The echoes of applause and whispers within the testing arena faded slowly…
But the impact of what had just happened… remained etched in everyone’s minds.
The forgotten student.
The one no one remembered yesterday…
Had suddenly become the personal pupil of Selene Arctis.
The second most powerful professor within Resonance Academy.
And even worse…
Something terrifying had appeared behind him for a fleeting moment.
Something that made even the Headmaster forget how to breathe.
As the test concluded, the stands began to empty gradually.
Students whispered.
“Did you see that pressure?”
“What was that thing behind him?”
“I swear I saw a crown…”
“No… it was just a hallucination.”
As for the professors…
They were more silent.
Because only the strong understood one thing:
That was no ordinary Aura.
Sami was walking behind Selene through the long corridors of the academy.
No one dared to stop them.
Students moved out of the way automatically.
Professors eyed him with strange looks.
Even the surveillance systems above the ceiling…
Would pause for a moment whenever he passed.
But this time…
The black ring on his finger was glowing softly.
The Ring of Existence.
And for the first time…
People were actually remembering him.
A student walked past him and said:
“You’re the student Selene chose, right?”
Sami stopped for a moment.
It was such a simple thing…
But his heart clenched tightly.
Because it was the first time in his life…
That someone actually knew who he was.
As for Selene…
She was walking ahead of him calmly, as if she hadn’t destroyed half of the arena an hour ago.
Her black coat moved behind her with cold fluidity, while the mechanical lens near her eye sent small blue pulses every few seconds.
Suddenly, she said without looking at him:
“You are terrible.”
Sami blinked.
“…Thank you?”
She replied immediately:
“Your breathing technique is catastrophic.”
“Your control over perception is primitive.”
“Your energetic balance is worse than I expected.”
She then paused for a moment.
And added coldly:
“But your endurance… is illogical.”
Sami felt something strange inside.
Anyone else would have been annoyed by her words.
But instead…
He felt happy.
Because she was evaluating him seriously.
Because she saw him.
Inside his mind…
Lira laughed loudly.
“Hahaha! She’s treating you like a puppy she found on the street.”
“Shut up.”
He said inside his head.
She jumped in front of him, walking backward inside the void.
“No, no, it’s quite clear.”
Then she mimicked Selene dramatically:
“You are weak… terrible… catastrophic… but I shall keep you.”
Seraphine burst into laughter.
As for Vaeldrak…
He simply closed his eyes.
While Elysion said quietly:
“She is serious.”
Selene finally stopped in front of a massive metallic door at the end of the corridor.
An entirely black door.
It bore no logo.
No identification system.
Just a small silver circle in the center.
She placed her hand upon it.
And suddenly—
The door split into complex geometric layers, as if the metal was rearranging itself at the atomic level.
Then it opened slowly.
She said:
“Enter.”
The moment Sami stepped inside…
He stopped in his tracks.
Because what was in front of him…
Was not a laboratory.
It looked as if someone had stolen a piece of the future and placed it inside the academy.
A massive room extending dozens of meters downward.
Giant gravity engines spinning inside transparent magnetic rings.
Spacetime schematics moving directly in the air.
Black energy orbs suspended inside containment fields.
Screens filled with equations that didn’t even resemble human mathematics.
And in the middle of the laboratory…
There was something that looked like a giant mechanical heart pulsing with blue light.
Every pulse of it…
Made the air vibrate.
Sami’s eyes widened.
“…What is this place?”
Selene answered as she took off her black glove:
“My laboratory.”
Then she added calmly:
“Here, I study perception… and existence.”
Sami approached one of the screens slowly.
The equations were moving at a terrifying speed.
He didn’t even understand some of the symbols.
But he was able to read one sentence:
OBSERVATIONAL STABILITY THEORY
She said as she passed by a spectral screen:
“Existence does not depend on matter alone.”
Then she waved her hand.
A picture of a quantum particle vibrating within a vacuum appeared.
“Everything in the universe exists because there is someone observing it.”
Then she pressed her finger on the image.
The particle turned into a blurry wave.
“When it is not being observed…”
The image distorted.
“It becomes only a probability.”
She looked at him directly.
“You are an anomaly.”
Sami felt a slight shiver.
Selene continued:
“Your existence is like quantum particles before the collapse of the wave function.”
Huge blue waves appeared behind her.
“The world cannot fully anchor you.”
Then she pointed to the ring on his finger.
“But that ring… forces reality to observe you.”
Sami was silent for a while.
Then he said:
“…That is why people started remembering me.”
She nodded.
“Existence requires witnesses.”
And the moment she said that…
She suddenly stopped.
Without reason.
Her mechanical eye emitted a strange flash.
Then…
She placed her hand over her heart for a brief moment.
A strange feeling passed through her.
Warmth.
Longing.
A slight pain for which she had no explanation.
As if something very old deep within her soul…
Had awakened for a moment.
Deep within her consciousness…
A massive black throne appeared.
A red sky.
Four knights kneeling.
And a shadow seated upon the throne.
His eyes carried the end of worlds.
