Chapter 3: The Crack That Shouldn't Exist
Aren didn't sleep well.
The stable was quiet, but his mind wasn't. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the crystal again—cold, lifeless… and the silence that followed.
No ability detected.
He sat up abruptly, rubbing his face. "Stop it…"
Outside, dawn hadn't fully broken. The world was still gray, half-asleep.
But something felt… wrong.
Aren stood and stepped out of the stable.
That's when he saw it.
The inn.
Or what was left of it.
The wooden building was intact—but the air around it was different. Heavy. Pressured. Like the world itself was holding its breath.
And in the center courtyard—
The crystal.
Aren froze.
It shouldn't be here.
His heart tightened. "Why is an academy testing crystal… here?"
He stepped forward slowly.
No one stopped him.
In fact… there was no one.
Not the innkeeper. Not the travelers. Not the voices from yesterday.
Just silence.
A deep, unnatural silence.
Aren's fingers tightened. "Hello?"
Nothing.
He walked closer.
The crystal stood upright in the dirt, taller than him, its surface smooth and dark like glass. But now… faint cracks ran through it.
He frowned. "It was perfect yesterday…"
Then he saw something worse.
A thin black glow pulsing inside the cracks.
Thump.
Aren stepped back instantly.
His instincts screamed at him to run—but his legs didn't move.
The crystal… reacted.
Not like before.
Not rejection.
Recognition.
The black glow pulsed again—stronger.
And suddenly—
A voice echoed inside his head.
"Finally… a vessel that doesn't belong."
Aren's breath stopped.
"…What?"
The ground beneath the crystal trembled.
A crack spread across the dirt.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Like something underneath was waking up.
Aren stumbled back. "No… no, this wasn't here yesterday…"
The voice returned, closer now.
"You are empty."
Aren clenched his fists. "I'm not empty."
A pause.
Then—
"No ability… no imprint… no resistance…"
The crystal's glow intensified.
The cracks widened.
And something dark seeped out.
Not fire. Not smoke.
Something heavier.
Like shadow given form.
Aren's heart pounded violently. "Stay back!"
He turned to run—
But the shadow moved first.
It shot forward and wrapped around his arm.
Cold.
Not painful.
Wrong.
Aren gasped—but instead of pulling away…
He felt something.
A pull.
Like the shadow wasn't attacking him…
It was searching him.
The voice whispered again, almost curious now.
"Impossible…"
Aren's vision blurred.
Images flashed inside his mind:
A sky torn open A battlefield with no sound Crystals like this one, scattered across ruins And a boy… standing alone in darkness
Aren dropped to one knee. "What… are you?"
The shadow tightened.
Not to crush him—
But to merge.
The crystal cracked wider.
And for the first time in history—
It reacted to a Zero.
A deep pulse exploded outward.
The air shattered with invisible force.
Birds in the distance flew away screaming.
And the shadow inside the crystal whispered one final line:
"We finally found you."
Aren collapsed.
Everything went black.
But somewhere in the silence…
His heartbeat changed.
Slowly.
Unnaturally.
Like something inside him had finally woken up.
End of Chapter 3
Not miss chapter 4
"Everything changes in Chapter 4."