The skyrail kicked and squealed as it cut through a bank of clouds. Jackson Null stared at his reflection in the window hood up, jaw set, silver hair catching the cabin light. People saw a calm face. Inside, something hummed an old, patient whisper that only he could hear.
Across the aisle Ash Wei lounged like a king on his throne, one leg slung over the seat, the sun catching the faint gold in his hair. He didn't need to look intimidating. Power advertises itself people clear the path. Even without a Rank Badge, the carriage felt smaller when he breathed. Jackson rolled his shoulder and kept looking out.
"Null," Ash said, finally. The word was an invitation and a threat. "You're actually coming."
"Wouldn't miss it," Jackson replied. Headphones around his neck, he sounded bored on purpose.
Ash studied him with that gold-eyed patience. "Keep your teleport tricks tidy. Don't open a hole in the Spire. Last time someone did that the cleaning bill was obscene."
Jackson's smile was a straight line. "Make sure you don't crush anyone with your… casual punches."
Ash's smirk widened into something that could have been pleasure at a scavenger's find. "We'll see who's joking at year-end."
The train groaned into the Celestial Spire Terminal. Outside, the academy rose like a spear through the clouds, a thousand terraces and balconies stitched together with glowing runes. Airships drifted like silent whales. The students poured onto the platform, ranks flashing on wristbands, voices full of equal parts arrogance and fear.
Jackson stepped through the crush, senses sharpening. The void-thread shimmer he could see only flickered more clearly here every awakened person left a faint aura of distortion that pulsed with possibility. A Rank 30 left a thin thread. Top ten look like braided ribbons. Rank 2s tore grooves into the air.
The scanning arch ahead hummed. A holographic seal seared across his wrist: Rank 5 —Talent: SS (Void Walker). Heads turned. Whispers followed him like a plague.
A bell chimed, and the courtyard fell quiet. A figure on the main balcony stepped forward Seraphine Vale, silver hair whipping like a banner, voice iron. "Welcome, new candidates," she called. "You have been chosen by the Spire. Don't disappoint us."
Then near the center of the balcony the air folded again and a presence older than the crowd stepped into view: Headmaster Kairo Veyth. The entire plaza inhaled as if suddenly aware of gravity. He was taller than his portraits suggested, cape falling in a dark line, a mechanical arm that glittered with runes. Even the sun seemed to hesitate on his face.
He didn't need an introduction. Stories followed him like smoke—Rank 1 in his youth, the legend who closed a Rift in the Second Rift War. Now he moved with the slow certainty of someone who'd watched too many people try to become gods.
"Candidates," Kairo said. His voice carried without effort, wrapped in a kindness that could hide a blade. "Eighty years ago, the air turned. Power is a new law of nature. The Genesis Gene gave the world a second chance and a new hunger."
He paced once, like a predator testing its territory. "The Spire is not a playground. It is a crucible. We temper raw talent into leaders, weapons, teachers. We do not entertain weakness because weakness costs lives."
A murmur rolled through the freshmen some proud, some pale. Kairo's eyes cut to them like sharp stones.
"You came here because you survived your awakening. Survival, however, is only the first test." He snapped his fingers; a projection blossomed above the courtyard fractured diagrams of DNA, shimmering nodes, and a pulsing globe of raw energy. "Inside each of you the Genesis Gene sleeps with nodes awakening nodes. Unlock one, and you gain control, stability, a new technique. Fail to unlock one by the end of this first term, and you will be expelled. Your families will be unbound from Spire protections. We cannot and will not raise those who will become liabilities."
Gasps burst into a dozen shocked exclamations. Parents were already whispering in the terraces; the rich and powerful calculating reputations and fortunes.
Kairo's gaze settled on Jackson and Ash, as if testing the weights of their souls. "To pass you will need more than brute force. You will need control, adaptability, and" he paused, a flash of old pain crossing his features, "a willingness to survive what you become."
He walked a half-step forward. The courtyard seemed to shrink. "So I give you a goal." He raised that rune-arm and the words came with iron and promise. "By the end of the first academic term, every freshman must unlock at least one Awakening Node. Not a minor flutter in your gift an actual Node. Do this, and you will be eligible for Rank Ascension Trials. Fail, and you leave the Spire's halls."
The words landed like stones. For some, it was a death sentence. For others, a gauntlet flung down.
Kairo's lips curved into something that was almost approval. "You will not be alone. Instructors will assign mentors. The Trial Grounds will open monthly. The Spire will provide challenges and beasts because only the world's pressure can reveal what power you truly have. Use it, or be used by it."
