CHAPTER 328: CABAL

Merlin felt the world tighten around him.

Kessler finished:

"We are initiating a full-scale protection and interrogation protocol. Effective immediately."

The door of wards pulsed, waiting.

Merlin took a breath.

Everything was changing again.

And this time—

the academy wasn’t ignoring the threat.

It was preparing for war.

The ward-door sealed behind them with a sound like a thousand locks snapping shut at once—quiet, final, and absolute. The moment it closed, Merlin felt the shift in ambient mana immediately. This chamber wasn’t just reinforced. It was clad in layered defensive spells, the air thick with invisible boundaries designed to trap or kill anything that didn’t belong.

Even the temperature dropped several degrees as the runic ceiling activated, bathing the room in a cold, sterile white glow.

Elara instinctively stepped closer to Merlin.

Nathan’s eyes darted around. "This... isn’t the usual briefing hall."

Kessler didn’t slow. "It’s not meant to be."

The group entered a circular chamber lined with crystalline panels. Each one projected a faint shimmer of wards—surveillance, anti-illusion detection, anti-possession runes, even a few Merlin recognized from the novel’s advanced sections: sigils used only when the academy believed a student was targeted by a high-tier cabal.

Which meant...

This was an emergency war room.

And he was the center of it.

Headmistress Morgana waited at the far side of the room, arms folded, expression utterly unreadable. She was still dressed in her immaculate black uniform, hair pulled into a severe knot, eyes sharper than blades.

Vivienne—her soft-spoken vice-headmaster—stood beside her, pale and anxious, holding a glowing tablet of ward scans.

Dean Rythorn, instructor of combat theory, stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gaze cold.

Three elite wardmasters stood along the perimeter, runic staves in hand.

Morgana’s gaze swept the group once before settling on Merlin.

"Everhart."

He straightened unconsciously.

"Step forward."

Elara took half a step with him, but Morgana lifted one finger.

"Alone."

Elara stopped. Her throat worked. But she didn’t argue.

Merlin stepped into the center glyph.

A ring of wards flared around him—gentle, not attacking, but scanning. He felt his mana pricked at, examined, re-aligned. It was invasive, but also strangely familiar; this was the academy’s highest-level authenticity test.

After several seconds, the glyph dimmed.

Vivienne exhaled shakily. "He’s clean."

Morgana nodded once, sharp and controlled. "Good. That confirms they didn’t implant anything on him directly."

Nathan nearly stumbled forward. "Wait—implant anything? On Merlin?!"

Rythorn answered smoothly. "It’s one of the Cabal’s favored tactics."

Liliana paled. "W-what, like curses? Or poisons?"

"Worse," Kessler said. "Tracking marks, mind-hitching parasites, imprint-beacons, corrupted illusions that cling to the aura..."

Ethan turned green. "...I hate everything about those words."

Morgana stepped closer to Merlin, her gaze piercing. "The moment you left the simulation, your aura signature showed a fluctuation."

Merlin tensed. "A fluctuation?"

"Very slight," Vivienne said quickly, almost reassuring. "You stabilized it instantly. But it was enough to know something touched you."

Touched.

Elara’s hands curled into fists.

"They got that close to him?" she whispered.

Morgana’s eyes flicked to her. "Yes."

A cold wave went through the room.

Dorian finally spoke from the shadows of the group.

"How, exactly?"

The headmistress turned toward the crystalline panels. With a snap of her fingers, the walls lit, displaying fragmented visuals captured from the simulation array—mostly static, corrupted mana blurs, but one image was clear:

A shape, humanoid but skeletal, cloaked in shifting shadows, standing behind Merlin for exactly one frame.

A single heartbeat.

Nathan swore under his breath.

Adrian stiffened. "That’s—"

"Yes," Morgana said. "An Umbershade specter projection."

Merlin’s pulse jumped.

Those things were only supposed to appear during assassination arcs in the novel.

Far later.

Morgana lifted her hand, and the image zoomed in.

The specter’s face was a twisted mask of illusion runes—like a skull wearing layered spells.

Kessler spoke quietly. "We believe it attempted to plant the message on your person during the frame distortion."

Vivienne added, "But because your aura is unusually reactive—your affinities destabilized the projection and forced it to drop the envelope instead."

Elara inhaled sharply. "Unusually reactive...? You mean because of his multiple affinities."

Merlin avoided her eyes.

Morgana’s gaze sharpened. "Correct. Most students would’ve been marked without ever noticing."

Silence stretched.

For once, Merlin didn’t know what to say. Hearing it spoken aloud by the strongest mage in the world made the danger feel different—real in a way the plot had never felt.

Kessler stepped beside Morgana, arms folded. "We called you here to make one thing absolutely clear."

His stare pinned Merlin with a force that felt physical.

"You are no longer dealing with a minor nuisance. The Cabal has designated you a high-value target."

Nathan exploded. "What?! Why him?! He didn’t—"

Rythorn cut in. "We don’t know."

"But we will find out," Morgana said, voice cold and lethal.

She turned back to Merlin.

"And until we do, Everhart, you are under academy protection. You will not walk alone. You will not travel without wards. You will not leave campus unaccompanied."

Merlin stiffened. "...Headmistress—"

"Elara will accompany you."

The room froze.

Elara blinked. "Me?"

Morgana nodded once. "You are one of the strongest in your year. Your affinity counters many Cabal techniques. And you refuse to leave his side anyway."

Elara’s ears went pink.

Merlin felt heat creep up his neck.

Nathan coughed violently. Adrian grinned. Dorian rolled his eyes.

But before any teasing could erupt, Morgana continued, raising the tone back to severity:

"And the rest of you..."

Her gaze swept across Nathan, Sera, Dorian, Adrian, Liliana, Ethan.

"...I will not order you to stay with him. But I expect you will."

Nathan stepped forward instantly.

"I’m glued to him. Try to stop me."

Adrian nodded. "You’ll have to drag me off."

Sera crossed her arms. "If Cabal dogs come, they’ll regret it."

Liliana squared her shoulders. "We protect each other. Always."

Ethan groaned theatrically. "I guess I’ll help too. But only because I don’t want to take notes alone."

Dorian just said, quietly:

"He stays alive."

Merlin felt something tighten in his throat.

Morgana watched them with an expression so subtle Merlin couldn’t decipher it—approval? Fondness? Calculation?

Then she turned back to him.

"This is not just protection," she said. "This is an investigation."

Her eyes burned with cold fire.

"And Everhart... you are the key to unraveling why the Cabal wants you."