The alarm did not ring.
It resonated.
A deep, metallic vibration rolled across Aether Academy like the toll of an ancient bell, not loud but absolute. The floating rings above the central spire shifted formation, glowing crimson instead of gold.
Students froze mid-step.
Instructors stopped mid-lecture.
The message spread instantly through the mana network:
Emergency Escalation. Mission Failure. Casualties Confirmed.
Bolt looked up from the courtyard.
He felt it.
Not the alarm.
The distortion behind it.
Kaori appeared at his side almost immediately, frost lightly trailing her fingertips. "That's not a drill."
Damian walked toward them, shadows curling faintly around his boots. "C-Class recon team. Eastern perimeter. They haven't returned."
Akane cracked her knuckles. "So why does it feel like the sky just got heavier?"
Sylva swallowed. "Because it did."
Valen stepped forward last, calm but sharp-eyed. "We're being summoned."
Above them, a golden sigil flared.
Headmaster Altair requests Celestial Tempest. Immediate attendance.
Bolt exhaled slowly.
"Let's move."
HEADMASTER ALTAIR
The office of Headmaster Altair was silent when they entered.
Not quiet.
Silent.
The kind of silence that comes before bad news.
Altair stood before a massive projection array displaying fractured terrain—collapsed ruins, scorched earth, abyssal residue saturating the land like ink in water.
He did not turn when they arrived.
"A routine C-Class reconnaissance mission," Altair said calmly. "Assigned to third-year students."
The image shifted.
A stable ruin. Low-tier mana signatures.
Then—
The footage corrupted.
A rift tore open mid-operation. Not gradual. Not unstable.
Intentional.
Something forced its way through.
A towering abyssal construct, incomplete yet devastating, stepped into the world. Its aura alone shattered defensive formations. The students barely escaped with their lives.
Rank updated in red:
S-CLASS ANOMALY
Damian's jaw tightened. "That's not a fluctuation."
"No," Altair replied. "It is not."
He turned then, golden eyes locking onto Bolt.
"The battle against Kairos has been classified as God-Level Engagement."
The words hung heavy.
"You not only survived," Altair continued, "you won."
Sylva shifted uneasily.
"We are not deploying faculty," Altair said. "We are deploying you."
Akane blinked. "You're sending students to an S-Class escalation?"
"I am sending the only squad who has proven capable of confronting forces beyond classification," Altair corrected.
Kaori stepped forward. "Objective?"
"Containment if possible. Elimination if necessary. Above all—identify the origin of the forced rift."
Valen's eyes narrowed. "You think this was deliberate."
Altair did not hesitate.
"The Abyss does not stumble."
Bolt's fingers rested on Raiketsu's hilt.
"When do we leave?"
"Now."
BLACK HOLLOW RUINS
The transport cut through the sky like a blade.
Inside, Celestial Tempest stood in silence.
Kaori reviewed terrain maps.Damian ran shadow simulations.Sylva whispered incantations to stabilize incoming mana interference.Akane flexed impatiently.Valen stood near Bolt, arms folded.
"You feel it too," Valen said quietly.
Bolt nodded.
"Yeah."
Not abyssal.
Focused.
Waiting.
The transport jolted violently.
Warning sigils flared.
"Mana interference spike!" the pilot shouted. "We're losing altitude!"
The sky darkened unnaturally as black mist spiraled upward from the ruins below, dragging them down like gravity had hands.
"Brace!" Bolt ordered.
The ship crashed hard, skidding across broken stone before grinding to a halt.
Silence followed.
Then—
A pulse.
Heavy.
Oppressive.
They stepped outside.
The ruins were wrong.
Stone melted like wax. Mana currents twisted into unnatural spirals. The air tasted metallic.
And at the center—
It stood.
Humanoid in structure but malformed, as though reality hadn't finished sculpting it. Abyssal sigils crawled across its surface like living scars.
An artificial construct.
But stronger than Kairos had been at first manifestation.
Sylva whispered, "It's still stabilizing."
"Then we don't let it finish," Valen said sharply.
The creature turned.
Its gaze locked onto Bolt.
The pressure hit instantly.
Kaori staggered.Damian hissed.Akane planted her feet.
Bolt didn't move.
The construct's mouth opened.
"—WAR—BORN—"
Lightning flickered quietly around Bolt's shoulders.
So that's it.
It wasn't random.
It wasn't territorial.
It was hunting.
"Formation Delta," Bolt said calmly.
They moved as one.
Kaori froze the ground beneath the entity's legs.Damian's shadows wrapped around its limbs.Akane launched forward, fire erupting from her fists.Sylva unleashed binding sigils mid-air.Valen's aura flared bright gold as he reinforced the team's defenses.
The entity roared.
The ice shattered.
Shadows snapped.
Akane was thrown backward, barely caught by Valen's barrier.
"It's adapting!" Kaori shouted.
The abyssal sigils rearranged themselves, countering each element almost instantly.
Bolt stepped forward.
Raiketsu sang.
Lightning didn't explode outward.
It condensed.
Focused.
Refined.
"Fall back ten meters," Bolt ordered quietly.
They obeyed without question.
The construct lunged.
Bolt vanished.
Thunder cracked across the ruins as Raiketsu carved through the creature's torso, lightning ripping through unstable sigils. The abyssal form convulsed violently.
But it didn't fall.
Instead—
It evolved.
Additional limbs formed. Mana density doubled. The rift above it widened further.
Damian's eyes widened. "It's not just an S-Class."
Valen's expression darkened. "It's becoming one."
Bolt understood instantly.
This wasn't a finished weapon.
It was a prototype gathering combat data in real time.
Testing response patterns.
Measuring him.
The construct unleashed a shockwave that leveled half the ruins.
Celestial Tempest barely held formation.
Kaori coughed. "Bolt—if that rift stabilizes—"
"It won't," he said.
The lightning around him intensified.
Not wild like during Kairos.
Controlled.
Precise.
"I'm ending it."
The construct charged.
Bolt stepped forward alone.
Raiketsu cut once—
Clean.
Absolute.
The lightning didn't explode outward this time.
It tunneled inward.
Piercing.
Targeting the core.
The abyssal sigils screamed as they collapsed, destabilizing the rift above. The creature convulsed violently before shattering into fragments of dissolving shadow.
The rift snapped shut.
Silence.
Only smoke and drifting ash remained.
Kaori exhaled shakily. "It… it was targeting you."
Bolt stared at the fading abyssal residue.
"Yeah."
Valen stepped beside him. "This wasn't a random escalation."
"No," Bolt said quietly.
"It was a message."
BACK AT AETHER ACADEMY
Headmaster Altair stood alone in his chamber as the mission report finalized.
Threat Neutralized. Rift Closed. Casualties Prevented.
But his eyes lingered on a single line:
Entity verbally identified target: WAR-BORN.
Altair's expression darkened.
"So it begins."
Far beyond the academy's sight, somewhere deeper than the abyssal rifts—
Something shifted.
Not defeated.
Not surprised.
Interested.
And at Aether Academy, two forces now stood under the same sky:
The Flame God.
And the Storm that refused to bow.