🌒 Chapter 37
"Some glitches… are not accidents. They are awakenings."
🌀 Scene: Simulation – Chaos Erupts
The Thornscale Tyrant unleashed a roar that cracked buildings and made the ground split. It stood nearly 20 feet tall — a hulking mass of scales, horns, and dark thorns pulsing with void energy.
Students scattered. Screams echoed. Spells fired in every direction.
Instructor Zareth shouted through the comms:
"Abort the simulation! Everyone retreat! Retreat!"
But the system responded again:
ACCESS DENIED – Overseer Lock Engaged
The entire city shook. The sky above the simulation began to flicker — as if someone was watching through it.
🔥 Scene: Anshi Reacts
Anshi saw the panic, but her eyes were only searching for one thing:
"Aeren… where are you?"
She finally saw him — standing still, looking at the sky… whispering to himself.
"They're not trying to test us… they're trying to awaken something."
She rushed to him and grabbed his arm.
"Snap out of it! We need to run!"
But Aeren didn't move.
"If I run… that thing won't stop. It's not part of the simulation. It's here for me."
Anshi's eyes widened.
"What do you mean?"
Aeren turned slowly.
"That monster isn't supposed to be here. It's a Signal Beast — it only comes when something ancient is stirring."
"Something… like me."
🕳️ Scene: Glitch of the Void
Above them, the sky cracked open.
Out of the rift, black wires with glowing red veins writhed into the simulation — like fingers reaching through time.
And then…
A voice echoed — deep, mechanical, inhuman.
"Subject #7 Confirmed. Awakening: Incomplete. Engaging Lock-Breaker Protocol."
An invisible force slammed down around Aeren.
His legs buckled. The ground beneath him fractured in a perfect spiral — forming a glyph none could read.
"What's happening to him?" Anshi screamed.
The Thornscale Tyrant stopped attacking everyone else…
…and turned to Aeren.
It knelt.
Every eye turned toward them.
"Why is a monster kneeling to a student!?"
"Is this another glitch!?"
"Who is that…?"
Aeren's body was glowing — not with fire, or lightning, but with time. The particles around him were frozen midair. His shadow… split into three directions.
Anshi stepped back.
She'd never seen this side of him. Not even when he fought Varnyx.
This was something ancient.
⏳ Scene: Fragments of Truth
Aeren's mind split.
He was here and somewhere else.
He was standing on a mountain of dead gods.
He was standing in the ruins of time.
He was seeing himself — but as someone else.
"You were never just a weak student," the cloaked figure whispered in his vision."You are the Seventh Gate — the one who can bend time, pierce memory, and rewrite reality."
Suddenly, a giant eye opened in the sky — mechanical, red, focused on him.
"Awakening Block Detected. Forcing Shutdown."
And Aeren screamed.
A pulse blasted from him — knocking out every student within 50 meters.
The Tyrant roared, caught in the blast, and shattered into particles of shadow and thorns.
🧠 Scene: Aftermath
Silence.
The simulation shut off instantly.
All students were teleported outside — confused, dizzy, some unconscious.
Aeren lay on the ground, still glowing faintly, while Anshi knelt beside him.
Instructors rushed in, trying to understand what happened.
But the data logs were corrupted.
No one had seen anything clearly.
"That wasn't a simulation glitch," whispered Instructor Zareth to the Headmaster."That was a message. And a warning."
Meanwhile, far away…
Inside the darkest vault of the Sinjai Region, a sealed chamber's sensors blinked red for the first time in 3,000 years.
"Seventh Gate signature detected. Candidate alive."
📜 Chapter 38 Preview:
"The Black Organ – Shadows in the System"As the academy reels from the mysterious events of the Trial, a hidden organization known as The Black Organ takes notice. They begin their hunt for Aeren — but so do others. Meanwhile, whispers of war and rebellion stir. And within Aeren, the locks on his mind… begin to break.