Inside the Headmistress's spacious office, where the air was thick with the scent of ancient parchment and light incense, Dalia sat behind her ebony desk with unshakable dignity. Her quill moved in harmony across the papers, while Iris stood beside her, watching the door with a wry smile, tilting her head as she spoke:
"Do you think he'll burst in screaming as usual, or will he surprise us with a calm that doesn't suit him?"
Dalia raised an eyebrow, a faint smile playing on her lips that didn't quite reach her eyes:
"Is that a question you're truly seeking the answer to, Iris, or are you simply describing a scene we witness every single day?"
The words had barely left her lips when the door was thrust open with enough violence to nearly tear it from its hinges. Chris stormed inside like a hurricane, his booming voice preceding him to shake the very foundations of the office:
"Dalia Storm Crest! You are putting yourself in a historical predicament! Things have slipped through our fingers, and the monster attacks have become a nightmare haunting the island! You must make a decisive choice now, or else...!"
A heavy silence followed, broken only by Chris approaching the desk to lock his piercing gaze with Dalia's calm eyes. He demanded sharply:
"Do you truly believe the Council will remain silent in the face of this laxity?"
Dalia and Iris exchanged a fleeting look. In a synchronized tone dripping with cold irony, they said together:
"Of course not."
Fuming with rage, Chris slammed his fist onto the desk, then tossed a paper bearing a red royal wax seal before her:
"This is an official, irrevocable mandate... You must select ten students for the Great Expedition. There is no room for excuses or delays. The monster issue must be cut out by its roots. Is that understood?"
Chris turned on his heel in a fury and exited, leaving behind a violent crash of the door that made the window glass groan from the impact.
Dalia picked up the paper, scanning its terms with sharp eyes, while Iris asked with suppressed concern:
"Ten students for an expedition into the heart of danger? What will you do, Dalia?"
Dalia sighed, her eyes following the dark ink that decided the fates of souls:
"The decision is not simple... choosing the ten means choosing who returns and who will be buried there."
The door opened again, but this time with a cautious quiet. Instructor Toby entered, curiosity etched onto his face:
"What's the matter? I saw Chairman Chris leaving here as if the fires of hell were chasing him."
Dalia smiled, skillfully hiding the mandate among her files:
"Don't worry, Toby. Just a tempest in the Council's teapot."
Toby wasn't convinced. He took a few steps closer and spoke with a voice wrapped in gravity:
"Regardless, I have news that might change your line of thinking. I just interrogated the captive 'Shaltra.' I asked her the secret of how the monsters in Valdoris remain alive despite the destruction of humanity there and the disappearance of food sources."
Iris raised her head with interest:
"And what was that monstrosity's answer?"
Toby replied with a grim expression:
"She said they don't need humans as a primary food source; they possess the same 'Mana' and power that we use. But the real shock was her reaction when I mentioned the name 'Valdoris'..."
Toby paused for a second, then finished in bewilderment:
"She doesn't recognize a name with that sound at all!"
Iris gasped:
"Impossible! If she uses Mana and speaks our language, how can she be ignorant of the name of the homeland she came from?!"
Dalia stood up suddenly, clasping her hands behind her back. She walked with measured steps toward the large window overlooking the dark forests of Kenimar.
"The strange part isn't her ignorance of the name, Iris," Dalia said in a deep voice, "but why 'Shaltra' chose to break her silence now, after all that defiance."
Toby rubbed his chin thoughtfully:
"I asked her. She said she is dying. She claims the prison bars block her from the sunlight and that she is slowly suffocating. Her body has already begun to wither; her green skin has turned pale like dead autumn leaves."
A cryptic smile appeared on Dalia's face, her eyes flashing with a cunning only possessed by those accustomed to playing with fire. She whispered in a low voice, like the herald of a storm:
"Well... it seems the chessboard has begun to move on its own. I believe I've made my decision regarding the ten."
Toby asked with visible concern:
"What do you mean, Lady Dalia? Who are these ten?"
Dalia turned toward the window again, the silver moonlight reflecting off her crimson hair to make her look like a silent goddess of war. She spoke with a tone that brooked no doubt:
"You will know very soon, Toby... and very soon, the whole world will know what hides behind the mists of Valdoris."
Under a sky stained with the purple blood of twilight, where the shadows of trees danced like wandering ghosts over the Academy grounds, stood the twins Kim and Ken. The silence between them was heavier than mountains, broken only by the rustle of the cold wind.
Kim lowered his head, his voice muffled by regret:
"Brother... I'm sorry. Believe me, I didn't know the magnitude of the pain you were crushing inside alone."
Ken replied in a tone dripping with acid and bitterness, his eyes burning under the dim light:
"You didn't know? Or you didn't care! You were drowned in your golden aura, while I was struggling against vanishing in your shadow. You never looked for me, and you never felt the ice that was encasing my heart!"
