The morning started like any other, the sprawling grounds of the Aetherium Nexus Academy buzzing with activity as students rushed to their classes. Nyvian, Jaguar, and Alana had just finished a session in strategy class when their teacher, Varkon Seraphal, appeared in the hallway, his normally stern face even more serious than usual. The air around him felt charged, like the calm before a storm.
“Nyvian, Jaguar, Alana,” Varkon called, his voice commanding their attention. “There’s an emergency assembly. The entire school is required to attend. Follow me.”
Nyvian felt a knot tighten in his stomach. Emergency meetings at the academy were rare, and when they happened, they were never for good news. Jaguar, ever the optimist, looked intrigued, while Alana exchanged a glance with Nyvian, her brow furrowed with concern.
They followed Varkon in silence to the great hall, the grandest space in the academy, where hundreds of students were already gathering. The ceiling stretched high above, covered in ancient murals of the academy’s greatest triumphs. Today, though, no one seemed to be paying attention to the beauty of their surroundings. The atmosphere was heavy with a tension that no one could quite explain but that everyone felt.
The dean of the academy, a towering figure with an aura of calm authority, stood at the center of the stage. His presence alone demanded silence. As the last few students found their places, the dean raised his hand, and the hall dimmed.
A scene appeared before them, projected into the air like a vision from a distant world. Nyvian’s breath caught in his throat as the image became clearer—a distant galaxy, or what was left of it.
The once bustling system was now a graveyard. Planets hung broken, barely held together by the weak pull of their own gravity, their surfaces cracked and lifeless. Some worlds had been reduced to barren wastelands, devoid of any sign of the civilizations that once thrived there. In the distance, the twin suns of the system, once a symbol of life, were twisted and warped, their energy drained, their surfaces roiling with chaotic forces. There was no life here. Only death.
Nyvian’s body tensed as a wave of emotion crashed over him—fear, anger, guilt. His breath quickened, his hands clenched into fists. This is because of me. The thought echoed in his mind, relentless and unforgiving. All of this destruction. All of these lives lost. It’s because of me.
As the image continued to play out before them, showing the devastation in heartbreaking detail, Nyvian felt as though the ground was slipping from beneath his feet. His mind spiraled, consumed by the horror of it all. "If I didn’t exist, if they weren’t hunting me, this wouldn’t be happening." The destruction, the death—it was all his fault.
He barely heard the dean’s next words, his voice like a distant echo in Nyvian’s ears.
“This is what remains after the Conclave of the Eternal finishes its work,” the dean said gravely. “This is the cost of their conquest, the price of their search.”
The hall was deathly silent as the dean continued. “The situation has escalated. The destruction is spreading, and there are new forces at play—third parties who have entered the fray, fighting both the Conclave and anyone who stands in their way. Because of this, the academy is entering emergency wartime protocols.”
Nyvian’s heart pounded, but his mind remained trapped in the dark storm of guilt that churned inside him. This is my fault.
“All classes are suspended,” the dean announced, his voice ringing out across the hall. “From this point forward, you will no longer be students in the traditional sense. There will be no more lectures, no more assignments. There will only be tasks. You will find a new task board in the central hall. Each task will have a rank, and you will form teams to complete them. The time has come for you to be what we have trained you to be. Leaders. Warriors.”
Jaguar shifted beside Nyvian, his excitement barely contained. “This is it!” he whispered eagerly. “We’re going to be on the front lines!”
But Alana wasn’t watching the dean. She was watching Nyvian. She could feel something shifting in him, an energy that was unlike anything she had felt before. His aura, once steady and controlled, was starting to ripple, the tension building like a dam about to burst. His eyes, normally sharp and focused, had taken on a distant look, as if he wasn’t really there anymore.
The dean continued, his voice unwavering. “These are trying times. Some of you will not make it through. That includes teachers and staff. But this is the moment that will define you. This is where the true value of the status cards you carry will be revealed. Are they just vague notions of what could be? Or are they reflections of who you truly are?”
Jaguar’s excitement grew as the dean spoke, but Alana barely registered his enthusiasm. Her attention was fully on Nyvian now, watching in alarm as the energy around him began to shift, the air thickening with a strange, pulsing force. His eyes… they were no longer normal. They looked like swirling galaxies, endless and vast.
“Nyvian?” she whispered, her voice laced with concern. She reached out to touch him, her hand brushing against his arm.
