lucien said flatly.
Kael frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Princess Celestia is a high-tier ice mage," Lucien stated. "If the Imperial Guard hasn’t found her in three hours, it means she was taken."
Elisha gasped. "Taken? On Academy grounds?"
"Yes," Lucien said.
"Lucien, that’s a massive accusation," Kael said, his grip tightening on his crystal. "If you think—"
BONG.
The massive iron bell of the Academy’s central clock tower struck midnight. The heavy chime vibrated through the cobblestones.
BONG.
"Look!" Bordon shouted, suddenly wide awake. He pointed a massive finger at the sky. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
The stars vanished.
A tidal wave of pitch-black mana erupted from the Academy’s outer perimeter walls. It shot into the sky, slithering up the invisible defensive wards like a swarm of venomous snakes. It wove together into a dense, impenetrable dome, blotting out the moonlight entirely.
BONG.
The dark dome sealed shut at the apex. The ambient mana in the air violently inverted.
Every single magical lantern illuminating the academy courtyard overloaded and shattered simultaneously.
Glass rained down on the cobblestones. The entire exhibition plunged into absolute darkness.
The air pressure dropped instantly. Ears popped. The clean Academy mana was violently replaced by something foul. The air tasted of copper, rust, and old blood. The oppressive gravity of the dark mana physically slammed into the courtyard, dropping several lower-year cadets to their knees.
"What is this?!" Mariella shrieked, clutching her wooden staff as panic erupted around them.
Hundreds of students began shouting, stumbling blindly in the pitch-black courtyard.
Kael squeezed his communication crystal. "Academy Garrison! Emergency Code!"
The crystal sparked weakly. The glowing blue runes on its surface hissed, sputtered, and turned a sickly, rusted gray. A crack spider-webbed across the glass.
It was completely dead.
"The communication lines are severed," Kael whispered, horror washing over his face.
Then, the screams started.
A senior cadet packing up a nearby weapons rack suddenly dropped to the ground, a wet, gargling gasp escaping his throat. Another student screamed as a shadow slipped behind her, violently cutting her scream short.
Lucien clenched his jaw. His eyes narrowed in the dark.
Those motherfucking bastards.
He had actually let his guard down. When the sun set and the exhibition ended smoothly, he thought they had aborted. He thought the heavy Imperial presence had spooked them.
These lunatics, Lucien cursed internally. They played big. They didn’t cancel anything. They just waited for the city to go to sleep.
They didn’t charge into the courtyard roaring battle cries. They infiltrated the chaotic, blinded crowds using demonic stealth artifacts. They moved like ghosts, systematically slitting the throats of unprepared, unarmored cadets.
Total slaughter.
Kael drew his longsword. The blade ignited with a brilliant, golden Sovereign Aura. The sudden light cast harsh, flickering shadows across their booth, illuminating the sheer terror on the faces of his party.
Elisha knocked an arrow. Bordon braced his tower shield, stepping in front of Mariella.
They looked at Lucien. They waited for an order.
Lucien opened his system inventory.
The pitch-black fabric of the Shadow-Weave Suit materialized instantly. It poured over his uniform, locking into place with a sharp metallic click. He pulled the Lumeveil Enforcer from its void holster. The ivory grip gleamed coldly in the golden light. He flicked the cylinder open, checked the six piercing rounds, and snapped it shut with a sharp flick of his wrist.
"Lucien... what is that?" Kael asked, staring at the heavy mythic firearm.
"Survival," Lucien said.
Ariana stepped up right behind Lucien’s shoulder. Her hands were already glowing with prepared alchemical catalysts. She didn’t panic. She trusted him completely.
"Kael," Lucien ordered. His voice was a cold, commanding pitch that cut through the surrounding hysteria. "Take the vanguard. Bordon, cover our rear. We are cutting our way out of this courtyard."
"Out?" Elisha asked, her voice trembling as blood pooled onto the cobblestones nearby. "Shouldn’t we hold our ground here?"
"If you hide in a cage, you die in a cage," Lucien said. He kicked the heavy oak door open. "Move."
They formed up tightly. Kael took the lead, holding his glowing sword high.
The light made them a beacon in the dark. Students tried to run toward them, screaming for help. But the shadows moved faster.
A figure dropped completely silently from the heavy wooden rigging of the central exhibition tent.
