Chương 15: Nightime Incident

Ch 15: Nightime Incident By the time my first combat training session was over, I was forced to return to my dorm to deal with my soaked clothes and the awful smell. I'd showered three times before the stench from that pool finally gave up. After that, I resisted the temptation to sleep, spending the rest of the afternoon buried in Magica Principia. I hadn't seen Sahirah all day. But when I heard the shower go quiet through the wall, I knew she'd be coming over.

She had already made it clear that she had no intention of moving her bed back until the Mimic crisis was over. She opened my door, stepped inside, and locked it behind her. We exchanged a glance, and the memories of the previous night flooded back into my mind, the tension, the taking turns keeping watch, and how we'd somehow ended up abandoning two perfectly good beds just to sleep side by side on the floor. No. One night of that was enough. I scooted closer to the wall, leaving plenty of room beside me.

Then I patted the empty space on the mattress so she'd see just how much room she had.

"I've had a very long day," I said.

"I don't feel like repeating last night, so why don't you come over here and we skip all those extra steps?" To my surprise, she simply picked up her blanket and pillow and lay down beside me without saying a word. I wrapped an arm around her, and only then did she finally speak.

"I accidentally destroyed another payment crystal today," she said.

"Principal Zorik kept me in detention all afternoon, and he only released me when security burst in telling him they found another body in the bathroom." The Mimics were at it again... and Principal Dickhead had made sure she'd had a terrible day too. It seemed we both had plenty of reasons to quit playing games. I gently patted her on the head.

"Once I have my company and don't need this school anymore," I said, "we won't need to fear for our lives and things will get easier." She shifted beneath the blanket and turned to face me.

"I'm going to sleep now," she said.

"But there's so much I want to tell you once you figure out translation and give us our privacy back, Eric. I really hope it doesn't take you too long." Then she turned away again and pulled the blanket up around herself. Her words hit me harder than I expected. Silently, I reopened Magica Principia. Though deep down, all I could think about was my sore shoulder, which still hurt from Kinetic Push, and how much it would suck if the Mimics decided to mess with us tonight.

A splintering boom jolted me awake. The room was almost completely dark, but the movement beneath our shared blanket told me immediately that Sahirah had awakened too.

"The spell!" Another deafening crash shook the walls. I reached behind the bed, my hands sliding across the wall in the darkness until my wandering fingers finally found the large sheet of paper. At the same time, a warm glow chased away the darkness. Sahirah had lit the candle with one of her self-made Heat spells. I still had the nagging suspicion that the rune syntax was fundamentally flawed and that the spell only worked because she shoved enough mana into it to ignite the candle through brute force.

Whatever the reason... It worked. A heartbeat later, I was already out of bed. I grabbed my original Fuck Everything into Oblivion spell and hurried over to show her the proper grip.

"Use both hands," I said.

"Feed mana through both sides so you don't overload a single injection point. And for both our sakes... be very careful where you're aiming that thing." Before she could answer, another explosive crack erupted from the door. A scaled fist burst straight through the middle of it, sending splinters flying across the room. My heart nearly stopped. Sahirah jumped to her feet, clutching the enormous magic circle exactly as I'd shown her. Then, in her panic, she accidentally pointed it at me.

A chill far colder than fear crawled down my spine. It was the exact same feeling as watching a toddler pick up a loaded rifle and innocently aim it at your face. I immediately stepped behind her and gently grabbed both her forearms, guiding the paper away from me. Realizing what she'd just done, she swallowed.

"We... never tested the safety features, did we?" Unfortunately... we hadn't. Between our first mostly sleepless night and spending the following day apart, Fuck Everything into Oblivion had never officially left the prototype stage. I didn't even have a reliable estimate of its output. The only thing I knew for certain was that thirty Heat runes, high-grade mana ink, and Sahirah's absurd mana reserves were a combination no sane person should ever activate indoors.