Kim took a step to mend the gap, his voice growing warmer and more urgent:
"I know I was blind... but I am standing here now. We are of one blood. Can't we reclaim what we had?"
Ken laughed with a cutting sarcasm, a laugh like the breaking of glass:
"As we were? You were always the bright star—the strongest, the noblest. My existence beside you is nothing but a reminder of my weakness."
Kim shook his head with solid determination, his eyes shining with unshakable sincerity:
"You're wrong, Ken! You possess what I lack... your sharp intellect, your unerring intuition, and your gaze that sees behind the curtain. I am the strength, yes, but I am a body without a mastermind without you."
Ken turned his face toward the distant horizon, his voice broken like an old string:
"Nonsense... I will always be steps behind you..."
Suddenly, this dramatic atmosphere was shredded by a terrifying metallic screech that shook the Academy. The ground vibrated beneath their feet, and the echo of giant glass shattering roared from the direction of the detention building.
Inside, Shaltra had faked her death with brilliance. Using a metal shard she had skillfully hidden in her mouth, she had picked her locks with a demonic coldness. She stood on her feet, green Mana leaking from her body like toxic smoke, and whispered with a hiss dripping with hatred:
"You shall see... you pathetic humans. I will make of your bones the pavement for my return."
With a single strike saturated with savage energy, she shattered the reinforced glass and leapt from that staggering height like a green meteor toward the courtyard. Her body slammed into the ground, sending debris and dust flying everywhere, much to the guards' horror.
Kim gasped at the shock, but Ken was faster; he shoved his brother hard out of the way before they both dove under the falling rubble. Shaltra stood amidst the dust, her green scales gleaming ominously. She said with biting mockery:
"Hello, little ones... I hope you're ready for your final dance of death."
Kim regained his balance and shouted to his brother as he summoned his power:
"Ken! Put your feelings aside and think of a plan... I'll be your shield now!"
Ken hesitated for a moment under the pressure of terror:
"I don't know! Her energy is beyond my comprehension!"
But Kim didn't wait; he lunged like thunder, armed with his imposing charcoal armor lined with vivid yellow streaks. From his fist, a dark golden energy exploded, illuminating the dusk. He attacked Shaltra with a series of booming punches, but she parried his strikes with her scale-covered arms, the mocking smile never leaving her face.
Ken closed his eyes, trying to suppress the noise of fear... and in that inner darkness, a spark of his intellect flashed. He, too, partially transformed, revealing armor similar to his brother's, but his energy was a glowing orange, rippling around him like tongues of angry flame.
Kim shouted as he took a heavy blow that sent him reeling:
"Ken! Have you found a way out?!"
Ken answered, his eyes shining with sharp focus:
"I haven't found a way out... I found her death! You won't pierce her armor with raw strength; we must use thermal shock! Grab her arms, Kim! Raise her body temperature to the absolute limit, and I will drop it at the exact same moment!"
The wills of the twins intertwined in a harmony that hadn't occurred in years. Kim seized Shaltra's arms, pumping in scorching golden Mana that boiled in her veins, while Ken lunged and pumped his orange energy, which his skill transformed into an absolute, soul-sucking cold.
Shaltra let out a howl—a scream that tore through the night's stillness. Her body was being shredded internally between the expansion of heat and the sudden contraction of cold. Her being shuddered, and her energy vanished like a candle extinguished by a gale, as she fell to the ground a lifeless corpse, devoid of Mana or life.
Headmistress Dalia appeared with Iris from among the stunned crowd. Dalia's gaze was cold and piercing, as if reading what lay behind the scene.
Dalia asked in a resonant tone:
"What happened here? And how were you able to subdue a monster of this strength?"
Kim answered as he caught his breath, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder:
"Ken is the one who did it... if it weren't for his plan, I'd be nothing but wreckage right now."
Iris looked toward the shattered glass above with hidden surprise:
"But... how did she manage to escape in the first place? The chamber is designed to isolate the strongest types of magic."
Dalia didn't comment on the question. She remained watching the body lying before her with eyes glowing with cunning, then said quietly:
"Well done. Return to your rooms now. The future needs a cohesive duo like you two."
The twins bowed and departed. As the guards cleared the rubble, Dalia whispered to Iris in a voice only she could hear:
"If her true death happened this easily... was Shaltra honest about Valdoris, or was she merely bait to make us show our hand?"
Iris replied, wiping Mana dust from her robe:
"I don't know... but her Mana has completely vanished. She has been erased from existence."
Dalia offered a cryptic smile, her crimson eyes gleaming with a frightening brilliance:
"Good... for the stage always requires victims for the true play to begin."