The faceless king settled back onto his throne, then slowly leaned forward and slammed his heavy, black-scaled hands onto the oak table. The impact rang out like a dull hammer blow against an anvil. His face remained an absolute void, a fathomless depth in which even the glow of the surrounding candles vanished without a trace.
“Look at yourselves,” the king said, his raw, heavy voice resonating through the bones of everyone at the table. It was a voice shaped by hundreds of battles, steeped in the unyielding will of a ruler. “You carry a gigantic amount of spiritual energy. You shine like a beacon in the night. But energy without control is nothing more than a pretty target. You think you are ready for what waits beyond these walls, yet your technique has holes an entire army could march through.”
He turned his dark, empty face toward the whole circle. The shadows around his soot-black armor began to ripple gently, like the breathing of a sleeping dragon.
“Long ago,” he continued, his tone taking on the weight of a king recalling his lost legacy, “I had a kingdom. A realm where man, beast, and magic lived together in harmony. No slavery. No pointless persecution. Together with my wife and the loyal warriors of my Order, we laid the foundations of the world you breathe in today. We stood on the front lines so the people behind us could live in peace.”
He paused. The hundreds of candle flames on the floor leaned toward him in perfect unison, as though the magic in the chamber itself bowed to his presence.
“But a kingdom only stands when leaders rise who dare to carry the weight of an entire people on their shoulders,” the king said grimly. “Leaders who do not falter when the storm breaks. So tell me… is the linchpin of this new generation present at my table?”
An icy silence settled over the towering hall. None of the youths dared to move until Nicola lifted his chin, his expression tense, and broke the silence.
“Right here.”
In a synchronized movement, Vulkan, Apollo, Jane, Aurelius, Nicola, and Faustus turned their heads. Their gazes settled firmly, without a trace of doubt, on the two figures at the far end of the table. They were looking straight at Silarias and Nyx.
Silarias felt the leaden pressure of the chamber weighing on his shoulders. He did not flinch. Leaning slightly forward, he stared straight back into the fathomless emptiness of the king’s face.
“So, Your Highness,” Silarias began, a cool, razor-sharp edge beneath his words. “You may have ruled a kingdom and helped shape the world as it is today. But did you actually go about it the right way? Or is there something sinister hiding beneath all those pretty stories?”
Nyx was so startled by his bluntness that her breath caught. She quickly leaned toward him and nudged him with her elbow. “Sil… come on, you can’t just say that?!”
“Dear, dear Nyx,” Silarias cut in immediately, never taking his eyes off the king. His voice was steady, filled with absolute conviction. “Remember that we are not here alone. This isn’t only about my honor. It’s about yours. Miki and Ren’s. Nicola’s, Aurelius’s, Jane’s… everyone sitting at this table. You all mean far too much to me.”
Nyx stared at him, her eyes wide and her lips parting in disbelief. Around the table, the jaws of Vulkan, Apollo, Jane, Aurelius, Nicola, and Faustus dropped. None of them had expected the seventeen-year-old to challenge an ancient ruler so fearlessly.
BOOM!
The Unnamed King slammed both fists onto the oak table with a colossal thunderclap. The shockwave tore through the stone floor, sending dust drifting down from the high vaults.
“OH, IS THAT SO?!” the king roared.
In a fraction of a second, his massive body blurred into a razor-sharp black shadow.
FLASH!
He vanished from his throne, flashing through dozens of places across the gigantic hall so quickly he seemed to occupy them all at once. A raging wind ripped through the air. With a spectacular vortex of shadow energy, he swept the hundreds of candles off the floor and gathered them into a gigantic, rotating ring of fire high above their heads. One final FLASH placed him at the very center of that sea of flames, hovering in midair.
He looked down at the group. The anger in his voice gave way to a deep, rough laugh filled with genuine respect.
“Do not worry, young but clever travelers,” the king said as the candles spun faster around him. “Now that I have heard you… I choose you to settle here. To discover and grow in whatever ways you choose for yourselves.”
He descended slowly and majestically until he hovered just above the stone floor. One heavy, armored finger pointed straight at Silarias’s chest.
