The silence of the post-trial corridor was a physical pressure against Arlan's battered eardrums. His body screamed in protest with every step—burned skin, bruised ribs, a skull that felt like it had been used as a tuning fork. The worst was the hollow, ragged feeling in his core. His Universal Mana Pool was a drained well at 0/100, and his Umbral Pool was a pathetic trickle at 3/65. The spatial backlash was a constant, drilling pain behind his eyes, a reminder of the violent crack he'd forced in his own foundation.
Yet, beneath the pain, a cold, electric clarity hummed. He had done it. He had dominated.
His personal system scrolled final results.
```
[Celestial Ascent Academy Trials - FINAL RESULTS]
[Overall Rank: 3rd]
[Stage 1 (Resilience): 87th Percentile]
[Stage 2 (Ingenuity): 94th Percentile]
[Stage 3 (Combat): 99th Percentile]
[Primary Affinity Registered: Spatial (Unstable - Anomaly Flag)]
[Secondary Affinity Detected: [ERROR - Unclassifiable Umbral Signature]
[Cultivation Base: 1st Order, Rank 4]
[Conclusion: Admitted. Designation: High-Potential Anomaly (Observation Protocol Enacted)]
```
Third. Lyra Solara had taken first, her recovery and sheer dominance in the first two stages securing her spot. Second was a brute-force lightning adept named Kaelen Stonefist. And then him. The shadow-wielding spatial anomaly who had torn a star out of the sky.
He followed the glowing mana-dots on the floor to the Processing Hall. It was a sterile, white room humming with administrative energy. Automatons scanned candidates, issued academy ident chips, and assigned dormitory sectors. The line moved in a hushed, shell-shocked quiet.
When his turn came, the scanner washed over him. It beeped sharply, flashing amber. A human proctor—the hawk-faced wind user from earlier, whose nameplate read Proctor Gale—stepped over, his aura a tightly wound vortex of steely grey. 4th Order, Commander-rank. Likely Rank 2 or 3.
"Thorne." Gale's voice was flat. "Your mana signature earlier was… irregular. The system has flagged you for a manual integration interview. Follow me."
Arlan said nothing, falling into step behind the man. They left the main hall, moving into the administrative heart of the Academy—a labyrinth of polished halls lined with portraits of past heroes and displays of ancient artifacts. The silence between them was heavy.
"The interview is a cover," the shadow-voice whispered in his mind. "They seek to probe you. Your secondary pool is masked, but the spatial instability is a beacon. Maintain the narrative: a traumatized late bloomer whose power manifests under extreme stress. It is not a lie."
It wasn't. It just wasn't the whole truth.
They entered a spartan office. Waiting behind a wide desk of dark wood was a woman who radiated calm, immense power. Her hair was slate-grey, her eyes the color of a still lake. She wore simple proctor robes, but her aura… it was a deep, profound blue, dense as a neutron star, swirling with intricate, runic patterns of silver light. Head Proctor Iliana Vance. Her cultivation base was staggering—6th Order, Monarch-rank. Likely Rank 7 or 8. The pressure in the room wasn't aggressive, but it was absolute, like being at the bottom of a serene, inescapable ocean.
Proctor Gale gave a slight bow and retreated, closing the door.
"Sit, Arlan Thorne." Her voice was quiet, but it filled the space. He sat in the offered chair. "Your performance was the most conceptually interesting we have seen in a decade. You also caused the most property damage to a trial arena since the incident of '78." A ghost of a smile touched her lips. "A spatial affinity. Truly rare. And it appears… symbiotic with a non-standard energy signature the scanners could not classify."
She leaned forward slightly. The runic patterns in her aura pulsed. "I am an expert in anomalous mana phenomena. What you did with the light-cloud—using the interstitial shadows within radiant energy—was not a spell. It was a profound intuitive leap into applied metaphysical theory. The kind of leap a tech-savant or a runic prodigy makes when they see the underlying code of reality. Tell me, before your Awakening, were you inclined toward… intricate systems? Puzzles? Code?"
