Chapter 5: Echoes of a Broken Star
The bell of dawn rang through the Starforged Academy, its tone deep and resonant, shaking the air itself with pure qi. It wasn't just sound—it was training. Even a chime was designed to stimulate the cultivator's inner roots.
Riven stirred awake, already halfway dressed before his dormmates even opened their eyes.
"By the void…" groaned Fenrik, throwing a pillow over his face. "Is it even light out?"
"No," said Yen Solis from his bed, mask already on. "But our resident overachiever is probably racing to befriend the moon."
Riven smiled faintly and slung on his training robe. "You're not wrong."
Today was special.
The instructors had announced a real-world training mission for select novices—a test to evaluate combat, adaptability, and team dynamics. Riven had only been at the academy a week, but already, rumors about him spread like wildfire.
Some feared him.
Others mocked him.
Most were just curious.
But the mission wasn't about popularity.
It was about survival.
Their team consisted of six members:
Riven Althaeus — Fivefold Root anomaly.
Elysia Rae — Sword Saint in training.
Kara Vynn — Lightning-mad storm dancer.
Yen Solis — Tactical wind cultivator.
Fenrik Dune — Earth tank with a boulder for a head.
Vera Ashveil — Silent, cold girl with poison qi.
The instructors didn't sugarcoat it.
"You're going to the Wailing Rift," said Instructor Halden, a massive man with thunder tattoos across his bald scalp.
Riven blinked. "That's… not in any beginner manual."
"It wouldn't be," Halden growled. "The Rift is a collapsed fragment of a lower world. Wild spiritual beasts. Corrupted qi zones. Spatial cracks. You'll last five hours. Maybe."
"Are we expected to fight?" Elysia asked.
"No. You're expected to learn what real cultivation combat is."
Kara laughed. "Finally, something fun."
The teleportation array activated. Light swirled, space folded—and they were gone.
The world they landed in was broken.
The Wailing Rift floated in a void of fractured stone and frozen skies. Rivers flowed upward. Mountains drifted like clouds. Trees grew out of nothing.
And somewhere in the distance, a low, constant scream echoed from deep within the planet's broken core.
"Why is it… crying?" Riven asked, steadying himself.
"It's not," Yen said. "That sound is the death echo of a world. It hasn't stopped screaming since it collapsed a thousand years ago."
Vera stepped forward. "I sense corrupted beasts nearby. Two, maybe three."
Fenrik cracked his knuckles. "Finally."
"Stay close," Elysia said. "No unnecessary movement. Kara—"
Kara was already gone, lightning sparking behind her as she sprinted toward the nearest energy signature.
"…Perfect," Riven muttered.
They found Kara ten minutes later.
Standing atop a charred beast corpse, grinning like a lunatic.
"I saved you the fun part," she said.
Behind her, two more beasts approached—twisted wolf-like creatures with bone armor and glowing red mouths.
Riven stepped forward. "I've got the left."
He focused his qi.
Fire and lightning pulsed through his body as he moved in a spiral pattern. The Fivefold Root inside him stirred in harmony.
He slammed his fist into the ground.
Flame burst. Earth surged.
The ground beneath the beast cracked, and lightning spears shot upward, piercing its armored chest.
The second beast lunged toward Elysia, only to be met mid-air with a blinding slash of silver swordlight. Her movements were like moonlight—graceful, efficient, fatal.
Yen and Vera handled cleanup with precision.
In less than two minutes, the battle was over.
Halden's voice echoed through a spirit talisman on Elysia's wrist.
"Well done. Now keep moving. There's something deeper you need to see."
The path led them to a cliffside where space bent unnaturally. Floating ruins drifted overhead, inscribed with ancient glyphs none could read—except Riven.
He froze.
These were the same symbols he'd seen in the Legacy Core—during the explosion… during his soul's fusion.
"Kara," he whispered, "do you see the glyphs?"
She tilted her head. "Yeah. They hum."
"You can hear them?"
"They sound like laughter. It's nice."
That was not comforting.
Riven reached out—just before Elysia could stop him—and touched the glyph.
FLASH
His mind was pulled into a vortex of memory.
Stars collapsing.
A black sun swallowing moons.
A colossal tree with five roots spread across galaxies.
And at its base—a figure of light, burning, watching, waiting.
"Soon," it whispered. "The inheritance will awaken."
Riven's heart pounded. He stumbled back, sweating.
"What did you see?" Elysia asked.
"I think… this place wasn't just a ruined world."
"What then?"
"A grave."
As they turned to leave, the sky cracked open.
A beast unlike anything they had seen descended from above—half-shadow, half-flame, with wings like shattered glass.
Its aura alone nearly crushed them.
Riven's core flared instinctively, all five trees inside him activating at once.
The voice from the memory echoed again:
"The test has begun."