Matilda’s palms pressed flat against the steel floor, arms locked, and back straight as a plank.

She lowered herself in one controlled motion; her chest touching the floor, and then pushed up with a sharp exhale. The muscles in her shoulders coiled and released, a steady metronome effort as she kept going up and down.

Beads of sweat already traced paths down her sculpted spine.

Her black sports bra clung to her skin, dark against the pale gleam of her shoulders.

Matilda lost count somewhere past two hundred.

But it didn’t matter; the burn was the point.

Once she couldn’t do another push-up, she rolled onto her back with a heavy breath, and then hooked her feet beneath the bed before starting to do sit-ups. More beads of sweat seeped out of her skin and licked down a straight path through her cleavage, through her sports bra, and then spread through her abdominal muscles.

Behind—her ponytail swept the floor with each rise.

And the black training tights stretched cleanly over her thighs as she folded and unfurled.

Each tremor in her abdomen was a satisfying sensation for her.

And when the floor work was done, she rose and gripped the overhead iron bar on the wall. The pull-up bar groaned softly as she lifted herself, chin clearing the iron with each repetition without much difficulty.

Matilda regularly does night exercise; two training sessions each day.

It was the reason she maintained her firm curves.

Impeccable curves that would make other women click their tongues in jealousy.

For her, however, the perfect curves are only the side-effect.

She did this to clear her mind more than anything.

Her arms burned. Her knuckles whitened. And her brows dipped into a frown.

Not because the satisfying burns were getting to her—but because for the first time in a while, exercising didn’t clear her mind at all. Every time a faint moan escaped her lips, her mind replayed what had happened in the morning.

Just like the others, she saw that Kai was beaten up one-sidedly by Alex.

Each strike against Kai’s body flashed in her mind with each repetition she did.

And each time blood was drawn, she could feel her body burning even hotter.

Clang—!

Matilda was startled when she suddenly fell and landed on the floor.

She paused in confusion.

But when she finally looked up, she realized she had been so out of it, lost in thoughts, that she had gripped the iron bar too hard. It was completely rushed where her hands had held it, warped inward before it finally snapped with a sharp, resounding clang.

Matilda sat down on the bed and wiped her sweat with a towel.

She wasn’t in her room right now—but inside the training chamber. High Angels and Angels could use the training chambers at any time, so she had been using one to train. "Why does it bother me so much?"

A deep exhale escaped her nose as she thought back to the sparring match.

Seeing Kai getting hurt bugged her greatly, and she didn’t know why.

Just earlier, had her willpower been a little bit weaker, she would’ve tried helping Kai reach wherever he wanted to go. Even in class, she kept stealing glances at Kai, who had not moved from his position until the class ended.

Frankly, she was confused and also pissed at Bree.

She would normally do something, but this time, she didn’t.

From her own observations, the grey-masked Angels seemed not to pay attention to Bree.

Even if she was close to Kai, no reaction from them.

Must be a privilege to be a Supernal who doesn’t need to be an Angel but chose to be so.

"At least he looked a lot better earlier," Matilda recalled when she talked with Kai earlier about their next mining session, which was tonight, and saw him doing better. She asked him about it, but he gave a vague answer. "I wanted to say Bree helped him, but I have a feeling that it’s not her."

Shaking her head, Matilda changed back into her uniform and exited.

She looked at the time on her phone, and it was only a little bit over eight.

Still a few more hours before meeting up at the Aerial Stable with Kai and the others.

Just as she turned to head back to the dormitory to shower, her stomach grumbled. Since she had only finished training, her body demanded supple food. Matilda turned and headed to the cafeteria instead.

"Matilda!"

A cheerful-looking woman with curly hair waved at her as soon as she arrived.

Veronica—one of the classmates that Matilda so happened to get to know.

Like her, Veronica also trained during the night; that’s how they got to know each other.

Matilda went to take her food—a generous spread befitting a High Angel: protein, carbs, and even a modest dessert to boast. Everything was well-made and nutrient-rich. She set her tray down and took the seat across from Veronica.

"Good training today?"

"Per usual. What about you? Finished reinforcing your second Divine Lock?"

"Just a bit more," Veronica replied with a helpless smile. Unlike other Angels, her Patron God was stubborn to a fault. Even the simple act of reinforcing her second Divine Lock had been made harder. Her gaze drifted down to Matilda’s feast—and she pouted. "How I wish I were a High Angel."

"You want some?" Matilda raised a brow. "I think I can ask for another pudding."

"Please!"

