Lucas awoke with a sharp breath, his fingers clawing into the cold crystal floor of the soul chamber. Amaterasu's embers still flickered under his skin like dying stars, and frost from Fenrir clung to his lashes. The afterburn of fusion hadn't faded—it had merely settled, dormant but restless.
A knock echoed, sharp and commanding.
"Black. Open up."
Professor Halric's voice—controlled, precise. Lucas exhaled slowly, suppressing the spirits fighting beneath his skin, and unlocked the chamber door.
Halric stepped inside with eyes that missed nothing. He scanned the scorch marks lining the walls and the frost spreading across the ceiling like veins of silver.
"You fused." His voice was unreadable.
Lucas remained silent. Halric's gaze dropped to his hands.
"Partial. Unstable. But divine." He stepped closer, lowering his voice. "You stabilized a corrupted dungeon. That core should've collapsed."
Lucas shrugged once. "Luck."
Halric didn't smile. "The Headmaster expects you at dawn. Don't make him wait."
As he left, Lucas felt the chill in his chest return—not from Fenrir, but from the throne that kept flashing in his dreams. That same tree. That same endless sky. And now, a whisper.
"They will cage you, child of stars. Unless you burn them first."
---
Beneath the academy, Elira moved without being seen. The halls of the hidden archives were lit by lanterns that glowed with captive spiritlight, flickering like imprisoned fireflies. She reached a door sealed with blood and silence. It opened before she knocked.
Inside, a figure cloaked in shadow awaited her. They wore no insignia, yet their presence made the spiritlight tremble.
Elira stepped forward and spoke without hesitation. "He reached partial fusion. The dungeon's corruption didn't just vanish—it submitted. It's like it… recognized him."
The figure's hand twitched.
"And the others?" they asked.
"Kael's mind is unraveling. Elayne remains loyal. Seren... she's playing a different game."
The figure slid a small vial across the table. The liquid inside was darker than the void—swirling like it wanted to escape the glass.
"If he ignites too early, use this."
Elira pocketed it in silence.
"And if he resists?"
The figure said nothing. Only the door closed behind her, and the answer lingered like smoke in her mind.
Then he burns like the rest.
---
That evening, the academy tribunal gathered under dim lights. Drel Murn, bound in chains, knelt before the Headmaster. His 7-star Viperfang spirit was sealed—his once-defiant posture now twisted with fear.
"Who gave the order to kill Lucas Black?" Orpheon's voice echoed.
Drel grinned, lips cracked, eyes gleaming with a hollow sheen. "A voice… it spoke to me. Perfect. Crystalline. It said he wasn't meant to live."
Orpheon narrowed his eyes.
Then it happened.
Drel's pupils fractured like glass, and his entire body jerked—violently, unnaturally—before collapsing inward in silence. His soul folded in on itself, disintegrating into a burst of ash and spirit fragments.
Gasps echoed through the chamber. Panic spread like fire. In the corner, Seren Julius calmly sipped from a porcelain cup, her crystalline eyes reflecting the flickering lights.
Lucas appeared beside her, movement faster than anyone could track.
"You," he said coldly.
Seren smiled without looking up.
"Prove it."
---
Later that night, in the Starfall Arena, Kael waited beneath the moonlit sky. His spirit—the 9-star Thunder Tyrant—crackled violently around him, lightning licking the walls like angry serpents. But it wasn't just power. There was something else—something broken.
When Lucas stepped into the ring, Kael's face twisted into something feral.
"You humiliated me," he snarled. "Now I break you."
There were no rules. No teachers. Only rage.
Kael struck first, lightning warped by something darker than thunder. Lucas dodged, but a blackened bolt skimmed his ribs, burning deep into his flesh. The pain seared through him, but he gritted his teeth and let Amaterasu answer, fists blazing with golden flame.
Fenrir growled in his soul.
Fuse.
No.
Lucas fought on raw instinct, every movement laced with purpose. But Kael's strikes were unrelenting, his speed fueled by something unnatural. A final blow sent Lucas crashing onto the stone floor, breath knocked from his lungs.
"She said you'd hesitate," Kael whispered, standing over him.
But then—Kael's body froze.
His muscles locked. The lightning flickered out.
"No… not part of the…"
A tear fell from his cheek and crystallized before hitting the ground. Then he collapsed like a statue losing its shape, falling in a silence too heavy to be natural.
At dawn, Kael Valen was gone. Nothing remained but a single shard of glass, gleaming faintly where his heart had once been.
---
Lucas found Elayne at the observatory, hands scraped and uniform torn. Her fists were clenched, but her voice was steady.
"Kael left this before he challenged you."
She handed him a folded note.
Two words were scrawled across it: "Lysandra knows."
Lucas turned it over. The Black Family crest shimmered in the moonlight—then began to move, shifting into something else. A map. It pulsed with soullight, pointing toward a name whispered only in forbidden texts.
The Hollow Sanctum.
And then, the voice returned.
"Go. Meet your destiny."