The white-haired girl hovered silently above a stone platform outside the city, her wings folding behind her as if they had never existed. The armored attendant at her side kept a respectful distance, clearly aware that this was no ordinary student.
She was Auralis Valendre, a new awakener from one of the region's most prestigious families. Even as a novice, her lineage allowed her the rare privilege of using an awakener crystal from the comfort of her estate, rather than braving the academy's initial chaos. Yet despite this advantage, she still had to attend the university—no one, however noble, could bypass that universal rule.
But her mind was far from mundane concerns. Ever since her awakening, she had been searching—for him.
On the day the crystal had flared beneath her hand, her Eyes of the Future had opened. She had glimpsed a scene so vivid it had shaken her to her core: a masked man, blue eyes swirling like a void, holding a simple cube in his hands. Around him lay corpses—figures whose terrible auras radiated even in death, a silent testament to their power.
No one knew what she had seen. She had shared it only once, with her twin sister, Aurelia Valendre, the only person she trusted with the secret. Unlike Auralis, Aurelia was playful, carefree, and endlessly lazy—yet beneath that seemingly shallow nature, she shared her sister's power: both possessed mythical-grade talents, and apart from their hair color—white for Auralis, red for Aurelia—they looked almost identical.
Auralis replayed the vision in her mind now, quietly, alone. She never spoke of it to anyone else. No professors, no fellow students, no friends. It was her burden, and her purpose.
"…It's him," she whispered to herself, her voice barely audible over the wind. She had no name for him. Only the image remained: the masked figure, calm and untouchable amidst chaos, his cube held loosely in hands that had destroyed—silently, efficiently—all opposition.
Her armored companion glanced at her curiously. "Who is he?"
Auralis did not answer. How could she explain something so extraordinary, so impossible? Not yet.
She had been searching ever since that day. Every mission, every scouting expedition, every observation of the wilderness had been subtly guided by her vision. But no matter how far she looked, she never saw his face—only those eyes. Blue, endless, and cold, like they could swallow the world whole.
And yet, she felt a strange certainty in her heart: she would find him.
Later, as she rested in her family estate, her thoughts drifted to her twin. Aurelia lounged lazily on a chaise, a book open but mostly ignored, flicking her hair out of her eyes.
"You're quiet today," Aurelia teased. "Not brooding over mana arrays or monsters for once?"
Auralis offered only a faint smile, her mind elsewhere. "Some things… can't be shared."
Aurelia shrugged, clearly unconcerned. "Suit yourself. Just don't let it make you dull, sis. The world's got enough dour geniuses as it is."
Auralis' lips twitched in the hint of a smile. It was the only warmth she allowed herself when thinking of the vision—the only human comfort in a search that would define the rest of her life.
And somewhere in the edges of the world, she already knew: the one she sought existed. She just had to wait—and watch—for the moment when their paths would finally cross.
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Auralis Valendre sat by the window of her family estate, the city sprawling beneath her like a living map. The wind stirred the white strands of her hair, but her gaze remained distant, fixed on nothing and everything at once.
She didn't even know where to begin. The vision—the masked man with the swirling blue eyes, the cube, and the corpses of terrible figures—had haunted her ever since her awakening. Every detail was burned into her mind, yet the path to him remained a complete mystery.
There was only one thing she felt certain of: if someone like him existed in the world now, he would not go unnoticed. Legends of strength, awakeners capable of unparalleled feats, always left a trace.
Her plan, then, was simple. She would enter the university. She would sit for the entrance exams, attend the lectures, participate in the trials—anything to increase the chance that she might cross paths with him. Every rumor, every whisper among awakeners could be a lead. Every name she heard could bring her closer.
She had no inkling of the coincidence waiting to entangle them. Somewhere in the city, a boy named Zane—Zael's carefully crafted clone—was about to make his debut. Zael had meticulously designed Zane's identity to draw attention, to shine brightly while Zael himself remained hidden in the shadows. Every detail, from his talents to his skills, was planned to ensure that Zael could operate without scrutiny.
All except one.
In his meticulous design, Zael had overlooked a small but significant detail: Zane's eyes. They were the same swirling blue as Zael's. A detail that, by chance or fate, would be the thread connecting Auralis to the very person she sought, even if she didn't realize it yet.
She pressed her palms together, resting her chin atop them. "I'll find him," she whispered. "I don't care how long it takes. I'll find the one from my vision."
Her twin, Aurelia, sprawled lazily across a chaise nearby, glanced at her sister. "You really make things complicated for yourself, don't you?" she said with a smirk, clearly unconcerned. "Why not just wait and see? Someone like that, if he exists, will make himself known eventually."
Auralis shook her head, a faint determination in her pale eyes. "No," she said quietly. "I can't wait. I have to be where he could be. I have to be prepared."
And so her path was set. She would take the university entrance exams, join the same ranks as all other new awakeners, and follow the faintest trace of the vision. She did not yet know that the boy she would hear about first—the one who would draw every eye in the university—was Zane, a high-profile genius designed by Zael himself, meant to eclipse the real Zael.
It was a plan within a plan, one she would unwittingly stumble across, guided by the strange pull of fate and the haunting image of swirling blue eyes.
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