The Weakest Tidecaller at the Abyssal Academy

Chapter 8: The Prison Inside Ethan Vale

“Ethan, get away from her!”

Professor Thorne’s warning came too late.

The moment the voice inside Ethan’s mind whispered, At last, you have brought her home, the black circle beneath his palm expanded, sending a violent surge of pressure through his arm. He dropped to one knee, clutching his wrist as dark lines spread beneath his skin like cracks forming across a sheet of glass.

Nerissa stopped smiling.

For the first time since crossing the threshold, the ancient woman looked genuinely afraid. Her eyes widened as she watched the darkness spreading beneath Ethan’s skin, and she took an instinctive step backward.

“Impossible,” she whispered.

The towering mass of black water behind her convulsed violently. The faces trapped inside its translucent body opened their mouths simultaneously, producing silent screams that shook the corridor and sent fragments of stone raining from the ceiling.

Milo seized Ethan by the shoulder and tried to pull him away from the doorway.

“Come on! Whatever is happening inside you, we can figure it out somewhere that isn't collapsing!”

Ethan struggled to stand, but his legs refused to support him. Something had wrapped itself around his heartbeat, tightening its grip whenever he resisted. Beneath his thoughts, he could feel a second presence moving with disturbing patience, as though it had occupied that space long before he was born.

Then the presence spoke again.

You should have stayed asleep.

Ethan’s vision turned completely black.

For one terrifying instant, he found himself looking through another pair of eyes. He stood beneath an endless ocean, surrounded by seven enormous chains stretching toward a distant circle of light. Beyond the chains lay an ancient city buried beneath the seabed, its towers broken and its streets filled with motionless figures.

At the center of the ruined city stood a man wearing Ethan’s face.

The stranger looked older, perhaps twenty years older, but the resemblance was unmistakable. He possessed the same narrow jaw, the same dark eyes, and the same small scar above his left eyebrow. A seven-chain mark was etched across his chest, glowing faintly beneath his skin.

The stranger raised his head and stared directly at Ethan.

“You took too long,” he said.

Ethan recoiled from the vision.

The corridor returned in a violent rush, and he dragged air into his lungs as though he had been drowning. When his eyes finally focused, he discovered that Thorne was standing over him with a glowing containment blade pressed against his throat.

“Professor?” Ethan gasped.

Thorne’s expression was strained, but his hand remained steady as he held the weapon in place.

“Listen carefully. You must resist whatever is speaking inside your head. Do not answer it, do not follow its instructions, and under no circumstances should you allow it to take complete control.”

Milo stepped between them, his face twisted with anger and fear.

“Put that thing away! He’s already struggling!”

“If I remove the blade, we may lose him completely.”

“You mean you might have to hurt him?”

Thorne’s eyes briefly met Ethan’s.

“I mean that I may have to save everyone else from him.”

Before Ethan could respond, Nerissa struck the doorway with her palm.

A tremendous wave of black water exploded across the chamber, throwing Thorne against the wall. The containment blade flew from his hand and slid beneath the shattered remains of the ancient door. Milo was hurled backward, striking the staircase railing, but Ethan remained suspended several inches above the floor.

The black circle beneath his palm pulsed again.

Nerissa stared at him, and the fear in her expression deepened into disbelief.

“You’re not supposed to be able to control it,” she said.

Ethan struggled against the invisible force holding him in the air.

“Control what?”

“The prison.”

Her answer sent a fresh wave of terror through him.

The ancient woman approached as the black water parted around her feet. Behind her, the broken chain dragged across the floor, carving deep grooves into the stone.

“Your mother did not merely hide you from the academy,” Nerissa continued. “She divided the prison’s authority and buried the greater portion inside your soul. You were meant to remain powerless because any significant display of power would awaken what she had sealed within you.”

Ethan shook his head in disbelief.

“No. I have almost no mana. Everyone knows that.”

“Mana is the energy people borrow from the ocean. What lies inside you is the authority that commands it.”

The pressure surrounding Ethan increased until his shoulders began to ache. Blood trickled from his nose, and he could feel the foreign presence pushing against his thoughts, testing the boundaries of his memories as though searching for a weakness.

Nerissa extended her hand toward him.

“Come with me. I can remove it before it consumes you.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“You shouldn’t.”

Her honesty unsettled Ethan more than a threat would have.

“But I am the only person here who understands what your mother made you carry.”

A violent crash echoed from above as the staircase entrance burst open. Chancellor Voss appeared with six security officers, their uniforms shimmering beneath protective enchantments and their weapons aimed directly at Ethan.

