HEROES II

EXPLOSION OF TRUTH

Deep inside the ancient underground library of Heroes Academy…

The atmosphere felt colder than usual.

Dust floated quietly through the dim golden lights while endless shelves of ancient books stretched into the darkness.

Ava, James, Lena, Louise, Shine, Lacy, Kennedy, Jersey, and Derek walked carefully between the towering shelves.

Kennedy looked around in amazement.

“Whoa…”

His voice echoed softly.

“These are actual old books.”

Ava folded her arms.

“Yeah. Creepy old books.”

Suddenly—

“AHH!”

Shine screamed loudly and jumped backward.

Everyone turned sharply.

Shine pointed violently toward one of the shelves.

“A spider!”

A tiny spider slowly crawled across a web between the books.

Ava burst into laughter immediately.

“Keep it together, Shine.”

Shine rolled her eyes dramatically.

“I hate spiders.”

She folded her arms tightly.

“My mum said their bites are deadly.”

James smirked instantly.

“Deadly as in…”

He grinned.

“…turn you into Spider-Man?”

Kennedy, Jersey, and Derek burst into laughter immediately.

Shine fake-laughed sarcastically.

“Ha. Ha. Ha.”

She glared at James.

“Very funny.”

Then suddenly—

“Guys!”

Everyone turned toward Lena.

She stood beside one of the shelves holding an old dusty book carefully.

“This is it.”

The group quickly gathered around her.

Louise stared at the book in fascination.

“It’s… old.”

“Very old,” Lena agreed.

Ava leaned closer and slowly read the title aloud.

“LATOT… FIRST DIVISION.”

Lena pointed proudly.

“Told you it started with LAT something.”

James stepped closer.

“What does that even mean?”

Derek immediately pointed at the book.

“Open it.”

Lena slowly opened the ancient book.

The first pages were completely blank.

Jersey frowned immediately.

“Wait.”

He looked confused.

“I thought books were only supposed to have one empty page before the main chapters.”

Louise casually replied without even looking at him.

“That’s because this book is from older generations.”

Jersey blinked.

“Oh.”

Lena nodded with satisfaction while Lacy laughed quietly at Jersey’s question.

“Try flipping further,” Lacy suggested.

Lena continued turning the pages carefully.

Then finally—

Words appeared.

A chapter title.

MINI TOTAL

Below it was a strange drawing of the back of a hand marked with a circular symbol.

Derek leaned closer immediately.

“Whoa…”

Lena flipped another page.

QUAD TOTAL

This time the symbol had a circle with an arrow-like mark through it.

Everyone stared carefully.

Then Lena flipped again.

HALF TOTAL

Now the drawing showed both hands marked with tribrid arrow symbols.

Ava frowned.

“Wait…”

Lena pointed at the image.

“Tribrids only have one arrow mark on one hand.”

She looked at the others carefully.

“But this says Half Totals have the marks on both hands.”

Ava crossed her arms.

“This entire book is about Totals.”

Louise nodded slowly.

“Different types of them.”

Then—

Lena flipped another page.

And froze.

Completely.

Her eyes widened instantly.

“Oh my God…”

Everyone looked at her.

“Oh my God…”

Ava frowned.

“Lena?”

Lena stared at the page in complete shock.

“Oh my God.”

James stepped closer immediately.

“What happened?”

Slowly—

Lena lifted the book so everyone could see.

At the top of the page was written:

FULL TOTAL

The illustration beneath it showed a body marked with two tribrid arrows — one on each hand.

But that wasn’t what shocked Lena.

At the upper corner of the back—

There was a crown symbol.

Black.

Sharp.

Royal.

And instantly—

Lena remembered.

That day with T.L in the library.

The heat.

The stuffiness.

Telling T.L to remove her jacket.

And seeing the marks.

Lena stepped backward slowly.

“There’s… something I didn’t tell you guys.”

The room became silent.

Ava frowned immediately.

“What?”

Lena looked terrified now.

“That day in the library with T.L…”

Her breathing slowed.

“When she removed her jacket…”

She swallowed hard.

“I saw tribrid marks on her.”

Kennedy blinked.

“You saw what?”

“Tribrid marks,” Lena repeated.

The room fell silent instantly.

“But that’s not the scary part.”

Everyone stared at her intensely now.

“When she bent down to pick something up…”

Lena’s voice shook.

