The High Proctor's sanctum door didn't just open; it disintegrated into fine white powder.
"Kaelen Voss!"
The voice belonged to High Proctor Malakor. He stood at the threshold, his beard floating in an aura of emerald fire. Behind him, dozens of elite mages channeled spells that turned the air into a pressurized furnace. "You have stolen the heart of this world. Return the Seed, and I will grant you a merciful execution."
Kaelen felt the Origin Seed burning against his palm. It wasn't just energy; it was gravity.
"Sora, you said this place was built on the ruins of the 'First Jailers', right?" Kaelen whispered, his eyes fixed on the floor beneath the pedestal.
"The legends say the Academy is just a cap on a much deeper bottle," Sora replied, her shadow-claws lengthening. "Why? Planning on digging?"
"Not digging. Falling."
Kaelen slammed his fist—reinforced with [Sovereign Mantle]—directly into the floor where the Origin Seed had sat.
[Skill Activation: Void Pulse (10% Core Cost)] [Instruction: Resonance with the Origin Seed detected...]
The floor didn't break; it unfolded. Ancient, dormant machinery hummed to life deep beneath their feet. A shaft of blue light shot upward, swallowing Kaelen and Sora just as Malakor's emerald fire reached them.
They fell. Not into darkness, but into a hangar of titan proportions.
Sitting in the center of the subterranean sea was a craft that defied the laws of modern magic. It was a jagged splinter of obsidian and silver, shaped like a fallen feather. It was the [Void-Strider: Ark of the Fallen].
"A Star-Ship..." Sora breathed, her cynical mask finally breaking. "They kept it hidden right under their noses."
"They couldn't power it," Kaelen said, walking toward the ship's hull. The obsidian metal pulsed in sync with the Seed in his hand. "They tried to use 'Light' and 'Life' mana. But this thing... it was built for the Abyss."
[Warning: High Proctor Malakor is descending!] [Structural integrity of the Hangar: 40% and falling.]
Kaelen leaped onto the ship's deck. At the center was an altar of black glass. He placed the Origin Seed into the slot.
The ship screamed. Not a mechanical sound, but a psychic roar that shook the very foundations of the Academy above. The obsidian wings began to glow with a dark, violet luminescence.
"Kaelen!" Sora pointed upward.
Malakor had broken through. He was flying down the shaft, his emerald fire forming a colossal fist meant to crush the ship and everyone on it. "YOU SHALL NOT LEAVE THIS WORLD!"
Kaelen grabbed the ship's "helm"—two floating spheres of liquid shadow.
[Engine Sync: 100%] [Initiating: Void Leap.] [Destination: Unknown.]
"Seatbelts, Sora," Kaelen growled.
He pulled the spheres together. The Void-Strider didn't move forward; it folded the space around itself. The emerald fist hit the spot where the ship had been a microsecond too late.
The ship vanished, leaving behind only a vacuum that sucked the entire High Proctor's sanctum down into the depths of the earth.
Kaelen looked through the translucent hull. The purple sky of Valerion was gone. The golden rain was gone. Below them, the planet Earth-Prime looked like a tiny, glowing marble in a sea of infinite black.
[Location: The Astral Sea (Lower Reach)] [Current Objective: Survive the 'Ghost-Beasts' of the Void.] [New Feature Unlocked: Space-Time Navigation.]
"We're out," Sora said, leaning against the obsidian wall, her matte-black eyes reflecting the stars. "What now, Captain?"
Kaelen looked at the distant, shimmering prisons—the stars themselves. "Now, we find out who else is trapped in this sky. And then... we start eating."