[: 3rd POV :]

The afternoon sun bled through the clouds, its dim light stretching long and tired shadows across the cracked training ground behind the academy's western wing.

It was quiet there, too quiet.

A faint breeze moved the leaves, but the tension in the air was thick enough to choke on.

Fendrick stood alone.

His breath came slow, heavy, uneven.

He already knew why they'd called him out here.

He already knew who was waiting.

A soft crunch of boots on gravel pulled his eyes forward.

It was Leon, and behind him, four others wearing the same smug expression that nobles always wore when they thought the world belonged to them.

"Well, well," Leon said, his voice dripping with amusement.

"The dog finally shows up."

Fendrick clenched his fists.

His knuckles were already white before the first blow landed.

"You called me here, Leon. What do you want?"

Leon smirked and circled him like a predator that already knew the outcome of the hunt.

"Oh, nothing much. You've just been ignoring me lately, and I don't like being ignored"

"Especially not by the son of my family's servants."

The words stung, not because of the insult, but because they carried truth.

His parents had served Leon's family before they died.

He and his sister had scraped their way through life since then, always careful, always quiet.

And she… she still worked as a maid for them.

Because there was nowhere else to go.

"I've been busy," Fendrick muttered, trying to keep calm.

"The Academy—"

Leon's hand cracked across his cheek before he could finish.

The sound echoed through the empty yard.

"Don't make excuses," Leon hissed, his tone shifting to something darker.

"You forget your place, commoner."

Fendrick didn't move.

His head hung low, a thin trail of blood running from his lip.

He endured and it was for her.

Leon chuckled and motioned to his men.

Two of them grabbed Fendrick by the arms, forcing him to his knees.

"You know," Leon continued, crouching down, his voice suddenly playful, "I can't help but always think your sister is a pretty woman"

Fendrick froze.

"Would be a shame if something… happened to her," Leon whispered, tilting his head.

"Maybe I'll have her transferred from maid duty to something more personal"

Fendrick's head snapped up. "You wouldn't—!"

"Oh, but I would," Leon sneered.

"In fact, I might sell her to the pleasure houses in the southern quarter"

"Heard they're short on women. I'd even get a good price."

Something inside Fendrick broke.

He thrashed, pulling against the hands restraining him.

"That's illegal! Even for nobles! The Empress forbade slave trading recently ago! You'd—"

"I'd what?" Leon interrupted, his grin widening.

"Get punished? Arrested? You think anyone would dare touch me? My family's a Duke's line, boy"

"The law bends for us."

Fendrick's voice cracked.

"Why are you doing this? What have we ever done to you?"

Leon's eyes gleamed like polished steel.

"Because I can"

"Because people like you forget who owns this world. Commoners are born to kneel."

The air between them turned colder.

Fendrick trembled with fury, tears of helplessness burning behind his eyes.

"You're a monster," he spat.

Leon laughed, a hollow, arrogant sound.

"Maybe. But remember something, mutt—" His grin twisted into something crueler.

"Even the Empress can't stop me"

"Hell, I'd make that cold bitch my woman if I wanted to. Imagine the look on her face when—"

And then the world stopped breathing.

A suffocating stillness washed over the courtyard, as if reality itself recoiled from what had just been said.

Every breath of wind, every rustle of leaves, every sound simply… ceased.

Leon's laughter died in his throat. "W-what…?"

The sky dimmed unnaturally, the light bending and twisting as though the sun itself feared to watch.

A shadow fell across the ground, and a voice, quiet, cold, unyielding, cut through the silence like a blade through glass.

"Did you just say…"

The voice was low, measured, and heavy enough to make the air shiver.

"…that you would make the Empress your plaything?"

Leon turned, his heart hammering, and there he stood.

Daniel.

His presence was wrong, too still, too calm.

The air around him trembled, warped by something unseen.

His eyes, once sharp with restrained curiosity, now glowed faintly with an unnatural light, black and violet intertwining in endless motion.

He wasn't angry in the usual sense.

There was no shouting, no rage.

Only the quiet, absolute certainty of death.

"D-Daniel?" Fendrick whispered, his voice breaking.

"You—what are you—"

He stopped.

The words froze on his tongue.

He saw it in Daniel's eyes, something primal, something vast and detached.

Interfering now would be suicide.

Leon blinked, forcing out a shaky laugh to mask his fear.

"W-what's your problem? You think you can just walk in here and—"

Daniel tilted his head slightly. "Say it again."

Leon's throat bobbed. "What—"

"Say it again," Daniel repeated softly.

