Annabelle’s Bastion

Mages didn’t always have good senses, even if they had tens of Sigils.

It wasn’t something Aria considered—she thought increased senses came naturally through experience and mana growth. But that was evidently not the case. After all, the dorm master of Theo’s dorm couldn’t see through the animal disguise Cole Anderson used to get him out of the building.

While it might just be the power of an Apex Sigil, there was certainly mana he could detect to find out something was amiss.

Yet the older man ended up walking around the dorm, presumably going toward the back of the building where Aria saw Cole go after he told her Theo’s room.

That was an incredible weakness, one that cemented Aria’s decision for a Sigil she needed to quickly get.

Regardless, it was that easy for her to get into the dorm.

With a dorm master present and a strict curfew, she didn’t even need to sneak around. Theo’s door probably wasn’t locked since most students didn’t bother doing so. Even Aria wouldn’t if it wasn’t for Annabelle’s constant reminders.

And so she walked in through the front door.

Her gold ring materialized around her forehead, and she ran a low level of enhancements through her body.

The layout was the exact same as every other dorm, and with nobody around for her to worry about, she quickly ascended to the third floor.

Each door had the number embedded onto the front, and she soon found room 7, stopping before it.

If Theo was a talkative one, she could get all of this settled within a day. 

Well, she could just make him talk, but she didn’t want to risk being in the dorm for too long with the dorm master soon to return.

She grabbed the knob and gave it a light turn.

Good—it wasn’t locked.

A golden glow emerged from her hand, emitting a faint shining sound as light expanded outward. The glow grew to a size larger than Aria’s arms before it suddenly shrank inward to take the shape of a semi-transparent, simple golden longsword.

Aria gave it a simple swing, slicing the air and feeling the heavy weight and clean cutting power.

It was, of course, perfect—but she liked testing the force of it.

She upped her enhancements and twisted the doorknob.

Slowly and quietly, she pushed the door open.

No lights were on in his room, and Aria couldn’t hear anything; he was likely asleep. The bathroom door seemed open, and there wasn’t a light in there either.

Correction—there was a light, but it was faint and likely from a nightlight beside his bed.

Aria gently shut the door behind her.

There, Theo Walsh was, covered in his blanket with his back turned toward her.

Was it a coincidence that her targets tended to not have roommates? It wasn’t too abnormal, as there were quite a few deaths in the past six months. Not to mention a few expulsions, though those cases were kept quiet.

He didn’t even toss and turn as Aria slowly approached the bed.

She brought her golden blade up and reached out to pull his blanket off.

In one swift, powerful motion, Aria ripped the blanket off and slammed her hand against Theo’s mouth.

“Make a sound, and—”

Aria froze.

He was cold.

His eyes were open.

There wasn’t any life in that gaze.

She quickly pulled the rest of the blanket off, throwing it off the bed.

There was a hole right through his chest, one that was smaller than her finger and pierced directly through his heart.

Theo Walsh… was already dead.

Aria stepped back, her heart sinking into her stomach as she whipped her head around the room for any signs.

Yet there was nothing.

“How?” she whispered.

But even with that, ideas already rushed into her head like a waterfall, sending her heart into overdrive at the grim possibilities.

She checked the bathroom, checked the window, and even checked the door for signs of tampering.

Nothing appeared out of the ordinary—no signs of someone forcing their way in. The window didn’t even look like it had been opened since the academy started.

“Teleportation,” she whispered.

Theo’s body appeared perfectly normal outside of that life-ending injury. He was most likely asleep when it happened.

A quick execution?

Such a thing wasn’t outside the realm of her expectations.

In fact, she expected it to happen.

There were too many people aware of Ashton’s plans, too many that could lead to him being imprisoned or worse. She expected that, once her plans began, people would die.

But this soon?

Not possible—unless she was betrayed. But she never told Scott who she was targeting next, and he didn’t seem dumb enough to report her to Ashton. Such a thing would only mean his death.

Aria recalled something and immediately began scouring the room for his cell phone.

She didn’t need to look far.

It was placed in the center of one of the desks, comfortably on top of a paper.

That was an intentional placement.

Aria turned it on… only to see an unread text from Ashton Wells. She unlocked the phone and opened it, expecting the worst.

“Your lack of Earth knowledge is showing, Aria. Did you really think I would have phones out there without a means of tracking them? I check it every night.

Imagine my surprise when I saw Gregory’s phone appear in your dorm, only for another to soon follow! Your speed is impressive, Aria. Scott was still alive, though. I always told that obnoxious brute that he shouldn’t rule his men through fear—betrayal is always a matter of when. Well, don’t worry; he’s dead, too. That blood is on your hands.

What happens next, you ask? Well… I already told a few people that you murdered Gregory, Scott, and now Theo, as well as mentioning the phones. I have to thank you, Aria. You’ve made my job infinitely easier!

As for the so-called incriminating evidence on the phones? They’ve already been wiped. The one you currently hold might have something, but you won’t report that. The last thing you want is me locked up, far beyond your reach. My punishment would be nothing.

I look forward to seeing how you get out of this.

Good luck, Aria!”

