2025-09-16 04:02:24The bell tower tolled three times, its deep chime rolling across Blackthorn Academy like thunder. Normally, it signaled the end of morning training, but today, the air was different. Whispers ran through the disciples like wildfire. Everyone had heard it—felt it—the pulse of power that had erupted in the courtyard.
Kael walked with measured steps, ignoring the stares that followed him. Students parted instinctively when he passed, some with awe, others with fear. For the first time in his life, the boy who had been mocked as a hollow shell was no longer invisible. But their whispers reached his ears all the same. “That wasn’t aura, I swear it wasn’t.” “The pressure… I couldn’t breathe.” “Maybe he’s possessed.” “No—he’s dangerous. Too dangerous.” Kael tightened his fists, keeping his gaze forward. Their words stung, but they no longer pierced him the way they once did. Something inside had changed, hardened. Still, unease gnawed at him. He didn’t understand what had happened, and fear lingered like a shadow. Before he could retreat to the solitude of the dorms, a voice rang out from behind. “Kael.” He turned sharply. Approaching from the inner courtyard was Instructor Veylan, a stern man with broad shoulders and a perpetual scowl. His black robes bore the academy’s silver crest, and his presence silenced the disciples nearby. Kael bowed slightly, though his movements were stiff. “Instructor.” Veylan’s sharp eyes studied him for a long moment. The silence stretched until it felt suffocating. Finally, he said, “The Elders summon you.” Kael’s stomach tightened. The Elders. He had never once been called before them—not even to be scolded. They were the highest authority in the academy, men and women whose strength was said to surpass kingdoms. “Yes, Instructor,” Kael replied quietly. Veylan motioned with a curt nod. “Follow me.” --- The inner halls of Blackthorn Academy were colder, quieter. Tall pillars lined the marble floors, carved with ancient runes that glowed faintly in the torchlight. Kael’s footsteps echoed, each one heavier than the last. He could feel Veylan’s gaze on him as they walked, but neither spoke. Kael’s thoughts churned like a storm. Do they know what happened? Do they know about this… power? At last, they reached a pair of massive wooden doors inlaid with silver patterns. Two armored guards stepped aside, their eyes flicking briefly to Kael with open suspicion. Veylan pushed the doors open. “Enter.” Kael stepped into the Hall of Elders. The chamber was vast, lit by floating lanterns that cast an ethereal glow. At the far end sat five figures in high-backed chairs, each robed in deep colors that shimmered faintly with energy. Their presence was overwhelming—not crushing like his own awakening, but steady, controlled, like mountains rooted in eternity. Kael dropped to one knee, bowing deeply. His heart pounded. “Rise, child,” one of the Elders said. Her voice was calm, melodic, but carried an undertone of power that left no room for disobedience. Kael obeyed, standing stiffly under their collective gaze. An Elder with a long silver beard leaned forward, eyes narrowed. “We felt an unusual disturbance this morning. A surge of energy not seen in many years. It came from the training courtyard… from you.” Kael swallowed, unsure how to answer. “I—I don’t know what happened, honored Elders. I was being attacked. Then… something inside me broke free.” “Broke free?” another Elder repeated, his tone skeptical. “Explain.” Kael hesitated. His mind flashed back to the golden fire in his veins, the crushing weight that bent everyone to their knees. He remembered how alive it felt, how unstoppable. “I can’t explain it,” Kael admitted, his fists tightening. “It wasn’t like aura. Not like what the others use. It was… different. Stronger.” The Elders exchanged glances. The silver-bearded one stroked his chin. “Different, indeed. The pressure alone was enough to bend trained disciples. Even Instructor Veylan admitted he felt it from afar.” Kael’s eyes widened. Veylan had felt it? The thought unsettled him. One of the female Elders leaned forward, her expression unreadable. “Boy, what is your lineage? Who were your parents?” Kael froze. A familiar ache tightened his chest. “I… I don’t know. They left when I was young. I never learned their names.” “Convenient,” another Elder muttered darkly. The first Elder silenced him with a wave. His gaze fixed on Kael. “Whatever awakened in you is no ordinary aura. It feels ancient, forbidden. Yet… it has chosen you.” Kael shifted uneasily. “What does that mean?” The silver-bearded Elder’s eyes gleamed. “It means, Kael… your life will never again be your own.” The words struck him like a blade. Before Kael could respond, the doors to the chamber burst open. A figure stormed in—Rynald Draven. His robes were fresh, but his face was pale with fury. He dropped to his knees before the Elders, ignoring Kael’s shocked expression. “Honored Elders!” Rynald cried, his voice trembling with both rage and desperation. “That boy is dangerous! He used some demonic power in the courtyard. He humiliated me, crushed dozens of disciples under his dark aura. He’s a threat to us all!” The Elders turned their eyes back to Kael. Kael’s breath caught in his throat. His fists clenched so tight his knuckles turned white. He wanted to shout the truth—that it was Rynald who had attacked him first, that he had been beaten nearly unconscious before the awakening. But under the piercing eyes of the Elders, his words felt small. The silver-bearded Elder raised a hand, silencing the hall. His voice rolled like distant thunder. “Kael,” he said gravely. “You stand accused. Tell us now… what exactly did you awaken today?” The chamber fell into silence. All eyes were on him. His answer would decide whether he walked out of this hall—or whether his new life ended before it even began.
