The morning sun fell hard over the white-stone courtyards, making each tile shine as if the academy itself were breathing light.Vex walked in silence, adjusting the metal bracelet on his wrist—still uncomfortable with the cold it emitted.
— "What class is next?" he asked, breaking the quiet.
— "Ancestral History and World Origin," Elois replied without even looking at his magic tablet."With the legendary Professor Rhelan Vance."
— "Legendary? Why?"
— "Because he speaks like he's lived a thousand years… and forgotten half of them," said Kaen.
— "And because every year, he makes at least three students cry without raising his voice," added Elois."He's like a mix between a mystical sage and a tragedy narrator… minus the applause."
Vex gave a faint smile.The nerves still clung to his chest, but his companions' banter helped distract him.
They passed under an arch covered in floating runes that vibrated with the wind's rhythm, entering one of the large side buildings.The door to Room 1-Theta opened automatically as it detected their bracelets.
The classroom was colossal.Hundreds of students sat in descending rings surrounding a floating central platform.Light projections moved across the ceiling like stars caught in slow motion.
— "This feels more like an opera house than a class," Vex murmured.
— "And yet, no chance of escape," whispered Elois."Welcome to historical hell."
Kaen sat quietly.Vex took a seat between them, still stunned by the sheer number of students.There were so many… and yet all seemed to be waiting for the same thing.
Then the door closed with a whisper.And he entered.
Rhelan Vance walked with the unhurried grace of someone who didn't need to impress anyone.His robe was black, without insignias.His hair, long and gray, tied with a bronze ribbon.His gaze was deep—like he could see through time… or through lies.
— "Welcome to Ancestral History and World Origin," he said without raising his voice, yet the echo rang perfectly.
— "Or, if you prefer, the class where you'll learn why none of you are as special as you think."
A nervous murmur rippled through the room.
Elois turned to Kaen and whispered:
— "Did this guy just… insult us poetically?"
Kaen didn't reply.
Vex couldn't take his eyes off the center of the room, where the floating platform began projecting images: first, darkness.Then, fire.Then… the yellow sky.
— "Over a thousand years ago," Vance continued, "humanity destroyed its world.It did so with science, with weapons, with ideology.It did so without hesitation."
— "And then… rebuilt it with something it didn't understand: magic."
— "And with that magic… a new world was born.Not by choice. By necessity."
— "The old nations collapsed—deformed by radiation, hunger, betrayal.From their ruins rose the Four Unions we know today:The Union of the Americas, New Europe, Great Africa, and the Asian Alliance."
— "Each inherited a fragment of the past… and a different obsession with the future."
— "But even those great powers fear what lies beyond the sea:Arkhadia."
— "An impossible continent, formed after the anomalous expansion of the earth's crust.Where physical laws break.Where magic takes forms we cannot comprehend."
— "Creatures never before seen—and others we barely survived long enough to describe—walk freely across its lands."
— "Some, according to reports, could bring extinction if they ever crossed into the rest of the world."
— "Arkhadia has no ruler. No border.Only ruins, echoes… and secrets that don't belong to this time."
— "The sky changed. The air became different.And with it, our cells… our souls."
— "The Celestia Dream was not born as a gift.But as a divine mistake…Or the planet's desperate attempt to remember what once was great."
The platform now displayed fragments of visions: ancestral warriors, alchemists, philosophers, monarchs.All walking among us… like living memories.
— "Some of you have inherited legendary bloodlines. Others, dormant blood."— "But the Awakening is not an inheritance. It is a judgment."
— "And only one per generation receives the echo.Only one carries the legacy.The rest… only witness it."
Elois whispered to Kaen:
— "Well, at least I'm the one in my family."
Kaen replied:
— "You mean the only one who survives you."
Vance glanced their way briefly—but said nothing.
Vex barely moved.Every word struck him with a mix of fascination, fear… and anxiety.
"What if I'm nobody? What if I never was?"
— "Now you're wondering: 'What can I do with that power?'How does it manifest? How is it trained?"
— "You'll learn that in Theory of Potential and Channelling, with Professor Mettal.She is not as kind as I am. Nor as patient."
A few restrained laughs echoed in the hall.
Then, the magic bell rang—a silent pulse that swept through the room like a gravitational wave.It wasn't a sound.It was a sensation.
Vance fell silent. Then said:
— "You are the seeds of a memory that does not yet exist.But the world… only remembers the ones that bloom with impact."
— "The rest… simply wither and are forgotten."
Class ended.But the questions… were only beginning.