Lancelot instinctively blocked Seith's kick with his hand holding his sword, while his other hand went to grab Seith's ankles.

Lancelot tackled Seith, biting at his blade and making them fall onto the floor with a loud thud as his grip on his sword loosened. The latter quickly coiled his lean body around to shift their positions, grabbing a hold of Lancelot's arm to twist it.

Before their swordfight completely turned into a rough brawl, Lancelot broke free and managed to create a distance between them, fixing his stance. His eyes turned serious, suppressing his thrilled adrenaline from blindly rushing at his opponent.

Seith pressed his shoulder wound from earlier, making sure to hide it if any of his gilded blood oozed out.

'He fights too vulgar. Is he a dog?'

Lancelot rubbed his throbbing neck, firmly pressing his lips together.

'He fights too mechanically. Is he trying to kill me?'

Realizing he revealed his killing intent first, Lancelot decided to be more careful and reigned his emotions.

Seith had gotten a little agitated, but still hid his expression properly. He scraped his sword's tip on the floor, forcibly regaining his balance and ignoring the dizzying ache of his temples that was slowly overwhelming him.

He realized it was one of the fragments' work again, but all of them were remaining quiet, including Eiran.

Hence, there could only be one reason for it: the main fragment, Aster, is forcing his control.

'Aster is responding to his killing intent. This isn't good, it's only been 5 minutes. I'll have to finish this quicker than expected.'

Seith's demeanor changed. He no longer matched Lancelot's speed and instead went for his vitals relentlessly. First was his tendons. He rotated his blade and ducked, swinging low.

Next was his ribs and up to his solar plexus, which he ruthlessly struck with the handle of his sword, holding it in a reverse grip.

Lancelot furrowed his brows in pain, feeling his bones shattering from the mere blunt blow.

'His pace changed!'

He reflexively assumed a defensive position by crossing his arms, but soon realized immediately that it was a mistake. Seith spun around him, utilizing his blind spot and slashed his back, leaving a deep gnash.

Some of the aspiring cadets spectating rose from their seats with a look of worry. They could tell the duel was heading off to an odd direction.

"P-professor..."

Lancelot lost his footing, unable to keep up with Seith's movements and distracted from the pain, kneeled to the floor. Seith stopped his steps for a moment and furrowed his brows, feeling the creeping sound of tinitus clouding his senses slowly getting louder.

'I have fo finish this. It must be me, not Aster. If he comes out like back then, this child will die.'

He flicked his wrist, subtly shaking off the blood in his sword before holding its handle firmly with both hands.

"Enough!"

Before Seith's sword could cut through his neck, a transparent barrier suddenly conjured around Lancelot, leading him startled. The barrier quickly repelled Seith's attack and bounced it off.

It seems the arena's runes recognized the intent of Seith's attack as lethal and activated on its own, just as how Professor Louise subtly mentioned it.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Aster Riverblood, passed!"

"Lancelot."

Professor Louise stood in front of Lancelot, stretching her hand to the side as if guarding him from Seith.

"Passed. Head to the infirmary to treat your wounds."

"You went overboard, Riverblood. I get that he directed killing intent at you, but this kind of behavior during a duel is unacceptable." Professor Louise coldly reprimanded Seith in front of all the applicants present.

Nevertheless, Seith did not bow his head and remained standing firm.

"If you were that concerned, you should have stopped me before things got to this point. But you simply watched, Professor."

"One of the values a knight must possess is to be able to bear the responsibility of wielding a blade. You ought to learn that first."

"I was taught to eliminate whatever threat comes my way, regardless of the circumstance."

Seith sheathed his sword slowly and hopped off the arena, returning to the waiting room.

Professor Louise's gaze darted off to Seith's hands, firmly clutching the shallow gnash on his shoulder. She lightly scoffed, feeling the absurdity.

"As if something like that would threaten you with such lethal swordsmanship."

She turned away from Seith and faced the passing cadets.

"The rankings of the scorers will be announced along with the details for the last test, so look forward to it. Although..." She side-eyed Seith before continuing.

"You lot may already know who the top scorer is."

Zyler's eyes trailed off to 'Aster' who was aloofly exiting the examination building without waiting for the professor to finish.

'If I had fought him instead of Lancelot, who would have won?'

Thorne took a sip of his favorite earl grey tea, observing the unofficial cadets exiting their assigned examination area from his office's spacious window.

Amongst the fairly organized group of young aspiring knights, it wasn't that hard to spot Seith leaving the building. He was always alone and avoided by everyone, so he stood out wherever he went.

