Far to the north, beyond the borders of Midgard, where the sky thickens with salt and storm…
A tumultuous surge erupted from the sea's churning cradle. Spray and lightning tangled as the Sea Leviathan, scaled in glistening black and deep azure, was hurled backward, its titanic body folding in upon itself from the blow. The crashing sound of its fall sent a tidal ripple across the waves, striking ships miles away.
Above, floating effortlessly with storm-clouds spiraling around him, stood a figure wreathed in arcs of living thunder. His appearance unmistakable as he held a hammer oozing with divine Uud. Thor, Son of the Allfather.
Clad in storm-tempered armor and crowned with a roaring gale, he held aloft his ancient weapon...Mjölnir, the Hammer of Judgement, etched with runes of elder flame. His eyes burned like molten silver, and his presence caused the sea to hiss in reverence and fear.
With a cruel laugh, he called down to the wounded beast below:
"You dare awaken me from slumber with a cry of vengeance? Why did you tear down the Veil that binds Gods from mortals? Have we not abided a thousand years of peace since the sealing of the Realm-gates?"
"I know the wickedness you foul creatures have played" Responded the Leviathan
His voice shattered clouds. His Uud, immeasurable and ancient, flared like a sun beyond the horizon, every god and dragon across Helios felt its weight.
The Sea Leviathan lifted its immense head, nostrils flaring with elemental Uud. Runes shimmered across its coiling horns as it hissed a defiant, abyssal scream. The skies above darkened further. A wound on its flank glowed, leaking burning ichor into the sea.
Then, with a sinuous whirl, it snapped its tail forward, creating a roaring whip of oceans imbued with primeval Uud, hurling it at the God with seismic force.
Thor raised his hammer again. Lightning clashed against ocean. Heaven and sea roared as ancient enemies tested their strength once more.
The sky split with thunder. The sea screamed.
Thor, the God of Storm and Might, soared above the coast like a blazing star, his cape torn by gales, hair flying like crackling wires of light. Below him, the Sea Leviathan, crowned by abyssal runes and forged in the dark trenches before time, twisted in defiance. Its jaws were like mountain gates, and its tail was the whip of tempests.
"You should have stayed buried in your ocean grave, serpent!"Thor's voice echoed across the realm like prophecy. "But if you crave war....I shall grant it!"
With a thrust of Mjölnir, Thor descended like a meteor, crashing into the Leviathan's rising coils. The sea split open, revealing molten depths as the blow struck home, sending a geyser of steam and black blood skyward. The Leviathan roared, its pain woven with rage.
It lunged, wrapping its endless body around the Thunder God, crushing with pressure meant to rupture mountains. Thor grunted, bones creaking, but his smile never left. Lightning rippled from his body and burst outward, breaking the sea-serpent's grip.
"Is that all?!" Thor shouted.
In retaliation, the Leviathan reared, its crown of horns glowing blue with ancient Uud. It opened its mouth and from the black abyss within, a beam of pressurized ocean magic, raw and focused like a blade, shot forth.
Thor met it with a barrier of wind and divine flame, but the beam tore through the edge, slicing his shoulder. Blood....a thread of golden ichor spilled into the sea.
The gods bled too.
He landed on a jagged stone tower that jutted from the sea. Mjölnir hummed with fury as Thor muttered a prayer to the World Tree.
"Odin... grant me the strength to finish this ill fated beast."
Then with a war cry that cracked the sky, Thor hurled Mjölnir, not at the Leviathan's head, but into the ocean beneath it. The hammer sank, pulsing with Uud.
Suddenly, the waters beneath the serpent erupted.
A vortex of light and wind rose like a reverse waterfall, dragging the Leviathan downward, an ancient seal activating. Thor appeared above it in the blink of an eye, channeling all the force of the storm into a downward strike.
"FOR THE BALANCE!"
Mjölnir struck the Leviathan's skull.
Time froze.
The sea stopped.
And then...
BOOM.
