Chapter 128: They got to know what lies beneath
The bus ride back to the academy didn’t take long.
Neither of them said much during the journey. The earlier conversation with Oliver still lingered in their heads, and the question Noah had asked, about what was inside that hole... remained unanswered. That bothered him more than he let on.
They stepped off at the academy gates and made their way inside.
"Morgana’s cabin," Noah said simply.
Damien nodded and led the way.
The academy grounds were quieter than usual on a Sunday. A few students passed by here and there, but for the most part the paths were empty. It didn’t take long before they were standing in front of Instructor Morgana’s cabin.
Damien reached for the door handle without a second thought.
Noah grabbed his arm.
"Hey." He stared at him. "Idiot. Knock first. Then ask for permission to enter."
Damien looked at him with genuine confusion. "She’s my master. I’m her disciple. Why would I need to—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
A memory surfaced. The last time he had walked in without knocking. The look on her face. What followed after.
He went quiet.
"...You’re right," he said flatly.
Noah straightened his jacket, then casually pulled out his phone and checked his reflection in the dark screen. He fixed a strand of hair that was slightly out of place, tilted his head once to the left, then once to the right.
Good enough.
Damien watched this entire process in silence with a blank expression on his face.
He had no words for it. Truly.
Noah raised his hand and knocked twice, firm and polite.
"Instructor Morgana, may we come in?"
A beat of silence.
Then a strict, composed voice came from the other side.
"Come in."
Damien glanced at Noah one more time, still processing what he had just witnessed, then pushed the door open.
---
The cabin was neat and precisely arranged, every object in its place. Bookshelves lined the walls and morning light filtered through the curtains in thin, clean lines.
And behind the large desk at the center of the room sat Morgana.
Her sky-blue hair was pulled back into a neat bun. Her amethyst eyes were sharp and cool as ever, carrying that particular stillness that made most people straighten up the moment they met her gaze. She was dressed in a dark brown suit, composed and professional from head to toe.
She looked up as they entered.
Noah smiled and gestured lightly. "May we sit, Instructor Morgana?"
She gave a small nod.
They settled into the chairs across from her.
Noah folded his hands and glanced around the cabin once before looking back at her. "You look wonderful today, Instructor Morgana."
Damien slowly turned his head toward Noah.
He stared.
Noah’s expression remained completely natural, like he had simply commented on the weather.
Morgana observed Noah for a quiet moment, her gaze level and unreadable.
Then she nodded once. "Thank you."
A pause.
"Now," she said, her tone shifting into something more direct. "Tell me everything."
---
This time, they didn’t hold anything back.
Unlike what they had told Oliver, there was no edited version here. No smoothed-over details. No gaps carefully filled with half-truths. They told her everything the monsters, the stranger performing the ritual, the unknown creature that rose from the hole and spoke in a voice that didn’t feel like its own.
And the words it had said.
Directly to Damien.
Child blessed by the sun.
When they finished, the cabin was quiet.
Morgana didn’t respond immediately. She sat with her hands resting on the desk, her expression unreadable as she processed everything they had said.
Then she exhaled slowly through her nose and nodded.
"I see."
Another pause.
"That creature wasn’t saying anything wrong. I guess..."
Her amethyst eyes moved to Damien and stayed there.
"It appears Damien truly is blessed by the Sun God."
Noah narrowed his eyes.
"What do you mean by that?" he asked. "Why do you think the creature wasn’t lying?"
He already knew, somewhere deep down he had accepted it. But he wanted to hear her reasoning. He wanted to understand why she believed it.
Morgana’s gaze didn’t waver.
"His powers," she said simply. "They carry divinity within them."
She leaned back slightly in her chair, choosing her words with care.
"Most people wouldn’t notice it. Even I almost missed it at first. But Damien’s light element — the color, the quality, the way it behaves — it was always slightly different from any other light attribute user I have encountered." Her eyes moved briefly to Damien before returning to Noah. "That difference always made me suspect something. I never had confirmation though."
She paused.
"Until now. Whatever was speaking through that creature, using its body as a vessel.. it was no ordinary being. Something that dangerous, something operating at that level, would not waste its words. If it identified Damien as the child blessed by the Sun God, then that is exactly what he is."
The cabin fell into a brief silence.
Damien said nothing. He sat still, staring at the surface of the desk, processing.
Noah studied Morgana’s expression for a moment. Then, without waiting for Damien to find his words, he leaned forward.
"Instructor."
She looked at him.
"Do you know what’s under that hole?"
The question landed quietly in the room. Morgana held his gaze. Something shifted behind her eyes... a calculation, a decision being weighed. She was silent for long enough that it almost seemed like she wouldn’t answer.
Then she did.
"Under that hole..." she began slowly, "there is a chamber."
Her voice remained composed, but there was a careful weight behind every word.
"A massive one. And it is filled with the same kind of creatures you encountered that night."
Noah’s eyes sharpened. "How many?"
Morgana looked at him steadily.
"Numbers exceeding thousands."
The words settled over the room like a stone dropping into still water.
Noah didn’t respond immediately. He sat with that number, turning it over.
Thousands.
And two academy students had been fighting above it.
