Chapter 21: Ghosts of the Surface
Going up felt worse than going down, which was saying sothing considering they’d just survived seven floors designed to kill them.
Draven’s legs moved. One foot, then the other. The stairs kept going and going, stone worn smooth by god knows how many years and probably blood. Lots of blood. His S-Rank core—still couldn’t wrap his head around that, S-Rank at eighteen what the actual fuck—pulsed in his chest. Felt like having two hearts. One that beat. One that just... humd with stolen power.
He should’ve hurt. Like, everywhere. His body had literally died. Heart stopped, core shattered into pieces, the whole nine yards of death. Hour ago, maybe? Ti was weird.
But there was nothing. Not even that annoying ache you get from sleeping on your arm wrong.
Just this emptiness where pain should’ve been living.
Behind him everyone else sounded like they were dying for real. Kai’s breathing ca in these wet gasps that made you wince just hearing them. His leg dragged every third step, made this awful scraping sound. Marcus was carrying half his weight and bleeding from—sowhere. Draven couldn’t tell where but there was blood. Seraphina’s back was shredded. Like soone had taken claws and just raked through her. Elara’s healing had been bare minimum, the keep-you-from-bleeding-out kind not the actually-fix-anything kind.
They looked like corpses. Walking corpses held together with stubbornness and spite and probably pure denial at this point.
Draven looked fine. Better than fine. His clothes weren’t even torn which was just fucked up.
"You’re being weird," Seraphina said. Her voice ca out scratchy and wrong, like she’d been screaming. She probably had been. "Like. Weirder than your normal weird."
"Am I?" Draven didn’t look back at her.
"Yeah. You are." Her hand grabbed his wrist, yanked him to a stop. Made the whole line pile up behind them on the narrow stairs. Kai nearly went down. "We watched you die, Draven. Like actually die. Your heart literally—it stopped beating. We felt it when your core exploded. All of us felt it."
"Got better though?" He tried for a smile. It felt wrong on his face. Like his mouth didn’t rember how to do it right anymore.
"Don’t." Seraphina’s eyes were doing that thing. That angry-scared thing where she looked like she wanted to hit him and hug him at the sa ti. "Don’t fucking joke about it. We saw your core explode. I felt it, okay? It felt like—like part of died too and now you’re just walking around like nothing happened."
Draven looked at her. Really looked. Ice princess Seraphina who’d crawled through literal hell for him. Blood all matted in her white hair, face streaked with dust and dried tears she probably didn’t rember crying. She was terrified.
Of him.
That should’ve bothered him more than it did.
"The Core remade ," he said. Tried to make his voice sound gentle or comforting or sothing. It ca out flat. Dead. "I paid a price for the power. Gave up so things. But it’s still ."
"What things?" Kai’s voice cracked. Kid sounded about twelve years old suddenly.
"Fear. Doubt. The part that second-guesses everything." Draven shrugged. Felt his shoulders move. "The Abyss wanted paynt. That’s what it took."
Nobody said anything. The silence was so heavy you could’ve cut it.
Then Elara made this sound. Not quite a gasp, more like when you get punched in the stomach and all your air goes out at once. "That’s... Draven, those aren’t—you can’t just. Fear keeps you alive. Doubt makes you check your work, makes you think twice. Hesitation is what stops you from making mistakes that get people killed."
"I don’t need them anymore." Draven heard his own voice. Cold. Certain. Like soone else was using his mouth. "They were holding back."
"They were keeping you human," Seraphina said. Her hand was still on his wrist, tight enough to hurt probably but he couldn’t feel it. "You sound like soone else. Like soone wearing Draven’s face but all wrong inside."
Was he still human? The question rattled around in his head. His thoughts felt different now. Cleaner. Like soone had taken all the ssy rooms in his brain and organized everything into perfect rows and columns. It should’ve felt better.
It didn’t.
"Still ," he said again. Words felt inadequate. "Just upgraded."
"Fuck this." Marcus’s voice cut through, rough and annoyed. "We’re having this therapy session on the surface where there’s not, you know, a dungeon trying to kill us. Crown Prince’s people are up there. We’re in shit shape for a fight. Move your asses."
Draven started climbing again. Heard the others follow, slower now. Worried. Scared maybe.
Of the Crown Prince’s ambush or of him, he wasn’t sure anymore.
The exit looked like soone had just punched a hole through reality and called it a day.
