Next morning,
The classroom fell into uneasy silence the moment when Cooper walked in.
The Rank 6 Fire Magus stood at the front, his expression grimmer than usual, his sharp eyes scanning the seated students.
After some time his voice came, when it came, it was calm but laced with suppressed fury.
"I assume everyone is aware of the... incident that occurred last night."
No one spoke and no one dared to move.
Cooper's gaze lingered on each student, but most looked away, pretending to be absorbed in their notes. Only one pair of crimson eyes met his directly. Calm. Unblinking. Almost defiant.
"The academy has launched an investigation," Cooper continued, his tone was flat. "The remains of two students were found desecrated near the east dormitories. Their heads placed in a box, their limbs scattered like discarded trash."
A few students shuddered.
"The higher-ups are calling it an act of terror. A warning." His voice dipped lower. "No evidence. No trace. No witnesses. Not even traces of Qi usage was found."
Kai remained motionless. He didn't blink. He got lucky, it meant that his death Qi can not be detected by other magus. But he was not sure that same will happen if they perform high level magic.
"We suspect a higher-ranked magus might be behind this," Cooper went on. "If anyone has knowledge about this incident, report it to the faculty immediately. For your sake and the academy's."
Then, as if exhausted from speaking, Cooper turned away and began the lesson.
Kai heard every word, but none of it mattered.
He was already forming a plan one that didn't involve sitting through lectures. Jonna Velran was still alive, and she was still a threat. If she had even an inkling of the truth, then she needed to be watched, controlled, and eventually... eliminated.
The lesson dragged on.
When class ended, an oppressive silence lingered in the air. No one dared speak loudly. The mood was heavy and fearful. The gruesome display of the two boys had shaken the entire academy.
All eyes occasionally flicked toward the girl sitting near the front Jonna Velran.
Her normally smug expression was gone. She sat rigid, her fingers clenched around her spellbook, as if even the air offended her. Her mana radiated unease, flickering unpredictably.
Then without warning, she stood up.
The class froze. No one made eye contact.
Everyone knew what it meant when Jonna was angry. Her father was a Rank 6 magus and head of the traders in Azure city. He had many connections. Angering her didn't just ruin your life it ended your bloodline.
She scanned the class.
Her gaze moved quickly until it landed on a pair of crimson eyes.
They stared at her like twin blood-soaked blades, cutting through her soul. They weren't just hateful. They were murderous.
The stare was like a curse that made flesh rot. No malice could compare. No student in this academy had ever dared to look at her like that.
Then she recognized his face. Her mind reeled.
'Him… the new magus... the one I picked to torment.'
She had planned to humiliate him. Maybe even break a limb or two in a sanctioned duel. That was the Velran way crush the weak early so they never grow strong enough to retaliate.
When she began to make her move.
Suddenly her fingers trembled.
She remembered this morning. The sealed box placed outside her room. The smell of blood. The severed heads of her loyal followers. Their mutilated bodies thrown against her window, like a declaration of war.
No Rank 1 or 2 apprentice would ever dare challenge her like that.
Unless...
Her gaze snapped back to Kai. His lips curved upward, forming a slow, wicked smile.
Not the smile of a boy.
It was the smile of a devil in human skin.
She gasped. Her instincts screamed. It was him.
He had killed them. And he was letting her know. She turned her head away, chest tight. Her pulse raced as cold sweat dotted her skin.
When she looked back, he was still smiling.
Jonna packed her things in a frenzy and left the room without a word.
Kai leaned back, satisfied.
He nearly laughed, but stopped himself. 'Too soon.' His emotions had gotten the better of him. He had shown too much. Now Jonna would suspect him. He had no doubt her family would investigate.
He had poked a hornet's nest. It was a big mistake. His emotion got out of his control. He need to learn how to control them.
'She'll stay quiet for now,' he thought. 'But after...hmm say a week... I'll have hell knocking on my door.' Her family member could come here to take her revenge.
He needed power and fast.
He had to reach Rank 1 and stand a chance against what was coming, he needed more death Qi. A lot more.
Fortunately, he knew the perfect place.
There was a location in the academy rarely spoken about. A waste disposal site hidden near the base of the cliffs The Rotpit a cave where failed experiments, defected corpses, and magical rejects were dumped.
A forbidden zone to most.
But to Kai, it was paradise.
Because he remembered last night, the moment after he had killed the boys. As their lifeless bodies slumped to the ground, the lifeless skeletal minion was there too.
Nyx had leapt from his palm, her sleek body wrapping around the bones. With a single breath, she devoured the entire skeleton, her scales pulsing with eerie black light. Then she vanished into his palm and released a concentrated wave of Death Qi into his core.
He could not hide his joy thinking of it.
She was perfect for increasing his strength. He thanked his mother for this.
Whith a sigh he stood up. And formed a plan.
Kai would meditate there, feed Nyx the corpses, and reach Rank 1. That was the plan.
But he needed an excuse one that wouldn't draw suspicion.
He went to the faculty later that day and delivered his lie.
"I just... found out about the Drakkor Clan massacre," he said, voice trembling with feigned emotion. "They were close to my family. I need to pay my respects. I didn't even know they were gone until today."
The faculty member was just a young girl. She also got emotional and didn't even question it.
Permission granted. Twenty days off.
He said that he needed sixteen days to go there and four days for rest, respecting and gathering his thoughts.
Kai packed everything he needed grain pellets provided, fresh robes, spell books all provided by academy and left that same night.
He walked far.
Hours passed. He avoided the main road, using side paths and narrow trails. After ensuring no one followed him, he reached the cliffs.
Then he saw it.
The entrance to The Rotpit.
A jagged cave, it's entrance leaking rot and decaying smell like crazy. The stench hit him like a wall, but he smiled.
The death Qi here was stronger than anything in the academy.
He stepped inside.
The light vanished almost instantly, replaced by deep blackness. The cave floor was littered with failed experiments twisted hybrids, malformed homunculi, half-eaten ghouls, undead puppets that had lost their animation.
Limbs. Heads. Organs. Bones.
So many corpses. So much death.
Kai's heart soared.
He summoned Nyx. The black serpent emerged from his palm, stretching, hissing softly. She was crawling here and there to see where they were.
He picked her up and rubbed her chin."Do the same as last night."
Nyx nodded, slithering over to a nearby corpse and sinking her fangs into its cold flesh. Black mist seeped from her scales as she absorbed the lingering death energy. Moments later, Kai felt it Death Qi flowing into his right hand, merging into his core.
He sat cross-legged on a slab of bone and began his meditation.
He could feel it he only needed ten days of this using this method to reach Rank 1.
Ten days of feeding.
Ten days of silence with corpses, and death.
And when he did, he would have a chance of what coming.