Night had barely fallen when the world tore open.
The Academy of Fire, glowing peacefully under moonlight, suddenly shook with a thunderous blast that split the northern spire in two. A wave of heat rolled across the campus, followed by screams and shattering glass.
Alex bolted upright in his dorm, the dragon's pulse already hammering in his chest.
The System screamed before his eyes:
[ Alert: External Threat Detected ]
[ Unknown Mana Signature — Classified as "Voidfire" ]
[ Evacuation Protocol: Initiate Immediately ]
"Voidfire…?" Alex muttered the word alone made his skin crawl. He threw on his jacket and ran for the door.
Down the corridor, students were already flooding out some shouting for friends, others too stunned to move. Mira's voice cut through the chaos.
"Alex! Over here!"
She was at the stairwell, half-covered in soot, her eyes wide but steady. Behind her, two first-year students clung to each other.
"What happened?" Alex asked, grabbing her shoulder.
"An explosion near the training dome," she said quickly. "The guards say it wasn't an accident someone planted the charges."
Another explosion shook the ground, closer this time the lights above flickered dust rained down from the ceiling.
Alex's heartbeat synced with the dragon's too many places at once, he thought. This isn't random it's coordinated.
He turned to the students. "Get them to the safe hall under the west tower i'll"
"You'll what?" Mira snapped. "Run into the fire alone again?!"
He hesitated, but before he could answer, the eastern wall blew apart.
A wave of violet fire rolled through the hallway, devouring everything in its path. It wasn't normal flame it was cold, flickering with streaks of black like a dying star.
The students screamed Alex threw his hands forward, summoning the Shadowflame instinctively the two fires collided violet and black and the corridor filled with shrieking light.
The impact hurled them all backward for a moment, Alex saw silhouettes moving through the smoke figures in dark cloaks, masks glowing with crimson sigils.
"By order of the Null," one hissed. "Erase the light."
Mira pulled Alex up, coughing. "They're inside the academy!"
Alex's eyes burned with fury.
"Then we fight back."
The air was thick with smoke and panic.
Screams echoed through the broken corridors as the once-bright halls of the Academy burned with violet light.
Alex forced himself to stay focused, vision flickering between flames and System alerts that glowed red across his sight.
[ Vital Signs Elevated: Heart Rate 178 bpm ]
[ Mana Output: 62% of Safe Threshold ]
[ Advisory: Shadowflame Reactivity Rising ]
"Not now…" he muttered, clenching his fists the dragon within stirred restlessly, hungering for release. He could feel it pushing against his will let me burn them all.
"Alex!" Mira's voice snapped him back. She was dragging a collapsed beam aside with a burst of wind magic, clearing the path to a half-buried classroom. "There are still students inside!"
He nodded and slammed his palm to the floor. Dark-gold fire erupted beneath the rubble, reshaping the debris into molten strands that bent away like soft metal. From the smoke, three terrified students stumbled out coughing, crying, clutching one another.
"Go!" Mira ordered, pointing down the western hall. "The safe hall! Follow the blue markers!"
They didn't need to be told twice.
But as they ran, a shriek echoed through the ruins not human.
A shape burst from the broken floor: a creature made of twisted armor and burning runes, its eyes glowing like coals.
"A wraith construct," Mira whispered. "That's Null tech they're using sealed souls!"
The thing lunged. Alex met it halfway, his blade forming mid-swing out of Shadowflame. The clash sent sparks spraying in every direction.
The wraith screeched, slashing with claws that carved through stone. Alex dodged, countered, and plunged his blade into its chest but instead of dying, it detonated in a burst of violet light.
The shockwave hurled him across the hall. He hit the ground hard, pain ripping through his ribs.
"Alex!" Mira sprinted toward him, hurling a spear of air that shattered another approaching wraith. "We can't stay here! They're coming from the lower levels too!"
He pushed himself up, coughing, wiping blood from his mouth. "Then we need to find whoever's leading this attack. These things don't move without a commander."
Mira frowned. "You think they're inside the campus already?"
"I know they are." His gaze lifted to the tower above the Headmaster's Hall, now a blazing silhouette against the night. "That's where they'll go first."
He looked back at her. "Get the wounded out. I'll buy time."
She grabbed his arm, eyes fierce. "We go together. I'm not losing you again."
For a heartbeat, their eyes locked flames reflecting in both. Then he nodded.
"Together, then."
They turned toward the inferno, weapons drawn, as the academy trembled under another explosion.
The war inside the school had begun.
The storm of fire and ash swallowed the northern wing of the Academy.
Alex and Mira sprinted through what remained of the grand hallway, the once-polished marble now cracked and burning.
Flickering blue runes on the walls the Academy's defense wards shattered one after another with every blast that echoed from deeper within.