Before I could dwell on that thought, the creature outside grew impatient. Another punch tore away an even larger section of the door. Sahirah steadied her trembling hands and started to aim. I stopped her.

"Wait. Let me grab something first." I darted toward my desk and snatched one of the illusion spells, the same one that had saved my life in the library. Returning to her side, I leaned close enough to whisper.

"When the door falls, I'll trap it in an illusion. The moment it breaks free..." I tapped the massive spell in her hands.

"... you activate this thing." Her green and amber eyes met mine. She nodded. No more words were needed. Our body language understood each other well enough. We each took one step backward as another chunk of the door collapsed. We held our breath. A final kick blasted what remained of the door inward, sending it crashing onto the empty bed. Silence followed. A massive Granar slowly stepped through the ruined doorway.

And judging by the enormous scar stretching across his face, he had to be one of the senior students. He took two slow steps toward us.

"The system maker becomes one of us tonight." Then his jaw opened. Wider. Wider still. Far beyond what any living creature should have been capable of. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Flesh stretched with wet, tearing sounds until the mouth became nothing but a cavern... and something white stirred inside. A thick and pale worm emerged from the Granar's throat, forcing its way out inch by inch. It had no eyes, no face at all.

Only a perfectly circular mouth lined with countless tiny teeth that rotated around one another as if searching for somewhere to burrow. My stomach nearly emptied its contents.

"Not the kind of bug I'm comfortable patching, buddy." My thumb slid onto the activation rune, and mana rushed into the paper. The runes ignited one after another as flames began devouring the edges. It was the same illusion spell I'd used in the library. It could delay, yet it couldn't kill. But this time... I had brought the big gun. I tapped Sahirah's shoulder. That was all the signal she needed. Her body became perfectly still. Her eyes narrowed. And mana erupted from her like a living storm.

Her long black hair floated weightlessly around her as the air itself glowed bright under the pressure. The candle became almost invisible beside the white radiance pouring from her body. My illusion shattered. In that exact instant... Sahirah released the spell, and light consumed the room. For one blinding heartbeat, I saw nothing but white. Then the heat hit. It felt as though someone had opened a furnace directly in front of my face.

My skin screamed, and for a terrifying instant I was convinced it would peel from my body. The Granar uttered a horrifying scream. It lasted less than a second. My vision slowly recovered. I finally saw my spell active. Thirty Heat runes poured out streams of incandescent fire so brilliantly white they bordered on blue. Compression runes squeezed each stream into razor-thin lances, while the Vector runes forced them into a violent spiral that twisted around itself like a living drill.

The spinning inferno swallowed the Mimic completely. Flesh, bone, and the white parasite. Everything vanished inside that firery vortex before collapsing into drifting ash. Then I noticed the doorframe. Its edges were glowing orange. Yeah, the thing was melting. My smile disappeared. The stone wall surrounding the doorway had begun to soften as well. A heartbeat later, I caught a glimpse of the corridor outside. The stone floor itself was sagging into glowing liquid. Panic seized me.

All of it had happened in barely more than ten seconds.

"Cut off the mana, Sahirah!"

"I'm trying!"

"Try harder!" She frowned in an impressive display of concentration, but the vortex refused to die. It just kept drilling forward. The paper endured, and so did the ink. The magic circle itself held together perfectly, its design and materials performing exactly as intended. Fuck. Was this what suffering from success felt like? Sweat poured down both our faces as the room grew hotter by the second. The wooden edges of the writing table had begun to smoke.

And if this kept going, I wouldn't be surprised if the candle behind us were to turn into a puddle of wax. No time to think. Enduring the heat, I lunged toward my writing desk, snatched up the vial of expensive mana ink, and threw what remained of it straight onto the spell Sahirah was holding. Black ink splashed across the paper. It flooded the runes, broke every mana pathway, and transformed my masterpiece into nothing more than a chaotic piece of abstract art.

