The silence that followed the explosion was worse than the blast itself.
For a few seconds, time seemed to stop. Dust motes danced in the shafts of light coming from the ruined ceiling, and the smell of ionized air was so thick it made the students' eyes water.
Then, the screaming started.
"Junior!" Jason's voice ripped through the smoke. He was on his knees, coughing, his Silver-ranked earth mana flaring instinctively to protect Jada. "Kaito! Where are you?"
He reached out toward the center of the room, but his hand met nothing but empty air. There was no body. No blood. Just a lingering, multi-colored static that felt like needles poking his skin.
"He's... he's gone," Jada whispered, her wind magic swirling frantically around her. She looked at the spot where their best friend had been standing a second ago. "Jason, he just blinked out of existence."
Alex Ferguson was huddled near the back wall, his Diamond-ranked lightning flickering out like a dying lightbulb. His face was a mask of pure terror. "That wasn't magic," he stammered, his voice cracking. "That was... that was a breach. He's a monster."
Jenny Sakura didn't hear him. She was staring at the empty space with a hollow feeling in her chest. Her triple-elemental senses were screaming at her. The Aether hadn't just exploded; it had folded the dimensions like a piece of paper.
Junior, what have you done? she thought, her hands trembling.
High above the academy, Director Kaido didn't wait for the bells.
He was already moving. He stepped through a fold in space, appearing in the center of the ruined classroom before the dust had even settled. His Gold-ranked staff clattered against the floor, but his eyes were fixed on the residual energy.
"Professor Eldrin," Kaido's voice was like ice. "Report."
Eldrin, bleeding from a cut on his forehead, gestured vaguely at the hole in the ceiling. "He... he just spoke the words, Director. But the Aether didn't obey. It claimed him. It was a 100% resonance. I've never seen anything like it."
Kaido reached out his hand, touching the lingering sparks in the air. His eyes narrowed. This isn't just resonance, he realized. This is an awakening. The Spirit Monarch has returned.
"Seal the Academy," Kaido commanded, turning to the school's security team that was just arriving. "Nobody talks to the press. Nobody leaves. If a single word of this reaches the Seven Grandmasters before I'm ready, heads will roll."
While the Academy descended into a lockdown, Junior Kaito was falling through a tunnel of light and screaming shadows.
It didn't feel like moving; it felt like being torn apart and stitched back together every microsecond. He saw flashes of New York—the skyscrapers, his father flipping pancakes, Filis's smug smile—and then he saw things that didn't belong in his world.
Ancient cities made of bone. Rivers of flowing souls. A dark sun that didn't give off heat.
Stop it! he screamed in his mind. I want to go home!
[ACCESS GRANTED] a cold, mechanical voice echoed in his soul. [SPIRIT MONARCH PROTOCOL: ACTIVATED.]
The light vanished.
Junior slammed into a cold, wet floor. The impact knocked the wind out of him, leaving him gasping for air that tasted like iron and old moss.
He groaned, pushing himself up. His Veridia uniform was singed and torn. His Bronze-rank badge was cracked down the middle.
"Jason? Jenny?" he called out, his voice echoing back to him in a thousand different directions.
He wasn't in the classroom. He was in a cavern so big he couldn't see the ceiling. Rusted chains, some as thick as his torso, hung from the darkness above. The only light came from glowing moss that pulsed with a rhythm like a heartbeat.
He looked down at his hands. The multi-colored sparks were still there, moving under his skin like living insects.
"What is happening to me?" he whispered.
In the heart of the city, a private elevator opened into the penthouse of the Sakura Estate.
Mr. Kenji Sakura, one of the Seven Grandmasters, stood by the floor-to-ceiling window. He didn't need a phone to know what had happened. He felt the spike in the ley lines—a pulse so powerful it had temporarily blinded his Water-affinity senses.
"Director Kaido is hiding something," Kenji muttered, his eyes reflecting the distant glow of Veridia Academy.
A shadowy figure stepped out from behind a silk screen. "The Emberguard has already been dispatched, sir. Sakura Hoshino is on-site."
Kenji's grip tightened on his cane. "My daughter is in that building. If Kaido thinks he can play with the Spirit Monarch's legacy without my oversight, he is mistaken. Prepare the car. We're going to Veridia."
Back in the abyss, Junior heard something.
A soft, dragging sound.
Shhh-clink. Shhh-clink.
Something was moving in the shadows beyond the glowing moss. Junior's heart hammered against his ribs. He tried to stand, but his legs felt like jelly.
A pale, translucent face emerged from the dark. It was a woman, but her skin was like smoke. Her eyes were empty pits of silver light. She didn't walk; she drifted, her spectral gown trailing behind her.
"The King..." she whispered. The sound wasn't in the air—it was inside Junior's head. "The King has returned to the cradle."
Junior scrambled back, his hands hitting a sharp rock. "Stay away from me! I'm just a student!"
The ghost stopped. She tilted her head, her silver eyes scanning his "Bronze" badge. A mournful wail escaped her lips, a sound so sad it made Junior want to cry.
Suddenly, a ball of fire shot out of the darkness, hitting the ground between them.
"Back off, you weepy old soul!" a crackling voice shouted. "He's not ready for your depressing poetry yet!"
Junior stared as the fire condensed into a small, smirking creature with eyes of burning coal.
"Who... who are you?" Junior gasped.
The creature winked. "Name's Leo. And you, kid, are in a whole lot of trouble. Welcome to the Veil's Edge. Try not to die in the first five minutes, okay?"