The first thing he noticed was the smell.
Lavender… and fire?
The second was pain. A dull, full-body ache like he'd wrestled a dragon. Or two. Barehanded. Uphill.
Aresando opened his eyes with something that felt like a minor miracle. The ceiling was white—too white—and covered in strange healing runes that pulsed like slow, steady breaths.
"…You're alive."
The voice was familiar. Flat. And very close.
Jade stared down at him, arms crossed, looking like she hadn't slept a minute. Her ears were low with emotion, but the rest of her was pure control.
"Shame. I'd already booked a dramatic mourning scene. Rain, screaming, the whole works."
"Sorry to disappoint," he muttered, trying to sit up.
Mistake. Every muscle screamed in protest.
"Yeah, no. Stay down," Jade said, pressing a hand to his forehead with a tenderness disguised as aggression. "You drained half your aura, lit the arena up like a holiday tree, and then passed out like a sack of potatoes."
"At least I was a heroic sack of potatoes."
"Kinda sexy too, but don't let it go to your head."
He snorted, then smiled. But her expression shifted—more serious now. Aresando knew that meant: Important Lore Incoming.
"They held a Council meeting right after the duel. They want to talk to you. Some fear you. Others…" Her tail twitched. "Others want to use you."
Aresando stared at the ceiling for a long moment, then glanced at her. "What about you?"
"Me?" Jade leaned in, head tilted like a wolf catching a strange scent. "I want to know who left a magical scar on your chest."
That's when he noticed it.
Right where the challenger's final blow had landed, something remained. A mark. Small, dark. Ancient.
"It's not normal blood magic," Jade said. "The healer couldn't even identify it. But it left a trace—like a tracker."
Aresando narrowed his eyes. "Because of course it did. Can't ever be just a duel followed by hot chocolate, huh?"
Jade chuckled. Sweet, but with a nervous edge.
"Welcome to the 'Hunted by Forgotten Secrets' club."
Just then, the infirmary door creaked open.
Professor Alhen entered—the oldest mage at the Academy, with a beard that had seen at least three arcane revolutions. He carried a book bound in silver chains and an expression that could freeze hot tea.
"Aresando. You're awake?"
"Relatively. If 'awake' means 'feels like I was hit by a car'"
"A car?" Said the professor.
"Hmm a griffin I meant"
"Good. Then you're well enough for bad news."
Jade growled faintly. Aresando held up a hand.
"Alright, Professor. Go ahead. Shake the fragile foundations of my mental stability."
The old mage almost smiled. He placed the book next to Aresando. The chains slid off on their own.
"The mark on your chest is the Seal of Kal'Serath. One of six forgotten relics from the Primordial Era. It's a sigil—a link. And it's only used… on those fated to awaken something very, very old."
Silence.
"Like… a weapon?" Aresando asked.
"Or a forgotten god. Or a gate to the abyss. Or all three."
Jade hissed something that probably wasn't suitable for academic environments.
The professor nodded. "That's why the Council's divided. Some want to protect you. Some want to control you. And some… want to eliminate you before the Seal fully activates."
Aresando covered his eyes with one hand. "I just wanted a school with good meals and a decent dueling field…"
Jade sat down beside him. Quiet for a moment. Then she reached out and took his hand.
"Whatever you are… you're not alone."
He looked at her. For a second—no sarcasm, no jokes.
Just truth.
Then, with dramatic flair: "Alright. But if tomorrow some cosmic revenge spirit attacks, you go in front. My back still hurts."
"I'll shield you. But only if you bring me breakfast in bed the day after."
——
The sun was shining over Solarnis Academy like it had absolutely no clue an ancient prophecy had just been reawakened. Birds chirped cheerfully. The tower bells rang with joyous indifference. And Aresando… was trying to survive Potions class.
"AND IF YOU ADD LEAD TO A REGENERATION TONIC, WHAT HAPPENS?!" "…Explosive regeneration?"
BOOM.
"Correct. Ten points to your magical health insurance."
The professor walked off humming, while the scent of singed hair drifted across the room. Aresando straightened his now-charred robe and sighed.
Jade, sitting beside him, gave him a little tail-flick. "That's the third cauldron you've blown up. Are you collecting them?"
"I'm thinking of starting an art gallery. 'Explosions of the Soul.'"
She laughed. The kind of laugh that sneaks into your chest and refuses to leave.
It had been six days since he'd landed in the infirmary. Six days without invasions, death threats, or catastrophic revelations.
A minor miracle.
In the meantime...
