Night fell heavy over the **Academy of Shattered Nightmares**.
The volcanic island did not sleep—it exhaled dread.
After the tournament's emotional aftershocks, the ambient leaks were thicker than usual. Terror seeped through ward barriers like slow poison, staining the air with unease. Even the wind carried whispers that did not belong to it.
Most students had retreated into their dormitories—exhausted, wounded, or quietly unraveling under pressure.
A few still trained in isolated courtyards.
Pushing limits.
Tempting collapse.
---
High above it all, Xia Ying stood on the dormitory rooftop.
The **Terror Essence Crystal** rested against his chest, secured beneath layered shadow bindings. Its faint pulse resonated perfectly with his core—the Despair Sovereign fragment eager, hungry, patient.
He had already begun refinement.
Thin threads of despair essence flowed inward whenever he allowed it.
No backlash.
No inversion.
Only deepening resonance.
Only ascent.
---
### The Scream
The quiet shattered.
A scream tore through the night—from the lower eastern courtyard near the restricted library annex.
Then another.
Then—
The unmistakable crack of reality splitting open.
Xia Ying's eyes narrowed.
He felt the surge before he saw it:
Raw. Primal. Uncontrolled terror.
A Flaw inversion spike.
And beneath it—
The jagged pressure of a forming Rift.
He moved instantly.
Shadows lengthened beneath his feet as he descended the stairwell and vanished into the dark corridors.
The trio would sense the disturbance soon.
But the harvest…
He wanted it clean.
Uncontested.
---
## Rift Courtyard Chaos
The lower courtyard was already collapsing into panic when he arrived.
At the center—
**Torren Veil** convulsed violently.
A mid-tier perception Dominion student.
Former bully remnant.
Now breaking.
His eyes had rolled fully white.
Black veins bulged beneath his skin like spreading fractures.
Reality warped around him.
And then—
It tore.
A jagged vertical Rift split open like a wound in the world.
A minor breach.
But growing.
Nightmare creatures poured through:
* Multi-jointed shadow wraiths
* Fear-echoes wearing loved ones' faces
* Squat, many-mouthed horrors feeding on screams
The tear flickered violently—unstable but widening.
Torren's Flaw had inverted completely.
His perception Dominion forced him to witness every nightmare reality simultaneously.
Tournament stress.
Island dread leaks.
And the subtle Aura seed Xia Ying had planted months ago…
All converged into collapse.
---
Students training nearby scattered in terror.
Some froze.
Others screamed.
One girl tripped as a wraith latched onto her leg, feeding on her fear.
"Instructors! Rift breach!"
"Torren's lost control!"
The campus alarm began to wail.
But containment teams were minutes away.
Minutes the courtyard did not have.
---
## Shadow Intervention
Xia Ying stepped into the chaos alone.
A shadow wraith lunged.
He raised one hand.
An enhanced **Shadow Tendril** shot forward—faster than thought—piercing the creature's core.
It dissolved into black mist with a shriek.
More horrors surged toward fleeing students.
His **Adolescent Phantom** detached silently from his shadow and slipped toward the Rift.
Through its senses—
He mapped everything.
Torren at the anchor.
The tear feeding on his inversion.
Expansion accelerating.
---
"Enough," Xia Ying murmured.
He moved.
Enhanced Tendrils erupted outward—longer, denser, sovereign-responsive.
They lashed in every direction at once:
Binding horrors.
Shielding students.
Stabilizing Torren without killing the anchor.
Precision without waste.
---
A first-year stumbled directly into a fear-echo wearing her mother's face.
Rotting hands reached for her.
A Tendril severed the echo's arm mid-reach—
Then dragged the girl behind Xia Ying's protective perimeter.
---
Panic peaked.
Dozens screaming.
Dozens breaking.
The collective terror flooded his core in thick, intoxicating waves.
Through the Phantom—
He saw the Rift's heart.
And chose escalation.
---
## Sovereign Projection
Full **Dread Projection** unfolded.
Not as an attack—
But as a decree.
Reality inverted for the invading horrors.
