Sora stared at it, expression unreadable. Almost bored.
"That's it?" he asked. "Sounds like someone writing poetry while drunk."
For a moment, the principal was silent.
Then—
He laughed.
A low, weary, genuine laugh that filled the chamber.
"You truly are unlike your brothers."
Sora didn't react to that either.
His brothers. The Princes. All six of them.
The empire did not lack successors, only order among them.
The principal let the starlight dim until only the faintest glow remained.
"Years ago," the principal continued, "a tear appeared in the sky above the imperial capital, a falling star streaked bright violet. And from that anomaly…"
His eyes flicked briefly to Sora's chest, where the faint imprint of the royal crest glimmered with a hidden pulse."…your mana signature erupted across the entire continent."
Sora narrowed his eyes a fraction.
"So that's why I was summoned. Did you manipulate Celeste to bring me here?"
"I might have, but no," the principal said quietly. "That is not why I ask that you be sent here."
He stepped closer, stopping a respectful distance away.
"I fear there are factions within the empire that support the wrong person to ascend to the throne. I believe them wrong. But they are a steadfast bunch, loyal, with resources. And you, Seventh Prince Sora… you have walked into their crosshairs the moment you set foot here."
Sora tilted his head slightly, tone calm and almost bored.
"Let them aim. They'll misfire." He had no intention to contend with his brothers for the throne, but he was not going to tell the old man that.
The principal blinked, then smiled faintly, almost nostalgically.
"You speak exactly like—"
He cut himself off.
Sora caught the hesitation.
"Like who?"
"Someone you are not ready to meet," the principal replied. "Not yet."
Before Sora could question further, the stars overhead shifted again, this time forming an enormous sigil beneath their feet.
The room's temperature dropped. The mana thickened, vibrating like a restrained beast.
The principal raised both hands.
"In accordance with tradition," he said solemnly, "every royal who enters this academy must undergo an entrance assessment."
Sora lifted an eyebrow.
"Now?"
"Yes. Now."
The sigil beneath Sora flared, and the entire Stellar Chamber trembled as if waking from slumber.
"You will be tested," the principal said. "Not for your status." Not for your blood." But for something far more important."
The sigil brightened.
A summoning.
A trial.
A mirror of the soul.
"Your potential."
Energy surged violently upward, and the starlight wrapped around Sora's body like chains of light.
In an instant—
The world vanished.
Sora blinked once.
He was no longer in the Stellar Chamber.
He stood in the middle of a vast starfield, a lonely void where gravity meant nothing and time moved irregularly. Constellations pulsed around him like heartbeat rhythms.
But that wasn't what caught his attention.
In front of him, slowly materializing from fog-like shadows…
…was a silhouette shaped exactly like him.
Sora stared at it calmly.
"Oh. It's one of these tests."
The shadow-Sora lifted its head.
Its eyes snapped open—
Not human.
Not mortal.
Ancient.
Infinite.
Dark.
Its mouth curved into a cold, knowing smile.
"Show me," it whispered in a voice identical to Sora's, layered with something deeper.
"Show me the prince the empire fears."
The trial began.
The starfield pulsed once, like the entire dimension inhaled.
Sora and his shadow stood across from one another on an invisible floor suspended in endless dark.
Stars flickered beneath their feet like shattered mirrors.
The shadow tilted its head, examining him with a half-smirk that was too sharp, too knowing.
"You walk like someone who thinks he cannot be touched."
Sora's expression remained flat. "I walk like someone who knows he can be."
The shadow chuckled, a sound like glass cracking.
"Confidence." It extended a hand. "Let's test its weight."
The air trembled.
Without warning, the shadow blurred.
Fast.
Sora barely shifted, a tiny lean to the right, as a dark fist grazed past his cheek, turning a nearby cluster of stars into dust. The shockwave cracked across the void.
Sora exhaled faintly. "So that's how you want to do it."
The shadow reappeared behind him, voice echoing directly in his ear.
"I do it however you do it."
A kick swept toward his ribs, Sora blocked with a casual forearm, but the force still slid him a few meters across the starfield, leaving a trail of drifting luminescent shards.
He rolled his wrist once.
Not bad.
The shadow grinned with his exact smile.
"Show me more."
It lunged again, but this time, Sora moved.
He stepped forward.
Not rushed.
Not panicked.
Just one clean, precise step.
His fist shot upward with a short strike that carried no wasted movement, a perfect counter.
The shadow avoided it by a hair, but the resulting shockwave bent the stars around them.
Both paused.
For the first time, the shadow's smile faded slightly.
"You're holding back."
Sora shrugged. "You're not interesting yet."
The dimension shivered.
The shadow's form distorted, tendrils of darkness rising from its back like wings. Its eyes turned pitch black, swallowing the faint glow around them.
"Then I'll make it interesting."
The void roared.
Dozens of dark afterimages erupted at once, each one a perfect copy of Sora, each one attacking simultaneously from every direction with his techniques, his timing, his instincts.
A lesser being might panic. Might be overwhelmed.
Sora simply lifted his hand.
A small breath.
A subtle shift.
Mana tore through the starfield.
A veil of shimmering black-blue light rippled outward from him, elegant, thin, and deadly. Every afterimage that touched it shattered like smoke against a blade of wind.
The shadow froze.
Sora flicked his fingers once.
"Your technique is messy."