The grand hall of Veltharion Academy pulsed with muted tension.
All eleven heirs stood before the raised dais, shadows standing at their backs like silhouettes of power and loyalty. Above them, the banners of their noble lines swayed faintly, each embroidered with ancient sigils that carried generations of pride — and secrecy.
The Headmistress Valari Ka'tarel presided from her seat at the center, flanked by the family heads and elders. Her expression was calm, but her eyes betrayed the turmoil brewing beneath the surface.
The Resonant Hollow had collapsed. The Saintess's daughter had returned.
And not all the heirs had come back unchanged.The silence was thick. Then Valari's voice carried softly across the chamber.
"You all stand as heirs of legacy. But what you saw within the Hollow was no trial — it was history demanding to be remembered. The question now is—"
Her words were cut short by a sudden disturbance — a tremor of aether, sharp and wrong.
The light filtering through the stained glass fractured.
A pulse of malicious intent surged across the hall.
Saphine felt it before she saw it — the way the air shifted, vibrating like the hush before a storm.
She turned, instinct flaring — but it was too late.A blade of condensed aether tore through the air, its edge aimed straight at her heart.
The impact came in a flash of crimson light.
Pain, sharp and cold, lanced through her body as she was thrown backward. Blood bloomed against her pale uniform like spilled ink.
"Saphine!"
Voices echoed — Seloria's, Lyssandra's, even Valari's — but all were drowned by a single, deafening stillness.
The world seemed to stop.
Eris moved before anyone else could even breathe.
One moment he was standing at Saphine's side, the next he was at her fallen form, his coat billowing as if the air itself bowed to his will.His hand pressed against the wound — blood seeping between his fingers — but his eyes, dark and ancient, lifted slowly toward the direction of the strike.
There stood one of the Elders of the Ka'tarel, cloaked in arrogance, his palm still smoking from the attack.
Behind him, his retainers closed in — reaching for the Saintess's daughter.
"Hand her over," the Elder demanded coldly. "The Saintess's line must not—"
He never finished.
The air collapsed around him.
A single pulse of intent — heavy, suffocating, absolute — rippled through the hall like the beating of a primordial heart.Even the strongest heirs gasped, clutching their chests as if the air itself had turned to iron.
The elder staggered back, veins bulging beneath his skin, his eyes widening in disbelief.
Eris's voice was calm, but it trembled with something vast — something beyond fury.
"You dare."
The aether in the hall began to twist. Shadows bent toward him. The floor itself shimmered, cracks of light and darkness spreading outward in perfect symmetry.
Saphine's blood dripped onto his hand, and in that moment, something within him broke — and then transcended.He remembered every moment he had ever seen — every rise, every fall, every death.
He had witnessed the world a thousand times over, yet he never once stopped it. Because to see was to bear, not to change.
But now, as the girl who trusted him with her life bled before him, he understood something deeper — something that rippled through the essence of his being.
"Seeing things ahead," he whispered, "does not mean one can always change them…"
The words echoed — faint at first, then resonant, like a voice from the fabric of creation itself.
"But when the threads of fate refuse to yield… then one must move forward, even if it means tearing the loom apart."His aether flared — no longer silver, no longer dark — but a color that defied name, an eternal convergence of all that had ever been seen and all that would ever be known.
Light spiraled upward, forming runes that hummed with celestial resonance. His eyes turned to pure gold, fractals of knowledge swirling within their depths.
The title whispered through the hall like a divine decree:
"Grand Gaze — Evolved: All-Knowing Sage, Akasha."
Every heir dropped to their knees.
The shadows quivered, their forms flickering like candle flames before a storm.Eris looked down at Saphine — her breathing shallow, her eyes fluttering weakly. His expression softened, the fury fading into something almost tender.
He placed a hand over her chest.
The runes of Akasha burned faintly in his palm, and golden threads flowed from his fingertips, weaving into her wound.
The injury sealed — not by healing magic, but by rewriting the wound's existence.
Saphine's eyes opened faintly, her voice hoarse.
"Eris…?"
He smiled faintly, though his gaze still burned with divine weight.
"Rest, Saphine. The world can wait."Behind him, the elder who had attacked staggered backward, summoning more aether in desperation — but it was useless.
Eris turned toward him, eyes aglow with omniscient clarity.
"You sought to claim what was never yours. Allow me to return the sentiment — with precision."
He stepped forward once. The elder fell to his knees, clutching his chest as his body buckled under unseen force — not pain, but understanding. Every lie, every sin, every deceit he had ever buried was being dragged to the surface by Eris's gaze.
When he spoke again, his voice was soft — mercilessly so."The world forgets what it cannot face. You, Elder, will remember."
He snapped his fingers.
The man collapsed — unconscious, but breathing — his aether completely shattered.
The hall was silent.
Valari stood frozen, Myr's hand covering her mouth as she whispered, "He's awakened…"
Eris turned away, kneeling beside the young girl — the Saintess's daughter — who had been trembling through the entire ordeal. His gaze softened.
"Tell me your name," he said quietly.
The girl blinked, her eyes wide and tearful."A-Alia…"
Eris nodded once. "Then remember it, Alia. It's yours to keep, no matter who demands it back."
He rose slowly, carrying both her and Saphine's quiet dignity in his stance.
The aether storm faded. The hall felt hollow in its wake — not from destruction, but from reverence.
As he walked past the fallen elder, his shadow stretched long behind him — vast and calm, the weight of a thousand lives held within its reach.
And those who saw him in that moment…
knew they had witnessed not merely a man — but something far beyond it.