Chapter 14

Meanwhile, tensions flared between student factions as sympathizers and opponents of Mel clashed continually. The black cards kept a tense silence, avoiding awkward questions about their failed battle. 

In the rural frontiers outside auroria's borders, a weakened stranger emerged from the dense woods. Staggering weakly, the figure collapsed to its knees amid wild undergrowth. As a cloak fell back to reveal dark purple eyes, Mel clutched at a bloody wound in his back, his strength failing. Between gasped breaths, a single word escaped his lips...

"Elowen...Rue…Dorian…"

Before fading into darkness, he saw a hooded figure standing over him and its hand reached towards him. 

Back at the school, Elowen trudged through the corridors to her next class, her face adorned with bandages from recent skirmishes. "Mel, are you really gone?" she murmured, catching sight of Dorian, who bore his own bandages.

"Hey, Elowen. Mel sure gave us a run for our money, didn't he?" Dorian attempted to lighten the mood with a forced chuckle. "It's been 2 weeks, and Draven's training us relentlessly. We haven't even spoken to him since."

Elowen sighed, examining her bandaged hands that still ached from the confrontation with Mel. Dorian glanced at his bruised fingers and shook his head. "If only I had managed to copy his fighting style, maybe I could have stopped him and he could've been in prison–not dead. But even then…" He trailed off, the weight of their failure heavy on his shoulders.

"It's not your fault," Elowen reassured him, her voice softening. "Although, I understand why you were so eager to fight Mel again. It is pretty exhilarating," she added with a giggle. Dorian rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish chuckle.

As they continued down the hallway, Dorian noticed Rue walking with a group of enthusiastic admirers trailing behind her. "Seems like since Mel's disappearance, everyone's suddenly interested in the princess," he remarked.

Elowen raised an eyebrow. "How do those things even connect?"

Dorian shrugged, explaining matter-of-factly, "Well, Mel's the only one who's actually been inside her palace. There's this rumor that something happened between them, though it's not true. These guys think they've got a chance now that Mel's gone. Rue's been pretty down about it all; she even tried to repair his robe herself." Dorian sighed, shaking his head.

"Wait, if I start following her, maybe I could meet the king and queen and ask them for guidance on how to become a great queen!" Elowen's face lit up with excitement. "What are you thinking about, Elowen?" Dorian called out, curious.

"Nothing," Elowen replied with a dismissive twirl of her blue hair. "Elowen, can I ask you something? On the first day of school, you seemed really angry at Rue, especially when she mentioned your brother."

Elowen sighed, her expression softening as she spoke. "It's true, I was angry. But we're friends now, so I'll share. My brother killed Arthur—my father. In Camelot, strength was everything. My older brother wasn't physically strong, but he was exceptionally smart. I wasn't born yet, but I know he took my father's life shortly after my father killed Merlin."

"My brother—Liam—is now the king of Camelot. He mostly leaves me alone, but I've harbored a deep desire to kill him. The truth is, I just don't have it in me," Elowen said with a heavy sigh, meeting Dorian's gaze. "What about you? Have you experienced any tragedies?"

Dorian sighed and revealed his fangs—one sharp, the other not. "I'm half human. My father pushed me hard to become like him. My mother passed away from old age 162 years ago."

Elowen's eyes widened. "How old are you, then?"

Dorian chuckled. "When I was a baby, I was about 50 years old in human terms. Now, at 15 in human years, I'd guess I'm around 100? It's a bit confusing, I know."

Elowen shook her head, then suddenly remembered. "Hey, want to check in on how Professor Estron is handling all this?"

Dorian nodded, and they made their way to his office. Just as Elowen raised her hand to knock, the door swung open, revealing Professor Estron. His massive frame loomed over them, even more muscular than before. "Princess Elowen, Prince Dorian," he said coldly, his voice carrying an icy edge. "Neither of you are in my class."

They both noticed a strange white smudge around his mouth. Estron quickly wiped it with his sleeve, but the mark remained. "I apologize," he said, his tone stiff. "Had some soup earlier." He awkwardly covered his mouth with his arm before slamming the door in their faces.

"That was… weird," Dorian muttered.

"Yeah, and why did he lie?" Elowen added.

Dorian's ears perked up. "Lie? About what?"

Elowen crossed her arms. "I've been wearing makeup since I was a kid. He said it was soup, but if it were, it would've wiped off easily. That was definitely makeup. So why pretend he was eating when he was clearly covering something up?"

"I don't know, but maybe we should leave it alone." Dorian sighed and they began walking. 