“Contain the boy!” Voss ordered. “Do not let him reach the prisoner!”

Two officers immediately launched suppression nets toward Ethan. Through his Abyssal Sight, he saw the spells forming before they reached him. Their blue threads crossed the corridor, creating a cage around his body, but the moment they touched the black circle beneath his palm, their structures twisted inward.

The nets collapsed into harmless sparks.

Every officer froze in disbelief.

Voss lowered his weapon slightly as he stared at Ethan.

“What have you done?”

“I haven’t done anything!” Ethan shouted.

The black circle pulsed again, and the floor beneath him cracked. An enormous ring of ancient symbols appeared across the stone, spreading outward until it surrounded everyone in the corridor.

Ethan’s Abyssal Sight revealed thousands of interconnected bindings extending from his body through the surrounding walls and deep into the academy’s foundations.

He could see the entire containment network.

He could also see the damage.

One seal had been destroyed, another was barely holding, and the remaining five were drawing power from something that should never have been connected to the prison.

His own heartbeat.

Every time his heart contracted, the chains weakened. Whenever panic tightened his chest, the black circle expanded and sent another surge of power through the network.

The prison was using his fear as fuel.

“Ethan!” Milo shouted from the floor. “Look at me!”

Ethan turned toward his friend, fighting to hold on to the ordinary world as the ancient symbols continued rotating beneath his feet.

“You need to slow your breathing,” Milo continued. “Whatever that thing is doing, don't let it decide what you do next.”

Ethan forced himself to follow the advice.

He inhaled slowly, ignoring the pain spreading through his arm. He had no mana with which to fight the presence directly, but he could see its structure. If the prison was connected to his heartbeat, then perhaps the connection contained a binding he could interrupt.

He forced his Abyssal Sight deeper into the magical network.

The corridor dissolved into countless glowing threads, and Ethan found himself examining the hidden structure within his own chest. At its center, a black knot wrapped tightly around a silver strand. The strand pulsed in time with his heartbeat, while the knot contracted whenever the foreign presence moved.

Ethan reached toward the structure with his awareness.

Pain ripped through his skull, and a warning flashed across his vision.

ABYSSAL SIGHT: CRITICAL OVERLOAD.

MEMORY INTEGRITY: 61%.

UNAUTHORIZED CONSCIOUSNESS DETECTED.

DO NOT DISCONNECT THE HOST BINDING.

The final warning appeared in a different color.

SOURCE: ETHAN VALE.

Ethan stared at the message, struggling to understand its meaning.

The system was identifying him as the source of the warning, not the presence inside him.

Himself.

Before he could examine the implication, a memory tore through his mind.

He was no longer standing in the corridor. Instead, he was a small child lying on a stone table surrounded by seven glowing chains. His mother knelt beside him, her face pale with exhaustion, while a younger Professor Thorne stood behind her with unmistakable terror in his eyes.

Chancellor Voss was there, too.

However, the man standing beside the chancellor was not human.

He wore a long white robe, and a smooth silver mask concealed his face. Whenever he spoke, the chains surrounding the room vibrated as though responding to his voice.

“The vessel is unstable,” the masked figure said. “The First Witness cannot contain the authority indefinitely.”

Ethan’s mother pressed both hands against the child’s chest.

“Then give me another way.”

“There is no other way. If the prison awakens, the primordial ocean will reclaim everything that was stolen from it.”

Thorne stepped forward, his voice trembling with restrained anger.

“You said the child would survive.”

“The child will survive.”

The masked figure tilted his head slightly.

“Whether Ethan Vale remains the same person is another question.”

His mother began to cry as she bent over the child and whispered something against his forehead.

“I will come back for you. Even if the world forgets me, I will come back.”

The memory fractured into darkness.

Ethan heard a child screaming as seven chains sank into his body. Then another voice emerged from the shadows, cold and filled with bitterness.

She never came back.

Ethan’s eyes flew open.

The corridor returned, but something inside him had changed. The presence no longer felt distant or unfamiliar. Instead, it felt wounded, abandoned, and consumed by a terrible, ancient rage.

Nerissa had reached the center of the corridor, and she was staring at Ethan as though she had finally recognized him.

“Who showed you that memory?” she demanded.

Ethan struggled to speak. “I don’t know.”

“Did you see the masked man?”

He nodded.

Nerissa’s expression hardened.

“Then the academy has lied to you about everything.”

Chancellor Voss raised his weapon, interrupting their exchange.

“Enough! Professor Thorne, activate the emergency seal!”

