In the academy courtyard, silence pressed over the place as if even the air had stopped breathing for a moment.
The ground was still, but what was felt inside it was not…
something invisible was crawling beneath the surface.
There, Azara stood in complete steadiness, a black suit clinging to her like part of the shadow, dark hair falling sharply over her shoulders, while her eyes watched every movement in front of her without a single blink.
And suddenly, without any warning, she drew her sword in a short, swift motion, as if she had split the air itself, then spoke in a cold voice with no trace of confusion:
“Who are you?… You are strange.”
Only at that moment did Lucian take a single step forward, no more, as if the place imposed no threat on him, then he answered with a strange calmness that did not suit the situation:
“We are new students in the fourth grade.”
But before the sentence was completed in the air…
something else had already begun.
The ground trembled.
Not a normal tremor, but as if it was remembering something buried deep within it, then decided to release it all at once.
The surface cracked slowly at first…
then with terrifying speed.
And from those cracks, bodies began to emerge.
Skeletons.
One…
then another…
then twenty within moments, rising from beneath the ground as if a door to an ancient world had opened.
The response did not delay.
Genika moved first, as if her body preceded her thoughts, moving with lightning speed, striking the air before the skeletons could reach her, and in short moments she shattered ten of them with her own power, the sound of breaking bones filling the place like an echo of disintegrating skeletons.
On the other side, Dastan was calmer, but his sword was not, surging in a straight line, piercing seven skeletons with his spear without hesitation, as if every movement had been calculated in his mind in advance.
As for Lucian…
he was not hurried.
He was as if seeing the full picture before it began.
One step only, a short movement, then the fall of the rest in silence.
And in a single moment…
Everything stopped.
The sound disappeared.
Movement froze. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
As if the entire academy had suddenly decided to fall silent.
Lucian slowly raised his eyes and stared into the void in front of him as if he sensed something irrational.
“Stop… something is wrong.”
And at the same moment, Azara was still standing, but something in the air around her had begun to change, as if her presence was no longer the center of danger.
Then what was not expected happened.
The eyes of the trio—Genika, Dastan, and Lucian—began to bleed.
Drops of blood came out of their eyes without reason, flowing in a strange calmness, but instead of falling, they began to rise.
The blood did not follow gravity…
It defied it.
It gathered in the air, spinning, twisting, then beginning to take shape.
A human body formed before them from blood alone.
White hair…
blood-red eyes…
a presence that made the air itself heavier.
It was Himera.
She stood before them, as if born from a moment no one yet understood.
She looked at them in long silence, then spoke in a terrifying calm voice:
“Stop… you are students personally recommended by Nakryon.”
The silence was deeper than before.
Even Lucian did not move, but his eyes were trying to understand what was happening without speaking.
And in a single moment…
a drop of blood fell from their fingertips.
Then it grew.
With unnatural speed.
Then it swallowed them completely.
Inside the massive academy, they reappeared again, but the world around them was different.
The walls were higher, the light different, and even the air seemed to obey other laws.
Himera stood before them as if nothing had happened, then began speaking in a steady voice:
“This is the students’ residence center.”
“Double rooms.”
“Lucian and Dastan together.”
“And Genika with Rosaline, room 26.”
Then she added:
“No roaming after 11:00 PM… or points will be deducted.”
“10 points mean expulsion.”
“And any suspicious behavior after expulsion means direct punishment from the director.”
She finally looked at them:
“But you are a special case… recommended by Nakryon.”
“However, you are not ordinary students.”
“You have not passed the early years, yet you are directly in the fourth year.”
“What is your goal?”
Silence returned again.
But this time, Lucian was the one who broke it, in a calm voice as if he was not speaking only about himself, but about something larger than him:
“The goal… is not something easily stated.”
“If my goal is understood by others, is that arrogance?”
“I am searching for transcendence… and for truth.”
“And when I reach it… I will write something I do not know if it has a beginning or an end.”
Himera stared at him for a long moment, then said in a very low voice:
“Just like him…”
At that moment, the word “him” was not just a passing remark…
it felt like a small key locking inside Himera’s mind, then disappearing behind a wall of silence.
But she did not explain, nor add anything else.
She simply turned slowly, as if ending her existence in this place the same way she began it—without noise.
The air inside the academy gradually regained its balance, but the feeling she left did not disappear.
It was as if an invisible pressure still lingered in the place, watching them despite her departure.
The group moved through the long corridors of the academy.
The walls were towering, lit with a calm but unsettling light, as if it did not illuminate the path as much as it revealed those who walked within it.
Their footsteps echoed faintly, repeating then vanishing, as if the place was only copying their sounds to replay them back at them later.