Usually when the twisted effect took over the mind of a person, it took hold of their emotions and perverted these emotions into the negative spectrum. In a case where the existing emotions were already negative, the twisted effect almost always amplified it, transforming the individual into a being of such extreme destruction that many never really recovered from it.
Helzarvauth had seen a countless number of people undergo the twisted effect in his lifetime, and his scars were a testament to a few. However, the moment he saw the new seal appear on Aodhán’s chest through the tatters of his shirt, Helzarvauth knew that shit had finally hit the fan.
Only seconds before the seal imprint, Aodhán had been utterly and completely engulfed by a sea of rage and determination. With the twisted effect now in control, the first emotion had been greatly amplified, while the second had been warped to such a degree that Helzarvauth could almost taste the killing intent billowing out of Aodhán as he slowly turned his gaze to them, gold-rimmed irises glittering almost like gems.
“He wants to kill us.” Helzarvauth muttered to Eldrith, not particularly scared but definitely uncomfortable.
“I can see that.” Eldrith scowled. “Isn’t there something you can do?”
“Call the principal?” Helzarvauth suggested, but when Eldrith’s scowl deepened, he glared at the pain awakened and hissed. “Are you crazy? Surely, you do not expect me to battle the twisted effect for the control of his emotions. We might as well stab him in the heart.”
“So you’re useless then.” Eldrith scoffed and readied himself to protect both of them, because let’s face it, Helzarvauth was a shit ass fighter, and with Aodhán’s emotions now off limits, he might as well be helpless against him.
No, that wasn’t exactly right. Helzarvauth was nearly at the middle of the advanced class, which meant he was far out of Aodhán’s reach. Aodhán couldn’t hurt him, not really, but he could definitely be a menace, especially now that he was jacked up on chaos energy and puppeteered by the twisted effect.
Immediately Aodhán’s gaze connected with theirs, Helzarvauth took a step back and muttered. “I’ll text the principal.” However, before he could do so, he and Eldrith were forced to scatter as a dozen spears of red electricity suddenly pierced the area they had been barely a second ago. The spears exploded—a phenomenon Helzarvauth was still trying to wrap his head around—and the force of the explosion threw him backwards, smashing him against the wall and causing a host of runes to flare in defiance.
“By ascendants! When did lightning become bombs?” He shouted, staggering back to his feet, but before he could even regain his balance, he was forced to dodge again as a lightning spear pierced through the space his head had been a millisecond ago. The spear exploded, throwing Helzarvauth off again, and he let out a strained curse. “What’s with all the fucking explosions!”
“Stop shouting and text the principal!” Eldrith shouted back from the other side of the hall as he dodged a hail of lightning spears.
“I can’t possibly do that while I’m dodging explosive spears, now can I?” Helzarvauth shouted back as he barely dodged another bout of lightning spears, one of which nearly skewered his throat. “Eldrith, do something!”
“My skills aren’t affecting him, and a punch to his gut will do more harm than good.”
Helzarvauth cursed again and attempted to dodge a wide beam of condensed black electricity. Unfortunately, he was too slow, and the entire backside of his uniform was eviscerated for it. The beam smashed against his skin, and although I didn’t burn him, it tickled unpleasantly, like a host of maggots squirming around his back.
“Fuck! Eldrith, protect me.” Helzarvauth screamed, and Eldrith scowled. “I’m not your fucking guard, Hel. In case you didn’t notice, I’m kind of busy at the moment.”
Helzarvauth dodged another beam of electricity and grimaced, ducking as a dozen spears of storm and lightning suddenly shot in his direction and exploded violently. Helzarvauth staggered, his short legs not quite helping matters, and shouted at Aodhán. “I’m trying to fucking help you!”
Of course it was no use. Aodhán was too far gone for anything besides cold-blooded murder to appeal to him. With a burst of determination, Helzarvauth rolled up his sleeves and growled. “You want to go? Let's fucking go!” With those brilliant words of chivalry, he dove forward, tearing his way through a chaos of lightning and storm clouds in a bid to reach Aodhán and knock him out without accidentally killing him or leaving him with a permanent mental disorder.
Unlike Eldrith, who still had a modicum of physical attack power, Helzarvauth was basically a sleeper since he couldn’t manipulate Aodhán’s emotions without severely injuring him. All that he had now was his physical strength (which wasn’t all that much, to be honest) and his innate resistance to evolved attacks as a result of his advanced class.