An explosion of energy sent tidal waves rippling across a thousand leagues. The coastlines of Midgard trembled. Villages saw the sky crack and thought the end had come. At Alfheim Academy, sensitive students fainted from the sudden spike in Uud. Rain's heart stung like a note struck in perfect harmony.
When the mist cleared, Thor hovered, breath heavy, muscles torn, cape in ribbons. The Sea Leviathan's body was sinking slowly into the depths, not dead but sealed once more, banished to its slumber beneath the Realm gates.
"Sleep," Thor muttered, "until the children of light and shadow awaken."
And then he vanished in a whisper of lightning.
This was no mere battle. It was a herald.
The doors to the Crystal Resonance Hall slid open with a low hum of Uud-charged wards. Inside, dozens of crystalline pillars emitted soft pulses, casting prismatic reflections across the vaulted ceiling. At the far end, Master Adras, a tall elf with hair like liquid silver and eyes that glowed faintly with inner light waited beside a circular dais inset with intricate rune‑circuits.
He raised one hand, and the hall fell silent.
"Welcome," he said, voice resonant yet gentle. "Today we move beyond basic channeling. You have bent Uud to your will. Now you must learn to tune it, to find your soul's unique resonance, and use it to amplify, refine, and harmonize raw power."
Master Adras's Lecture: Advanced Uud Channeling
Resonant Frequencies
Concept: Every soul emits a signature frequency. When your Uud flow matches that frequency, it echoes...growing stronger and more stable.
Demonstration: Adras placed his staff on the dais. A single note, like a singing bowl, rang out. The pillars around the hall pulsed in unison, a living chorus of Uud resonance.
Harmonic Convergence
Principle: By introducing a secondary frequency (another will, an artifact, or a nearby ally), you can lock your Uud into harmonic patterns, multiplying its effect without adding raw strain.
In‑Class Trial: Two students stepped forward, each channeling a soft azure glow. As they synchronized their breathing and intent, their Uud streams wove together, forming a pale violet arch that sustained itself independent of either of their wills.
Amplitude Control
Technique: Learn to swell or dampen your Uud output at will like turning a dial. A slight overtone raises potency, a deep undertone steadies flow.
Exercise: Each student was given a Uud‑sensitive crystal orb. They practiced pulsing their energy to make the orb's glow brighten, then dim, without shifting the color.
Channeling Through Conduits
Tools: Staffs, weapons, even living roots can act as conduits, each with its own resonance signature.
Demonstration: Adras traced a rune on the floor. An iron rod hovered above it. With a gesture, he channeled Uud through the rod, its surface crackled with controlled sparks, then settled into a steady ember‑glow.
Student Practice
Rain of Midgard knelt at his orb. He closed his eyes and recalled Enoch's advice: "Feel the metal as an extension of your breath. Let your soul's pulse guide the flow." His orb glowed a deep indigo, then blazed violet as he matched its resonance to his heartbeat. The light stabilized into a perfect, oscillating sphere. Master Adras watched with a slight nod. "Well done. You harness both amplitude and frequency with minimal bleed."
Grey Ceaser stood too still, his orb dim at first. Then a calm white aura surrounded it as he introduced a secondary frequency in the form of his White Authority, the orb's glow expanded to fill half the hall.
Tev Einsdorm placed his staff across two pillars. His Uud flowed into the wood, causing vines and stone to bloom along the conduit. The room smelled of earth and rain. The pillars' pulses synchronized into a second heartbeat beneath the hall.
Master Adras returned to the dais, voice carrying pride:
"Notice how Rain, Grey, and Tev each found their own path to resonance. That is the goal. You must learn your soul's language, then speak to the world through Uud."
A hush fell as he concluded:
"Tomorrow, we will apply these techniques under duress, simulated battlefield conditions. Be prepared to adapt, to shift your frequency on the fly. Because in real conflict, your resonance is what keeps you standing."
Rain packed away his orb, heart racing, not from fatigue, but from exhilaration. For the first time since arrival, he felt truly at home in the flow of his inner power.