"Say what you just said about the Empress."

Something about that tone, the quiet, almost polite demand, made the ground beneath Leon's feet feel like it could crumble at any moment.

One of Leon's lackeys tried to speak.

"H-hey, back off! Do you know who—"

His words were swallowed by the sound of cracking air.

The pressure around Daniel intensified.

Mana churned violently, breaking the flow of everything around him.

The ground fissured beneath his feet.

Every particle of mana in the area bent toward him, drawn by something ancient and merciless.

Leon stumbled backward.

"W-what the hell are you—?!"

Daniel didn't answer.

His gaze drifted past Leon, toward Fendrick, bruised, bleeding, trembling.

Then back to Leon.

"You hurt my friend," he said quietly. "And you insulted her."

"Her?" Leon sneered, trying to sound brave though his voice shook.

"You mean that ice-cold Empress? What, are you one of her fans too?"

The last thread of patience snapped.

The air grew heavier, the sky darker, until it felt as though night had swallowed day.

A low hum began to resonate, a sound not made by mortal means, but by existence itself recognizing a force it should never see.

Daniel's voice lowered, reverberating unnaturally.

"You shouldn't have said that."

And then the ground exploded with light and shadow.

[: Eyes of Calamity : Final Judgement :]

Reality cracked open.

Chains< vast, obsidian, engraved with runes no human tongue could pronounce, descended from an unseen rift above them.

The air screamed as they tore through space, each link radiating an ancient power that distorted everything it touched.

Their ends glowed faintly with crimson sigils, pulsing like the heartbeat of some dead god.

Leon's men tried to run.

The chains moved faster than sight.

One wrapped around a student's waist, another coiled around another's neck, yanking him into the void.

Their screams were cut short, devoured by the dark.

The air smelled of ash and ozone, of judgment long overdue.

"W-wait—! STOP!" Leon screamed, clawing at the ground. "You can't—You're insane!"

Daniel didn't move.

His expression didn't change.

The chains twisted around Leon's arms, tightening until his bones cracked.

His face turned pale, veins bulging against the impossible pressure.

"Please! I'll apologize! I—" Leon gasped, eyes wide with terror.

Daniel stepped closer.

Shadows coiled around his feet like smoke.

"You said you'd make her your woman," he said softly, eyes void of warmth.

"You would defile her name, her rule, and you dared to threaten a man who's already lost everything."

Leon's breath hitched, his pride shattering.

"I—I was joking! I swear—!"

Daniel's gaze never wavered.

"And how many begged for mercy from you, Leon?"

"How many commoners did you humiliate just because you could?"

Leon's silence was answer enough.

The chains lifted him from the ground.

His lackeys screamed as they were dragged higher, swallowed by the black portal above.

The sound of metal grinding against itself filled the air, like the world itself was tightening around them.

From the distance, Mika appeared on the edge of the courtyard, her eyes narrowing at the chaotic distortion of mana.

The sky shimmered above her.

She could feel the weight of Daniel's power, raw, ancient, unrestrained.

But she didn't move.

She remembered their pact.

She'd agreed not to interfere no matter what.

"Daniel," Fendrick whispered weakly. "Stop… please…"

Daniel didn't respond.

His gaze remained fixed on Leon, whose screams were dissolving into incoherent terror.

"You had a choice," Daniel murmured.

"You could have chosen silence. But you chose arrogance."

He raised his hand slightly. The chains tightened.

Leon's voice cracked into a hoarse shriek. "No—no—NO—!"

Daniel's voice was cold, detached, final.

"Then disappear."

The world convulsed.

Every chain flared crimson for an instant, and then they pulled hard.

Leon and his followers were wrenched upward, vanishing into the rift above.

The portal snapped shut behind them, leaving only a faint shimmer of violet dust drifting down where they had stood.

Silence.

Fendrick stared at the empty ground, trembling, his mind unable to process what he'd just seen.

One moment, they were there; the next, gone, as though erased from the world.

Daniel stood in the center of it all, eyes dimming, his expression unreadable.

For a long time, he didn't move or speak.

Only his faint, uneven breathing filled the air.

Then, quietly, he said,

"Don't ever let them break you again."

And as the last echo of his words faded, so too did the remnants of that terrible power.

Mika, watching from afar, exhaled slowly.

The wind returned.

The sun pushed through the clouds once more.

But nothing could wash away the chill that lingered in that place.

Because though the world had resumed, the screams, their screams still echoed faintly, somewhere beyond the veil.

Until even they, too, were gone.

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