The renewed silehat followed the Lord Sentinel’s question was suffog. His crimson-streaked mask bore down on Krion with an iy that made his chest feel tight, each breath a struggle. Beside him, Hatsune had just forced herself back up to one knee, her body tense, muscles coiled as though ready to flee despite her expression being one of mixed fear aerminatioher of them dared to move uhe weight of the Lord Sentinel’s gre.

  Krion swallowed hard, his mouth dry. “I don’t know,” he managed, finally. “She showed up just a few minutes ago... like this.” He gestured to J-65’s broken body on the floor, blood still gradually pooling around her. “She could barely breathe. She told me to break her neckce... then passed out.”

  At his words, another Sehat Krion had previously not noticed came rushing over to J-65’s side from where they had beeering behind the imposing bulk of the Lord Sentinel. Bearing a green mask instead of the pin white one of the others, Krion immediately realized that this one ecialized as some sort of healer, as they began iing J-65’s wounds as soon as they were at her side. A fsh of greenish light from the healer’s hands illuminated J-65’s body, revealing that the dark bruises marring her skin were worse than Krion had been able to see and that the cuts were still sluggishly oozing blood despite the pressure they had been applying with the now-ruined kit towels. Despite their proximity, the Sentinel healer’s green mask did not shift from its downward tilt in respoo Krion’s scrutiny, their hands now moving with precise care, weaving tendrils of green energy that seeped into J-65’s wounds. This rofessional focused on their patient and their patient alone.

  A flex of something in the air, something menag, caused both Krion and Hatsuo flind return their attention to the armored figure that had led the charge into Banor. The Lord Sentinel’s posture had not rexed, even with the healer under his and moving to treat J-65. He stood there, a menag figure against the broken doorway, framed by the shattered wood and moonlight.

  “She spoke to you?” His voice was dangerously low, a soft growl that made the hair on Krion’s arms stand on end.

  “No,” Krion answered, keeping his tone as steady as he could. “She only said... she said that I o break the .” He looked pointedly at the Sentinels, then back at the t figure before him. “I’m guessing that the light it released was meant to summon help?”

  The Lord Sentinel said nothing in respoo Krion’s question, but a faint tension coiled in his shoulders, a tightening of his stance. He turo the healer. “Will she live?”

  The healer’s hands glowed brighter, the green energy flowing smoothly as J-65’s breathing began to steady, the rise and fall of her chest being more even. “She will live,” the healer firmed in a feminine voice slightly muffled by the green mask. “But she needs rest. Days of it. These wounds run deep... not just physically.” There ointed edge to that st remark, and the healer’s gaze shifted to the blood that had begun to pool on the floor since Krion and Hatsune had brought her inside.

  J-65’s mask shifted as she more fully regained sciousness. The mask shifted to the right, orienting on Krion for some reason, which was followed by a sharp breath as pain visibly surged through her body. The healer pced a hand on her shoulder, whispering a word of calming magic. The mask darted around as the pain apparently faded, panic seeming to emanate from the reenseness of her body until her mask locked on the Lord Sentinel. For a brief, fleeting moment, her body curled in a deeper fear before she mastered herself, a Sentinel’s posture falling bato pce despite her grave injuries.

  The Lord Sentinel loomed over her. “J-65,” he intoned, his voice ft and cold. “Expin yourself.”

  J-65 audibly swallowed, her throat w against the pain. “I... I went to S Chadwick Copperhand’s residence,” she began, her voice hoarse from lingering pain. “I suspected... I suspected him of orchestrating an attempt on S Krion Bcksword’s life.” Her mask twisted back to Krion, and for a heartbeat, she seemed to be staring at him before her masked face returo the Lord Sentinel. “I went to find proof.”

  The Lord Sentinel’s form seemed to grow even more imposing. “You broke into a noble’s residence,” he stated, no iion in his voice. “Alone. Without authorization. Without notifying the Sentinels. You acted as a rogue.”

  J-65’s neck muscles flexed, as Krion imagined her jaw tightened, but she did not deny it.

  “Yes.”

  “And what did you find?” the Lord Sentinel demanded.

  “A list,” J-65 whispered, body again t in pain as she tried to shift her position on the floor. “A list of names... first-year ss who agreed to work together... to kill S Bcksword.” She shuddered, the memory of her discovery twisting with the phantom echoes of Chadwick’s ughter. “I was... caught. S Copperhand... he...” Her voice faltered, the words trembling before beiionless. “He tortured me.”

