The roar faded into the wood.

Mina didn't slow down.

She led them through the cool shade of the Academy's inner hall, feet almost silent on the smooth wooden floor.

Saffi walked close enough that her sleeve brushed Raizen's once.

He pretended not to notice. He also pretended his lungs did not ache again.

The corridor curved, following the trunk. Light leaked in through thin openings along the wall, strips of brightness that cut across Mina's face as she walked. Her hair was tied back into a loose tail, but a few wayward strands had escaped.

"Still breathing?" she asked without looking back.

"Usually a good sign… I'm alive, alright" Raizen answered.

"Keep it that way."

The hall opened into a broad archway at the far end.

Mina stepped through.

Raizen followed her out into Ukai's true training ground.

The space behind the main building was not really behind anything. It was like the tree itself had decided to grow around a battlefield.

Platforms sprawled outward in layers, cut from trunk and reaching along the branches. Some were round, others long and narrow, others broken into uneven, jagged shapes. Movable walls of wood split some of the platforms, turning open floors into mazes, corridors, enclosed rings.

Overhead, a web of thick vines and branches formed a living ceiling. They twisted around each other, some hanging down in long, motionless lines. Thin rays of light speared through in places where the leaves parted, painting the ground below in irregular patches.

Noise hit them in waves.

A sharp whistle. A thud. A low growl. A voice calling an order.

On one of the nearer platforms, a student ran a drill with a beast at his side.

The creature was shaped like a wolf, but not the kind Raizen had seen. It was bigger through the shoulders, legs heavier, muscles thicker. Its fur was a stormy gray, with a rough brown pattern circling its neck like a crown. Its eyes burned a bright, unsettling orange.

Its fangs were… Unusual, to say the least.

They jutted down from its upper jaw in long, curved blades, twice the length they should have been. When it snapped its mouth shut, the tips clicked near its chin.

The student sprinted toward a raised block of wood and leaped, boots striking the surface in a clean move. The wolf stayed behind the whole time, claws biting into the wood with a controlled scrape. On command, it leaped past the student, landing softly.

"Eon beasts" Mina said, noticing where Raizen's eyes had gone. "Student grade. They start with simple beasts before they earn the right to customize."

Raizen's eyes widened. "Wait… Did you just say customize!?"

""

Mina nodded. "At first, everyone gets simple beasts. Safe frames. Stable instincts. A wolf is a wolf. A shell beast is a shell beast. Same bones, same weight, same reflexes. You do not get to be creative when you still trip over your own Eon."

Her gaze slid back to the gray wolf, to the way its massive fangs glinted when it breathed.

"Once you prove you can keep a base beast from tearing you apart, we start letting you bend the pattern" she went on. "A thicker hide over the ribs, maybe. Extra plating over the throat. Longer fangs. Heavier claws. Spikes along the spine so nothing can grab on. Wider shoulders so it can ram. Longer tail for balance. If you are subtle, you can build in new reflexes too - faster pivots, shorter stopping distance, better grip on wet bark. Depends on what you need it for."

Saffi's eyes brightened despite herself. "So you... Add features like upgrading a piece of tech? Like upgrading the processor, memory…"

"Exactly" Mina said. "Every modification is another pattern your Eon has to hold. More power pushed into teeth means less control somewhere else. You want a beast that can leap farther? You change the leg structure. You want it to shrug off impact? You thicken the frame. You want it to climb? You reshape the paws and claws. But push too far, or add too much at once, and the whole thing goes unstable."

"Unstable how?" Raizen asked.

"Shakes" Mina said. "Stalls. Doesn't listen to commands. Sometimes it just collapses back into raw Eon. Worst case, it keeps the power and ignores you." Her mouth quirked, not quite a smile. "That is what happens when a student thinks spikes and fangs make them strong before they're strong enough."

She nodded toward the wolf's saber-long teeth.

"That guy – Raku - put almost everything he has into offense" she added. "Those fangs are not base pattern. That is his "style" showing. The more you master the technique, the more your beast stops looking like a copy... and the more it starts looking like you."

The wolf's handler snapped his fingers. "Confine."

Eon threads flickered around his arm like strands of light. Then, slowly, the beast came apart.

Not like flesh tearing. More like smoke drawn back into a vent. Its form thinned, edges dissolving into rays. For a few seconds, a half-formed skeleton of energy hung in the air, ribs and spine traced in white threads. Then that too unwound, streaming back toward the student's hand.

The glow sank into his palm and vanished.

Saffi let out a quiet breath.

"That is… incredible" she said. Then, after a heartbeat, softer, "And terrifying."

"If the bond is weak, it's even more terrifying" Mina said. "A beast made from Eon is still Eon. It can slip. Break. Feed on the caster instead of the target. We train so it doesn't."

Her tone was simple, not dramatic.

Raizen's shoulders tightened anyway.

He imagined all that power with teeth, weight and speed, pulling free of someone's control. Tearing through these platforms.

The roar he had heard inside the building earlier did not feel so far away now.

Mina guided them along a main walkway that cut through the training grounds. Students moved on either side of it, some alone, some in pairs, some accompanied by beasts in various shapes.

Something like an antelope, its horns grown into sharpened, spiraled blades. A heavy shape that looked like a bear with scales.

It should have looked chaotic.

But it didn't.

There were marks on the floor - circles, lines, numbered zones. Instructors stood in certain positions, watching, calling out, adjusting patterns. Drones drifted at a controlled height, their lenses tracking movement and Eon output. Every shout had a response. Every sudden motion had a reason.

"Anyone can force a beast to move" Mina said quietly. "Making it move with you is where mastery starts."

Raizen pictured himself on one of those platforms with something heavy with claws, beside him. The thought made his chest tighten again. Not entirely with fear. More like excitement.

They passed a smaller platform where two younger students were practicing. One commanded a thin, cat-like beast with too big ears and bright eyes. The other held an empty stance, trying and failing to weave Eon into anything more than shivers of light.

"Don't be so tense" their instructor said, tapping the air near the second student's shoulders. "Fear makes your Eon collapse in on itself. Remember that."

The words slid under Raizen's skin and settled there.

Mina led them toward a wide, central area. It was big enough that three houses could have sat side by side on it. The surface was marked with several overlapping circles, each one ringed with symbols. Half a dozen students stood within those rings, some with beasts at their sides, some without.

They looked older than Raizen. Late teens, some a bit past that. Their uniforms had an extra band of color along the sleeves, a mark he guessed belonged to senior status.

Mina stopped at the edge of the innermost circle.

Conversation dipped.

Heads turned.

"This is one of our senior squads" she said. "They handle higher risk drills and outside missions. If you are going to learn anything useful while you are here, it will be by watching people like them."

Saffi straightened, tugging her jacket into place, shoulders squaring like she was about to walk into an assessment.

One of the seniors stepped forward

Mina leaned in slightly.

"Do not show weakness" she murmured. "They smell it."

Raizen froze, confused.

Every beast in the arena had turned - eyes locked on him.

And one started to growl.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.