Dawn broke over the floating spires of Arcane Academy, painting the sky in hues of violet and gold. The academy grounds buzzed with anticipation. Hundreds of aspiring students gathered in the great outer plaza beneath the skyglass dome, murmuring, stretching, or reciting spells under their breath.
Among them, dressed in modest traveler's robes with a satchel slung over his shoulder, stood Rael.
He kept to the outer fringe of the crowd, eyes half-lidded, scanning the towering obelisks of spirit crystal embedded across the plaza. They pulsed with latent energy, designed to react to magical flow. Rael had memorized everything he could in the last three days—observing the city's mana pulses, learning Eldorian script, and practicing control over his aura without invoking his Ember Ascension.
He couldn't afford to stand out too much.
And yet… the air was thick with tension. No one came to Arcane Academy to fade into the background.
A voice boomed overhead.
"Welcome, candidates," said a deep voice, amplified by sound enchantments. A white-robed official stood on the raised platform in the center. "Today you undergo the Fourfold Trial. Those who pass will be ranked and placed in their appropriate class tier. Those who fail… return home."
A groan rippled through the crowd.
Rael tilted his head slightly, suppressing a smile. He didn't come this far to fail.
---
First Trial: Written Aptitude
Candidates were herded into the open-air Hall of Wits. Rows of floating desks hovered in concentric circles around a single central orb glowing with temporal magic.
"You have one hour," the invigilator barked. "Cheating is not only forbidden—it's punished by expulsion and magical curse."
The scroll appeared on Rael's desk in a swirl of ink and parchment. He unfurled it.
Questions ranged from elemental theory and spirit classification to history, combat tactics, and magical law. Despite the unfamiliar names and systems, Rael's enhanced memory and mental adaptability gave him an edge.
What is the counter-element of Astral Fire?
Which sigil is used to bind a feral spirit?
Describe the mana-cycle flow of a triple-core beast.
Rael answered them methodically, balancing precision and simplicity. He avoided drawing attention by being too perfect. When he finished with time to spare, he sat back and quietly reviewed his work.
Around him, others sweated and scratched at parchment with frantic eyes.
He caught one girl attempting to cast a subtle vision spell from her sleeve. The orb in the center flared red, and her desk dropped from the air with a thud.
"Disqualified," the invigilator said coldly.
Rael didn't even blink.
---
Second Trial: Spirit Control
The field was a glowing arena surrounded by spirit geysers—pillars of raw elemental energy erupting from nodes beneath the earth. The challenge was to shape and channel a geyser's force into a stable form using willpower alone.
Rael approached his geyser calmly.
The energy was wild—untamed mana that twisted in chaotic spirals. To the average student, it was raw fury. But to Rael, it was a whisper—distant, familiar. Like the winds of Solara, his home world.
He knelt, placing his hand near the geyser without touching it. Closing his eyes, he slowed his breathing and remembered the meditation ritual of the Solari Ascendants. The internal spiral. The resonance.
Control is not suppression—it is harmonization, his father had once said.
Golden-orange threads of mana slithered up his arm. He coaxed them into a ribbon, wrapping the force around his fingers, shaping it like clay. Slowly, it took form: a smooth rotating sphere of light, hovering above his palm.
Others struggled—one boy was thrown back ten feet. A girl sobbed as her spirit construct exploded.
Rael stood silently, then gently dispersed his sphere with a flick of his wrist. Not too flashy. Just enough.
An instructor nearby blinked. "That… that was textbook perfect," she murmured.
He bowed slightly and walked away.
---
Third Trial: Combat Assessment
A coliseum-style arena. Stone platforms rose and fell in a shifting battlefield. Magical barriers prevented lethal damage, but not pain.
Combatants were paired randomly. Rael's opponent: a brawny dwarf with rock armor magic named Korr.
"Hope yer bones are as hard as yer face," the dwarf grinned.
Rael didn't reply. He shifted into stance—light on his feet, swordless, relying only on spirit energy manipulation.
