“We have been waiting for you, Awesome.”The voice continued to echo inside Awesome’s mind long after its final words had faded, leaving him staring at the shattered healing crystal above his bed. Tiny fragments of glowing glass lay scattered across his blanket, while the three heavy knocks that had sounded beneath the infirmary floor continued to reverberate through his bones. He could not explain how he had heard the voice, much less how something beneath the academy seemed to know his name.Before he could make sense of what had happened, Professor Elara Veyne seized his wrist with surprising force.“Whatever you do, don’t answer that voice,” she warned.Awesome turned toward her, alarm spreading across his face. “You heard it too?”Elara’s grip tightened briefly before she shook her head. “Heard what?”“The voice that just spoke to me. It said they had been waiting for me.”For a moment, the professor looked as though his words had struck her harder than any physical blow. She rel

“I'm the one who sealed you.”Professor Elara Veyne's confession hung heavily between them as the academy's alarm continued screaming overhead. Red emergency lights swept across the shattered infirmary, casting shifting shadows over the overturned beds and broken medical equipment. Beneath Elara's collar, a black symbol glowed with an unnatural intensity, pulsing in time with the mark embedded in Awesome's palm.Awesome stared at her, struggling to reconcile the woman who had protected him from Corvin with the person who had apparently stolen something fundamental from his existence. Only moments earlier, he had believed that Elara might be the one person who could help him understand the impossible things happening around him. Now, every word she had spoken seemed to open another wound in his already fractured understanding of himself.“You sealed me?” he repeated, his voice trembling with disbelief. “What does that even mean?”Elara slowly extended a hand toward him, but Awesome imm

The enormous eyes opened wider behind the stranger, and the entire underground chamber began to tremble as though something buried beneath the academy had finally remembered how to breathe. Ancient mechanisms groaned beneath the stone floor, sending vibrations through the pillars while golden symbols flickered across the walls and gradually surrendered to the spreading darkness.Awesome stumbled backward when a crushing wave of pressure slammed into his chest. His knees nearly struck the floor, but he managed to catch himself against a broken pillar, gripping its jagged edge as golden cracks spread across the stone beneath his fingers. The air had become so heavy that every breath felt like an exhausting struggle, and the black symbol in his palm throbbed painfully with each beat of his heart.Despite the terrifying presence behind him, the stranger wearing his face stood perfectly still, seemingly unaffected by the destruction unfolding around them.“It's time you met the real you,”

“Your mother is dead because of them.”The creature’s words echoed through the underground chamber, rising above the rumble of collapsing stone and the fading screams of the ancient magical system. Awesome stood frozen before the armored giant, struggling to comprehend the revelation. The enormous hand reaching toward him looked capable of crushing his entire body, yet something about the creature’s voice made him hesitate.“My father?” he asked, his voice barely audible.The creature lowered its head, allowing golden light to illuminate the scar crossing its monstrous face. Beneath the armor, Awesome recognized the features of the young man from his visions, although this version looked as though it had endured twenty-five years of unimaginable suffering.“Yes,” the creature answered. “I am the one they separated from you.”Awesome’s marked palm began to burn, and he instinctively clenched his fist.“Then why do you look like that?”For a moment, the creature remained silent as the b

“Awesome, don't open that door!”Professor Elara Veyne's warning came too late. The sealed doorway shuddered as a thin line of golden light appeared along its edges, and a woman's voice whispered Awesome's name from somewhere beyond the ancient stone. The tenderness in her voice stirred a painful familiarity in his chest, compelling him to approach despite the danger.Elara seized his shoulder and pulled him backward just as a black blade shot through the narrow opening. It sliced through the space where his throat had been and buried itself in the opposite wall, releasing a wave of freezing energy.Awesome stumbled against her. “What was that?”“An execution seal,” Elara answered, staring at the blade. “The chamber is designed to kill anyone who enters without authorization.”“Then why did it call me?”She offered no explanation, and Awesome's frustration quickly overwhelmed his fear.“You knew my mother, you knew what happened to my body, and you knew something was buried beneath th