Chapter 32: The Emergency Council and the Forced Reveal
The rupture of the leakage conduit was not an explosion, but a sudden, terrifying failure of order. The Aetherium's emergency lighting flickered erratically, casting long, jumping shadows across the quad. Raw, unrestrained Mote energy—the boundless chaos contained for centuries—began to seep from the ground around the Clock Tower, manifesting as a thin, acrid purple mist.
Lance and Opal scrambled out of the Clock Tower, meeting the four allies in the chaotic quad.
"Dean Eris is sealing the Annex!" Elara shouted, her sapphire Matrix blazing as she desperately tried to dampen the escalating chaos near the dormitory. "She's trying to contain the students and blame the visiting academies!"
Kian pointed to the main administration building. "The Council is still here! They held an emergency session to address the rising instability we reported yesterday. They're all trapped inside!"
Dean Eris emerged from the administration building, flanked by her copper-armored guards. She looked at the rising purple chaos, her face a mask of terror that quickly hardened into professional malice.
"The Siphoning experiment has failed!" Dean Eris shouted, her voice booming over the chaotic energy. "The Silverwoods student, in a reckless attempt to prove his worth, deliberately targeted the Master Valve! Detain the remedial trio and blame the entire system failure on their sabotage!"
The copper guards advanced, their weapons charged.
Lance knew this was their only chance. If Dean Eris pinned the blame on them, the truth of the Silverwoods legacy and the existence of the Shadowed Realm would be buried forever.
"We have to force the reveal!" Lance shouted to his allies. "The Council needs to see the Shadowed Realm conduit itself, and they need to hear Luke's final log!"
They needed to overpower the Dean's control, but they couldn't use raw force—the sheer amount of chaos released was too great. They had to use precision against the system.
The United Defiance
They moved as a six-person unit, focusing their powers not on fighting the guards, but on creating a public, undeniable demonstration of the truth.
Opal (Chaos) and Elara (Elemental): Fired coordinated, disruptive surges into the main communication crystals on the administration building. This cut off Dean Eris's external power, rendering her amplified voice silent and seizing the building's central display screen,Kian (Drain) and Ren (Mechanics): Rushed to the exposed leakage conduit near the Clock Tower. Kian used his maximum Mote-Drain to clear the escaping chaotic mist, while Ren applied a structural integrity seal to stabilize the rupture long enough for the next step,Lyra (Containment) and Lance (Precision): Moved to the front of the administration building, directly facing the windows of the Council chamber. Lyra created a localized, heavily reinforced Containment Field around the area, ensuring their work would not be disrupted by the guards.
Lance accessed the seized central display screen, projecting the data directly from Luke Silverwoods' Logging Module—the final, encrypted file of the unedited structural schematics and personal notes.
He applied his full 10% precision to the central screen, not just to display the data, but to force the Council to comprehend it. He projected Luke's personal note and the schematic of the Shadowed Realm onto the chaotic background of the Aetherium.
The words of Luke Silverwoods appeared in massive, stark letters over the building:
"The Council seeks to harness power. I seek to transcend it. The Aetherium is an obsolete prison. The ultimate future of magic lies in the governance of the Shadowed Realm."
Dean Eris shrieked, launching herself at the students, attempting to take back control of the display.
"The lie is exposed!" Lyra yelled over the chaos, holding the containment field steady.
The Council members—the Headmasters who had framed Luke—were visible through the window, rising from their seats in shock and recognition. They were staring at the schematics, instantly recognizing the true genius and defiance of the man they had deposed.
Lance's gaze dropped to the ground, where Kian and Ren had exposed the ruptured conduit. The chaos was seeping directly into the earth, tracing the path to the Shadowed Realm.
"Dean Eris didn't cause the instability!" Lance shouted, his voice amplified by the raw chaotic energy surrounding him. "Luke Silverwoods built this system, saved the continent, and then resigned because the Council refused to acknowledge the truth! The Aetherium is a prison, and the contained chaos is leaking through the Master Valve into the Shadowed Realm! The fracture is imminent!"
Dean Eris was restrained by her own terrified guards, who were now paralyzed by the public display of Luke's truth. The Council, seeing the undeniable evidence of the rupture and the clear proof of Luke's final structural notes, knew they had been operating on a conspiracy for decades.
The truth was out. The Council knew the Aetherium was a failure.