The moment she made contact, a violent surge of energy exploded from Nyvian’s body, sending her flying back with a force that shocked everyone in the room. Alana was thrown over a hundred feet across the great hall, her body spinning through the air.
The dean moved faster than anyone could process, appearing behind Alana and catching her effortlessly. With a wave of his hand, the residual energy that clung to her dissipated, and she landed gently in his arms, unharmed. He set her down and turned his focus back to Nyvian, his expression calm but watchful.
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The entire hall had fallen into stunned silence, every eye on Nyvian. Jaguar had stepped back, his stance low and defensive, unsure of what was happening. Nyvian’s body was surrounded by a flickering, unstable energy, like lightning trapped beneath his skin. His mind raced, struggling to grasp what had just happened. He hadn’t even realized he had lost control.
The dean approached him carefully, placing a firm hand on Nyvian’s shoulder. He leaned in close, whispering something into Nyvian’s ear—words that, though Nyvian couldn’t fully understand, brought him back to his senses. The swirling energy around him dissipated, his eyes returning to normal as the storm inside him calmed.
Nyvian blinked, disoriented, his heart racing. He glanced around, seeing the stunned faces of the students, the wide-eyed look on Jaguar’s face, and Alana standing with the dean, her expression a mix of concern and confusion. What had he done?
The dean straightened, turning to the crowd. “It seems some of you are eager to fight already,” he said, his voice light as he tried to break the tension in the room. “Let’s keep that energy focused where it belongs, shall we?”
There were a few nervous chuckles from the students, but the gravity of the situation was clear. Nyvian’s powers had surged uncontrollably, and everyone in the room had seen it.
Returning to the stage, the dean explained the new system. “Each task will have a rank, from D to S, with S being the most dangerous. Each year level will be restricted to certain task ranks for your safety. First-year students will only be permitted to take on D and C rank missions, second-years may take up to B rank. Third-years and above will be eligible for A and S rank missions, depending on their status card evaluations.”
Nyvian could barely hear the rest of the dean’s words. His mind was too clouded by shame and confusion. How had he lost control like that? What had just happened?
---
After the assembly, the group made their way to the cafeteria, but Nyvian was barely present. Jaguar and Alana filled the silence, talking about the task system and their excitement for what was to come, but there was a tension between them.
Alana finally broke the silence, her voice soft but firm. “Nyvian, do you even realize what just happened back there?”
Nyvian’s head snapped up, guilt twisting in his gut. “What do you mean?”
Jaguar spoke up, his tone careful. “When Alana touched you, it was like… something inside you exploded. You sent her flying across the hall. The dean had to step in to stop it.”
Nyvian’s stomach sank as the full weight of their words hit him. “I… I didn’t mean to,” he whispered, his voice barely audible. “I didn’t know…”
Alana placed a hand on his arm, gentler this time. “It’s okay, Nyvian. But something is happening to you. You need to figure it out before it gets worse.”
Nyvian nodded but said nothing more. After a few more awkward moments, he muttered an apology and excused himself, leaving the cafeteria in silence.
---
Nyvian didn’t return to his room. Instead, he made his way to the training arena, his mind racing with a mixture of guilt, shame, and fear. He needed to train, to exhaust himself until the thoughts and emotions swirling in his head were quieted.
---
The arena was empty, its walls reinforced with advanced technology capable of withstanding catastrophic forces—designed to endure the training of beings who could bend time, space, and matter. It was said the arena could survive the collapse of a red dwarf star, a testament to its indestructibility. But as Nyvian entered, his mind was not focused on the strength of the walls. He was lost in the storm that churned inside him, the storm that had surfaced in front of the entire school.
He paced across the vast space, his thoughts racing. The image of Alana being thrown back replayed in his mind, the look of fear in Jaguar’s eyes, the whisper from the dean that had calmed him—though he couldn’t recall the words. He clenched his fists, frustration boiling inside him. Why had his powers surged like that? He had always been in control, or at least he thought he had been.
Now, after witnessing the devastation wrought by the Conclave, Nyvian was more convinced than ever that their search for him was the catalyst for the destruction spreading across the multiverse. And now he was losing control. Am I just as dangerous as they are? The thought gnawed at him.
He needed to push himself, to exhaust the energy building inside him before it exploded again. He couldn’t let it happen, not like before.
Nyvian took a deep breath, focusing on the energy within him. It was always there, a quiet hum beneath the surface of his skin, but now it felt different—wilder, more unstable. His mind sharpened as he began to channel the energy into his hands, trying to control the release, trying to master it.