Shimring oval of light after nine days—nine fucking days—of darkness and monsters and nearly dying what, fifty tis? More? Draven had lost count sowhere around Floor Four when the dragons showed up. He stepped through first because apparently he was the only one who could still fight which was completely fucked considering he’d been literally dead an hour ago but whatever, nothing made sense anymore.
Sunlight hit him like walking into a wall. He squinted hard, seeing spots. Had to blink like twenty tis before his eyes adjusted. Late afternoon maybe? The sun was at this weird angle that looked wrong but he had no idea what ti it actually was or even what day. They’d gone in Tuesday morning. Was it still Tuesday? Probably not.
The extraction point should’ve been chaos. You know, dical tents everywhere, healers running around with supplies, academy instructors tracking their progress on those monitoring crystal things they used. All the support staff they’d been promised when they signed up for this suicide mission.
Instead it was just... empty.
Well not empty empty.
Twelve dudes in Royal Guard armor standing around trying to look intimidating. The armor was all polished and ceremonial-looking but Draven could see the wear on their sword hilts. These guys had actually used their weapons. Not parade ground soldiers playing dress-up.
"Fuck," Lyra said from behind him. Just that one word but yeah, it sumd up everything.
Middle of the cleared hilltop stood this guy in gold armor that probably cost more than like three houses. Lion helt, cape, the whole villain getup. Had to be one of Aldric’s personal dogs. What was his na—Vex? Sothing like that.
"Draven Arclight." Gold armor guy’s voice echoed across the empty space. Definitely practiced that in a mirror. Probably multiple tis. "By order of Crown Prince Aldric you and your companions are detained for unauthorized dungeon delving and suspected theft of kingdom resources."
Kai made this sound. Like a wounded animal that just got kicked. "Theft? We were INVITED. The academy literally SENT us authorization forms!"
"Yeah about that." Gold guy pulled out a scroll. Wax seal, the whole fancy setup. "Turns out that authorization got rescinded three days ago. Real sha you guys were too deep underground to get the ssage but hey now that you’re back up here you’re all under arrest so."
"This is such bullshit," Marcus growled. Sounded like he wanted to start punching people.
Draven felt it behind him. Seraphina’s magic starting to crackle, ice forming on her fingertips even though she could barely fucking stand. Marcus shifting his weight like he was getting ready to charge which was stupid because he was bleeding from sowhere important. Lyra’s shadows doing that creeping thing along the ground.
They were at like thirty percent. Maybe less. One spell exchange and half of them would just collapse and die.
"What if we say no?" Draven asked. His voice ca out way calr than it should’ve.
"Then we kill you for resisting." Gold armor—Vex, yeah that was his na—put his hand on his sword. Very dramatic. Probably practiced that move too. "His Highness said preferably alive but dead works just fine."
[System]: Okay so. This is awkward as hell.
Those guards are all B-Rank minimum. Gold boy is A-Rank. Normally this is where I tell you to run like hell but uh...
You’re S-Rank now. And you literally cannot feel fear anymore.
This could be really fun. Or a complete disaster. Probably both honestly.
Draven did the math in his head. He could probably take out three guards, maybe four before his team got slaughtered. In a straight up fight they were completely fucked.
Which ant straight fight was off the table.
"Commander Vex right?" Draven stepped forward. Away from his bleeding broken team.
"That’s ."
"Here’s what we’re gonna do instead of the whole arrest thing." Draven kept walking toward him. "You and . One on one. I win we walk. You win you get all of us without any fuss. Clean. Simple."
Vex went really still. You could practically hear the gears turning in his head behind that stupid fancy helt. Twenty year veteran versus so academy student who’d been E-Rank like six months ago. Should be the easiest fight of his life.
"What rank are you at now?" Vex asked slow.
"Want to show you?"
Draven let his core pulse. Just once. Just a little bit.
The effect was way bigger than he ant. S-Rank mana pressure rolled across the hilltop like a physical wave of sothing dark and cold and wrong. The grass under his feet turned black. Just died. Withered and died right there. Shadows got longer even though the sun was in the sa place. The air tasted like tal and sothing else. Ash maybe.
Six of the twelve guards just dropped. Straight up fell to their knees gasping for air.
Vex stumbled back a step. His hand went white on his sword hilt. "That’s not—you can’t be—"
"S-Rank." Draven let the pressure ease off a bit before he accidentally killed soone which would be bad. "Absorbed the Abyss Core. So here’s how it is Commander. You try to arrest us and I kill everyone here. Maybe I pass out after, maybe I don’t, wanna find out?"
