Professer Hadrian closed his heavy tome with a thud that echoed like a gravel against the marble of the Grand Plaza. His voice, weathered but commanding, cut through the thin mountain air. "The path is open, the task is set. Do not falter, for the realm beyond cares little for your pedigree- only your power." With a sweeping, authoritative gesture, he pointed toward the eastern corner where the air itself seemed to tear. A shimmering veil of iridescent energy pulsed there, a portal that bled a cold, silver light onto the paving stones. A nervous murmur rippled through the gathered initiates, a collective intake of breath that sounded like wind through dry leaves, before the first of them began to shuffle toward the light.
Adrian stood amidst the flow, his boots clicking rhythmically against the stone. He kept his chin tilted high, his jaw set so tight it ached. Beneath his ribs, his heart hammered against steady rhythm of defiance. 'Let them whisper,' he thought, his fingers brushing the cold pommel of his hilt. 'Let them laugh at the 'Omen Bird'. Today, the obsidian feathers won't be a sign of bad luck; they'll be the last thing these trials see.' He watched the students ahead vanish into the silver haze, feeling a surge of steely resolve. He wasn't just a boy with scavenger spirit; he was a contender. He stepped into the shimmering veil, the world dissolving into a roar of white noise and static.
The transition was a violent jerk to the senses. As Adrian's boots met solid ground again, the metallic scent of the plaza was replaced by the cloying smell of damp earth and ancient pine. His eyes widened, darting across a landscape that defied logic. Ahead lay a vast, suffocating expanse of dark woods, the trees gnarled like skeletal fingers reaching for a twilight sky that hung heavy with purple and bruised-gold clouds. But it wasn't the forest that stole his breath- it was the vibration.
The ground groaned. A low, subsonic temor rattled Adrian's teeth, and instinctively, he stumbled back. He looked up, and the "steely resolve" he had worn like armor didn't just crack- it disintegrated like a castle of cards caught in a gale. Dominating the celestial dome were the Dragon Spirits. They were colossal, serpentine silhouettes of pure crackling ether, their wings spanning the width of the forest, their eyes glowing like dying stars. One let out a roar that wasn't just sound; it was a physical force that knocked the wind from Adrian's lungs.
"How..." Adrian whispered, his voice cracking, a tiny, fragile sound in the face of such primordial power. "How am I supposed to dispatch that? It's a mountain...it's a god." He took another step back, his boots slipping on the slick moss. The sheer scale of the task turned his blood to slush. In the grip of that cold, suffocating terror, his mind went black. The training, the mantras, the very act of summoning- it all vanished. He forgot the hilt at his side; he forgot the bird in his soul. He was just a boy standing in a graveyard of giants.
"Still trembling, 'Crow'?" A voice, slick with unearned arrogance, sliced through Adrian's panic.
Valerius stepped past him, his posture relaxed as if he were walking through a garden. With a fluid, practiced motion, Valerius drew his hilt. "Watch closely, Adrian. This is what a true Guardian looks like." Gold light erupted from Valerieus's blade, coalescing into the form of a massive Spectral Lion. The beast roared back at the dragons, its mane made of dancing sunlight. Valerius cast one final, mocking glance over his shoulder- a look of pure pity that stung worse than a lash- before pointing his blade skyward. "Go! Tear the stars from the sky!"
The lion lauched itself into the air, treading on platforms of light as it charged the looming dragons. Around them, the twilight exploded into a chaotic symphony of violence. Other students followed suit, summoning wolves of frost and hawks of flame, their shouts filling the air as they engaged the spirit head-on.
Finally, with hands that shook so violently he nearly dropped his weapon, Adrian managed to draw his own hilt. A thin, wispy trail of black smoke rose from the steel, forming into the shape of crow- Obsidian. The bird did not roar. It did not glow. It simply materialized, its feathers the color of a void that light couldn't pass.
Obsidian turned its head a full 180 degrees, its bead-like eyes fixing on Adrian with an intelligence that felt uncomfortably ancient and deeply judgmental. 'Took you long enough to remember I exist, boy,' the spirit seemed to project into Adrian's mind, though its beak never moved. The crow looked up at the glittering carnage in the sky, watching the lion and other spirits clash with dragon spirits. 'Let them play their little games. Let them exhaust themselves on this illusions.' The crow hopped onto Adrian's shoulder, its talons digging through the fabric of his tunic. It leaned in close to his ear, a silent weight that felt heavier than lead. 'I will wait,' the spirit thought darkly, 'The fear is a fine seasoning. Eventually, you will be desperate enough to let the real darkness out. And then, they will see who is truly weak.'
