By evening, Kael had transformed.

The city’s streets glowed with lantern light. The air was filled with the mixed scents of grilled food and perfume. Music drifted through the crowd.

It was alive, warm, and messy.

Wade walked as if he belonged in the chaos, and Greyson followed, eyes bright, taking everything in.

They bought street food and played booth games.

Wade was loudly confident, but when it came down to it, he was only mildly competent.

Greyson, on the other hand, was annoyingly good at everything without much effort.

A ring toss? First try.

A dart game? Bullseye.

Wade stared at Greyson, almost offended.

“Do you ever fail?” Wade demanded.

Greyson’s smile. “I’m sure I have.”

“Liar,” Wade muttered, but he was laughing.

As they moved, they crossed paths with other students and a few instructors.

Greyson greeted them politely the way he always did. He offered a nod, a smile, and exchanged a few words. He didn’t cling to anyone’s attention, but attention clung to him anyway.

Heads turned, eyes lingering. Then, whispers followed.

Wade noticed and puffed up like he was escorting a celebrity.

“See?” Wade said smugly. “Admirers.”

Greyson only exhaled softly, lightly shaking his head.

Soon, they came across a stall that displayed rows of combat gloves.

Wade pointed at them and excitedly called out to Greyson.

“Oh! Greyson! Look. These are good quality.”

Greyson stepped closer, eyes briefly scanning the options. 

Wade nudged him. “Come on. Get a new pair.”

Greyson didn’t answer right away. He looked down at his own bare hands, staring, mind drifting back to the gloves still stored in his pencil case. Then, he shook his head.

Wade squinted at him. “Why not? Your old ones couldn’t possibly fit you anymore.”

Greyson smiled politely. “I’ll look at other options first.” 

Wade groaned. “You are just saying that.”

Greyson chuckled, and they moved on.

Far from the festival’s noise, within the Academy grounds, the ancient tree stood.

Frost sat on one of its branches. From here, he couldn’t see the festival clearly, but that didn’t bother him. 

He closed his eyes, and the world turned into an invisible landscape of warmth and motion. Heat signatures moved like fireflies in the distant crowd. 

He filtered through it all with precision to find that single familiar warmth that stood out against everything else. 

It took a second, and then his shoulders loosened slightly.

He seems… to be having fun.

Frost’s eyes opened again, and he stayed perched on the tree, guarding the warmth from afar.

Even if Greyson didn’t remember…

I will keep him safe.

Back at the festival, things had started settling into a rhythm. 

People moved with smiles on their faces. Families wandered hand-in-hand. Couples drifted shoulder-to-shoulder. Students from the Academy looked almost ordinary here, smiling with their guards lowered, letting themselves blend into the city’s pulse.

Even Greyson had softened.

He stood beside Wade with a tray of street food in his hand, listening to Wade ramble about the games, the crowd, and the “absolutely criminal” prices. 

“For the love of—” he complained. “What’s that shaved ice made of? I swear, even a full meal at the cafeteria doesn’t cost nearly as much.”

Greyson let out a small chuckle.

For a moment, the space was filled with warmth and human noises.

But then—

Rumble…

At first, it was so subtle Greyson thought it was his imagination.

Then—

Another light tremor shivered beneath the festival ground.

Greyson’s smile faltered.

Another one shook the ground, stronger. Lanterns swayed. People paused what they were doing, their brows knitting in confusion.

Wade stopped mid-sentence. “Did you feel that?”

The next tremor hit like a warning punch.

KRRRMMM…

The river exploded, water erupting upward in a violent column. 

A massive shape surged from the depths, serpentine and towering. Its body was long enough to blot out the moonlight in segments. It had thick, muscled arms ending in clawed hands. Its eyes glowed with something ancient and hungry, staring at the crowd, jaws yawning open.

“BWOOOOOOOOOOOAAARRR!!”

Panic broke out.

The inside of its throat lit up without warning, and a torrent of heat shot toward the festival grounds.

People shrieked.

But the flames never reached.

A barrier came into existence, layered and reinforced by several Academy instructors at once. 

The fire struck it and scattered.

A trembling voice escaped a terrified civilian.

