"Hey, Cylenciel, that attack really hurt!"
The voice did not sound like the groan of a dying person in the slightest. On the contrary, his tone sounded like someone merely complaining about a minor scratch.
Hearing that incredibly familiar voice, every pair of eyes in the academy corridor, from the deathly pale students to the smugly smiling Cylenciel, simultaneously snapped toward the source of the sound.
How shocked and shaken they all were to see that Kylen was not dead and was still standing tall in his position, even though a horrifying, gaping hole had pierced through his chest and destroyed his heart.
The sight unfolding before their eyes was something that, logically, was absolutely impossible in this world. A person with a destroyed heart should have died instantly.
Cylenciel's breath caught in his throat. The cynical smile on his lips vanished without a trace, replaced by a pale face filled with absolute disbelief.
"H-How can you still stand tall with your heart destroyed like that?!" Cylenciel exclaimed with a trembling voice, his eyes bulging as he stared at the hole in his twin brother's chest.
Kylen lowered his gaze for a moment, glancing at the bloody hole in his chest with a flat expression, before looking back at his brother.
"Ah... this? Thanks to my husband, I managed to awaken my latent power." Kylen replied in a relaxed tone, as if the wound were nothing more than a scratch to him. "Look closely, Cylenciel! In a moment, my body will regenerate."
Right after Kylen answered Cylenciel's panic-stricken question, something far more impossible and astonishing occurred in front of dozens of pairs of eyes.
Kylen's chest, which was previously pierced clean through to his back, slowly began to display a horrifying yet mesmerizing anomaly. The flesh, muscle, and skin that had been completely obliterated began to grow and weave themselves back together at an absurd speed. Muscle fibers fused, seamlessly closing the fatal hole until it left not a single scar, leaving behind only his torn and bloodstained uniform.
Cylenciel, along with all the students who witnessed the absolute regeneration process, could not hide their shocked expressions. The terror that previously stemmed from an act of murder had now transformed into the terror of an unkillable existence.
Once the hole in his chest had closed completely, Kylen raised his hand and pounded his own chest several times quite hard. He wanted to prove to everyone that he was perfectly fine.
"You..." Cylenciel swallowed hard. "...are you truly human?"
"What are you even saying, Cylenciel? Of course I am human!" Kylen answered casually. "Have you gone blind that you cannot see for yourself what my physical body looks like right now?"
Feeling as though his common sense was being toyed with, the Fourth Prince slowly shifted his gaze away from Kylen toward the youth in the Astoria Academy uniform, who had been standing and watching in silence all along.
He glared at Arvin with eyes brimming with anger.
"Arvin Vedegra...!" Cylenciel hissed, demanding an answer. "What kind of magic did you teach him to turn him into an unkillable monster like that?!"
Hearing himself being called out, Arvin wanted to give an answer that would further shatter the arrogant prince's mentality.
However, before a single syllable could escape Arvin's lips, Kylen took action first, intentionally preventing his husband from interfering in his business.
"After throwing slander at my husband, you are now asking him about the secret of my power? Do you truly have no shame, Cylenciel?" Kylen interrupted in a freezing tone.
"I'm not talking to you!" Cylenciel snapped in frustration.
"And I will not let my husband waste his time answering your ridiculous question!" Kylen countered with a much firmer voice, silencing his brother's anger. "Remember, Cylenciel! Our business today is not over! I have to teach an important lesson to you, and to anyone in this kingdom who dares to disturb our family's peace!"
Following his last sentence, Kylen's gaze sharpened. A massive and terrifying mana fluctuation suddenly erupted from within his body. The air pressure in the academy corridor, which was initially normal, now felt incredibly humid, carrying a stinging and suffocating sensation in the respiratory tract.
Drip... Drip...
Droplets of thick green water began to seep out from the pores of Kylen's skin, then fell to strike the surface of the academy corridor floor.
Hiss...
The surface of the floor instantly melted and pitted just from contact with a few drops of the green water. Thin, white smoke with a pungent and toxic aroma billowed into the air.
Seeing the danger unfolding right before their eyes, the students around the area instantly backed away, desperately trying to save themselves from the reach of the horrifying magic.
Then, the green water exuding from Kylen's body slowly began to gather, levitating against gravity, and forming a giant silhouette. Gradually, the silhouette of the green liquid became clearer, taking the shape of a massive dragon with liquid scales made purely of his magic: Hard Water Corrosive.
Drip... Drip... Hiss...
The incredibly deadly corrosive water dripped once again from the jaws and claws of the large dragon hovering above Kylen's head. Every drop that fell onto the floor instantly melted it like burning plastic.
That magical phenomenon, which was both astonishing and radiating the terror of death, spontaneously made Cylenciel and all the students in the academy corridor freeze in place, their legs trembling violently.
Before them right now was a magic of terrifying power that could not only melt human bone and flesh, but could also destroy the world if unleashed on a grand scale.
According to the history of the Flamort Kingdom, that magic was no ordinary magic. It was Hard Water Corrosive, a legendary magic that was said to only emerge from a member of the royal family once every few hundred years. Any member of the royal family who possessed that legendary power would undoubtedly become the absolute heir to the king's throne.
However, the reality of what was happening now was vastly different and entirely contradictory to the kingdom's history. Instead of being appointed as the heir to the throne, the possessor of that legendary power had now been cast out and expelled from the royal family lineage.
Cylenciel realized that by banishing Kylen from the palace, the royal family had thrown away the greatest military asset simply for rejecting a marriage.
"This is the latent power that was successfully awakened by my husband!" Kylen declared with absolute pride.
Kylen glared at his twin brother, who was now standing frozen with a pale face. He then raised his right hand forward.
"Now it's my turn to attack you with this, Cylenciel!"
Splat!