To all who suggest to/predict that Quinn grants a permanent permission to turn people in cases like these, there is a problem: it wouldn't make a difference in this kind of scenario. Kazz isn't member of his family and thus it wouldn't apply to her anyway, Fex's loss of control is the cause for the emergency, Quinn and other capable Vampires are away, and no one Quinn turned himself is likely to know how... and most of them likely cannot turn others in the first place (not all of them are vampires). Not to mention that a permanent permission is likely to be prohibited by the law anyway...

First, do you seriously mean to defend the notion that a student of the elite batch, a talent-based attribution, is not expected to demonstrate sufficient level of talent in their chosen discipline? Also, Damien's ethereal talent is theoretically high because of the (purplish) lightning seed, but his cultivation level is still quite ordinary for the standards of this institute, and the first opportunity to demonstrate any talent beyond combat prowess—which may or may not be explained away with 'nonstandard lightning seed'—yielded a line: "... even Reva didn't expect that his etheric flames would be so inadequate and inferior in nature." Second, it would be rather strange to expect Einstein to be a pro swimmer since he was never on a related scholarship or any professional swimming team (as far as I know); not really a parallel to the situation at hand. He did, however, fail to get admission to one school of his choice when his performance in certain subjects was subpar even though his performance in other subjects was excellent. Third, whenever there is 'gifted' or 'advanced' program in an institution... really, any program where the resources are allocation based on a tier system... one is expected to perform in a way that justifies their tier/program inclusion lest they are removed or downgraded. Only exceptions to this rule tend to be programs where people are expected to pursue nothing but the subject that got them selected in the first place, therefore their talent for other subjects or lack thereof is never a factor... which is clearly not the case in this scenario. So, yeah, it's a plot hole.

Looking at it objectively, it was tantamount to what she said, though. After all, Damien shouldn't be able to demonstrate subpar talent in any domain in a talent-driven environment and still avoid downgrade to the 'Gold' batch... given the setup, that would be a plothole.

@Suiyan: Since there hasn't been chapter today (so far, anyway), I assume it's because of the lacking sum of votes this week (ie not enough for Sunday extra release). I understand the deal, and we readers haven't done our bit, yet... I suspect the novel is going to fail the Win-Win challenge unless you release at least one chapter every day this month, right?

Oh, an 'unbound' Heavenly Fragment. An inspired idea to include the concept—and it's implications—in the story; I like it!