Thorne struggled to his feet, blood running from a cut above his eyebrow. His gaze shifted between Voss and Ethan, and his expression revealed a conflict he could no longer hide.

“I can’t.”

“You have the authorization!”

“Someone altered the emergency sequence. Activating it will destroy the host.”

Voss’s face became unnaturally still.

For one brief moment, Ethan noticed something flicker behind the chancellor’s eyes. It was not surprise or confusion, but recognition.

“You knew,” Ethan whispered.

Voss turned toward him.

“Do not listen to the prisoner.”

“You knew the seal was connected to me.”

“I knew what your mother did.”

“And you still allowed me to enter the academy!”

“Because the alternative was allowing the entire world to fall into the ocean!”

His voice echoed through the corridor, silencing even the security officers. They exchanged uncertain glances, but Voss continued before anyone could question his words.

“You think your mother sacrificed herself to protect you? She sacrificed herself because she understood that you were dangerous. She knew what would happen when the prison recognized its master.”

Ethan felt his chest tighten.

“I’m not the master of anything.”

“Then explain why the prison is answering you.”

Ethan had no answer.

The black circle beneath his palm expanded until it covered his entire hand, and the ancient symbols on the floor began rotating faster. The pressure surrounding him intensified as a deep vibration traveled through the academy’s foundations.

Nerissa suddenly dropped to one knee.

The chains around her wrists tightened, dragging her backward toward the doorway. Behind her, the black water surged violently, and the faces trapped inside its translucent body began dissolving into dark mist.

Ethan realized that his struggle against the presence was affecting Nerissa as well. Whatever lived inside him was attempting to pull the prison closed again, using his body as its anchor.

But the process was taking something from him.

His mother’s face.

He could feel the memory slipping away piece by piece. He remembered her voice, her hands, and the rusted compass she had left him, but her face was disappearing into an empty space he could no longer reach.

Desperately, he tried to hold on to the remaining fragments.

“Stop!” he shouted at the presence inside him. “You don’t get to take her from me!”

For the first time, the voice answered without hiding behind his thoughts.

Then remember me.

The entire corridor fell still as Ethan stared at the darkness spreading beneath his skin. The voice continued, sounding older than the ocean and painfully familiar.

Remember the name you had before she called you Ethan.

A final memory appeared before him.

His mother stood beside the stone table, holding him in her arms. The masked figure watched from the shadows while seven chains spiraled around them, their light reflecting across his mother’s tear-streaked face.

She pressed her forehead against his.

“My son,” she whispered, “if you ever remember what they called you before your birth, you must understand that the name belongs to something else.”

Her tears fell onto his face as she tightened her embrace.

“Your name is Ethan Vale. You are my child. No matter what they tell you, you must remain yourself.”

The memory vanished.

Ethan gasped as the black circle suddenly contracted, leaving the seven-chain mark burning on his palm. The crushing pressure disappeared, and he dropped toward the floor.

Milo rushed forward and caught him before his head struck the stone.

For several seconds, Ethan could do nothing except breathe while Milo supported him. His entire body trembled, and the fading pain behind his eyes left him struggling to understand what had just happened.

Then a low, metallic sound echoed from behind the ancient door.

One chain snapped tight, sending a deep vibration through the chamber. A second chain followed, and a third began to fracture as though something immense were pulling against the prison from within.

Nerissa rose slowly, her eyes fixed on Ethan.

“You have delayed it,” she said. “You have not stopped it.”

Ethan forced himself to look at her.

“What is happening?”

“The prison has recognized its true authority. The remaining seals will no longer obey the academy.”

Chancellor Voss backed toward the staircase, while Thorne stared at the ancient door as though he were watching his worst fear come to life.

Ethan forced himself to stand, leaning heavily against Milo for support.

“Then how do we stop it?”

Nerissa’s expression softened with something that might have been pity.

“You cannot stop it by fighting me, and you cannot stop it by blindly obeying them. You must discover who built the prison inside you.”

She turned toward the darkness beyond the doorway, where the remaining chains continued to tremble.

“And you must do it before the thing wearing your memories wakes completely.”

A final message appeared across Ethan’s vision.

MEMORY RESTORATION: FAILED.

HOST IDENTITY: UNSTABLE.

SEALED CONSCIOUSNESS: AWAKENING.

Another line materialized beneath the others.

ORIGINAL NAME RECOVERED: ———

The name remained hidden behind a black bar, leaving Ethan staring at the message without understanding why the system refused to reveal it.

From somewhere deep inside his chest, the second voice laughed.

Now, Ethan Vale, let us see which one of us deserves to live.