Chapter 462: Chapter 462 - Tamers War - Broken Threads Klein looked up from his books, and immediately his expression hardened with the accumulated resentment. "What are you doing here?" he asked, his voice letting out months of repressed frustration. "I’ve come to take you to the new home where you will belong," Kassian responded, slowly advancing toward the room’s center. The small number of teachers and guards tensed... being silver or lower, since all school gold ranks participated in the war, no one dared move. There was something in the two visitors’ presence that promised instant violence to anyone who interfered. "I don’t want to go with you," Klein declared, remaining seated but with his jaw clenched. "I’m sick of your lies and how you hog all of father’s attention." He didn’t say it all directly, but also the resentment for years of being deceived and manipulated hadn’t been forgiven and was evident in every word... The accumulated grievances of someone who had been lied to, exploited, and systematically undermined by the person who should have protected him. The auxiliary teacher, seeing tension escalating and instinctively recognizing Klein was in danger, stepped forward. "Excuse me," he said with all the authority he could muster, "but students are under academic protection during this crisis. You can’t simply..." He didn’t finish the sentence. Ravenspire moved with speed that defied perception, and the young teacher simply stopped breathing. His neck so brutally destroyed that the echo of his pain was felt throughout the entire refuge. The silence that followed was absolute. "Does anyone else have ’academic’ objections?" Ravenspire asked with courtesy that made his violence even more terrifying. No one responded. The guard girls visibly trembled, Han had completely paled, and remaining teachers had become statues of pure terror. Klein slowly stood, processing what he had just witnessed. "Did you just kill someone?" he whispered, incredulity mixing with horror. "Yes," Ravenspire responded as he bowed. "Does it bother you?" Kassian sighed with exasperation. "You didn’t have to do that so... dramatically," he told Ravenspire. "Now Klein is going to be more resistant." He addressed his younger brother with ’patience’ that sounded practiced. "Klein, you need to come with me. It’s for your own good." The tone was reasonable and caring, the voice of someone explaining necessary medicine to a sick child... False concern. "NO!" Klein shouted. "I’m not going anywhere with you! I’m sick of you!" Kassian moved closer, his movements deliberate and threatening. "Klein, don’t make me do this the hard way." "Go to hell!" Klein roared, fusing with his beast in a desperate gesture of defiance. He had recently leveled up to Bronze 2, and his defiant roar resonated throughout the refuge. But neither his improved strength nor his new abilities were rivals for Kassian. The power disparity was cruel and absolute... enough improvement to give Klein hope, not enough to give him actual chance against someone some levels higher. Kassian hit him. It wasn’t a soft reprimanding blow. It was a frustration-filled punch from an older brother who had lost patience, connecting with Klein’s face with enough force to send him to the ground. The violence was personal and brutal, family dynamics expressing themselves through raw physical force. Klein got up bleeding from his nose, his eyes shining with tears of pain and betrayal. "Why?" he murmured, touching his injured face. The question carried weight beyond the immediate moment... not just why the punch, but why everything, why the lies, why the manipulation, why the sudden change of everything he had believed about his family. "Because you leave me no choice," Kassian responded, beginning to manifest something that made the air around him become visible with strange patterns. Ravenspire, who had been observing the familiar scene with amusement, approached Kassian with a smile that tried to hide his worry... even if the family drama promised entertainment. "We’re on the dangerous idiot’s side, remember?" he interrupted, "this is taking too much time. Kassian, hurry up." "I’m on it," Kassian murmured, concentrating on something that required absolute precision. Invisible threads began extending from his hands, seeking connection points in Klein’s nervous system. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂 "I didn’t want to do this by force," Kassian explained while working, "because it’s more painful for both of us in the neural connection. But you leave me no choice." The other children, Han, and guards could do nothing. Despite having developed some empathy for ’the poor boy from the wrong family’, Ravenspire’s terror kept them completely paralyzed. "You’ll be the best version of yourself," Kassian insisted while threads sought to approach Klein’s head and neural connections. "I’ll help you achieve your true objectives, like I did with father." Klein retreated desperately, but didn’t fully understand what his brother meant. "I’m sick of your lies!" he shouted. "Stop talking like you own him... I’m going to get father’s approval on my own! I won’t need to listen to you ever again!" Ravenspire laughed with genuine delight. "Oh, this is on another level," he commented. "I didn’t know this part of you, Kassian. You’re truly ruthless." He decided that Venmont was going strong and they had time to add his own entertainment to the situation. "You know what, little Klein?" Ravenspire said, approaching the crawling child. "Let me show you something interesting." He created an illusion so real Klein couldn’t distinguish it from reality. His father appeared, but with a crucial difference. Kharzan’s eyes were empty, controlled, and when he spoke, it was with Kassian’s voice. "I haven’t existed for years," Kharzan’s illusion declared. "Your father was always Kassian. Every decision, every word, every moment of approval or disapproval... everything was him." Klein didn’t want to believe it, but when he examined his memories more carefully, he realized something horrible. Memories of a distant and cruel father coincided exactly with periods when Kassian had begun being strange and distant too... Shortly after his father’s announcement of allying with the Starweavers to protect the gates, leaving behind rivalry... that alliance announcement that never was. A younger Kassian had murmured defeat and disappointment. The timeline was perfect... every moment of paternal cruelty corresponding to periods of Kassian’s emotional distance, every family disappointment tracing back to his brother’s manipulation. "No..." Klein whispered, his resistance weakening while processing implications. Ravenspire abruptly cut the illusion and showed something even worse. Kharzan’s severed head appeared in his hands, lifeless eyes confirming reality Klein had been denying. "This hasn’t been your real father for years, you’ve been seeing a puppet," Ravenspire explained casually. "What’s left of him, anyway." Klein screamed, a sound that combined pain, horror, and absolute loss. The cry was primal and heartbreaking. Kassian immediately scolded the crow. "That wasn’t necessary!" he snapped. "Now the connection will be more difficult for me. You’re going to make me feel my idiot brother’s stress with more intensity!" The complaint was purely practical, annoyance at having his work made more difficult rather than concern for Klein’s psychological state. Ravenspire shrugged and apologized with false repentance. "Sorry for ’playing along’... I thought it would be fun... I wasn’t wrong though." Kassian sighed deeply and addressed Klein, who was now sobbing on the floor. "I’m going to revive our true father... Father is going to be just like before that stupid announcement," he promised with ’gentleness’. "Everything he was is in my head, and I can repair it. I’ll even make it better than before." Klein looked up, tears and blood mixing on his face. "That’s not my father!" he screamed with absolute desperation. "It’s just your stupid idea! How can you be so idiotic not to see it?" His voice broke while asking what he most feared to know. "Did you kill him?"