The metallic clunk of the lock disengaging was a sound Niles would remember for the rest of his life. The heavy door swung inward, revealing Leon silhouetted in the flickering hall light, his face etched with strain, the stolen keycard gleaming in his hand, feeling like a light of hope.
For a suspended moment, they stared at one another—the prisoner and the rescuer, the logic and the law. Then, Niles stumbled forward, his muscles protesting after hours of forced stillness.
“Leon, I—” he began, his voice a dry rasp.
“Not here,” Leon quickly interrupted, his own voice tight with a fear that hadn't yet subsided. He grabbed Niles's arm, not with Draven's punishing grip, but with a steadying pull. “We have to leave. Now.”
They became phantoms in the castle's veins, Leon’s crutch was a faint, frantic heartbeat on the stone.
When they finally slipped into the dark sanctuary of the fencing salle, the scent of old wood and metal polish was like a balm. Niles leaned against the door, his legs finally giving way, not to weakness, but to overwhelming relief.
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Alice was there instantly, pressing a stolen dinner roll and an apple into his hands. “Here, you must be starving.”
He did, devouring the food with a primal urgency that spoke volumes of his ordeal. He barely tasted it.
“Whoa...slow down,” Leon said, his tone softer than Niles had ever heard it. “Man, you’ll choke yourself.”
“I haven't been eaten for almost two days...” Niles replied, his mouth full of dinner roll and apple.
“Niles, we aren't going to take your food. Please eat slowly.” Alice said, with a small smile on her face.
Niles then forced himself to stop, washing the last of the bread down with a grimace. He looked at them—at Alice’s unwavering concern and Leon’s steadfast resolve—and the guilt he had compartmentalised in the silent room broke free.
“What... I said to Draven back there,” he choked out, the words raw. “About you being predictable… about you just following rules… I swear, they were all lies. Every word. I had to make you seem insignificant to him. I had to—”
“We know, Niles,” Alice said softly, cutting off his apology. “We heard you tap the message on the wall. We knew it was a performance for our sake.”
“You just don't want us to get involved,” she smiled, her hand on Niles' shoulder. “You're a good friend, Niles.”
Leon gave a single, firm nod. “It was the correct strategic decision. You isolated the asset to protect the network. It was… admirably done.” The clinical analysis was undercut by the clear gratitude in his eyes.
The final wall of tension crumbled. Their trust had not just held; it had been tempered in the fire, emerging stronger.
“W-well... I... t-thank you...” Niles spoke softly, his face blushed. This was the first time they saw him with such an expression. They laughed, much to Niles' slight annoyance.
“Don't be shy!”
“Yea! Just say it out load!” Leon laughed while finishing the sentence.
“Shut up.” Niles gave them a dead look.
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With the immediate crisis over, Niles’s mind, now nourished and unshackled, ignited. The pieces he had gathered in the darkness began to snap together with terrifying clarity.
“Draven talked about the ‘whole’,” Niles said, rising to his feet and pacing, energy crackling around him. “He said Blackwood serves a purpose greater than education. That we are ‘components’.”
“Components?” Alice asked, her expression confused.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7PIkCWzSiX
He stopped and faced them, his eyes wide with a dreadful epiphany. “It’s a circuit. The academy is basically a circuit. The Weeping Stone isn’t just a weird rock with usual warmth; it’s perhaps a power source, or a containment vessel. The ‘Foundations secured’ mentioned in the Chronology… I believe it means they have stabilised it. They built this entire place as a cage and more accurately speaking, a control mechanism.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSyr9vXIjE2
“So are we basically prisoners here?” Leon asked, his expression darkened.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD3JFHoOKv1
He took a step closer, his voice dropping to a horrified whisper. “Yes but we aren’t just prisoners here, Leon. We’re the battery. The battery they needed to fuel the stone, or maybe the whole academy.”
The word landed in the silence with the weight of a tombstone.
“Our talents,” Niles continued, the theory crystallising into certainty. “Our intelligence, our perception… the very things that make us the ‘anomalies’. The system harvests weird people like us. ‘Absolution’ isn’t expulsion or death… I highly believe it’s the process of draining us dry. They use what makes us ‘us’ to power the thing they’re protecting down there. They don’t teach us.
“They feed on us.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVdwRyBov0q
Niles' last sentence hung in the still air. Alice thought of Chole while Leon thought of Lance, they two couldn't image the cruel scene of her friend and his elder brother being drained dry by the academy.
The truth settled over the salle, cold and absolute. The mystery was solved, and the solution was more monstrous than they had ever imagined. They were not students. They were livestock. And their time was running out.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx6yJgPuZb2
and then Add to home screen.