Each creature suddenly faced a greater, absolute terror:
A veiled sovereign presence.
Ancient.
Predatory.
Unavoidable.
The shadow wraiths shrieked and dissolved.
Fear-echoes fractured into harmless mist.
Many-mouthed horrors turned on each other in frenzied terror, devouring their own kind.
At the Rift's edge—
Torren's convulsions slowed.
Xia Ying carefully refined the Projection around him—
Not breaking…
But stabilizing.
He showed Torren a controlled vision:
Order.
Containment.
Survival.
Just enough to halt the inversion feedback.
"The shadow… the sovereign…" Torren whispered before collapsing.
---
## Rift Closure
With the anchor stabilized—
Xia Ying compressed the breach.
Shadow Tendrils wrapped the tear's edges.
Projection pulses forced nightmare essence backward.
Reality resisted—
Then yielded.
The Rift sealed with a final wet tearing sound.
Silence fell.
Broken only by sobbing survivors.
---
## Witnessed Power
Containment instructors burst into the courtyard moments later—
And froze.
No Rift.
No creatures.
Students alive.
Torren catatonic but breathing.
And Xia Ying standing alone at the center as shadows retracted calmly into his form.
Headmaster Eldren arrived soon after, Vale at his side.
Both stopped when they saw the sealed breach.
The headmaster raised a hand, silencing everyone.
"You acted alone?" he asked.
"I sensed the breach," Xia Ying replied evenly. "There was no time."
Eldren studied the courtyard carefully.
Then spoke loudly for all to hear:
"You sealed a Rift breach single-handedly. Your intervention saved lives. The Academy recognizes such courage and control."
He granted public rewards:
* Additional essence access
* Priority mainland assignments
* Personal mentorship eligibility
Awe spread through the gathered students.
At the courtyard edge—
Lin Mei and Wei Jun had just arrived.
Lin Mei's eyes shone with fierce, trembling pride.
---
## Private Suspicion
Later, Eldren drew Xia Ying aside briefly.
Low voice.
Measured tone.
"Your control is… almost too perfect. The dread did not merely obey you—it answered."
His gaze sharpened.
"Depth concealed indeed. I will watch closely, Xia Ying. For the Academy's sake… and yours."
Xia Ying inclined his head respectfully.
"I seek only strength to defend against the Veil. The tournament and prize essence guided me tonight."
The answer satisfied publicly—
But not privately.
Still—
Another reward was granted:
Immediate access to a **high-grade stabilization chamber**.
Favor and suspicion now walked hand in hand.
---
## Trio Convergence
Lin Mei reached him first, healing light already forming.
"You went alone," she whispered, equal parts worry and reverence. "I felt the surge—I would have run faster."
Wei Jun scanned the sealed breach site.
"Clean containment. Torren will live, but he's broken. The story spreads already—'shadow sovereign who sealed the Rift alone.' Political ripples incoming."
Xia Ying allowed Lin Mei to heal him—though he needed none.
"The core responded as one. Your readiness honors me."
Subtle essence threads slipped into both allies.
Loyalty tightened.
Hierarchy reinforced.
---
## Night Refinement
Later, alone in his dorm chamber—
The crystal rested in his lap.
Tonight's harvest flooded inward:
Student panic.
Creature terror.
Torren's collapse.
Residual Rift dread.
All of it fed into the Despair Sovereign fragment.
Resonance surged violently.
Alignment flawless.
No backlash.
No inversion.
Realm 8 — **Terror Sovereign** stabilization was no longer approaching.
It was inevitable.
---
A crimson interface bloomed before his eyes.
**Mandatory Recall — New Haven**
**Transport in Five Days**
**Mainland Faction Tensions Escalating**
Xia Ying smiled into the darkness.
Shadows deepened around the room like a throne forming in silence.
*The Rift fed me well.*
*Favor and suspicion are merely chains of different metals.*
*The Academy's gifts are nearly spent.*
He rose slowly, crystal pulsing against his chest.
*The island was preparation.*
*The mainland…*
*Is the feast.*