The room Kayden was brought into was nothing like the Principal's office he had imagined.
There was no grand desk.
No towering shelves.
Instead, the chamber felt… old.
Ancient.
Circular runes were carved into the stone floor, their lines worn down by time. Soft light drifted from crystals embedded in the walls, pulsing gently like a heartbeat.
Principal Aria Nightfall stood near the center, her hands folded behind her back.
"Sit," she said calmly.
Kayden lowered himself onto a stone chair that rose from the ground at her gesture.
"This room," Aria continued, "is shielded from every form of surveillance in Starcrest City."
Kayden blinked. "That… sounds expensive."
Her lips twitched slightly, but her eyes remained serious.
"What we discuss here," she said, "cannot leave this room."
Kayden nodded slowly.
The system flickered faintly in his vision.
SYSTEM NOTICE:
SECURE ZONE DETECTED. INFORMATION RESTRICTIONS LIFTED — PARTIAL.
Aria raised her hand, and a small crystal sphere floated between them. It glowed softly as it rotated.
"Place your hand on it," she said.
Kayden hesitated. "Is this another test?"
"No," she replied. "This is confirmation."
He placed his hand on the sphere.
The crystal pulsed.
Then—
Symbols appeared in the air.
Names.
ELIAS ARIN
SELENE ARIN
The sphere trembled slightly.
Aria's expression changed.
"…Just as I feared," she murmured.
Kayden swallowed. "You know those names."
"I do," she said. "And the fact that the artifact recognizes you through them is deeply troubling."
Kayden pulled his hand back. "Troubling is not the word I want to hear right now."
Aria met his gaze.
"Tell me," she said, "what do you know about your parents?"
Kayden hesitated.
"That they were researchers," he said. "That they disappeared during an expedition. That's… all."
Aria turned
She studied him for a long moment, then spoke quietly.
"Because Elias Arin and Selene Arin were not ordinary scholars."
---
Years Ago — Before Kayden Was Born
"They were legends," Aria continued. "Not for their cultivation strength, but for their minds."
Kayden listened in silence as her words painted a picture he had never known.
"They traveled across the continent," she said. "Exploring forgotten ruins. Translating ancient scripts no one else could understand. Unlocking mechanisms that had been dormant for thousands of years."
Elias Arin—
A man obsessed with runes, symbols, and ancient logic.
Selene Arin—
A woman who mastered seals and dimensional energy, capable of binding forces far beyond normal cultivation.
"Together," Aria said, "they uncovered truths that many factions wanted buried."
Kayden clenched his fists.
He had grown up believing his parents were simple researchers who disappeared during an expedition.
But this…
This sounded much bigger.
"They called their greatest discovery," Aria continued, "Project Ascension."
Kayden frowned. "Ascension…?"
Aria nodded.
"Seventeen years ago, beneath what is now Starcrest City, they found something impossible."
She turned toward the window, gazing down at the city streets far below.
"An ancient ruin," she said. "And within it—fragments of an Ancient System Core."
Kayden's chest tightened.
The system interface flickered faintly in his vision.
SYSTEM NOTICE:
KEYWORD DETECTED: ASCENSION PROTOTYPE. MEMORY LOCK ACTIVE.
"…A system?" Kayden whispered.
"Yes," Aria replied. "But not like the ones we know."
She turned back to him.
"Most ancient systems are broken," she said. "Unstable. Dangerous. Designed as tools or weapons."
"But this one," she continued, "was different."
She quoted from memory, her voice steady:
> 'A living energy… one that evolves. Not a weapon, but a guide.'
Kayden felt a chill run through him.
"That description," Aria said softly, "came from Selene Arin's research notes."
---
Back to the Present
Kayden's mind raced.
A system core.
A living guide.
His parents.
And him.
"…Why didn't anyone know?" Kayden asked. "Why didn't they tell the world?"
Aria's expression darkened.
"Because the moment they did," she said, "they were hunted."
Kayden looked up sharply. "By who?"
Aria hesitated.
Then she spoke a name that made the system go silent.
"The Obsidian Order."
The room felt colder.
"A shadow faction," she continued. "They believe true power should belong only to those willing to seize it."
"They saw Project Ascension as the ultimate key."
Kayden's fingers trembled slightly.
"And my parents?"
"They ran," Aria said simply. "To protect what they discovered."
Her gaze fell on Kayden again.
"…And to protect you."
Kayden's voice came out barely above a whisper.
"Me…?"
Aria nodded.
"Because the system did not choose them."
The silence stretched.
Then—
"It chose you."