[ Warning: Campus Barrier Integrity 43% ]
[ Emergency Protocol: Evacuation in Progress ]
[ External Hostile Forces Detected – Source Unknown ]
Alex cursed under his breath. "They're jamming the System link. We can't contact the Command Chamber."
Mira skidded to a stop beside him. "Then we find whoever's leading this before they destroy the heart crystal."
He nodded. "Basement core or headmaster's tower. One of the two."
Before they could move, a gust of freezing air cut through the flames. The fire along the corridor extinguished as if swallowed by darkness itself.
Then came the voice smooth, mocking, and cold as glass.
"So… the boy who fused light and shadow really exists."
A figure stepped out from the smoke. Clad in black armor with silver veins pulsing through it, his mask was featureless except for a vertical slit glowing faint purple. Behind him hovered six wraith constructs motionless, waiting.
"Who are you?" Alex demanded, raising his sword.
The figure tilted his head. "A messenger. You may call me Null Shade."
Mira's stance tightened. "You're with the ones who attacked the capital's research center, aren't you?"
He chuckled softly. "Attack? No. We reclaimed what was stolen from us. The experiments your 'Academy' hides are merely fragments of the truth."
Alex frowned. "You talk too much for someone hiding behind a mask."
Shade raised a hand. A violet seal spread beneath his feet, humming with a frequency that made Alex's vision waver.
[ Warning: Unknown Frequency Detected – Mana Interference! ]
[ Synchronization Stability Dropping… 22% → 15% ]
Pain ripped through Alex's chest. The Shadowflame inside him flared, reacting violently.
"Stop… whatever that is!" Mira shouted, hurling a wave of air blades toward Shade.
They stopped mid-flight frozen in the air then reversed, flying back toward her. Alex dove, tackling her out of the way as the blades sliced into the wall behind them.
"Interesting," Shade murmured. "The dragon's pulse responds even to synthetic resonance. You're linked to it more deeply than expected."
Alex forced himself up, veins glowing faint gold-black. "How do you know about that?"
Shade turned slightly, the glowing slit in his mask flickering. "Because it was our creation that made it possible."
The words hit Alex harder than any blow. "What did you say?"
"Ask your System," Shade said, almost gently. "Ask it where the Shadowflame truly came from."
Before Alex could move, Shade snapped his fingers and the floor beneath them cracked open in a swirl of violet energy. The wraiths charged forward, their weapons blazing.
Mira shouted, summoning a gale to throw two of them off-balance. Alex met the others head-on, blade colliding with spectral steel, each strike lighting the hall with mixed gold and black.
But Shade was already fading back into the smoke, his voice echoing as he vanished.
"We'll meet again, Dragon-Bound. When the veil finally breaks."
The last wraith exploded, flinging Alex backward into the burning wall. Mira caught him, panting, eyes wide with fear and fury.
"Alex, what did he mean 'their creation'?"
He looked at his trembling hands the faint shadowed scales flickering to life again.
"I don't know," he said quietly. "But I'm going to find out."
Outside, the academy bells rang the old alarm, one reserved only for one thing:
Total Siege.
"The Fall of the Tower"
The Headmaster's Hall burned like a fallen sun.
Crimson light poured from shattered windows, mixing with the shadows that writhed across the marble floor. Alarms screamed through the Academy of Fire runes blaring warnings in every corridor as students and instructors rushed to the defenses.
Alex and Mira burst into the open courtyard, where the ground had already cracked under the force of mana explosions. The air stank of ozone and smoke.
Bodies some fainted, others wounded lay scattered along the broken path. Kael stood at the front line, twin blades blazing with emberlight, barking orders between swings.
"Push them back! Don't let them reach the tower!"
The attackers were fast masked figures moving like ghosts, their weapons forged of black steel that shimmered with corrosive mana.
They struck without emotion or noise, every move coordinated. The academy guards struggled to keep up, their barriers flickering with each hit.
"Who are they?" Mira shouted, slicing through a shadow-soldier that melted into mist.
Kael gritted his teeth. "Not rebels… they fight too clean. Too organized."
Then Seraphiel appeared at the tower steps, robes torn but eyes fierce, holding his staff high. "The Core Chamber must be protected! If they breach it, the wards that guard this school will collapse!"
Alex ran forward, fire pulsing around his arms. "I'll hold the west flank!"
"Go!" Seraphiel ordered, summoning a shield wall of golden sigils that rippled outward like sunlight on water.
Alex and Mira charged. Fire and wind roared together, pushing back the nearest wave of assailants. Every clash of steel sent sparks raining down, every impact shaking the ground.
And through it all, Alex's dragon stirred inside him its power rising, whispering for release.
The voice was clearer now, almost calm. "You're outnumbered, little flame."
"Not beaten," Alex hissed, parrying a blow that sent him spinning. His hand flared, sending a burning arc of flame through two enemies at once.
