Cyrus Valerion was terrible at controlling his temper. His mother, the duchess, had always said so; however, the past few days had been a true test of restraint for him.
He had only managed to keep himself somewhat under control with Kellan’s help, but when Aodhán had smashed his girlfriend’s head almost to a pulp, Cyrus had lost what little control he had left. He had teleported forward, intent on smashing the commoner's head just the way he had smashed Lilith’s, but Professor Alaric had stopped him.
Seething with rage, Cyrus had returned to his position beside Kellan and watched as professor Alaric scolded Aodhán and Lilith before sending them out of the hall.
Lilith glanced at him, despite the urgings of the healer, and Cyrus could read the pain on her face. It stoked his own already overwhelming fury, but before he could do anything stupid, Kellan placed a hand on his wrist and forcefully suppressed his emotions.
Cyrus wanted to fight against the emotional suppression; he could even push through it; instead, he let it be. He let his emotions simmer and roil beneath the suppression, doing absolutely nothing to control or channel it.
For the rest of the exercise, Cyrus glared at everything and anything, thinking of ways to finally put the commoner in his place once and for all.
During the first half of the semester, Cyrus had barely noticed the upstart, but during the break, the commoner had somehow managed to impress his father. For the life of him, Cyrus couldn’t fathom what Aodhán could have done to earn his father’s attention and approval when he, the rightful heir of his father's dukedom, was yet to despite all his genius.
For the first half of the break, Cyrus had mentally tortured himself, wondering whether it was because of Aodhán’s affinity or the fact that he had gained a familiar, a feat that by all rights should have been impossible.
He was the genius! If anyone should be doing the impossible or gaining his father's approval, it should be him. He was his fucking heir for ascendant sake!
After several days of futilely torturing himself, Cyrus finally summoned the courage to confront his father. However, when he'd stepped into his father’s study, guess who his father had wanted to talk about? The blasted commoner.
“You should make friends with him.” His father had said with a dismissive wave. “He’s obviously going places, and the council has already put his name forward as a champion candidate.”
“I’m also a candidate.” Cyrus had responded. “I’m more powerful than he is and top of my class on the forge list. Would it kill you to see my achievements and applaud them the way you do others?”
His father glared at him. “Your candidacy is unofficial at best. You were only considered because your brother is a champion. Champions do extraordinary things. Tell me, Nine, what extraordinary things have you done.”
There it was. A fucking number. His father didn’t even know his name, and if he did, he never bothered to use it. All he knew was a fucking number, and Cyrus hated him for it. He could do nothing against his father though, so instead, he directed all that hate at the commoner instead. He was the best student in the first-year bracket of the 5th academy, yet where was his honor and respect?
His memories only served to heighten his rage despite Kellan’s best efforts, and when the class finally ended, Cyrus was on the verge of exploding. He jerked his wrist away from Kellan and rushed out of the hall, his fury burning hot as he activated {Spatial scan}—a skill Artemis had taught him—to search for the commoner.
“Cyrus, think this through.” Kellan shouted as he rushed after him. “You could get suspended or expelled for this.”
“His father is the Duke idiot. He couldn’t get expelled from the academy even if he tried.” Grendar replied vapidly as she followed along.
“You’re not helping matters, Grendar!” Kellan shouted. “We’re supposed to calm him down.”
“Calm him down?” Grendar spat. “Ascendants! I want in on the action too. Didn’t you see the way he shattered Lilith’s skull?”
“You don’t even like Lilith!” Kellan spat back, but Cyrus was barely listening, his entire focus on {Spatial scan}, which he pushed to the absolute limit, and when he finally found the commoner, his rage exploded.
He teleported forward, his entire body blazing with spatial energy as he tore a hole through space and punched.
His attack sent Aodhán flying back, but Cyrus was just getting started. With a wave of his hands, he shattered the space between them, grabbed the longest shard of jagged space he could find, and slashed forward, cutting through space and draconic scales until he touched bone. Aodhán roared in pain, his claws raking past Cyrus’s skin, but a quick activation of {Spatial Manipulation} prevented the claws from touching him. Despite his impressive control, the skill did little against the condensed beam of red electricity that Aodhán unleashed next.
The explosive beam struck him at point blank range and threatened to erase him from existence.
***
Aodhán launched himself through a wall of shattered space, gritting his teeth in pain as jagged spatial shards tore through his scales. The pain wasn’t nearly enough to give him pause though, and with all the fury and speed of a storm unleashed, Aodhán lunged forward, his claws aiming for Cyrus’s throat, but space stretched weirdly and his attack missed its mark.
