"What are you hiding, Rey Soren?"The voice echoed in Rey's mind long after the duel ended, long after Kade Vorn had been carried off the field on a stretcher, bones shattered and pride scorched. His name was no longer whispered with disdain, but with suspicion. Fear had replaced curiosity. The Academy of the Seven Towers, a fortress of ambition and ancient secrets, was now watching him with the eyes of predators. He had revealed too much.Far too much.Zayne found him near the outer training yard that night, crouched beneath the lone flame-touched tree that never lost its leaves. Rey sat silent, the moonlight casting jagged shadows across his face."You good, flame-boy?" Zayne asked, tossing him a dried fruit. "I mean, you nearly broke the guy’s spine. Epic, but... scary."Rey caught the fruit, barely looking at it. His fingers trembled."I didn’t mean to lose control."Zayne shrugged, sitting beside him. "We all got something to hide. Yours just glows and throws people across the ar

The Academy of the Seven Towers stood silent under a bruised purple sky, the last glint of twilight folding itself into the gaping shadows that curled along the tower spires. A storm was whispering on the wind, heavy and electric. But deeper within the academy—beneath its gilded floors, down past forgotten stairwells and broken sigils—another kind of storm was brewing."Are you absolutely sure about this?" Zayne hissed, glancing over his shoulder for the fifth time."Not even a little," Rey answered, his voice low, urgent, and alive with a strange mix of dread and thrill. "But we need answers. If the sword is connected to my mother, if Emberclaw holds memories... then the vault—whatever it is—might hold more."Elira Moonveil floated behind them like a silent ghost, her silver hair glowing faintly in the dark. "The Archive is sealed for a reason. Even the headmasters don't have full clearance. It’s a living place—half temple, half trap. And tonight... it feels awake."The trio had slip

The cursed artifact pulsed with a heartbeat not its own.Rey felt it before he saw it—a crushing weight of presence, like ancient hatred folded into obsidian stone. The air in the training coliseum thinned, each breath sharp as daggers.Kade Vorn stood center-stage, his armor scorched and dented from a recent battle, smirking like he’d dragged something out of a tomb for the sake of revenge. In his gloved hand rested a jagged, black relic—a blade that reeked of something beyond death. Its edge shimmered with faint red veins pulsing like veins, and as he held it aloft, it let out a low screech, like steel grinding against bone."Where did you get that?" Rey’s voice broke the tension, his fists clenched so tight his knuckles went pale.Kade grinned wider. "You recognize it, don't you, Soren? Or should I call you Drakar now?"A ripple of gasps cut through the crowd.Lyra, standing by the entrance, froze.Zayne stepped forward. "Kade, you don’t know what you’re playing with. That thing—it

The bitter wind of the northern tower howled like an ancient beast, its cry echoing through the frost-glazed corridors of the Academy. Dawn had barely broken, yet Aeris Dawnvale stood alone on the observation platform, her sapphire cloak billowing behind her like a phantom’s shadow. Her eyes—the color of glacial mirrors—were fixed on the distant snowfield, where two silhouettes made their slow return through the ice and mist.Rey and Lyra.They walked close. Too close. The fire of whatever had transpired between them during the mission still burned in their eyes. Aeris noted the subtle twitch in Lyra's fingers as she brushed against Rey’s arm. The flicker of guilt in his eyes. It wasn't just combat rapport.It was intimacy."Foolish," Aeris muttered under her breath, her tone devoid of venom. "You think your heart won't betray you. But it always does."She turned away from the edge, retreating into the silence of her personal chamber. The doors sealed with a rune of frost, muffling th

The chamber groaned beneath the weight of ancient magic. Flames writhed across the scorched stone walls like living serpents, their dance reflecting in Rey's wide, unblinking eyes. The Emberclaw pulsed in his hand, a forge-born relic vibrating with untamed power—and rage."Step forward, Rayden Drakar," intoned the voice of the System, echoing from all directions.He obeyed.The Trial Chamber of the Flame Vein opened before him, sealed for centuries beneath the Academy's core. No student had ever crossed its threshold—until now. With each step he took into the molten-lit room, the floor hummed with awakening memories, as if the stone itself remembered his blood."Emberclaw must be harmonized," the System said. "The blade is rejecting containment. To wield its true form, you must undergo the Fire Trial. Survival is not guaranteed."Rey clenched his jaw. "I didn’t come here to survive. I came here to rise."The floor ignited.Pillars of flame erupted around him in a perfect circle. Ember