[The Orion Ducal Estate Morning]
The morning sun reflected blindingly off the pristine Eastern snow. Inside the grand reception hall of the Orion estate, everyone was dressed in the crisp, elegant white and blue uniforms of the Imperial Zenith Academy.
I stood in the far corner with the Chief Eastern Doctor, speaking in hushed, tense tones while Lyra buttoned her heavy winter coat across the room.
"Remember, Your Highness," the Doctor warned me quietly, his eyes grave.
"Her mana core is like fractured glass right now. Any sudden spike of intense fear or emotional distress could cause her magic to violently clash with the babies' TripleAttribute mana. You must keep her completely calm."
I nodded grimly.
That exact, terrifying medical warning was the reason Seraphina and I had made a difficult decision late last night: *We didn't tell Lyra that Elena and Vanya were in her class.
If she had known she was walking into a locked room with her lifelong abusers, the sheer, suffocating panic would have destabilized her core before she even reached the Academy gates.
We had to let her go in calm, praying the instructors would maintain order.
Sometimes the heaviest burden of protecting someone is carrying the terrifying truth in silence, simply so they can breathe freely for just a little while longer.
[Imperial Zenith Academy The Grand Hall]
The massive, crystalline main hall of the Academy was packed with hundreds of elite noble students from across the Empire.
The sorting results were displayed on a glowing magical board hovering above the crowd.
When seventeen year old Lyra looked at her class assignment for the Sovereign-Tier, her breath caught in her throat.
Elena Valerius and Vanya Thorne were listed right below her name.
She turned and saw them standing across the hall, glaring at her with venomous, mocking smiles.
A massive, freezing spike of primal fear hit Lyra's chest, but she immediately closed her eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath, violently forcing her heart rate down.
I cannot panic,Lyra thought, gently resting a protective hand over her stomach.If I lose control of my emotions, it will hurt my babies.
I have to be strong.
She didn't know that her newly assigned SovereignTier Headmaster, Professor Malakor, was a secretly corrupt noble fiercely loyal to Marquis Thorne in the South.
Elena and Vanya were the only ones who knew the trap was already perfectly set.
[The Spell Users Arena Zion's Class]
Meanwhile, in the high tier Spell Users arena, my own combat class was getting ready.
As soon as I walked in, my chaotic Three Aditya instincts flared.
I scanned the massive stone room and locked eyes with a tall, silver-haired student standing dead in the center of the arena.
The mana radiating from his body was absolutely overwhelming.
It felt heavy, oppressive, like a crashing ocean wave.
"I am Darius Vance," the boy said, stepping forward with a cocky smile.
"I've heard the rumors about the Cursed Prince. I challenge you to a duel right now. Let's see what magic attribute the Royal Family is trying to hide."
The entire class gasped, whispering excitedly as they backed away to give us the arena.
I smirked, casually unbuttoning the stiff collar of my uniform. "You asked for it."
[A Message from the Emperor]
(Let me pause this narrative for a moment and speak directly to you. This is Emperor Aldric. You have seen my son, Zion, struggle desperately with his chaotic Three Aditya mana. You have seen it burn him, frustrate him, and isolate him. But you do not truly understand what he is. The exact moment Zion was born, the absolute, suffocating density of his mana was so overwhelmingly heavy that it mathematically equaled that of Grand Duke Yash, a Primordial God. The sheer, apocalyptic force of giving birth to a mortal possessing the mana capacity of a God nearly killed my beloved wife, Empress Elara. She barely survived the delivery, remaining bedridden for an entire year just to recover a fraction of her strength. Zion's power is not a curse. It is a terrifying, unmatched divine weight that his fragile human body is desperately trying to contain. Now, watch what happens when he finally stops holding it back.)
[The Spell Users Arena The Duel]
"Begin!" the instructor yelled.
I instantly dominated the physical space.
A terrifying, pitch black aura of Darkness magic exploded from my hands the exact same absolute gravity magic my father used. I slammed the darkness down, completely crushing the stone arena floor into a spiderweb of craters.
Darius barely dodged, sliding backward, his cocky smile vanishing into wide eyed shock.
"Dark magic?! Just like the Emperor? But your aura is so chaotic... it's completely unstable!"
Darius slammed his palms onto the ground.
"Earth Magic: Stone Pillar!"
The ground beneath my boots violently erupted.
A massive pillar of jagged stone launched me high into the air. Before I could even correct my balance in the sky, Darius thrust his hands forward, his mana peaking.
"Water Magic: Crushing Whirlpool!"
A massive, roaring vortex of high-pressure water materialized in the air, completely swallowing me.
I was trapped inside the spinning, freezing water, the hydraulic pressure threatening to snap my ribs in half.
"Is this all the Royal Family has?!" Darius provoked me loudly from the ground, mocking my struggle.
"Relying on the Emperor's dark magic, but you can't even control it! Your father must be so utterly disappointed in his cursed son!"
The exact moment he insulted my father, something inside my mind completely snapped.
My father wasn't disappointed in me.
He had taken on fourteen territories of mind-numbing bureaucratic paperwork just so he could sit on the floor and play with my adopted kids. He loved me.
FWOOSH.
Inside the crushing whirlpool, the pitch-black darkness swirling around me suddenly vanished.
It was entirely replaced by a blinding, brilliant, pure white light. It was the absolute, cosmic opposite of the Emperor's darkness.
