Incident

"Someone was attacked?" Krios clarified.

"Yes. One male student was found tied on his wrist to a tree branch, beaten black and blue." Loras pulled him closer to the crowd and they made their way towards the front.

There, they saw a male student lying in the ground, being attended by some professors.

"That's him?" Krios asked.

"Yes and his friend is missing." Loras answered.

"What were they doing here tho?"

"Some said they were training, no one saw what happened. No one even heard any noise." Loras explained.

Students continued to discuss about what has happened. Some being skeptical while others voicing out their fear.

"Students please go back to your dorms now." Someone suddenly spoke.

"Professor Ashburn is here." Loras whispered.

"We'll take it from here. We still have no idea about what happened or who the assailants are so we advice you all to please refrain from going out of you dorm buildings tonight as the faculty investigates this incident." Professor Ashburn spoke again.

"Please follow one of these professors back to your dorm. Move now!"

The crowd started to disperse and the other professors facilitated their orderly departure. But Krios remaind where he stood.

"Krios come on." Loras urged him.

"Go on ahead. I'll follow you shortly. I just need to ask something to the professor." He said.

"Okay. But don't take too long okay? It's dangerous out here."

"Yeah. Don't stray too far from the others. Be careful on your way back."

Loras only nodded and went to catch up with the rest of the students.

"Krios, you shouldn't be here. I clearly told all of you to go back to your dorm." Professor Ashburn told him when he noticed the boy standing nearby.

"Let him be." A voice suddenly said.

All of the people left looked towards the direction of the voice and they saw who it was.

"Headmistress Zelester." Everyone greeted.

"Have you taken care if things?" She asked Professor Ashburn.

"Yes Headmistress. I have deployed people to scour the area for any signs of the other student. And to hopefully find any trace of the perpetrators."

"Good. No one will rest tonight. We must keep the students safe." She said sternly.

"Professor, something's wrong with this one's wounds. They don't seem to be responding to our healing arts. A faint, but malevolent energy clungs to the wound. Making it unresponsive to treatment." A healer interjected.

"Let me see." The professor walked closer and started to inspect the injuries.

Krios also walked closer and was surprised but what he saw.

'It's chaos energy.' He thought.

'Someone aside from me can use chaos energy.'

'But something's off about it. It doesn't feel quite the same.'

'It seems unnatural unlike my chaos energy. It looks more erratic, more disruptive. And it exudes a very malevolent feeling.'

"There seems to be some sort of energy lingering on these wounds." Headmistresses Zelester broke the silence.

"Headmistress." Krios spoke.

"What is it?"

Krios looked at her knowingly. And she knew what he meant.

"What is it?" She asked again, but this time, through telepathy.

Krios was a but shocked hearing another voice inside his head.

"It's almost the same as my chaos energy." He answered.

The headmistress' eyes went wide slightly.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. But it feels different. Almost unnatural."

"It is indeed unnatural because I can sense it. If it was the same chaos energy uou have, then I wouldn't have felt it."

"You're right."

"Can you di something about it? His wounds won't heal if we don't do something about that strange energy."

Krios nodded and walked towards the unconscious student but was stopped by one of the healers.

"Stop right there young one. You can't come any closer."

"Miro, let him be." The headmistress interjected.

The healer looked confused shifting his gaze to the Headmistress and then to Krios.

He sat down beside the unconscious student and inspected his wounds. They were shallow, but they were indeed laced with the malevolent energy he felt.

It did indeed feel like his chaos energy but it was different altogether.

He placed his hand on top of one of the open wound and he tried to absorb the malevolent energy.

*Huk*

He sucked in his breath as the malevolent energy suffocated him.

"Krios, are you okay?" The Headmistress asked in a worried tone.

Krios just raised his hand motioning them to stop. And he continued absorbing the energy.

A few seconds later, he slowly removed his hand from the wound and he leaned back feeling nauseous and out of breath. His skin was feverish and his body ached like crazy. His head was filled with negative thought— thoughts of carnage, of slaughter, of death.