  Hatsune’s eyes widened in horror, her ears fttening against her head. Krio a cold fury surge through him, his fists g so tightly his nails bit into his palms. The image of Chadwick’s smug face fshed in his mind.

  The Lord Sentinel’s posture remained rigid. “And after your escape, why did you e here?”

  J-65’s tilted at an angle, and Krion could almost imagine her brow furrowing. She looked then looked down, her posture screaming a mixture of fusion and shame. “I... I don’t know.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “I just... ended up here.”

  “That’s not an answer,” the Lord Sentinel snapped, his words cutting like a bde. “Why did you not seek out a fellow Sentinel? Why did y this disgrace to the Sentinels’ name?”

  “I...” J-65 struggled, pain causing her form to shudder. “I don’t know.”

  “Then I will give you the answer,” the Lord Sentinel decred, his voice eg through the foyer. “You promised yourself. You formed a bond with a side of your duty. You became weak.”

  All at ohe feeling given off by the imposing Lord Sentinel ceased to press againt Krion. He surged to his feet, fists shaking. “Weak?” he shouted as all logic fled. “She’s lying there half-dead because she was trying to protect me! She was tortured—beaten within an inch of her life—and you call her weak?”

  The Lord Sentinel’s head soward him, the crimson-streaked mask turning to face Krion fully. The oppressive aura fred again, pressing down on the room like a tidal wave, and it was all Krion could do to remain standing defiant. “You misuand, s of Bcksword,” he growled. “She is weak because she broke the rules. Because she allowed seo override duty. A Sentinel is the shield of the Imperial Academy, unyielding and impartial. She failed.”

  “And you failed her!” Krion shouted back, his anger boiling over despite the terrifying man standing opposite him. “Aren’t Sentinels supposed to protect each other? Where were you when she needed you?”

  The room fell deathly silent. The air grew colder, and the other Sentinels stiffeheir hands again twitg toward their ons. Hatsune’s fiightened around her own bde, her eyes flig nervously between Krion and the Lord Sentinel.

  The Lord Sentinel’s shoulders tehe mask tilting slightly. “You know nothing, child,” he said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. “You know nothing of what it means to be a Sentinel.”

  Krion blinked, and the world seemed to shudder.

  One moment, he was standing defiant before the Lord Sentinel as J-65 struggled with the paiill felt from where she y on the floor. The , the Lord Sentinel was there, a dark armored form looming over them all, his presence so sudden and absolute that Krion’s heart nearly stopped.

  He hadn’t heard anything. Not a footstep, not a rustle of fabriot even the fai whisper of air being dispced. The man was simply… there.

  Krion staggered back, his instincts screaming danger even as his mind struggled to catch up. How? How had someohat big, that heavy in full armor, moved so swiftly, so silently? The man’s bck armleamed in the faint light, the wickedly serrated greatsword remairapped across his back, its weight seemingly nothing to him.

  The crimson-lined white mask turowards him, empty eye slits log onto Krion with a cold, pierg gaze. Though Krion couldn’t see the man’s eyes, he felt the weight of that stare, the pressure of a predator sizing up its prey.

  Krion’s hand tightened around the hilt of his greatsword. He didn’t remember interposing it between them, but it was in his grasp, his knuckles white as he fought the urge to raise it. Would it even matter? Would he even have time to swing before that bde on the Lord Sentinel’s back cleaved him in two?

  His chest tightened, his breath ing in short, sharp gasps. He had never felt so powerless. Not even when he’d been in the Dungeon, fag down that Boss in a fight he should not have survived.

  No. This was different.

  In such close proximity, even without whatever it had been he had been doing that affected the room with his power, the Lord Sentinel’s presence was overwhelming, suffog. The air around him felt heavier, charged with what Krion guesed to be an aura so potent it made his khreaten to buckle. It was as if the room itself was bending uhe weight of his power.

  Krion’s heart pounded, each beat a reminder of his own fragility. One blink. That was all it had taken for this man to close the distao appear out of nowhere. One blink, and he could be dead without even realizing it.

  A cold, bitter realizatioled in Krion’s chest. He was weak.

  He was nothing pared to this man.

  The gap between them was so vast that it was almost ughable. No, it was terrifying. Krion’s firembled around his sword’s hilt as he looked at the Lord Seruly seeing him for the first time. This was the power of a man who ruled over the Sentinels, the enforcers of w and order in the Imperial Academy. This was what true strength looked like.

  And Krion was nowhere near it.

  Through areme force of will, Krion released his grip on the hilt of his greatsword in the presence of a mohat could destroy him utterly in a single breath.

