Dawn at Elara Academy was usually silent.
But today, the eastern tower buzzed.
Students stood scattered outside the black-iron doors of the forgotten classroom. The entrance was sealed with unfamiliar glyphs, glowing faintly like embers under soot. Rumors swirled like mist among the group.
"Do we knock?"
"No handle. No interface."
"Is this even the right place?"
Then a low click echoed.
The door unlocked.
It wasn't magic. Not entirely. It felt like something older—instinctive, as if the tower had been waiting.
The door groaned open.
Inside, the room was wide, circular, and dark. Black stone walls pulsed with restrained energy. There were no chairs. No desks. Only a glowing ring carved into the floor, twenty feet across, embedded with runes none of them recognized.
And at the center stood Elara.
Her posture was calm. Her coat hung neatly, black and rune-trimmed. No smile. No welcome.
"Step inside," she said.
No one moved.
Kai Revenhart was the first.
He walked through the threshold like a soldier returning to war.
Elara's eyes flicked to him—nothing more—but it felt like a knife twisting behind her ribs.
The rest followed.
Riven sauntered in with a half-smile, like he already knew how this would play out.
Iri—the girl with the burned patch—stood tall, but her eyes flicked everywhere, calculating.
The orange-haired girl, Nia, hesitated just long enough to let others pass first. She stayed near the door.
Two others came in silently: a slim boy with a medical ID tag hanging from his belt, and a broad-shouldered girl with bare knuckles wrapped in white tape.
Seven students.
Elara raised one hand. The door slammed shut.
None of them flinched.
"Welcome to Class Zero," she said. "This is not a class. It's a crucible. You are not here to be protected. You are here because something about you is unfit, unruly, or unacceptable to the system. This is where they send what doesn't fit."
"You mean rejects," Riven muttered.
Elara's eyes snapped to him. "No. Weapons."
He blinked.
She continued, "You'll be trained. You'll be tested. And some of you will break."
"Break?" Nia's voice was small but sharp. "You're not serious."
Elara looked at her. "You're welcome to walk out, if you prefer standard coursework. The eastern wing has open seats."
No one moved.
"Good," Elara said. "Then let's begin."
She stepped into the center of the ring. "This is a live training platform. Each of you will enter alone. The system will generate a combat simulation tailored to your profile. Mental, physical, magical. It adjusts in real-time. There are no safeties. Failure is... inconvenient."
"Inconvenient how?" asked Iri, her jaw tight.
"You'll see."
---
Kai stepped forward first.
The circle flared to life under his boots. Runes pulsed red-gold. The platform shimmered—and then reality shifted.
The others watched, wide-eyed, as Kai's form blurred, swallowed by light.
He stood in a memory.
A battlefield.
Blood. Smoke. The clang of metal.
A boy screamed behind him.
"No!" Kai turned, instinct sharp. "I'm not going back here—!"
But the system didn't care.
The memory played. Twisted. Amplified.
He fought.
He roared.
He cracked.
---
On the outside, his body collapsed.
Sweat soaked through his collar. His hands trembled.
He wasn't unconscious, but he looked older somehow. Fractured.
Elara crouched beside him, offering a hand.
He took it—reluctantly.
One by one, the others entered the ring.
Riven faced a doppelgänger. A perfect version of himself. Smirking. Mocking. Stronger.
He lost.
But laughed as he walked out, nose bleeding. "Finally. A challenge."
Iri was dragged into a simulation where fire consumed her again. Flames reflected in her eyes as she punched her way free, even when her hands bled.
Nia's test was different. She stood in a hallway full of doors—each marked with someone else's expectations. Her family's. Her old friends. Her past self. She opened the wrong one.
She didn't speak when it ended.
The boy with the med tag—Silas—never even screamed.
He simply emerged pale and quiet. Elara watched him the longest.
The girl with the knuckle wraps—Juno—broke a summoned beast in half. Literally. No magic. Just fists.
When she left the circle, her gaze met Elara's.
No fear.
Only recognition.
---
Hours later, the students sat on the floor of the classroom, bruised, shivering, silent.
Elara paced before them.
"You're all still here. That's good. Most first years don't last past the first trial."
"Is this a school or a military program?" Iri muttered.
"It's both," Elara said.
Kai looked up. "What's the real purpose of this class?"
Elara stopped walking.
Then she said, softly: "To create monsters the school can still control."
Silence.
Riven grinned. "I think I'm gonna like it here."
But Nia's voice cut in. "And what about you?"
Everyone turned to her.
Elara tilted her head. "What about me?"
"You were one of us once, weren't you?" Nia said. "Before you disappeared. Before the fire."
Elara didn't respond.
She walked to the edge of the room, touched the old runes on the wall, then turned back.
"I wasn't one of you," she said. "I was worse."
Then she left them in the dark.
---
END OF CHAPTER 2
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