The stone knight didn’t budge from its position. It cared not for the children’s demands to go to the bathroom, nor for the minor explosions that shook the classroom. Orion would have thought it inert if not for the way it occasionally shifted when someone rushed through the corridor; no one tried to enter the classroom, though, so it returned to complete stillness each time.

  Given what he had been through, Orion wasn’t feeling particularly charitable toward the Sanctum, but despite his best efforts, he couldn’t deny that a treacherous part of him was worried.

  Asteria had seriously wronged him. Burning his research wasn’t something he would forget anytime soon, but that didn’t mean he wanted her dead.

  And so he waited, staring out the window in the hopes of learning something.

  “Do you think it’s an attack?” Dorian asked. The boy had grown like a weed in the past few years, surpassing Orion by a solid four inches, even though he wasn't particularly short. His fists were clenched, and it was clear he was trying to stay calm as he watched the dark plume of smoke rise into the sky.

  “Maybe, but I know there have been problems with the shipments of the more valuable ingredients in the past few years. It might just be a bad interaction,” Orion responded. He doubted it was that simple, but there was no need to scare a kid when he had no real knowledge of the situation.

  “Whatever it is, I’m sure they will solve it soon enough. Magistra Eire went to handle it, after all.” Luna’s tone was full of certainty. The happy-go-lucky girl seemed to be the least concerned of the kids, simply swinging her legs while sitting on her desk.

  The two ten-year-olds were technically his closest friends after Selene. In truth, they were merely the least disagreeable children in his batch, but Orion could admit to some affection for them. This is just another way the coven has trapped me. Forming bonds is the best method cults have to keep their victims inside.

  It irked him that he had been so blind, and particularly that he couldn’t blame the kids for his predicament. They were even more innocent than he was, given that they knew nothing of the world beyond the Sanctum’s walls.

  Movement outside the classroom caused the knight to shift, bringing its sword to bear. It was a heavy weapon, and Orion imagined that being struck by it would probably be enough to splatter just about any threat coming their way.

  A guardsman sprinted towards them, but a brief look revealed something was off. His eyes were entirely white, and foam sprayed across his armor from his open mouth. His tongue drooped, obscenely long.

  The scene was so shocking that many children screamed and pulled back from the windows. Orion himself froze for a moment, uncertain of what to do.

  Even after spending ten years in a magical world, this was the first true monster he had ever seen.

  The knight construct didn’t share the same hesitation, and with a fluid motion, it raised its sword. As the crazed man came into range, he lunged, screeching, and the knight brought down its weapon.

  At the very last moment, the guardsman planted his foot and pivoted around the thrust, demonstrating that despite his appearance, he wasn’t completely devoid of sense. However, the knight’s speed was too great to avoid entirely, and an arm went flying.

  It fell with a dull thud, and Orion gulped, feeling saliva start to pool at the back of his mouth as nausea rose. Although he had seen and done much in both lives, death—especially violent death—wasn’t something he had much experience with. The suddenness and brutality of this duel were genuinely shocking, causing him to instinctively pull back.

  The rest of the world didn’t stop, however, and the mad guardsman didn’t seem to care that he had just been relieved of an arm. “Skreeee!” he shouted, sounding more like a creature than any man, and lunged, obviously intending to enter the classroom.

  The stone knight didn’t miss a beat, drop-kicking the man and sending him flying down the corridor, slamming into the far wall.

  It then took a few steps after it, swinging its sword to signal its intent. Whatever cursed ability allowed the frothing man to keep going despite losing gallons of blood, the knight was determined to stop him. Permanently.

  Orion couldn’t tear his gaze away from the gruesome sight. The madman picked himself up, creaking horribly. His legs were bent in the wrong direction, and his chest had a massive crater in its center, where the knight’s stone foot had smashed into it. There was no conceivable amount of drugs Orion knew of that should allow him to keep going, and yet he did.

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  He took two unstable steps before somehow regaining his balance. Another screech left his lips, and blood splattered out of his mouth.

  The knight showed no hesitation as he crossed the distance in three long strides. When they met in the middle, only one possible outcome remained.

  Orion watched as the stone sword sliced the man in half, from head to groin, and before the corpse could fall, two more slashes hit, reducing it to six pieces.

  As soon as it completed its move, the knight turned back without regard for the condition of its opponent. Its only concern was returning to its post, and Orion was suddenly very glad that Magistra Eire had thought to leave them such a protector.

  A sudden tug at his sleeve finally broke him from his daze, and he turned to see Selene pointing with a trembling finger. Following it, he noticed what had so shaken the usually serene girl.

  It wasn’t the macabre sight at the end of the hallway, nor was it the blood-splattered knight coming back toward them.

  No, it was the severed arm that had been forgotten in the chaos of battle. It twitched, somehow inching its way closer to the classroom. The moment the knight saw it, its focus sharpening, the arm curled up, muscles tensing grotesquely, before it lunged at the undefended classroom.