They discovered that Jade snores slightly when sleeping in wolf form (she denies it). Aresando learned that Lady Ferna's 4 p.m. black tea is secretly a poison-testing event disguised as a social gathering. And that when Jade ties her hair up, his concentration drops by 17%.
Official stats.
---
Day 3 of Peace
The library was silent. Aresando was flipping through a tome on Forgotten Seals when a small note fell out.
"Stop looking for answers in books. Look around you."
No signature.
Jade, sitting across the table, narrowed her eyes. "Trouble?"
"Just the usual. Threats, riddles, anonymous notes. Oh, and the bookmark smells like mint."
She sniffed it, nodded. "Penny. She's the mana-scented girl. Stuff explodes when she's nervous."
"Perfect. Another potential pyromaniac stalker. This school's basically a supernatural sitcom."
---
Day 5 of Peace
Afternoon training. Jade was hurling magic shurikens. Aresando was dodging them.
"This your idea of a date?"
"I'm training you to survive. Romantic, right?"
He smiled, stepped closer… and grabbed her wrist.
With a smooth motion, he spun her and locked her arm.
"You let your guard down."
Jade stared at him, close. Their noses nearly touched.
"Maybe I wanted to see if you'd come closer."
Silence. Then—distant magical boom.
"…Did the library blow up again?"
"Probably Penny."
Day 7 of Peace (…ish)
The sunset kissed the rooftops of the school with golden light, and the northern courtyard felt frozen in time. It was the quietest spot on campus—probably because no one had realized yet that magical rabbits gathered there to steal forgotten snacks.
Aresando sat beneath the great cherry tree, eyes turned to the sky. Jade was next to him, back against the trunk, half-eaten apple in one hand, her cloak slightly wrinkled from the breeze.
"Don't you think it's… weird?" she said after a while.
"What is?"
"All of this. The quiet. The peace. Professors not casting curses. You not ending up in the infirmary at least once a day."
He smiled. "You're right. I'm almost disappointed."
She glanced at him sideways, golden eyes glinting in the dusk.
"We're at that exact moment before something big happens. I can feel it in my tail."
"Is that scientific?"
"It's lupine."
They both laughed. Rare. Beautiful.
Then Jade turned serious.
"Res… I don't know what's coming. But these days… with you… I've felt…"
"Normal?"
"No." She turned toward him. "I've felt like I'm home."
Silence.
The wind rustled a few petals from the tree. One landed on Aresando's shoulder.
"You have a strange way of saying it, but… I get it."
He reached out a hand—maybe to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, maybe to say something—
And that's when the sky changed.
A shadow crossed the dying sun. Not an eclipse. Not a cloud.
It was a symbol.
A massive sigil, suspended in mid-air, traced in black fire. Like an eye. Like a warning.
And then, all the bells of the academy began to ring at once.
Jade jumped to her feet. "Magical alert. High priority."
Aresando stood, heart racing. That sigil… he recognized it.
It was like the one on his chest. But this one was twisted. Dark. Corrupted.
Then a voice echoed in their minds. Again.
"The second awakened… has been freed."
And with those words, a forgotten name ignited in Aresando's thoughts. A name he'd never heard—yet somehow knew too well.
Valtros.
The name echoed in Aresando's mind like a war drum. The mark on his chest lit up—blue and gold at first, but suddenly veined with a crimson crack that pulsed like ancient blood.
The world stopped. The air turned to lead.
Then pain.
An explosion in his chest.
His knees buckled. He collapsed onto the grass.
---
"ARESANDO!"
Jade's voice shattered the universe. Shouted, desperate—but charged with power. With rage. With hidden love.
And as if the sky itself responded to that cry, thunder cracked the clouds.
The earth beneath Aresando cracked open.
An explosion of energy surged around him, sending petals and dust into the air. The mark on his chest opened like an eye, and he rose slowly—trembling… but alive.
No.
Awakened.
"Valtros…" he murmured, voice deep, almost otherworldly.
"I won't wait for you to come to me."
—
[Mind Domain – Valtros' Space]
Everything turned black. Only two figures stood, facing each other in the void.
Aresando—still in his school uniform, but surrounded by crackling aura. His right arm glowed, searing like molten steel, power once repressed now unleashed.
Opposite him: a tall, faceless figure with wings made of smoke and shadow.
Valtros.
The Second Awakened. The opposite mark. The fated enemy.
"How interesting…" the creature hissed. "I didn't expect you to wake so soon."
"I didn't expect you to steal my future so fast."
Aresando stepped forward. Each movement left glowing trails.
