The world was quiet. Too quiet.
Aster stepped into the Academy's eastern observatory, the air shimmering like something unseen breathed upon reality. The mana lamps flickered—once, twice—before stabilizing with a pale, sickly glow.
Raven and Lyra followed him. Neither spoke. Both sensed it.
Something was wrong with the world.
As the door sealed behind them, Aster felt the tug again—
that uncomfortable, crawling pressure along the back of his mind.
A distortion.
A timeline stuttering.
A version of reality failing to load properly.
He exhaled slowly.
It had been happening more frequently.
And today… it felt close.
Very close.
---
"Aster."
Raven was the first to speak, voice low.
"Your shadow…"
Aster didn't need to look. He already knew.
His shadow wasn't following his feet.
It was standing beside him.
A pitch-black silhouette, shaped exactly like him—but with eyes that glowed a muted metallic silver, like cracked moonlight bleeding through a mask.
It turned its head toward him.
And smiled.
Not a hostile smile.
Not friendly either.
A knowing smile.
A smile that meant I've lived through more than you can imagine.
---
"You're getting careless," the shadow said.
Its voice echoed like two overlapping tones—Aster's, and something older.
"Your mind is starting to adjust. The boundaries weaken."
Lyra tensed. "He's… talking again."
The shadow's gaze slid toward her.
"And you're ignoring the resonance between your mana and his. Curious."
She stepped back. "Don't analyze me."
Raven stepped in front of her, hand on her obsidian dagger.
"If you move even slightly wrong—"
The shadow chuckled.
"You wouldn't be able to kill me. You wouldn't even be able to kill him if fate demanded it."
Raven stiffened.
Lyra's eyes flickered.
Aster spoke quietly.
"Enough."
The shadow's smile faded.
"As you wish… for now."
---
Aster approached the observatory window.
And froze.
The sky was wrong.
Not the gradient, not the stars—
but the pattern.
The constellations had subtly shifted.
Rearranged.
Rewritten.
Raven noticed it too.
"What… changed?"
Lyra's voice trembled.
"The sky only shifts like this during a temporal collision."
Aster felt the truth forming.
Something had entered this timeline.
Something not supposed to be here.
And then—
A rift tore open above the Academy.
A thin line of pale gold, like a crack across a painting.
Through it, Aster saw glimpses—
A city burning.
A tower collapsing.
A man with black feathers falling from the sky.
A girl in white standing motionless as the world broke around her.
A hooded figure dragging chains of light.
And then—
A hand reached through the rift.
Not monstrous.
Not divine.
Human.
Aster staggered back as a voice whispered through reality:
---
"Found you."
---
The rift widened.
A figure stepped out—
covered in dust, blood, and torn uniform fabric.
A young man.
Aster's age.
Hair black like raven feathers.
Eyes burned silver-blue, threaded with cracks of unstable mana.
He was breathing heavily… like someone who had run across worlds.
Lyra froze.
Raven instinctively drew her weapon.
The stranger saw Aster.
And his expression twisted—relief, despair, recognition.
He whispered:
"It's really you… Aster Vale."
Aster felt something inside him snap.
That voice.
That presence.
It was familiar.
Painfully familiar.
But he had never met this person.
"Who are you?" he asked.
The stranger smiled weakly—
"I'm the one who died because of you."
---
Lyra gasped.
Raven's eyes widened.
Aster's heartbeat hammered in his chest.
The stranger stepped forward.
Each step cracked the floor beneath him.
His mana was unstable—
like someone ripped from a future that no longer existed.
He lifted his hand—
And Aster's shadow moved on its own, stepping protectively in front of him.
The stranger's voice broke, filled with exhaustion and anger:
**"You—
You're the catalyst.
The fragment the world wasn't supposed to keep.
The reason we lost everything."**
Aster felt the room tremble.
Timeline threadlines appeared around the stranger—
each one frayed, broken, soaked in death.
"Tell me," the stranger whispered,
"Did this timeline…
finally give you a chance to live?"
Aster opened his mouth—
But the stranger collapsed forward, consciousness fading.
Before hitting the ground, he whispered one last thing:
---
**"Don't trust the Crown…
You'll become me."**
---
The rift sealed shut.
The observatory fell silent.
Aster stood frozen, staring at the collapsed figure—
a version of fate he wasn't meant to meet.
Raven whispered:
"Aster…
what exactly are you?"
Aster didn't answer.
Because for the first time—
He finally feared the answer.