CHAPTER 1 — WHEN THE VOID LOOKED BACK
The sky above Aurelius Academy shimmered with silver constellations—constellations that did not belong to this world. They twisted and folded like serpents, pulling threads of starlight into shapes impossible for mortal eyes to understand.
Students stared up, confused.
"Another dimensional disturbance?"
"Did someone break a seal again?"
"No… this one feels like something is watching us…"
They were wrong.
It wasn't watching them.
It was watching him.
Hidden in the crowd, wearing the academy's dark uniform, Rudraunsh Kurozane lifted his gaze. His obsidian eyes reflected the shifting heavens, yet no fear appeared on his face. Only a strange familiarity.
It's starting again, he thought.
Ever since reincarnating in this world, he felt it: a presence beyond gods, beyond hell, beyond even the underworld he commanded.
The Void.
A realm older than existence.
A place forbidden to all beings except one:
The Anomaly.
Rudraunsh.
A student on paper.
A cosmic threat in reality.
"Hey! First-year! Move aside!" a senior shouted, shoving him.
Rudraunsh didn't move.
The senior froze mid-step, choking on air.
Rudraunsh's eyes glowed for a second.
To everyone else, it looked like the senior simply tripped and fell.
"W-What was that…?"
Nothing.
Rudraunsh had allowed a fragment of death to touch the boy's soul.
A tiny warning.
He continued walking toward the academy gates.
Behind him, the sky cracked.
A streak of black lightning carved open the heavens.
The constellations folded into a forbidden pattern—a sigil recognized by only one being:
The Void Emperor.
Rudraunsh's former self.
The one who died.
The one who reincarnated as him.
The sigil pulsed.
Found you, a voice echoed inside his mind.
Rudraunsh smirked.
"So you finally noticed."
The void searching for him.
The gods fearing him.
The dead obeying him.
And now, he walked into an academy like a normal student.
---
Aurelius Academy — Hall of Summoners
Golden pillars stretched upward, engraved with floating spell-cores. Students gathered around summoning circles, conjuring spirit wolves, golems, sprites—weak creatures compared to what he commanded.
One boy shouted proudly, "Behold! My A-rank summon!"
A flaming lion emerged.
The class cheered.
Rudraunsh tilted his head.
Cute.
He snapped his fingers.
A ripple of darkness expanded behind him.
Not a spell.
Not a technique.
Just his presence.
The ground cracked.
A colossal skeletal titan—fifty meters tall—rose behind him, made of voidstone bones and cosmic ash.
Students screamed.
Teachers rushed forward.
"Who summoned that monster!?"
"That thing's power… S-rank? No… beyond!!"
The flaming lion whimpered.
The summoner teacher, a stern woman, pointed at Rudraunsh.
"You! Boy! What ritual did you perform!?"
Rudraunsh blinked.
"…I sneezed."
Silence.
The titan kneeled behind him, lowering its massive skull.
The teacher trembled.
"D-Dismiss that thing!!"
Rudraunsh tapped the air.
The colossus shattered, becoming dust.
The dust formed tiny skeleton birds that perched on his shoulders.
A girl whispered, "He turned an SS-rank monster into… pets?"
No.
He turned cosmic undead into pets.
---
A Voice Only He Heard
You went too far, the presence whispered.
Rudraunsh smirked.
"That was me being polite."
You cannot expose yourself. Celestial prodigies are here. Heaven Clans are here. Even the Void Emperor watches.
"I know," he whispered. "I can feel him."
What will you do, Rudraunsh?
He looked up at the ceiling where cosmic dust drifted.
"I will attend class."
---
Back Row Seat
Even after summoning a cosmic undead, Rudraunsh sat in the last bench like any ordinary student.
Everyone avoided him.
Except one girl.
Silver hair.
Golden eyes.
A sacred aura that made darkness retreat.
A Celestial-blooded prodigy.
She placed her books beside him.
"You're Rudraunsh, right?"
He didn't answer.
She leaned closer. "You broke the sky."
He raised a brow. "Only a little."
"I'm Lyria Celestine," she said. "My family monitors cosmic distortions. What you did shouldn't be possible for anyone below Ascension Realm."
Rudraunsh yawned.
"That's unfortunate."
Lyria frowned.
"So what are you?"
Rudraunsh stared forward, thinking.
Then he answered honestly:
"I'm a student."
The classroom fell silent—not because she heard him, but because the space around him warped. Every summoning rune in the room bent toward him like metal to a magnet.
Lyria's golden eyes widened.
"That's… impossible. Even the academy's core is reacting to you."
She realized something terrifying:
He wasn't learning summoning.
Summoning itself was learning him.
---
Whisper Between Dimensions
Cracking sounds echoed.
Something tugged at reality.
A message arrived from the Void:
"The Emperor remembers you."
Rudraunsh smiled.
"Good. I've been waiting."
Lyria looked terrified.
"Who are you talking to?"
Rudraunsh stood.
"Class is boring. I'll step out."
The teacher shouted, "You can't leave—!"
He vanished.
Not teleported.
Reality simply forgot he existed for a moment.
He reappeared outside.
The sky split open.
A gigantic shadowed hand extended down—the Void reaching for him.
Rudraunsh raised his own hand.
"Not now."
The void trembled… and obeyed.
The crack sealed.
He turned away.
"This academy… will be interesting."