The attacker wore a dark combat tunic, his face wrapped in black cloth. He dropped directly behind Kael, a dark-mana-coated dagger aimed perfectly at the gap in the Golden Boy’s armor.
"Kael!" Elisha screamed.
Kael spun, but his longsword was too unwieldy to bring up in time. The veteran operative anticipated the block, kicking off the flat of Kael’s blade and propelling himself past the vanguard. He aimed directly for the easiest target.
Mariella.
The healer shrieked, raising her wooden staff defensively. The operative landed gracefully, his dagger flashing forward to gut her.
BANG.
The gunshot was deafening.
The operative’s head snapped violently to the side. An ethereal bullet punched cleanly through his skull.
His body went limp mid-lunge, collapsing heavily onto the cobblestones just inches from Mariella’s boots. Blood splattered across the hem of her robes.
The sharp, acrid smell of cordite mixed with the foul stench of the dark mana.
Kael, Elisha, Bordon, and Mariella stood frozen. They stared at the bleeding corpse, then slowly turned their heads.
Lucien stood ten feet away. His arm was fully extended, the barrel of the Lumeveil Enforcer smoking slightly. His expression was completely blank.
He didn’t check if the man was dead. He already knew.
"Keep your eyes on the high ground," Lucien ordered. He lowered the revolver and stepped over the dead operative without a second glance. "Stop walking like tourists. They are hunting us."
Kael stared at Lucien.
The Golden Boy had spent the entire semester viewing Lucien Ashborne as a lazy, arrogant noble who occasionally threw a decent punch. He thought Lucien was just a cynical delinquent.
But watching Lucien casually execute a human being in the dark without a single flinch, Kael realized the terrifying truth.
Lucien was a predator. And right now, he was the only reason they were still breathing.
"Move," Lucien barked, his eyes scanning the chaotic courtyard. "To the central faculty building. We need a defensible chokepoint."
Kael swallowed hard, adjusting his grip on his sword. "Understood."
They pushed forward through the screaming crowds. The golden light of Kael’s sword illuminated the absolute horror unfolding around them. Cadets were bleeding out on the grass. Exhibition stalls were being torn apart as students tried to hide underneath them.
Lucien held up a fist. The party stopped immediately.
He pressed his back against an overturned wagon. He closed his eyes, extending his Detection range through the panicked mob.
Four mana signatures. Dense. Corrupted. Moving in fast from the left flank.
"Four hostiles closing in," Lucien whispered over the noise. "Veterans. They are moving in a tactical wedge formation to isolate us. Kael, when they break through the crowd, you thrust center mass. Bordon, bash the second one. Elisha, aim for the knees."
Kael nodded. His breathing was heavy, but his golden eyes were violently focused.
The crowd parted as four Valemont operatives shoved through the terrified students, their swords already drawn. They spotted the glowing longsword and immediately lunged.
The lead veteran aimed a thrust directly at Kael’s chest.
Kael parried hard, sparks flying in the dark. Instead of a wide, heroic swing, he followed Lucien’s instructions perfectly. He stepped inside the veteran’s guard and thrust his longsword straight through the man’s chest.
"Shield!" Lucien shouted.
Bordon charged past Kael. The massive tower shield slammed into the second operative, crushing the man against the heavy wooden frame of the wagon with a sickening crunch of bone.
The third operative vaulted over the wagon, bypassing the frontline entirely to drop down on Ariana.
Lucien didn’t aim. He pointed the Enforcer from the hip and pulled the trigger.
BANG.
The bullet tore through the operative’s knee mid-air. The man screamed, his landing compromised. He hit the cobblestones hard, tumbling into the dirt.
Elisha stepped forward, pulling her bowstring back. Wind mana condensed fiercely around the arrow. She released it. The shaft buried itself deep into the throat of the fourth operative before he could even raise his crossbow.
Silence fell over their immediate perimeter, save for the heavy breathing of the students.
Four seasoned war veterans. Dead in under ten seconds.
"Reloading," Lucien stated calmly. He flicked the Enforcer open. The empty shell casings clinked against the stone floor. He slid fresh rounds into the cylinder. "Good discipline. Don’t let the blood get to your heads. We have a long way to go."
He snapped the gun shut and stepped over the bodies, leading the Golden Generation deeper into the absolute nightmare.