Adrian didn't hear the crow's thoughts; he couldn't hear anything over the sound of his own thudding heart. He stood frozen, a statue of terror in a world of fire and shadow, his knuckles white around a sword he was too afraid to swing.
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High above the dark, magical canopy of the trial grounds, the elevated observation platform stood as a silent island of stone amidst the swirling mists. Principal Augustine Kaelen, a man whose presence was as sharp and polished as a ceremonial blade, stood at the marble balustrade, his eyes scanning the chaos below with clinical precision. Beside him sat Professer Hadrian, his legs covered by a heavy wool blanket in his ornate wheelchair, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the armrest.
"The crop is promising this year," Kaelen remarked, his voice smooth and untroubled by the distant roars of the dragon spirits. He gestured toward a localized explosion of golden light in the distance. "Young Valerius, in particular. His spectral lion has already brought down three minor drakes. A masterful display of ancestral power."
Hadrian offered a curt, knowing nod. "It was to be expected, Principal. He is the Archon's son, after all. The blood of legendary summoner dosen't just flow in his veins; it demands excellence. He isn't just fighting; he is performing."
They continued to watch in silence for a moment, the flickering lights of a hundred different elemental spirits- frost wolves, fire hawks, and stone golems- illuminating the gnarled trees of the dark forest. However, Kaelen's gaze eventually drifted away from the brilliance of Valerius and settled on a patch of stagnant shadow near the portal entrance. There, a lone figure stood paralyzed.
"Hadrian," Kaelen said, his brow furrowing as he looked at the frozen boy. "You did emphasize the stakes of this task, did you not? The bottom hundred scores are to be stripped of their ranks and escorted from the academy by nightfall. Their journey as summoners end today. Permanent exclusion."
"I was quite clear, Principal," Hadrian replied, checking his ornate pocket watch. The golden hands ticked forward with cold indifference. "And it seems young Adrian is intent on being at the top of that list. He hasn't moved an inch. Fear is a powerful filter; it seems he has been caught in its teeth."
Kaelen leaned forward, his keen eyes narrowing. He didn't see the boy's trembling hands; he saw the bird. "Look at the spirit, Hadrian. The obsidian crow. It isn't cowering. It isn't even looking at the dragons." He paused, a chill that had nothing to do with the wind creeping up his spine. "It looks...patient. As if it is waiting for a feast that hasn't been surveyed yet. I sense something unusual. A void-like destiny that shouldn't exist in a novice's summon."
Hadrian shifted in his wheelchair, his expression darkening. "You aren't the only one. Grand Summoner Elara visited my chambers yesterday evening. She spoke of a ripple in the ether- something darker, something ancient- emanating from that boy's crow spirit. She was deeply unsettled."
"Elara is rarely wrong," Kaelen whispered, his eyes locked on the crow. "But look at the time. There are barely three minutes remaining. What can a boy who cannot even lift his sword do in three minutes? Perhaps we are overestimating a scavenger bird and a terrified child."
As the Principal turned to redirect his attention to the other students, the air around the platform suddenly turned brittle. A sound, sharp and jagged as broken glass, pierced through the cold atmosphere.
Caw.
A single cry. Then before the echoes could die, a hundred more joined it. Caw. Caw. Caw. The sound multiplied exponentially until thousands of shrieking voice drowned out the roars of the dragons. From the shadows of the twisted trees, a literal sea of black feathers erupted, swirling into a cyclonic vortex around Adrian, obscuring him from the view. Above him, the bruised twilight sky didn't just darken- it tore. A jagged rift of pure, absolute void opened in the heavens, leaking a coldness that made the spectral dragons pause in mid-flight.
On the platform, Kaelen and Hadrian gripped the railing, their faces drained of color. Below, the battlefield fell into a terrified hush. Valerius's golden lion, once the pinnacle of courage, tucked its tail and let out a whimpering whine, retreating toward its master. Other students stumbled backward, their weapons clattering to the dirt, as their spirits began to quiver and dissolve in the presence of the suffocating dark energy rising from the spot where the "weak" boy had stood.
"God's above," Hadrian breathed, his pocket watch slipping from his numb fingers and clattering to the floor. "That isn't a summon. That's an invitation."
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