Professor Raukher Myr stood at the highest spire of the Academy, her pale hair swaying as the wind carried the echoes of the explosion across the grounds. The violet-glass windows behind her shivered.
Her fingers traced across the armrest of her chair, carved with the sigil of Domination.
She whispered:"…So it has awakened."
Her gaze pierced through the horizon where students scattered like ants toward the amphitheater. She could already feel the vibrations of the containment glyphs resonating through the foundations of the academy — alien, foreign, not crafted by her hand.
For a full year, the wandering fragment had drifted beneath her domain like a ghost, avoiding her detection. And now it had chosen.
Raukher closed her eyes, lips curving faintly.
"Gentle Reaper… and the Silent Watcher's shadow… what exactly are you both playing at?"
Behind her, three thrones sat empty. The other peaks were absent. She was the only one left to rule this domain. The weight of silence pressed in on her as she rose to her feet, the flare of her garment shifting like liquid silk.
She stepped forward into the light.
"Very well," she murmured."If the heirs are to be tested… then let the test be one of fire."
The Book That Opens
The amphitheater was chaos.Rubble rained down from shattered arches, glyphs erupted like ruptured veins, and mana shrieked through the air in violent arcs.
Junas stood in the center of it all, cloak whipping around him, eyes glimmering with cold satisfaction.
"You can't win," he said calmly. "This arena is mine."
Eris moved before he finished the sentence. His arms lit with Aether, his motions so clean and fluid they seemed unreal. Each time a glyph tried to detonate near Saphine, Eris was already there — dismantling, dispersing, shielding with his own body if needed.
His Grand Gaze burned bright. He wasn't just seeing the explosions — he was watching their intent, predicting their flow, and unraveling them with impossible precision.
Aerin lunged forward with his spear, Meline following with her blades, but Junas redirected the glyph walls with cold detachment. They clashed, light against steel, spell against Echo.
And through it all — Eris stayed at Saphine's side.
Saphine and the Fragment
The notebook — the fragment's record — floated just before her. Pages fluttered though there was no wind.Each open line glowed faintly, tugging at her senses, pulling her deeper.
Her head spun. She couldn't tell if the mana storm around them was real or imagined.
Eris caught her wrist firmly, grounding her. His voice slipped through the noise like a thread of iron.
"Saphine. Listen. The fragment is pushing against you because it is trying to awaken your Echo. Let it."
Her breathing grew uneven. "I-I can't— It feels too far—"
"Then look through my eyes."
Her gaze snapped toward him — and the Grand Gaze flared.
For a fleeting heartbeat she wasn't herself. She wasn't even in the amphitheater. She was standing on a rain-slick cobblestone street. Children laughed in the distance. A younger boy with sharp gray eyes leaned against a crumbling wall, hands shoved in his pockets. He was watching the world… as if testing if it was even real.
Eris's voice overlapped the memory.
"This is how I see. Not the world as it is. But the world as it could be. I do not obey the world's sense — it obeys mine. That is why…"
The memory shattered. Saphine stumbled, clutching her head.
The fragment notebook flipped open in front of her with a deafening snap. Pages scattered in a whirl of light.
Her pupils dissolved into white.Her body stiffened.
And then — a voice whispered through her lips, not her own:
"…Recording… The first time I hear her Echo sing."
A suffocating wave of pressure burst from her chest, shaking the arena.
Students watching from the collapsed balconies gasped in terror. Aerin froze mid-attack. Meline shielded her eyes.
But before the pressure could spiral outward — it stopped.
Eris's palm was pressed to Saphine's shoulder, his eyes glowing like molten silver. His Grand Gaze pulled all of the storm inward, compressing it until it was only a faint aura dancing around her body.
"…Easy," he murmured."You don't need to force it. Just let it write. Just let it breathe."
Junas Realizes
Junas's smile faltered for the first time."What—what are you doing?"
Eris looked up at him, eyes gleaming cold in the half-light.
"I told you. My priority isn't beating you. My priority is her."
The words hit heavier than a threat. Junas gritted his teeth, pouring more mana into the glyph formation. Arcs of energy lashed out wildly, cracking stone, igniting air.
But every blast that came near Saphine was swallowed, bent away, or shattered by Eris's bare arms wrapped in Aether.
He wasn't just fighting. He was guarding.
And that, more than anything, terrified Junas.
The Trance
Saphine's trance deepened.The fragment's notebook turned its own pages rapidly now, glowing brighter with every line.
Her lips parted, whispering lines that were not hers:
"I recorded fire. I recorded death. I recorded loneliness. But now…"
Her voice trembled — soft, almost hopeful.
"…Now I record a step toward life."
The light of the notebook burst outward. For a moment, even Junas staggered back, shielding his eyes.
And above them, unseen but always watching, Professor Raukher Myr's eyes narrowed from her spire.
The heirs were no longer playing children's games.The Trial had truly begun.
To be continued…