In a vast chamber, Mel slowly stirred from unconsciousness. As his eyes adjusted, he noticed a massive holographic painting looming above him. It depicted an older version of himself, crowned in black, seated on a throne amidst the ruins of fallen kingdoms. But as he stared closer, his heart sank—it wasn't him. It was Merlin.

Sitting up, Mel winced as pain shot through his body, his muscles still aching. His torso was tightly wrapped in bandages, covering the stab wound Draven had inflicted. Suddenly, his stomach twisted violently. He leaned over the side of the bed and vomited, traces of blood mixing with the bile. His body, finally succumbing to the toll of battle, was reacting to the brutal suplexes from Cassius, Astroman's crushing gravity, the relentless punches from Elowen and Dorian, and, of course, Draven's blade.

"Ugh, you're gonna have to clean that up!" A voice on the side of him called out and he turned around to see a tall curvy woman with a bottle in her hand, she had an immense amount of aura around her. Mel stood up, his legs wobbling and she stood up, towering over him. "W-who are you? And where am I?!" Mel asked and the lady sighed. "You're in my palace." She gestured to the window and outside there was literally nobody there, they were in a desert like place. "Your palace?! So you kidnapped me huh?!" Mel jumped and dashed at her with a punch. 

The lady chuckled and put a finger to his head and pushed him down, his nose bleeding as the heavy attack hit him. "D-did she even hit me?!" He threw a hidden cloud kick, a trail of cloud following behind his foot, but she dodged it which was impossible to Melanthius, the hidden cloud technique should not be able to be seen. She held her hand to Mel's face and an energy ball formed on it. Mel's eyes widened and the ball disappeared. The lady then punched him in the face. "I'm too old!" She chuckled and Mel lied on the ground. "Who are you?" Mel clutched his jaw with his hand. 

"I'm Shenelle Upan, mage, very very old," She said even though she doesn't look a day over 30. "But you probably know me as something else; Baba Yaga, the owner of the moving house." She gave him a knowing smirk. She leaned in and her eyes flashed golden then back to black. "And the master of Merlin Shadowbane, nice to meet you, Melanthius Shadowbane. Why don't you call me Auntie?" 

Night had fallen, and Dorian was deep in sleep, finally in his own bed for a change. A sudden hand clamped over his mouth, jolting him awake. His instincts kicked in, and he was about to yell, but then he saw Elowen leaning over him, finger pressed to her lips, signaling him to stay quiet.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Dorian blinked at her in confusion. "Elowen?" he whispered groggily, glancing at the holographic clock glowing faintly beside him. "It's 3:30 in the morning! What are you doing here?"

Elowen plopped down on the edge of his bed, her expression restless. "I can't shake this feeling about Professor Estron. There's something in his classroom he doesn't want us to find. We have to go. Now."

Dorian groaned, still trying to process the situation. "You want to break into a professor's office in the middle of the night? Are you serious?"

She nodded firmly, her eyes intense. "Completely."

Moments later, they walked out of the dormitories and Dorian used one of his sharp fingernails to pick the lock. Elowen walked in and Dorian followed. As they walked the silent halls, they finally found Professor Estron's room and entered. 

"Check his file cabinet," Elowen whispered and Dorian nodded, picking the lock and searching. "Here, he still has Mel's file." He pulled at it but it was stuck. "What the hell?" He saw an enchantment lock on it that couldn't physically be picked. "Uhh, Dorian," Elowen called out from behind him and Dorian turned around to see Elowen being held in the air from the back of her shirt by Estron's one arm. "Detention both of you." Estron said coldly and they gulped.

Back at Baba Yaga's house, the desert sun bathed the surroundings in a strange light. Time seemed different here, a peculiar stillness settling over the day.

Yaga sat across from Mel at a large kitchen table. Mel stared at her, scrutinizing her face. "You're really the infamous witch who eats children?" he asked bluntly.

Yaga scowled, raising a hand. A telekinetic force pushed Mel back into his chair. "I do not eat children! I have no idea where that ridiculous rumor came from," she snapped.

Mel settled into his seat, unfazed. "So, that's just a title they gave you? How did you even meet my father? And why do you look so… young?" he added, eyes narrowing with suspicion.

Yaga took a sip from her coffee mug, her expression calming. "I used to train people in magic," she began, her voice softer now.

Mel arched an eyebrow. "Don't most people have magic?"