He dodged multiple attacks of storm and lightning, his little legs propelling him forward as fast as they could, but—unsurprisingly—Eldrith got to Aodhán before him, and in one smooth motion, he slapped Aodhán so hard that Helzarvauth was certain something broke.
Aodhán was thrown backwards violently, but he managed to arrest his momentum with a storm cloud and use it as a platform to launch himself forward. Despite the overwhelming rage Helzarvauth could feel blazing within Aodhán, his expression was surprisingly calm, controlled even, which made this whole scenario a lot scarier.
Eldrith blinked forward and met Aodhán with a punch that slammed Aodhán into the wooden walls, their runes flaring brightly from the force of the attack. It was too violent, and despite having the mind to do exactly that a few seconds ago, Helzarvauth shouted. “Are you trying to kill him or just make him brain dead?”
“Neither.” Eldrith replied and scowled at him. “Aren’t you supposed to call the principal?”
Helzarvauth scowled and raised his chip to his mouth to do just that, but before he could say anything, a surge of electricity suddenly engulfed the entire hall, shining a bright gold that threatened to blind him if he stared too long. The surge of electricity arced out in every direction, and although Helzarvauth tried to dodge, there was nowhere to dodge to.
“Gah!” he shouted, not in fear, mind you, just serious concern as the seal-empowered surge of red electricity suddenly exploded and set the entire hall ablaze. Helzarvauth found himself flying through the air like a rag doll, and he gritted his teeth in shame, shouting, “Why does this have to happen to me, today of all days!”
A roar of thunder resounded, and Helzarvauth looked up to see Aodhán in his bestial form, black wings crackling with electricity and claws outstretched as he and Eldrith fought in a swirling vortex of red, black, and even green electricity.
The moment he looked up, though, Aodhán’s eyes connected with his, and Helzarvauth’s eyes widened as Aodhán suddenly changed targets and darted for him instead, leaving Eldrith to deal with a slowly expanding vortex of swirling storm blades and lightning.
Helzarvauth by nature wasn’t built for speed; however, his small legs were still fast enough to save him from the claws that would have cleaved him from brain to feet had it connected. (not true, but it certainly gave off that impression). While Helzarvauth (didn’t run for his dear life), Eldrith broke free from the vortex and shouted in annoyance. “He’s an evolved class awakened Helzarvauth. Why are you running like a fool?”
“I am not running!” Helzarvauth shouted back while dodging a beam of condensed red electricity.
“I can literally see you… fuck! Stop fucking running. He can’t hurt you!”
Helzarvauth glanced back at Eldrith and shouted, “I dare you to take one of those seal-empowered attacks head-on if you’re so sure of that.”
Eldrith grimaced, and Helzarvauth knew what he was thinking. They couldn’t take that risk. Advanced class individuals gained a passive resistance to evolved skills the moment they crossed into the 25th tier; however, this resistance wasn’t a complete one. Evolved individuals, given the right circumstances, could still hurt or maybe even kill advanced class Awakened, and this exact circumstance was skirting dangerously close to the right circumstances, not to mention that Aodhán was no normal Awakened but an inheritor. A beloved of ÆFLYM, Helzarvauth would be insane to take any one of those attacks head-on.
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His words didn’t stop Eldrith from attacking, though, and as Helzarvauth dodged another swipe of claws aimed at his head, Eldrith slammed into Aodhán, dragging him by the crackling wings before smashing him against the floor. Runes flared from the force of Eldrith’s attack, but Aodhán was up again before Helzarvauth could so much as blink. Surprisingly, he grabbed Eldrith by the neck, opened his mouth, and unleashed a seal-infused beam of red electricity at point-blank range.
Helzarvauth’s eyes widened when he saw the glow of the first seal go dark as its quintessence was completely drained and funneled into the skill.
The resulting beam of electricity was so large that it completely engulfed Eldrith and slammed him into the opposite wall with so much force that the training hall shuddered violently and a host of energy suction runes suddenly blazed into existence.
As frightening as that was, it wasn’t quite as terrible as what happened next.
The beam exploded, and Helzarvauth’s gaze went completely white as thunder filled his ears. Runes blazed and sputtered as their power ran out, but more took their place, blazing into existence as if appearing from under water.