Arlan's mind, despite the pain, latched onto the offered branch. His childhood wasn't just about failed affinity training. It had been filled with a desperate, lonely fascination for the things he could understand. He'd taken apart and reassembled his father's old service tablet at age eight. By twelve, he was writing crude optimization scripts for household mana-grids. After his parents' death, he'd buried himself in the theoretical architecture of the Universal System itself, trying to find a loophole, a backdoor, anything to explain his own failure.
She thinks I am using some kind of tech to control the shadows. Well, that's good for me, Arlan thought
"I… understand how things fit together," he said, his voice rough. "Machines. Systems. If I can't control the power, I wanted to understand the framework that holds it."
Head Proctor Vance nodded slowly. "That intellect is your true affinity, Arlan. The spatial power is the gift, but the mind that weaponized darkness within light is the wielder. The Academy has a track for such minds. The Arcanum Cohort. It is for those who manipulate the laws, not just the elements. Tech-savants, rune-smiths, curse-breakers, dimensional theorists. Your combat style—unconventional, ruthless, efficient—would also be… appreciated there."
It was an offer. A placement. But also a gilded cage within the larger cage. A place to put the unpredictable weapon where they could study it.
"The other track is the Ascendant Blade Cohort," she continued. "For the traditional powerhouses. The Lyra Solaras of the world. I suspect you would find it stifling."
"The Arcanum Cohort," Arlan repeated. It fit. It gave him cover to pursue knowledge, to understand the systems he needed to break. To find the weaknesses in things like the Silent Accord's control. "I accept."
"Wise." She made a note on a light-screen. "Your dorm assignment will reflect this. You will have access to the Foundry—our fabrication and enchanting labs—and the Scriptorium for runic studies. However." Her gaze sharpened, the lake-like eyes turning glacial. "Your spatial instability is a danger to you and others. The backlash you're feeling now is minor compared to what a true loss of control could cause. Therefore, your first mandatory assignment is to report to the Sanctum of Stabilization twice weekly. We will work on grounding that power before it consumes you."
It was a leash. A necessary one, from her perspective. From his, it was an opportunity for guided, sanctioned training in the very thing he needed most.
"Understood, Head Proctor."
She dismissed him. Proctor Gale was waiting outside to escort him to his dorm. As they walked, Arlan's personal system pinged.
```
[Academy Integration Complete.]
[Cohort: Arcanum.]
[New Environment Unlocked: The Foundry, The Scriptorium, The Sanctum.]
[Primary Quest Updated: The Dual Path]
- Stabilize Spatial Affinity to <10% instability.
- Elevate Umbral Affinity to recognized 2nd Order potency.
- Achieve cultivation breakthrough to 2nd Order, Rank 1.
- Discover one (1) verifiable link between the Silent Accord and Academy faculty.
Reward: [Dual-Affinity Core Structuring Method - Blueprint]
```
The dormitory for the Arcanum Cohort was not a soaring tower, but a low, sleek building of black synth-stone and glowing blue mana-conduits, built into the side of a cliff within the Academy grounds. It looked more like a research facility than living quarters. His room was a single, spacious cube with a bed, a desk, and a wall that was a single, sophisticated fabrication terminal and material printer.
As the door hissed shut behind him, finally alone, the full weight of his exhaustion crashed down. He staggered to the bed, but before he could collapse, another prompt, different from his shadow-system, appeared in his vision. It was from the Universal System, stylized in academy blue and silver.
```
[Welcome, Cadet Thorne.]
[Academy Mandate: Cultivation & Growth.]
[Initial Assessment Complete.]
[Physique Rating: D- (Poor. Bottleneck for advancement.)]
[Core Stability: F (Critical. Spatial instability detected.)]