Aodhán was unfazed. With a furious roar, he activated {Lightning Beam—Red} at point-blank range, channeling eight strands of energized willpower into the attack.
A concentrated beam of red lightning erupted from his hands, tearing through the air with blinding speed. The beam struck Cyrus with tremendous force, hurling him backward until he crashed into a full-length mirror, shattering it into shards.
Cyrus howled in pain but teleported out of the beam an instant before it exploded, engulfing the entire back wall in electricity. The sound of shattering glass and cracking tiles barely registered in their minds as they rushed towards each other again.
This time, Aodhán attacked with a beam of black lightning, but Cyrus dodged easily, twisting space in a way that should not have been possible to stab at him with a jagged shard of space. The dagger cut through Aodhán’s scales almost too easily, but before it could do too much damage, Aodhán unleashed his aura.
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The pressure that descended was so sudden and intense that Cyrus collapsed to the floor and smashed his jaw!
Seizing the moment, Aodhán rushed forward, determined to tear Cyrus apart while his defenses were down. However, by some bizzare twist of fate, Cyrus pushed past the crushing pressure of his aura and teleported, an instant before he struck!
The sudden emptiness where Cyrus had stood only fueled Aodhán’s rage. He twisted his body and brought his tail around in a vicious arc, sweeping through the space where Cyrus had appeared. But again, Cyrus blinked out of reach. He reappeared just behind Aodhán and lashed out, slicing a sharp blade of compressed space into Aodhán’s exposed back. The blade sunk in to the hilt, and Aodhán coughed out blood as Cyrus twisted the blade violently.
Gritting his teeth against the pain, Aodhán activated {Lightning Surge—Red}, unleashing a floor of red lightning that surged outwards in an unstoppable wave that caught Cyrus off guard. In the brief moment of reprieve, Aodhán reached behind and ripped the infernal blade from his back, crying out in agony as tears welled in his eyes.
Without hesitation, he grabbed Cyrus by the neck, and before the noble could teleport away, Aodhán plunged the spatial blade into his chest. He followed up with another beam of red lightning, a devastating strike that Cyrus attempted but failed to avoid.
The beam smashed Cyrus into the wall and exploded, engulfing the entire lobby in lightning. Cyrus collapsed to the floor, bleeding from countless wounds, but just as Aodhán prepared to finish him off, an overpowering aura suddenly descended, and Aodhán was smashed forcefully to the floor.
Rahim stood above them, his expression filled with fury and disappointment. He looked as if he wanted to speak, but instead he just opened a portal and growled. “Explain yourselves to the principal.”
Rahim threw both of them into the portal, and this time, the ride was even more turbulent than the last time. They arrived at principal Zatya’s office much in the same way they’d arrived the last time, although this time, Aodhán was able to keep his breakfast down. The world stopped spinning after a few seconds, and Aodhán finally looked up to find principal Zatya surrounded by a group of professors, all of whom were glaring at them. Among them were professor Caldwell, professor Alaric, professor Aleran, and lastly, professor Dubois.
Aodhán shrunk, his anger subsiding under their collective gazes, and he quickly pushed himself up to his feet. Cyrus, who was already on his feet, more resistant to the turbulence of spatial travel, stood stone-faced, his anger still evident and barely restrained.
Principal Zatya glared at the both of them for a moment before speaking. “Professor Alaric has appraised me of the situation, so I won’t be deducting any more forge points. However, the unsanctioned fighting of students within the academy walls is a crime worthy of suspension, and I cannot let this slide. Not only have you broken the academy rules, you have damaged the academy's properties. I am severely disappointed in the both of you, and I find this competitive hatred you both have against each other nauseating. For these reasons, I have decided to send you both to the sink for five days, until you come to understand the error of your ways.”
Aodhán had no idea what the sink was, but from the expressions on the faces of the professors, especially professor Dubois, who looked severely perplexed, Aodhán imagined it was far from good.
“Perhaps you would like to reconsider, principal Zatya. The sink is—professor Dubois began, but principal Zatya cut her off with a wave of her hand.
“I have made my decision, Faelar.” She turned her gaze to Rahim and ordered. “Take them away.”
Rahim obeyed hesitantly, and although the spatial transfer this time was much gentler, Aodhán vomited his breakfast onto the cold, hard floor they’d arrived at. Shuddering, he looked around to find himself in a literal prison.
