."
.
Crimson Halo — Inner Sanctum Grounds
Day Four. Post-Ember Trial.
The air in the meditation chamber was thick with incense and hums of low-frequency resonance—a side effect of the artifact buried beneath the floor. Elder initiates claimed it attuned students to their deeper selves.
Arin didn't believe in that. But today, the chamber felt... different.
The pendant around his neck hadn't stopped pulsing since he woke.
"Arin Shen."
He looked up.
Instructor Vale Marra stood before him—not in her gleaming armor, but in a long dark robe threaded with spiritwire. Her mechanical arm shimmered faintly under the lantern light.
"We've reviewed your Ember Trial footage," she said. "Your performance was… unorthodox."
Arin said nothing.
"Summoning without incantation. Artifact reaction without input. And that—" she paused, eyes narrowing. "—whip-chain technique. Where did you learn it?"
"I didn't," he replied, voice even. "It just happened."
She studied him for a long moment, then nodded.
"Follow me."
The Vault
Hidden beneath the academy, the Vault was whispered about in the dorms—where ancient relics slept and secrets were dissected by war-hardened cultivators.
Inside, crystal panels floated midair, projecting glyphs and recordings. Locked drawers hissed with alchemical preservation. A beast's skull the size of a small vehicle hung from the ceiling, labeled: "KAIJULITH – CLASS 9 EXTINCT."
Marra brought Arin to a scanning dais.
"Place your hand."
He hesitated—then obeyed.
The scanner pulsed. Veins of silver light shot through the device. Then...
ERROR.
Unknown Soul Resonance Class Detected.
Initiating Containment Protocol—
Override Accepted: VALE MARRA.
Arin jerked back.
"What was that?"
Marra didn't answer at first. She stared at the glyphs. "It's not supposed to say that. There are only seven resonance classes."
"And mine?"
She touched the screen, lips thin. "...Yours doesn't match any."
Before he could respond, the screen shifted—showing a rotating 3D model of his pendant.
Name: UNREGISTERED ARTIFACT [SHARD-01]
Origin: TERROS RUIN, SECTOR DELTA-0.
Warning: Host synchronization confirmed. Legacy tether active.
"Shard?" Arin asked.
Marra turned to him, slower now. "There were once six of them. Fragments of something… older than cultivation. Older than Gaia Veris."
She exhaled.
"And the last recorded bearer of this shard... was your mother."
Arin's breath caught.
"She was a Soulforger. One of the last generation trained under pre-Fall techniques. When she disappeared from the frontlines, everyone assumed she'd died."
"She did die," he said softly.
"No," Marra replied, eyes glinting with something close to sorrow. "She ran. With you."
The Training Ground – That Evening
Arin stood before a combat drone—sleek, bipedal, armed with shifting blade configurations and a pulse cannon.
The assignment: Unlock and stabilize his Resonance form.
All the students had them—manifestations of one's will and power.
Arin had none. Not yet.
"Begin," the drone said in a synthetic voice.
Arin exhaled. Reached for his pendant.
Nothing.
The drone lunged.
He dodged once, twice—barely. Sparks flared as metal slashed stone. On the third pass, it caught his shoulder. Pain flared bright and real.
He hit the dirt.
"You have no form," the drone said. "Only reaction."
It raised its blade—
The world pulsed.
A sharp clang split the air as the pendant flared. Chains of light erupted outward, forming a spectral gauntlet around Arin's arm, then twisted, folding into a half-formed exosuit—light and metal meshed into ghostly armor.