The northern sky split open.
Not like a wound. Like an invitation.
From the training fields below, Caelum Vale watched the violet rift pulse wider over Celestara Spire, its ragged edges crackling with unnatural light. The void-shapes inside it drifted like smoke rising backward, pulled into this world by something unseen. Some were small—shifting silhouettes no larger than wolves. Others were towering, indistinct giants whose forms blurred like half-drawn nightmares.
Around him, students panicked, sprinting for the reinforced shelters. Wardens barked orders. Alarm runes flashed crimson across the floating bridges.
Astra Voltaris stepped beside Caelum, lightning rippling across her gauntlet. "Finally back from the infirmary, Star Prince. Convenient timing."
Caelum kept his eyes on the rift. "And here I thought today would be quiet."
Astra smirked. "Danger follows you like adoring fans."
Before Caelum could reply, Seraphine Frostveil slid to his other side, frost gathering in a geometric pattern around her hands. "This breach is not random. The pattern of the distortion matches the energy that surrounded Aradia."
Lyra Ignis marched up next, flames curling around her fists. "So the cryptic meteor girl wasn't exaggerating about incoming trouble."
Elowen arrived last, breath unsteady, her fox Virren bristling. "The spirits are terrified. Whatever's coming through… it's not meant to exist here."
Caelum inhaled.
The Starfire Arcana stirred.
Aradia's warning echoed through him: They're coming. For the crown.
Then the first creature dropped through the breach.
A void-shade hit the dueling field with a shuddering impact. Its body looked like obsidian smoke sculpted into a lupine form, its eyes hollow pinpricks of amethyst light. Students screamed as it lunged.
Caelum moved.
Starfire ignited behind his eyes.
He summoned an Etherblade and dashed forward, gravity bending to launch him faster. The blade sliced cleanly across the creature's flank, scattering its smoky form into fragments—then those fragments reassembled instantly.
Seraphine's voice cut in. "It's reforming. They regenerate unless the core is destroyed."
"And where's the core?" Lyra asked.
Seraphine pointed. "Inside the chest. Roughly heart-shaped."
"Great," Astra muttered. "Void wolves with hearts. Adorable."
The creature snarled and pounced at Caelum.
He raised his blade—
—and Elowen's vines shot up from the earth like emerald spears, pinning the creature midair.
"Now!" she cried.
Caelum struck. His Etherblade pierced the creature's chest. This time the smoky form collapsed into nothing.
One down.
Dozens to go.
More creatures spilled from the rift—floating tendrils, gliding serpents made of starlit ash, and jagged humanoids whose bodies flickered like unstable memories.
Seraphine's eyes went wide. "This is a coordinated incursion."
Lyra blasted a cluster with a spiraling firestorm. "I don't care what it is. We're stopping it!"
Astra slammed her fist into the ground, sending a shockwave of thunder that scattered a swarm of voidlings. "Let's give them a reason to stay out."
Caelum's pulse synced with the rift's glow. The Starfire within him hummed—too strongly. As if the breach was pulling at him.
"Caelum," Elowen whispered, noticing. "Your mana… it's reacting."
"I know."
Aradia had resonated with him. So did the breach.
The question was: why?
A void-serpent darted toward Seraphine. Caelum moved, but she extended a hand calmly.
Her ice crystallized in a fractal burst, freezing the serpent mid-strike. She tapped the ice and it shattered like brittle glass.
"Precision," she said softly. "Not force."
Lyra snorted. "Show-off."
Seraphine raised an eyebrow. "Would you prefer I let it bite you?"
Before their argument escalated, Astra shouted from above them.
"Heads up!"
A massive void-golem heaved itself out of the rift, slamming down on a floating platform. The structure lurched, runes sputtering.
Caelum grimaced. "That thing could collapse the entire training tier."
Astra cracked her knuckles. "Finally. Something big enough to hit."
She launched into the air with a burst of storm magic—only for a tendril of void-energy to lash out and snare her mid-flight.
"Astra!" Caelum sprinted toward her.
She struggled as the tendril tightened, draining mana like a leech. Sparks flickered around her gauntlet but dimmed quickly.
"Don't—let—this—thing—steal—my—magic!" she growled.
Caelum jumped, twisting gravity to propel himself upward. The Etherblade flashed—and severed the tendril.
Astra dropped, landing heavily on one knee.
"Appreciate it," she huffed. "Now let's kill the big one."
Lyra stepped beside them. "You two distract it. I'm charging Ignis Bloom."
Seraphine interjected. "Its core is not external. You'll need Caelum to expose it."
Caelum nodded. "Alright. I'll draw its attention."
Elowen placed a hand on his arm. "Be careful."
Virren yipped in agreement.
Caelum leapt forward.
The golem roared—a hollow, echoing sound—and swung a colossal arm of writhing shadow. Caelum slid under it, gravity twisting to lighten his movement. He dashed up the creature's leg, Etherblade carving lines of glowing gold across its smoky surface.
A giant fist swatted at him. Caelum flung himself backward, flipping off the collapsing platform.
Astra caught him with a burst of wind. "Don't die yet, Star Prince."
"Working on it," Caelum said.
The golem leaned forward, its chest flickering.
Seraphine's voice rang out: "There! In the sternum—its core is exposed when it prepares an attack!"
"Lyra!" Caelum shouted.
Lyra thrust her staff forward, flames blooming into a radiant inferno.
Ignis Bloom.
The explosion engulfed the golem's chest. For a moment, the void-creature convulsed, light ripping out from its core—
—and then it collapsed into dissolving smoke.
Astra exhaled. "Finally."
But the rift above them only widened.
Dozens more shadows swarmed the breach's edges.
Seraphine's voice went cold. "The breach is stabilizing. They're no longer slipping through."
"They're marching," Lyra said grimly.
Elowen's breathing quickened. "Caelum… look."
Aradia.
She stood at the edge of the infirmary tower, glowing faintly with violet light, her eyes fixed on the rift.
Her voice, amplified by some unseen force, echoed across the entire academy.
"Caelum Vale. The Crown's path begins now."
The breach thundered.
The sky split wider.
And something enormous began to push through.
The real invasion had just begun