The academy stood above the clouds.
Lucien stared through the floor-to-ceiling glass wall of his room, his erald eyes reflecting the sprawling landscape beyond.
For a mont, he said nothing.
The scale was absurd.
Even after inheriting mories from another world, even after seeing cities packed with skyscrapers and endless highways, Elarion Academy still managed to overwhelm him.
The academy wasn't a collection of buildings.
It was a city.
Training arenas larger than noble estates spread across the grounds below. Massive towers pierced the heavens. Floating platforms drifted between structures, carrying students and professors alike.
At the center stood the student dormitory.
A colossal black tower.
The upper floors vanished into the clouds.
And Lucien currently occupied the highest residential floor.
Rank One.
His gaze shifted toward the silver armband around his wrist.
A holographic screen materialized above it.
Na: Lucien Valecrest
Rank: 1
Simple.
Efficient.
Expected.
The room itself was equally ridiculous.
A personal cultivation chamber.
A private training room.
An enchanted library.
A bathing area larger than so noble apartnts.
Even the furniture carried faint traces of mana.
The academy wasn't subtle about rewarding talent.
Lucien turned away from the window.Luxury ant little.
Power ant everything.His thoughts drifted elsewhere.
A crimson sky.
The sensation of death breathing down his neck.
Rhazar
His expression darkened.
The mory remained vivid.Too vivid.One week hadn't been enough to erase it.Perhaps it never would be.
Then his armband vibrated.
Orientation Ceremony begins in fifteen minutes.
Lucien dismissed the notification and stepped outside.
***
The corridor stretched endlessly. The topmost corridor belonging to the top 10
The atmosphere hanging over Elarion Academy felt strangely heavy.
Like survivors gathered after a funeral.
Which, Lucien supposed, wasn't entirely inaccurate.
The assessnt incident had left scars on everyone.
Physical.
ntal.
Emotional.
The academy was simply pretending otherwise.Lucien walked forward.
A door opposite his room opened,a figure erged
Silver hair.
Grey eyes.
Yelena Frostbane.The elf glanced at him briefly.
Lucien glanced back.
Neither spoke.
Neither cared enough to.
They continued walking.
A mont later, two more figures joined the flow of students.
Golden hair.
Red eyes.
The royal twins.
Aurora looked composed as always.
Auren looked like he'd just woken up.
"Morning," Auren greeted lazily.
Nobody responded.
"Right. Still traumatized."
Aurora sighed.
"You truly have no sense of timing."
"It's a gift."
"It's a curse."
Auren grinned.
Aurora ignored him.
More familiar faces gradually appeared.
Caelth.
Ryn.
Serene.
Seris.
And finally—
Noah.
The half-elf walked through the crowd, silver lightning flickering faintly beneath his skin.
His gaze briefly dropped toward the rank displayed on his wrist.
Rank: 5
His system had announced him Rank 1
Noah exhaled. A glitch maybe .
It didn't matter.
At least, that's what he told himself.
Still...
His eyes drifted toward Lucien's armband.
Rank One.
Noah looked away.
There were more important things to focus on.
***
The academy auditorium was enormous.
Thousands of seats.
Thousands of students.
Yet the room felt oddly quiet.
The mont Lucien entered, conversations died.
Heads turned.
Eyes followed.
Not just toward him.
Toward all of them.
The survivors.
The students who had stood before a Transcendent and sohow lived.Rumors had spread.So ridiculous.So terrifying.
Lucien ignored them all.
He walked toward a section near the center of the auditorium and sat down.
A few seconds later….
Yelena sat nearby so did the rest of the team .
One after another.
Lucien stared at them.
The silence lingered.
Finally, he spoke.
"...Why are all of you sitting here?"
Auren blinked.
"Wow."
"What?"
"You really started with that?"
Lucien raised an eyebrow.
Yelena crossed her arms.
"As if I'm following you."
"Then move."
"I was already planning to sit here."
"You sat down after I did."
"Coincidence."
"It wasn't."
"It was."
Lucien looked away.
Not worth arguing.Aurora rubbed her temple.
"You two are exhausting."
Neither responded.
The princess sighed.
Then she looked around the group.
"We survived sothing most people couldn't imagine."
Nobody spoke.
The mory lingered between them.
Heavy.
Uncomfortable.
"We don't need to be friends," Aurora continued. "But pretending we're strangers seems pointless."
Auren nodded.
"That's what I've been saying."
"You've said nothing."
"Details."
A faint smile appeared on Serene's face.
Even Ryn's lips twitched slightly.
Aurora continued.
"We understand what happened better than anyone else in this academy."
Lucien listened quietly.
Then shook his head.
"You're misunderstanding sothing."
The group looked toward him.
"We survived the sa battlefield."
His voice remained calm.
"That's all."
Nobody interrupted.
"We bled in the sa place."
"We fought the sa enemy."
"We escaped the sa disaster."
He glanced at each of them.
One by one.
"But that doesn't create loyalty."
The room remained silent.
Lucien leaned back in his chair.
"If friendships happen, they happen."
"If they don't, they don't."
His erald eyes settled on the stage ahead.
"I'm not interested in forcing either outco."
For a mont, nobody
A tiny smile appeared on Aurora's lips.
Yelena rolled her eyes.
And sohow...
The tension eased.
Only slightly.
But enough.
***
Elsewhere in the auditorium, whispers spread.
"They're all together."
"That's Rank One."
"I heard he fought the monster directly."
"No, I heard he died and ca back."
"That's impossible."
"So was surviving a Transcendent."
Students stared.
So with admiration.
Most with fear.
Noah noticed it all.
The distance.
The caution.
The way nobody approached them.
The way people looked at them like legends.
Or monsters.
He clenched his fist.
Then released it.
Without a word, he walked toward another section of seats and sat alone.
The silence returned.
The massive auditorium slowly filled.
Thousands of students.
Thousands of futures.
Thousands of ambitions.
And above them all hung a single reality.
The world was changing.
A war was coming.
Everyone could feel it.
Nobody knew what shape it would take.
Only that it was approaching.
Then….
The lights dimd.
The whispers stopped.
Thousands of students fell silent.
The enormous doors at the front of the auditorium slowly opened.
And the principal stepped
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