The effect was immediate, the fire vortex vanishing as though someone had snuffed out the sun. The paper in Sahirah's hands burst into flames, all those damaged runes no longer capable of containing the mana still flowing through them. She yelped and instinctively let go. The burning sheet fluttered to the floor, curling into black ash within seconds. Around her, the violent currents of mana finally settled.

And her long black hair, which moments before had floated as though gravity itself had stopped, slowly drifted back onto her shoulders. Silence. I forced myself to look toward the doorway. Big mistake. There was no body. Where the fuck was the body? I took a deep breath, and thought. Maybe, the spiraling torrent of superheated plasma had scattered everything into the night, leaving nothing behind but molten walls and smoking wood. Sahirah looked at me, and I looked back at her.

Neither of us spoke, the same horrifying realization was written plainly across both our faces. If there wasn't even a body... then how were we supposed to prove we'd destroyed the school in self-defense? A joyless laugh escaped my mouth. I couldn't process the absurdity of it all. We had actually managed to screw ourselves over by succeeding too well. Yeah, Fuck Everything into Oblivion fucked everything into oblivion, even our chance to claim self defense. The lack of testing had finally come back to bite us.

As if the universe itself wanted to confirm my worst fears, a familiar figure appeared in what remained of the doorway. Principal Zorik. His robe fluttered gently in the lingering heat as he silently surveyed the destruction before him. I braced myself for shouting, accusations, maybe threats of imprisonment. But instead... he just stared. His eyes slowly wandered across the melted walls. Across the collapsed doorway. Across the corridor.

"... The structural integrity of the building..." His voice sounded strangely distant. Then his gaze drifted toward the glowing trench outside.

"... Why... is there a pool of lava in the floor below?" Sahirah and I exchanged one final glance. Neither of us dared answer. It seemed breaking school property was yesterday's problem. And tonight, we were about to discover the punishment for accidental demolition.

Principal Zorik's office felt different this time. When Sahirah and I were brought inside, we were met by a wall of teachers staring at us as if some punishment council had been dragged out of bed in the middle of the night against their will. Some faces were familiar, like Lathara, that old hag Niori, and Hoko, but if I was being honest, there were more teachers I didn't recognize than ones I did. Sahirah grabbed my hand and stared at the floor in shame, perhaps more affected by their gazes than I was.

She definitely knew all their names. Principal Zorik entered after us. He had apparently been busy giving orders to the security staff, counting the Granar, and trying to confirm our story by figuring out which senior was missing. Unlike his typically authoritarian demeanor, he sat down with a tired expression, pushing his glass globe aside the moment he dropped into his chair. He let out a long sigh before finally addressing the teachers.

"Those two rare-species students," he said, pointing at us, "caused thousands of credits' worth of structural damage to the dormitory building." His eyes moved away from us and toward the academic staff.

"I found no evidence of a Mimic initially. The only evidence I found was that those two had been taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Mimic infestation and the lack of available inspectors to cohabit against the rules of this school." Intense emotion suddenly flashed across his face, and he slammed a fist onto the table.

"But given the human's acquaintanceship with the one archmage who should not be named," he said. Every teacher's eyes widened just a little.

"I conducted a full investigation, and indeed, one of the senior Granar is missing from his dorm. Furthermore, I found unburned wood splinters inside room 267, which suggests the door was forcibly breached. Whether it was the work of a Mimic or an act of aggression by the Granar, those two likely acted in self-defense." He paused.

"However, the sheer disproportion of their response is itself worthy of severe punishment." Disproportion? Seriously? This school failed to protect us, and when we protected ourselves, we got punished for it? It seemed Navar had far more problems than just the lack of a system and a language barrier. I squeezed Sahirah's hand, ready to argue our case, but Principal Dickhead noticed my mouth opening and immediately cast one of those gag spells, preventing me from speaking.

Knowing it would be useless, Sahirah didn't even try to defend us after seeing my fate, and Principal Dickhead actually smiled at her restraint. He turned to the teachers.

