The sun dipped below the horizon as the graduation festivities wound down. Laughter echoed through the marble halls of Wysteria Academy, now bathed in a golden twilight. Confetti drifted gently from floating drones overhead, music played from orchestral glyph arrays, and the students danced in celebration of their hard-earned freedom.
But Mi-cha couldn't hear the music anymore.
She stood still, a few paces behind the crowd, her hand slowly pulling away from Muhan's.
> [UNKNOWN PRESENCE STILL ACTIVE]
[DANGER LEVEL: ANOMALOUS / CLASSIFIED]
[LOCATION: WITHIN 15 METERS]
Her irises shimmered—soft pink and deep violet hues interlaced with pulses of protective Celestial code.
"M-Mi-cha?" Muhan turned back, sensing the shift in her expression.
She smiled faintly, trying not to worry him. "Go ahead… I'll be right behind you."
He nodded, walking off toward Jin-ho and Ji-hoon, unaware that behind him… the air itself trembled.
Mi-cha turned her head slightly, and her voice hardened.
"…You can drop the illusion now. I know you're here."
The courtyard lights flickered. A warm breeze turned unnaturally cold.
From the edge of the trees near the reflecting pool, a figure stepped forward—his footsteps made no sound. He looked like a 3rd-year student: tall, clean uniform, platinum hair falling over pale eyes. But the air around him warped, refusing to touch him. It was as if the world was being rewritten around his very existence.
His name did not appear in the system. No ID. No student registry. No life signature.
Yet… he smiled.
"So, you noticed me, Mi-cha."
Mi-cha narrowed her eyes. "You were at the ceremony. Watching Muhan the entire time."
The figure gave a slight bow. "I was watching both of you."
She activated her Celestial Protocol—three ethereal rings of light spun around her as her form shifted, her aura becoming radiant with grace. "I won't let you touch him."
The figure chuckled softly. "Mi-cha Lawson. Born under the Crescent Mark. Celestial designation: E-103. Gifted with resonance-class empathy and a latent bond link with subject 'Muhan Lockhart'... I must say, you are everything the Archive predicted."
Her heart skipped.
"How do you know all that…? Who are you?"
The boy smiled—but it didn't reach his eyes. "I have no name you'd recognize. But the System once knew me as Observer Null."
> [Observer Null]
[Origin: Unknown. Exiled from Core Systems.]
[Classification: Level-Z Threat]
[Motive: ???]
Mi-cha's HUD glitched as his presence caused anomalies across her interface.
"You were exiled," she said. "You shouldn't even exist."
Null stepped forward. "And yet here I am. You see, Muhan Lockhart… is an anomaly. One that shouldn't be here. One whose power could… unravel everything."
Mi-cha summoned her staff of stardust, a weapon forged by her celestial energy. "I won't let you lay a finger on him."
Null simply raised his hand—and space cracked behind him like glass under pressure.
"Ah, but you misunderstand me, Mi-cha. I'm not here to kill Muhan…"
He leaned forward, and his smile grew sinister.
"…I'm here to recruit him."
Suddenly, the trees behind Null twisted into fractal geometry, revealing a pitch-black rift in space—a gateway to a domain outside the known realm. Through it, shadows with eyes flickering like dying stars pulsed faintly.
"You'll want to stop me. I expect nothing less from the one tethered to his fate," Null whispered. "But make no mistake—Muhan's ascension isn't yours to delay. It's already been set in motion."
He turned.
"Oh… and tell your dear principal, Professor Bora, to stop spying on me from the observation glyph above us."
Above, high in the arcane dome of Wysteria's protective barrier, a glyph cracked with a sharp flash—Professor Bora gasped in her office tower, blood dripping from her nose.
Before Mi-cha could act, Observer Null vanished, stepping backward into the void.
And the rift closed.
---
Mi-cha dropped to her knees. The staff in her hand cracked from the intensity of the anomaly. Her breath was shaky.
"Muhan…" she whispered.
This wasn't over.
Something ancient had taken notice of him.
And the real trials were just beginning.