By the time she finished reading it, Aria’s grip on her golden blade was so strong that it shattered, a glass-like noise as the blade broke into pieces.

Was that really her downfall? A phone she didn’t fully understand?

It didn’t matter; there was only one thing she had to do.

She upped her enhancements to their max and charged for the window.

Once forcefully opened, she jumped out.

But she didn’t forget and grabbed onto the ledge to turn around and slid the window shut once more.

“Aria?” Cole suddenly said from the tree near the window, nearly making Aria instinctively attack. “That fast? Is he—”

Aria interrupted by throwing him the phone, which he caught and stared at with widened eyes.

“Turn it off, hide it—it’s tracked. Theo has already been killed.”

“What? That means—”

“I have to go. Do not lose that phone.”

Perhaps detecting her urgency, Cole only nodded. “Good luck.”

With that, Aria charged through the forest, navigating the edge of the island to make her way back to her dorm.

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Gromak fidgeted with the human device—a cell phone! It felt small, but humans tended to have baby hands.

Still, it was such an interesting piece of technology!

She probably wouldn’t mind that he… requisitioned it from her room. He also took her notebook, but that was because he needed to see her investigation reports. And because hiding it in her desk was a stupid idea. She probably didn’t understand, but if she were to be accused, he would have to allow them to search her room. Well, he didn’t want to risk her falling because of someone teleporting into her room.

Aria was probably heading toward that Theo boy’s dorm. He wasn’t sure how she intended to do it, but that was for the better.

In the meantime, he just kept scrolling through the phone logs.

And his conclusion… this Gregory boy was quite the vile character.

It would be laughable—mocking Bastion for their recruitment methods—but it only made him upset.

His people were being treated as they were, just for them to recruit these types from Earth? They could flood Bastion with able-bodied Dwarves a million times better than the filth they brought in!

It was nothing less of an insult.

But that was why he was so confident in his plans.

Some might call it a gamble, but Gromak wasn’t that stupid.

He would always take the route that helped his race.

Suddenly, the device powered off.

“What the?”

He pressed the power button, but nothing happened. He tried holding it, too.

Was his grip that strong? Well, yes—but that probably wasn’t it.

Its power was probably dead, but Gromak didn’t have any power crystals to charge it again, and he doubted Aria remembered to grab it.

However, it turned back on just as he put it down.

Rather than return to that lock screen, it had a spinning circle on top of a black background.

Now, that didn’t seem right.

“Of course, humans can’t create anything good!” he complained.

Yet, it was probably nothing good, so he decided to just smash it.

As his fist raised, it returned to a normal, white screen… welcoming him to the device.

Gromak stopped. “Ah, so that’s how it is.”

Finally, he powered off the phone.

Some kind of reset, clearly.

He’d have wanted something like that, too, if he was going to get into some crazy shenanigans with his peers. Aria definitely wasn’t going to turn them in, but it was better to be safe.

“Hmm.” Gromak pulled on his beard.

There was another possibility, though.

Whoever handed out the phones might have figured out what Aria was doing and did this from afar.

But how?

Aria wasn’t stupid—she wouldn’t have been discovered so quickly.

That Scott boy, perhaps?

But she seemed confident he wouldn’t betray her. Gromak knew better, though—fear was a powerful motivator. It just came down to who he feared more.

“I suppose it’s you, probably,” Gromak said at the powered-off phone. They might have the ability to track those devices.

He hadn’t really considered it before, but this thing was a technology he had no comprehension of. While it might be possible with magic, he’d have felt that. And it didn’t function with mana crystals—it used electricity. That was a source of power the Dwarves didn’t use. Mana Crystals were far more powerful and contained far better energy!

“I guess I gotta be careful of these human devices, eh?” He darkly chuckled.

It was an interesting place, Earth. On one hand, it was a backwater world due to its lack of magic and magic-aided tools. On the other, its technology was nothing less than marvelous. And creative!

Gromak didn’t care that they tracked it, though. Reporting these phones to the authorities meant outing themselves for having them. While the self-report might be smart, it would lead to the man who gave them being named once Alisha got her claws into it.

He could only hope they were that dumb!

Regardless, it meant that Aria was in some trouble. That was evidenced by the speed at which an entity filled with mana charged toward his dorm.

Seeing her freak out was amusing.

Maybe he could tease her a little bit… but it probably wasn’t the time.

Soon after, Aria rammed through the dorm doors and seemed keen to ignore Gromak.

“Stop, girlie!” His words froze Aria just before she hit the stairs. “I got the phone and notebook of yours with me right now. Doin’ some checkin’ of my own.”

“I’ve been—”

“Discovered, yes,” Gromak interrupted.

Her heart was beating like a drum—Aria was scared! Not for herself, either. She was scared because she didn’t want her only hope in the last six months cut so easily.

Gromak sighed.

“How do you know? Why do you seem so unconcerned?”

“I got this, girlie.” He squinted as he felt some mana in the distance. “For now, deactivate those enhancements of yours and get snug in your room.”

“But—”

“Girlie, now.”

Hearing his tone worked, and Aria nodded. “Yes.”

Now, then…

How should he treat those who were about to treat his building like it was their own?