  Dismissing Krion, the Lord Sentinel returned his attention to J-65. Reag down, his gau-cd fingers closed around the edge of J-65’s white mask. J-65 and every other Sentinel in the room tensed as the Lord Sentinel’s grip tightened.

  “No…” J-65 breathed, her body trembling. “Please… no…”

  The Lord Sentinel did not respond, did not eveate at J-65’s pleading.

  He pulled the mask from her face.

  Krion’s breath caught in his throat as he stared down at the J-65 and, for a heartbeat, fot how to breathe, his pulse r in his ears.

  With no mask c her face, her skin was revealed to be dark as midnight, the deep onyx hue gleaming faintly eveh the grime and blood that marred its surface. Yet, as the dim light of the foyer flickered across her body, a mesmerizing phenomenon made itself known. He had noticed the moving pinpricks of light before, but across her fad neck, they had grown in size to tihereal glimmers visibly movih her skin, like stars twinkling in the night sky. It was subtle—almost illusory—but unmistakable. A celestial dance of light and shadow, and he was struck by the otherworldly beauty.

  He was vaguely aware of Hatsune leaning closer, her eyes wide with awe, her voice a hushed whisper. “A Star Elf... I’ve never seen one before.”

  Krion’s mind reeled, struggling to recile the image of the cold, unyieldiinel who had escorted him to his Ceremony of Indu with the woman before him. Gone was the imposing figure in fwless white armor aureless mask. In its pce was someone fragile and real.

  Looking beyond the stars moving across her skin revealed her face to be delicate, with high cheekbones and full lips that now y sck, her breath shallow and uneven. Her long, white hair, oightly bound under her helmet, cascaded freely around her, a shimmering waterfall that starkly trasted against her dark skin. Even disheveled and tangled with blood, it was breathtaking.

  But it was the scars that held Krion’s attention.

  The ones around her neck were thicker than the ohat had been revealed while they had worked to remove her armor to stem the bleeding of her wounds. Where the tter had been thin and faded, these were thid jagged still. Old wounds that had healed poorly, the worse of which was a vicious scar that carved a line from the side of her neck down her colrboo disappear uhe armor at her shoulder.

  He couldn’t look away, captivated by the ethereal glow beh her skin. The celestial shimmer danced along the lines of her scars, illuminating them like steltions against the night sky. It was hauntingly beautiful, a trast so striking it felt almost cruel.

  She was breathtaking.

  Like everyone else in the foyer, Krion’s attention ulled back to the Lord Sentinel as he raised the mask high into the air. The motion was slow, deliberate, as if to ehat every eye was fixed on the pale, featureless surface. Krion’s heart thudded heavily in his chest, a cold sense of forebodiling in his stomach.

  The air around the mask shimmered, tendrils of magic swirling in ghostly spirals as it left J-65’s skin the higher the Lord Sentinel raised it in the air. Krion could almost feel the power radiating from it noulse of energy that seemed to vibrate through the air of Banor. The Lord Sentinel held the mask aloft, its white surface catg the dim light, and for a brief, fragile moment, it seemed almost beautiful.

  Then, with deliberate force, he s in half.

  The sound was sharp, final. The mask shattered, crumbling into dust that scattered across the floor, its magiraveling in a burst of energy. A faint, mournful wail echoed as the magic dispersed, a haunting sound that sent a chill down Krion’s spi was as if the mask itself was g out, a st, anguished whisper of the identity it had once held.

  But it was nothing pared to the cry that was ripped from J-65 at his feet.

  J-65’s body seized, her back arg violently as a scream tore from her throat. It was raw, filled with agony and loss, the sound eg off the stone walls. Krion’s blood ran cold, his feet frozen to the floor as he watched her vulse, powerless to do anything but bear witness. A burning red light fred at her neck, searing into her skin. Krion’s eyes widened, his stomach lurg as the jagged brand took form—a broken mask.

  Her body vulsed, and then the air around her shimmered.

  A crackle of crimson energy raced across her armor, lines of light spiderwebbing over the once-imposing bck ptes. The Sentinel armroaned, splintered, and began to disie. The red light intensified, engulfing her entire body in a shimmering aura that burned away the armor piece by piece.

  Krion’s eyes widened as the metal ptes turo dust, swirling around her before dissipating into nothingness. The gauhat had once held such power faded from her fingers, the chestpte shattered, and the greaves crumbled. Even her boots dissolved, leaving her lying on the cold stone floor iorn, bloodied undersuit and ings that had previously been partially exposed by Krion and Hatsune.