And at that moment…
A voice whispered within her soul:
“I have finally found you… my Emperor.”
Silence.
Then—” Master of Disasters and Chaos…”
” Master of Wars…”
” King of all negative emotions…”
” Kaleith.”
Selene’s body trembled slightly.
Then she suddenly returned to reality.
She blinked several times.
“…Strange.”
Sami looked up at her.
“Are you okay?”
She looked at him for a long time.
A very long time.
Then she said calmly:
“…Yes.”
But her heart…
Was beating faster than usual.
In the background, inside Sami’s mind…
Lira froze suddenly.
Her eyes widened slowly.
“…Impossible.”
She turned toward Selene with genuine shock for the first time.
As for Seraphine…
Her smile vanished.
While Vaeldrak opened his eyes slowly.
And Elysion finally said:
“…So even the souls have begun to return.”
Sami blinked in confusion.
“What do you mean?”
But the four…
Were silent.
Sami sat near one of the tables quickly.
Then he took out a notebook and started writing frantically.
Equations.
Notes.
Drawings.
He was so focused that he didn’t even notice Selene approaching him.
She looked at the notebook for two seconds.
Then—
She took it and threw it directly into the trash bin.
Sami froze.
“…My notebook.”
Selene said it without mercy:
“Here, I do not want you to memorize theories.”
Then she leaned in slightly.
“I want you to live them.”
He blinked nervously.
“…What?”
She turned toward the main laboratory.
“There are students who learn Manifestation.”
She waved her hand.
An image of a student creating a sword out of energy appeared.
“And others who learn Decay.”
The image turned into matter disintegrating within the void.
“But most of them fail.”
Then she looked at him over her shoulder.
“Because they rely on memorization.”
Silence.
Then she smiled.
And for the first time…
That fully insane smile appeared.
A wide, uncomfortably scary smile.
Terrifyingly overconfident.
And her eyes became sharp, as if she were about to enter a war. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Not an evil smile…
But the smile of someone very excited to see someone else survive hell.
The kind that makes you freeze for a second…
Because you realize you are going to suffer a lot.
Then you hear her say with eyes gleaming with insane enthusiasm:
“You are about to be destroyed… and you will thank me later.”
Even the air inside the laboratory became heavier.
As for Sami…
He felt fear of her for the first time, truly.
Selene said with terrifying enthusiasm:
“I will get you to Rank EX.”
One step toward him.
“And I will make you… the strongest human the Empire has ever known.”
And the moment she said “Empire”…
She felt a strange sting inside her soul.
As if the word held a meaning deeper than she knew.
But she ignored it.
As for inside Sami’s mind—
Lira screamed:
“Oh no.”
Seraphine began to laugh madly.
“You are finished.”
Even Vaeldrak muttered:
“…Spare him a little.”
But Selene…
Was at the peak of her scientific enthusiasm now.
She pointed toward a huge metal room below.
“Start.”
Five minutes later…
Sami regretted every decision of his life.
“Why is the wall above me?!”
He was falling within a distorted gravity field while the floor and ceiling swapped places every two seconds.
Selene shouted from above:
“Because gravity is a relative concept!”
He collided with the ceiling.
Or the floor.
He no longer knew.
Inside the room, the laws of physics were constantly collapsing.
Once, time became so slow that he saw beads of sweat floating in front of him.
Then suddenly—
Everything accelerated terrifically.
Even his heartbeats became asynchronous.
Selene said as she monitored the data:
“Perception determines the direction.”
She flicked her finger.
The world flipped entirely.
And Sami was walking on the wall.
“…I’m going to die.”
“Excellent.”
Selene said it with enthusiasm.
“That means you are learning.”
Outside…
Some researchers were watching through the armored glass.
One of them swallowed hard.
“…Is this a training session?”
The other replied:
“No.”
Silence.
“This is academic torture.”
An hour later…
Sami was panting on the floor.
His whole body was shaking.
But Selene did not stop.
Instead, she descended inside herself.
Then she walked through the gravity disturbance as if the laws of physics personally respected her.
She approached him.
Then she said:
“Focus.”
She raised her hand.
A small energy cube appeared above her finger.
“Manifestation.”
The cube began to condense.
“Forcing energy to take a form.”
Then—
The cube shattered and turned into black dust.
“Decay.”
Disappearance.
Decomposition.
Structural death.
Then she looked directly into his eyes.
“Every user has one nature.”
She paused for a moment.
Then she added:
“But you…”
Her mechanical eye widened slightly.
“I feel like you have two.”
Sami’s heart stopped for a moment.
Because her words…
Were very close to the truth.
And at that moment…
Selene looked at him in a long silence.
Then she smiled faintly.
A small smile this time.
But strangely warm.
And she said quietly:
“…Finally.”
Sami blinked.
“What?”
She was silent for a moment.
As if something inside her wanted to say other words.
Words older.
Deeper.
But she could not understand them.
So she settled for saying:
“I have found someone who can keep up with me.”
But deep within her soul…
The old voice was still whispering:
“I have finally found you… My Emperor.”