From a distance, an unusually huge raven flew to his direction, naturally landing on his shoulder where a short gnash of a blade could be seen. His fingers flicked its beak, to which the raven responded with continuous pecks at his head. Although unnoticeable even up close, Thorne caught a glimpse of its sharp talons having an etched runic phrase.

'Is that his familiar? Impressive, to have one at that age...'

"What do you think, Louise?" He turned his head to the side, his back still facing her as she slowly headed closer to Thorne's side.

"He's...dangerous, Professor." Louise nudged her glasses in place.

"That boy..." Louise opened her mouth to state her findings, to which Thorne calmly took in while idly sipping his lukewarm tea.

Seith sat by a nearby bench in the city square and pressed his temples.

"Alright, alright. Stop causing a fuss already." He mumbled inaudibly.

Seith's head drooped slowly, his bangs covering his face further. Soon enough, Aster raised it again, motioning his hand to remove the high ponytail that Seith had tied and let his hair hang loose.

"How was the fight?" The raven, or rather Vontravis, spatted in an odd tone. Aster lightly flinched in surprise, but immediately fixed his expression.

"You could've just normally said it telepathically. Speaking in that form irks me."

"No thank you. Hearing all the voices inside your head irks me more than you could imagine."

Aster scoffed.

"But you specialize in hypnosis."

"Precisely. I control the mind domain, so it touches all my pet peeves in every ways whenever I enter your mindscape that's in utter chaos."

Vontravis ruffled his feathers and shook his raven head.

"This form is nice. How comfortable. I should transform like this to accompany you from now on."

Aster rose from the bench and strolled around the city square without much thought. Everyone else probably left already, but he had a lingering strange feeling of wanting to stay a little longer.

He caught a glimpse of Zyler exiting the infirmary alongside Lancelot, who trudged with heavy steps. He seemed lost in thought, probably because of the duel.

'That child.'

Aster recalled Seith's fight with Lancelot, and Zyler's earlier duel. It was kind of closer to a brawl, but well...

Now that he was able to circulate the ambient mana around him, his small wound had long healed before he could worry about it.

'There seems to be a lot of geniuses gathered here. Figures. This may very well be the most famous learning institute.'

"Have something in mind?" Vontravis tilted his small head, his ruby red eyes staring directly at Aster's face. Some would find it unsettling, but it was Aster.

He was basically horror-proof.

'Too bad he was born an earthling.'

[You pity him? I'd rather be an earthling. At least we won't have to deal with being the Lord's cute little marionette.]

[I don't think cute really suits us...]

"...It's nothing."

To distract himself, he stared at the enveloped handed over to Seith by the professor, containing the last test's contents.

'I'll have to attend school? Me?'

[Troublesome. But it's a solid cover. No one in the Continent can recklessly touch a cadet in Alioth Knight Academy.]

The Lord had given her direct permission. Thus, all the affairs that will unfold from now on will be in his hands. Whether its the dirty ones she tells him to clean, or his personal matters. He still needed to secure the relic, but that wasn't an urgent matter to worry about.

'First, determining the owner of this identity we ended up borrowing.'

'Second, shaking off the trail of the knights from the border who's most likely already investigating the Cathedral secretly.'

'Third, organizing all the Phantoms scattered across the Continent.'

He swallowed his heavy sigh upon the thought. He only arrived a few days ago and there's so much to do already.

Aster's feet trudged towards Zyler's direction, who now parted ways with Lancelot. Not putting any effort in hiding his presence, Zyler immediately noticed Aster's trail.

Nevertheless, he continued strutting like a street drunkard as if oblivious of his environment. Instead, he headed for a fairly narrow alleyway to lure Aster.

Aster halted his steps as soon as they reached a particularly secluded alleyway.

"You."

Zyler turned his head, blinking a few times, pretending to be surprised. He looked around pompously and stared at Aster with a stupid expression, pointing a finger at himself.

"Me?"

"Is there anyone else here?" Zyler shook his head slowly, his bright hazel eyes not leaving Aster.

"Wow. It's a first for the...oh-so unapproachable Cathedral priest to call me first."

Aster stared at the glowing energy in his solar plexus amidst his black-and-white dull outline in his senses. It was faint, but with his uncanny sense of vision that's different from everyone else, he could recognize a familiar form of energy swirling around his psyche.

It was soren, though not as pure as a real Sorenian's.

It was similar to the ones being emitted by Harin and the other Phantoms. It was also the reason for his excessive reaction from their first encounter, raising his guard too high.

Thus, with a cold face, Aster spoke.

"I know you're a Nephilim."

Zyler's friendly smile instantly fell as he felt like he was doused in ice cold water.