The tremor beneath the domain had not finished spreading when the man finally moved.He stepped forward from the fractured edge of light, coat untouched by dust, expression unchanged.Calm.Always calm.The artifact at his chest pulsed once, a slow, deliberate rhythm. The sound it made was not loud, yet it seemed to reach everywhere at once.Jason felt it first.The aura he had been gathering along his arm sputtered.Draven felt it next.The familiar hum of energy that wrapped around his blade flickered like a candle in violent wind.The man’s gaze swept across the chamber and settled briefly on Solion.Measured.Calculated.Then he walked down into the broken platform as if stepping into a quiet courtyard rather than a battlefield that had just witnessed authority fracture.Jason did not wait.He lunged.“Aura blade.”Golden light surged from his sword, extending into a radiant edge.Draven moved in perfect sync, blue aura condensing along his weapon into a razor thin extension of fo

The cave no longer felt like a battlefield.It felt like a grave that had almost been filled.Dust still drifted through the air in thin gray ribbons. Broken stone covered the ground in jagged layers where magic had torn through the walls. The smell of burned earth lingered, sharp and metallic.Students stood in scattered clusters, shaken and silent. No one was talking loudly anymore. No one was panicking.They were just breathing.Alive.Lucas stood near one of the fractured pillars, his chest rising slowly. His hands were scraped, his sleeve torn, but he was standing. That alone felt unreal.Across from him, Elara was helping another student sit upright. Her movements were steady, but her fingers trembled when she thought no one was looking.The cave had almost collapsed. The enemies had almost overwhelmed them. And if the instructors had arrived a few minutes later, the outcome would have been very different.Lucas clenched his jaw.He had felt it again during the fight.That pull.

The next morning came like nothing had happened.The sun rose.The academy bell rang.Students walked to class.Some laughed. Some whispered. Some pretended.But everyone remembered.The cave.The attack.The feeling of almost dying.Lucas walked through the courtyard with Roderick and Gerald. The sky was clear, too calm for what had happened the night before.“It feels weird,” Roderick muttered.“What does?” Gerald asked.“That nobody’s panicking.”Lucas glanced around. He understood what Roderick meant. There were guards posted discreetly near the outer walls. Instructors stood in places they normally wouldn’t.But the academy was functioning.Like always.“They don’t want chaos,” Lucas said quietly. “If people panic, things get worse.”Gerald nodded slowly.Before they could continue, a deep bell rang across the academy grounds.Not the normal class bell.This one was heavier.More deliberate.All conversations stopped.A voice amplified by mana echoed through the entire campus.“A

The courtyard felt quieter now. Shadows stretched across the stone paths as the sun dipped lower toward the eastern towers of the academy. Students moved in groups, some chatting about the day’s assembly, others discussing the upcoming Sovereign Six Convergence. Yet for Lucas, Roderick, Gerald, and Elara, the crowd seemed distant, as if they were moving through a layer of fog.Lucas slowed his pace, rubbing his temple lightly. “I don’t know why, but something feels off,” he said, voice low.Roderick raised an eyebrow. “Off? Like, something happened during the assembly? Or are you finally coming down with whatever disease is going around the academy?”Lucas did not respond immediately. He kept his eyes on the courtyard floor, tracing the pattern of the stones. Each step felt heavier, each breath somehow measured.Gerald stopped walking and looked at him. “I feel it too. It’s like a memory. Something important was here, and now it’s gone.”Roderick frowned. “What do you mean gone? You’r

The hallway outside the classroom buzzed with restless energy.Students poured through the corridors in clusters, their voices overlapping as they discussed the announcement. The Sovereign Six Convergence had already been the center of conversation for days, but now the reality of the selection process had finally arrived.Lucas walked beside Roderick, Gerald, and Elara as they followed the stream of students toward the registration hall.The hollow feeling in his mind still lingered faintly, but the excitement surrounding the selections pushed it to the background for the moment.Roderick stretched his shoulders as they walked.“So this is it,” he said with a grin. “First real step toward the Convergence.”Gerald adjusted the strap of the bag on his shoulder.“First step for some of us. Only four people from our class make it through.”Roderick shrugged confidently.“Then we just need to be among the four.”Elara glanced at him briefly.“Confidence is good,” she said. “Overconfidence