The sky above Eclipse Academy no longer looked like a sky.
It was broken.
Cracks of crimson and violet light spread across the heavens, as if reality itself had been struck and left to fracture. Floating islands drifted unnaturally, gravity bending and twisting around the open multiversal rifts that pulsed like living wounds.
Students stood frozen in fear.
This was no longer an academy crisis.
This was a multiverse incident.
At the center of the main floating platform stood Arakio.
His Aura Blade hummed quietly at his side, glowing with a restrained golden-violet light. The hunger inside him was awake—calm, but watching. Ever since the battle with Xyther, something had changed. The hunger no longer screamed constantly. Instead, it waited, patient and calculating.
Jiho stepped beside him, eyes scanning the sky.
"This pressure… it's different from before. It feels like reality itself is unstable."
Riko crossed her arms, forcing a confident smirk.
"So this is what happens when you scare the multiverse. Nice job, hero."
Ayakio stood close to Arakio, her presence grounding him.
"Brother… promise me you won't push yourself too far again."
Arakio didn't answer immediately.
Because he could feel it.
Something was coming.
The First Rift Collapse
Without warning, one of the rifts above the academy collapsed inward, releasing a shockwave of distorted energy. From the rupture emerged massive creatures—twisted beings formed of shadow, bone, and fractured light.
Their existence felt wrong.
They didn't belong to any single world.
They were convergence beasts.
"Defense formation!" Kairo's voice echoed across the platforms.
"Protect the core towers! Do not engage alone!"
The academy responded instantly. Barriers rose, spells activated, and coordinated formations took shape.
But the creatures kept coming.
Arakio stepped forward.
The hunger stirred.
Not violently.
Not chaotically.
It responded to intent.
His Aura Blade split into multiple forms mid-air:
Blade of Hunger — heavy, precise, devastating
Void Chain Whip — extending across space to bind enemies
Lightward Shield — forming instantly to protect nearby students
With one movement, Arakio cut through the first wave.
Reality rippled where his blade passed.
Students stared in disbelief.
This wasn't raw power.
This was control.
A Battlefield Across Realities
The fight spread across fractured space. Platforms drifted apart, then snapped back together. Gravity reversed briefly before stabilizing again.
Jiho focused on reinforcement spells, stabilizing reality anchors around the academy.
"Arakio! The rifts are reacting to your energy—but in a controlled way. You're… synchronizing with them."
Riko's eyes widened.
"He's not fighting the distortion. He's using it."
Ayakio felt it too.
Arakio wasn't just surviving the multiverse pressure.
He was adapting.
But adaptation came at a cost.
The hunger began to whisper again—not of destruction, but of ascension.
This is the threshold.
One step further… and you will never be the same.
The Return of Xyther's Shadow
The battlefield suddenly went silent.
From the largest rift descended a massive silhouette—an echo of Xyther's true form, incomplete but terrifying. Its presence alone crushed weaker creatures into nothingness.
Not fully resurrected.
Not yet.
A projection.
A warning.
Arakio felt the pressure instantly spike.
This was beyond Stage 4+.
His aura reacted instinctively, flaring brighter as space bent around him.
"Interesting…"
Xyther's distorted voice echoed from the shadow.
"You survived. You adapted. And now… you stand at the edge."
Arakio tightened his grip on the Aura Blade.
"I won't let you touch this world again."
A low laugh echoed.
"World? No, boy. This is bigger than worlds. The shattered realms have already begun to align."
The shadow dissolved—but the message remained.
This was not an attack.
It was a countdown.
Aftermath and Realization
As the rifts slowly stabilized, exhaustion hit Arakio all at once. His knees buckled—but Ayakio and Jiho caught him before he fell.
Riko exhaled sharply.
"So… let me guess. That wasn't the final boss."
Arakio looked up at the fractured sky.
"No," he said quietly.
"That was just the beginning."
Inside him, the hunger pulsed once—calm, heavy, inevitable.
Stage 5 was no longer a theory.
It was approaching.
Chapter 11 Summary / Cliffhanger
Multiverse instability fully revealed
Convergence beasts attack Eclipse Academy
Arakio shows advanced Stage 4+ control, adapting to reality distortion
Xyther's shadow delivers a warning, not a battle
Hunger shifts from chaos to ascension
Stage 5 threshold confirmed
Cliffhanger: The shattered realms are aligning → convergence countdown begins