Leo felt the change before he understood it.
It wasn’t dramatic. No light, no pressure, no sudden rush of power. Just a quiet fullness in his chest, as if his internal energy had been flowing through a narrow channel and someone had widened it overnight.
He opened his eyes in the grey dawn and checked what his body was already telling him.
His outer spiritual energy had reached at least level 240, ten levels higher than yesterday. His inner energy had climbed twenty levels. He was an eighth-rank Grand Knight, and the gap to ninth rank was closing fast.
*The Dark Green Dual-Bladed Demon,* he thought. *Every blow it threw came at me. That’s why it went this fast.*
It was still an estimate. Real progress only showed after a breakthrough, and he wasn’t going to call it real until it was. But his instincts said he wasn’t wrong.
Across the room, Mira was already sitting up, one hand pressed to her ribs, the other pushing her hair back. She looked at Leo and her eyebrows rose.
"Don’t say anything," she said. "I can feel it too. It’s annoying."
Caden came off his bedroll with a grin that stretched across his whole face. Darius said nothing, but his shoulders had loosened in a way Leo hadn’t seen before. Liora was already on her feet, staff in hand, eyes closed as she checked her own flow.
"Everyone’s up," Liora said quietly. "Good."
---
They washed, ate, and packed in near silence, still half-stunned at how much better their bodies felt. When the five of them stepped out of the garrison tent, a blue flash came out of nowhere, and Garrick Yorne was standing in the middle of the path as if he had always been there.
"Move out," he said. "I’ll be with you the entire way, the same as during the trial."
The blue light flared again.
He was gone.
Mira stared at the empty spot. "Is that a Chief Mage’s trick, or just a rude habit?"
Liora answered without looking at her. "He’s a sixth-tier Chief Mage. Fourth rank. An attendant of the Mage Temple."
Mira’s mouth closed slowly.
They thanked the garrison captain and rode out at speed. Liora rode with Mira on the Rose Unicorn, the first time in days the two of them had shared a mount without sniping at each other. Leo noticed. He didn’t mention it.
They covered the northeast road in one hard push, and by the time the sun cleared the hills, the walls of Silverrest City rose in front of them.
---
Silverrest was the richest city inside the Temple Alliance, second only to the Halcyon Capital. War had never touched it. Its streets were wide and clean, lined with white stone and silk banners, and the people walking through them had the soft, unhurried look of those who never had to check the horizon for demons.
Moonhaven could have fit inside one of its market squares.
Caden stared at everything. Darius stared at the guards. Liora cataloged the merchants’ prices with a practiced eye. Mira stared at Leo, who was staring at nothing in particular, the way he did when he was thinking.
They found a hotel near the central plaza, ate a proper meal, and retreated to their rooms. Hot water. Clean sheets. For the first time in days, nobody was shouting a warning.
Four days remained before the Demon Hunt Selection. They would rest one day here and leave for the Halcyon Capital in the morning.
---
Leo was halfway through meditation when someone knocked.
"Come on," Mira’s voice called. "Walk with me. Don’t argue."
He opened the door. She was in plain clothes, arms folded, waiting with exaggerated patience. Behind her, Liora stood a step back, pretending she wasn’t part of this.
"Where are we going?" Leo asked.
"To sell the dark green demon," Mira said.
Liora coughed into her hand. "The auction house here is one of the biggest in the Alliance. Crownhammer Auction House. A carapace like that should fetch a good price. We’re splitting the profit, remember?"
Leo looked at her. Then at Mira. Then past them, at the bed, where his two-headed partner had already fallen asleep, both heads tucked into her tail, Little Flame’s faint snore rising in the quiet room.
"Fine," he said, pulling on his coat.
Mira had the decency to look pleased. Liora had the decency not to comment.
---
In a hall far from Silverrest, there were no windows.
The round chamber stood sixteen and a half meters high, its gold-toned walls carved with inscriptions that crawled over every surface: floor, walls, ceiling. Deep blue light pulsed through them, dim and cold, as if the room itself was holding its breath.
Golden lines ran across the floor and joined into a six-pointed star. Each point glowed faintly.
At its center, a dagger hung in the air. It was black, so black it swallowed the light around it. It made no sound and gave off no spiritual energy at all. The blue inscriptions bowed toward it, as if they had been written only to honor it.
Beneath the dagger, a young woman sat cross-legged.
Her hair was violet, long and loose, spilling over her shoulders and catching the blue glow. Her skin was perfectly pale, almost too pale, like something carved rather than born. Her features were flawless in the way of a statue, and that was the unsettling part. Nothing about her seemed fully alive.
Her eyes opened slowly.
The irises were ash-grey. Her face held no expression at all, like a window with the curtains drawn.
"We should leave now," said a cold voice, coming from every direction in the hall at once.
"Mm." The girl rose gracefully and lifted her head to look at the dagger.
A flicker of light.
The black dagger dropped, slid straight between her brows, and vanished without leaving a mark.
At that exact moment, every inscription in the hall dimmed, and their blue glow died away.
---
Ten days later, the Crownhammer Auction House was packed with buyers, bidders, and guards. Leo sat in the second row with the others, the dark green carapace already displayed behind a glass barrier, and waited for their lot to be called.
Liora leaned in close. "Remember our split."
"I remember."
Mira leaned in from the other side. "And if they try to cheat us, you let me handle it."
Leo sighed. He turned and found Mira’s expression: sharp, impatient, and softer than she meant it to be.
"Okay," he said.