Just as the door creaked open, Itekan's instincts kicked in. In a blur, he turned himself and Itoyea into living shadows, melting into the darkness that lined the corner of the lab.
Professor Tedorinzu shuffled into the room, groaning as if gravity had it out for his knees. With a sigh of suspicion, he plopped himself onto one of the stools they'd just been using and blinked at the active setup in front of him.
"Huh?" he muttered, eyes narrowing at the perfectly arranged cauldron, boiling flasks, and meticulously aligned catalyst stones. He closed his eyes and let his Spiritual Energy (SE) ripple out like sonar.
Someone was just here, he thought grimly, dismantling a few pieces of equipment with the tired precision of a man who had long accepted the madness of academia.
"You know," he called out in a bored tone, twirling the horn of a Twelve-Horned Beast like it was a toy baton, "I already know where you both are. Come out now and you'll only get a week of detention. Might even throw in a snack if you behave."
From their hiding spot in the shadows, Itekan's eyes widened.
"Shit," he whispered, realizing they'd made one fatal mistake: they left the gear set up like overconfident interns.
Itoyea turned to him with his eyebrows bouncing and eyes darting in some kind of rapid-fire eye Morse code.
Itekan blinked at him, utterly lost. Was that panic? Morse code? Interpretive dance?
In reply, Itekan twisted his face into a ridiculous mix of confusion, apology, and "I think we're screwed."
"Nothing? Alright then," Tedorinzu said with a sigh, now walking toward their hiding spot with the steady pace of a man with too much tenure to care.
Itekan and Itoyea exchanged a single, unified glance.
We're cooked.
With zero warning, Itekan flung them both out the open window they had unlocked earlier to ventilate the lab. The wind whooshed past their ears as they plummeted three stories down—
—or so it seemed.
Tedorinzu dashed to the window and leaned out, expecting to find two young idiots splattered across the courtyard. Instead, he was met with an eerie sight: two perfect shadows stretched across the ground. But no bodies. No sound. Nothing.
And yet… his SE detection still screamed that they were inside the lab.
"Clever," he muttered.
Itekan could barely hold back a grin. What he'd done was a trick he'd only just invented—using his shadow tentacles to craft illusionary shadow clones. Before tossing them out, he had Itoyea infuse them with their SST, too mimick their SSTs.
It worked. At least, until—
A sudden burst of raw SE surged through the room, smothering the air like thick smoke. Itekan and Itoyea staggered under the weight of it.
"Very clever," Tedorinzu said, now seated again, legs crossed and eyes gleaming with curiosity. "If you'd figured out how to erase your SSTs from the air, I would've been completely fooled."
Then he raised his voice theatrically. "Now, let's meet the daring young souls who broke into my lab but don't have the guts to face the music!"
Itekan gasped. His shadow cloak was unraveling—Tedorinzu's pressure was draining his Shadow Energy fast.
"We should stop, Itekan. You're pushing it," Itoyea said, noting the way Itekan clutched his chest.
With a reluctant nod, Itekan released the technique. They flickered into view.
"Well, well," Tedorinzu chuckled. "Mr. Lie and Mr. Pilton. Neither of you were on my 'likely criminal' list today. What brings you here—or should I say, what were you hoping to steal?"
"Sorry, Professor," Itoyea began, but Itekan lifted a hand to silence him.
"It was my idea—" Itekan began.
"—What? No, I was the one—" Itoyea interrupted hotly.
"Whoa, whoa, cool it!" Tedorinzu laughed. "You're not in trouble. Yet."
"Really?" they both said in unison, like two synchronized swimmers in an ocean of anxiety.
"Well," he said, lifting the Twelve-Horned Beast horn, "that depends. How did you even get this setup plan? This is advanced alchemical circuitry. You won't learn this until Year Four."
"My dad gave it to me," Itekan admitted.
Tedorinzu blinked. "Your… dad? Parents don't usually leave Level-4 bio-fusion alchemy schematics lying around for their thirteen-year-olds."
They glanced at each other. Finally, Itekan reached into his satchel and pulled out the golden egg.
Tedorinzu's mouth fell open. "You were… you were going to hatch that?!"
---
The egg now sat inside a cauldron bubbling with dangerously radiant liquid: a swirling fusion of SE drawn from the horn, Carpathia's blood, Chimera Ant Queen ichor, and Itekan's own spiritual essence.
Tedorinzu watched, half-horrified, half-hypnotized.
Itekan stirred the mixture, carefully regulating the temperature with Itoyea's sword. They'd tried the usual lab stirrers. One melted before it even touched the surface. Another disintegrated mid-stir. Tedorinzu even brought out a rare stirrer reinforced with shellfish jelly—an alchemical jelly used to mix the venom of Green Grass Vipers.
Even that had screamed (literally) and melted.
"Who exactly is the owner of this mystery blood?" Tedorinzu asked, peering at the shimmering golden swirl.
"My dad. You probably know him... Carpathia—"
Tedorinzu froze, the name crashing into his brain like a rogue comet.
"Le-Legend Carpathia?!"
It hit him all at once: the absurdly fast SE regeneration, the unnatural shadow control, the casual use of forbidden ingredients…
"That explains… far too much," he muttered.
"Wait, I have an idea," Itoyea said, drawing the sword from his back. "Try this. It's made of dragon skin. Forged in the heat of an elder dragon's flame."
Tedorinzu blinked. "I'm sorry—did you say dragon?"
"Yep," Itoyea replied nonchalantly.
Itekan and Tedorinzu both shouted, "DRAGONS?!"
Tedorinzu rubbed his temples. What is wrong with kids these days? One's the son of a godlike war legend. The other's wielding dragon-forged relics like it's Tuesday. And they just had to break into my lab?!
"I'm not paid enough for this," he muttered.
"Wait—do you even get paid?" Itekan asked, suddenly curious.
Tedorinzu glared. "Not nearly enough to deal with Carpathia Juniors and dragon heirs playing house in my alchemy lab!"
Spiritual Energy (SE)
Spiritual Sea (SS)
Spiritual Signature (SST)
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