Chapter 65: THE PROFESSOR WASN’T READY
The dragon’s head turned slowly upward, massive eyes like golden suns focusing on the two humans suspended impossibly above the water’s surface. Intelligence blazed in that ancient gaze, not animal cunning but the kind of consciousness that had witnessed the birth and death of civilizations.
Pressure began building in the space around them, spiritual force so profound that Ashcroft felt his knees buckle. The air itself seemed to thicken with power beyond mortal comprehension, while the dragon’s presence pressed against his consciousness like the weight of mountains.
"I... I can’t..." Ashcroft gasped, his academic composure crumbling as forces beyond his understanding overwhelmed his senses. The pressure was building toward levels that threatened to crush his very soul, reality itself becoming too heavy to bear.
Yomi’s hands moved swiftly, forming dismissal seals that severed the connection with casual precision. Reality snapped back like a released rubber band, the vast water realm dissolving as the familiar classroom reasserted itself around them.
Ashcroft collapsed into his chair, breathing heavily as he struggled to process what he had just experienced. His face was pale, sweat beading on his forehead as he stared at Yomi with a mixture of awe and barely controlled terror.
"That," he managed after several moments of stunned silence, "was not a theoretical demonstration."
Yomi’s expression remained calm, though his eyes showed satisfaction at having proven his point so definitively. "You asked me to activate the seal," he said simply. "Ki doesn’t deal in approximations."
"The creature," Ashcroft whispered, his voice carrying the reverence of someone who had just witnessed something that challenged his understanding of reality itself. "That was real. That place was real. How is such a thing possible?"
"Ki can access what your magic can only theorize about," Yomi replied, settling into the chair across from his shaken professor. "The seal you call theoretical Aether manipulation, it’s a gateway, not just a pattern. When properly activated, it connects to the realm where such forces originate."
Ashcroft sat in stunned silence for several long moments, his academic mind struggling to process implications that threatened to overturn everything he thought he understood about magical theory. When he finally spoke, his voice carried the hushed tones of someone who had just been granted a glimpse of divine mystery.