The air inside Astra Academy didn't just smell like ozone; it tasted like ambition. As Lloren stepped off the silver airship, the sheer weight of the collective Aura in the plaza hit him like a physical wall. There were thousands of students, each one a "prodigy" in their own right, and the clash of their spiritual frequencies created a dissonant noise that made Lloren's teeth ache.
To everyone else, the plaza was a grand marble stage. To Lloren, it was a chaotic sea of vibrations. He could feel the jagged, burning heat of fire-users, the fluid ripple of water-affinity students, and the heavy, dull thud of those who specialized in physical reinforcement.
"Step lively, initiates!" Proctor Valerius barked, his mechanical staff clattering against the crystalline floor. "The Academy has no room for those who loiter. You have three hours to pass the Aptitude Pillar, or you can walk back to your backwater villages on foot."
The Golden Predatress
Before Lloren could move, the path was blocked. The girl he had seen from the deck—the one with hair like liquid gold—stepped forward. Up close, her presence was suffocating. Waves of dry, searing heat radiated from her skin, warping the air in a constant shimmer.
"So, you're the one Valerius brought in personally," she said, her voice dripping with bored condescension. "I am Seraphina Ignis, scion of the Solar Empire. I've smelled the air around you, little pebble. You don't have the scent of an S-Tier. You smell like... dust."
Lloren looked at her. He didn't see a beautiful girl; he saw a raging furnace. Her internal frequency was a violent, high-pitched roar.
"Dust is patient, Seraphina," Lloren said quietly, his voice vibrating at a frequency that momentarily neutralized the heat wave she was projecting. "And dust is what remains when everything else has burned out."
Seraphina's eyes flashed with literal embers. The marble beneath her boots began to glow dull red. "Bold words for a commoner. I hope you survive the Pillar. I'd hate to lose a new toy so early in the semester."
She swept past him, her heat leaving a trail of scorched air. Lin, who had been hiding behind Lloren, let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"She's terrifying, Lloren," Lin whispered, her green Life-Weaver aura flickering weakly. "Her energy... it feels like it wants to consume everything."
"It does," Lloren replied, staring at the massive structure in the center of the plaza. "But even fire needs a medium to travel through. If you take away the vibration of the air, the fire dies."
The Aptitude Pillar
The Aptitude Pillar was a monolith of black obsidian, a hundred feet tall, etched with glowing blue runes. It was designed to measure two things: the Volume of a student's Aura and the Purity of their control.
One by one, students stepped up and struck the pillar with their best move.
A boy with a Tier-A Storm Fruit struck it with a bolt of lightning. The runes turned bright yellow, climbing halfway up the pillar. "Rank: 420—High Adept!" the automated voice echoed.
Seraphina stepped up next. She didn't punch or kick. She simply pointed a finger. A beam of white-hot solar plasma erupted, lashing against the obsidian. The pillar groaned. The runes surged upward, turning a blinding crimson as they reached the very top, nearly overflowing.
"Rank: 995—Peak Master!"
The plaza went silent. A score of 995 was unheard of for a new student. Seraphina turned and threw a mocking wink at Lloren.
"Lloren Lor of Oakhaven," Valerius called out.
The crowd began to whisper. "Oakhaven? Isn't that a mining village?" "Look at his clothes... he doesn't even have a weapon." "Is he even Awakened? I don't see a glow."
Lloren walked toward the Pillar. He felt the eyes of the High Proctors on him from the high balconies. He felt the predatory gaze of Seraphina.
Volume or Purity? Lloren thought.
If he used volume—the sheer force of a massive vibration—he might break the plaza and reveal too much. No, he needed purity. He needed to find the Resonant Frequency of Obsidian.
He placed his hand gently on the black stone. He didn't strike it. He didn't pull back his fist. He simply closed his eyes and began to hum.
The Science of the Shatter
In his mind's eye, the Pillar was a lattice of dense, volcanic molecules. They were packed tight, vibrating at a very low, stubborn frequency. It was a material designed to absorb impact, to soak up fire and lightning like a sponge.
Lloren sent a tiny, microscopic pulse into the stone. He listened for the echo.
Too high.
He lowered his frequency. Too low.
There. At exactly 1,242 Hertz, the obsidian shivered. It was a frequency so specific it was invisible to the naked eye. Lloren began to pump his Aura into that exact pitch. He wasn't hitting the pillar; he was becoming the pillar.
"Resonance Sync," he whispered.
Suddenly, the pillar began to emit a sound—a low, haunting drone that resonated in the chests of everyone in the plaza. Some students clutched their ears. The blue runes on the pillar didn't climb. Instead, they began to flicker and turn a strange, ghostly silver.
The runes didn't stop at the top. They surged past the physical limit of the pillar, projecting a pillar of silver light into the sky that pierced the clouds.
The automated voice stumbled, sounding distorted. "Rank: Err—Frequency Overflow. Purity: Absolute. Classification: Primordial."
The silence that followed was absolute. Even Seraphina stood frozen, her golden hair damp with the sudden sweat of realization. Lloren pulled his hand away. The obsidian pillar looked unchanged, but as he walked back toward Lin, a single hairline fracture appeared at the base. Then another.
With a sound like a thousand glass harps breaking at once, the 100-foot-tall obsidian monolith—the indestructible test of the Academy—turned into a heap of black sand.
The Aftermath
"He... he broke the Pillar?" a student stammered. "He didn't even hit it!"
Valerius looked at the pile of sand and then at Lloren. A look of grim satisfaction crossed his face, but he quickly masked it. "The test is concluded. Lloren Lor, Rank 1. Seraphina Ignis, Rank 2."
Seraphina's face went from shock to a murderous rage. "Rank 2? You give Rank 1 to a Dreg who broke a piece of stone with a parlor trick? I'll melt his rank into his skin!"
"Enough, Seraphina," a deep, booming voice echoed from the balconies. A man in golden armor, the Head Dean of the Academy, looked down at them. "The Pillar didn't break because of force. It broke because the boy understood its soul. Lloren Lor, report to the S-Class Dormitories."
The Warning
That evening, in the luxurious but cold S-Class dorms, Lloren sat on the balcony. His hand was still numb from the feedback of the obsidian. Purity came at a price—every time he synchronized with a dense object, a portion of that density reflected back into his nervous system.
A shadow flickered in the corner of the room.
"You should have failed the test on purpose," a voice said.
Lloren didn't turn. He felt the vibration of a blade—not a physical one, but a frequency of 'Severing.'
A boy with jet-black hair and eyes like a void stood there. This was Kaelen, the Rank 3 student, user of the Void Fruit.
"The Solar Empire doesn't like being Rank 2," Kaelen warned, leaning against the doorframe. "Seraphina is one thing, but her father is a General. You've put a target on your back that can be seen from the stars. Tomorrow is the Combat Placement. They won't ask you to touch a stone tomorrow. They will ask you to touch a blade."
Kaelen vanished into a pocket of nothingness before Lloren could respond.
Lloren looked out over the floating city. He could feel the vibrations of a thousand schemes, a thousand jealousies, and a thousand fires. He took a deep breath and began to vibrate his own cells, healing the numbness in his hand.
"Let them come," he whispered to the night air. "The louder they are, the easier they are to break."