The elite gathered in the grand hall, where dim lights danced on its ancient walls, echoing their footsteps and voices. In the center stood Professor Nira, her face stern and her eyes shining with unwavering resolve. Beside her stood the chief supervisor, silent like a shadow watching everyone.
Nira raised her voice, announcing, "You have completed the evaluation test successfully, but a new and dangerous challenge lies ahead… an exploratory mission into the Gray Borderlands. It is the boundary between Nora and Seir, where we have detected abnormal and disturbed magical activities."
Amid whispers and tension, Raine lifted his head. The stares of Nora's students pierced him like cold arrows, filled with contempt. "His magic is tainted, he's a danger to us all," one of them muttered angrily.
On the other side, the Auron students looked at him as a bloody enemy rooted in the flames of war, while the Cyber students remained calm and reserved. Among them, "Rinal" stepped forward and said to Raine in a quiet tone, "The machine does not hate; it only evaluates performance. And you… excel."
They began their journey through the gray lands, led by a mysterious teacher—a long shadow moving lightly among the trees. Raine was curious about his identity but remained silent. He talked with Rinal about the type of magical energy he wielded, while the ground was covered with a gray layer, carrying within it tales of old wars and hidden secrets.
Suddenly, an attack came from distorted creatures that seemed born from the nightmares of war. The screams of magic merged with the roar of flying robots summoned by Rinal. One of Nora's students cast venom magic through the air, while a girl from Auron sliced the skies with destructive sound waves. In the heart of the battle, Raine partially unleashed his shadow, devouring the enemies' souls to strengthen himself, while a Nora student gasped, "He's feeding… like an ancient curse."
After the storm subsided, they found themselves amid the ruins of an old temple, smelling of a sect that once tried to embody dreams through magic. Raine touched a carved seal and was engulfed by a hallucinatory vision: a child born in a burning desert, tongues of gravity surrounding him, and a woman with ash-colored eyes holding him.
Returning to reality was not easy. One of Nora's hostile students tried to stab Raine secretly, accusing him of being "the source of corruption." The professor intervened immediately, but Raine replied in icy calm, "If you try to touch me again… I will tear your present and past apart."
In the shadows, the academy council received a secret report about Raine: "Raine Darkol… does not conform to natural evolution laws. The shadow he carries learns from the dead." The director Malak read the report with a rigid face and whispered, "If the ash breathes… there may be no sky left to fall upon it."