Then Lucille spoke: "So this is personal for you, I mean. More personal than we knew."

"It's personal for all of us now. Felix made it personal." I pulled out the tracking crystal. "But yes. They probably killed my parents and I'm going to make them answer for it."

"What's the plan?" Seraphina asked.

"We keep training to get stronger. In coming days, we go to the Inter-Academy Tournament. We compete and we win. We make a name for ourselves."

"And then?"

"Then we hunt." I held up Felix's notebook. "We use this research. We find Silas Vex, the poison supplier. We trace the payment drops. We identify League operatives. And we start dismantling their operation piece by piece.

"Right now they would probably lay low for us."

"That could take months," Isabella said. "Years even."

"Then it takes years. I don't care how long it takes." I met each person's eyes. "Felix died trying to expose them. My parents died fighting them. Seventeen others died for getting too close. That ends now."

"We're with you," Damian said immediately. "Whatever it takes."

One by one, the others nodded.

"Then let's get to work," I said. "We have eleven days until the tournament. Let's make sure we're ready for everything that comes after."

------

The nightmares started on the second night after Felix's death.

I'd see him in the hallway. Blood spraying from his throat. His last words. "Promise me..."

Then the scene would shift. My parents' carriage, overturning. Screams. Then it would shift again and show my past on earth and that was when things would become less vivid but instead a blur if sharpness and blood.

Felix's face would blur into my father's. Then my mother's. Then different other faces I'd never met but seems so familiar. It was as If Felix was now a gateway to something.

I'd wake up gasping, covered in cold sweat, Damian already at my door.

"Young Master, you called out again."

"I'm fine."

"You're not sleeping."

"Sleep is overrated after all."

But he was right. I wasn't sleeping. Couldn't. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw blood. Screaming. But the worse thing of all....was that it got my heart beating faster in excitement.

By the third day, I looked like death. Dark circles under my eyes with my hands shaking from exhaustion, even my bloodline awakening couldn't compensate for complete lack of rest.

"You need to sleep," Isabella said, cornering me in my headquarters. "Actually sleep, not whatever you've been doing."

"I've been working. Going through Felix's research to search for what I might have missed."

"You've been torturing yourself." She pulled out a vial. "Dreamless sleep potion, Marcus made it with his limited knowledge in alchemy. Take it."

"I don't need...."

"That wasn't a request." Her voice was steel. "You're the leader of this faction. If you collapse from exhaustion, everything falls apart. So you're going to drink this, sleep for eight hours, and wake up functional. Understood?"

I looked at her. Really looked. Saw the worry beneath the commanding tone.

"When did you get so bossy?"

"When my friend started dying from guilt and exhaustion." She pushed the vial into my hands. "Drink. Now."

I drank.

The potion tasted like mint and ash. Within minutes, my eyelids grew heavy.

"Damian will watch your door," Isabella said as I stumbled toward my bed. "No one will disturb you. Just... rest. Please."

I collapsed onto the bed.

For the first time in three days, I slept without dreams.

☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆

I woke ten hours later feeling almost human.

Damian was waiting with food, actual food, not the nutrient paste I'd been forcing down between research sessions.

"Young Master, you have visitors. They've been waiting for two hours."

"Who?"

"Uncle Victor. And Professor Iris."

I sat up quickly, instantly awake. "Both of them? Together?"

"They arrived separately but are waiting in the same room. They seem... concerned."

I dressed quickly, splashed water on my face, and headed to the small meeting room. Uncle Victor stood by the window, still in traveling clothes. Professor Iris sat at the table, fingers steepled, her ageless face unreadable.

"Hadeon," Uncle Victor said, turning. His expression shifted from relief to concern. "You look terrible."

"Thanks. I feel marginally less terrible than I look."

"We heard about Felix Goldleaf," Iris said quietly. "I'm sorry."

"So am I." I sat down heavily. "But I assume you're not here just to offer condolences."

"No." Uncle Victor pulled out a chair, sat across from me. "I'm here because my intelligence network picked up chatter about you."

"What kind of chatter?"

"The dangerous kind. I don't think the League would fix their eyes on you. In fact they've been dormant for all this years but now they're openly claiming responsibility for Felix's death, it's as if hey're sending a message to other potential resisters. This is what happens when you investigate."

"Then we investigate harder."

"That's suicide," Victor said flatly. "Hadeon, I know you're angry. I know you want revenge. But you're not ready to face the League. And do we even know what's going on? Why's everyone and everything suddenly out and about now?"

"When will I be ready? When they've killed everyone I care about?" My eyes flashed.

"When you're strong enough to actually win." He pulled out a document. "I've been researching too. The League of Fallen Heroes has five primary members, they're the real deal.

Each one is SSS-rank minimum potential. They also command the Executors, operatives like the ones who killed Felix, and an unknown number of support staff."

"So we're outnumbered and outmatched. Tell me something I don't know."

"I know you're hurting," Iris interjected. "Losing someone you recruited, someone you were responsible for, it eats at you nut Victor's right. Charging in now would just add your name to the list of deaths."

"Then what do you suggest? We do nothing?"

"We prepare." Iris said. "I've also been keeping my eyes on them."

"You've been watching them for a century?"

Iris said. "I've had a long time to observe. The League isn't just strong, they're are also smart and patient. They've perfected the art of eliminating threats before they become dangerous. They don't even reveal their true intentions and goals."

"Felix wasn't dangerous. He was just an alchemist who asked questions."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.