The academy stirred beneath a gray dawn, the air heavy with the weight of yesterday's storm.
Akihiro awoke before the bell, his chest still faintly warm from the sigil that Alaric's pact had carved into his skin. The necklace lay cold against his collarbone, yet sometimes it pulsed—like a sleeping heart remembering a dream.
Outside, whispers swept through the corridors. Students murmured about strange thunder that had cracked the sky last night. The waterfall glowed faintly crimson before midnight, they said. But when dawn came, it was silent again.
Akihiro said nothing.
He only knew that something had changed. The air around him felt thicker, his body heavier—as if the world had shifted half a breath out of balance.
The Summoning
By midmorning, a messenger called him to the lower sanctum.
"The Dean requires your presence in the Elemental Dome," the boy stammered. "He says it's… a stabilization test."
Akihiro followed without question. He had expected this. The moment he stepped into the chamber, he felt it—a pressure that gnawed at his soul.
The Elemental Dome was vast and hollow, carved from seamless stone and lined with hundreds of resonant crystals. Streams of faint light pulsed along the floor like veins of liquid energy. Elder instructors stood on the balconies above, observing.
Yueqin's voice echoed softly from the edge of the platform.
"This test measures harmony between your spirit and the world's flow. Do not resist the current. Align, and let the energy move through you."
He nodded, stepping into the circle.
The crystals brightened—first white, then pale violet… then crimson.
Whispers broke out among the elders.
"Crimson?" one muttered. "That color hasn't appeared since the Mirror War…"
The Dean narrowed his eyes but said nothing. He activated the formation.
The Shattering Calm
Qi surged through Akihiro's body, gentle at first—like the rhythm of his breathing.
Then it twisted. The pulse grew jagged, erratic. The light in the Dome dimmed as if something vast and unseen was swallowing it whole.
Akihiro gasped.
The energy clawed up his spine, tearing at the seal along his ribs.
Pain split through him, cold and burning all at once.
The ground shuddered. Crystals cracked. A shadow rose behind him—his reflection, alive and moving independently.
Yueqin shouted from above,
"End the trial! Containment now!"
But the dome sealed itself shut, locking Akihiro within. The reflection's eyes opened—black flame swirling within violet.
"You can't hide from what you are," it whispered.
The world around him shattered like glass.
The Vision Realm
Silence.
He stood upon an endless plain of molten glass and violet mist. Two flames hovered before him:
One black as night, roaring with fury.
One violet, calm and steady as moonlight.
He recognized them instantly—his father's chaos, his mother's soul.
And from within the necklace, a voice like molten gold whispered:
"You've touched the forge of the soul… Every truth burns. Let's see what survives."
Alaric Veyne's specter materialized beside the black flame—tall, austere, his golden eyes gleaming like a furnace.
"Power is born through pain. The weak are refined into nothing. The strong—into purpose."
Opposite him, a gentler light coalesced—his mother's spirit, radiant and calm.
"And yet even power must learn where to rest. Fire that does not pause becomes ash."
The two forces circled him like twin suns, their heat and light tearing at his skin.
Akihiro fell to one knee, gasping.
"If pain makes strength," he panted, "then why does it destroy so many?"
Alaric's tone was almost amused.
"Because they sought peace, not truth."
His mother's voice overlapped, soft but firm:
"Truth without compassion is a blade that forgets why it was forged."
The Merge
The flames roared, each demanding dominion. The black consumed the violet; the violet resisted, fracturing under the weight.
His body trembled—if he chose one, he would lose the other.
Then, faintly, another voice echoed through the mist.
The mysterious woman from the waterfall—the Lotus Mentor—her tone calm as running water:
"Don't fight the current. Flow with it."
Akihiro closed his eyes.
He let go.
Instead of pushing the flames apart, he let them swirl together, guiding their motion with steady breaths.
The black and violet intertwined—wild yet balanced, chaos refined through calm.
When the light faded, one flame remained: Obsidian, deep and endless, neither destruction nor serenity, but both.
A pulse echoed through the Vision Realm.
Alaric's eyes widened.
"He harmonized it… impossible."
His mother smiled faintly.
"Not impossible. Remember—he carries both our sins and our hope."
The world shattered again.
The Collapse
Outside, the dome quaked violently.
Elders shielded their eyes as obsidian light burst from the chamber floor, flooding every corridor.
The Dean appeared on the upper balcony, robes snapping in the energy storm.
"That resonance…" he whispered. "The same as Alaric's Seal during the War of Mirrors."
But before he could act, the storm stilled.
The light dimmed.
Only Akihiro remained standing in the center of the dome, surrounded by a spiral of melted stone.
His aura was calm—perfectly balanced.
His eyes, once stormy, now glowed faintly violet-black.
Aftermath – Foundation's Flame
When he awoke, he was lying on the floor, Yueqin and several healers around him.
He felt no pain. Instead, his body hummed with soft warmth—the flow of energy steady and smooth.
He had reached Foundation Realm, Stage Two.
The Dean approached quietly, watching him.
"You carry more than you understand, Tsukihara."
Akihiro managed a faint smile.
"Then I'll have to learn fast."
As the healers left, the Dean's gaze lingered on the necklace around his neck—the same crimson gem that once burned in Alaric Veyne's laboratory centuries ago.
"He's returned," the Dean murmured, almost to himself.
The Shadow Beyond
Far beyond the academy walls, on the cliffs above the mist, a figure stood watching—the young man with silver eyes and the calm of eternity: Ren Kurozawa.
A mirror shard floated before him, reflecting the entire academy in warped light.
"The Seal has awakened," he said softly.
"And so begins the cycle once more."
His reflection smiled back—eyes aflame with gold and violet.
"Let it burn, Ren. Let the phoenix rise."
The shard fractured, scattering into the night.
Closing Lines
That night, Akihiro dreamed of a flame that burned without smoke, and a world reflected in its light.
He heard Alaric's whisper through the darkness—quiet, approving, dangerous:
"Everything pure… is refined from something impure."
And somewhere deep within the academy, beneath the endless roar of the waterfall,
the forgotten vault pulsed once—like a heartbeat that had just begun again.