Rise Of The Mirror King

Chapter 21: Anomaly

A localized shadow began to bleed into the center of the iron bars beneath the black fabric.

[Warning. High-density shadow mana detected. Proximity: 12 meters.]

Grey's voice rang directly in the center of my mind, and entirely detached from the panic rising in the classroom.

[Lord Symon, I'm suppressing your sympathetic core resonance. Keep your breathing steady.]

I gripped the edge of my desk, forcing my chest to rise and fall as Grey quietly locked down my own mana before it could react to the ambient pressure.

In front of the dais, the black fabric draping the birdcage suddenly caught fire—not with light, but with a freezing, ink-black flame that consumed the cloth without leaving ash.

The heavy iron bars groaned, twisting outward as if melted from the inside out.

From the ruined cage, a cloud of thick, billowing black smoke spilled onto the table, dissolving into wisps of pure shadow as it hit the stone floor.

Then, the creature stepped out.

It was a massive, predatory wolf, its coat woven entirely from shifting darkness that bled smoke into the air with every movement.

But it wasn't just a wolf. Piercing through the shadows on its head were a pair of heavy, curled ram's horns, framing a singular, jagged unicorn horn that pulsed with an ominous, violet light.

Its eyes burned with the same molten gold that filled Baron's irises.

The beast let out a low, vibrating growl that rattled the glass panes in the remaining windows, its gaze locking instantly onto its summoner.

Baron didn't flinch. He extended his glowing hand further, his voice dropping into a commanding, resonant tone.

"Yield."

The shadow-wolf bared its teeth, its muscles tensing as if deciding whether to leap or obey.

[Analyzing summon...] Grey's voice chimed in my head, a translucent status window flickering briefly behind my eyelids.

[Species: Shadow Chimera. Tier: A-. Core stability: 92%. Warn Baron to tighten his leash—the entity's intent is volatile.]

I would expect nothing less from a commandment. Baron was the fourth commandment, which only meant his mana core was high and pure enough to summon something on the same level as Mazikeen.

"That was a success." Vance applauded; the whole classroom joined in.

"How do we know its tier?" someone asked from the first row.

"By doing this." Vance produced a black orb he had taken from the table.

"Can someone tell us what this does?" He looked around, and his eyes locked on Astrid. "Astrid?"

She hesitated like she didn't want to answer. "The orb reads mana levels and displays their concentration as colors."

Vance moved on to another girl who strangely didn't sit in the back seats today. Feifei.

"Miss Feifei, what are those colors?"

"Red for A tier. Violet for B tier. And gold for S tier."

"Perfect." He smiled and handed the orb to Baron.

Baron held it before the shadow wolf. It took a moment, then the orb began to glow red.

The class erupted in applause again.

When attention returned, Vance spoke again.

"A familiar is as strong as their summoner, and the summoner's mana is as refined as the spirit of the familiar." He looked at the classroom.

"Some of you would need to train your familiar; others, I'm afraid, would summon already trained ones, less work training but more work controlling it."

Baron looked at his shadow wolf; it stared at him.

They looked like two strangers trying to decide what the other person was thinking.

When Baron stretched his hand out again, the wolf dissolved into a shadow that crept up his arm and disappeared under his skin.

He returned to his seat.

"Quite the show-off." Ace rolled her eyes.

"You pulled that off nicely," I told him.

"I had practice before." He confessed.

We were drawn by Vance's announcement. "Next…" He picked a piece of paper from the pile. "Miss Rhayna."

Whispers went around the classroom when she stood. And why not? Rhayna was one of the other nobility at the academy; she was tall, fierce, and rudely cold.

Her presence alone seemed to command the space, forcing people to tuck in their legs as she passed.

Although nothing from Symon's memories told me they had had an encounter, both had kept their distance.

Vance had placed and covered another birdcage. Rhayna stood over it, her posture rigid, and stretched her palm.

She took less effort compared to Baron; her palm began to glow a deep, calm blue, and the cage merely rattled a little.

From beneath the cloth, I heard the sharp, distinct sound of wings flapping gently, then it stopped.

The orb beside the cage was already glowing a rich red, and the students erupted into applause with some cheering.

Vance lifted the fabric. Inside was a crow with night-black feathers, a blood-red beak, and three unblinking eyes—one on each side of its face and the last one slit vertically in the middle of its forehead.

Grey flickered before my eyes.

[Species: Three-Eyed Crow. Tier: A+. Core stability: 88%.]

"As I said, this year has some promising candidates." Vance applauded. The crow flapped its heavy wings, casting a brief shadow over the front row before landing precisely on Rhayna's shoulder.

She returned to her seat, beaming with a proud, calculated smile.

Students shifted anxiously in their seats when Vance reached for another piece of paper. He read the name silently, his expression hardening, then looked up. "Lucifero."

The temperature in the room plummeted the exact second he stood; his mana stirred before he even reached the stairs.

"Try not to kill us all, my Lord," Vance muttered, his tone light but his body instinctively shifting back, away from the dais.

