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Inside the academy's control chamber, Darius stood before the hovering monitors. Streams of data reflected in his sharp eyes — hundreds of students scattered across the Abandoned District, their vitals flickering like fireflies. Yet only a few signals burned brighter than the rest.
"Arisa Kaen, Jiro Tensai. Four others have achieved partial integration," one of the officers reported, voice uneasy. "But several Tier 3 fluctuations are being detected across the ruins — and they don't match student activity."
Darius didn't respond immediately. He folded his hands behind his back, gaze fixed on Jiro's vitals — the strange triple pulse still reading "Error."
"They're making their move sooner than expected…" he muttered. His tone hardened. "Send retrieval teams. Priority: the unaligned students who have merged successfully. If the corporations, sects, and families are truly acting on their own, I won't allow them to take what they don't understand."
"Sir, should we extract all participants—?"
"No. Only the unaligned," Darius cut in coldly. "The rest chose their sides. Let them deal with the consequences."
Far below, deep in the ruins, the retrieval squad descended.
The faint hum of their hover units stirred the dust as they moved through the broken streets, led by a masked officer. The air shimmered with unstable Essentia — reality bending in thin ripples.
"Signal confirms two survivors nearby," the officer said, checking his wrist device. "We move now."
They found Arisa first — unconscious beside the corpse of the Shadowclaw, her sword still clutched tight in her hand. Her pulse was weak but steady, faint traces of an Ether fragment flickering beneath her skin.
"Stabilize her," the officer ordered.
Then came a faint pulse — from the south cavern. The readings were erratic, unlike any normal Ether wave.
"Someone else is alive down there," a soldier said.
The officer hesitated only a second. "Retrieve them. The commander's orders are absolute."
Inside the cavern, dust drifted like snow. Jiro lay still, faint blue light tracing across the mark on his stomach — the resting seal of the egg now hidden beneath his skin.
When they reached him, one soldier crouched, scanning the mark with his wristwatch. The screen glitched violently.
[Error: Unknown Core Signature Detected.]
"What the hell is this?" he muttered.
"Just bring him," the officer said sharply. "We'll let the higher-ups figure that out."
They lifted Jiro and began the climb out. The air outside was heavy — unnaturally still, as though the entire district was holding its breath.
They regrouped near Arisa's position, preparing to extract. Then the ground beneath them began to hum — faint at first, then violently.
Above, far across the city ruins, the elite families and sect disciples were gathering. Frustration rippled among them.
The corporations' scanners showed nothing — no Tier 3 beast, no fragments of higher evolution. Only empty readings and residual chaos energy.
"This was supposed to be guaranteed!" one heir shouted. "Where is the target!?"
"They tricked us," another snarled. "The academy hid it!"
In the chaos, one of the corporation's specialists slammed a metal capsule into the ground. Blue light exploded outward in arcs of unstable energy.
"If we can't have it," he said coldly, "then none of them will."
The world screamed.
From the heart of the Abandoned District, an overwhelming surge of Aeterion energy erupted — a violent storm of raw, uncontrolled essence. Buildings shattered. The ground split. The air itself turned white with energy flux.
The retrieval squad barely had time to react.
"Brace yourselves!" the officer shouted.
The surge tore through the ruins, disintegrating everything in its path. The soldiers' protective barriers flickered, barely holding.
Jiro's body convulsed midair — the mark on his stomach igniting with impossible brilliance. His veins lit like circuits, blue and white intertwining.
Then, something deeper awakened.
A third pulse.
The Core of Etherion — energy and matter fused in perfect balance.
His eyes snapped open, glowing faintly as the storm swallowed him whole.
Far away, in the academy command center, alarms blared.
Darius stood still amid the chaos, his gaze fixed on Jiro's reading.
"Core reaction sequence — complete fusion?" one scientist gasped. "That's impossible! He's—"
Darius raised a hand. "No. He's not dying… he's transforming."
For a long moment, the screen was nothing but static.
Then — a faint pulse. Three cores resonating in harmony.
Darius's eyes darkened.
"So the theory was true," he whispered. "The fluxion rebirth has begun."
Outside, as the surge began to fade, the retrieval team found what was left — a crater of glowing dust and two unconscious figures lying within it. Arisa and Jiro.
"Get them out of here," the officer said quietly. "Now."
That day marked the end of the trial.
But for Jiro Tensai— it was the beginning of something the world had long forgotten.
The beginning of a return that should never have been possible.
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