The white void stretched infinitely in all directions, a nothing-space that shouldn't exist but pressed against the skin like the moment before a scream. Dominic Walker stood at its center, his crimson eyes half-lidded, his posture relaxed despite the absolute wrongness of their surroundings.

  Sarah sat cross-legged on nothing, her brunette hair falling in perfect waves around shoulders that showed no tension.

  [That later ego of his –Dominic– is stopping me from fully putting him under my control. I think I know a way. I’ll do it after everything has concluded]

  Her crimson eyes, darker than Dominic's, more ancient, tracked movements that weren't there with the patience of something that had waited centuries before.

  "You really think this will work?" Sarah said, her voice carrying that strange resonance that marked her as something other than human.

  Dominic inclined his head, his eyes glowing an unnatural baby blue. "The boy is perceptive, my Lady. More than most."

  "Perceptive enough to check if we're in a Zenith?" Sarah's lips curved. "Doubtful. But I don’t think he’d find a way."

  “How about the people on the outside, it’d be quite weird if my lady and I were the ones who happened to be awake.”

  “Fair point.

  The void around them shimmered. Faint images flickered at the edges, hallways, chrome doors, fluorescent lights, the trappings of the illusion they were supposed to be trapped in. They paid it no attention.

  "The invasion," Dominic said. "Has it begun?"

  "Hours ago." Sarah rose in a single fluid motion, her bare feet finding purchase on nothing. "Dora and the others should have breached the outer defenses by now. The Academy's wards are impressive, but they weren't designed for an attack from within."

  "From within?"

  Sarah's smile widened. "Did you think I spent my first weeks in this body doing nothing? The Leviathans have agents everywhere. Even here. Even among the students."

  Dominic's expression didn't change, but something flickered in his crimson depths. “My lady truly has quite the connections.”

  “This benefits them and this benefits me, the dead witches are going to be fuel after all.”

  "When we wake," he said, "what would you ask of me to do?"

  "Fight, of course." Sarah waved a hand, and the void parted slightly, revealing a scene beyond flashing lights, running figures, the distant crackle of combat. "Go for Dora immediately, that’s what the boy would do anyways, I don’t care if you kill him, if you did I would be able to absorb his body, but he’s tough.”

  "And if the authorities ask?"

  "Then you know nothing." Sarah's eyes met his, ancient and cold. "You woke confused, disoriented, and immediately engaged the enemy. Any questions he has, you answer with confusion. Any accusations, with denial. You remember nothing of our conversation here."

  Dominic bowed his head. "As you command, my Lady."

  "Good." Sarah turned away, facing the images of battle. "Now wake up, Jack. There's work to do."

  The world snapped back into existence with the violence of a rubber band breaking.

  Dominic's eyes flew open. His lungs seized, then expanded in a gasp that burned. The ceiling above him was white, fluorescent, *real* in a way the void hadn't been. His body remembered how to breathe, how to feel, how to exist in three dimensions with weight and temperature and the dull ache of muscles held too long in one position.

  He was in his dorm room. Bed. Desk. Window showing a sky that flickered with unnatural colors, gold and crimson and something darker, like spilled ink catching light wrong.

  The door was open.

  Reina stood in the doorway, one hand on the frame, the other holding a cigarette that had burned down to ash without her noticing. Her ginger hair was disheveled, her gold eyes sharp despite the dark circles beneath them. She looked like she'd been running for hours.

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  "One of you is awake," she said..

  Dominic sat up slowly, letting confusion play across his features. It wasn't difficult, the transition from void to reality was genuinely disorienting. "Vice principal, what... what happened?"

  "An assault." Reina stepped into the room, her heels clicking against the floor with deliberate precision. "Twenty minutes ago, the Academy's outer wards collapsed. We've got rogue witches flooding the grounds, students panicking, and the thirteen of you." She gestured vaguely. "Were completely unresponsive in your rooms. Probably because they didn’t want to deal with Sophia, my children are in here as well so I figured that I wouldn’t just abandon you all."

  "A Zenith." Dominic let his eyes widen slightly, the appropriate reaction. "Someone trapped us in a Zenith."

  "Of course." Reina took a long drag from her dead cigarette, then grimaced and dropped it, crushing it under her heel.