  He stood rooted to the spot, uo look away from the se. Her once-imposing form noeared painfully fragile, her slender limbs marred by bruises and cuts. Where once her armor had cealed her identity, she was now utterly exposed—vulnerable.

  J-65’s scream faded to a choked sob, her body colpsing back to the floor. Her eyes were wide and gssy, tears streaming down her cheeks. She shivered, her limbs twitg as the pain overwhelmed her senses. After one final shake, she fell bato unsciousness.

  The Lord Sentinel redirected his mask down at the star elf. “She is no longer a Sentinel,” he decred, his tone cold and unyielding.

  The Sentinel healer spoke from where she still k beside J-65, hands now glowing a darker green as they returo h over the wounds that had reopened. “You should have waited, Lord,” the healer said, voice low and tense, a note of accusation clear. “The branding... it could have killed her in this state.”

  The Lord Seood impassive, his preseill an oppressive weight in the room. “It had to be done,” he replied, his to. “And it had to happen now and here.”

  Krion tore his gaze from J-65’s face to the crimson-streaked mask of the Lord Sentinel. His anger fred briefly before he showed it back down as far as he could. He still remembered how he had felt when the Lord Sentinel had suddenly appeared o him. “What’s going on?” he demanded more than asked. “Why did you brand her?”

  The Lord Sentinel regarded him, his head tilting ever so slightly. “She is no longer a Sentinel,” he stated, his voice devoid of emotion. “J-65 vioted the code. She acted without orders, promised her duty, arayed the rality of the Sentinels.” His gaze shifted to J-65, his posture rigid. "What happe S Copperhand's residence left me no choice. J-65 vioted Sentinel w by ag without orders, engaging in unauthorized espionage, and promising the iy of the order." His voice was devoid of emotion. "As of this moment, she is no longer a Sentinel."

  Krion’s eyes widened. “Cast out?” He looked back down at J-65’s prone form, his chest tightening. “F to protect me?”

  The Lord Sentinel’s shoulders stiffened. “For breaking the rules,” he corrected. “For ag on her own, without authority. She is no longer one of us.”

  “What... what did you do to her?” Krion’s voice came out harsher thaended.

  “I branded her, as is my duty.” The Lord Sentinel’s deep voice cut through the air, calm and unyielding. “Because she is no longer a Sentinel.”

  “The armor... why did it vanish?” Krion demanded, his eyes flig over her unprotected form, pletely unaware of how the rest of the Sentinels were shifting at his tone. “Why did it just disie like that?”

  The Lord Sentinel’s shoulders straightened, his voice like iron. “The armor is not merely metal and cloth. It is tied to the Sentinel Css itself. When one is branded and bahe magic that sustains the armor is severed. It returns to the mana from which it artly fed.”

  Krion’s eyes narrowed as what the Lord Sentinel was saying hit him all at once. “You mean... you didn’t just strip her of her position. You destroyed her Css.”

  The Lord Sentinel ined his head. “Yes. The Brand of the Broken Mask does more than cast her out. It destroyed all Sentinel skills and abilities she had unlocked. Everything she earned from her first day as a Serainee, be it through training and battle... gone in an instant.”

  “But, what will happen to her now?” Krion asked, staring down at the unscious star elf.

  The Lord Sentinel’s lips thinned. "The brand is a mark of her exile from the Sentinels, but it also serves a practical purpose. Without the prote of the Sentinel order, she must be dealt with acc to Imperial w. Which means," the Lord Sentinel tinued grimly, "that she will be pced up for au at the Hall of Bonds."

  Krion’s blood ran cold as he realized what that might mean. “The Hall of Bonds?”

  “Yes. As all failed Sentinels are,” The Lord Sentinel nodded, his posture unyielding. “Given her skill set and experience, but her loss of the Sentinel css, she will most likely be offered as a bodyguard."

  Krion’s mind raced. A bodyguard. Aued off to the highest bidder. Sold to serve someone who would likely see her as nothing more than a tool, a on. She had risked everything to protect him, to uhe plot against him. And this was her reward? His fists ched. “You ’t do that,” he said. “She’s not some on to be sold off!”

  The Lord Sentinel’s head tilted again, his crimson-streaked mask remaining focused on Krion. “You misuand,” he replied, his tone beiral again, though Krion thought he could detect the barest hint of exasperation. “I am giving you an opportunity.”

  Krion bliaken aback. “What?”