She shook her head. "There are wizards, and then there are Manascares—non-wizard folk who have mana. A long time ago, during the witch trials, a man killed many wizards and stole their powers. He spread that magic to others, creating Manascares. For example, at your school, most of them aren't wizards—they just have mana."

Mel's eyes widened in shock. "I had no idea."

"Of course you didn't," she replied, her tone turning bitter. "They've erased wizardry from the school system entirely." Yaga's hand tightened around her mug, and with a sudden crack, it shattered, spilling coffee across the table.

"Anyway, the witch trials only stopped when a group of mages formed the Magisterium, a council of wizards. Those bastards," she spat, her voice laced with bitterness. "They're the reason I became Baba Yaga. They wanted to placate the normies, telling them that not all wizards were dangerous. So they singled out a few as 'heinous,' and, of course, I was deemed the infamous Baba Yaga—an old, ugly witch with a moving house and a craving for eating children." Her voice shook with fury as she trailed off, before suddenly kicking the table, sending it crashing into the wall.

She paused, breathing heavily. "What was the question again?" With a flick of her wrist, a new table materialized before them. Mel instinctively covered his eyes, peeking through his fingers. "I—I wanted to know how you met my father," he stammered.

"Oh, that was long after the trials, when wizards were finally accepted. Two of my closest friends, branded as heinous, died, and I found their son. I took him in, trained him, fed him. Never would I have guessed he'd become a overlord." She chuckled, but Mel's gaze fell to the floor.

"So, there wasn't really a reason for his deeds? He was just… like that? And am I to assume the Magisterium put me in prison as a baby?" He gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles whitening.

"You're sharper than most, but there was a reason for Merlin's transformation." As she spoke, Mel's eyes locked onto hers, a flicker of hope igniting. "What? Why—?"

Before he could finish, the wall above them exploded in a cloud of debris, and two girls tumbled through the opening. The first, a short girl with flaming red hair and eyes to match, landed squarely on top of the other—a tall girl with striking blue hair and icy blue eyes—her knee digging sharply into the blue-haired girl's side.

"I'll teach you to laugh when I fall in quicksand!" the redhead growled, her fist flying toward her opponent.

The blue-haired girl caught the punch with a defiant smirk, biting into the redhead's hand before throwing her aside with a brutal swing. The redhead slammed into the wall with a grunt. "Trust me, I already know how!" the blue-haired girl shot back, wiping away the blood trickling from her nose.

Without missing a beat, the red-haired girl lunged forward, flames licking at her heels. The blue-haired girl ducked under the charge and, with a swift uppercut, drove her fist—now encrusted with shards of ice—into the redhead's chin. The blow sent the red-haired girl flying upward.

In midair, the redhead twisted, her foot igniting in flames. She came down with a fiery kick that struck the blue-haired girl in the face, sending her sprawling back into Mel's arms.

"Oh, shit, he's awake?" the red-haired girl teased, flashing a grin as she landed gracefully. The blue-haired girl wiped the blood from her lip, barely fazed. "Thought you were dead," she replied casually.

Yaga sighed, exasperated, and snapped her fingers. Instantly, the girls were healed, the bruises and blood vanishing, and both were forced to sit cross-legged on the floor, grumbling. "Melanthius, meet Sera," she said, gesturing to the redhead, who smirked mischievously. She grabbed Mel's hand in a handshake, flames briefly flaring from her palm. "Ow!" he yelped, pulling back.

"And this," Yaga continued, motioning toward the blue-haired girl, "is Lumi." Lumi snorted, then hocked a loogie. The spit froze midair and shattered as it hit the ground with a satisfying crack.

"Are they your daughters?" Mel asked, raising an eyebrow.

Yaga let out a sharp, amused cackle. "Children? Ruin this figure?" She scoffed, running her hands down her curvy body with exaggerated flair. "Hell no! I found them when my house was wandering some backwater country. They were both set to be executed because their parents weren't 'meant to mate.'" She sighed, her tone shifting to frustration. "Only problem is, they get on my nerves constantly!" Yaga growled, then suddenly tensed. "Speaking of, where's your brother?!"

"Probably sulking on the roof again," Lumi muttered, rolling her eyes. She was about to spit when Yaga shot her a death glare.

"Spit in my damn house again—go ahead, I dare you!" Yaga snapped, and Lumi quickly swallowed the loogie.

"You're 14 now! It's like I'm raising kindergartners!" Yaga threw up her hands in exasperation.

"Then send us to Arcanum! Or Bloodthorne High! We're not learning anything stuck in this stupid house!" Sera huffed, rolling her eyes as she stormed off to her room, punctuating her exit with a loud slam of the door. "OW! STUPID DOOR SLAMMED ON MY HAND!" She called out from her room.