  Dominic stood.. Mana flowing.

  [At the very least, the damage to me wasn’t very much]

  "The assault?"

  "Still ongoing. There's too many of them and Sophia isn’t waking up."

  Dominic moved, but paused at the threshold. "The others? Sarah, my sister? The rest?"

  "Still sleeping. Neila and Seraphina are already out, they popped back about ten minutes ago, ran off without waiting for explanations." Reina's lips twitched. “The ones who invaded don’t seem very dumb, they used their trump card to quickly neutralize our strongest fighters, and I’m forced to watch over them. Not very fair is it?”

  “It seems that Sophia and Hoshimi are getting dealt the worst.”Reina's eyes tracked him with an intensity that made his skin prickle.

  [Is the thing that’s putting them to sleep dealing the worst hand to the ones with the most mana? That can’t be the case or else Dominic wouldn’t have woken up this early. Do they know about what’s inside Hoshimi? Then that’s going to be a problem. A very terrible problem, the government asked me to take care of him for a very special reason after all]

  "You feel okay? No residual effects?" She asked him.

  "I feel fine." He met her gaze evenly. "Disoriented. But fine."

  "Good." She stepped aside, gesturing toward the door. "Then get your ass to the courtyard."

  Dominic nodded and left, letting his footsteps carry him down the corridor at a controlled run. The Academy halls were chaos, students running in every direction, some in uniform, some in various states of dress, all with the same wild-eyed look of people who'd woken to find their safe space suddenly unsafe.

  He passed a window and caught his first clear view of the battle.

  The courtyard was unrecognizable. The manicured lawns had been torn to mud and rubble. The fountain, that classical stone monstrosity, lay shattered in pieces across what used to be a reflecting pool. Students fought in scattered clusters against opponents who moved with unnatural speed and coordination.

  Rogue witches. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds.

  And at the center, a figure stood alone amidst the carnage, watching the chaos with the casual interest of someone observing ants through glass.

  [That’s Dora isn’t it? He’s a level 8, I should be able to handle him]

  Dominic recognized him.

  [I thought he was a nighttime fighter, I wonder how he’s standing in the sunlight just fine?]

  The sun was high, casting harsh shadows across the courtyard, and Dora stood in it without apparent discomfort.

  "That's new," Dominic murmured.

  He didn't slow. Didn't prepare.

  He just moved.

  [I made more blood flow into my legs to strengthen them]

  The distance vanished beneath his feet, mana surging through his legs, propelling him forward faster than human eyes could track. His hand came up, blood already pooling in his palm.

  Dora turned at the last possible second.

  Their eyes met.

  The blood blade swept toward his throat.

  Dora caught it.

  Bare-handed. Fingers closing around the edge that should have sliced through steel like paper. His palm sizzled where it touched, steam rising from the contact, but he held on.

  "Hey," Dora breathed, his yellow eyes gleaming. "You must be Dominic Walker right? The pride of the Walker family.”

  Dominic didn't answer. He drove his knee into Dora's stomach, felt the flesh give, then immediately firm up as his flesh stitched itself back together like a colony of ants fixing their home.

  Dora's grip on the blade didn't loosen. His other hand came up, fingers curled into a fist that slammed into Dominic's ribs with the force of a wrecking ball.

  [He’s fast]

  Dominic flew backward, hit the ground, rolled, and came up running. His ribs screamed.

  Dora advanced at a walk, unhurried, confident. "The famous Dominic Walker. The student with the potential, only second to Sophia Miller." His smile widened, showing teeth too sharp to be human. "I expected more."

  "You'll get it."

  Dominic's hand swept out. Blood erupted from the ground beneath Dora's feet as a pool, a slick surface that sent him sliding off-balance for just a fraction of a second.

  [An opportunity!]

  Dominic closed the distance again. No blade. No flashy technique. Just his fist, wrapped in a thin layer of mana, driving toward Dora's solar plexus with everything he had.

  The punch connected.

  Dora's eyes went wide. Air exploded from his lungs. Blood rippled from Dominic’s fingers, shooting spikes made of blood through his chest.

  Dora’s eyes widened.

  [What in Lady Jaune!?]