The third stroke...
Did not come.
As if the world itself were afraid to hear it.
A heavy silence blanketed the Academy.
The students.
The teachers.
The sky.
Even the winds, which never ceased their motion, seemed trapped within a single moment.
And in the depths...
Beneath countless layers of stone and ancient seals...
Something was waking up.
Something that should never have awakened.
Nir moved toward the edge of the tower.
His eyes fixed on the ground beneath his feet.
He could not see it.
Yet he could feel it.
He felt a massive presence stretching beneath the entire continent.
A presence so ancient that time itself felt modern by comparison.
He said in a low voice:
"This isn't magic."
The entity stepped beside him.
Then nodded slowly.
"Magic is merely a trace."
Silence fell.
Then it completed:
"Like a shadow left behind after its master is gone."
Something shivered inside Nir.
For the words felt strangely familiar.
As if he already knew them.
But from where?
He did not know.
At that exact moment...
The heartbeat struck once more.
A beat.
The sky shook.
This time, the earth did not fracture.
Space itself did.
Gigantic circles appeared above the continent.
Circles not forged by mortals.
Nor belonging to any school of magic.
They were larger than cities.
Older than civilizations.
Unknown words began to glow within them.
Words no one could read.
Except for one person.
Nir.
He looked at them.
And suddenly...
He understood.
He didn't know how.
He didn't know why.
Yet he understood.
"The Seed..."
The word slipped past his lips without his conscious will.
The entity turned toward him instantly.
For the first time, astonishment clearly surfaced on its face.
"How do you know that name?"
Nir did not answer.
Because he did not know.
The word had not come from his memory.
Rather, from a deeper place.
A place he had not yet reached.
In the depths...
The stones began to crack.
Layer after layer.
Seal after seal.
And with every fracture...
Light leaked through.
Yet that light was not white.
Nor golden.
Nor did it carry any describable color.
Instead, it was like a primordial substance...
Something not yet created.
Suddenly...
A voice emerged.
Not from the sky.
Nor from the earth.
But from every direction at once.
"At last."
Everyone froze.
Even the entity.
"Ages have passed..."
The voice said.
"Yet one of the sons has finally returned."
Nir's eyes widened.
A strange sensation swept through his body.
It wasn't fear.
Nor relief.
It was a feeling akin to someone hearing their true name for the very first time.
"Son..."
Nir whispered.
"What does that mean?"
Yet the voice did not answer.
Instead, the earth began to open up.
Slowly.
Painfully slowly.
As if the world were drawing back a curtain left closed for thousands of years.
Then...
The eye appeared.
Only a single eye.
From the depths.
Larger than palaces.
Larger than mountains.
Larger than anything humans had ever known.
The eye opened slowly.
It looked up at the sky.
Then...
Toward Nir.
And the moment their gazes met—
Memories that were not his own exploded inside his mind.
Worlds burning.
Stars collapsing.
Beings created and then erased.
And an ancient war fought by forces the human mind could never comprehend.
Nir fell to his knees.
Clutching his head tightly.
The images poured in mercilessly.
Secrets.
Truths.
And names.
Names that if an ordinary mortal were to hear, they would lose their mind.
Amidst that flood...
He heard a single sentence.
A sente
nce that made the blood freeze in his veins.
"You are not the mistake."
Silence fell.
"You are what should have returned."