The basin had gone still.
But the voice it left behind hadn't.
"This time, don't let them bind you."
Karl sat hunched at the edge of his bed, the morning light slicing through the tall glass of his dorm window like blades. His chest ached — not from exhaustion, but from containment. The glyphs etched across his body no longer slept. They whispered now. Constantly. Pulsing beneath the skin, burning lines of memory and something far older.
Raiven paced in slow, coiled circles beside him, his violet eyes narrowed. His scales had begun to hum — a low resonance that made the room tremble slightly every few minutes.
Karl tried to stand.
His legs buckled for a moment, but he caught himself. "Still not used to that," he muttered.
Raiven grunted. "You will be. Or you won't. Either way, you'll become."
He needed air.
The eastern training courtyard was nearly deserted in the early hours. Pale fog crept between the sparring stones, and the rising sun cut golden bars through the trees along the boundary wall.
Aeris was already there.
She stood alone on the upper platform, practicing a complex dagger form — spinning, slashing, dancing through a blur of silver.
Karl watched in silence, arms crossed.
"You're late," she said, not turning.
Karl smirked. "I wasn't aware I was expected."
"You weren't. Doesn't change the fact that you are."
He stepped onto the platform beside her. "You sleep?"
"Barely. You?"
He shook his head.
There was a pause. The morning was quiet, but not peaceful.
"I saw him again," Karl said.
Aeris stopped. Her hand twitched slightly.
"In the basin. Older version of me. Same eyes, same scar. Except… his were tired. Worn."
Aeris didn't speak.
"Any new glyph reactions?" he asked.
She slowly unwrapped her right hand.
The twisted glyph — the broken one — pulsed faintly on her palm. But now, it had started branching, as if new symbols were trying to emerge.
"It's changing," she whispered.
Karl reached forward, but stopped himself. "We need to tell—"
"She already knows," Aeris cut in.
Headmaster Elaris Caelestis stood waiting in the northern observatory garden.
She always seemed to find him before he could reach her.
Tall, silver-haired, and draped in robes that shimmered like dawn caught in glass, Elaris didn't look out of place among the flowers. Yet the pressure around her was unmistakable — calm on the surface, dangerous underneath. Like the eye of a storm that remembers.
Karl approached and didn't speak.
She smiled faintly. "You look terrible."
"Thanks," he said. "You look like you haven't aged a day."
"I haven't. Mostly."
She gestured for him to sit at the marble bench beneath the crescent-leafed tree.
They had met here before — years ago. When he'd first entered the academy, freshly Awakened. She had recognized him before he recognized himself.
"Another glyph?" she asked gently.
He nodded. "The sixth. It didn't form like the others. It's… spreading. Like it's infecting me."
"It's not infection," she said. "It's unlocking. The earlier ones needed triggers. This one's been waiting for your core to catch up."
Karl frowned. "Then what about the seventh?"
Elaris's gaze hardened.
"That one will not wait. It will take."
Karl leaned forward. "I saw him again. In the basin."
Elaris didn't react, but her hands folded slowly.
"The other you?" she asked.
"The real me. Or at least the first."
He hesitated.
"He said not to let you bind me."
Elaris smiled sadly. "He always was dramatic."
Karl blinked. "You knew him?"
She met his eyes.
"I trained him."
Karl's pulse quickened. "That's not in the records."
"Of course not," she said. "The academy wasn't ready then. Still isn't. That version of you… he broke worlds to keep the Veil sealed."
Karl's throat tightened. "Why would I choose to forget all of that?"
"To protect the one thing even the Veil couldn't destroy," Elaris whispered.
He tilted his head. "What's that?"
Her voice was quiet. "Hope."
Inside the lecture hall, the atmosphere shifted as students settled into their seats. A new diagram glowed across the floating crystal panel at the front of the room.
Karl's eyes narrowed. The academy had just updated its core classification system.
Professor Lorenn strode to the center. "As of today, we'll be aligning with the Revised Continental Core Hierarchy," he announced.
