Jamie snapped his fingers, releasing an energy pulse that surged into David and Wanete’s bodies, jerking them back to consciousness.
David’s body convulsed violently as the strong magic power coursed through him, his back arching off the floor before he sucked in a ragged breath and lurched upright. Similarly, Wanete’s body jerked as well, her arms twitching before she gasped awake, imdiately clutching her side with a sharp hiss of pain.
Both of them groaned, their faces contorted in discomfort. David pressed his palms against his forehead, eyes squeezed shut as he tried to shake off the haze clouding his mind. Wanete, grimacing, ran a trembling hand over her ribs, wincing as she shifted slightly.
The dull throbbing in their heads and bodies made it difficult to think, let alone process what had just happened.
It took them a few seconds before their senses fully returned, and when their eyes finally took in the chaos around them—the overturned furniture, the cracks in the walls, the blood on the floor—mories of what had happened before they lost consciousness ca rushing back.
Then, Jamie’s voice echoed in their ears.
"What the hell happened here?"
Normally, Jamie wouldn’t have needed to ask. He would have simply used his Authority of Knowledge to read the planet’s records—just as he had done back on Estea when he wanted to find out who had moved his castle.
But this ti, he didn’t.
Because in his vision as a Higher Existence possessing an Authority of Knowledge, he could see the shattered fragnts of the planet’s records floating in the air.
Whoever was responsible had deliberately damaged them, preventing him from perusing them to know what had transpired.
Restoring them was possible, but it would take too much ti.
Thus, Jamie chose to find out what the two teens knew, before deciding if he would expend the ti and energy to restore those records.
"Hurry up and talk."
His voice jolted them from their daze, and David imdiately began spilling everything he could rember.
◇ ◇ ◇
The mont Jamie and Aikess’ battle had been taken beyond Kaelithis’ gravitational field, urgent knocking echoed from the booth’s door, followed by hurried voices calling out.
"Arena Security! The arena is being evacuated! Quickly, open the door and co with us!"
When they heard this, David and Davina exchanged glances, then turned towards the door and responded.
"We’re fine."
"We’ll stay here. Focus on evacuating others."
There was a brief pause, as if the people outside hadn’t expected such a response.
"Stay here...? That’s not advisable! The situation is escalating rapidly! For your safety, you must evacuate imdiately!"
The voice behind the door sounded montarily dumbfounded, before quickly regaining urgency and insisting on evacuation.
David sighed softly, knowing their response must have seed odd given the circumstances, but that didn’t an he intended to comply.
Before he could say anything more, Davina spoke up.
"We appreciate the concern, but we’re safe in here. What’s happening outside isn’t affecting us."
Her voice was calm and composed—a stark contrast to the urgency from the other side of the door.
"This is a mandatory evacuation! There are dangerous energies being released. You are at risk!"
At that point, David rose from his seat and walked to the door, glancing through the peephole cara. He could see a few figures clad in what appeared to be security uniforms, their faces etched with concern.
"We understand the danger, but it doesn’t apply to us, so we’re not leaving. Focus on evacuating those who need it."
Stepping back from the peephole, he turned to Davina, about to say sothing when the pounding on the door grew louder, the voices outside growing more forceful, their urgency shifting into sothing almost aggressive.
"Sir, with all due respect, you don’t understand the level of threat! Please, open the door now!" the voice pleaded, laced with a desperation that didn’t quite align with standard evacuation protocol.
This made the twins narrow their eyes, suspicion creeping into their expressions. anwhile, Wanete had a premonition that made her expression darken.
’Maybe it’s that Orikar guy’s n.’
She hadn’t forgotten that she’d been caught spying on them earlier in the day. Perhaps they had identified her and were now using the chaos as an opportunity to get to her.
Lowering her voice, she quickly whispered her concerns to the other two. Hearing her reasoning, they found it entirely plausible.
"Please! You don’t understand! You have to evacuate imdiately!"
The voices outside rang out again, more insistent this ti. To figure out their true intentions, David decided to sound them out with his words.
However—
"Didn’t I s—"
**CRACK!
A sharp, splintering crack interrupted David’s voice, and before he could even process the sound, the reinforced door suddenly exploded inward.
The door slamd directly into David, who was closest to it, the sudden impact knocking him clean off his feet and sending him crashing onto the floor.
The impact left his vision spinning, but he forced himself to move, quickly pushing the door off his body and getting to his feet.
His gaze snapped to the gaping hole where the door had been, magic coursing through his outstretched hand as he tried to summon his weapon.
But the mont his eyes t those of the intruder who rushed into the room, a strange paralysis washed over him. His limbs froze, and he found himself completely unable to move.
’This...!’
The crimson glow in their eyes and the sudden loss of control over his body imdiately revealed the intruder’s identity and what they had done to him.
’Compulsion!’
eting their eyes had allowed the vampire intruder to instantly and wordlessly immobilize both him and Wanete.
Worse still, they weren’t alone. There were two more.
The second one dashed toward the immobilized Wanete, while a third reached for Davina.
But before they could reach Davina, a burst of magic power erupted from her body. Wild arcs of blood lightning crackled omnidirectionally as a longsword radiating potent law energy, materialized in her grip.
A torrent of blood-red lightning erupted uncontrollably from the blade, the sudden burst of power catching the intruders off guard. The uncontrolled energy slamd into their bodies, visibly wounding the one who had motioned to grab Davina and knocking the other two back a step.
David felt the compulsion gripping his body weaken, but before he could fully break free and assist his sister, sothing blurred past his eyes.
Faster than his brain could process what his eyes had seen, and faster than Davina could turn, a hand clamped around her neck and lifted her off the ground.
A wave of intense, foreign magic power flooded her head, an overwhelming influx that caused her body to convulse before shutting down in a desperate, protective reflex.
Fulgora slipped from her grasp, the sword clattering to the floor as her body went limp.
At that sa mont, the fourth vampire lifted their hand toward David, unleashing an invisible pulse of power that sent him hurtling backwards at terrifying speed.
He barely had ti to register the attack before he was sent crashing into the wall behind him, pain detonating through his spine as cracks spiderwebbed across the reinforced surface.
Wanete had barely managed to conjure a magic circle before another of the intruders reached her, grabbed her arm, and crushed the spell before it could fully activate.
Without pause, they flung her to the side, sending her body crashing into the wall on the opposite end of the room.
The sound of her collision with the wall hadn’t even reached David’s ears when he was wrenched into the air by an unseen force, and then slamd into the floor with bone-crushing force.
The impact sent a violent shock through his skull, and darkness swallowed his vision.
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