It looked no different from the pictures he had seen back on earth, except for the fact that the entire building was crafted out of null metal. Already, he could feel his strength waning as the dense amount of null essence in the air converged around him.
A guard, an advanced-class woman who looked no different from the null metal itself, stood by a counter, and when she saw them, she walked towards them and mutely stretched a tray forward.
“What are we supposed to do? Cyrus began, but she silenced him with a sharp glare.
“No talking in the sink!” She looked at Rahim and said, “You may go; I’ll take it from here.”
Rahim nodded, and with a sad expression, he teleported out. The guard turned back to them and said, “Submit every awakened item on your person. This includes your chip, spatial items, and any other items.”
They did as ordered, and after that, the woman led them deeper into the sink. The deeper they got, the more choking the converging null essence became. They swirled around Aodhán, as thick as smoke, and after about a minute or two of walking, Aodhán’s breaths grew ragged, his core dimmed, and everything remotely magical within him winked out.
The guard shoved him into a small room surrounded by tall walls covered in black runes. The door shut behind him with a clang, and Aodhán shuddered.
Ever since he had arrived in this world, he had never felt this powerless. His core was inaccessible. His energy was unresponsive, and his willpower was absent, but most of all, his connection to Varéc was gone. His seal had dimmed, and the thought of opening his spirit to the origin plane promised indescribable pain. He was well and truly neutered. All he could do was stare at his status screen and watch the minutes slowly tick by.
***
After the class ended, Daruk and Andrew began texting Aodhán to know where he was and what he was doing. This was obviously not the first time Aodhán was losing control of his emotions like this, but this was the first time it happened with a lot more witnesses. A part of Daruk felt bad that he hadn’t taken any actions to help Aodhán more, as he seemed to be getting worse with each lapse of control. However, what could he even do to help?
The first time Daruk had seen Aodhán lose control like this was when he’d almost attacked him for almost freezing him and Andrew to death. The second time was when he had almost skewered Aldric, although at the time, he’d still been suffering from the twisted effect. The third time was when he’d almost crushed the head of that nosy reporter to paste, and now this?
Andrew and Daruk kept sending him messages, and although he didn’t respond, he was at least receiving them. However, it was when the messages stopped going through that they realized that something much more serious was going on.
They rushed towards Rahim’s office, where they found him watching a muted clip on his table while he wearily massaged his temples.
Rahim waved them in, and when they explained the situation to him, Rahim sighed. “Tell me, Daruk, has your brother been acting strange lately?”
Daruk frowned and shook his head. “No more than normal. He gets a little depressed from time to time, but I haven’t noticed any extremely strange behaviors.” It wasn’t the total truth, but Daruk wasn’t going to admit that his brother might be a nut case.
Rahim glanced at Andrew, who shrugged. “None that I’ve noticed. Is he in trouble?”
“Yes.” Rahim replied curtly. “He and Cyrus got into a fight that destroyed the entire male bathroom on the 4th floor. For that, the principal has suspended them for five days.”
Daruk couldn’t say he was shocked. Cyrus and Aodhán had been circling each other ever since they returned from the break, and after that stunt in the class earlier today, it had only been a matter of time before they finally came to a head. Still, he hadn’t expected it to go this far—destruction of academy properties? Aodhán was usually much more in control than that.
Rahim leaned forward and asked. “How do you think he’s dealing with the whole breakup thing? Perhaps this is as a result of that?”
“Breakup?” Andrew echoed in confusion, and Daruk sighed in disappointment.
Oh, this was such an Aodhán thing to do. To be dying inside and keep it to himself. Why hadn’t he told them?
Rahim soon realized that they weren’t even aware of the breakup thing and shook his head. “That boy needs to learn how to open up more. He’s keeping too many unnecessary things bottled up.”
Daruk let out a deep breath and asked. “Where is he now?”
“In suspension.” Rahim replied simply, and Daruk shook his head. “No, I mean, can we see him?”
Rahim shook his head. “Unfortunately not. He’ll be suspended for almost a week, so I fear you’ll both have to go about your daily activities without him.”
“What about classes?” Andrew asked.
Rahim shrugged. “I can’t help him, but perhaps you can when he comes out in the next five days. Speak some sense into him before the professors label him a danger to society. Already, they’re worried that if these sudden flares of anger continue, one day, he might unleash Varéc on a host of students or outright kill someone, and Ascendants help him if it’s a noble heir or heiress; even the principal won’t be able to help him then.”