Chapter 6: Splintered Glass

Chapter 6: Splintered Glass

The shockwave from Veyron’s cursed entry exploded through Thalen’s suite, turning every windowpane into a glittering storm of razor-sharp shrapnel.

"Look out!" Zeyric yelled, throwing his shoulder into Thalen’s chest to drive them both hard against the mahogany desk as a hail of glass shards embedded itself into the wall behind them.

"Get off me!" Thalen snapped, even as his fingers instinctively locked around Zeyric’s wrist to haul him back to his feet.

"You’re welcome for saving your life!" Zeyric shot back, his breathing ragged as the residual shock of the blast rattled straight down his spine and into Thalen’s nervous system.

"Save your breath; we need it," Thalen said, his ice-blue eyes locking onto the ruined doorway where Veyron stood framed by swirling purple smoke.

Across the room, Veyron didn't look like an elite academy student anymore. His skin had taken on a terrifying, translucent pallor, and black veins throbbed visibly along his neck, pulsing in time with the weeping obsidian dagger in his grip.

"They're not even acting of their own free will," Zeyric whispered, watching the three thralls standing stiffly behind Veyron with vacant, violet-glazed eyes. "Look at their posture. The magic is puppeteering them."

"It’s draining them alive," Thalen added, his voice dropping an octave as his magical aura flared to life, casting jagged silver reflections across the ruined floor. "Veyron isn't casting that curse—the curse is burning him to fuel this entry."

"Well, he’s doing a damn good job of turning my room into a landfill," Zeyric muttered, sliding his hand down until his fingers interlocked with Thalen’s.

The moment their skin made direct contact, the chaotic static in their minds vanished, replaced by an instantaneous, blinding rush of pure, raw mana. It was as if a dam had burst inside Zeyric’s chest, flooding his vast, untamed reserves straight into Thalen’s pinpoint-precise casting channels.

"Together," Thalen murmured, his usual arrogance entirely stripped away, replaced by a desperate, electric synchronization.

"On your count," Zeyric breathed, feeling the sudden, dizzying weight of Thalen’s tactical brilliance mapping out the entire room layout inside his own consciousness.

Veyron snarled, a wet, choking sound, and lunged forward with the black-smoke dagger raised high. "Burn with the rest of them!"

Before Veyron could cross the threshold, Thalen and Zeyric moved as a single, terrifyingly coordinated entity. They didn't speak a word; they didn't need to. Zeyric’s sheer, unfiltered mana pool surged through their joined palms, while Thalen’s razor-sharp focus shaped the chaotic energy into a twin-layered defensive barrier of compressed air and blazing silver fire.

CRASH.

When Veyron’s cursed blade struck their combined shield, the impact didn't break their defense—it threw a massive, concussive shockwave back down the hallway, blasting Veyron’s thralls off their feet and sending them sprawling into the corridor walls.

"How are you... doing that?" Veyron choked out, blood spilling from the corners of his mouth as the parasitic mind-charm visibly clawed deeper into his skin, draining the last dregs of his life force. "You're just a commoner and a spoiled brat—you shouldn't have that kind of resonance!"

"You talk too much," Zeyric shouted, feeling a sudden, burning strain in his shoulder as Thalen simultaneously cast a heavy kinetic pulse.

The invisible wave of force slammed directly into Veyron’s chest, lifting the corrupted student off the ground and launching him backward into the shattered doorframe. Veyron hit the stone floor with a sickening thud, the obsidian dagger clattering away from his limp fingers and dissolving into harmless black mist.

"He's passing out," Zeyric said, starting forward, but Thalen caught him sharply by the arm.

"Don't touch him. The parasite is still active in his bloodline," Thalen warned, his chest heaving as the adrenaline slowly began to recede from their shared system.

The three thralls groaned, slowly blinking away the violet haze in their eyes as the suffocating pressure in the room finally dissipated. Outside in the hallway, the distant sound of running boots and shouting faculty members echoed up the stairwell.

"The ward-breaker we just threw caught half the floor's alarms," Zeyric said, glancing from the ruined doorway to Thalen’s pale, sweat-slicked face. "The entire security patrol is going to be here in thirty seconds."

"Then we aren't staying to greet them," Thalen muttered, gripping Zeyric’s hand tighter before turning toward the back window that looked out over the upper courtyards.

"Through the window? Thalen, we're on the fourth floor!" Zeyric protested, his stomach dropping.

"Trust me," Thalen said, a fierce, desperate edge returning to his voice as he pulled Zeyric toward the glass-strewn ledge. "The bond will catch us."

Before Zeyric could argue, the heavy oak door of the suite finally gave way under the weight of the approaching faculty guards, splintering into kindling as Professor Starwyn’s voice rang out from the corridor.

"Hold your fire!" Starwyn commanded, stepping into the ruined suite and stopping dead in her tracks as she stared at the unconscious Veyron and the smoking walls.

"Now!" Thalen yelled.

Without waiting another second, Thalen and Zeyric leaped off the fourth-floor ledge together, their hands locked tight as a brilliant, silver-blue aura billowed beneath them, breaking their fall into the cold night air.