The third rift opened.

It did not hold beasts. It held people.

Versions of Tian that had never made it this far. Chained. Sealed. Broken.

They screamed at him.

"Why did you not let us stay forgotten?"

Tian lowered his voice.

"Because I could not forget you."

Darkness answered. Not as void. As memory. Solidifying into something real.

The Mirror Engine cracked.

The Dream-Hunters dissolved.

The glyph on Tian's chest shimmered.

Then everything went silent.

For a moment, the world paused between breath and memory.

And Tian opened his eyes.

Not in power.

In peace.

★★★

The courtyard was on fire.

Xihe Academy was under siege. Crystals shattered in the sky. Mana storms twisted through broken towers. Another Voidspawn, massive and skeletal, tore across the main plaza. Its body twisted with impossible geometry.

Tian gasped. His chest ached. He stumbled back.

No throne. No flame. Just him. And a war.

"Tian!"

He looked up. Elara was running toward him. Her robes were torn. Blood dripped from her arm. But her eyes were locked on him.

She reached him just as the ground exploded.

Tian raised his hand without thinking.

The glyphs pulsed. Quiet. Controlled.

Reality bent slightly. The eruption vanished. Snuffed out before it could rise.

Elara froze. "What was that? What did you just do?"

He didn't answer.

The dream was still inside him. Not like a memory. More like a map.

He looked at his arm. A faint glyph flickered under his skin. One he had never learned.

The symbol for Reconciliation.

The ground shook again. More Voidspawn spilled through the rift above. A crystal dragon swooped by, trailing fire and mana.

"We have to move!" Elara grabbed his wrist. "Professor Kaelin and the Headmasters are regrouping in the Inner Circle!"

Tian blinked.

"Did I sit on the throne?" he asked.

Elara stopped. "What?"

"Did I dream it? Or did the dream dream me?"

She looked at him carefully. Her voice dropped.

"You stopped breathing. For thirty seconds. We thought you were dead. Then you moved. And the sky… it bent."

Tian finally turned toward her.

"It showed me everything," he said. "What I could be. What I already was."

A glyph cannon fired nearby. Another Voidspawn shattered. But more kept coming.

Tian inhaled. His hands were steady now. The glyphs didn't burn. They hummed.

He looked at the oncoming horde.

And stepped forward.

★★★

On the battlements, Professor Kaelin watched him.

She exhaled.

"I hope he's okay."

Tian Zhen raised his hand.

And the glyph of Reconciliation bloomed across the battlefield.

Not as a weapon.

As a choice.

And for a moment, the world paused to listen.

The courtyard of Xihe Academy shook again. Another explosion rocked the outer walls, sending chunks of stone crashing down from the towers. The mana barrier, once a seamless dome of energy, flickered like a dying lantern. Veins of unstable glyphs ran wild across its surface, pulsing out of rhythm.

Tian Zhen crouched low behind a broken pillar, trying to breathe through the smoke. He could barely hear anything past the ringing in his ears. Every few seconds, the ground trembled again.

"We need to get to the central sanctum," Elara said. Her voice was raspy. She gripped his wrist tightly. "Layered defense spells are still holding there."

He nodded and moved. No time for questions. Just action.

Overhead, something shrieked. One of the smaller Voidspawn swooped down like a living blade. A red-robed student tried to run, but the creature caught him and dragged him across the courtyard in a spray of stone and blood.

Tian's legs moved before he had time to think. A pulse of mana flared across his hand. A simple glyph, shaped for impact, lit up on his knuckles. He punched the stone tiles beneath the flying beast. The ground cracked. A shockwave lifted the creature into the air before it crashed into a column and went still.

"Elara, go!"

But she didn't move. Instead, she summoned a crescent shield of starlight glyphs. It shimmered in the smoke just as another Voidspawn pounced. The beast struck the shield with a roar, claws raking across the barrier, sparks spraying from the impact.

Tian shifted position, fingers drawing another symbol. This one was a hold glyph, simple but effective. He activated it under his breath.

"Zone lock. Six seconds."

The air rippled. The creature froze mid-lunge, suspended by invisible chains.

Elara turned to him. Her face was pale.

"That speed… how did you cast that so fast?"

He didn't answer. He wasn't sure. The glyphs felt natural. Like muscle memory. As if he had always known them.

