Dawn broke across Thalara Academy, yet a strange heaviness clung to the air, like morning mist that refused to burn away. Students trained, hallways bustled, but a quiet current of unease pulsed beneath everything.Seven days since his disappearance. Seven days without a trace.Elder Stoneclaw, a man whose presence was always loud, intrusive, and drunk, was now a silent ghost.And people had begun to notice.Rumors drifted between students in the hallway, “Stoneclaw hasn’t been seen since the allocation announcement.”“He normally buys more alcohol by noon, he hasn’t been to the vendors.”“Someone checked the taverns… he hasn’t stepped into any of them.”“I passed by his house last night. It was dark. And quiet. Too quiet.”These weren’t jokes anymore.Not mockery.Not casual commentary.These were observations.Patterns.Evidence.***Principal Voss stood by his office window, arms folded behind his back, staring out across the courtyard, completely lost in thought. The normally comp

The military aircraft was massive, layered in internal compartments. Most students remained in the main transport hall… but far toward the front, behind two armored doors and a sound-dampening barrier, a different gathering was taking place.A circular table glowed with tactical projections. Seated around it were several officers and coordinators from various academies, their faces lit by the flickering blue holographics.A stern colonel from the Myrien Academy leaned forward, tapping a finger on the air-display where Lucien’s name hovered beside his rank.“Let’s discuss the other problem,” he said. “The boy named Lucien Cross.”Another officer frowned. “During the genius tournament… there were accusations of cheating, were there not?”“Yes. Not proven.”“But highly suspicious.”“And the resulting penalty was severe.”“And that,” the colonel continued, “is the point I am making. If the boy’s actions were questionable enough to warrant punishment and reassignment… then why is he here?

Later that day, they build a camp which was erected with military precision. It was a defensive heartbeat in hostile land. The final glow of Arken’s sun bled along the cracked horizon as dusk settled. Day one of the exam had officially ended.Rows of energy pylons thrummed with pale-blue forcefields, forming a protective crescent like a half-closed eyelid sheltering the students within. Military tents sprouted in the dust like armored fungi — tens of them, each housing supply caches, command nodes, medical arrays, and portable holographic monitors radiating steady light.The wind carried a smell of scorched mineral and dry iron, scraping along the ground in bitter gusts. For most of these students, this was their first time outside the safety of civilized sky-lanes. Their first time breathing air that tasted raw and hostile.The commanding officer strode up onto the center platform, his boots echoing against reinforced metal flooring.“Present your cores.”A hush followed.One by one,

Night returned to the Frontier like a dim, bruised veil draped over broken land. The battlefield had been scrubbed of gore; medics and clean-up units had long since finished their work.The bodies of the Rank 7 beasts were loaded into sealed transport containers and flown away for military analysis. What remained was silence — and exhaustion sunk deep in bone.The Earth Battalion tents hummed with faint luminescence, each shelter alive with soft strategic chatter, medical murmuring, and the metallic smell of sterilizing agents. The students had been assigned rest quarters, but sleep was slow to come. Even the bravest of them still heard echoes of roaring beasts and snapping bone behind their eyelids.Ronan sat cross-legged on a crate outside his assigned tent, back straight, eyes closed. From a distance, he looked composed, as though merely meditating. But under the stillness, a pressure simmered — the Rank 8 ascension settled in his veins like a quietly pulsing thunderhead.He guided

The second night at the Frontier camp grew still, but far away at Thalara Academy—Aveline Westmere did not sleep. Instead, she walked alone through the silent halls, her steps soft, her presence deliberately unnoticed. At this hour, the Academy was empty save for the occasional patrolling ward-guardian— and even they would not challenge a Vice Principal moving with purpose.She left the academy boundary and crossed the darkened forest path that led to the crumbling stone residence of Elder Stoneclaw. The structure stood like a carcass of an old era: broken roof beams jutting like exposed ribs, walls eroded by time and wind, the air heavy with old alcohol fumes and stale essence. Aveline inhaled sharply through her nose—cloying, unpleasant—but she endured.She had been here before.But this time, she came for herself.The door creaked faintly as she nudged it open. Moonlight spilled in, painting the floor in pale lines. The furniture lay overturned where Lucien once searched. The shelv