"Bullshit. You just crawled out of that dungeon you’re running on fus there’s no way—"
"Yeah?" Draven raised his hand. Void energy pooled in his palm. This sphere of black that was so dark it made the sunlight around it look sick and pale and wrong. "Co test it then."
Long pause. Really long. Draven could feel his team behind him radiating confusion and worry and probably Seraphina was seconds from yelling at him but Vex was staring at that void sphere like it personally insulted his mother.
Then the Commander laughed. Sounded bitter and defeated and kind of broken.
"The Prince is gonna have my fucking head for this." Vex drew his sword. Actually was a pretty nice sword. Glowing with fire enchantnts and everything. "Fine. Single combat. Surrender or death."
"Just surrender," Draven said. "Don’t actually need you dead."
Vex moved fast. A-Rank fast which was fast enough most people wouldn’t even see it. His sword ca down vertical, ant to split Draven’s skull open.
Draven stepped left. Simple. The blade missed by maybe an inch and he didn’t even blink. Didn’t flinch. Nothing. Weird how easy dodging was when you weren’t scared of getting hit.
He countered. Palm strike with void energy coating his hand like a black glove. Caught Vex right in the chest. The armor held—barely—but the impact sent him flying backward like twenty feet easy.
Vex landed in a roll. Ca up ready. "Fuck you’re actually—"
"Yeah."
They clashed again. Vex’s sword t Draven’s void-shaped blade and the impact sent these shockwaves rippling out. Grass tore up in chunks. Stones cracked. Probably woke up half the academy with the noise.
The Commander was good, give him credit for that. Twenty years fighting showed in every move. Efficient. Clean. Going for vitals. Textbook perfect swordwork, the kind they teach in expensive schools.
But Draven wasn’t fighting from textbooks.
He fought like soone who already knew they’d win. Every exchange pushed Vex back further. Every ti their weapons t it left new cracks in that gold armor. The void energy was eating through the enchantnts. Corroding tal and magic both.
"What the fuck are you?" Vex gasped. Barely blocked a strike that would’ve taken his head clean off.
"Upgraded version."
Draven caught the next swing with his bare hand. Void energy was thick enough on his palm that the blade just stopped dead. He twisted. Felt the enchanted sword snap at the guard with this awful tal screaming sound. Then drove his other fist into Vex’s stomach.
The gold armor shattered. Actual pieces flying off in different directions. Vex went down on his knees. Started coughing blood. His eyes were wide like he couldn’t process what just happened.
Draven put his void blade against the guy’s throat.
"We done?"
"I—" More coughing. Blood on his lips and chin. "Yeah fuck. I yield."
Draven let the void energy fade out. Stepped back. Around them the twelve Royal Guards just stood there frozen. Watching their Commander kneel in the grass looking half dead and totally defeated.
"Tell Aldric sothing for ," Draven said. Loud enough everyone could hear. "Tell him his dungeon trap didn’t work. Tell him I’m S-Rank now. And tell him next ti he sends people to kill they better be serious about it because I’m done playing nice."
He walked back to his team. Left Vex kneeling there bleeding into the grass.
Nobody tried to stop them. Smart.
Made it maybe three miles before Seraphina completely lost her shit.
"Okay no. WHAT was that back there?" She grabbed his shoulder, spun him around hard enough he actually stumbled. Her eyes were doing that really bright thing they did before she started yelling. "You could’ve died! If you’d lost that fight we all would’ve—"
"I wasn’t gonna lose."
"You don’t KNOW that! Vex has killed S-Ranks! He’s literally famous for killing people way stronger than him!"
"Yeah well." Draven t her glare straight on. "I knew I’d win though."
"That’s not—you can’t—" She stopped. Mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. "You actually an that. Not like hope or think or believe. You actually knew."
"Yeah."
"Because you literally cannot feel doubt anymore."
"Pretty much yeah."
Seraphina just stared at him for like ten full seconds. Then she kissed him. Hard and desperate and kind of angry all at once. When she pulled back her eyes were wet and she looked mad about that too.
"Don’t do that shit again," she said. Voice was shaking. "Don’t just throw yourself at A-Rank mages like it’s nothing, like you’re invincible now because you’re NOT. You can still die and I can’t—I won’t—"
She didn’t finish. Just pressed her face against his chest and breathed. Her whole body was trembling.
