It happened in the heart of chaos.
The Veiled Forest was burning.
Fog clung to the trees like a curse—thick, unnatural, alive with mana. Screams echoed in the distance, human and not. The Special Exam had become something else entirely. A battlefield. A massacre.
And I was done pretending.
I reached for Armenius like a frightened child—but the fear was a lie.
He let me.
He pulled me close, maybe to comfort me.
Too late.
My hand began to blur—faster than the eye could follow. A high-pitched hum rippled through the air as my fingers vibrated with lethal precision.
Razor Pulse.
A technique refined in silence. A vibration so fine it could shear through flesh, bone, even reinforced armor. And I drove it straight into his chest.
Through ribs. Through heart. Deep.
He gasped. Mouth open. No words—only blood.
"You betrayed your own creed—for me." I whispered.
The Aetherglyph Sigil dropped into my palm—still warm from his skin. It pulsed faintly. Instructor-level.
I had no time to hold him in some last moment of pity. There was none to give.
I let him go.
He collapsed against the forest floor. Crimson bled into the moss.
I didn't look back.
The day of my escape had finally come.