“But you… Mr. Big Leader with the big mouth. Your heart is in the right place, but you are still far too weak. You speak as though you can carry the world on your back. You will need to become a hundred times stronger to make those words mean something. I will not go easy on you. I will push your limits until you are unbreakable.”
Then his empty gaze shifted to Nyx. “And you. Your powers are intertwined. The stronger you become, the stronger the entire group will become. The better the Order will function. Never forget that.”
The king seemed to consider something for a moment, as though an ancient memory had stirred in his mind. “But tell me… which division and faction do you actually belong to?”
The group exchanged puzzled glances. Nobody could come up with a formal answer before Miki stepped forward in her soaking-wet clothes.
“We are Goats,” Miki said hoarsely, wiping one last drop of water from her chin with a disgusted grimace. “And that stupid goat is also the reason I had to swim through that whole stream, by the way.”
The king lifted his head and let out a booming, hearty laugh. “Mm… Goats? That is new.” He turned his face fully toward Silarias again. “What is your real purpose here, boy?”
Silarias glanced sideways at Nyx and gave her a short, determined nod. Nyx nodded firmly back.
Silarias faced the king and squared his shoulders. “I am Silarias. A void hydra beasthuman. I am cursed. We are the youngest landlords the ward has ever had. And the Septem Peccata is coming in four years, or a little longer. By then, we need to be ready. We need to have learned everything we can.”
The enormous hall fell deathly silent. The Unnamed King hovered without moving as the flames above him flickered gently.
Mm… so Valthor is coming,
the king thought, the dark contours of his armor rippling ever so slightly.
“You know what?” The king broke the silence with a satisfied nod. “Do what you must do. Learn what you must learn and grow stronger.” He fixed his gaze on Silarias. “So what will that look like in practice?”
Silarias shrugged, answering in his usual down-to-earth manner. “Well, it’s simple, right? We wanted to gather information, get stronger, and protect and liberate everyone. So we thought… why don’t we just start an Adventurers Guild? Take on missions and carry out contracts, clearly ranked by difficulty.”
The Unnamed King burst out laughing, the sound rolling through the chamber like thunder. “Interesting! A guild of adventurers… we shall see.”
His form began to dissolve into the air, fading like black smoke caught in a strong wind. But just before he disappeared completely, his voice echoed through the hall one last time.
“Make it your home… for the house has chosen you.”
WOOSH!
The hundreds of lanterns and candles gathered above them burst into a rain of magical sparks. A deep, luminescent red light began to glow along the granite walls, gigantic pillars, and towering ceiling. The creeping, mystical radiance stretched down the corridors, illuminating the vast, ancient architecture.
Everyone stared upward in awe. The stone walls seemed to climb endlessly, far beyond what should have been physically possible beneath the academy.
Silarias scratched the back of his head, glanced around, and broke the spell with a curious chuckle. “Uhh… but how did you guys actually get here?”
Nyx immediately draped an arm over his shoulder, eager to hear their stories.
The group exploded into chaos. Vulkan, Aurelius, Jane, Nicola, and Faustus all started talking at once, their voices crashing over one another.
“The floor just opened beneath our feet!” Vulkan shouted excitedly. “I seriously thought we were dropping straight into the abyss!”
“There were floating stairs that actually started moving across the ceiling!” Jane said, her eyes wide. “Every step we took turned the whole room ninety degrees!”
“It was a spatial transporter,” Aurelius tried to explain over the racket in his usual cool voice. “We were on a route across icebergs, and then it felt like a wild ride down a deep shaft!”
“Wild?!” Nicola shouted, throwing out his hand. “I genuinely thought we were going to crash and get smashed to pieces!”
Silarias listened to the chaotic scraps of their stories and burst out laughing. “Yeah! We went through pretty much the exact same crap!”
Nicola looked around the glowing red complex with curiosity. “Should we take a quick look around before heading back upstairs?”
“Good plan,” Silarias said, beckoning the whole gang together. “Vulkan, Aurelius, Jane, Nicola, Faustus… and Nyx, come on.”
With Nyx close beside him, the group began exploring the underground complex. The luminescent red glow flooded the long stone corridors, guiding them toward the first enormous set of double doors.
