The cavern air didn't just feel cold anymore; it felt heavy, like walking through chest-deep water.
Junior Kaito stood paralyzed as the distant growl from the depths intensified, vibrating through the damp stone and into his very marrow. From the corners of his vision, shadowy figures began to coalesce. They weren't solid, but they weren't entirely smoke either. Their forms were vaguely humanoid but twisted, their limbs elongated and their faces missing everything except for a wide, silent hole where a mouth should be.
Their wails didn't come through his ears. They erupted inside his brain—a chorus of a thousand grieving mothers.
"What is that?!" Junior stammered, clutching his head as the psychic noise threatened to split his skull. He looked desperately at Leo Vance. The little fire spirit wasn't smirking anymore. His orange flames were flickering wildly, turning a sharp, urgent white.
"Lost souls, kid. Or rather, newly unbound ones," Leo crackled. "Your little 'pop' in the classroom ripped a hole in the Veil. Now they're trying to find their way back to the light... or something a lot worse is trying to drag them through. We need to move. Now!"
Before Junior could even take a step, one of the shadows lunged.
It didn't hit his chest; it passed right through his shoulder. Junior screamed, but no sound came out. It wasn't a physical wound. It was a searing, spiritual frost that felt like his soul was being dipped in liquid nitrogen. His vision blurred, and the strength drained from his legs like water from a broken cup.
"They're feeding on your life force!" Leo zipped around Junior's head, trailing sparks to distract the encroaching spirits. "Focus, Monarch! You opened the door—you can close it! Or at least, move through it!"
Focus? How am I supposed to focus when I'm being eaten alive? Junior's heart hammered against his ribs. Instinct took over. He didn't think about Fire or Water. He just thought about away. He reached out with both hands, pushing against the encroaching darkness.
A raw, unrefined wave of multi-colored energy erupted from his chest. It was a desperate, uncontrolled surge of Aether. It didn't destroy the spirits, but it repelled them like a physical wall, sending them recoiling back into the shadows with high-pitched, spectral shrieks. The shockwave slammed into the cavern wall behind him, and instead of breaking stone, it tore the air.
A fissure of shimmering, rainbow-colored light cracked open in the void.
"That's it! A temporary portal!" Leo shouted, his voice a mix of awe and pure exasperation. "Don't just stand there and admire it, jump!"
Junior didn't need to be told twice. As a deafening roar—something much larger and more ancient than the shadows—erupted from the cave's depths, he threw himself into the shimmering crack. The fissure snapped shut behind him with the sound of a closing book.
Junior landed hard. The tiled floor was freezing and covered in a thick layer of dust. He groaned, gasping for breath as he looked up at the ornate, vaulted ceiling.
He was in a storage room. Judging by the stacks of rusted cauldrons and moth-eaten tapestries, it was a place the Academy had forgotten decades ago. He was back at Veridia, but the silence here was eerie. Then, he heard it.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
The emergency bells were still tolling, a grim rhythm that made the dust on the floor dance.
Upstairs, the Academy was a hive of controlled chaos. Director Kaido stood in the main hall, his face a mask of stone. Beside him, Sakura Hoshino was moving with the efficiency of a machine, slamming her palms against the walls to activate suppression runes that glowed with an ominous amber light.
"The signature is fluctuating, Director," Sakura reported, her voice tight. "It's still within the bounds of the school, but it's moving through the lower levels. And the breach... it's still bleeding. Something tried to follow him through."
"Find him," Kaido commanded, his eyes scanning a floating magical display that mapped the entire school. "Contain him if you must, but do not harm him. If he truly is the Monarch, he is the most valuable—and dangerous—asset we have ever seen."
In the dormitory common rooms, Student Council President Olivia was a beacon of calm. Her Platinum-ranked aura radiated a soft, white light that seemed to quiet the panicked whispers of the younger students.
"Maintain order," Olivia instructed, her voice clear and authoritative. "The Academy is secure. We are simply conducting a sweep for a magical anomaly. Your safety is our priority."
She played the part of the perfect leader, but internally, her magical senses were prickling. She could feel the "weight" of the energy in the basement. It felt like an ocean trying to squeeze into a bathtub.
Jason, Jada, and Abi were huddled in a corner, far from the other Bronze-ranks.
"He's here," Jason insisted, his knuckles white as he gripped a chair. "I can feel his earth-print. He hasn't left the building."
Jenny Sakura sat nearby, her usual composure gone. She bit her lip so hard it nearly bled. "That power... it was so pure. How can a Bronze-rank have that much raw Aether? It doesn't make sense, Abi."
Abi closed her eyes, her brow furrowing until she looked like she was in physical pain. "It's like trying to find a single drop of water in a hurricane, Jenny. His signature is everywhere. But wait..." She stiffened. "I see him. He's in the forgotten levels. The catacombs. And he's not alone. There's an elemental spirit with him. It's ancient... and it's fire."
Junior stumbled out of the storage room and into a labyrinth of dusty, forgotten corridors. The air here was heavy with the scent of old parchment and stagnant mana.
"Well, that was a close one, Monarch," Leo Vance crackled, materializing in a burst of embers. "You've got a knack for accidental portal creation. A very dangerous, very messy knack."
"Monarch? What are you talking about?" Junior whispered, leaning against a cold stone wall. "What were those things in the cave? What is happening to me, Leo?"
"All in good time, kid," Leo chuckled, though his eyes held a rare, serious glint. "For now, let's just say you've got a unique talent for touching the Spirit World. Those were 'Echoes'—fragments of souls caught between life and death. Your power resonates with them. You soothed one, but the others? They're hungry. And something else is drawn to that hunger."
Junior looked at a nearby wall where a faint, ethereal glow was beginning to emanate. Instinctively, he reached out. As his fingers brushed the stone, the dust cleared, and a shimmering image materialized—a "vision" cast through the Veil.
He saw a desolate landscape under a black sun. The ground was made of bone, and in the center stood a figure that made Junior's heart stop. A towering, malevolent shadow wreathed in dark flames.
Demon King Anos.
The figure seemed to turn, its red eyes boring through the vision and directly into Junior's soul. The image shattered into a thousand pieces, leaving Junior gasping on his knees.
"What... was that?" Junior whispered, his voice trembling.
Leo's fiery form dimmed. "A taste of the truth, Monarch. The reason you were born. The reason the Veil is breaking. Anos is coming, and he knows you've woken up."
Footsteps echoed from the end of the hall, accompanied by the low hum of detection spells.
"Welcoming committee is here," Leo warned, his flames brightening again. "Time to play the 'Scared Bronze Student' role, kid. Hide me. The less the Grandmasters know about our little partnership, the longer we stay alive."
Junior could only nod, his mind still filled with the image of Anos's red eyes. He was just a student. He wanted his father's pancakes and his brother's teasing. Instead, he was a King in a world of monsters.
He took a breath, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and waited as the amber light of Sakura Hoshino's detection device rounded the corner.