CHAPTER 204: THE BLACK CORE [2]

Kyle blinked at the glowing numbers on his mana band. The pale blue digits burned into his tired eyes.

[7:09 AM]

’Great. I still have one and half hour to take a little nap.’

He let out a dry chuckle. But it quickly turned into a wince as pain flared in his side. The muscles under his ribs felt like they’d been twisted and wrung out.

With a groan, he pushed himself up from the cold training room floor. His palms slipped on the sweat-slick tiles, nearly sending him crashing back down.

It took two tries, but he finally made it to his feet.

Across the room. Zalrielle sat silently in her feline form, her golden eyes locked on him.

Usually, she would’ve already jumped onto his shoulder, her claws poking through his jacket as she got comfortable.

But now, she just watched him. Her tail flicked back and forth. Nervous, or maybe worried.

Kyle narrowed his eyes, trying to focus through the fog of exhaustion.

"Wait," he rasped. His throat was dry, his voice scratchy like he’d swallowed sand.

"You said you need mana to transform. Do you have your own soul core or something?"

Her ears pinned back.

’No. My core is inside you.’

Kyle stared. "What?"

’Our cores are connected,’ she said, like she was explaining something obvious.

’That’s why everyone sees me as a normal cat, unless I choose to show otherwise.’

He pressed a hand to his temple. It came away sticky with half-dried blood.

"But... you changed forms before," he said slowly. "Back when you were just a sword. Or a ring. That was before any of this spirit mana stuff."

Zalrielle’s whiskers twitched. Clearly annoyed.

’I used your mana back then too. Just because you didn’t know doesn’t mean it wasn’t happening. Now, you can use my spirit mana. Same idea, shared cores.’

Kyle squinted. His headache was getting worse.

"So you’ve been siphoning my mana this whole time? Directly from my body? Without a conduit or anything?"

’Yes.’

"How the hell does that even—"

’I don’t know.’

She cut him off. Her tail flicked again, and she looked away.

It was strange. She always seemed so sure of everything. But now, she sounded... unsure. Like this one piece didn’t fit, no matter how much she tried to make it make sense.

Kyle let out a long breath through his nose. His head throbbed harder, and the metallic taste of blood lingered on his tongue.

"I need sleep. Now."

The faculty building wasn’t far. Its arched doors stood quietly under the soft glow of enchanted lanterns, the light pale against the stone walls.

He fumbled with the lock on his door. His fingers were shaking too much to get it right the first time. Or the second. The third try finally worked.

Inside, nothing had changed.

His bed was still a mess. Yesterday’s uniform hung off the back of his chair. A glass of water sat by the window, dust settling on the rim. His textbooks were stacked on the desk, untouched.

In the corner, a pile of blankets had been turned into a nest. Zalrielle’s nest. A few half-eaten pastries were tucked into the folds like hidden treasure.

Kyle didn’t bother taking off his boots. He dropped face-first onto the bed, groaning into the pillow.

The alarm rune flared briefly under his hand. The numbers flickered. As he set the alarm at..

[8:30 AM]

’Plenty of time,’ he told himself.

His eyelids were already closing. He barely felt Zalrielle hop onto the bed. Her small body curling into a ball near his shoulder.

The cold in his bones from using too much spirit mana started to fade.

As he slipped into sleep, one final thought drifted through his head.

’Shouldn’t have stayed up gaming with Anastasia.’

It wasn’t worth it. He hadn’t slept for two nights now.

His body wasn’t just tired.

It was done.

———

The blade of her estoc hummed as it cut through the air. Sending out a wave of darkness so thick it looked like liquid shadow.

The energy surged forward, crashing into the three training dummies lined up across the room.

The dummies, made of enchanted steel and reinforced with shock-absorbing cores. Shattered on impact.

Pieces broke apart and vanished into black smoke, leaving only silence behind. The wave slammed into the wall at the far end of the room.

The floor didn’t crack, but long black scorch marks stretched across the white surface. Faint traces of energy still glowed at the edges.

Eleanora stood in the middle of it all, breathing hard. Her chest rose and fell with each deep breath.

Sweat slid down her face, making strands of her blonde hair stick to her skin.

Her training uniform clung to her body, damp with effort. Thick ten-kilogram weight bands wrapped around her wrists and ankles, turning every move into a struggle.

She refused to take them off.

She hadn’t left this training room since yesterday.

"Not enough," She muttered.

Her grip on the hilt of her estoc tightened. The blade shook slightly in her hands. Not from weakness.

But from frustration boiling under the surface.

She had been pushing herself nonstop. Over and over, she repeated the same drills. Slashes, thrusts, movement forms, footwork.

Her muscles burned.

Her eyes stung.

But the feeling inside her chest wouldn’t go away.

Because yesterday. She had learned something terrifying.

Anastasia, her sister and the Crown Princess, had access to the council’s private reports.

And Eleanora, sharp and curious as always, had looked through them when Anastasia wasn’t paying attention.

Her sister probably knew. But she likely thought it was just Eleanora being nosy again, chasing some rumor or political edge.

She had no idea what Eleanora had actually seen.

The report talked about an emergency council meeting. About Seris and her statement. About the hospital attack.

And about a man named Vesper.

A man who used demonic energy or was like the demonic energy, but wasn’t a demon. A man who spoke of something even worse than the demon war. A man who offered Seris a place with them.

But Eleanora understood something the others didn’t.

That offer hadn’t been for Seris.

It had been for Kyle.

And that changed everything.

Because in her past life, the timeline she remembered, this man—Vesper—had never existed.

Her fingers went limp.

The estoc slipped from her hands and hit the ground with a loud clatter. The sound echoed across the empty room.

Her legs gave out next. Slowly, she lowered herself onto the cold training floor and lay flat on her back. The tile was cool against her burning skin. It helped, a little.

But her thoughts were still spinning.

She stared up at the ceiling.

Her voice came out low, nearly a whisper.

"This didn’t happen before."

She had lived through the demon war. She had seen kingdoms fall, heroes die. The sky turn red with fire, and the ground stained with blood.

But this?

A threat stronger than demons? A threat even demons feared?

This wasn’t just new.

It was impossible.

Unless...

Her breath caught in her throat.

"Am I even in the past?"

The question sent a cold shiver through her body.

What if this wasn’t a true regression? What if this was something else entirely? A different timeline? A new path branching off from what she remembered?

She didn’t know.

And that scared her more than anything.

Then there was that hooded figure.

The one who saved Kyle during the hospital attack.

The one who used pure darkness element to cut straight through Vesper’s power like it was nothing.

’Who were they?’

Were they on her side?

Were they part of something bigger?

Or were they another threat?

She had no answers.

And not knowing... that was the worst part.

Her mana band buzzed gently against her wrist.

[8:30 AM]

Class starts at 9:00 AM.

But how could she sit through lessons when the world felt like it was breaking apart?

With a quiet groan. She pushed herself upright. Her body ached. Her arms were sore, and her legs felt heavy from all the training.

She had to keep going.

Because everything was changing.

And Kyle. The one person she couldn’t afford to lose this time, was right in the middle of it all.

Her fingers wrapped around the hilt of her estoc.

’I won’t fail again.’

No matter what.

———