The alarms didn't ring.
That was the first sign something was wrong.
Rafe felt it while walking across the inner courtyard—an abrupt pressure spike that didn't belong to the Academy's wards. Not wild. Not chaotic.
Artificial.
He stopped.
The stone beneath his feet vibrated faintly, like something heavy had just been activated far below.
Students nearby paused, frowning.
"What was that?"
"Did you feel—"
Then the sky above the western training sector darkened unnaturally.
Rafe's chest tightened.
Restricted zone.
Selene's warning echoed in his mind.
If something feels wrong, it probably is.
He turned sharply.
And ran.
The restricted sector had been sealed for a reason.
Ancient training arrays lay dormant beneath the ground—designed for upper-tier combatants, not students. Broken stone jutted upward as if the earth itself had been carved open.
At the center of it stood Eiden Valcrest.
His aura flared violently—far beyond normal limits—threads of unstable power ripping outward like exposed nerves. Runes carved into the ground glowed an angry red.
He was forcing synchronization.
"Idiot," Rafe breathed.
Eiden turned, eyes wild but focused.
"You felt it," Eiden said. "Good."
Rafe slowed, assessing instantly.
The Anchor tightened—not in panic, but alignment.
Everything snapped into clarity.
"Shut it down," Rafe said. "That array will tear you apart."
Eiden laughed.
"That's the point."
The array pulsed again.
The ground cracked.
Mana surged upward in a violent column.
Eiden's voice cut through the chaos.
"They said you lost potential," he shouted. "So show me what's left!"
The pressure slammed into Rafe.
Before the Anchor, he would've compressed.
Now—
He didn't need to.
Rafe raised his hand.
Light formed instantly—dense, unwavering, perfectly stable. No fluctuation. No delay.
He stepped forward and cut through the mana surge.
Not overpowering it.
Separating it.
The surge split cleanly in two, dispersing harmlessly into the air.
Eiden froze.
"…What?"
Rafe didn't answer.
He moved.
Every step precise. Every motion economical. The Anchor held his presence locked, unmoving in time, impossible to destabilize.
Eiden launched a strike—raw, explosive.
Rafe met it head-on.
No clash.
No shockwave.
The energies canceled where they touched.
Eiden staggered backward, shock written across his face.
"That doesn't make sense!"
"It does," Rafe replied calmly. "You're unstable. I'm not."
The array screamed.
Runes shattered.
The ground collapsed inward.
Eiden screamed as the feedback loop snapped toward him.
Rafe reacted instantly.
He didn't regulate.
He didn't compress.
He anchored.
He planted his foot into the ground and extended a hand.
Light and Shadow aligned into a rigid framework—locking the collapsing array into a fixed state for a single heartbeat.
Long enough.
Rafe grabbed Eiden and yanked him clear as the array imploded behind them.
Stone exploded.
Dust swallowed the sector.
They hit the ground hard.
Silence followed.
Then—
Academy wards crashed down in layers.
Instructors arrived in a blur of motion.
Elyra was among them, eyes wide.
"What happened?!" she demanded.
Rafe pushed himself up slowly.
"He activated a restricted array," Rafe said evenly. "I shut it down."
Eiden lay on the ground, breathing hard, staring at the sky.
"…You stopped it," he whispered. "You didn't overpower it. You… fixed it."
Rafe looked at him.
"I couldn't afford instability."
Sirens finally wailed.
Too late.
Elyra stared at the shattered array, then at Rafe.
"You used the Anchor offensively," she said.
Rafe met her gaze.
"Yes."
Silence.
Then Elyra laughed once—short, disbelieving.
"…The Commission won't like that."
Eiden turned his head toward Rafe.
"…I was wrong," he said quietly. "You didn't lose potential."
Rafe didn't respond.
He felt it now—the strain settling into his bones, not painful but heavy.
The cost would come later.
But the result was undeniable.
The Anchor hadn't weakened him.
It had made him absolute.
Far above, unseen, a Commission observer terminated a hidden feed.
INCIDENT CONFIRMEDVARIABLE CAPABILITY: FUNCTIONAL UNDER CONSTRAINTRISK RECLASSIFICATION REQUIRED
The Director watched the final frame.
Rafe standing amid ruins.Unmoving.Unshakeable.
Her smile widened.
"Interesting," she murmured."So that's what remains."