  The Lord Sentinel’s shoulders rexed just a fra. “Normally, she would be taken to the Hall of Bonds immediately. But she came here.” His voice was heavy with implication. “She must be removed from the Sentinels. That is what Academy w demands,” the Lord Sentinel said without apology. "But since she came here, ag on your behalf, I wao give you the option of g the Bond first."

  Krion’s heart skipped a beat. His miuro the most valuable item he had received from the Dungeon. Realization dawned on him, his eyes widening. “You’re... you’re saying I Boake her as another bodyguard?”

  The Lord Sentinel did not answer immediately. Instead, he stepped closer, his armored boots eg against the stone floor. Though simir i, the Lord Seill seemed to loom over Krion, his t presence casting a long shadow over him. “By all rights, she should go to Au,” he said repeated slowly, deliberately. “But she came to you. She acted for you. In the eyes of the Sentinels, in my eyes, you have the first right to cim her.”

  Krion looked back down at J-65’s face, at the pain still etched into her delicate features. Her breaths were shallow, her body broken, her fate hanging by a thread. If he didn’t act, she would be aued off to some noble house, likely used and discarded like a on without will. Worse, what if Chadwick or one of his allies got word of her being aued off?

  There was ation in his voice when he spoke. "I offer my Mark of Bonds for her."

  The Lord Sentinel’s expression didn’t ge, his face cealed behind that unnerving mask, but Krion caught the fai sense of approval in the man. It was fleeting, like a shadow passing over the moon, but it was there.

  He didn’t have time to dwell on it. The Lord Sentinel lifted a gaued hand, his armored fingers curling upward, and Krion’s breath caught in his throat. A Mark of Bonds hovered above the man’s palm, spinning slowly. But this wasn’t just any Mark. Krion’s eyes widened as he reized it—the Mark he had discovered deep within the Dungeon. The same one he had earned after defeating the Boss. But how…?

  The Lord Sentinel made no move to expin. The Mark of Bonds spun faster, a gloearing around it, and then it vanished in a burst of light. In its pce, a saterialized, perfectly rolled and tied with a crimson ribbon that pulsed with magic. The tract floated downward, the ribbon unraveling and the part unfurling before Krion’s chest. It hovered in midair, suspended by invisible forces, the script glowing with golden light, immediately making it clear this was another tract like the one he had signed when Hatsune had joined him. In another shimmer, his name appeared at the bottom, written in delicate, elegaers.

  “Pce your hand upon it,” the Lord Sentinel anded.

  Krion gnced down at J-65, her star-flecked skin still pale, her breathing shallow but steady. Even now, broken and scarred, there was an unmistakable strength to her. She had fought for him, suffered for him. And now, she was being given to him—entrusted to his care. He swallowed hard, his resolve solidifying. This wasn’t just about power or prote. It was about honor, about repaying the debt he owed. About keeping her safe when no one else could.

  His hand rose, moving almost on its own, fingers steady as they reached out to the glowing scroll. The air around it was warm, a gentle heat that prickled against his skin. The moment his fiips brushed the part, golden light fred, enveloping the tra a radiant glow. In a fsh, it was gone.

  “It is done. J-65 is now your bodyguard,” the Lord Sentinel announced as he turo leave, his voice cold and final, eg through the hall. He didn’t look back as he tinued, his voice low and edged with warning. “See that you prove worthy of her service.”

  As he strode toward the shattered doorway, his three Sentinel escorts followed first. The Sentinel healer moved to leave as well, only pausing to whisper some dires to Hatsuo keep J-65 in bed for a few days to recover, and that no more healing should be applied as it could cause more harm than good.

  Before stepping outside, the Lord Sentinel paused, his head tilting back toward Krion. “You owe me for this, Krion Bcksword. One service. To be a ter time.”

  Then he was gone, his presence vanishing as abruptly as it had appeared.

  Krion looked down at J-65—no, at the star elf whose name he still did not know who y before him. She was his now. Bound to him.

  Hatsune moved beside him, her voice soft, tinged with worry. “What do we do now?”

  Krion took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he tried to let go of the stress of the st few minutes. “You heard the Sentinel healer, we get her somewhere where she recover.” He looked toward the hallways leading deeper into Banor. “There has to be another room with a bed in it.”

  Krion reached down, carefully lifting J-65 into his arms. Her head lolled against his shoulder, her body limp and fragile. He held her as gently as he could, ung of the mess J-65’s blood was making across his uniform as he carried her deeper into Banor.

  I hope you ehis test chapter! See you on Monday!

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