Silarias pushed open the massive doors, their surfaces engraved with dragon motifs, and they stepped into the first room.
At first glance, it looked like a gigantic armory, filled with dozens of empty black-iron weapon racks. But as Silarias ran his hand along one of the walls, his gaze caught on the center of the far wall. Every rack stood bare. Only one towering alcove broke the pattern. A massive recess had been carved deep into the stone, shaped precisely to fit a weapon so enormous that no human could ever have lifted it with two hands. The outline of the missing weapon glowed faintly through the dark purple mist seeping from the stone. This was no ordinary empty rack. It was the vacant place of a particular, legendary weapon that had once shaken the world.
“What the hell used to hang here?” Aurelius whispered, his eyes tracing the gigantic shape in the wall.
“Something too dangerous to leave behind,” Silarias answered quietly.
They continued into the second room, where the mystery only deepened.
It was a strategic operations room. A three-dimensional map of the world hovered in the air, formed from smoky magical particles. Silarias stepped closer to examine it and frowned. The familiar continents and realms of their world lay neatly in place, but beyond them stretched gigantic, unknown landmasses. Entire continents, island chains, and ravines that appeared on none of the academy’s modern maps. Red runes glimmered between the unfamiliar territories, pulsing slowly, as though the realm were revealing places that had remained hidden from the rest of the world for millennia.
“Guys,” Jane breathed. “This map shows places that officially don’t even exist…”
“Not yet,” Silarias said with a grin. “Or they’ve been kept hidden from us.”
Finally, they entered the third room, the combat arena.
The moment Silarias crossed the threshold ahead of the others, something extraordinary happened. The floating obsidian floor began to vibrate, and the magical mist in the abyss below flared bright red. Above the entrance, ancient letters carved deep into the wall began to shine. The stone recognized the arrival of its new master. In an instant, a Latin inscription blazed above their heads, its meaning clear: Arena of the Nine Heads.
Vulkan looked up at the glowing letters and nudged Silarias. “It just got a name on the spot… specifically for you.”
“It knows who’s in charge,” Faustus muttered with a rare, faint smirk.
Silarias stared at the name on the wall, a strange tingling sensation flowing through his veins. These were more than three rooms. They were a legacy waiting for them.
Then the spell was abruptly broken from the back of the group.
YAAAWN.
Miki let out a gigantic yawn, rubbing her eyes hard with her wet little hands. Ren stood beside her, half-slumped against her shoulder, barely able to keep his eyes open.
Silarias stopped and looked back. A soft laugh escaped him at the sight of the soaking-wet pair swaying with exhaustion. “Do you guys realize how late it’s getting for a little girl like her?”
Nyx nodded and gave Miki a gentle nudge in the back. “Yeah, we’ve had more than enough excitement for one day. Time to find the exit.”
With a sense of fulfillment and a whole new home hidden beneath the academy, the group turned back toward the outside world.
Stepping out through the edge of the enormous, ancient painting felt exactly like passing through a thin, trembling membrane of magical energy. A faint shiver swept over their skin as the air outside met them. The moment Miki and Ren’s heels cleared the threshold, the canvas behind them began to shake violently.
A deep, resonant crack rose from the heart of the wall. It sounded as though the granite itself were being crushed and rebuilt. The surface around the massive golden frame rippled and flowed like liquid glass. The shapes within the canvas shifted before their eyes. The painting was not simply closing. Its very substance was changing.
The legendary emptiness around the round table stirred with a slow, eerie sound of scraping shadows. At the center, a massive throne rose from the darkness, and a figure formed upon it. A dark, regal silhouette, shrouded in sooty curtains of shadow and absolute silence.
Just before the light around the frame died and the canvas settled, the shadowed king within the painting seemed to incline his head. It was a slow, deliberate nod of deep respect toward the departing group. An unspoken bond between the ancient ruler and the new generation.
Miki and Ren stopped dead. Their feet might as well have been bolted to the marble tiles. Miki’s pupils shrank to tiny points as she stared at the transformed painting. A violent shudder shook her small shoulders, and she edged closer to Ren. His face tightened as he stared at the canvas and took a nervous step back.