The duel began.
Korr charged, slamming fists that shattered air. Rael ducked, weaved, and tapped Korr's wrist with a small pulse of energy, redirecting the blow into the ground.
The crowd murmured. "Did he just… deflect with nothing?"
Korr growled and summoned stone pillars, launching them like missiles.
Rael twisted midair, using a platform edge as a springboard. He reached out, and with precise spirit pressure, cracked the base of a pillar so it veered off course—harmlessly grazing him.
He didn't strike back directly. Instead, he danced—fluid, elusive, disruptive.
Korr eventually overextended. Rael stepped inside his guard and touched his chest with a palm.
A burst of spirit pressure sent the dwarf skidding back into a wall.
The judge raised his hand. "Victor—Rael."
The crowd burst into chatter.
"Who is that guy?"
"He beat Korr without a weapon?"
"Did he use air magic?"
"No—there was no elemental trace…"
Rael simply returned to the platform without a word.
---
Final Trial: Summoning Challenge
A crescent-shaped altar stood at the academy's summit, surrounded by glowing runes. Candidates were instructed to summon any spiritual entity they had affinity with, or attempt a basic contract with the elemental plane.
Rael hesitated.
He hadn't intended to summon anything. Doing so risked revealing parts of his lineage. The Solari Ascendants were bound to solar spirits—rare entities tied to cosmic energy, nearly forgotten on Eldoria.
He stepped onto the altar, unsure what would happen.
"Begin," intoned the summoner judge.
Rael knelt, placing a hand on the sigil-etched floor. He called out not with words, but with resonance—pulses of emotion and spirit frequency.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then—light.
A small, golden flame appeared. It pulsed like a heartbeat, then took form—a winged wisp, shaped like a baby phoenix, no larger than a cat.
It chirped once, circled Rael's head, and nuzzled into his shoulder.
The arena fell silent.
"W-what kind of spirit is that?"
"It… it doesn't match any known elemental pattern."
Headmistress Lira Moonshade, who had been watching from the crystal observatory, leaned forward. Her eyes narrowed.
"That… looks like a solar wisp," she whispered.
"But those are extinct," said the professor beside her.
"Exactly."
Below, Rael froze. The spirit wisp's warmth was familiar—like home.
He smiled faintly and gently dismissed it. The wisp chirped once before vanishing in a flare of golden sparks.
---
Results and Rankings
Evening fell. The candidates stood in nervous rows outside the central spire. The rankings were projected into the sky via a massive spirit scroll, each name etched in light.
The crowd gasped as the top ten were revealed:
1. Rael
2. Raiden Voss
3. Eris Vaeloria
4. Lyra Dreamshade
5. Evelyn Solstice
Rael blinked. First? That hadn't been his plan.
Whispers rippled.
"Who is Rael?"
"He beat nobles?!"
"A commoner?"
Then the S-Class announcement came. Only five candidates had made it. They were to be housed in the Skyspire Dorms—reserved for prodigies and high-ranking noble heirs.
As Rael's name was called, silence fell.
A few clapped. Others scowled. Raiden Voss openly sneered.
Eris Vaeloria narrowed her eyes, flames flickering at her fingertips.
Lyra Dreamshade just smirked lazily and yawned.
Evelyn glanced at him, surprised but pleased.
---
Later that night, Rael stood alone in the Skyspire balcony, overlooking the luminous cityscape of Eldoria.
He hadn't expected to rank first. He had only wanted to pass quietly and hide. But his bloodline—it refused to let him stay small.
Behind him, the solar wisp reappeared, hovering silently.
He extended a hand. "You shouldn't have come."
The spirit merely chirped and circled him again.
A voice echoed in his mind. The world remembers you, Solari child. Even if you do not wish to be seen.
Rael clenched his jaw.
His time here would not be quiet.
He looked toward the moonlit academy towers. Somewhere in the shadows, forces were stirring—some curious, others suspicious.
And above it all, distant and cold, the stars still watched.