"You want inside my mind?" he growled. "Then fight me inside it."
—
[Mental Battle – Dilated Time]
The first strike was a whip of shadow from Valtros—slicing through the void like a scream. Aresando deflected it with a swipe of his right arm, now fully armored in living, rune-carved etherium.
They clashed.
Blades of energy, pure-will collisions, screams that broke time itself.
Each time Aresando was hit, visions flared—Jade, the academy, the future in flames.
Each time he landed a blow, Valtros howled… and pieces of his mask shattered.
"Why do you look like me?!" Aresando shouted.
"Because… in another life… I was you."
[Return to the Present – But the Fight Isn't Over]
It should have ended.
But as Aresando opened his eyes—glowing with blue fire—the mark on his chest pulsed again.
Something tore through the barrier between thought and world.
The air cracked.
Valtros stepped out of the void—into reality—as if the fabric of space no longer mattered.
Jade turned, stunned.
"That's… impossible."
Above Aresando, the coin—the one that hadn't moved in days—suddenly began to spin. Floating. Faster. Faster. Radiating gold and blue sparks as if pulled by unseen gravity.
Aresando stood tall.
"No more illusions."
The ground ignited beneath his feet in a radiant sigil. The grass burned with otherworldly light.
Valtros let out a hollow laugh.
"You brought me here… foolish boy."
He struck first—a spear of shadow tearing toward Aresando.
But this time, Aresando raised his hand—and stopped it. Mid-air. With sheer force of will.
The spinning coin pulsed. Then exploded outward in a ring of magic.
They clashed.
Fist against void. Steel against nightmare. A dance of violence and destiny. Trees bent from the pressure. Windows shattered on the far edge of the academy. The entire sky above the courtyard turned dark, stained by two opposing forces.
And then—
Valtros changed trajectory.
He vanished in a blink—and appeared behind Jade.
"No!"
The shadow struck her square in the side, sending her flying across the yard. She hit the ground hard, blood staining her cloak.
"JADE!"
The world… broke.
Aresando's breath caught. His body tensed. The mark on his chest split wider, lightning coursing down his limbs.
His eyes turned white.
The wind died. Everything fell silent.
Then—
The Berserk Awakening.
Aresando roared—a guttural, furious sound that tore the air apart. His right arm became a blade of living flame. His left, wrapped in dark lightning. The coin above him stopped spinning—then burst into a halo of light and shards, orbiting him like satellites.
He launched forward with impossible speed. Valtros barely blocked the first strike—but was flung back by the second.
"You touched her."
His voice was no longer just his own. It echoed—layered, ancient, divine and monstrous at once.
"Now you pay."
What followed was not a battle.
It was retribution.
[The Berserk Hero – Unleashed]
Valtros was slammed into a marble pillar that shattered into a storm of fragments.
But he rose again.
Dark. Furious. Ready to annihilate.
"You fight with rage," he hissed. "But rage burns fast."
Aresando didn't reply.
He didn't have to.
The coin was spinning above him in a thousand radiant shards, tracing sacred orbits. Every breath he took sent ripples through the air. Every step left the ground scorched and cracked.
Valtros levitated into the air, conjuring a black sphere between his hands — a mass of pure oblivion, enough to erase the entire courtyard.
The school watched.
From windows. From rooftops. From the halls.
Students. Professors. Everyone saw the sky change color.
And they saw him.
Aresando. His uniform torn. Hair whipping in magical wind. Eyes glowing white. The mark on his chest burning like a second sun.
"VALTROS!"
He raised his right arm.
The coin fragments fused into a single spear of raw light.
Behind him, a ring of golden runes ignited.
"Final Art: HEAVEN'S REVERSE — Omega Spear."
The sky trembled. Clouds parted.
The spear launched, tearing through the heavens in a streak of gold and blue.
Valtros fired back.
His black wave of destruction met the spear mid-air — and the world exploded with light.
The shockwave shook the entire academy.
But it wasn't over.
From the smoke, Valtros emerged — wounded, enraged, desperate.
He launched one last attack… straight toward a group of students in the courtyard.
"NOOO!"
But Aresando was already there.
He appeared in a blink, stepping between them and the blast.
He opened his arms.
The hit landed. Full force.
An explosion. Dust. Silence.
And then… a figure still standing.
Untouched.
The students trembled. He turned slightly, a tired but confident smile on his lips.
"You're safe now."
Behind him, Valtros stumbled back, shocked.
"That spell was meant to erase mountains…"
Aresando stared him down.
"Then it's time you learned what I really am."
To be continued.....