His palms glowed with a faint light at first, but it quickly intensified. As he concentrated, the light became two spheres of plasma, each one swirling and crackling with raw, untamed power. The energy hummed louder, vibrating through his entire body as the spheres grew larger, taking on the appearance of miniature suns.
Focus, control, Nyvian reminded himself, but it was no use. The power surged beyond his control, driven by the roiling emotions he couldn’t suppress—fear for his mother, anger at the Conclave, shame for what he had done to Alana.
The plasma orbs grew brighter, burning hotter, until the air around them shimmered with heat. Nyvian’s breathing grew ragged, sweat trickling down his face as he struggled to contain the power. His heart pounded in his chest, each beat sending another pulse of energy into the growing spheres.
He couldn’t hold it anymore.
With a roar, Nyvian unleashed the energy in a powerful punch, sending the twin plasma orbs hurtling forward. They flew across the arena, leaving trails of searing heat in their wake, and collided with the far wall. For a split second, there was silence—then a deafening explosion rocked the entire structure.
The plasma orbs detonated like twin stars going supernova, and the walls of the training arena trembled under the force. The reinforced metal groaned, cracks spider webbing across its surface as the heat from the explosion seared the ground, melting parts of the floor into molten slag.
Nyvian stood frozen, his hand still outstretched, his breath coming in labored gasps. He stared in disbelief as the far wall of the arena collapsed inward, reduced to rubble by the force of his attack. Smoke and debris filled the air, and the heat still radiated from the crater where his plasma orbs had hit.
This arena had been designed to withstand the explosion of a red dwarf star.
And he had destroyed it.
Nyvian’s legs trembled as the enormity of what had just happened sank in. He had never unleashed power like this before. He hadn’t known it was even possible. But now, standing in the wreckage of the training arena, he realized just how dangerous he truly was.
His body, drained from the release of energy, began to falter. His vision blurred, and the overwhelming fatigue that followed such a massive outpouring of power crashed over him like a tidal wave.
What have I done?
The thought was his last coherent one before the darkness took him. His knees buckled, and he fell to the ground, the heat of the molten floor still radiating beneath him. His world went black, the last thing he heard being the distant sound of alarms as the academy’s emergency systems activated.
And then, silence.
---
When Nyvian’s eyes fluttered open again, the world around him was a blur of dim lights and soft voices. He blinked, trying to focus, but the fatigue still weighed heavy on his body. His mind swam with fragments of memory—the devastation in the arena, the surge of power, the shame of losing control.
He was no longer in the training arena. He was in the academy’s medical wing, the sterile white walls a stark contrast to the chaos of the last few hours.
“You’re awake.”
The voice was calm and familiar. Nyvian turned his head to see the dean standing at his bedside, his expression unreadable.
Nyvian’s heart sank. “What happened?” he rasped, his throat dry.
“You pushed yourself too far,” the dean said simply, his tone devoid of judgment. “Your powers are growing, Nyvian. Faster than even we expected.”
Nyvian closed his eyes, guilt washing over him. “I didn’t mean to…”
“I know,” the dean said softly, his gaze steady. “But you must learn to control it, before it controls you.”
Nyvian opened his eyes again, staring at the ceiling. “The destruction… in the great hall… it was because of me.”
The dean was silent for a moment before speaking again. “It’s not your fault, Nyvian. But you must understand—there are forces at play far greater than you realize. Forces that will stop at nothing to...”
Nyvian’s fists clenched, his body trembling with frustration. “Then what am I supposed to do? I can’t control this. I’m a danger to everyone.”
The dean leaned closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. “You are far more than a danger, Nyvian. You are a force that can change the fate of galaxies. But only if you learn to master the power within you.”
Nyvian didn’t respond. His mind was still reeling from the events of the day, from the destruction he had caused. He wasn’t sure if he could ever gain the control the dean spoke of. But one thing was clear—he couldn’t keep running from his destiny.
As the dean stood to leave, his final words lingered in the air. “Rest now. Tomorrow, we begin again. But this time, you won’t be alone.”
Nyvian’s eyes grew heavy once more as exhaustion claimed him. The dean’s words echoed in his mind, a promise of the challenges that lay ahead. But beneath the fear and uncertainty, a single thought took root.
I have to learn. For my mother. For the universe. For me.
And with that, Nyvian slipped back into unconsciousness, the storm inside him quiet for now—but far from over.