After the outbreak of the collective will, the silence that followed was the loudest in the history of the Academy. The square was empty, yet the energy of thousands of souls still lingered in the air like a frozen chord from an unearthly symphony. The runes etched into the stone shone with a ghostly glow, reminding us of the challenge we had thrown to the heavens.
However, the Heavenly Eye remained. It hung suspended, indifferent and all-seeing, like the law of the universe itself. Its presence became the new backdrop of our existence, a harsh reality that we had to learn to live with. The sunlight that filtered through the clouds was dulled by its gray aura, painting the spires of the Academy in colors of despair and hopelessness.
Leng Wei stood on the balcony of his residence, gripping the stone railing unconsciously. His magic, the ancient blood of kings, raged within him, feeling the alien pressure. It felt like a mighty magnet pulling the steel filings of his power from his veins.
In his mind, he heard a voice: "They don't attack. They're rebuilding reality, changing its fundamental laws. My strength resists, but every moment I spend a part of myself on it..."
Behind him, the door opened softly. Lin Mei walked in. Her usually impassive face was pale with fatigue, but her eyes shone with determination. "Perimeter reports," she said, her voice low and steady. "The anomalies continue. Three half-blood guards have had their magic completely shut down this morning."
"Not temporarily," Leng Wei replied, nodding silently. "They describe it as the emptiness inside, as if the spring has dried up."
"And the others?" he asked, finally looking away from the Eye. "What about them?"
Lin Mei took a step forward and said, "There are also some reverse cases. Several students, who had minimal abilities, suddenly showed unexpected strength. One young vampire, who wasn't particularly talented, turned a stone bench to dust with a single touch today. He was terrified.
Leng Wei concluded with a tired voice, "They're disrupting some channels and creating others. They're looking for weaknesses in the fabric of our world, like a virus that mutates to evade the immune system."
Suddenly, the door opened with such force that the flames in the lamps flickered. Khan stood in the doorway, his scarred face contorted with anger and despair. "Leng Wei! This is too much. The alchemist's laboratory... she is..."
Without waiting for a response, they hurried to the wing where potion and artifact experts worked. The atmosphere there was thick and bitter. Dozens of flasks containing carefully calibrated elixirs stood on shelves, their contents had turned into an inactive liquid, and precious components such as the scales of a luminous snake and the roots of a moonflower had decayed into dust within a few hours.
In the midst of this chaos, the Runemaster, a silver-haired vampire with ancestors who had served the First King, sat on his haunches, trying unsuccessfully to revive an extinct rune of protection on the doorframe. His fingers traced familiar symbols, but they didn't glow. They only scratched the stone without leaving any trace of magic.
"They are," the old man whispered. There was a void in his eyes that was scarier than any fear, as if they were burning out the very memory of magic. "Knowledge remains in the head, but the power... the power that lives in stone, herbs, blood... it leaves. It's as if we're emptying the cup we draw from."
Leng Wei felt a cold rage rise up his spine, familiar and yet alien at the same time. They were not attacking the walls, they were attacking the soul of their people, their legacy. In the evening, the Council of Equals gathered again, the tension in the room palpable and the air buzzing with panic.
"We are slowly dying!" the vampire aristocrat burst into a scream. "They're sucking the life out of us! Without magic, we're nothing! We'll return to the Dark Ages!"
"My tools aren't working," the scientist man said calmly, but there was despair in his eyes. "The laws of physics have changed. We can't predict what will happen tomorrow. Science is powerless."
Leng Wei listened, letting their fear pass through them, feeling it but not letting it take over. "Fear is what they want," their voice sounded like cold steel, drowning out the noise. "They hope we will destroy ourselves from within. We can't let that happen."
Jin stated coldly, "The analysis is useless. We are not dealing with a rational enemy. We are like bacteria in a petri dish, and they are the scientists who have changed the nutrient medium. Their logic doesn't apply to us."
Leng Wei replied, "So we have to act irrationally. We will continue to live, not just to survive but to create. Every day, every hour, we will do what they hate most - we will create new magic, new science, new art. We will make this petri dish so vibrant that they won't be able to ignore us."
Later that night, Leng Wei visited his mother. She was sitting in her new room at the Academy, embroidering by lamplight. Her hands were steady, her face calm. He could feel her tension without even looking at her.
"It's putting a lot of pressure on you, my son," she said softly, putting down her embroidery. "You're carrying a lot on your shoulders."
He confessed that he was afraid their willpower wouldn't be enough this time. "They're stronger than we are."
She smiled and said, "Your father always said that the hardest rocks give way to a persistent drop of water. It's not because the water is strong, it's because it keeps falling over and over again."
Her words gave him strange comfort. He walked out into the night garden, looking up at the gray moon hidden by the all-seeing eye. The bracelet on his wrist pulsed faintly.
Suddenly, a slim figure emerged from the shadow of an ancient, petrified archway. It was Xiao Fei, her large eyes wide with not fear, but a strange, almost obsessive curiosity. She approached so close that her voice was barely audible when she whispered, "It's not just watching, King Brother... it's listening.
Leng Wei furrowed his brow, goosebumps rising on his arms. "What do you mean, Xiao Fei?" he asked.
Xiao Fei's gaze roamed over the empty garden as she replied, "The shadows have become thicker, and they whisper. Not with words, but feelings. They take our fears, our anger, and our sadness, and carry them upstairs to Him. She pointed a trembling finger at the Eye, "He feeds on our weakness, and the light... Our light... It hurts Him, but it's not enough."
Her eyes met his, and a glint of madness and enlightenment sparkled within them. "We need more light, King Brother, or we'll drown in the shadows."
Before he could reply, she vanished into the darkness, as if she had never existed. Leng Wei was left alone with a new and even more terrifying suspicion. The true masters were not just watching. They were feeding off of their desperation. Their resistance and outburst of life stirred them, but it was not enough. This was not a battle, it was an endless war of attrition. And he knew they were losing. He looked at the eye, feeling its cold and analytical gaze upon him. The inner voice spoke: "Good. Do you want to hear me? Then listen to this." He closed his eyes, pushing aside his fear and anger, and focused on a single memory: his mother's warm hand on his forehead, the sound of her lullaby, the image of Lee smiling. Based on Han's fierce devotion and Lin Mei's quiet strength, he created in his heart a small and bright ball of pure and unconditional light - the light of love and faith, unclouded by hatred towards the enemy.
And mentally, with a force that made his body tremble, Leng Wei directed this light directly into the center of the Eye. It didn't flinch or disappear. But for a moment, just for a split second, he felt as if his own inner light had become brighter and the oppressive weight had become weaker. The bracelet on his wrist flashed briefly and brightly as if in response.
This wasn't a breakthrough, but it was the beginning of a long and exhausting journey. But it gave him hope. He opened his eyes and saw the path clearly. He needed to find more light and others who could resist the Void. He had only one clue - the images from the crystal in the archives. Another wrestler would be his guide.
Tomorrow, he would go down to the vault, but today he would simply shine.