Lahat ng Kabanata ng Bonds By Blades : Kabanata 41 - Kabanata 50

---Kael did not remember leaving the archive.One moment he was on his knees, the world folding in on itself, his chest burning with something far worse than pain.The next, he was moving.Or being moved.Voices blurred around him. Hands reached for him. Someone was shouting orders. Boots struck stone in uneven rhythm as the academy spiraled deeper into chaos.But none of it stayed.None of it mattered.Because the only thing Kael could feel was the bond.Breaking.Not fully.Not yet.But cracking in ways that made it impossible to ignore.It felt like something inside his chest was being slowly pulled apart, thread by thread, each connection straining until it threatened to snap.And beneath that pain, there was something worse.Silence.Where there should have been warmth.Where there should have been Rowan.“Stay with me.”The voice cut through the noise.Sharp.Grounded.Real.Kael forced his eyes open.Rowan.Still there.Still close.Still holding onto him like he refused to le

---The courtyard was no longer holding.Not in the way it was meant to.The barrier still stood, glowing faintly along its edges, reinforced by every instructor who could still focus enough to maintain it.But inside it, order had collapsed.Students staggered where they stood, clutching their chests, their heads, their arms, as if something invisible was tearing through them. Some fell. Some screamed. Some simply went quiet, eyes wide with confusion as whatever held them together shifted without warning.Kael stood in the middle of it, breathing slowly, forcing himself to remain upright.The bond was still gone.Completely gone.Where there had once been a constant presence, a quiet awareness that grounded him even when everything else fell apart, there was now only emptiness.And it felt wrong.Wrong in a way that made everything else seem unstable.Even his own thoughts.Rowan was right in front of him.Close enough to touch.Close enough that Kael could see every small shift in h

---For a moment after Darius lost his balance, everything slowed.Not the kind of silence that brings relief. The kind that makes you realize something worse is about to happen.Kael felt it before he saw it.The core reacted.It didn’t just pulse this time. It flared, like it was alive and angry, like it didn’t like being pushed. The light around it sharpened, turning harsher, almost unstable.Darius steadied himself, but something had changed.The confidence was still there. That hadn’t gone anywhere. But now there was something else underneath it.Tension.“You shouldn’t have done that,” Darius said quietly.Kael didn’t respond. He was already shifting his stance again, adjusting his grip on his blade, keeping his focus locked in.Rowan moved slightly closer, not touching, but close enough that Kael could feel him there.Not through the b

The light swallowed the room.For a second, Kael couldn’t see anything. Not the walls. Not the floor. Not even Rowan beside him.Just white.Blinding.Endless.Then the force hit.It slammed into him like a wave, knocking the air from his lungs and driving him back. His shoulder hit stone hard enough to rattle his vision, but he barely registered the pain.All he could feel was the pressure.Everywhere.Inside him.Around him.Like the core had stopped trying to control anything and was just… breaking it.“Rowan!”Kael forced the word out, but it barely sounded like his own voice.No answer.His chest tightened.Not from the pressure this time.From something worse.He pushed himself forward, fighting against the force that felt like it wanted to pin him in place. Every step felt heavier than the last, like walking through something thick and resistant.“Rowan!”“I’m here!”The response came from his left.Kael turned sharply, forcing his eyes to adjust through the glare.He saw him.

---For a long moment, Kael did not move.He did not think.He did not breathe.The chamber, which had been shaking seconds ago, was now completely still. No light. No sound. No pressure. Just emptiness.And Rowan was gone.Kael stared at the space where he had been.His mind refused to catch up.Refused to accept what his eyes were telling him.“No,” he said quietly.It didn’t feel like a word. It felt like something pulled out of him without permission.He took a step forward.The ground beneath his feet was cracked, uneven, but solid again. The glow that had filled the room was gone completely, leaving only dim shadows and broken stone.“Rowan.”No answer.Kael moved faster.Crossing the distance in seconds, dropping to his knees where Rowan had been standing just moments ago.Nothing.