"Alright..."

Matilda stood up again and headed to ask for another dessert.

As she waited, she overheard the conversation of another group of students on her left.

"Let’s try getting into Andre’s group."

"Andre’s group? Does he even have a group?"

"I heard he’s going to make one."

"Make one? Pfft... As if there’s any chance of doing that. I heard the group quotas are full."

"Nope. Now that there’s the Fire Swamp and Dead Range, the group quota was increased by two. And I heard Andre already got a sponsor from a professor! I’m sure the Auric Cabal and the Ichor Legion are going to occupy those dangerous clouds soon, so High Gold and Stream Blue would be free to be occupied."

"If that’s the case, why not? Fuck paying taxes."

’Another student is aiming to make a group, too...? Who’s this Andre?’ Matilda frowned, not expecting to have competition in forming the new group. And then, she overheard the same topic being discussed by another group of students on the other side. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

They weren’t talking about Andre, but another person.

As Matilda took the dessert and walked back to her table, she couldn’t help but frown.

"Professor Kimberly said we only need to hand over half the required amount of mana ores."

"Really? Shit, that’s a great deal."

’Pay half the required amount...? Kai told me that we need to gather ten thousand mana ores, and yet the others are paying half of that?’ Matilda’s brows dipped deeper as she could smell something fishy going on. ’Is someone trying to stop Kai from forming a group? I need to tell him about this.’

...

"Almost four hundred points... More than four hundred with the Blood-phantom Scimitar in my hand," Kai covered his mouth, staring at the hovering status panel like he had seen a miracle happening before his very eyes. "Is this even possible? Is this even still in the realm of an Awakened Supernal?"

He has nothing to compare his new intelligence stat to, so he doesn’t know.

Of course, he had seen the averages on the internet, but he hadn’t seen the upper hand.

After all, before all of this, he had believed that even if he became an Angel, he would remain below average. If he allowed himself to dream at all, it was only to have average sats. Nothing more than that.

Never had he dared to imagine possessing an intelligence stat this high.

It’s remarkable, and frankly, he was at a loss for words.

"Assuming the quality of a normal Angel’s Divine Lock is the same for the rest of the Divine Locks he has, then opening a second one would mean doubling the intelligence stat, or maybe a bit higher than double," Kai muttered inwardly—snickering at himself. "But mine... It’s far beyond that."

He looked down at his hand.

Staring at it as if he was looking through the skin.

"No wonder I don’t feel exhausted at all the entire day," Kai was pleased by his own growth. "Turns out my mana stat increased this much. I was too occupied with what was happening that I didn’t check my status window quickly enough.

"Had I did, I would’ve experimented more earlier."

Having this much mana, Kai was curious as to how strong his Dark Discharge would be.

Before, his Dark Discharge imprint could cut through two to three Awakened Monsters in a straight line. Now, he might be able to cut down ten of them if they are lined up perfectly in a straight line.

"Master Kai..."

A voice snapped Kai out of his trance.

Standing hesitantly beside the cardboards was Talitha.

And she seemed like she had something to say.

"Do you have a moment?"

"Yes. Do you have something to say to me?"

"Yes," She walked out of the shadow. "I have something to say."

Before she could even say anything, Kai’s eyes narrowed he noticed she was walking funny. Her left foot was slightly tiptoeing. And when the lamplight illuminated her from above, he noticed her ankle was puffy.

She sprained her ankle.

"What happened to your ankle?" Kai raised a brow. "Is it because of me?"

Kai remembered falling down the stairs when Talitha missed a step.

He blacked out right after, but he was sure she sprained her ankle at that moment.

"Ah... Don’t worry about it," Talitha flashed a smile. "It would heal soon enough."

"Why not ask Abigail to heal it?"

"I don’t want to bother her with something this small. She already has too much on her plate, and this isn’t worth her time. But speaking of Abigail," She paused, lips parting as if to speak—then closing again. With a steadying breath, she finally continued, "I heard you invited her to join your new group. I just wanted to say... thank you. For considering her.

"Even after what she did, you still consider her. For that, I’m really thankful." She added.

"No need to thank me. I only invited her—because I need a fifth member," Kai brushed it off. "Besides, she declined joining my group just earlier."

"E-Even so," Talitha was caught off guard by this. "I am sure it really meant a lot for her that you extended an inviting hand like that. I know, as her sister, that she’s really grateful. Just that, she didn’t know how to say it."

"You’re a good sister, Talitha," Kai praised. "And don’t worry. I already forgave her."