“Isn’t that a leviathan-type monster?! Why is it showing up here?!”

The festival collapsed into screaming and running bodies. Stalls overturned, food trays fell, children cried, adults shouted names.

The leviathan let out another roar so loud it made the people’s bones vibrate.

The sky answered.

From behind the serpent, smaller winged monsters poured toward the festival.

Bat-like creatures: Nightwings

They dove at the fleeing crowd with their sharp teeth and claws.

The Academy students reacted instantly. Some drew firearms and fired upward. Others unleashed Resonance in bursts. A few focused on evacuation, guiding civilians to safety.

Wade spun his trident, and a column of water rose in front of him, crystallizing into ice. He then shattered it into spears, launching them upward. 

“Move! Get them behind the stalls!” Wade shouted.

A Nightwing dropped low, claws extended toward a woman clutching a child.

The mother saw the monster approaching fast. Without hesitation, she turned and shielded her child with her own body, bracing for impact. 

But after seconds, she felt no pain.

A silver blur had cut through the space, and the monster’s head was already on the ground. 

Greyson stood there with his clockhand blades in hand, eyes sharp.

The mother looked up at him, still trembling.

Greyson didn’t wait for gratitude.

He moved quickly, the air snapping with pressure as his Resonance ignited. His speed doubled, then tripled. For a moment, it looked like he was in multiple places at once.

A monster shrieked mid-dive and suddenly split apart before it could finish its scream. Another tried to veer away, but its wings were severed in a single sweep.

One after another, the Nightwings started to drop.

But the leviathan didn’t care about its swarm, eyes focused on the largest concentration of prey. Then, it surged again, dragging the river with it.  A tidal wave formed at its command, curling toward the festival like the mouth of a hungry god.

Instructors reinforced the barriers. Students braced, pushing civilians farther back.

The wave hit the barriers, the impact sending cracks through the thick, shimmering walls. 

But that wasn’t all. 

Electricity ran through the water, pressuring the barriers. 

One of the instructors gasped, barely holding on, eyes wide with dawning horror.

“Three elements…?” he whispered, voice breaking. “It can use three elements—”

The barrier flickered, then it shattered.

The instructor was thrown back violently, slamming hard into debris. 

The water continued to surge toward him mercilessly, hungry and charged.

Before it hit, a silver blur reached first, catching the instructor mid-collapse and retreating. The wave slammed against lifeless bricks, breaking the city apart. 

Greyson landed on a rooftop with the instructor, high enough to escape the immediate flood.

The instructor coughed hard, choking on air, eyes unfocused.

Greyson set him down carefully, then turned—

And his eyes widened, devastation reflecting in them.

The leviathan had locked onto him. Its chest expanded, energy gathering, ready to eliminate the prey that had interfered.

The charged beam formed, bright enough to bleach the world in harsh light.

Greyson gritted his teeth and glanced back.

He saw civilians still trying to evacuate. If he moved, the beam would tear through everything behind him.

He didn’t even have a second to think as sweat slid down the side of his face, his grip tightening on his blades.

What do I do? 

Then—

The temperature dropped, air turning sharp and biting in an instant. The hairs along Greyson’s arms lifted as he felt the familiarity. But the cold was in no way gentle. If anything, it was menacing, cruel even, but undeniably his.

The sky lit with ice.

Hundreds, then thousands of shards shot through the air, piercing the airborne Nightwings and striking the leviathan.

Boom!

The first wave impacted the serpent’s scales and drove it backward.

Boom!

The second wave dug deeper.

Boom!

The leviathan groaned as its charged beam faltered. Its massive form slammed back into the river, water erupting around it in a messy spray.

Greyson stood frozen for one heartbeat. Then, his head snapped toward the Academy grounds.

And there, barely visible, something white was fluttering.

Frost! 

The younger boy’s eyes had sharpened into something lethal, the air around him pulsing with violence, killing intent showing all across his face. Even the tree and its immediate surroundings had been locked in frigid white.

He raised his hand. Another wave of cryogenic shards formed from the stolen heat of the world, ready for execution.

Greyson’s breath caught in his throat, understanding dawning instinctively.

Is he… protecting me?