Ren woke up to the feeling of something cold and damp on his forehead.
He didn't open his eyes immediately. He couldn't. His eye-sockets felt like they were filled with hot sand, and his brain was vibrating in a way that made him want to vomit.
'I'm alive,' he thought, his pulse thumping behind his ears. 'Still a slave. Still in a forest made of glass. But alive… barely.' He added bitterly.
He let his breathing stay shallow, trying to map out his surroundings. He wasn't on the move. He was lying on a flat surface—stone, likely—and the air was thick with the scent of pine and Cian's ozone-heavy magic.
Then, he felt a hand.
It wasn't a gentle hand. It was a slim, calloused hand that gripped his jaw, forcing his face upward. The cloth fell off and Ren's eyes snapped open.
The world exploded into a kaleidoscope of screaming neon lines.
He cried out, shielding his eyes with his arm.
The "Mana-Sight" was active, and it was a nightmare. He didn't see a cave or trees; he saw the circulatory system of the world. The fire nearby was a roaring pillar of orange threads; the walls were a solid mass of gray static. And Cian—Cian was a sun.
"Look at me, Zero," Cian commanded.
Ren squinted through his fingers. He could see the Prince's face, but it was overlaid with shimmering gold veins of power that pulsed with every heartbeat.
And there, attached to Ren's own throat, was the silver lead. It wasn't just a silk rope anymore. In this new sight, it was a heavy, barbed chain of light that sank deep into Ren's chest.
'It's ugly,' Ren thought, a wave of nausea hitting him. 'It's not a bond. It's a parasite.'
"Your eyes," Cian whispered. He was leaning so close Ren could feel the static electricity from his skin. "They're different. There's a silver ring around the iris."
"It's just... the strain, Highness," Ren lied, his voice a dry rasp.
"Don't lie to me," Cian hissed, his grip on Ren's jaw tightening until Ren's teeth ached. "You stopped a red level Resonance Collapse. You didn't just ground it; you neutralized it. Alaric is a high-tier mage, and you turned his ritual into a vacuum. A Null shouldn't be able to do that. A Null is a bucket, not a black hole."
Julian's voice drifted in from the edge of the firelight, smooth and dangerous.
"Perhaps he's a Vessel mutation, Cian. A freak occurrence where the 'void' in his core is deeper than the Sages recorded. It happens once every few centuries. A Null who can't just hold magic, but can momentarily suppress the field around them because they are so empty. They are the closest things to the weavers history recorded but they aren't that much of a threat as them."
Ren heart raced when Julian compared him to a weaver. He saw Julian's threads then. They were emerald, thin, and twisted like vipers. They were currently snaking around the room, probing the shadows.
He had to remind himself. Julian didn't think he was a Weaver; he thought Ren was a biological error—a "Super-Null" that was more useful than a standard one.
"Whatever he is," Cian said, finally letting go of Ren's jaw, "he is staying within my reach. I feel... quiet than before. For the first time in ten years, the noise in my head has stopped."
Cian stood up and looked at his cousins.
(Yeah… imma leave that here btw)
"The South Tower failed. They'll be heading back to the Academy to report us. We have three hours to find the King-Beast the Sages said we're out here and secure the kill. If we return without it, Alaric's story about a 'monster' Ground will be the only thing the Sages hears."
"He can't walk, Cian," Kael's voice came from the shadows.
Ren saw his mana—a solid, immovable wall of deep, iron-gray. "You drained him to the marrow."
"Then carry him," Cian snapped. "But do not let him more than ten feet from me."
'Ten feet,' Ren thought, closing his weary eyes. 'That's the length of the leash. I'm a prize dog now.'
Kael approached, and Ren felt himself being hoisted up. The iron-gray mana was steady, unlike the flickering gold of Cian.
"Eat this," Kael muttered, shoving a small, bitter-tasting leaf into Ren's mouth. "It's known to help eyes but since I don't know what's wrong with yours, I don't know how it can help you. You look like you're seeing too much. It will burn your brain out if you don't dim it."
