Here, at Virellia Academy, silence was sterile, engineered, and intentional.
Every wall watched, every breath measured.
They didn't say I was being tested; they made it feel like I was constantly being measured.
The Resonance Arena pulsed with containment glyphs, etched into the crystalline floor. A tiered viewing chamber loomed overhead, where instructors sat like statues behind polished glass, their presence colder than the wind outside the eastern spire.
Velari's voice echoed from a focus rune overhead. "Initiate Kalel D. Ashborn. Engage a Construct-Class opponent. Observation only. Combat data recorded. Deviations trigger emergency protocols."
Fight, but don't shine too brightly.
Containment masked as training.
I stepped into the designated circle. No applause, no introductions. Just glyphs awakening beneath my feet.
From a gateway across the arena, a six-limbed war-forged beast emerged a voidsteel beast with humming resonance cores. It was meant to look clumsy, predictable.
But it wasn't.
I wasn't here to win; I was here to learn them.
The first engagement was clean. I studied its movement, strikes, and the grid's response time. They watched for mana output, muscle tension, even my eye movement. I gave them everything they wanted, except the truth.
Ten minutes in, it landed a hit, sending me sprawling.
Murmurs above. Not concern, but satisfaction.
The prodigy was exactly what they thought middling, manageable, mine.
Let them think it.
I only need time.
Then something changed.
A low thrum from the containment gate, shimmering with glyphlight, rippled across the resonance grid, off-rhythm.
Something felt wrong.
Velari's voice returned, sharper, "Hold position. Terminating trial. Gate irregularity detected—"
But the words cut off.
Everything fractured.
The teleportation circle surged with raw energy, spasming, ripping, and twisting light.
My containment grid flared, the world blurred, my balance vanished.
Nothing.
Transition – Unknown Location.
I woke to the scent of moss and iron, the cold air, the softness of leaves, the distant wind.
Forest.
Not the academy, not the empire's interior.
I rose, alert.
Ancient trees towered, the sky tinged silver by dusk. The light was unnatural, soft, weeping.
Quiet.
Too quiet.
I looked down.
The glyph on my wristband was dead. The containment grid failed.
No one knew where I was.
I didn't know what brought me here.
The air was heavy, denser, wilder, older.
Something ancient lingered.
I knelt, touched the earth.
It pulsed, like a heartbeat buried deep.
I felt eyes, not human, not beast, watching, not with hunger or fear, but with recognition.
I rose.
For the first time since awakening the Origin Star, I felt I was where I was meant to be.