Still, the attackers advanced. They were after something deeper something beyond the simple destruction of the school.
Alex saw them heading toward the base of the Arcane Tower, where glowing conduits ran up into the sky.
"They're trying to overload the Core!" Mira shouted.
Kael slashed through a cluster of enemies and barked, "Seal the conduits! I'll cover you!"
As Alex reached the base of the tower, the ground trembled violently. A beam of dark energy shot upward, striking the central barrier that shielded the Arcane Core. The protective glyphs screamed as they began to fail, one by one.
"Seraphiel!" Alex called. "The Core's destabilizing!"
"I see it," the elder answered, slamming his staff down. Runes of light burst from the ground, holding the barrier together but barely.
For one breath, the world froze. The attackers retreated into the shadows as if by signal, their work done. Then a deep, hollow sound echoed across the sky like a heartbeat.
BOOM.
A shockwave of energy spread through the entire academy. Students screamed as glass shattered in the dormitories. The defensive wards flickered and dimmed, but held barely.
"Status report!" Seraphiel demanded, his voice strained.
Kael wiped blood from his cheek. "They've withdrawn, but they planted something. I can feel the mana distortion it's like… something's crawling beneath the wards."
Seraphiel's expression darkened. "A seed of corruption, perhaps. We'll search every node and burn it out."
Alex staggered, clutching his head. For a moment, the System flickered before his eyes.
[ WARNING: System Interference Detected. ]
[ Analyzing... Source Unknown. ]
[ Error — Connection Stable. ]
The message vanished as quickly as it appeared. He blinked, uneasy. It wasn't the first time the System had glitched but this felt different. Deeper. Like something invisible had brushed the edge of his mind.
"Alex?" Mira's hand was on his arm. "You okay?"
"Yeah…" he lied. "Just the backlash."
Seraphiel turned to them both. "You two did well. But this isn't over. Whoever attacked us they wanted to test our defenses. Next time, they'll come to break them."
His eyes drifted toward the tower's cracked glyphs, glowing faintly against the night sky.
And somewhere deep within the heart of the academy, unseen by any of them, a single glyph shimmered once just once and went dark again.
The night had burned itself out.
Smoke hung heavy over the ruined courtyard, drifting between the broken spires like mourning veils. The first light of dawn crawled across the sky, painting the Academy of Fire in shades of gray and gold.
Alex stood among the wreckage, cloak torn, hands still faintly trembling. The fires had finally died, leaving only the soft crackle of embers and the stench of scorched stone.
Around him, instructors and healers moved quickly tending to the wounded, stabilizing mana surges, counting the fallen.
Dozens injured.
Three dead.
And one message left behind.
Mira knelt beside a shattered wall, her eyes fixed on the strange mark burned into the stone a circular sigil made of intertwining lines of black flame. It pulsed faintly, like a wound refusing to heal.
"What is it?" Alex asked, stepping beside her.
Kael joined them, wiping soot from his face. "Seraphiel thinks it's a calling mark a signature. The group calls themselves Obsidian Dawn."
"Obsidian…" Alex muttered, the name heavy on his tongue. "Why attack the academy?"
Kael's expression hardened. "Because this isn't an attack. It's a declaration."
Across the courtyard, Seraphiel oversaw the sealing of the Arcane Core Tower. His robes were torn, and exhaustion lined his face, but his presence still commanded respect. When he turned to them, his voice carried the weight of a storm barely held back.
"The wards held for now," he said quietly. "But they've been compromised. Someone on the inside helped them."
Mira's breath caught. "You mean a traitor?"
Seraphiel nodded. "Someone with access to our systems, our runes, and our student records. I will begin an inquiry at once."
Alex's gaze drifted back to the faintly pulsing mark on the wall. The closer he looked, the more it seemed to breathe faint tendrils of shadow curling toward him like smoke. For a moment, he swore he could hear something whisper beneath the crackle of dying fire.
You felt it too, didn't you? the dragon's voice murmured within.
That energy… it doesn't belong to mortals.
He swallowed hard. "Yeah," he whispered back. "And it's not done with us yet."
Mira noticed his distant stare. "Alex?"
He blinked and forced a tired smile. "Just thinking. Whoever they are… they'll come again."
Seraphiel's staff struck the ground, sending a ripple of gold through the air. "And when they do," he said, "we will be ready."
But as dawn broke fully, light spilling over the ruined academy, a faint flicker passed behind Alex's eyes the same glitch from before.
The System hummed softly, like a machine breathing in its sleep.
[ Background Process: Initializing... ]
[ Status: Dormant. Monitoring User Sync Level. ]
Then it was gone.
Alex didn't see it. None of them did.
But the first shadow of the coming virus had already begun to spread.
He turned toward the horizon, fists clenched. "They wanted war," he whispered. "Then they'll have it."
Behind him, the academy burned quietly under the rising sun.