Ren chewed the leaf. It tasted like sweat.
Slowly, the neon lines faded, and the world returned to a blurry, dark gray.
"Thank you," Ren whispered.
"Don't thank me," Kael said, his voice flat. "Just stay conscious. If you pass out again, the Prince will likely drag you by the neck just to keep moving."
They set off into the deepest part of the Obsidian Forest—the Glaive Sector. This was where the mana was so concentrated that the trees themselves were sharp enough to cut through leather.
Ren was hung over Kael's shoulder, his head lolling. He watched the ground pass by—shards of black glass and gray ash. But then, he saw something that made his heart stop.
In the ash, there were footprints. Not the paw tracks of a mana-beast. Not the boots of a student.
They were bare footprints. And they were glowing with a faint, silver light.
'He's leading us,' Ren realized. 'The man in the robes. He's still here. He's hunting with us.'
Suddenly, the forest went dead silent. The clinking of the glass leaves stopped. The wind died.
"There." Kael whispered, pointing his silver knife toward a massive, crystalline archway ahead.
He turned Ren around.
In the center of the arch stood the King-Beast. The one the sages told them about.
It wasn't a bear or a wolf. It was a Chimera of Light—a creature made of pure, solidified mana. It had the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and a head that looked like a faceted diamond.
"It's… beautiful." Julian said. "Terrifyingly so."
But it wasn't the beast that terrified Ren.
It was what was standing behind the beast.
A dozen figures in black Academy robes—not students.
Processors.
The Academy's secret police but didn't look like they were here to help the Princes. They were standing in a circle, their hands raised, and Ren could see the threads they were weaving. They were surrounded shimmering air that suggested they were using an invisibility stone.
They were weaving a cage. Not for the beast.
For the Princes.
'It's a purge,' Ren thought, the blood draining from his face. 'The Academy isn't testing them. They weren't sent here to lilll the beast. They're getting rid of them.'
"Your Highness, wait!" Ren shouted, but it was too late.
Cian had already drawn his sword, the white-gold lightning screaming as he charged the beast.
He was a blur of white-gold lightning, charging toward the Chimera with a roar of triumph. He didn't see the violet threads. He didn't see the Processors.
"Kael, put me down!" Ren scrambled, hitting the ground and stumbling. The silver lead snapped taut, yanking his neck.
"Zero, get back!" Kael yelled, drawing his greatsword to follow Cian.
"It's a trap!" Ren screamed, but the sound of Cian's lightning striking the Chimera drowned him out.
The moment Cian's sword touched the beast, the violet web snapped shut.
A dome of dark energy erupted, trapping Cian, Kael, and Julian inside the crystalline arch with the Chimera. The Processors stepped out from the shadows, their faces hidden by silver masks.
"Prince Cian Valerius," one of the Processors said, his voice magically amplified.
"By order of the Council of Sages, your resonance has been declared a Grade-One Threat to the Empire. For the safety of the realm, your line ends here."
Inside the dome, the Chimera roared, its diamond eyes glowing with a murderous light. The beast hadn't been a prize or a threat, it was an executioner.
Ren stood outside the dome, clutching the silver lead that ran through the energy barrier.
He was the only one left outside.
He looked at the Processors, then at the Princes fighting for their lives inside the violet cage. He felt the fourth stitch in his palm burning.
'I'm a Null,' Ren thought, his hands shaking as he gripped the silver lead. 'I'm just a tool. I should run. I should just let them burn.'
But then he saw Cian look back at him.
For the first time, the Prince didn't look like a god. He looked like a boy who was terrified of the dark. He looked like himself those times he had nightmares every night about something he couldn't understand.
'Pathetic.'
Besides if the prince dies, he dies also.
Ren took a deep breath gathering the last of his strength. He wrapped the silver lead around his hand.
"Fine," Ren whispered to the empty forest. "You want a monster? I'll give you a monster."
He reached for the violet dome.