  Orion felt his life flash before his eyes. His mind raced, desperately trying to come up with a solution. The speed at which the arm moved was slower than the knight’s, but their protector was too far away. It wouldn’t make it back in time.

  Grabbing hold of a chair and throwing it crossed his mind, but Orion knew it would be futile. The arm, though severed, had shown enough strength to withstand any pitiful opposition he could muster.

  Ducking back was another option, but despite his earlier resolve to put himself first, Orion didn’t make any move to save himself. Such an action would leave the other kids at the mercy of their enemies, and while he had no idea what a severed arm might actually do, he instinctively knew it was nothing good, especially considering how desperately it had tried to reach them.

  With time running out and the arm already more than halfway to them, Orion did the only thing that came to mind. Lifting his own hand, he ran through the last equation he had been working on, the one that had caused him so many problems.

  I = P/(4πr2) ∪ L?

  He didn’t need to say anything. Just grasping the concepts was sufficient. His intent was clear. He had to do something, anything, to prevent the severed arm from getting to them.

  Light bloomed, harsh and unforgiving. It was not just a mere expression of physics, nor was it a purely magical construct. Heat and desire combined, and the cleansing aspect of the spell emerged victorious.

  The arm was blasted away from the classroom, slamming into the opposite wall beside a window. It fell down with a thud, charred and twitching.

  Orion heaved, feeling as if he had just completed a marathon. He stared as the monstrous appendage struggled to gather itself, pushing against the wall for support. It was clear that even his best effort hadn’t been enough to destroy it.

  But it didn’t need to. He just had to buy enough time.

  The stone knight crashed into the arm with the force of a freight train, shattering the wall and pulping it beyond recognition.

  For once, Orion felt no disgust, only satisfaction.

  The knight smashed its foot into the arm three more times, cratering the stone beneath it and turning it into an unrecognizable mass of flesh and bone.

  That done, it returned to its position at the classroom entrance, though its gaze was entirely focused on the pieces he had left at the end of the corridor, which were now twitching and beginning to crawl toward them.

  It was a horrifying sight, yet something about half a head trying and failing to crawl was genuinely hysterical. Orion snorted in disbelief, finally pulling his arm back. Only then did he realize that he had been maintaining the same pose for several seconds, and he staggered back to a desk, leaning heavily against it.

  The light spell had drained him significantly more than it had the other day, despite his use of the same formula, but he wasn’t about to complain. Whatever he had done, it had been enough.

  I need to study it again. Clearly, my understanding is still limited.

  Rapid footsteps echoed through the hall again, and everyone tensed, waiting for another crazed monster to appear.

  Fortunately, this time they weren’t in any danger, as it was Magistra Eire who came into sight. Her immaculate dress was splattered with dirt and suspicious stains, and a few locks of hair had escaped from her tight bun.

  She didn’t hesitate upon seeing the remains at the other end of the corridor, raising her hand, eyes blazing. “All filth shall be purged in Moonlight!”

  A spear of pure silver light shot from her hand, crossing the corridor so quickly that Orion almost missed it with a blink. An explosion sent everyone staggering when it struck, and they were all enveloped in light.

  Orion grunted, raising his arm to shield his face and pulling it down only when the danger of becoming blinded had passed. By the time he looked back, only a dark smear remained on the stone, where the pieces of the maddened guardsman had been.

  Now walking more sedately, Magistra Eire reached the pulped remains of the arm, and pointed a finger at them. “Burn.”

  Fire blazed out of nothing, greedily burning until nothing remained there, either.

  A distant ding startled Orion, and he blinked to see that the System had decided to make itself known now of all times.

  “Disgusting. To send ghouls after children… Someone must pay.”

  Magistra Eire had thus far always appeared to be a genial, albeit deeply religious woman. Her voice never rose above a conversational level, and her demeanor was consistently polite. Never had Orion seen her so openly angry.

  The stone knight immediately kneeled when she reached it, bowing its head as if to beg for forgiveness. Eire’s eyes glowed as she placed her hand on its helm, reminding Orion of what his mother had done to that spy in Silverpeak, and after a few seconds, she pulled back. “I see. Very well, return.”

  With a snap of her fingers, stone flowed, and the knight lost all definition, rushing back to the center of the classroom’s dais, where it reformed into a desk.

  The Magistra then sighed, taking in the faces of her students, which were filled with fear and curiosity. “The emergency has been handled, children. I apologize for leaving you alone, but it is a good thing I did, because we were able to prevent significant losses. At the moment, we don’t yet know how the seven guardsmen were ghoulified, but believe me, we will find out.”

  Her voice held a steely confidence, leaving no doubt about her claim.

  She then took a few steps into the classroom, stopping in front of Orion. He looked up at her, unsure of what to expect, but she surprised him by bowing her head. “Thank you, Orion Voidwalker. You have done the Sanctum a great service, and I will do my best to see you rewarded. No matter who might wish otherwise.”

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