At exactly six in the morning, the Academy was still submerged in a heavy silence. In Room 404, Adrian opened his eyes very slowly. He did not wake with a start, nor did his body move immediately; instead, he lay there, watching the pale streaks of light creeping through the massive window and reflecting off the marble ceiling.
He could hear the rhythmic sound of Niko's breathing from the opposite bed. Everything was quiet.
Adrian slowly pulled back the heavy silk cover, feeling the chill of the air touch his skin. He rose and sat on the edge of the bed, placing his feet on the cold marble floor. He sat there for several minutes, staring at his hands—hands that had learned how to kill in this life and how to write and edit in the previous one. His veins pulsed with Igor's suppressed mana; he felt it like a beast caged behind thin bars.
He stood and headed toward the suite's attached bathroom. He turned on the quartz-encrusted faucet and waited until the basin filled with cold water. He submerged his face for several long seconds. When he lifted his head, water droplets trailed from his hair onto his chest. In the mirror, he saw his cold black eyes... today, they looked sharper and colder.
He returned to the room and began to dress with calculated slowness. Every button on his black tunic was fastened with care, as if he were sealing gaps in armor. He pulled on his black leather gloves and tightened the laces of his jet-black boots. Every movement was silent and disciplined, reflecting both the years of "skinning" he had endured under Igor's hand and the weight of his past life.
"Niko... wake up," he said in a low, calm voice, but it was enough to make Niko snap his eyes open and leap from his bed.
They did not exchange words. Niko watched him dress, trying to emulate Adrian's composure, though his hand trembled slightly as he buckled his belt. Indeed, Niko was quite clumsy.
They left the room and walked down the long corridor. The hanging mana spheres emitted a dim glow, and the rhythmic sound of their footsteps on the marble was the only audible noise. When they reached the main hall, the place began to stir with life. Noble students were emerging from their wings, smelling of expensive perfumes, whispering about "ranks," "positions," and the classes they would be assigned to.
In a far corner, Adrian spotted Elena Valerian. She was standing with a group of nobles, yet she seemed isolated from them despite her physical presence. She wore her uniform with absolute military rigor, her wheat-colored hair styled so perfectly that not a single strand dared to rebel. Her features resembled the morning frost: beautiful, but harsh.
Elena looked toward the corridor, and her blue eyes met Adrian's once again. This time, she felt a sense of strangeness and caution toward him; he walked with a straight back and unblinking eyes, as if he owned the place as much as she did.
Adrian ignored her coldly and walked toward the Great Plaza, following the echo of the bell that had begun to toll violently, announcing the approach of nine o'clock.
When they reached the plaza, mist swirled around the ten stone pillars. Adrian stood in his designated spot, feeling the weight of hundreds of eyes watching him from the upper galleries. There, the Lords and Professors sat like gods waiting to observe their students.
Professor Jordan appeared suddenly in the center of the plaza, as if he had emerged from nothingness. He did not speak immediately; instead, he let his metallic gaze pass over the students for five full minutes of silence, letting the tension reach its breaking point. Some students began to sweat despite the cold.
"Nine-oh-one," Jordan finally uttered in a dry voice. "Anyone not present now... has lost the right to enroll in this place."
He gestured with his hand toward the stone pillars, and the transparent crystals began to glow slowly. The glow was weak at first, but it emitted a low hum that made the students' skin crawl.
"The first test... 'The Merit of Existence.' Advance when I call your names, and place your hands upon these crystals to determine if you are accepted."
Jordan pulled out an ancient scroll and began to read the names with agonizing slowness, making every name sound like a deferred death sentence. Then, he called out:
"Elena Valerian..."
Elena moved. Everyone watched her every movement. Her steps were measured. She stood before the first pillar and raised her hand slowly. Her hand hung in the air millimeters above the crystal for seconds that felt like an eternity before she finally touched the cold surface.
As soon as her fingertips brushed the crystal, there was no sudden explosion of light. Instead, luminosity began to seep from within the stone with agonizing slowness, as if blue ink were filling a glass vessel. The hue shifted from transparent to a deep sapphire, then began to radiate with a sharp, silver brilliance. The crystal did not tremble; rather, it emitted a pure, soaring resonance, like the ring of a sword being drawn from its scabbard.
"Perfect purity... and stable pressure," Professor Jordan murmured, recording the observation with eyes half-closed against the intensity of the light. "Excellent. You may return."
Elena withdrew her hand calmly, showing no sign of pride or exhaustion; to her, this was merely the expected minimum. As she returned to her rank, she passed alongside Adrian. For a fleeting second, she felt an unnatural chill emanating from him—not the cold of the plaza's air, but a cold like death rising from the depths of a bottomless well.
The test continued for hours. The minutes passed as heavy as lead. Adrian watched students collapse from the intensity of the magical backlash; he saw crystals crack and shatter, tearing the skin of those who failed to control their mana. The guards removed the corpses or the wounded with mechanical silence, as if clearing trash from the plaza, fueling the panic of the remaining students.
"Adrian Vanit... step forward."
Jordan uttered the name with a lukewarm tone, as if speaking the name of an "Adopted" soiled the plaza's air. A muffled whisper broke out among the noble students; some smirked mockingly, while others waited to see the crystal crush this "intruder."
Adrian walked toward the stone pillar. With every step, the crest of House Vanit—which Igor had tattooed on the side of his neck before they entered the academy—seemed to pulse. (The Vanit crest depicted a serpent coiled around another serpent, as if they were crushing one another). He stood before the crystal. It was now extinguished, cold, and waiting for its next victim.
Adrian closed his eyes. He recalled Igor's words: "Do not be a storm; be the void."
Instead of pumping his violent dark mana outward, Adrian began a complex process he had mastered in the cellar: "Backlash Absorption." Instead of pushing his mana out, he opened his magical circuits to draw the crystal's own energy inward first, creating a fake "equilibrium" to deceive the stone.
He placed his hand on the crystal.
For five full seconds, nothing happened. An absolute silence fell, leading some to believe Adrian possessed no mana at all. Professor Jordan began to raise an eyebrow in disapproval, reaching out to strike his name from the register.
But suddenly... the surface of the crystal began to change. It did not glow blue like Elena's, nor did it explode. Instead, fine "black threads" resembling blood vessels appeared inside, beginning to coil around the heart of the crystal with extreme slowness. The color was not radiant; it was a matte, pitch-black that swallowed the surrounding light.
The crystal began to emit a strange sound—not a ring, but a "hiss" like that of snakes. The entire stone pillar vibrated, and fine cracks appeared at the stone base, yet the crystal itself remained intact, as if struggling not to shatter under the pressure of this alien mana.
Jordan's eyes widened. He approached the pillar and extended his hand to feel the air surrounding the crystal, sensing a suffocating heat and a pressure far too high for a student.
Adrian looked at Jordan with eyes devoid of emotion and said in a low voice audible only to the professor: "Is this sufficient to pass???"
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