The tremor that followed was not a mere quake, it was as if the very roots of the world shuddered. Crystalline spires cracked. Floating islands wobbled in midair. The Uud itself trembled, streams flowing unevenly for moments before stabilizing. Instructors held steady the halls, students staggered as balance fled their feet.
Only two individuals in all of Alfheim did not flinch: Grandmaster Einricht, who stood unmoving at his tower window, eyes narrowed toward the northern horizon; and Tev, who closed his eyes and whispered something no one could hear.
The tremor ended as abruptly as it had come.
Alfheim Royal Faculty Emergency Convocation
Within moments, a high-priority faculty summons echoed through every corridor. Crystal bells rang a dissonant tri-tone, an alert used only thrice in Alfheim's entire history. Professors and deans converged on the Hall of Concord, an obsidian amphitheater hidden beneath the academy's roots.
Einricht, draped in robes of starlit black, stood in silence as they arrived. His expression was heavy, his normally glowing eyes dimmed with thought.
Finally, he spoke:
"What you felt… was no anomaly. The veil that separates Helios from the divine realms, Asgard, Vanaheim, and Helheim has been cut open."
Gasps broke the silence. Even the most ancient mages, with centuries of calm wisdom, tensed.
"The Sea Leviathan, whose imprisonment was a cornerstone of the Treaty of Still Waters, has risen again. And the blow you felt was not from it but from Thor, god of thunder, hurling the full weight of Mjölnir upon the serpent's head."
The room froze.
"There has not been an act of divine warfare upon mortal soil in a thousand years," Einricht continued. "But now, the skies of the North flame with signs. The pact of divine non-intervention is broken."
Professor Sarbas clenched his fist. "Will the gods return to conquer?"
Einricht shook his head. "No! Most will not care for dominion. But some… some have waited for this. And they do not return to rule. They return to play."
He turned slowly to each member.
"Loki has been bored for a millennium. Hel stirs in her sleep. And the warlords of Olympus have never accepted peace."
A grim silence took hold.
The conclave debated, argued, and calculated. But all came to one solemn conclusion:
The students must not be told.
Helios must not be panicked.
The veil breach must remain classified, until more is understood.
Einricht's final decree was etched in binding runes across the hall:
"Prepare the Royal Class quietly. There will be tests no syllabus can teach for. The divine have returned, not as rulers but as unseen hands in the game of fates."
As the meeting adjourned, Einricht lingered behind, staring into a basin of starlit Uud. He saw Thor, laughing amidst broken waves, and the serpent sinking into shadow.
He saw something else, too.
Beneath the blooming plum grove, Rain sat with his legs folded and eyes closed, the gentle rustle of petals falling like snow over his form. The wind carried with it whispers of the sea, and the faint scent of blossoms stirred something deeper, a memory not entirely his, and not quite foreign either.
He was meditating on his Authority, trying to summon it, shape it, not just with force, but with identity. Yet something within resisted. Like a cage forged of invisible iron. It wasn't that his Uud was weak, his capacity was unmatched among the first years except Ceaser Grey off cause, but his Authority remained shackled.
"What good is power if i cannot wield it?" "What good is a soul if it still asks permission to speak?"
The thought dragged him back to the chains he once wore, the collar around his spirit, the brand of obedience that lived like a scar even though it had long faded from his skin. It was as though he still feared reaching too far, still heard an unseen master waiting to punish his will.
Then he smelled it.
A floral scent that didn't belong to any flower in the grove. It struck his chest with the softness of longing and the swiftness of recognition. The image bloomed instantly in his mind: golden hair catching light like woven sunlight, sapphire eyes trembling with hidden knowledge.
She's here.
Rain's eyes snapped open. He didn't move immediately. He simply whispered, low enough for the wind to carry gently:
"I know you're watching me... show yourself."
There was no reply. But he felt it, soft, quick steps retreating, too light for a mortal, brushing barely against the grass.
