The first time Vorpal spoke to him, Mael understood why they called it the Sword That Devours Souls.
It didn't use words.
It was a craving that infested his muscles, a hunger that wasn't his. Before he realized it, he'd already plunged the vibrating blade into the corpse of the dead student.
And then, Vorpal fed.
The body disintegrated into black sand, sucked into the sword's runes. Something flowed into Mael through the hilt—fractured memories, raw terror, the exact moment that boy had lost control and buried an axe in his own chest.
"Damn you!" Hex yanked him back, but it was too late. "Don't you get it? Every soul Vorpal eats corrupts YOU!"
Mael coughed. A new scar split open on his palm—a tiny eye that blinked before sealing shut.
The price.
"Wasn't my fault," he lied, knowing Vorpal was laughing inside his skull.
Lien watched him with slit-pupiled eyes.
"Of course not. You're its tenth wielder. They all say that… until Vorpal owns them completely."
A hiss filled the armory. The display cases fogged over, etching a message in the condensation:
"THE HEADMASTER KNOWS."
Hex cursed and drew a knife from his bandages.
"We've got two minutes before the Hunters come."
"Hunters?" Mael asked, but Lien was already dragging him toward a hidden trapdoor beneath the weapons.
"The 'advanced' students. The ones who survived Vorpal… but not the Headmaster."
The floor trembled. Something slammed against the armory doors, followed by the wet crack of bones rearranging.
Mael looked at his sword. The blade now pulsed with a sickly violet glow, like the meteors from the day the sky bled.
"Why me?" he whispered.
Vorpal answered with another vision:
His father, young, standing before a portal of flesh and metal.
The Headmaster signing a pact in ink made of tears.
And something deeper… A void beneath Elysium, breathing in the dark.
The doors burst open.
Three figures crawled inside. Their uniforms hung in tatters, their mouths no longer on their faces—but in the palms of their hands.
"Wielder," one crooned, neck stretching like a reptile's. "Vorpal promised you'd return."
Hex shoved Mael toward the trapdoor.
"Jump! The Underworld's your only chance!"
Mael hesitated. Vorpal whispered:
"Run… or I let them taste YOUR soul."
The first Hunter leaped, palm-mouth unhinging wider than a snake's.
Mael jumped into the abyss.
And above him, Elysium roared—like a beast cheated of its meal.