“That thing… that thing is way too creepy, man,” Miki whispered hoarsely, her voice trembling. She wrapped her arms so tightly around herself that her knuckles turned white.
“Yeah… definitely,” Ren muttered, a small shiver running down his spine. “Let’s get out of here. Right now.”
The icy, oppressive tension of the depths slowly gave way to the familiar, echoing hush of the university’s upper corridors. The cold that had seeped into their bones underground still clung to them like an invisible blanket.
Silarias and Nyx led the way, walking close together. Their footsteps were quiet, but the rhythm had grown heavy and slow beneath their crushing exhaustion. The polished marble beneath their boots reflected the pale magical light of the towering vaults.
The rest of the alliance followed in weary silence. Vulkan rubbed the tight muscles in his neck until something cracked, his eyes dull from their exertions. Apollo and Jane walked shoulder to shoulder, their quiet gazes wandering along the majestic pillars. Aurelius and Nicola kept pace, while Faustus shuffled over the stone with his hands buried deep in his pockets. Miki and Ren brought up the rear. Their clothes were still sodden and cold from the underground stream, and their eyelids drooped so heavily that they threatened to topple over with every step.
A few meters away, a warm, ethereal glow shone in the dim corridor. The spirit goat that had guided them stood quietly scraping its hooves over the marble. The luminous markings across its body were already beginning to evaporate into floating sparks, ready to dematerialize and return to whatever spiritual space it had come from.
Silarias caught the glow out of the corner of his eye and turned in one smooth movement. He thrust an arm into the air, the metal joints of his gear clattering sharply.
“HALT!” Silarias called, his rough, exhausted voice echoing through the empty university corridor. “Stay right there! It is way too late for another round of this traveling bullshit!”
The spirit goat froze with one hoof halfway off the floor. It tilted its glowing head, fixing Silarias with large, sparkling eyes full of confusion.
Silarias clenched his right fist until his knuckles cracked. Deep inside the heavy gauntlet around his forearm, a low, powerful hum began to build. Golden and deep-purple particles gathered rapidly along the metal seams. The light flared so fiercely that the ancient pillars were bathed in royal purple and brilliant gold. With one strong, controlled sweep, he drove his fist down through the empty air before them.
BAM!
A sun-bright tear of pure, rotating energy burst into the air, ripping reality apart. A floating, jagged gateway opened in the middle of the corridor. Beyond its flickering edges, the familiar warmth of their home’s wooden interior greeted them.
Silarias studied the portal and let out a long, heavy sigh. “See… it works. Let’s just go straight home instead of traveling around the whole damn world again. I’m absolutely dead on my feet…”
Nyx let her head droop. Her raven-black hair fell across her face as she rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. “Seriously… my legs feel like lead. Just step through the thing…”
Vulkan, Apollo, Jane, Aurelius, Nicola, and Faustus did not hesitate. Without exchanging a word, they stepped through the flickering tear in reality one by one. Nyx and Silarias followed close behind. The spirit goat remained where it was, its luminous head tilted as it watched these mortals casually disregard the fundamental laws of space and distance.
Just as Silarias was pulling his last leg through the portal, he suddenly poked his head back into the university corridor.
“Oh, right!” he called hurriedly to the two at the back. “Miki or Ren, can you bring the goat?”
Before either could answer, his head disappeared through the portal again.
Miki and Ren stood alone in the gigantic, deserted corridor. Across from them, the large spirit goat stared back with wide, blank eyes and an almost exaggerated air of innocence. It let out a soft, questioning bleat that echoed beneath the vaults.
The two children looked at each other, their eyes round as saucers. For one brief, silent moment, only the crackling of the portal could be heard.
Without exchanging a single word, they lunged at the goat at exactly the same time. Miki grabbed its sturdy hind legs, while Ren locked both arms firmly around its thick neck.
“One…” Miki counted in a hurried, hoarse voice.
“Two…” Ren called, bracing his feet against the marble tiles.
“THREE!” they shouted together.
With one enormous, synchronized swing, they lifted the heavy, glowing goat off the floor and hurled it head over heels straight through the flickering gateway.