Draven put his arms around her. Tried to figure out what he should be feeling right now. Concern probably. Maybe guilt? There was supposed to be so kind of emotional response here but it was like reaching for sothing that wasn’t there anymore. Like a gear that should catch but just spun uselessly instead.
"He’s gonna escalate hard now," Elara said from sowhere behind them. She’d been real quiet since the extraction point. Just watching everything with those calculating pale blue eyes. "You just humiliated Aldric’s Commander in front of witnesses. The Crown Prince doesn’t let that kind of thing slide. Ever."
"Good then." Draven felt Seraphina tense against him. "Let him co at . I’m done hiding from that asshole."
"See that’s the problem though," Elara said quietly. "You’re not worried about consequences anymore. That makes you dangerous in ways you don’t understand yet."
"Dangerous to him or to us?" Marcus asked. His voice was gruff, tired.
"Both probably."
They walked the rest of the way without talking. Seraphina kept her hand wrapped around Draven’s wrist like she was afraid he’d disappear if she let go. Maybe she was right to think that. He didn’t know anymore.
The academy infirmary like exploded into action the second they ca through the doors.
Healers everywhere suddenly. Rushing around, yelling dical terms Draven didn’t understand. Kai got rushed straight to ergency surgery because his arm was hanging at this really awful angle that made your stomach turn just looking at it. Marcus was bleeding internally or sothing, needed three different mages working together to fix whatever was broken inside. Seraphina’s back was bad enough they brought in so specialist. Lyra’s ribs kept making these clicking sounds every ti she breathed that made everyone wince.
Draven sat in a corner by the window and just watched it all happen.
So healer ca over eventually. Had this official-looking diagnostic crystal thing. "Lord Arclight we need to examine you too, you’ve been in that dungeon for—"
"I’m fine though."
"Protocol requires that all dungeon survivors undergo—"
"I’m S-Rank now." He let just a tiny bit of mana pressure leak out. Not enough to hurt her just enough to make the point. "Your healing spells won’t even work on anymore. Save your energy for them."
The healer went really pale. Backed away fast. Almost tripped over her own feet.
Elara dropped into the chair next to him. She was covered in bandages everywhere but had straight up refused the bed they tried to give her. "You’re scaring people."
"Yeah I’m scaring everyone apparently."
"Does it bother you at all?"
Draven thought about it. Like really thought about it. Week ago it would’ve made him feel guilty as hell. Now though...
"No."
"Yeah." Elara leaned back in her chair. Looked exhausted. "The Abyss took more from you than you think it did."
"I know."
"Do you though? Really?"
He didn’t have an answer for that. Just sat there while healers worked on saving his team. Seraphina’s face was white with pain even through whatever numbing spells they were using. Kai was unconscious which was probably good because whatever they were doing to his arm looked like it hurt worse than the dungeon. Marcus kept trying to sit up and getting pushed back down by like three different healers.
Draven’s void core humd in his chest. Steady. Certain. Cold as ice.
"What happens now?" Elara asked after a while.
"We rest up. Get stronger. Then we go after Aldric before he cos after us."
"You’re seriously planning a war."
"I’m planning to survive." Draven glanced at her. "That’s what villains do right? Survive no matter what."
Elara laughed but it sounded kind of broken. "Last week you were C-Rank. Now you’re planning to overthrow the literal Crown Prince."
"Last week I still had fear." He looked back at Seraphina. Watched the healers work on her ruined back. "Now I don’t. Makes everything way simpler."
"Simpler." Elara shook her head. Closed her eyes. "Right. Sure. Simple."
[System]: Hate to interrupt the whole brooding thing you got going but we should probably talk about what cos next yeah?
You literally just declared war on the Crown Prince. He’s got three S-Ranks on his payroll. Royal Court has five more.
And you’re sitting here with one S-Rank core and four friends who can barely walk straight.
The math isn’t exactly in our favor here buddy.
Draven didn’t respond to that. Just sat there while healers worked on saving his team.
They sat there in tired silence. Outside the window the sun was setting over the academy. Sowhere in the capital the Crown Prince was probably getting reports about how his ambush failed. Planning his next move. Sharpening his knives.
Draven’s void core kept pulsing. Steady and cold.
The Abyss had taken his fear away.
But it left him sothing else instead. Sothing harder. More certain. More absolute.
The will to burn down the entire fucking kingdom if that’s what it took to stay alive.
And the scary part? He was completely okay with that.
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