“I saw another mark.”

Ava stepped closer slowly.

“What mark?”

Lena looked directly at her.

“A crown.”

Silence.

“A black crown mark… on the upper part of her back.”

James slowly turned toward the page.

Then toward Lena.

Then back toward the page again.

“…So what does that mean?”

Ava suddenly grabbed the book and looked at the Full Total illustration again.

Her eyes widened instantly.

Because it matched perfectly.

The twin tribrid marks.

And the crown.

Ava slowly looked up in horror.

“Oh my God…”

Everyone stared at her.

“T.L’s a Full Total.”

The words hit the room like an explosion.

Nobody moved.

Nobody spoke.

Because right from the beginning of Heroes Academy—

Totals had always been considered rare.

Dangerously rare.

But among all Totals—

The rarest of all…

Was the Full Total.

And now—

One had been living among them the entire time.

Louise slowly shook her head in disbelief.

“What…?”

Lena nodded slowly.

“Ava’s right.”

She looked back at the illustration.

“With everything I’m seeing here…”

“…T.L is a Full Total.”

The room remained frozen in shock.

Then Lena slowly turned back to the cover page.

“Wait.”

She frowned carefully.

“Try reading LATOT backwards.”

Everyone looked confused at first.

Then together—

They slowly read it backward.

“T…”

“O…”

“T…”

“A…”

“L…”

Suddenly Derek’s eyes widened.

“TOTAL.”

Lacy covered her mouth instantly.

“Oh my God…”

“TOTAL FIRST DIVISION,” Lena whispered.

Silence.

Everything suddenly made sense.

The reason the book reacted to T.L.

The fainting.

The power explosion.

The marks.

Everything.

Because the book had recognized her.

A Full Total.

Lena immediately flipped deeper into the book until she reached the chapter titled:

FULL TOTALS

Then she began reading aloud while everyone listened silently.

“I, Pierre Jones, discovered that there are different classes of Totals…”

Her voice echoed through the quiet library.

“The Mini Totals. The Quad Totals. The Half Totals… and finally… the Full Totals.”

Everyone listened intensely.

“Half Totals can temporarily distort powers…”

Lena turned the page slowly.

“But as for Full Totals…”

Her voice lowered.

“They are extremely destructive and are considered global weapons.”

The room became colder.

“Because this one possesses all powers…”

Kennedy slowly looked up.

“…and can disrupt, block, enhance, or even grant powers to ordinary people.”

Shine whispered softly.

“That’s impossible…”

Lena continued reading.

“This one uses the mind to control power itself.”

“Earthquakes. Fire. Destruction. Energy…”

“They do not fight with their hands.”

“It is not telepathy.”

“The powers fight for them.”

Everyone stared in horror.

“These beings are weapons of mass destruction.”

James slowly stepped backward.

“No way…”

Lena kept reading.

“A Total between ages zero to seventeen may appear powerless…”

Ava’s eyes widened instantly.

“…and may be regarded as ordinary.”

“But at eighteen…”

“The first power eruption begins when the Total comes into contact with one of the LATOT books.”

Everyone froze again.

“There are seven books.”

“And prophecy says the Full Total must touch all seven before their complete power awakens.”

The room felt suffocating now.

Lena continued carefully.

“I myself have never seen a natural-born Full Total…”

“Only genetically engineered ones.”

“Because for one to exist naturally…”

“…is one in a million.”

Louise slowly whispered—

“T.L…”

Lena read the final lines.

“This one comes from royal blood…”

“And is referred to as the Prince or Princess of Power.”

“Because they can wield power however they desire…”

“And even take power away from others.”

The final words echoed heavily.

PIERRE JONES QUAD TOTAL — 1879

Silence.

Pure silence.

Nobody knew what to say anymore.

Nobody could even think properly.

Because suddenly—

Everything about T.L made sense.

Her sudden powers.

The destruction.

The fear.

The mystery.

After a long moment—

Louise finally spoke.

“We need to get to my father.”

Everyone looked at her.

“With all this information.”

Ava nodded immediately.

“Absolutely.”

James closed the book carefully.

“We can’t keep this to ourselves.”

Without another word—

All of them immediately rushed out of the library together.

Fast.

Panicked.

Overwhelmed.

Because after what they had just discovered—

There was only one truth left.

T.L was not ordinary.

She was rare.

Dangerously rare.

A Full Total.