The Weakest Mage at the World's Greatest Academy

Chapter 10: The Mother Who Ordered My Death

“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 this academy,” he accused. “How much longer are you going to keep lying to me?”

“I'm trying to keep you alive.”

“Everyone says that while hiding the truth from me!”

Before Elara could respond, the woman's voice sounded again.

“My son, if you can hear me, don't trust the woman standing beside you.”

Awesome froze as Elara immediately raised a protective barrier between him and the doorway.

“That's not your mother,” she insisted.

“How do you know?”

“Because Lyra is dead.”

A quiet laugh came from beyond the door.

“Am I?”

The golden symbols surrounding the doorway turned red, and a system message appeared before Awesome's eyes.

[GENETIC AUTHORITY RECOGNIZED.]

[MATERNAL SIGNATURE: LYRA VOSS.]

[WARNING: BIOLOGICAL STATUS CONFLICT.]

Awesome stared at the message, struggling to understand how the system could recognize his dead mother as present.

“Don't trust those readings,” Elara warned. “The system can preserve memories, voices, and fragments of consciousness. Recognition doesn't prove that the person behind that door is alive.”

“Then let me see for myself.”

“No!”

Elara's desperate response stopped him. For the first time, Awesome realized that she was terrified of what he might discover inside the chamber.

He turned toward the doorway and pressed his marked palm against the stone.

The seal opened.

Beyond it lay a chamber unlike the ancient ruins surrounding it. Smooth white metal covered the walls, while golden energy flowed through transparent channels beneath the floor. Rows of glass containers held unfamiliar magical structures suspended in pale liquid.

At the center stood a silver-haired woman wearing a white dress beneath a transparent containment field. Her pale face and familiar eyes matched the woman from Awesome's fragmented memories.

“Mom?” he whispered.

She smiled, and for one precious moment, Awesome forgot the academy, the stranger wearing his face, and the countless secrets surrounding his existence.

He stepped closer to the glass.

“Are you really alive?”

“I have waited a very long time to see you again,” she replied.

Awesome pressed his palm against the transparent barrier, fighting to control the emotions rising inside him.

“Why didn't you come for me?”

Pain crossed her face.

“Because I was afraid of what I would become if I did.”

Elara appeared in the doorway behind him.

“Awesome, step away from the containment field.”

Lyra turned toward the professor with unmistakable contempt.

“You still have the courage to give orders, Elara?”

Elara's face lost its color. “Lyra, please don't do this.”

“Don't do what? Tell my son the truth?”

Awesome looked between them. “What truth?”

Lyra approached the glass and began explaining what had happened twenty-five years earlier. His father had discovered that the First Authority could control the magical system beneath the world, and he believed that this power could prevent disasters, end magical wars, and protect humanity from unimaginable threats.

However, the academy's founders wanted that authority for themselves. They considered his father too dangerous to control, so they planned to separate his consciousness and imprison the part they could not command.

“I tried to stop them,” Lyra continued. “When the separation chamber activated, the system demanded a living anchor. Your father volunteered, but the procedure became unstable. I had to choose between allowing the entire structure to collapse and sacrificing the person whose authority could stabilize it.”

Awesome's stomach tightened.

“Who did you choose?”

Lyra looked directly into his eyes.

“You.”

The answer struck him like a physical blow.

“I used your original body as the anchor. Your consciousness was divided, and one portion was transferred into the body you now inhabit. The other remained trapped inside the system with your father's imprisoned authority.”

Awesome staggered backward.

“You used me?”

“I was trying to save you!”

“You just admitted that you chose me as the anchor!”

Tears filled her eyes as she explained that she had intended to restore him afterward. She believed she could reunite both fragments of his consciousness and return him to the life he deserved.

“Then why didn't you?” Awesome demanded.

For the first time, Lyra looked frightened of her own answer.

“Because the moment the procedure ended, I discovered that the body you were supposed to return to had been altered.”

Elara stepped farther into the chamber.

“That's enough.”

Lyra struck the glass with her palm.

“No! He deserves to know what you did!”

The containment field flickered, revealing another chamber behind her.

