Chapter 191: Celestial Cycle
[Reminder: novel is editing. Not recommended to read]
At the top of the stairs, the wind hit her like a wall—sharp, chill, and charged with something ancient. Verena squinted into the sudden brightness. Gone were the cold, star-lit corridors of the labyrinth. Now, she stood atop a wide plateau of marble and glass, floating high above the academy’s skyline. The sky bled pink and gold, constellations still faintly etched in the clouds like ripples of memory.
The Trial of Ascendance was over.
The moment should’ve felt like a victory. Instead, she felt... hollow.
Saphira coiled loosely around her arm, unusually quiet. No sarcastic remarks. No cheeky flirting. The snake felt it too—the unease, the strange static clinging to the air like an unfinished sentence.
A bell tolled below. One, then two, then twelve. The academy was announcing their return.
Others began appearing one by one—Isolde, Penelope, Evelyn, Raphael, Clarina, Beatrice. Each stumbled into the light at different times, shaped by different trials, different ghosts. Some looked stronger. Some looked broken. Some... were simply missing.
A long pause. Then the headmaster’s voice echoed from the heavens—calm, authoritative, impossibly large:
"First-years of Irasios Academy. You have passed through the crucible. But the heavens do not rest. And neither shall you."
A glowing seal opened beneath their feet, not one of transport, but recognition. It marked them now—not just as students, but as contenders.
As chosen.
Verena felt the glyph burn onto her wrist, silver-hot and star-etched. She didn’t flinch. She just watched it sink into her skin, another thread sewn into her fate.