The whole thing lasted for only a few seconds, but when it finally subsided, Helzarvauth saw Eldrith staring wild-eyed in shock, his entire body riddled with tiny wounds and burns. A jagged wound, nearly a finger’s width, ran across his chest, dripping blood to the floor. One attack had inflicted so many injuries, and that was after nearly all its power had been drained by the runes.
It was frightening and very humbling, but they barely had a second to take in the extensive damage a single skill had caused before Aodhán was on top of them once again. This time, even Eldrith dodged, tearing away the tatters that were left of his uniform and pulling out another from his spatial storage, shouting, “Fuck, fuck, fuck. Why haven’t you called the principal yet?”
“My chip is not functioning as it should!” Helzarvauth shouted, running to hide behind Eldrith so as to avoid the fate that had befallen him. “I think it’s because of all the electricity Aodhán is throwing around. Doesn’t he ever run out of energy?!”
“He’s a freaking Inheritor. How will I know?”
They dodged another hail of lightning spears, but when Aodhán came too close, Eldrith grabbed his wings again and slammed him to the floor with so much force that the wood cracked.
“You’re going to give him a seizure.” Helzarvauth shouted as Aodhán rushed back to his feet, but another punch from Eldrith sent it back down.
“He’s obviously not as delicate as you think he is.” Eldrith shouted back.
“It’s not about delicate—
“I don’t care, man! Call the fucking principal.” Eldrith shouted as he clipped Aodhán’s wings with a knee and held him down. Thunder rumbled and boomed as Aodhán struggled, his whole body jerking like that of a rabid animal as lightning spears descended from the clouds and smashed against Eldrith’s naked body without effect now that it wasn’t infused with a seal.
Seeing that Aodhán was now perfectly contained, Helzarvauth raised his chips to his lips once more, but he needn’t have bothered, because a portal suddenly shimmered into existence and Principal Zatya stalked into the training hall. She took one look at them and shouted. “What is all this ruckus, Eldrith? And why are you half naked?”
Eldrith blushed, and Helzarvauth tried futilely to ignore the emotion that lanced through his usually detached partner. Eldrith let go of Aodhán immediately, and Aodhán flashed across the hall, his aim now on the principal.
Principal Zatya raised a curious brow and grabbed Aodhán by the neck. She turned him left and right to scrutinize his new seal and search his body for damages even as he kicked, clawed, and attacked in madness. When she found no major damage, she grinned, “Absolutely genius. I knew placing you both to train him would yield results, although I definitely wasn’t expecting a seal so soon.”
Ignoring the rain of lightning spears that bounced off her skin and exploded without effect, she created another portal, and with a careless wave, she threw Aodhán into the portal.
Through the portal, Helzarvauth saw Aodhán land within a reinforced glass chamber before it shut, and only then did he straighten his shoulders and comport himself, trying his best to forget how he had literally cowered the entire fight. “That was not easy.” He muttered, dusting his palms, as if he’d just finished hard labor.
Principal Zatya smirked and nodded. “Yeah, that was a very intense twist. I imagine it might take nearly a week to recover his sanity and get a hold of himself.”
Helzarvauth frowned, musing on the duration of this twist. Usually, the longer the duration of the twisted effect, the more intense the psychological and behavioral warp that came after. Eldrith, who was now fully clothed, picked himself up from the floor, his bearing becoming almost submissive as he inched closer to the principal and stared at the damage they had caused. Sometimes Helzarvauth hated his passive ability to sense emotions, and this moment was certainly one of those moments. His gaze followed Eldrith, and he had to force his lips not to curl in disgust as the smell of Eldrith’s need for approval wafted towards him.
Principal Zatya fulfilled that need by smiling at Eldrith and patting him gently on the head. “You did well. Perhaps you could visit my office this evening and help me sort out some files.”
It was in no way a reward, but Eldrith accepted readily. Uncomfortable with the whole scene, Helzarvauth cleared his throat loudly and muttered. “Can we go now? I’ve got a ton of things to do.”
Principal Zatya glanced at him knowingly and smirked. “I trust our deal is still on, Mr. Graveburn; Aodhán still has so much emotional baggage after all.”
Helzarvauth grimaced at the use of his surname but nodded nonetheless. “Our deal is on.”
“Good. You’re both free to go. I’ll take care of things from here.”
Helzarvauth bowed slightly and began making his way to the exit. Eldrith followed hesitantly and muttered when they were a distance away from the principal. “This whole thing could have been easily avoided if you had simply texted the principal earlier.”
