A bright blue light shone in the scorched land.
Slowly, the light began to take shape, forming a small gate.
The bars formed from pristine blue energy. They looked surreal, as though drawn out of a fantasy.
The bars brimmed with energy—divine energy.
Slowly, the gate creaked open.
Stepping out of the gate was a woman.
She walked gracefully, but the urgency in her steps was unmistakable.
Her long purple hair swayed as she walked through the gate.
Two others followed behind her.
"How come they allowed this to happen? With all the surveillance in the academy, you let a student be thrown into the senior training realm?"
Nelyx was furious.
She had reached the height of it.
Her anger had peaked.
She looked behind her, expecting answers from the two who stood there, but they were unable to mouth a word.
Unlike William, who was more lenient with the staff, Nelyx—although she appeared to be a bit playful—was much stricter.
She liked orderliness.
Her obsession with it, though, was merely a mask for her laziness.
With everything in place, it would reduce her workload.
She had her full attention on the two teachers, so she didn't fail to notice that they weren't looking at her.
'What the hell are they looking at?' she thought, frustrated, as she spun around to see the catastrophe.
The entire realm—the terrain that the academy had shaped to increase the difficulty of the realm gate for training senior awakened—
Everything was charred black.
All that was left were the soldiers from the flames that had burned everything.
The trees... the tunnel... Even the earth itself hadn't been spared from the flames.
"What happened here...?" Nelyx asked, shock visible on her face.
They were searching for the boy who had awakened an SSS-ranked talent.
She had ordered the surveillance team to gather all the images and videos from where the boy, Kieran, was last seen.
They discovered that he had been thrown into a realm gate by one of the heirs of the three great families.
They had come as quickly as they could—that was, of course, after calling the boy and those who had helped him to attention.
Now, she found this in front of her... a completely ruined realm.
She stood in shock for a moment.
'This level of power... this definitely wasn't from the trolls.'
She turned to the two teachers behind her.
"Find that boy... Whatever is left of him... anything at all... I just hope he's all right. We can find out what happened from him."
"Ma'am," the teacher stuttered, her hand pointing in a certain direction.
Nelyx followed the frail finger.
A fighter lay in the center of the shattered debris.
His small, frail frame was visible.
He survived!
"Rush go get the boy, take him to the infirmary," Nelyx ordered, shifting her gaze around the scene.
She looked at Kieran's pale face as they carried him past the realm gate. His breathing was shallow, his body limp.
Nelyx followed behind, her gaze shifting between the boy and the devastation around her.
The lingering heat from the scorched earth sent a faint shimmer into the air.
'What exactly happened here?' she wondered.
As the gate hummed to life once more, she stepped through, casting one last glance at the ruined realm before vanishing into the blue light.
---
The scent of antiseptic filled the air.
Kieran's eyes flickered open.
A white ceiling greeted him, sterile and unfamiliar.
And he could feel the sores all over his body.
As though he had been hit by a truck.
His mouth tasted weirdly familiar—IV fluid.
He slowly shifted his stiff neck, and it was just as he expected.
Hanging above his head was an IV stand.
He felt a dull ache in his head as he tried to sit up in the infirmary bed.
"Idiot, you actually took such a gamble."
He heard a small voice in his head.
And with the voice, memories flashed back into his mind.
'Ah, that's right... I was in the realm gate. Where am I now?' Kieran thought to himself.
He quickly remembered all the events that had transpired, and he jolted, looking around vigilantly.
"Don't worry, you're in—"
Alexa was yet to complete her words when Kieran's gaze fell on the figure sitting not too far from his bed.
"Kieran Marcoth, firstly, I'd like to apologize for the insecurity within the school premises... I, myself, am disappointed. And also, I'll need to have a short talk with you."
Nelyx sat cross-legged, just opposite his bed.
Her large, furry overcoat covered her body.
"Ahh. Madam Nelyx..."
"Sorry... Good morning? Good day, ma'am?"
"Don't bother yourself... You don't need to greet." Nelyx waved her hand dismissively, gesturing for him to stop.
Kieran scratched his head.
'How did I get here?!'
'They came to get you,' Alexa replied.
While the two were having their discussion, Nelyx cut in, drawing Kieran's attention back to her.
"That aside, we need to have a small talk. Don't worry, the three who did that to you have been reported to their family heads and will be punished accordingly."
Kieran remembered.
His gaze darkened.
Nelyx quickly noticed the sudden change in the atmosphere.
"Anything?"
"Was that all?" Kieran asked in a cold voice.
"What do you mean?" Nelyx asked, her brows furrowed.
"Reporting them to their family heads? That's all the academy could do?"
Nelyx kept a straight face.
She could tell he was pissed.
Who wouldn't be?
But even she had limits to what she could and couldn't do.
"I understand, but their punishment wasn't something I could decide on myself," she explained.
But Kieran didn't seem satisfied with the answer.
"Is that really why, or are you simply afraid of offending one of your supporters over a small orphan like me?"
Nelyx drew a deep breath.
He was partly right. Even she couldn't defend herself entirely.
Offending the Nelkon family wasn't something the academy could afford to do at the moment.
If things were in good condition, then maybe she would have taken the risk of acting drastically... as such an action required strict punishment.
It would definitely serve as a good lesson for potential bullies.
But now, the school was sitting at the edge of a blade.
All their supporters would flare up in anger the moment they found out how poorly they had performed that year.
"Calm down, Kieran Marcoth... The school and the Nelkon family will deal—"
"Fuck that... Tell me why. Why am I being treated this way? Because I'm not powerful? Because I don't have anyone to back me up? Why do the weaker ones have to suffer? Stronger people like you are around, and yet you still let things like this slide... Injustice!"
Kieran exploded.
All his suffering, all the pain he felt...
No one needed to tell him that Frank would be let off easily...
At most, only Jacob and Ben would be given severe punishment just to make it look like they had actually done something.
But no, that wasn't enough.
Before leaving that realm... No, even in that realm, he had made a promise to himself.
"Ma'am, with all due respect, If those three aren't punished accordingly." He curled his fist, his hands tightening at the side.
"Don't blame me if I take laws into my hands"
His eyes flared with determination.
One that startled Nelyx.
She didn't know why.
But she had a strange feeling in her chest.