Although my eyes remained in darkness, the world felt clearer than ever before.

  Stress, anxiety, even panic? All of them flew out of my body the moment the goddess touched me.

  She didn’t remove them herself, she gave me what I needed to face them.

  And I was confident I was ready to face this — considering I could smell the fear radiating off of every person surrounding me.

  I could feel my mother’s attempt to heal Mariel slowly working.

  But I just broke the law.

  And this was the empire.

  The very cruel empire.

  Very cruel.

  A high ranking officer saw Jerek holding a shield at his side, and me—a confused young adult wanting guidance… and his first declaration was to order everyone, even the children to open fire at us.

  “Jerek.” I started.

  I faced Jerek which made him jump. He was likely surprised, considering I clearly was blind.

  “Yes, Cade.” He faced me.

  I picked up my relic.

  The world wasn’t exactly disorienting, I could tell I was given a second wind that would run out and I’d have to train this new power eventually.

  But not now.

  Now I needed to fight.

  The runes of my sword gave off a heat I could better understand now that I was blind.

  The sword felt more instinctual now without my eyes to hold me back.

  “Raise your shield, old friend.”

  I felt him nod, his head’s movement shifted the ambient mana around his head, and the wind.

  He raised his shield. “Alright, why?”

  I pointed behind him, surprising him again. “They’re going to open fire, block it.”

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  Jerek shifted towards the soldiers. “Right.”

  I then turned and kneeled to Mariel. “I love you Mariel. Hold onto that and you’ll live through this.

  My new powers let me feel her lungs, vocal chords, and mouth begin to move and I didn’t want her to waste her energy.

  I put my finger over her mouth. “Tell me when this is over.”

  I felt mana collecting and about to be fired.

  Using Gravewake I stood back up and adjusted my grip.

  Then they fired.

  Officers.

  Students.

  At me.

  Jerek.

  Mariel.

  My parents.

  This was unacceptable.

  The magic attack from the officers hit Jerek’s shield.

  Simultaneously I lifted my hand, palm facing the students.

  My hand channeled mana, it felt the same as how my eyes used to turn purple.

  It felt like a surge of Nythris’s power.

  And the student's attack was entirely directed and drawn to my palm.

  The pain of over a hundred low level spells hit my hand at once.

  Heat, friction, inertia, and more collided with my hand and flowed through my hand, burning my hand.

  I healed it just as fast as it burned, but I couldn’t stop the attack from burning my clothes, nor from injuring my nerves.

  Part of the magic even flowed through the veins of my arm.

  And when the attack was over I was shirtless, and although I couldn’t see it—I knew my veins were glowing purple, just the same as my relic. Possibly my eyes too.

  I let out a low grumble, my entire body felt like it was on fire.

  Then I relaxed my shoulders and walked toward Jerek.

  “Jerek, protect the children. This ends here.” I said as I walked past Jerek.

  He shifted. “Right.”

  Before he finished his word I had lunged at a speed I hadn’t ever gone before.

  It was disorienting but my blade knew my intent and assisted in my killing of the officer that gave the order.

  Clean cut across his midsection.

  This power… what am I now?

  When his top half of his body hit the ground then beckoned his lower half to follow suit, I smelled fear from every single person around me.

  They knew this wasn’t normal.

  They were terrified.

  My blade didn’t meet any resistance.

  I was too fast, too strong, too absurd for them to even wrap their head around.

  I could feel the lingering of people’s eyes rip through my soul as I crushed skulls, ripped spines out, severed limbs.

  It didn’t feel good, but it felt right.

  I couldn’t waver though. The need to kill rose with every moment.

  Not because of joy.

  I was sick to my stomach.

  In the past I avoided killing, the sole intent of my missions except for a handful was just to heal the sick.

  Everyone here but Mariel was completely fine.

  So what I needed to do was buy time.

  Which only happened with a bloodbath.

  So I slashed.

  I conjured spells.

  I ripped bone apart.

  And I kept going.

  And going.

  And going.

  Until the school had become nothing short of a mausoleum.

  And when the world stopped sending adversaries, I finally collapsed.

  I was on just one knee, my blade’s heat from the killing was brighter than it had been before.

  And just when I was about to fall to the ground someone appeared in front of me.

  I felt a titan of a man kneeling in front of me.

  It was Jerek.

  “Cade.” His voice was low. “I’m not one to monologue, so I’ll get to the point. You’re the only real family I’ve ever had. Wherever you walk, I will stand in front of you with my shield.”

  In front of our class, and over a hundred dead soldiers showed the world even in my crippled state I was in, Jerek was willing to always stand with me, no matter the cost.

  Then as my eyes showed me black, everything else fell asleep at once. And I collapsed into the ground.

  I didn’t know if I was dead.

  But the presence I felt in this environment was familiar, but it wasn't Thalen.

  I could actually smell here. It smelled of pine, frost, and blood. Most importantly, I smelled her.

  Nythris.

  I was back in her dream world.