“I was under attack.” Helzarvauth defended himself with a glare. “I thought my life was in danger.”
“Let me remind you that this was your idea. You were the one who suggested I stoke his rage with pain.”
Helzarvauth grimaced. “Yeah, that plan backfired. However, he gained another seal. That’s a silver lining. Let's focus on that.”
“Pfft.” Eldrith scoffed and replied. “Kill me if I ever listen to your advice again.”
***
Principal Zatya waited until the boys left before turning to glare at a patch of wall that had surprisingly remained intact despite the extensive damage that Aodhán had wrought in the hall.
“You know, I always knew you were unhinged, but I never imagined that you would stoop so low as to spy on my student. What did you hope to achieve?”
The air shimmered with a dusting of lunar energies, and Professor Dubois revealed herself, a faint smirk playing on her lips. “I wasn’t spying. If I had been, I would have left the moment I sensed your arrival.”
Principal Zatya scowled. “That still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here, watching my pet train like a creep.”
“Like I said, I wasn’t—
“I know what you said, and I don’t care.” Principal Zatya cut her off. “Now answer the question.”
Zatya was pissed because she should have expected this. Faelar Dubois was a member of the Awakened Council, and after Aodhán’s announcement of his faux status yesterday, she should have seen this coming. Aodhán’s strength or skills wasn’t something she wanted to keep secret, but the fact that Faelar had snuck into one of her private training chambers just to watch Aodhán train pissed her off big time.
Faelar, on the other hand, was unfazed. She stared back at Zatya with an expression devoid of remorse or embarrassment and shrugged. “I took an academic interest in the commoner and decided to take a closer look at him.”
“Bullshit.” Zatya laughed out of the sheer absurdity of Faelar’s response and asked. “Did the council put you up to this? Or is this Duke Solaris’ doing? Did he send you to do his dirty biddings like a common mercenary?”
Faelar reddened at the insult, and Zatya knew she had hit a nerve. Faelar clenched her fists and took a step forward. “The duke is interested in the commoner, and rightfully so. He heard about their imprisonment within the sink and is less than impressed.”
Principal Zatya shook her head. “Unlike you, Faelar, I couldn’t care less what the duke thinks about the way I run my academy or the students within it. However, I doubt that’s the reason you’re here, snooping around to gain more intel on my personal student.”
Faelar glared at her for a moment before speaking. “You’re creating a monster, Zatya, and people are becoming worried. First it was familiar, and as if that wasn’t surprising enough, the boy is an inheritor, able to fight several tiers up and even scratch Eldrith, who’s at the middle of the advanced class.” She gestured to the damage in the room and continued. “What are you training him for? It obviously has something to do with emotions because you—
“How and why I help my personal student is none of your business.”
“This isn’t help, though.” Faelar countered bravely. “Help is willingly accepted. The commoner looked like he was preparing to face a death sentence when he walked in here.”
“I’m trying to help him.” Zatya shouted. In a lower tone, she added. “He doesn’t just see it yet.” She glared at Faelar and raised a threatening finger. “Stay away from my student. I don’t care who sent you, whether it be the council or the duke. Remember, the boy is under my protection and that of Ascendant candidate Lightus. We will not take lightly to the council butting their head into this.”
Faelar grimaced and shook her head. “You can’t keep him hidden forever. The boy is a curiosity, and hiding him like this just surrounds him with more mystery than is necessary. One day, when the curiosity of the people has grown enough, someone will grow enough balls to act on it. That is if the Awakened Council doesn’t get a calamity-class Ascendant candidate to side with us before then.”
Zatya grinned, knowing how disinterested calamities usually are in kingdom politics. The fact that ascendant candidate Lightus was even taking an interest in this was highly unusual.
Before she could speak, though, another portal shimmered into existence, and Xena, one of her assistants, stumbled into the hall, panting. “I was trying to get to you, principal, but the entire space was locked down, and I just couldn’t—
“Spit it out, Xena. What do you want?” Principal Zatya cut her off, not willing to let the poor girl get into a rant and forget the entire reason she had forced her way here in the first place.
“You put them in the same box.” Xena gasped, taking a lungful of air even as a thread of worry began to grow within Zatya. “You put Aodhán in the same box with Yurin, and we can’t get into the box. Aodhán is going to kill him.”