"Yeah! You've trained us, Yaga, not taught us. There's a difference!" Lumi shouted after her sister before turning on her heel and marching to her room.

"This house is terrifying…" Mel muttered under his breath.

"Tell me about it," Yaga sighed, rubbing her temples in frustration. "Raising three kids with autism isn't exactly a picnic. Sera's accident-prone, Lumi can't go a day without freezing her spit and smashing it everywhere, and Caius… he's basically a ghost. Doesn't talk, doesn't socialize—just sits on the roof all day, waiting for an escape from this house."

She paused, her face softening. "I just want to settle down, but being on the run from the Wizard Council? It's stressful. They've got serious firepower, and I can't let the kids get caught up in that kind of danger."

"You seem like a good parent," Mel muttered, looking down. "But… There's someone after me. They call him the Jester. If I go back to school, he'll kill me—and not just me, everyone there. I don't even know who he is."

"The Jester?" Yaga raised an eyebrow as she casually poured herself a glass of wine. "That's a ridiculous name. Has he actually done anything yet?"

Mel scratched his head, hesitant. "I killed the Wild Storm Spider, but after that, three knights came after me. I'm pretty sure they were sent by him. Their names were Nicolas the Cute, Andrion the Devoted, and Hawkins the Swift. They were strong. Too strong."

Yaga froze mid-sip before spitting out her drink, spraying it all over Mel. He calmly grabbed a napkin and wiped his face.

"You fought those three?" she blurted out. "Damn, I've heard they're practically killing machines. How'd you survive? I mean, I could take them—no problem—but still…" She flicked her hand, drying him with a gust of wind, her curiosity piqued.

"I was winning at first… then losing. Badly. But then I picked up a random pipe, and they bolted like cowards."

Yaga spat another mouthful of wine at Mel, who wiped his face again with a resigned sigh. She flicked her hand to dry him off and casually refilled her cup.

"You must have your father's knack for weapons mastery. And let's not forget who taught him that—yours truly," she said with a chuckle, raising her glass.

"You taught him how to use weapons like that?" Mel asked, incredulous. "I wielded Excalibur and the Raven Talon tonfas once… but I lost control."

Before he could finish, Yaga sprayed more wine at him. He groaned, rubbing his eyes. "Why do you keep doing that?"

Yaga grinned. "Ever heard of a running gag? Besides, you managed to wield those weapons? Your father loved those tonfas, so it makes sense you lost control, though. Wielding something like that would overwhelm anyone. That's why most wizards stick to wands." She gave a playful wink. "Well, weaker mages, at least."

She chuckled again, snapping her fingers to dry him off once more.

Suddenly, a massive black wolf padded down from the stairs leading to the roof. It glanced at Mel and Yaga before giving a casual nod. Mel jumped to his feet. "What is that?!" he shouted, eyes wide.

Yaga growled in annoyance. "Caius! You could at least transform and greet us properly!"

The wolf huffed, exhaling loudly, and in a fluid motion transformed into a boy about Melanthius' height, with wild green hair and matching eyes. He simply nodded, before shifting back into his wolf form. He clamped his jaws around a raw piece of steak and trotted off, kicking the door closed behind him with a dismissive flick of his paw.

Mel blinked in disbelief. "And that's—"

"Yep," Yaga interrupted, taking a long sip of her wine. "Caius, my shape-shifting headache."

Shaking her head, she turned back to Mel. "Anyway, what's your plan? Everyone at Arcanum thinks you're dead."

Mel sighed, sinking back into his seat. "The longer I stay at the school, the more trouble I bring to my friends because of my lineage. Can I stay here for a while?" His voice wavered, and tears welled up in his eyes. "I've been cursed with this blood. Everything bad that's happened to me is because of him. I hate him so much."

As he broke down, Yaga simply watched, her expression unreadable as she took another sip of wine. "Yeah, sure. You can stay here," she said, shrugging.

Mel looked up, eyes wide with surprise. "R-really?!"

"Yeah, really. But there are rules." Yaga stood up, stretching. "We stop by unkingdomed towns from time to time. If anyone recognizes you, you run. Curfew's 9 p.m., but lights out is up to you. Don't cook unless you're making something for me. I tend to stay indoors while they roam, and my house likes to walk. So if you've got complaints, keep them to yourself. Deal?"

Mel blinked, processing the rapid-fire list of conditions. "Uh… deal."