Jackson tasted iron in his mouth. A Node. He'd heard the concept before old training manuals, family whisperings. But never this blunt: unlock a Node or be ejected. He glanced at Ash. The other boy's jaw tightened, his posture unreadable, the gold in his irises like two suns reflecting a threat.
Kairo turned, sweeping the plaza with a gaze that felt like a benediction or a sentence. "Remember this power carries consequence. The Genesis Gene gifts, but it also asks. Do not let power define your purpose. Define your power."
Then, just as fast, he lifted a hand and smiled warm and dangerous. "Welcome to the Spire. Begin."
The balcony erupted with applause and the soundtrack of tens of thoughts recalibrating to a single goal. Some cheered, some panicked, some plotted. Jackson's stomach tightened into a knot he tasted like adrenaline.
"Awakening Node," Ryo said beside him, voice barely more than breath. He had found Jackson in the crowd messy hair, glasses fogging slightly, excitement bright in his eyes. "That's… brutal."
Lyra, who'd joined them quietly, folded her fingers. Her calm was a rock. "It makes sense," she said. "Nodes mean control. The Spire doesn't want untethered disasters."
Jackson clenched his fist until his knuckles whitened. The void inside him thinned to a whisper. Unlock, it said. Open.
He almost answered aloud.
Instead he looked up at the arena where the Entry Trial was already beginning Seraphine's order had not been rescinded and the first rifts had already opened with snarls of Genesis Beasts pouring through. The Spire wanted them to sharpen. The Spire wanted blood. The Spire wanted proof.
The siren screamed. Students scattered. Beasts leapt with teeth like razors. Ash strode forward, fists humming with latent power, and pulverized one creature with a blow that echoed against the terraces. Ryo rolled his eyes and telepathically fed a tactical assessment to Jackson; Lyra's hands glowed briefly as she prepared a defensive weave.
Jackson stepped forward, calm as a blade slid from a sheath. The void threaded around his fingers like live smoke. He felt the Node-sense like a tiny pinprick inside his chest the location of the first node had always been different for everyone, and some felt it from the start.
"Void Step." He folded space and reappeared atop a floating platform, blade stance ready.
A beast lunged at his comrades its maw opened like a black sun. Jackson cut a line through the air, not a blade but a seam, and the animal passed through his slash into nothing. Where it should have screamed, it simply stopped; part of it hung in the seam like a puppet, then dissolved into motes of gray. The crowd breathed out as if she'd been holding it in for minutes.
Something cold and electric ran up his spine. The pinprick flared into a jolt, and for an instant just a heartbeat saw a ripple of numbers and symbols that weren't human. A thread, knotted and bright, pulsed within him. The Node responded.
"Now," the void whispered. Open.
Jackson felt blood in his throat: fear, yes, but under it a fierce, clean hunger. He could unlock a Node here, now—on the Trial Grounds, with the world watching and the Headmaster's words still burning the air. He could stabilize the Void a little more. He could give himself an edge.
He could also lose control.
A scream tore from somewhere near the perimeter. A freshman had been grabbed by a beast and was being ripped apart. Ash's jaw tightened. Without a word, he launched himself into the fray, fists colliding with flesh and bone and tearing the creature in half. Gold light detonated with the impact. Ash's eyes flicked to Jackson for a beat no pity, no promise only the recognition of a rival who might become an ally, or an obstacle.
"Unlock," Jackson breathed, offering a tactical node: create a controlled void pocket, pull the beast's center into it, then seal. Try not to look at whatever's inside when it answers.
Jackson inhaled. The void inside him thrummed in time with his heartbeat. The Node was a choice control or surrender; advancement or annihilation.
He stepped forward.
"Void Walker," he whispered to himself like a name and a prayer. Then he reached into the seam.
For a moment nothing happened. Then the seam tightened like a fist. The world blurred. The Beast's roar became a ringing bell. Jackson felt the seam climb his arm, up into his chest, and when it touched the place inside him the world snapped into focus with a violence that left him breathless and alive in the same beat.
A small rune bloomed on his wrist black ink against pale skin a sigil that only those who'd unlocked a node carried. The crowd students, instructors, even the Headmaster fell quiet with the creak of destiny.
Jackson smiled without thinking. It was small and broken and terrifyingly real. Lyra's hand found his shoulder and squeezed.
Kairo watched from the balcony. His face did not change. But his eyes… for a moment they were not the eyes of a Headmaster. They were the eyes of the man who once walked the same dark paths.
"Good," he said softly, unheard by most. "Not too fast. Not too slow."
The goal was set. The first node unlocked. The game had begun.