POV Selestia:
Minutes later, the marble corridors of Ouroboros Academy echoed with the rhythmic footsteps of the student council making their way to the Grand Auditorium.
Selestia walked behind the trio—Erica, Dex, and Echidna—who were accompanied by a dwarf from the directorate, maintaining the appropriate professional distance for a secretary. Her steps were measured, elegant, perfectly calculated not to draw unnecessary attention. Her fingers discreetly gripped the document folder—the only external sign of the inner tempest.
But inside, her mind churned.
'Eighteen years. Eighteen damn years hiding what I am. Pretending to be just a normal princess for my mother's sake.'
Her eyes—blue under the illusion, but in reality liquid amber with vertical green pupils—fixed on Dex's back. White hair with violet tips. Upright posture. An aura that even suppressed made her skin tingle with primitive recognition.
'But he saw me. And I saw him too.'
Selestia's heart accelerated—beating against her ribs as if trying to escape her chest. It wasn't just her body's excitement, but something much deeper and more terrifying: hope. Hope that she and her mother weren't the only Archons left.
'Just remembering his eyes, my body recognizes him as a partner.'
She breathed deeply discreetly, forcing herself to maintain the rhythm of her steps while studying Echidna walking beside Dex.
'But what worries me is the woman beside him, who looks exactly like him. Could they be the same type, but she hasn't awakened yet?'
Her eyes shifted to Erica—magnificent white wings, regal posture, absolute confidence in every movement.
'White wings. She doesn't need to hide anything—she can simply be.'
The pain in Selestia's chest intensified. It wasn't just romantic envy—it was envy of freedom.
'Eighteen years using illusions, and she... she's free. Free to touch him. To love him without fear of being discovered.'
'I should be beside him and the twin if she's also an Archon.' Her mother's voice echoed in her memory—words repeated since childhood. 'We as the superior race must have the maximum number of purebred offspring.'
But then a doubt serpentined through her mind, unexpected and disturbing:
'But is that really all it is? Is what I feel for him just... species preservation instinct? Or is it something more?'
POV Dex:
Parallel to beautiful Selestia's thoughts, Dex and Echidna spoke telepathically.
'So what I see of her is an illusion?'
Dex then answered. 'Yes, I'm certain. I saw with my own eyes the illusion unravel.'
'Is she hot?' She asked seriously.
And Dex, hearing this, became irritated. 'Why is that the first thing you ask?!'
'Because I want to see her too,' she said without any shame. And added at the end, 'And if you were instantly attracted, there's a possibility she's one of our future wives.'
'Now can you describe her?' she asked in a tone that would leave someone no choice but to respond.
He focused on her true form walking a few steps behind.
'Height around five-seven with a body... strategically perfect for seduction. Ample but proportioned breasts, narrow waist, wide hips. And every movement seems trained to be beautiful and provocative.'
Hearing this, Echidna said, "My favorite type."
'The hair is black as onyx, but when light touches it, reflections appear—emerald-green and amethyst-purple. It changes color depending on the angle of light, as if each strand were composed of microscopic scales.'
'Continue.' This time she was intrigued.
'The eyes are most important: vertical pupils. Liquid amber irises, like molten gold. And the pupils are green—bright emerald-green. Identical to mine when the Archon bloodline awakened when I got angry at Marcus. That must be why I can see her.'
Telepathic silence.
'Are you sure?'
'Absolutely. She's an Archon like us. But she shouldn't be a hybrid like us.'
Dex observed Selestia greeting a student with a smile.
'Another thing—when she smiles like now, you can see a forked tongue. It splits in the middle, like a serpent's.' He paused. 'Also, the nails are naturally pointed and long. Almost claws, but I can still say they're beautiful.'
'Dex...' Echidna's voice was becoming more serious. 'Does she have any distinctive characteristic you haven't mentioned yet?'
Dex then thought and remembered he hadn't spoken about it until now.
'The skin... we could say it's an uncommon color.'
'So what's the color?'
'Dark ebony. So dark it absorbs light instead of reflecting it. But it has a subtle, pearlescent shine... almost like a black pearl.'
Echidna's mental voice seemed to get lost in memories. 'Those characteristics are from a Basilisk.'
'So she's a hybrid like us?' he asked in confusion.
'Probably not. She must be something like an Archon Basilisk.' And she then added, 'But more importantly, how did she look at you?'
Dex then remembered how she acted. 'She licked her lips and looked at me with a desire equal to what I felt. Even after returning to her place, she kept looking at me while licking her lips.'
Hearing this, Echidna sighed. 'That's good.'
'I don't think that's good, considering she can do practically whatever she wants under the illusion.'
Echidna then laughed. 'It's good because basilisks normally have only one partner during their lifetime, so if she's really interested in you, she won't hurt you.'
Hearing this, Dex became curious. 'How do you know so much about basilisks?'
And Echidna's face cooled, remembering her past. 'It's not a good story, so we can wait for another moment to tell it. Now we should pay attention to the doors in front of us.'
Erica then spoke with a smile. "Ready to be known by the world?"
POV Lyra:
'My uncle is a pain in the ass. He knows I hate being in closed spaces surrounded by people I don't know.' She thought while using her hammer as a footrest.
She then looked around searching for two specific people. 'Well, the bastards aren't here, fortunately. Although I'm curious to know the classification of the two? But compared to me, fourth place, they must be weak.'
"From what I heard, third place is a vampire..." she murmured quietly.
However, someone responded. The person sitting beside her was a young woman with red hair wearing a uniform practically identical except for the blood wings on her back. But there was another crucial difference—she wore a red blindfold covering her eyes. "Were you talking about me?"
"What?" Irritated by someone speaking to her out of nowhere, Lyra responded.
"I'm sorry, but thanks to my friends, my hearing has improved every day," she said pointing to the blindfold. "And I couldn't help but notice you were talking about me." She smiled and revealed her fangs.
"Oh, is that so?" she said while beginning to smile and prepare her grip on Volkris's handle. 'After all, it might not be so boring.'
Selene tilted her head slightly, a small smile curving her lips. "Interesting. It's been a while since someone threatened me so... directly." Her blood wings expanded slightly—an involuntary response to challenge.
But as if fate could prevent the confrontation, they arrived.
The auditorium doors opened and seven figures entered.
Silence fell over the crowd of students like an invisible blade. Hundreds of eyes fixed on the doors, conversations died mid-sentence, even breaths seemed suspended.
Three figures advanced at the front, side by side: in the center, a regal presence, calm steps and irreproachable posture, long white wings folded just enough not to overshadow the corridor; to the left, a tall young man with white hair tipped violet, eyes between orange and red, the walk of an assassin feline and a silent authority that seemed to bend the air around him; to the right, the perfect reflection in female form, the same cascade of white and violet, the same magnetism stimulated by movements covered in predatory grace, as if each gesture were a deliberate choice of imposition.
However, the silence was broken by a feminine voice from the stage full of sarcasm. "I always knew you liked monsters, but now you've transformed into one too—millennial talent?"