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chapter 140 - The Drift Market
The salt air bit at their throats long before they saw the sea.Kael’s steps dragged, his boots crusted with white dust from miles of wind scorched plains. The horizon shimmered under heat haze, fractured light playing over something vast that floated above the distant waters. For a while, he thought it was a mirage until Selene pointed, squinting through the glare.“There. The Drift Market.”Her voice carried a faint rasp, exhaustion stitched between words.They’d been walking for two days since the Glass Node incident. Neither of them had slept properly. Every time Kael closed his eyes, he saw flashes of crystal light and felt the echo pulse at the base of his skull, the lingering hum of the Second Rhythm. It no longer hurt, but it remembered him, like something unfinished tugging behind his heartbeat.The Market came into view slowly, a sprawling patchwork of rusted hulls and ancient stone platforms lashed together by chains, drifting above a flat, mirrored sea of salt. Airships ho
chapter 139 - Dorian’s shadow
He woke to silence.Then came the pain.It crawled up from his ribs, slow, crawling, wet like something remembering how to live inside him. When he finally opened his eyes, the world was sideways. The ground glittered with black dust, and smoke coiled upward from what used to be the Dominion’s outpost.The air stank of ozone and blood. The shard that once lived in his chest lay inches from his hand, cracked into dozens of mirror splinters. Every fragment reflected a different piece of him, eyes, lips, jaw but none of them aligned.Dorian stared at them for a long time before whispering, hoarse, “You failed me.”The wind answered by scattering the pieces like ash.He tried to stand and nearly collapsed. The golden sigils that had once covered his arms were gone, leaving only faint burns in their shape. His body once a conduit of near divine power felt suddenly mortal. Weak. Breathing hurt, his pulse beat unevenly, like a clock missing half its gears.“You shouldn’t be alive,” a voice m
chapter 138 - The second seal
The plains shimmered like glass under a dying sun.Kael and Selene moved across the horizon in silence, boots crunching over brittle salt crust. The air was too still, so quiet that even their breath sounded like trespass. The world here had forgotten how to breathe.Ahead, the land rose into a mirrored swell curving upward like the frozen crest of an ocean wave. Beneath its translucent surface pulsed faint veins of pale gold, threading toward the heart of a buried sphere.Selene stopped first.“The Glass Node,” she whispered.Kael didn’t answer. He could feel it pulsing inside his bones, like a second heartbeat, an echo syncing to the rhythm that had haunted him since the Stone Vein. The closer he stepped, the louder it became. Not in sound, but in remembrance.Each pulse seemed to whisper through his ribs.“Return the balance… Unmade one…”He flinched. The words weren’t spoken aloud, but they still hurt.Selene glanced back. Sweat darkened the collar of her cloak; her hair clung to
chapter 137 - The glass steppe
Every movement sent ripples of fractured reflections across its surface, so that each step they took seemed to echo in light.A low hum vibrated through the soles of their boots. It wasn’t quite sound, not fully. It was a pressure that lived inside bone.Selene squinted into the glare. “It’s… beautiful,” she murmured, then frowned. “And wrong.”Kael didn’t answer. His pulse had already started syncing to the hum beneath their feet, an invisible rhythm threading through marrow and thought. The air tasted of iron and ozone, like a storm that had forgotten how to rain. When he blinked, the world seemed to split for half a heartbeat, two horizons, overlapping. Two Selenes walking slightly out of step with each other.He stopped.Selene turned. “What is it?”Kael pressed a hand to his temple. “I… saw...” He hesitated. “You. Twice.”“Heat mirage?” she asked, but her voice carried that careful edge she used when pretending she wasn’t worried.“Maybe,” he said. But it wasn’t. The mirage didn’
chapter 136 - The quiet between pulses
The desert had forgotten the battle, but Kael hadn’t.The dunes around the broken Stone Vein lay quiet again, no tremor, no light, only the faint shimmer of heat bending the horizon. Wind whispered through hollow rock, carrying the smell of dust and something older, ozone and ash, the lingering taste of what Dominion energy left behind when it burned through the world.Kael walked with a limp. His boots sank deep into soft sand, each step sending pain crawling up his leg. He could still feel the hum beneath his skin, faint but constant, like a second heartbeat refusing to fade.Selene followed a few paces behind, cloak drawn tight against the wind. Her hair stuck to her face with sweat and grit. She hadn’t said much since dawn. Neither of them had. Words felt fragile now, and silence easier to bear.When they finally reached the outpost, little more than three stone huts and the broken ribs of an old Dominion tower, Selene didn’t wait for Kael’s p
chapter 135 - The first node awakens
Dawn came like a wound, sharp, bleeding color across the horizon.Kael and Selene crested the final dune before the desert opened into a vast basin of black stone. The air hummed faintly, as if the earth beneath their boots were inhaling.At the center of that basin stood a monolith towering, smooth, half-buried in sand.It wasn’t carved, it was grown, its surface a fusion of glass and metal that seemed to shift colors with the rising light.And from deep within it, Kael could feel the pulse, the Second Rhythm, steady, waiting.Selene stopped beside him, shielding her eyes.“That’s the Stone Vein?” she whispered. “It doesn’t look asleep.”Kael nodded slowly. The Rhythm inside him was resonating, almost painfully.“It’s been awake longer than we thought.”The wind hissed through the basin. Sand skittered across the stone like whispers running between graves.They began their descent, cautious and silent. Each step drew them deeper into the hum, until it felt less like sound and more li
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