Veritas Academy was not a school—it was a factory for living weapons. Each student trained to delve into dungeons that existed in spatial folds beneath reality, each containing monstrous ecosystems and ancient tech that defied physics.
Ethan, now Leor, remembered every plotline he wrote. But he also knew how easily everything could fall apart. Every character was a ticking bomb of trauma, secrets, and destiny. Instead of becoming a hero, he chose to become the puppeteer.
He joined Ezra Kaelmour, a prodigious mage hiding a cursed lineage, offering him friendship and silence in return for access to arcane relics. He shadowed Kaelin Drayce, a knight-trainee haunted by her dead sister, weaving sympathy into manipulation. He cracked jokes with Jin Osei, a neuro-hacker from the Outlands, who decoded dreams and saw the future in strings of data.
Leor became essential to everyone—and loyal to none.