The end of year holiday was a welcome relief.
For the first time in months, the students were allowed to leave the Academy grounds and return to their families.
Kaelen found himself back in the sprawling, high-altitude Veyron tower.
A digital ping on his new device revealed a message from Mina.
"Kael! My parents are heading to the capital for a council meeting. Come with us? Leo and Sora are already here. We're going to the Grand Core Mall!"
The Capital, Aurelia Prime, was the most protected place on Core. A city of sky-touching buildings and floating rivers sitting directly under the warn lights of there Star.
Kaelen met his friends at the entrance of the Grand Core Mall, a place so large it had its own internal weather system and clouds.
It was a wonder in itself. The higher you went, the larger the floors became, designed like a massive inverted pyramid reaching toward the sun.
Kaelen and the group decided to ascend and start their journey from the 90th floor all the way to the 100th.
First stop was the 90th floor food court, where they fuelled up on pizzas while watching indoor clouds drift past their table.
From 91st to 96th floors, they lost themselves in a shopping spree of high tech gear and fashion.
On 97th floor, they tested their nerves on a gravity defying roller coaster that looped outside the building's glass hull.f
98th and 99th floors were a quiet area for books, where Kaelen browsed magic manuals.
Finally, they reached the 100th floor where lots of movie theaters were present. These theaters were a hyper-realistic experience that made them feel like they were part of the film.
Mina was so excited after the movie ended that she grabbed Kaelen's arm as they walked out.
"See?" Mina said, her eyes shining. "Success isn't just about power. It's about how much you love your thing. That idol sang her heart out!"
"It's about inner peace" Kaelen agreed, though his eyes were scanning the crowds. He felt a strange feeling.
As they were taking a shortcut through a high end commercial alley to head back down. The atmosphere suddenly changed.
The light of the sun disappear, and alley turned completely dark.
"Do you feel that?" Leo asked, his orange fibers flickering nervously.
Suddenly, the space in the center of the alley tore open into a jagged, violent portal.
From the darkness of the portal, a massive, tusked creature stepped out.
It was green-skinned, encased in crude, rusted metal armor, and carried a jagged blade.
"An Orc," Sora whispered, her face pale. "From the Outskirts. They're universe looters."
The creature was followed by three more.
"Mina, Sora, Leo run!" Kaelen commanded, his voice snapping them out of their shock.
"Find a security terminal and alert the Capital AI, QUEEN. Tell them there's a Breach in alley!"
"Go! I can see some things about this portal due to my DNA. It is about to stabilise"
Kaelen stood alone against the four giants. He was five years old, Intermediate Fiber Realm mage, facing creatures were equivalent to Expert Fiber realm mage.
Kaelen begin to filling his fibers in the body to there maximum limits with mana such that they begin to emit dark red light inside the Kaelen body.
He used his fibers power to jump over the Orcs and send his red fibers into the portal which detonated inside.
"Ugh!" Kaelen groaned, blood trickling from his nose. His nervous system felt like it lost some of its part..
The portal flickered and groaned like a dying beast. The Orcs turned, realizing their exit was being destabilised by a tiny human child.
The lead Orc roared, raising its massive blade. It charged toward Kaelen, who was too exhausted to move.
He had successfully stopped portal, but he was empty. He collapsed to his knees, his vision blurring.
Just as the blade began to fall, the sky screamed with the sound of breaking sound barriers.
[SECURITY ALERT: BREACH DETECTED. NEUTRALIZATION IN PROGRESS.]
The City AI, QUEEN, took control. Automated turrets hidden in the walls of the city deployed, firing beams of paralyzing blue light.
But the real power arrived a second later.
A fifteen-meter-tall Mecha crashed down from the sky, landing between Kaelen and the Orcs.
The machine was a blur of white and gold, its movements fluid and terrifyingly fast.
The pilot a Master Yarn Realm Mage didn't even use weapons.
The mecha simply swiped its hand and crushed the Orcs into the ground, pinning them instantly.
"Breach under control" a voice boomed from the mecha's external speakers.
The pilot looked down at the small boy on the ground. "Impressive work, kid. You stopped the breach."
"But you almost destroyed your nervous system. This was a small and sneaky portal, so you succeeded. Otherwise, you could have been sucked in."
After hearing this, Kaelen's world went dark as he blacked out.
The next thing Kaelen knew, he was waking up to the sterile, comforting scent of high-grade healing solutions.
He was in the Veyron Hospital ward in his family tower, specifically the Advanced Recovery Wing.
He looked up to see his mother, Lyra, hovering over him.
She wasn't just his mother right now. she was the Chief Medical Officer of the facility.
Her face was a mix of immense pride and terrifying motherly anger.
"Kaelen Alrin Veyron," she said, her voice trembling slightly.
"If you ever try to do something like this again. I will lock you in a gravity-room until you're thirty years old."
"Did it work?" Kaelen rasped, his throat dry.
"It worked," a voice said from the doorway. Mina was there, her eyes red from crying, followed by Alrin.
"The security service said you saved the city from breach. If that portal had stayed open for another minute, a Blooded veteran would have come through."
Alrin stepped forward, placing a hand on Kaelen's shoulder.
He didn't scold him. He just looked at the medical monitors showing Kaelen's vitals.
"You acted like a Veyron," Alrin said quietly. "But your mother is right. You have the spirit of a warrior, but you need the strength to carry it."
Kaelen nodded, closing his eyes as the healing light washed over him.
When he again opened his eyes healing nanites in his bed working to repair the microscopic tears in his nervous system.
A group of people were waiting around him. It wasn't just his parents and Mina's family. Two investigators from the Core Security Bureau (CSB) stood at the foot of the bed.
"You did something very brave but equally reckless" one of the investigators said, tapping a command onto his wrist-link.
A contour map of the Capital appeared in the air, highlighting the energy spikes from alley.
Mina's father leaned in, his brow furrowed. "How did a group of pirates get past the QUEEN? QUEEN sensors should have detected a portal that size instantly."
"They didn't forcefully breached" the investigator explained. "They had help from the inside."
"A pirate syndicate known as the Void-Reapers provided the Orcs with a cover to bypass QUEEN scan."
"In exchange, the Orcs brought something the pirates couldn't get anywhere else: Star Iron."
The investigator explained the reason of the crime. Pirates were trying to complete a high stake trade of Star Iron which is a mineral found out of our universe.
It has a unique property. It can absorb and neutralize the energy of a Yarn Realm Mage.
For pirates, Star Iron is the necessary material. A bullet or blade coated in this mineral can cut through a Yarn like a hot knife through butter.
"They chose that specific alley because it sits near a seam of the protective garment of the Cores" Lyra added, her voice professional yet tinged with a mother's worry.
"The pirates used the micro scopic gaps in seam to send the signals and create a portal for creatures as heavy as Orcs."
Kaelen sat up, his chest still tight. "What was the reason for the orcs to infiltrate."
"We do not know yet." Alrin said, his voice dropping.
Once the investigators left, the room went quiet. Kaelen looked at his hands, which were still trembling slightly from the neural strain.
"They're going to keep coming, aren't they?" Kaelen asked his father. "The pirates, the orcs."
"When they have not tried to infilterate" Alrin replied. He sat on the edge of the bed, his presence grounding the room.
"This is why the second year is different. You saw it today. Your mind was ready to fight, but your body can support only so much."
"Your fibers are growing faster than your body can handle."
Lyra checked the monitors one last time, her eyes scanning the fluctuating graphs of his vitals.
"I am thinking of giving you some basic body training before the academy starts" Alrin decided.
"Because next time, the Mecha might not arrive in time to save you."