The academy trembled violently.
Stone cracked beneath the students’ feet as black tendrils continued bursting through the dormitory floor like living roots.
Screams echoed everywhere.
Some students ran.
Others froze completely in terror.
Nyra could barely breathe.
The monstrous voice still echoed inside her skull.
“SERAPHINE.”
Pain clawed through her chest every time it spoke.
Kael stood protectively before her now, silver fire burning around his body while black smoke curled endlessly from beneath his feet.
The sight looked impossible.
Beautiful.
Terrifying.
A ghost wrapped in holy flame.
The darkness surrounding the dormitory hissed violently at his presence.
Like it feared him.
Kael’s silver eyes remained fixed on the shadows crawling across the walls.
“Get everyone out,” he ordered coldly.
No one moved.
The students were too terrified.
Then Kael looked toward them fully.
And suddenly—
Every chandelier in the dormitory exploded.
The silver fire around him intensified sharply.
Power flooded the room so violently the walls themselves began shaking.
“NOW.”
Students immediately ran.
Panic erupted again.
Liora grabbed Nyra’s arm tightly.
“We have to go!”
But Nyra couldn’t move.
Her eyes remained locked on the growing crack splitting through the dormitory floor.
Something enormous was beneath them.
She could feel it breathing.
Waiting.
Hungry.
The crack widened suddenly.
A massive crimson eye opened beneath the floorboards.
Nyra’s blood froze.
The eye looked ancient.
Far older than humanity itself.
And the moment it looked at her—
The whispers inside her head screamed together.
“VESSEL.”
The eye widened slightly.
Recognizing her.
Then the creature beneath the academy laughed again.
“I FOUND YOU.”
The floor exploded upward.
Students screamed.
Nyra stumbled backward in horror.
Kael immediately stepped in front of her.
Silver flames erupted from his hand.
BOOM.
The entire dormitory exploded with light.
The monstrous arm shrieked violently as the fire burned through its flesh.
Black blood splattered across the walls.
But more arms began crawling upward through the cracks.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
The academy bell suddenly rang loudly overhead.
One ring.
Two.
Three.
The whispers inside Nyra’s mind became unbearable.
And suddenly—
She remembered.
Not everything.
Just one moment.
A memory.
Kael kneeling before her beneath a blood-red moon centuries ago.
Begging.
Crying.
“Please don’t seal yourself away.”
Nyra gasped sharply.
The vision vanished instantly.
Kael looked back at her immediately.
He saw it in her eyes.
“You remembered something.”
Before Nyra could answer—
The dormitory ceiling split apart violently.
A creature crawled through.
Its body was made entirely of black bones and writhing shadows.
No face.
Only a giant mouth stretching across its skull.
The Smiling Beast.
Students below screamed in terror.
The creature’s enormous head twisted toward Nyra instantly.
And smiled wider.
Kael’s expression darkened.
“Run.”
The Smiling Beast lunged.
Kael vanished into black smoke instantly.
The collision shattered half the dormitory wall.
Nyra fell hard onto the floor.
Silver fire and black shadows exploded violently across the room as Kael fought the creature head-on.
The entire academy shook from the impact.
Nyra stared in horror.
Kael moved inhumanly fast.
One moment beside her—
But the Smiling Beast wasn’t trying to kill him.
It kept reaching toward Nyra.
Toward her specifically.
Liora yanked Nyra upward again.
“MOVE!”
They ran.
The dormitory hallways had become chaos.
Students pushed past each other while teachers shouted protective spells across collapsing corridors.
The academy itself sounded alive now.
Groaning.
Breathing.
Like something beneath it was waking up fully.
Another loud crash echoed behind them.
Nyra glanced back briefly.
And froze.
Kael stood surrounded by shadows at the end of the hallway.
Blood covered one side of his face now.
But ghosts weren’t supposed to bleed.
The realization sent fear through her instantly.
The Smiling Beast towered above him.
And behind the creature—
The darkness itself was opening.
A gigantic crimson eye stared through the void.
Watching Nyra.
Watching her with endless hunger.
Then a voice echoed directly inside her soul.
Not loud.
Soft.
Ancient.
“Come back to me, Seraphine.”
Nyra stopped running.
The voice felt warm.
Familiar.
Like home.
Liora grabbed her face sharply.
“Nyra!”
Nyra blinked violently.
The strange trance shattered instantly.
“What—”
“Don’t listen to it!” Liora shouted.
The hallway suddenly tilted sideways.
The academy shook so violently that windows exploded inward everywhere.
Students screamed again.
And from somewhere deep below the academy—
Something gigantic roared.
The sound did not belong to any creature meant to exist.
The wolves outside began howling desperately.
Kael’s expression changed instantly.
Fear.
Real fear.
Then he shouted something that made Nyra’s blood run cold.
“THE SEAL IS BREAKING!”