Aika looked away from Julius, and at that instant, a heavy, metallic scent of old blood and stagnant water immediately filled the air.

Julius’s smile faded just a bit, and even though he expected his guess to be right, he was still taken aback when dead bodies began to appear all around the courtyard, numbering more than a hundred.

He looked around to see that some were charred bodies, some were slurry heaps of indistinguishable remains, while some were just body parts like eyes, arms or heads.

"Ah, this will certainly draw the attention of more than just those in the estate to you," Julius noted casually as he looked around, then towards the building. "But I suppose you know that."

"Just make sure I don’t get bothered in the meantime. That’s all I ask," she replied flatly.

Flicking his cigarillo away, Julius pocketed both hands, looked at her and said coolly, "No problem, Mi Lady."

Aika stood up and took a few steps away from the fountain, before coming to a halt. Slowly, she stretched out both hands to the side, and hundred of screens appeared in her vision, each above a body, displaying the same message she always got before activating chrysalis.

She drew in a breath, and her voice dropped an octave as she spoke the command into the air, "Arise."

Suddenly, the world changed. A heavy, cold gale swept through the entire estate and the clouds above swirled as they grew dark until even that red, smiling moon was hidden from the estate.

Bolts of lightning streaked across the overcast sky, and in the seconds that followed, black flames erupted from the ground, engulfing and enveloping each corpse in a cocoon.

As the conduit, Aika’s eyes grew black, and her skin turned a deathly pale as numerous souls poured out of her body into the various cocoons, followed by her spark of life.

...At the same time, almost everyone in the Marcus estate began to hurry in curious interest towards the entry courtyard. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Fortunately, Julius had already mentally given Evelyn a heads up, and she in turn had hurried to give a heads up to the staff. And so, all they did upon arriving was watch as hundreds of confused and terrified cadets came back to life.

...By the time the revival was complete, the dark ink in Aika’s eyes receded and the suffocating pressure in the air began to lift. The darkness above thinned and tore apart, and the crimson light of the eerie, smiling moon veiled the entire estate once more in a crimson glow.

Aika swayed and her vision suddenly blurred. She raised a hand to her head, as a wave of intense vertigo struck her, and she staggered, as she struggled to stay upright.

She could understand now, just how Cedric felt whenever he had to bestow his spark of life to others.

It really was draining.

And since she had bestowed her life to quite the number, she felt as if she herself was on death’s door.

...As Cedric would say, she felt like shit.

Plus, since she was already physically and mentally exhausted at this time, she took a bigger toll than a person of her Grade should have taken for this number.

’I hope I don’t have to do this shit again.’ She thought, as she staggered again. She shook her head to clear the vertigo. But instead of relief, her blurry vision began to darken, and her body slowly began to give out.

’Huh...?’

Some meters behind her, Julius, who had been keeping his eyes on her the entire time, could clearly see that the revival had put her in a bad way.

He immediately began to walk towards her, and at that moment, Aika finally fell unconscious. But just before she could hit the ground, he instinctively reached out and caught her, pulling her into his arms.

Meanwhile, Celeste and Evelyn had pushed their way through the crowded courtyard to where Julius was standing.

"What’s wrong with her?" Evelyn asked in a worried voice upon reaching them.

Julius looked at Aika’s slack features, then replied calmly, "She’s just tired and needs to rest. I’ll take her to a room."

He looked around at the restless courtyard of confused and disoriented cadets, before returning his red eyes to Evelyn’s. "Can I entrust you to take care of the situation here..." He lowered his head slightly, "...my lady?"

Evelyn nodded as she looked around.

Julius then began walking towards the main estate building. As he stepped out of the light, his neutral expression disappeared and a deep frown crossed his face.

’The Raven of Decay is definitely not okay,’ he thought. ’A bond is supposed to take their dormant form when they fall unconscious. But she’s still here. I had a suspicion, but this confirms it: she can’t take her dormant form. This means she no longer has her bond to Cedric. Just what happened on that night? How is it even possible for a bond to be severed?’

So many questions ran through Julius’s mind, and for the first time, for all his wisdom, he felt stumped.

He had never known or heard of this before: a bond not connected to a bearer. How was that even possible?

Of course, there were many times when Cedric had died and Aika was still alive. But he knew that even then, they still shared their bond.

After all, he had once seen Aika take her dormant form on Cedric’s corpse. But now that she couldn’t do that, it meant Cedric was not just gone; their bond was somewhat severed.

Could bonds really survive without bearers?

All Julius had ever known was that for bonds to survive, they needed to not only be anchored to their bearer, but they also needed to go out of their way to keep their bearers alive.

Come to think of it, up to this moment, he didn’t even know what he really was, to be honest. What bonds are? But this... this situation was definitely unprecedented.