Lindy seemed to have thought everything through already, and the most surprising part was that Randal was now a key pillar of the mission.

"Randal has a room in the underground," Lindy explained. "It's not as deep as the restricted areas we want to reach—those are sealed off—but he can get us inside. From there, it's just a matter of searching."

"The entrance to that secret area is down there?" Damian asked. "What if there's another way in? If it's really that hidden, wouldn't they keep a separate passage?"

Even if Randal had access to the underground, Damian wasn't convinced that was the only entry point. If the place was so secret, it wasn't hard to imagine they had alternate routes.

"Randal decided to help me after noticing strange activity down there," Lindy said. "He told me he saw unusual movements in the very section he has access to. It doesn't guarantee that's where the entrance is, but it's our best lead. We have to take the risk."

She knew hesitation would only hurt them. Right now, they had a small window before the headmaster made his next move, and if they wasted it, that time would slip away. Their safety wouldn't last.

In other words, the sooner they acted, the better. Damian also needed answers for Leo, and with the headmaster breathing down his neck, he'd never finish his mission otherwise.

It had to stop here.

"Alright," Damian said. "So how do we get in? What's the plan?"

"Randal told me the place is nearly empty around midnight. He'll use his access card to unlock the passage, and we'll follow his lead."

"Midnight? I can't just stay here in your lab until then, can I?"

"Not right now, no," Lindy admitted. "They're still watching you too closely. But Randal will come to your dorm to get you. He knows how to slip past the guards without raising suspicion, so don't worry."

The plan was simple, but it only worked if Randal played his part well. He was the key to everything.

Damian still didn't fully trust him—they had been on bad terms since day one—but Randal had gotten Sarah's help before, and now he was helping again. That meant something.

After setting the plan, Lindy and Damian stayed in the research room the entire morning. They didn't work. Neither of them felt like working.

With his free time, Damian read a few books, took a nap, and in the afternoon went to a class.

It was Mark's class. When he noticed Damian, professor Mark pulled him aside.

"Are you sure you want to be here?" Mark asked, a hand on Damian's shoulder. He looked worried. "I was told you had a few days to rest if you need them."

Damian shook his head. "I've already lost more than a week of classes."

Mark understood. No one liked falling that far behind—especially in an academy where you had to keep improving or risk losing your place.

"Alright," Mark said. "But if you need to leave, just say so. I won't keep you here against your will."

"Thank you."

This time, Mark's class was purely theoretical. It was nice not having to get up for practical work, but at the same time it was dull—Damian just wrote notes.

Still, with his mind wrapped around the plan for the night, he was grateful for a lecture instead of combat practice. At least he could stay focused here.

Mitra and Curt didn't speak to him during class. Not because they didn't want to, but because Mark demanded silence, and neither of them wanted to risk their grades.

When the class ended, though, they went to him. Damian didn't share much. Not now.

He trusted them—and they were already involved—but he wouldn't take the risk. If someone went after Mitra or Curt and forced answers out of them, the whole plan could fall apart. Worse, it could put them in danger. It wasn't worth it.

All he told them was that he and Lindy were working on a plan to uncover more answers.

"And do you think this plan will work?" Mitra asked. "I mean, we really need to get those people out of the academy's higher ranks. This is getting out of control."

She needed things to change. She was a target now too. Curt was safe for the moment, but Mitra had spoken up to save Damian from prison, and that had painted a target on her back.

"It will," Damian said. "It has to…"

*

That night, Damian waited in his dorm, knowing Randal would come to get him out.

For a while, he talked with his friends, but eventually they went to bed. Damian did the same—though he was only pretending.

Close to midnight, he slipped out of bed and left his room. Randal was already there, waiting. He carried something with him: a cloak.

"Use this," Randal said. "It'll make you invisible."

It was a powerful artifact, one almost no one knew Randal possessed. And he didn't just have one—he had three.

Neither the professors nor the headmaster had any idea about that treasure. Randal kept it hidden, knowing others would kill to get their hands on it.

Damian did as he was told. He put on the cloak, hood and all. The moment it settled over him, the artifact's effect activated—he vanished.

He knew it worked because even his system flagged the artifact's effect.

With it, Damian and Randal could move through the academy unnoticed, avoiding guards and cameras alike. The only risks were leaving footprints or bumping into someone. Both were easy to avoid.

They made their way to the building where Lindy's research room was, the same one where many professors had their private labs.

The place was silent, practically empty. Everyone else had gone back to their rooms, leaving their research and experiments behind.

Lindy was waiting there. She wore one of Randal's other cloaks.

The three of them met inside the building.

Randal held up a black card. "This will get me into the underground. They think I'm running an experiment. But there are cameras at the entrance. So I'll go in first, and you follow right behind me while invisible. Understood?"

Randal gave Damian his invisible cloak. He needed Damian to use it—Randal himself had to be seen on the cameras. He couldn't enter while hidden.

Everyone knew their role. It was time to put the plan into motion. Randal went first.

He headed downstairs. That area was accessible even to Lindy, but soon they reached a locked door.

It wasn't just any door. It was sealed with powerful magical devices, impossible to pass without the specific card Randal carried.

He slid the card, and the door opened. Randal stepped through, with Damian and Lindy slipping in right behind him, unseen by the cameras.

For a moment, Damian worried the defenses might detect them. But nothing happened.

"This cloak is such a powerful artifact…" Damian thought.

Where had Randal gotten something like this? The man was a complete mystery—and also the strongest professor in the academy.

Once they were inside, they allowed themselves to relax a little.

Randal motioned for them to pull their hoods down, ending the invisibility. They crouched behind a few barrels in the hallway.

"From here on, there are no cameras," Randal explained. "They avoided putting them down here because if someone ever raided the place, there wouldn't be any proof of who was involved."

It made sense—and it worked in their favor. They no longer had to worry about being caught on tape.

Still, Randal warned them there might be people around, so they had to stay sharp.

"This first section is only for professors, so no one should be here now. But we need to find the hidden passage that leads to where we're really going. Down there…" Randal paused, his tone heavier. "Down there, I'm sure there will be people."

They worked together to search for the secret passage.

The underground area was built entirely of metal, a long hallway lined with doors that led into different rooms—rooms belonging to certain professors.

Not every professor had access to that level. Lindy, for instance, didn't. In fact, most of the professors with rooms down here no longer taught classes at all.

"Some are here just for their research," Randal explained. "Others found excuses to avoid lecturing altogether."

That surprised Damian. "So there are professors in the academy that I don't even know exist?"

"Exactly," Randal said. "They've got ways to keep themselves hidden from most students, so you'd never notice them walking around. I could do the same… but I don't hide like they do."

First, they explored every corner of the area they had access to, just to make sure no one else was down there.

Once they were confident the place was empty, they split up. Searching separately would make finding the secret passage faster.

"What if the passage is inside one of the rooms?" Damian asked. "We wouldn't be able to get in, right? Those belong to other professors."

Randal smirked at the question, almost as if he'd been waiting for it. "I can, actually. I modified my card—it works on their doors too."

Damian froze for a second. Every time he learned something new about Randal, the man only grew more mysterious.

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