A shimmer of mana brought the structure into focus, and the class collectively leaned forward:
Mana Core Hierarchy (Academy Standard):
Gray Core – Dormant Stage (Non-practitioner or unawakened)
Red Core – Ember Core (Initial awakening, basic element access)
Blue Core – Flow Core (Stabilized mana flow, dual-affinity possible)
Green Core – Verdant Core (Mana growth accelerated, elemental shaping)
Violet Core – Arcanic Core (Advanced casting, mana transformation begins)
Silver Core – Soul Core (Spiritual resonance, innate casting, beast Soulbinds deepen)
Gold Core – Mythborne Core (Legend-tier mages, rare bloodlines, ancient affinity control)
White-Gold Core – Radiant Core (Mystic mana purity, core emits passive aura)
Black-Gold Core – Veiled Core (Lost-tier, wielders of hidden domains and forbidden arts)
??? Core – Unclassified / Forbidden Tier (Unknown. Often erased from records. Associated with Veil-linked existences.)
Whispers filled the room.
"Who's ever reached Black-Gold?"
"They say even the Headmaster hasn't…"
Karl kept his face impassive. He knew where he stood — or rather, where he shouldn't.
He'd never formally tested his core tier, but when the basin had flared weeks ago, his body had rejected the mana index stone completely. The light hadn't turned red. Or green. Or gold.
It had flickered black, then vanished.
Veiled Core.
And something beneath it.
Aeris leaned in beside him. "You ever feel like you're cheating?"
He smirked. "Only when I win."
She rolled her eyes.
That's when the door opened.
A man entered. Mid-forties, tall, broad-shouldered, his eyes sharp and unreadable. A scar traced his cheek. His robes were deep gray, without adornment — simple, but heavy.
Professor Lannins.
He looked around the room once, then his gaze locked on Karl.
"Mr. Valen. Headmaster's request."
Karl sighed. "Again?"
Lannins didn't blink.
"Yes."
They walked in silence. Karl matched Lannins' pace.
"You don't like me, do you?" Karl asked.
"I don't like ticking bombs."
"Charming."
"You've got too many unknowns," Lannins said flatly. "Too many variables."
"I'm not a math problem."
"You're worse," Lannins said. "You're a prophecy in motion."
They entered the lower sanctum — a place Karl hadn't seen since his second glyph awakened. The walls were alive with sigils — some glowing, some humming softly.
In the center sat Elaris.
She looked up. "Thank you, Professor."
Lannins bowed and exited without another word.
"You really need to get him a hobby," Karl muttered.
Elaris chuckled. "He prefers facts to feelings. He's not wrong to be cautious."
Karl folded his arms. "So, what now? Another memory test? More cryptic warnings?"
Elaris held up a glowing shard — a fragment of mana-crystal mirror.
"I recovered this from the broken projection yesterday. Before it shattered."
She handed it to him.
The moment Karl touched it, his vision flared.
He stood in a burned city.
Ash rained from the sky.
In front of him — the older version again. The same one from the basin.
But this time, he wasn't alone.
A boy stood beside him — silver hair, golden eyes.
His rival.
But this time… they weren't fighting.
They were defending something together. Glyphs burned around them like wings of fire and shadow.
Karl gasped as he returned to the chamber.
"That boy," he whispered.
Elaris nodded. "You knew him. Fought beside him. Then against."
Karl clenched the shard tighter. "Is he here too?"
"I don't know," she said. "But you'll find each other."
He looked down at the shard.
"What is this?"
"A memory fragment," Elaris said. "Someone is trying to erase them. You've begun to resist."
Karl's glyphs flickered.
"You need to be ready, Karl," she said. "Because the ones who erased your past haven't stopped. And they're not working alone."
Meanwhile, across the northern ridge of the academy…
A quiet wind stirred.
A cloaked boy stood beneath a tree, watching the runes pulse along the warding stones. His eyes shimmered with golden light — briefly — before fading.
He held a crystal shard of his own.
It pulsed in rhythm with Karl's.
He smiled faintly.
"Soon."