[Recommended Immediate Action: Utilize Cadet Stipend (₵5,000) at the Academy Exchange for:]
- Grade-1 Spirit Herbs: [Ironbone Root] for physique.
- Grade-1 Mana-Convergence Pill** for core replenishment.
- Basic Runic Focus Chamber rental (1 hr) for stabilization attempt.
```
The system was… helpful. Or it was funneling him into predictable behaviors. Likely both.
He ignored the bed. Pain was just data. He sat at the terminal, wincing as his burned skin pressed against the cool chair. He called up the Academy Exchange. It was a vast, holographic catalog. He filtered for Spirit Herbs, Grade-1.
[Ironbone Root]: Purifies bone marrow, increases skeletal density and load-bearing capacity. Accelerates physical recovery. Cost: ₵300 per gram. Recommended dose: 5g.
[Frost-Dew Lily]: Cools meridians, reduces inflammation from mana burn. Cost: ₵150 per petal.
He purchased 5g of Ironbone Root and two petals of Frost-Dew Lily. Then he found the Mana-Convergence Pills. Grade-1 cost ₵500 for a bottle of ten. They were basic, meant to slowly replenish a 1st Order's pool over hours. He bought a bottle.
Total: ₵2,050. He had funds left.
On a whim, he searched the catalog for "Runic Theory." A list of thousands of texts, components, and tools appeared. His eyes, trained by years of parsing complex code, scanned them. One item, cheap and obscure, caught his eye: [Fragmentary Runic Array - 'Kael's Asymmetrical Bind' - Damaged.] Price: ₵50. Description: A recovered piece of an ancient binding array. Most runes degraded. Believed to be a failed stabilization matrix. Sold for research/study purposes only.
A failed stabilization matrix. For ₵50. It was trash. Or it was a puzzle.
He bought it.
His purchases, including the basic focus chamber rental for later, arrived via a small delivery drone within minutes. The herbs were in vacuum-sealed packets, the pills in a plain bottle, the runic fragment a small, scratched slab of dull grey metal with faint, corroded lines.
He started with the Frost-Dew Lily, placing a silvery-blue petal on his tongue. It dissolved into a wave of soothing cold that spread through his meridians, numbing the sharpest pains of the mana burn. The relief was immediate and profound.
Next, he chewed a piece of the Ironbone Root. It tasted of bitter earth and metal. A warm, aching sensation began deep in his bones, a feeling of pressure and growth. His physique rating wouldn't change overnight, but the process had begun.
Finally, he dry-swallowed a Mana-Convergence Pill. A trickle of warm, neutral mana began to seep into his core, slowly refilling his Universal Pool. 5/100… 6/100…
He then picked up the runic fragment. Holding it, he activated Umbral Sight.
The world dropped away. The scratched metal slab transformed. The "degraded" lines weren't just random scratches. They were the shattered remains of something incredibly complex. His tech-savant mind, now enhanced by an affinity that saw the shadows between things, began to work. He saw not just the etched lines, but the intent behind them. The ghostly shadows of energy flow that the original runes would have guided. It was a three-dimensional lattice in his mind, a beautiful, broken sculpture of purpose.
Kael's Asymmetrical Bind. The name echoed. It wasn't a stabilization matrix for a core. It was a binding matrix for dimensional seepage. For containing spatial anomalies.
His breath caught. This wasn't trash. It was a piece of a map. A map to the very problem he had.
He didn't have the skill to repair it. Not yet. But he could see its logic. He could learn from its failure.
For the first time since the funeral, a spark that wasn't cold rage or grim purpose ignited in his chest. Curiosity. The thrill of a problem he could solve.
He was broken, hunted, and in pain. But he was in a workshop with tools, a library of forbidden knowledge, and a mind built to take worlds apart.
As the slow drip of the pill refilled his mana and the root knitted his bones, Arlan Thorne, the anomaly, began to plan his first true creation. Not a weapon. Not a spell.
A foundation.
---