A low rumble passed through the courtyard. From the direction of the northern spire, a fresh wave of Voidspawn poured out of the mist. These ones were larger, misshapen, trailing strange sparks. Their bodies pulsed with warped mana.

"Mana mutators," Elara whispered. "Containment's failing."

From the eastern stairwell, a group of professors appeared. Their robes were torn, faces grim. Professor Kaelin led them, her face cut and bleeding. The leaf pattern of her robe glowed faintly, soaked in energy.

"Evacuate the lower wards!" she shouted. "First-years take priority!"

Tian caught sight of Renshu crawling across the ground, one leg scorched and wrapped in blood.

"Zhen…" he gasped. "If they reach the sanctum… it's over."

Tian knelt, placed a hand on his friend's chest, and channeled mana into him through a support glyph.

"Don't die."

Another blast shattered a tower overhead. Shards rained down like broken glass. The sky above twisted, crackling with light. A rift flickered in and out of view, unstable and growing.

Elara looked at him.

"I'll hold the south wall. You take the arcane bridge. If we lose it, they'll hit the sanctum gate directly."

He nodded. No hesitation.

They split.

★★★

Smoke coiled along the corridors. Glyph lights blinked in and out. The arcane bridge lay ahead, half-shrouded in mist. A small group of students stood frozen near the center. One girl clutched a heavy staff. Another held a shattered charm. None of them looked ready to fight.

Tian stopped in front of them.

"Get to the atrium," he said. "Reinforce the glyph towers."

"You're Tian Zhen," one of them muttered. "Aren't you second-year?"

"And you're wasting time."

That was enough. They ran.

He stepped onto the bridge.

The Voidspawn were waiting.

Five of them, all different. One walked on jointless limbs that clicked with every step. Another's face was a floating mask, its body trailing ribbons of shadow. The one in the center glowed faintly, as if leaking light from broken skin.

They charged.

Tian didn't back down. He slammed his palms together and cast. A wave of force erupted outward, smashing the first monster into the wall. The second ducked, crawling low.

Tian drew a steel dagger from his belt. No enchantments. Just balance.

The third creature lunged.

He sidestepped and slashed. The blade sank into its side. It howled and dropped. A whip of chain lashed toward him from the left. He rolled under it and landed near a cracked beam.

Another glyph burned beneath his feet. This one had appeared in his dreams. It looked like an eye surrounded by wind.

He activated it.

A gust exploded outward. The beasts staggered. He rushed in.

Two slashes. One push. One glyph to the chest.

The last monster folded in on itself, twitching, and vanished in a flicker of light.

Tian exhaled.

Then the bridge shook again.

At the far end, something massive appeared.

A Voidspawn. Taller than the gate itself. Gaunt limbs. Fingers like blades. Eyes like molten glass.

It advanced without sound.

Tian raised his hand. He had no more clever glyphs. No more time. He reached for the obsidian dagger, etched with thin runes. He whispered under his breath.

"Delay glyph. Anchor to edge."

He carved into the stone.

The creature struck. Tian rolled aside. The bridge held. Barely. Another glyph flared. Kinetic energy slammed into the monster's shoulder, but it barely slowed.

He grit his teeth.

Too fast.

Too strong.

He ducked under another swipe and landed near two students hiding behind rubble. One was unconscious. The other barely conscious.

"Raise a shield," he ordered. "Hold this point."

The boy obeyed.

Tian turned back.

He needed more force.

Then, a burning arrow shot through the air. It struck the beast in the jaw. The Voidspawn staggered.

Across the bridge, Elara emerged. Her robe was torn, her face bruised.

"I circled around!" she yelled.

He didn't reply. Just adjusted his stance.

"That thing adapts," she said. "Hit it once, it learns."

"Then we hit it together."

They moved.

Elara fired another volley of flame. Tian etched a gravity glyph beneath the creature's feet.

"Now."

The spell detonated. The Voidspawn bent under its own weight. Elara's next strike hit the exposed glyph on its chest.

Elara fired another volley of flame. Tian etched a gravity glyph beneath the creature's feet.

"Now."

The spell detonated. The Voidspawn bent under its own weight. Elara's next strike hit the exposed glyph on its chest.

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