"I ask you now: under the current circumstances, what should be done with these two?" That old hag Niori noticed the others were hesitant to speak first, so she jumped in without restraint.

"It's not enough that they destroyed the grass in the atrium," she said.

"They also act as though the rules don't apply to them. I propose we imprison them. Separate cells." Her expression twisted in disgust.

"With the indecency those primitive Riftstorm arrivals display in public, we can't even imagine what they might do in private." Indecency? I still didn't understand the reason behind the taboo surrounding dual cultivation, but the most we'd done was some aggressive hand-holding and cuddling. Though, admittedly, who knew what would have happened if tonight's incident hadn't interrupted things. Still, we were both adults, and whatever we did was none of that old hag's business.

Believe me, she had just earned herself a very special place in my memory for the future, when my system became a world spanning piece of infrastructure. Perhaps her title would be: Expiration Date: Long Overdue. As I smirked at the thought, Hoko spoke, pulling me back to the present.

"We cannot forget that, like me, they are not Greys," he said.

"It would be unreasonable to expect them to follow your prudish laws." He glanced at us before continuing.

"And besides, have you heard what the Granar themselves are saying in the corridors? As far as I can tell, they're grateful those two eliminated a threat living among them." Even though I couldn't speak, I still managed to answer with a smile and a thumbs-up, not caring whether any of them understood the gesture. Lathara picked up the thread immediately.

"I don't believe imprisonment is appropriate," she said.

"Both possess unreasonable talent and could become exceptionally capable casters. If allowed to grow, they could one day serve either the academy or the army." Being pragmatic to a fault, she continued.

"The practical concerns must also be considered," she said.

"Together, they possess more destructive potential than this academy can safely accommodate. Therefore, I propose assigning them to the most distant dormitories available and stationing security personnel to ensure they never interact with each other, either during the day or at night." She gave a respectful nod to Principal Zorik and said nothing more. Sahirah and I exchanged a glance, but since it was only a proposal, we waited. Eventually, every teacher spoke. Some agreed with Niori. Others sided with Hoko.

One had the rather peculiar opinion that, since the Archmage knew me personally, they should simply let us go and pretend nothing had happened. In the end, however, Lathara's proposal was the one that gained the most support, much to Principal Dickhead's displeasure. The man had clearly been hoping the imprisonment argument would prevail. Once every teacher had spoken, he let out a long sigh and announced his decision.

"The two of you," he said, "will be assigned rooms in separate buildings, and members of the staff will ensure that you do not interact, either during the day or during the night." He finally removed the gag covering my mouth, and I spoke immediately.

"How the hell is that fair?" I demanded.

"What kind of planet is this? You think you have the right to decide who can be friends with whom? That's ridiculous, and–""You are acting ungrateful, human." He crossed his arms.

"The staff assigned to keep you apart will also monitor your safety. Given the recent incident, it is quite likely you are being targeted because of that spell the Archmage gave you."

"It's worse than that, Principal Zorik. The Mimic spoke before we destroyed it. The hive wants to capture Eric." Sahirah took a deep breath and said, "We are safer together, Principal." He ignored her words, stood up and walked over to us. He grabbed Sahirah's wrist with one hand and mine with the other, forcibly pulling our hands apart. Looking at us with clear satisfaction, he said, "You are dismissed, human. The Nadiri girl will be released five minutes after you, and someone will escort you to your new room.

Now get out of my office." I caught what I could only describe as a defiant look in Sahirah's eyes, and I answered it with one of my own. As I turned my back on the teachers and left Principal Dickhead's office, one thought refused to leave my mind. Yeah... perhaps Elitha had been right when she said that individual power was everything if you didn't want to be treated unfairly, if you wanted control over your own fate.

Without Sahirah, I'd be in far greater danger against the Mimics, and everything would become undeniably harder. But I was about to pour every ounce of that frustration into devouring Magica Principia, selling my system to as many people as possible, and becoming powerful enough to ensure no one could ever toy with my life like this again.