Rian Hale saw the sky crack before he died.
At first, he thought it was just exhaustion—a thin hallucination after staring at a screen for too long. But the line remained, stretching across the night air like a scratch on an invisible pane of massive glass, faintly shimmering between the city lights. People kept walking without noticing. Cars passed by. Horns blended with the wind. No one looked up. No one panicked.
Only he saw the fracture slowly widening, as if the world were holding something back from bursting through.
“…What is that?”
The line of light trembled. Then a sound like enormous glass being crushed echoed directly above his head. The air pressed against his lungs. The world turned white.
There was no sensation of falling. No impact. Only the feeling of being pulled through a gap far too narrow for a human body.
Then everything vanished.
When he opened his eyes, he was lying on damp grass, the scent of wet soil and morning dew filling his nose. The sky above him was too blue—too clean, untouched by pollution. No skyscrapers. No power lines. No engine noise.
Only wind. Stone. And a grand structure atop a hill—a towering stone citadel with a massive banner fluttering at its peak.
Memories that were not his flooded in without permission. A name. A home. A father with one arm. A mother who sewed late into the night. A world called Ardent. An academy called Ironcrest.
He sat up slowly, his heartbeat out of sync with his thoughts.
“Where… am I?”
“If you faint before the test even begins, you might as well go home.”
The voice made him turn. A teenage boy stood a few steps away, dressed in a gray uniform bearing a silver lion crest on his chest. Behind them, hundreds of youths their age gathered across a vast courtyard facing the main building of Ironcrest Academy.
Rian stood. This body felt like his—yet not entirely. The muscles were lighter, younger. No old scars. No lingering exhaustion from his previous life. And yet something felt off.
As if he were inside a system that hadn’t fully recognized him.
At the front of the courtyard stood a towering crystal spire: the Tower of Aura. That was where their fates would be decided.
A man in black robes stepped forward, his voice amplified by magic.
“Welcome to Ironcrest Academy. Today, your Aura will be measured. Your Hero Type will awaken. From this moment on, your lives no longer belong to you—they belong to the world.”
The atmosphere tightened. Some faces looked confident. Others turned pale.
Rian felt neither.
He felt… foreign.
One by one, candidates stepped forward and touched the crystal. Different colors of light flared. Cheers erupted when a red-haired young man awakened a dazzling golden aura.
“Fighter, High Rank!”
Applause exploded.
An elf girl stepped up next. The crystal shone a brilliant, steady blue.
“Mage, Mid-High!”
Murmurs of admiration rippled through the crowd.
Rian wasn’t watching the brightness.
He was watching the patterns.
Each aura flowed differently. Some were stable like rivers. Others flickered like flames on the verge of dying out. He didn’t know how, but he could see the fine structure within the light—the subtle fractures in the energy nodes that even their owners didn’t notice.
His name was called.
He walked forward expressionlessly. His right hand touched the crystal.
Cold.
The light that appeared… was dim. Not extinguished, but far from strong. The crystal glowed faintly, like a lamp running out of power.
The examiners exchanged glances.
“Aura Level: Low.”
Whispers began.
“Hero Type: Observer.”
A few snickers came from the back rows.
“Observer? That’s for analysts, not fighters.”
“He doesn’t belong in Ironcrest.”
“He’ll be dead before graduation.”
Rian slowly withdrew his hand. He wasn’t angry. Not embarrassed. He simply stared at the crystal longer than he should have.
He saw it.
The energy node inside the tower wasn’t perfect. There was a thin line slightly misaligned. A gap too small to be called damage—yet undeniably present.
As if the tower itself… was cracked.
He stepped back and returned to the line without defending himself. The practical test began soon after. One-on-one duels. He was paired with a Fighter-type student who had just been praised as one of the highest ranks of the day.
The match began.
Rian saw his opponent’s shoulder shift before the strike descended. He knew the attack would come from the right. He knew the defense would open for a fraction of a second after the first swing.
He knew.
His body wasn’t fast enough.
The wooden sword slammed into his ribs. He hit the ground, breath knocked out of him.
“Winner: Arveth Dain.”
Cheers rose again.
Arveth looked at him briefly before turning away.
“If all you can do is see, make sure your body can keep up.”
Rian rose slowly, suppressing the pain. He didn’t reply. There was no point. He had seen the opening.
He simply couldn’t use it.
Hours later, class assignments were announced in the Main Hall. Names were projected in magical light across the air.
Class A.
Class B.
Class C.
And at the very bottom—
Class F.
Rian Hale’s name appeared there.
A red-haired girl crossed her arms nearby and scoffed softly.
“Good. Trash belongs in the same pile.”
Rian glanced at her.
“You’re in Class F too.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“At least I can blow something up.”
In the distance, Ironcrest’s bell rang once—deep and heavy. The evening wind blew from beyond the academy walls, from the lands where monsters emerged.
Rian looked up unconsciously.
The sky of Ardent appeared clear.
Too clear.
And for a fraction of a second—so brief he almost doubted it—he saw a thin line far above.
Just like before.
A small crack.
He didn’t know whether he had been brought into this world because of that crack.
Or if the crack had appeared… because of him.
Behind him, the final announcement echoed.
“From today onward, you are students of Ironcrest Academy. Survive—if you can.”
Rian lowered his gaze. Among hundreds of students dreaming of becoming heroes, he stood as something out of sync.
Not the strongest.
Not the chosen one.
Just someone who saw too much.
And in a world built on strength—
that might be the most dangerous thing of all.