The morning after the attack dawned cold and gray, the skies above the Royal Guardian Academy hanging heavy with mist. The damage from the previous night had been swiftly concealed—crystal shards removed, sigils rewritten, guards doubled—but no one in the academy believed the illusion of calm.
And neither did Alaric.
He stood alone in the East Wing's open courtyard, the amber stone tucked deep within the folds of his academy robes, the embryo inside pulsing faintly. Its presence had grown stronger overnight. It no longer felt like a tool or a relic—but a living presence. One that whispered at the edge of his thoughts.
"You're up early," came Clem's voice behind him.
Alaric turned. She looked more serious than usual, her healer's robes exchanged for combat gear—light armor laced with forest-weave fibers and a short steel staff across her back. Elara and Darian arrived shortly after, similarly equipped. A sense of tension ran between them like a taut wire.
"What's going on?" Alaric asked, already feeling the answer tighten in his gut.
Clem handed him a small parchment scroll, freshly sealed with the crest of the Initiation Council.
Guardian Initiate Mission - Code Black (Level 2 Trial): "A beast has breached the veil in the southern glade outside the academy perimeter.Unknown variant. Advance-tier confirmed. Potential Epic-tier mutation.Mission: Locate. Track. Eliminate.Participants: Alaric Draven, Clem Williams, Darian Oakthorn, Elara Vess."
"Why us?" Alaric murmured, voice low.
Darian snorted. "Because someone thinks we're ready to die."
"No," Elara said, her voice calm and even. "Because they want to see how you handle it, Alaric. Last night changed things. They're not just testing recruits anymore. They're watching."
Alaric met her gaze and said nothing. She was right. He could feel it. The "classified observer" hadn't left. He sensed it moving in the periphery of space, hovering just outside perception. Always watching. Judging.
Kael approached from the corridor, his eyes sharp beneath his shadow-lined hood.
"You will not be accompanied by mentors. This is your first sanctioned hunt. Fail, and you forfeit your standing as initiates. Die, and you'll be buried with honors. Survive—and the council might start whispering your names."
He paused, then locked eyes with Alaric. "No heroics. Not this time. If you feel it—the thing from last night—run. That's not a fight any of you are ready for."
Alaric nodded.
But deep down, he wasn't sure he agreed.
They departed an hour later.
The southern glade lay beyond the academy walls, a place where the natural mana had been warped over the years by ancient battles and arcane bleed. The trees here were twisted, their roots tangled like the claws of giants. Veins of glowing fungus slithered across the underbrush, and the air smelled of iron and decay.
It didn't take long to find signs of the beast.
A broken trail of crushed foliage. Blood spatters—thick, oily, and black. And claw marks... not on trees, but in the very air—rents in reality where the fabric had frayed.
Clem crouched beside a pool of blood. "This isn't from any beast I've studied."
"It's unstable," Elara murmured, her breath visible in the cold air despite the warmth of the season.
"Whatever it is," Darian said, flexing his gauntlet, "we're not sneaking up on it. It wants to be followed."
Alaric said nothing.
Because the stone in his pocket had begun to hum.
And the embryo… was reacting.
Suddenly, the trees ahead burst apart.
A massive creature stepped from the shadows—towering and malformed, its body stitched from shadows and bone, its ribcage open and glowing with an unnatural blue fire. Four arms, two legs, and a skull too large for any normal beast. Veins of white-hot mana ran across its limbs like molten lightning.
But worst of all was its face.
It wasn't a face.
It was a mirror.
And reflected in it—Alaric saw himself.
Not the version standing here. But something... darker. Crueler. Laughing.
"Elara—shield!" Clem shouted, and a wall of ice erupted in front of them just as the beast roared.
The impact shattered the ice instantly. Darian lunged forward, roots snaring the creature's feet while Clem rushed to heal a wounded guard from a previous patrol they'd found in the glade.
Elara launched spikes of frost, but they dissolved before reaching the beast's hide.
"It's absorbing elemental attacks!" she shouted.
Alaric stared at the thing—and the thing stared back. In that mirror-mask, his reflection smirked.
Then the voice came.
"Feed me, Alaric. Let me see what lies beneath the light."
It wasn't the beast.
It was the embryo.
The stone in his hand surged—and a system message erupted.
"Resonance Detected. Eclipse Pulse Available."Do you wish to activate?Yes / No
His hand trembled.
He looked at the others—fighting, bleeding, holding back something they couldn't yet understand.
Then he chose.
Yes.
In an instant, darkness and light exploded from his core, rippling outward like a detonation of midnight and dawn. The beast reeled, its mirror-mask cracking. All hidden sigils in the area blazed into visibility—runes carved into trees, the ground, even the air, now glowing.
Time stilled.
Everyone looked at him.
And the beast...
The beast screamed.
Not in pain.
But in recognition.
"You are the vessel," it hissed."And the hunt is only beginning."
Then, in a burst of collapsing shadow, it fled—tearing open a veil and slipping through dimensions.
Gone.
Clem rushed to Alaric's side. "What was that?! What did you do?!"
He didn't answer.
Because the mirror had cracked.
But it hadn't broken.