“MEEEEEEE-EEEEE-EEEH!”
The goat’s long, echoing bleat shot through the tear in reality. Miki and Ren dived after it, and the portal snapped shut behind them with a loud magical bang.
On the other side, the rift had opened with a gentle pressure wave inside the Goated Outcasts’ central common room. Night lay deep over the residence. A serene stillness rested over the woodwork, broken only by a thin shaft of moonlight falling through the tall windows.
The moment the group’s boots touched the solid wooden floorboards, Ponich’s mechanical core lit up. Gears and magical connections clicked into place. The little assistant sprang out of standby, his engraved metal parts gleaming in the moonlight. His mouthpiece opened wide, ready to send a booming welcome through the entire building.
Silarias darted forward in a fraction of a second. The exhaustion on his face gave way to pure panic. With wild eyes, he raised his hand and made an urgent slicing gesture across his throat.
“Shhhhh!” Silarias hissed, gesturing frantically toward the sleeping quarters. “Quiet! Everyone’s still asleep!”
Ponich froze halfway through his startup routine. He looked at Silarias, nodded very slowly, and brought his slender metal fingers to his mouthpiece. With exaggerated theatrical care, he pulled an imaginary zipper across his lips, turned an invisible key, flung it dramatically over his shoulder, and raised a gleaming metal thumb.
Silarias’s shoulders dropped. He exhaled in relief and bent forward slightly, resting his hands on his knees. “What time…?” he whispered hoarsely.
Ponich was just about to switch on his audio module when Nicola immediately stepped forward. He raised one finger and fixed the assistant with a deadly, unmistakable look. “Shhh!”
Ponich kept his jaws clamped shut. Instead of speaking, he released a stream of magical particles behind his back. Twelve illuminated masks appeared in a perfect circle, hovering like the numbers on a clock face. He stretched out his metal arms, pointing one toward the second mask and the other just past the first.
Ten past one in the morning.
Silarias studied the clock of masks. His shoulders relaxed completely, and a long sigh of relief escaped him. “Ah… that’s actually not too bad.” He looked at the little assistant and nodded gratefully. “Good night, Po.”
Ponich gave a deep, smooth bow. Before he could straighten up, Miki and Ren crashed into him from the side, wrapping their arms tightly around his cold metal body.
“Night, Po…” the two mumbled through their exhaustion, leaning their full weight against him.
Nyx stepped forward, gently caught Miki and Ren by their collars, and drew the sleepy children back. “Come on, you two. Bed. Right now.”
She glanced back at the mechanical assistant, a soft, warm, utterly exhausted smile forming on her lips. “Hehe, kids… yeah, good night.”
Pinching the sides of her clothes between her fingers, Nyx gave Ponich an exaggerated, fairy-tale princess curtsy. Then she drifted toward the bedroom she shared with Silarias, her slow steps swaying with fatigue.
Inside, Silarias was already taking off the heavy pieces of his armor. His golden gauntlet had landed on the bedside table with a dull thud, and he was pulling off his upper layers when the door creaked softly. Nyx slipped into the room.
Silarias glanced over his shoulder. “Nyx, close the door…”
The latch clicked into place. As soon as the door shut, Silarias turned with a broad, cheerful grin and spread his arms wide.
“COME HERE!” he said, his voice suddenly full of joy. “Look how fast we managed all that! That university is so ridiculously huge, what the…”
Before he could finish, Nyx crossed the room in three quick, determined steps. She wrapped her arms firmly around his waist, buried her face in his chest, and let her entire weight settle against him. Within two seconds, her breathing had grown deep, quiet, and steady.
She had fallen fast asleep on the spot, standing in his arms.
Silarias froze. He looked down at the dark hair resting against his chest, his eyes wide, and a soft, warm chuckle rose in his throat. The exhaustion of their brutal battles, the mysterious underground realm, the confrontation with the Unnamed King, and the long journey was catching up with him without mercy.
He lifted her carefully, let himself fall backward onto the large bed with her in his arms, and held her close. Within half a minute, he too had drifted off, sleeping deeply and undisturbed in the quiet night of their home.