Lucifero looked at the cage with dead, indifferent eyes. He didn't even bother to stretch his hand. He simply stared.

Slowly, his irises began to glow a frosty blue, and thick, creeping rime began to crawl up the hem of his dark robe.

A sudden, biting wind rushed inward from the windows, snapping the curtains and leaving a fragile sheet of frost across the entire stone floor.

Grey flickered urgently behind my eyelids. [High Mana core detected.]

"I can see that, Grey," I thought back, my jaw tightening.

The cage didn't just break—it imploded outward with a violent, freezing snap, sending shattered metal walls flying across the dais.

A cloud of thick, freezing white smoke instantly swallowed the stage, completely obscuring Vance as he leaped further away.

A low, deep bellow rattled the entire hall, followed by the terrifying snap of wings that easily spanned the width of two horses.

Whatever this guy had pulled from the void landed with a heavy, dead thud that shook the ground beneath my boots.

Lucifero stepped back two deliberate paces, looking up into the fog, and gently uttered a single word.

"Yield."

As the smoke cleared, I first saw its enormous head. It was shaped like a dragon's, but carved from jagged, translucent ice, boasting two long, wickedly curved horns.

It bared teeth the size of my fingers, dripping with a freezing mist that hissed against the stone.

Then, remarkably, the colossal beast purred—a deep, vibrating frequency—and lowered its head in submission. Behind its massive torso, a long, armored tail whipped lazily, tipped with a spiky, crystalline club.

[Species: Cocytus Wyvern. Tier: S+. Core stability: 95%.]

Grey's voice echoed in my head, but it felt distant. The skin around my palms felt completely numb. My breath came out as a thick cloud of white mist.

Beside me, Ace was frozen, her gaze locked on the stage. Even Mazikeen looked entirely unsure of what she was seeing.

The testing orb on the table was glowing a blinding, golden light that threatened to crack the glass. Vance stepped forward slowly, staring at the wyvern as if trying to convince himself the creature before him was real.

Lucifero stretched his hand, and the enormous beast vanished in the blink of an eye, disintegrating into a flurry of sparkling ice flakes that melted before they hit the ground. He walked back to his seat without a word.

For a brief moment, I caught the subtle, triumphant smile dancing on Amelia's face.

"Okay, I suddenly find him hotter than you now." It was Mazikeen; her icy breath fell directly on my ear.

[Lord Symon, I sense your mana stirring; would you like an elixir?]

"No," I whispered, clenching my fists.

"Next summoner," Vance paused, his fingers tracing the scorched edge of the dais. "Ace. Another Commandment."

"I'll show you how it's done," she murmured, giving Baron a sharp, competitive smirk as she rose from her desk.

She marched down the steps with the effortless, dangerous grace of a born predator. She stopped before the cage, and even before she reached for it, her core ignited.

Her pupils didn't just turn gold—they dissolved into a radiant, blinding glow that illuminated her entire face. The classroom erupted in applause at the sheer display of raw, unrestrained power.

Ace stretched her hand forward. The heavy iron cage began to shake violently, dancing erratically on the table. Then, the black fabric didn't just catch fire—it instantly exploded into brilliant, white-hot flames.

[Critical Warning]

Grey's voice screamed in my head, overlapping with a sudden, deafening static that made my vision blur.

[Ambient room temperature rising rapidly. High-density Phlegethon mana detected. Lord Symon, brace your core—this is an S-tier anomaly.]

The air in the classroom plummeted into a suffocating, white-hot heat wave, distorting the space around the table like a desert mirage.

The heavy iron bars of the birdcage groaned, turning a bright, incandescent orange before completely melting into a puddle of glowing, bubbling slag on the stone floor.

Through the roaring flames, a massive shadow expanded, eclipsing the dais. The heat became so intense that the stone tiles beneath the desk began to crack.

From the cage's ashes, the creature finally manifested.

It was colossal. A terrifying, three-headed nightmare—the central head was a ferocious, heavy-fanged tiger woven from pure soot and ash, flanked on one side by a rigid, secondary stag head carved from jagged obsidian stone, and on the other by a predatory ram head formed of hardened volcanic magma.

Beneath them, a massive serpent tail hissed violently, its fangs dripping with liquid magma that hissed as it struck the floor.

The tiger head threw its jaws back, letting out a thermal roar that shattered every remaining windowpane in the hall.

The entire class fell dead silent, terrified into paralysis. Vance himself stepped back, his hand instinctively dropping toward his hilt.

Grey announced in my head: [Species: Phlegethon Chimera. Tier: S. Core stability: 91%.]

Ace stood there in the center of the inferno, her golden eyes locked onto the beast, a wild, untamed smile pulling at her lips.

When she returned to her seat, all eyes were on her. Mazikeen leaned in. "Now I know why you have that mark on your neck."

She meant her commandment rank; the number 3 was inked boldly on her neck, just below her left ear.

Vance interrupted again.

"For our next summoner..." He paused; a small smile appeared at the corner of his lip. "Symon Wardreth."

The hall went silent.