The walls of Sorriso trembled.

  A second portal tore open in the sky like a wound, spitting out monsters with glassy eyes and bluish flesh.

  Spears clashed, spells detonated, and the air reeked of burning iron.

  Amid the chaos, Elisandra Mind-Veil Xadrez wove between soldiers and civilians.

  Her mind split into twelve layers —

  four for barriers, three for evacuation routes, two for mental scanning,

  and one entirely focused on the trembling girl near the cracked fountain:

  Leli Fernandes.

  “Focus, Leli…” Elisandra whispered as she strengthened a protective mental veil around the girl.

  “Breathe. Stay in the corridor. Don’t let the noise drag you under.”

  Leli nodded, though her golden eyes shook.

  She had no magic, no runes awakened —

  only a sensitive mind, fragile as thin glass under pressure.

  From atop a broken archway, Tailer Aspenwolf watched them, amused.

  His white coat danced in the heat of the portal winds.

  “I didn’t know you had a motherly streak, Xadrez,” he commented.

  Elisandra didn’t look at him.

  “Preventive protection. The girl feels too much. And in a mental battlefield, feeling too much gets you killed.”

  Tailer chuckled.

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  “She looks like a scared owlet.”

  “Owlets hit the ground hard,” Elisandra replied, casting another shield over the civilians.

  “And I don’t like corpses in my evacuation lanes.”

  A tremor shook the northern wall. Both turned instantly.

  Through smoke and debris emerged Lukas Fernandes:

  Black arched shield in one hand.

  Gladius in the other.

  No aura.

  No mana of his own.

  Just technique.

  Precision.

  Instinct sharpened to a blade.

  Tailer’s eyes narrowed, studying him with predatory curiosity.

  “He fights without mana… but the body responds like it has. Rare.”

  Elisandra followed Lukas with her gaze.

  “The boy from Sorriso,” she murmured.

  “Lukas Fernandes,” Tailer corrected.

  “And I want him.”

  Elisandra blinked.

  “Want… how exactly?”

  “Want him in my house,” Tailer said casually as he conjured a gravitational orb that folded three ogres like paper.

  “And in my squad. The White Wolves.”

  “Why?”

  Tailer wiped blood from his glove.

  “Because he’s unpredictable. Chaotic. And he makes chaos look like methodology.”

  Another rumble shook the street.

  The portal roared, spitting flames.

  Elisandra kept her eyes on Lukas.

  “And Sarya?” she asked suddenly.

  Tailer smirked.

  “Ah, the Autumn Huntress. She’s already watching him.”

  Elisandra narrowed her eyes.

  “How do you know?”

  “Autumn Council sources,” Tailer answered easily.

  “Aurelius Rowan told her to keep an eye on the boy.”

  “Any reason?”

  “Unknown,” Tailer said, intrigued. “Which makes it even better.”

  A monster lunged toward them.

  Tailer flicked his wrist — a black orb crushed it instantly.

  “Come on, Xadrez,” he called, stepping into the battlefield.

  “Evacuate the civilians first… then the real game begins.”

  Elisandra cast the final seal over the shelter and sighed.

  “You’re impossible, Tailer.”

  “And you love that,” he laughed, vanishing into the smoke.

  The walls shook again.

  Moonlight shimmered over the evacuation runes.

  And between flame and wind, two instructors of Delos carved the shapes of the future —

  one through the mind,

  the other through instinct.

  End of Chapter 50