Inside it lay a boy who looked exactly like Awesome, possessing the same face, hair, and small scar near his eyebrow. Golden cables stretched from his chest into the surrounding machinery, and his eyes remained closed.

Awesome struggled to breathe.

“Who is that?”

Lyra pressed both hands against the glass.

“Your original body.”

A warning sounded throughout the chamber.

[ORIGINAL BODY: ACTIVE.]

[CONSCIOUSNESS OCCUPANCY: UNKNOWN.]

[RESTORATION SEQUENCE: 12% COMPLETE.]

Awesome stared at the sleeping figure, wondering what that made him if the body belonged to someone else.

Before he could ask, the boy opened his eyes.

They were completely black.

Every light in the chamber went out.

Elara seized Awesome's arm and dragged him away from the containment field as alarms erupted around them.

“Get out of here!” she shouted.

The glass surrounding the sleeping boy began to crack. Golden energy poured through the fractures, but something darker spread beneath the surface, moving against the flow like ink in water.

Lyra screamed for Elara to shut down the restoration sequence, but the professor frantically explained that the system had already accepted Awesome's authority and was responding to his presence.

“I didn't activate anything!” Awesome protested.

The black symbol on his palm spread toward his elbow as another message appeared.

[RESTORATION SEQUENCE: 31%.]

[ORIGINAL CONSCIOUSNESS AWAKENING.]

[CURRENT HOST DESIGNATION: REPLACEMENT.]

The word replacement echoed through Awesome's mind as memories of his entrance examination, the students who mocked his weakness, and the moment the black crystal recognized him flooded his thoughts.

Had those memories truly belonged to him?

Inside the chamber, the sleeping boy sat upright. Golden cables snapped one after another as he slowly turned toward Awesome.

Although the glass remained intact, his voice entered Awesome's mind.

You took my life.

Awesome backed away, shaking his head.

“No, I never chose this.”

The boy smiled faintly.

Neither did I.

The containment chamber exploded.

Elara threw herself in front of Awesome, raising a barrier that shattered beneath the impact. The blast hurled them across the room, and Awesome struck the floor hard enough to send pain flashing through his ribs.

When he lifted his head, the boy stood among the broken glass. He wore no armor and carried no weapon, yet the air bent around him beneath an invisible pressure as every magical symbol in the chamber turned toward him.

Lyra approached him cautiously.

“Please, you must remember who you are.”

For a moment, grief crossed the boy's face before disappearing beneath an expression of cold resentment.

“You promised you would bring me back,” he said. “You promised I wouldn't have to sleep forever.”

“I tried,” Lyra whispered.

“You replaced me.”

The boy raised his hand, and a golden spear formed above Lyra's chest.

Awesome reacted instinctively.

“Bind!”

Golden chains erupted from the floor, wrapping around the spear before it could strike. The weapon shattered into fragments of light, and the boy slowly turned toward Awesome.

Their eyes met, and Awesome felt the terrifying weight of the authority he had awakened. This boy was not merely another fragment of his consciousness; he was the person who had surrendered everything so Awesome could live.

Now he wanted it back.

“Give me my body,” the boy demanded.

Awesome struggled to his feet.

“I won't let you kill her.”

“Then you will die in her place.”

Lyra suddenly screamed for Awesome to run, insisting that the boy was no longer the child she had left inside the chamber.

The boy's expression darkened.

“Tell him what you ordered them to do, Mother.”

Lyra went still, and Awesome turned toward her in confusion.

“What is he talking about?”

The boy smiled coldly.

“She didn't merely sacrifice my body to save you. After the separation, she ordered the academy to erase my consciousness permanently.”

Lyra shook her head as tears streamed down her face.

“I had no choice.”

“You always had a choice,” the boy replied.

He raised his hand again, causing the restoration machinery to glow brighter.

[RESTORATION SEQUENCE: 49%.]

[TRANSFER TARGET CONFIRMED.]

[CURRENT HOST TERMINATION REQUIRED.]

Awesome stared at the warning before looking at the boy who wore his original face.

Behind him, Lyra whispered a confession that shattered the last piece of certainty he possessed.

“I ordered them to kill you, Awesome,” she admitted. “Because I discovered that the boy who woke up after the separation wasn't supposed to be you.”