After that night, Coker felt like the school became smaller. Not in size, but in eyes. Everyone looked at him different now. Even when they pretend not to look, he could feel their eyes follow him through the halls, through the class, through every little corner. It was like being in a zoo, but he the creature inside the cage. People whispered, but not loud like before. Now they whispered careful. They no longer called him E rank trash out loud, but their mouths still moved when he walked pass. They no longer threw things at him or pushed him around, but they always keep distance like he was sick or cursed. Something dangerous. But what Coker felt wasn't pride. Wasn't victory. It was something else. That power he unlocked, it didn't make him feel like a winner. It made him feel watched.
Sometimes in the mirror, he saw something that wasn't there before. The shadow behind him looked like it move even when he didn't. Just a flicker, just a twitch. Maybe just a trick of light. But maybe not. And sometimes in his sleep, he hear something breathin, slow and deep, like it was inside his chest or under his bed or on the roof of his soul. He started sleeping less. Eating less. But walking more. Every night, he walked the halls of the academy dorm, not because he need to. Just because he couldn't sit still. The shadow would follow him. Not beside him. Not behind. But under his feet, like always waitin.
And then something strange started happening. Beasts began acting weird around him. Not summoned ones—those was locked in their masters' contracts—but wild ones. Small ones. Bird beasts that roosted on the academy rooftops began flying away when he walk by. A silver-fur wind fox was seen howling at his door one night, then ran away like scared to death. And one time, a summoned ice bear from a B rank student froze solid just by lookin at Coker's shadow once. The student fainted too. Everyone said it was a coincidence. But nobody believed that.
One evening, he got called to the headmaster's tower. He walked in, quiet as always. The big glass windows show the whole academy from high above, but Coker didn't look. The headmaster, an old man with long gray beard and soft magic robes, sat with both hands folded.
"Coker Vale," he said, using Coker's full name, which was rare. "You used forbidden summoning rites. Is that correct?"
"I didn't use nothin," Coker said. "It used me."
The headmaster narrowed his eyes. "Don't play with words, boy. The seal on the lowest shrine was broken. Only someone with awakened essence could do that."
"I never awaken no essence. I was born without."
"And now you ain't."
They both stayed silent. The only sound was the wind outside, blowing like a ghost through the tower. The headmaster stood and walked to a bookshelf. He pulled out an old tome, covered in dust and old gold lines.
"Long time ago," he said, opening the book slow, "there was a beast that didn't belong to any world. Not spirit. Not flesh. Not magic. It was shadow before shadow existed. It devoured other beasts. Became stronger. Until the day it tried to swallow a god."
Coker watched him.
"They sealed it in the void. Buried it with ten chains made of divine essence. But someone opened it."
"I didn't mean to," Coker said after a long time.
"I know," the headmaster said. "But that don't matter."
"What you gonna do? Expel me?"
"Expel?" the old man laughed quietly. "Boy, we can't even contain you. You're past that now. I just hope you don't lose control."
Coker turned to leave.
"Oh, one more thing," the headmaster said. "Have you... ever heard a voice when you sleep?"
Coker stopped at the door. "Yeah," he said without looking back. "But it's not speakin. It's laughin."
Then he left the room.
That night, the moon was red. Not blood red, but darker. Like it had shadow over it. Like something was watchin even the sky.
And in his room, the mirror cracked for no reason. No sound. Just a split line down the glass. And when he looked into it, for just a moment, he saw not his face, but something else. With eyes that didn't blink.