With a sudden flare of instinct, Rain coated his hand in a layer of refined Uud, concentrating it like a silken chain through his nerves. In a single breath, he vanished from sight, only to reappear behind the source of the steps.
His hand shot forward, not violently, but decisively and caught her by the wrist.
The girl flinched, surprised not by the grab, but by the ease with which he touched her. Her ethereal form faltered, light breaking like glass as her invisibility dropped. She gasped, her body shimmering into full view as Rain turned and gently pressed her back against the bark of the plum-wood.
Their eyes met again, no longer in the chaos of a hallway, but beneath the delicate hush of falling petals.
Catharine!
Her cheeks flushed a soft, glowing red, and she tried to speak, but the words tangled in her throat.
He wasn't threatening her, though the position might seem so. He was close, not too close but enough for her to feel the hum of his Uud calling to hers.
And for a moment, neither spoke.
Rain stared at her, not as a noble, not as a hero, not as the top of a Royal Class, but as someone... aching to understand why she felt so familiar.
Catharine's lip trembled slightly as she whispered, "…I didn't mean to intrude."
Rain's voice was softer than she expected.
"Why do I remember you… from before I even knew what remembering was?"
She swallowed. Her hand still tingled from his touch. And deep in her Lumin soul, she realized something terrifying and beautiful:
"He recognized me… even through the veil." she gasped inwardly.
Catharine's body tensed like a string drawn too tight, her guilt and fear mixing with the blooming heat of teenage shame. She hadn't meant for it to go this far. She was just curious… just wanted to see him up close again. The glow of his Uud, the weight of his presence, it was unlike anything she had ever felt, and it drew her like a dream she couldn't wake from.
But now she was caught.
Caught by him. And worse he was holding her. Looking at her.
Their eyes had locked for too long. Too seriously. Too deeply. And it wasn't just the physical closeness, it was the stillness between them, the way both seemed to search the other's soul for something they had no words for.
Catharine's cheeks flared red. Her pupils trembled. The air felt too thick with everything unspoken.
Rain blinked, coming to his senses when he heard whispers nearby. Two students passing through the garden slowed their steps, their eyes widening at the sight of Rain pinning a girl to a tree. One of them stifled a giggle. The other smirked.
"Get a room, you two," one teased. "The elf of Midgard has a garden date," the other whispered.
Rain snapped his hand away, stepping back quickly, his face tightening with mild frustration and secondhand embarrassment. He turned away for a moment and cleared his throat, brushing off a few fallen plum petals from his shoulder.
"Guess I won't be getting any answers today," he muttered, half to her, half to himself.
But Catharine, still pressed to the tree, didn't respond right away. She looked down, breathing through her nerves...then as if something suddenly clicked in her mind, she spoke with a strange mixture of hesitation and clarity.
"I know why you can't do it yet… your Authority."
Rain turned back, caught off guard.
"What?" he responded....
Catharine sighed slightly at his response.
She stepped forward, slowly now, her fear giving way to curiosity and conviction. Her eyes lifted to meet his again, not with shyness now, but with knowing.
"You're trying to force it," she said softly. "Like it's something you wield. But Authority isn't like Uud. You don't cast it. You become it."
Rain frowned slightly, absorbing her words.
"What do you mean?"
Catharine hesitated. Then with a soft, almost sad smile, she added:
"Authority is not a weapon... It doesn't require permission. And right now, you're still waiting for someone else to give it to you."
Her voice struck something in Rain....deep, too deep. A buried truth. The words echoed like a bell rung in a forgotten hall of his soul.
He stared at her, unsure of what to say.
And just like that, Catharine turned to leave, her figure already beginning to shimmer again with that familiar Lumin glow, her form slowly fading.
"Don't chase me this time!" she whispered with a small smile. "I'll come back when you stop asking for permission to be who you are."
Then she vanished...leaving Rain standing beneath the plum tree, the wind carrying away the last of her scent and her words. He couldn't fully understand her yet but it was the truth he needed.