It was Divine Light magic.
The high pressure water vortex instantly vaporized into a massive cloud of hissing steam.
I hovered in the air, glowing with the terrifying, unyielding intensity of a miniature sun. I looked down at Darius, my crimson eyes shining with undeniable authority.
"I appreciate your power, Darius. But do you really think you can win?"
Darius panicked, sweat pouring down his face.
"Gravity Magic: Heavy Field!"
He desperately tried to pin me to the sky with gravity, but I was already gone.
Moving at the literal speed of light, I bypassed the concept of distance and appeared directly behind him. With a single, highly concentrated burst of Light Magic radiating from my palm, I struck his back.
BOOM.
Darius was blasted violently across the arena, skidding across the shattered stone until he crashed into the far wall.
The duel was over in a single, devastating second. The class was absolutely silent, paralyzed by shock.
True power is not just the crushing gravity to bring your enemies to their knees; it is the blinding light to rise flawlessly above them.
I exhaled, the divine light slowly fading from my body. I walked over to Darius, extended my hand, and smiled warmly.
"You're strong. Good fight."
Darius looked at my hand, completely stunned, before a genuine grin broke across his bruised face.
He took it. I hauled him to his feet, acknowledging my new rival.
[The Sovereign Tier Classroom Lyra's Trial]
While I was shaking hands, a horrific nightmare was unfolding in Lyra's classroom.
Professor Malakor stood at the front of the room, looking directly at Lyra with a cold, malicious, highly calculated sneer.
"Princess Lyra," Malakor commanded, his voice dripping with false authority.
"This is the Sovereign Tier class. We only accept absolute perfection. Come to the front and demonstrate your HighTier Healing Magic immediately."
Lyra's pale face went completely translucent.
"Professor, I... I am medically excused from casting any active spells at the moment. It is a strict Imperial Doctor's order."
The classroom instantly erupted in hushed, mocking whispers.
Elena Valerius leaned back in her plush chair, laughing softly into her hand.
"How pathetic. A Princess who can't even cast a basic spell. She's just using her royal title to be lazy."
Vanya Thorne smirked in agreement. "What an absolute disgrace to the Academy."
"Silence," Malakor said, though he made no effort to hide his own cruel smirk.
"Princess Lyra, if you refuse to cast a spell, I will personally file a formal, academic complaint with Duchess Orion and have you expelled from this tier for incompetence. Cast the spell. Now."
Lyra's hands shook violently.
She was completely, hopelessly cornered. She knew that if she failed today, the South would instantly use her expulsion as political leverage against Zion and the Emperor.
Just a little bit, Lyra thought desperately, prioritizing her family's honor over her own safety.Just a tiny spark of magic.
It won't hurt the babies.
Lyra slowly raised her trembling hands. She forced her seventeen-year-old, fragile mana core to ignite, summoning a faint, warm green glow of Healing Magic to her fingertips.
The very second the magic activated, the Triple Attribute mana of her unborn twins violently reacted, treating her spell as a hostile invasion.
A horrific, tearing pain ripped straight through Lyra's chest. Her deep blue eyes widened in absolute, blinding agony.
SPLAT.
A violent spray of dark blood erupted from Lyra's mouth. The green magic instantly shattered like glass.
Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed hard onto the cold stone floor, completely unconscious before she even landed.
The noble students screamed in terror, jumping out of their seats.
Professor Malakor sneered, looking down at her motionless, bleeding body in utter disgust.
"What a mess. Someone carries this trash to the infirmary before she stains the floor…"
WHOOSH!
A blazing, hyper-compressed golden fireball shot straight through the open classroom door, missing Malakor's head by less than an inch and exploding violently against the heavy chalkboard. Malakor screamed in terror, throwing up a desperate Water Shield just in time to save his own life from the resulting shockwave.
"Who the hell did that?!" Malakor roared, turning his panicked eyes toward the door.
Standing in the doorway was eight-year-old Prince Elian.
His eyes were burning with pure, murderous, unadulterated rage, and Cinder, the Sovereign Fire Phoenix, was perched on his small shoulder with its glowing wings aggressively flared.
Standing right behind Elian was Master Varon the highly respected, terrifyingly powerful Headmaster of Elian's class, who was fiercely loyal to the Imperial Family.
"You dare call my sister in law trash?!" Elian screamed, raising his tiny hand as apocalyptic golden fire swirled violently around his fingers.
"I will burn you to ash!"
"Prince Elian, wait!" Master Varon stepped forward, placing a firm, grounding hand on the furious boy's trembling shoulder.
"We must get the Princess to the Doctor immediately! Her life is in grave danger!"
Elian gritted his teeth, his massive killing intent heavily flooding the room.
He pointed a shaking, fiery finger directly at Professor Malakor.
"You saw exactly what happened here, Master Varon," Elian threatened, his high voice dripping with lethal venom.
He glared directly into the Southern Professor's terrified eyes. "I will make sure you pay for this."
Master Varon quickly scooped Lyra's unconscious, bleeding body into his strong arms and sprinted down the stone hallway, with Elian right behind him.
Back in the ruined classroom, amidst the absolute, hyperventilating panic of the other students, Elena Valerius and Vanya Thorne looked at the pool of blood on the floor. A wicked, victorious smile slowly spread across both of their faces.