"What's happening?" A medic asked.

Krios walk a few steps away from them the. Quickly released the malevolent energy he has absorb straight into the ground.

Red particles flowed out of his hand and killed the vegetation wherever it came to contact with.

All the people left in the area were shocked by what has rranspired. All of them had never felt an energy like that in their lives. It was strong, it was different, it was dangerous.

"What the hell was that." Professor Ashburn ask in confusion. He felt the malevolent energy making his skin crawl. He has never felt an energy like that in his life.

"Krios, are you alright?" Headmistress Zelester asked him.

"Y-yes." He answered as he plopped to the ground while catching his breath.

"Please try your healing arts in him now." He continued.

The healers were dumbfounded and didn't respond until a second later. They went ahead and did their thing.

"It's working now!" One of them exclaimed.

"Young man, what you have done worked! His body is finally responding to our healing arts and his wounds are now closing." Another added.

Krios just smiled to them, happy to have been able to help.

"After taking care of his most immediate injuries, bring him to the infirmary nearest to my office." Headmistress Zelester instructed the healers.

"Ashburn, Krios, follow me to my office." She continued.

They all walke in silence, tension palpable. All of their minds were full of thoughts of everything that has happened.

'Why is this student with us anyway?' Professor Ashburn thought to himself.

'Earlier, they stopped talking midway. I know the Headmistress talked to him through telepathy. What were they talking about?' He wondered but he remained walking silently.

They continued walking until they arrived at the Headmistress' office.

"Sit down you two. Millie! Please prepare some food please." The headmistress commanded. Her secretary Millie did as she was told.

Food was served and the three of them started eating silently. Krios and professor Ashburn sat side by side, waiting for futher instructions from the headmistress.

"So, what do you two think of the situation?" The headmistress asked breaking the awkward silence.

Professor Ashburn and Krios looked at each other.

"I have not seen a power like that in my life. Nor do I know anyone in this continent that has that kind of power." Professor Ashburn started.

"Indeed. Even In my almost eighty thousand years in this world, I have not come across a power such as the one we have seen earlier." Headmistress Zelester answered.

'She's eighty thousand years old!' Krios was surprised by the revelation.

"But how come you were able to absorb it albeit with great struggle?" Professor Ashburn turned his attention to Krios.

Krios looked at Headmistress Zelester, mentally asking her if he was to be trusted with his secret.

"It's alright. You can trust him." Headmistress reassured him.

Krios nodded and faced Professor Ashburn.

"It's because I have some sort of the same power." Krios answered which slightly shocked Professor Ashburn.

He didn't wait for him to ask for proof and simply showed him his powers. He let out his hand, palm facing up, and released his chaos mana.

A purple ball if fire floated on top of his open palm.

"Your flame, It's different." Professor Ashburn spoke, almost like a whisper.

"Have you managed to learn what the boom contained?" Headmistress Zelester asked him.

"Yes, just today, right before the incident." He answered truthfully.

"It does indeed feel the same as that energy from earlier, but it's different." Professor Ashburn said.

"Yes, it is. I don't know why but the energy earlier was more chaotic, more u refined, almost as if it was synthetic and unnatural." Krios explained.

"When I absorbed it, it was like my own power was revolted by it. It also gave me an intense headache and negative thoughts. Thoughts of death, of suffering, of killings." He continued. The two adults just listened to what he was saying.

"I already hve an inkling of who or where this might have come from. But I have to confirm it with someone." Headmistress Zelester spoke.

"Ashburn, no one is to know of what Krios has shown you here. Do you understand me?" The Headmaster said while pacing back and forth.

"Understood Headmistress." The professor answered.

"Okay. Both of you are now dismissed. Ashburn, make sure that Krios gets back to his dorm room in one piece. And ensure that there are guards patrolling the area. I'm going to make a call for my uncle to set up a formation to protect the entire academy." The Headmisyress said in a serious voice.