After eating, the couple walked in silence until reaching a secluded park, where they sat together. A montary quiet settled between them before Nero cleared his throat.
"You’re curious about that ability, I presu?"
It wasn’t really a question—just a way to begin.
Khione’s icy blue eyes stared directly into his ominous red ones... and wavered. This did not escape Nero’s notice. Before, his unusual eyes had rely unsettled people—no human naturally possessed such a shade. Now, knowing what they could do, she felt a genuine thread of fear. Those crimson eyes seed more mysterious and dangerous than ever.
"Yes," she said. "I’m curious. You said the ability to cancel a law is tied to your eyes, right?"
"It is," he confird simply.
"Since when have you had it? Did it appear when you gained your second law?" The questions spilled out. Before, she had felt she understood him, at least to an extent. Now, she realized how much she didn’t know—a frustrating revelation she made no effort to hide.
"No. I’ve had it longer than that," he answered honestly. "I was born with it."
A long silence stretched between them before Khione spoke again.
"I see. You don’t use it often because you don’t want to draw unwanted attention. Is that it?"
Nero nodded. "It’s not an ability I want to show the world. I need to keep it as a trump card. More importantly... an ability that lets you see the structure of any spell, erase it, and cancel any law... it isn’t sothing people would call human. They’d want my eyes. They’d think it could make them invincible."
Khione understood. His reasoning was sound. The power his eyes held had to remain secret until he was strong enough to defend himself. His ability to wield two laws was already shocking enough to make powerful factions covet him. If you added eyes that could unravel spells and nullify laws... it would plunge the world into chaos. Every major power would want him—or his eyes.
"No wonder you hide it," she murmured. "You used it against Elreth in that sparring match last ti, didn’t you?"
Nero nodded. There was no point denying it now.
"Don’t tell you’ll awaken another law later on," Khione said suddenly.
Nero smiled mysteriously. "Who knows?"
Khione felt a headache coming on. This boyfriend of hers was a puzzle with no end.
They talked a while longer before finally leaving, the weight of secrets now a little lighter between them.
•••
The morning air in the advanced training sector was cool and still, holding the quiet before the storm of daily drills. Nero and Khione entered their usual private arena, the silence between them now comfortable, a space filled with understanding instead of unanswered questions. The mission lood—a real venture beyond the academy walls, into the unpredictable wilds. There would be no teachers to step in, no controlled simulations. Today’s training had a new, sharp-edged purpose: prepare for anything.
Across the academy, the others were lost in their own preparations. Lux and Adam were training. Blake was almost certainly still asleep, storing energy in his own unique way. Elreth and Azalea would be in their own corners of the training grounds, honing their strengths. But here, it was just the two of them.
They changed into their gear without a word, a familiar ritual. When they faced each other on the scarred stone, the dynamic had shifted slightly from the day before. There was no shock, no revelation hanging in the balance. There was only the work. Khione’s gaze was focused, analytical. She had seen the peak of his hidden power; now she needed to learn how to fight beside it, and against opponents who didn’t possess it. Nero’s expression was set in calm determination. He would not use his special eyes today. This victory had to be earned with the tools the world already knew he had: Fire and Lightning.
A nod was the only signal they needed.
Khione initiated this ti. She had learned from her defeat. Closing the distance was a knight’s ga, and she was a mage. Her first spell wasn’t an attack, but a reshaping of the battlefield.
"Frozen Landscape: Treacherous Ground."
She swept her wand in a wide arc. Instead of a simple sheet of ice, the floor in front of her transford into a field of jagged, rising ice spikes and deep, hidden pits covered by a thin, fragile frost. It was a zone of pure control, designed to trap, slow, and injure.
Nero didn’t charge in blindly. He assessed, his eyes tracing the patterns. He raised his sword, and this ti, he chose Lightning first. Golden energy crackled down the blade. He didn’t aim at Khione. He thrust the sword point into the ground at his feet.
"Circuit Breaker."
A web of lightning raced across the floor, seeking the conductive moisture in the ice. It traveled through the spikes and across the hidden pits, overloading and shattering them in a series of sharp, popping explosions. He wasn’t just breaking the terrain; he was clearing a path with surgical, efficient strikes.
But Khione was already two steps ahead. While his lightning was busy on the ground, she attacked from above.
"Hailstorm Barrage." A dense cloud ford over Nero, pelting him not with spears, but with hundreds of fast, heavy hailstones, each the size of a fist. It was a distraction, a nuisance spell ant to force a reaction.
Nero shielded his head with an arm wreathed in flickering fire, the hailstones sizzling into steam on contact. But the bombardnt gave Khione the second she needed.
"Ice Mirror: Phantasm." She created three mirror-images of herself, each gliding to a different point around the cleared periter of the arena. All four Khiones raised their wands simultaneously. It was impossible to tell which was real.
Nero smiled, a fierce, appreciative grin. Good. This is what we need.
He stopped trying to pick the real one. He decided to challenge them all. Sheathing the lightning, he embraced the Law of Fire. Heat radiated from him in a visible wave. He slamd his palms together, then pushed them outward.
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