POV: Selene
...….
There were a thousand ways to describe the moments before disaster.
But for Selene, it was simple.
She knew.
Before the sirens. Before the breach.
Before the monster even touched the dome…
She knew.
...…
The Day of the Trials
It began with training.
Normal. Brutal. Predictably chaotic.
Pix had announced a final prep before the first official trial round~dubbed "The Shadow Crucible"where students would enter alone to face whatever their own subconscious conjured from the dark.
"You're not fighting monsters," Pix had said. "You're facing what makes you want to run."
And yet, Dae didn't flinch.
He just stood at the edge of the platform, fingers fidgeting by his side, eyes locked on the ocean beyond the dome like it whispered secrets to only him.
Selene had watched him all morning, from a distance.
Close enough to feel his presence like a sun she couldn't look at directly. Far enough that he wouldn't see the way her hands shook when he was too close.
And today, the pull was unbearable.
It wasn't attraction.
It was gravity.
...…..
"Ready?" Jin asked, tossing her a practice dagger forged from training-grade shadowsteel.
Selene caught it mid-air, spinning it in her palm. "Always."
He stared at her, unreadable as always. "It's him again, isn't it?"
She didn't answer.
Didn't need to.
...…
The Arena – One Hour Later
The Crucible chamber was dark.
Colder than usual.
One by one, students entered. And one by one, they returned..shaken, sweating, some in tears.
When Dae's name was called, Selene almost stepped forward.
Almost stopped him.
But she didn't.
She watched as he walked in, shoulders hunched like the weight of his own silence was too much to carry.
And when the screaming began minutes later..no one else moved.
Except her.
She sprinted toward the arena entrance, ignoring Pix's glitching voice over the comm.
"Do not enter! Unauthorized breach risk detected!"
She didn't care.
Because that wasn't just a hallucination.
She saw it. the twisted silhouette in the arena with Dae. A version of him. Older. Angrier. Darker.
It wasn't a memory.
It was a future.
His future.
Selene's boots hit the arena floor just as Rea and Kio burst in after her, followed by An, wide-eyed and panicked.
Dae was curled on the ground, the shadow version of himself looming over him, hand outstretched with black fire dripping from its palm.
And for a second, just once. Selene hesitated.
That small girl inside her whispered:
Don't do it. Don't let them see. Don't care too much.
But something snapped.
That thing reached for Dae's chest.
And Selene was already moving.
...…..
The First Intervention
Darkness peeled from her body like wings. Her presence warped the shadows around her. They hissed, then obeyed.
The arena trembled.
The shadow-Dae turned.
Too late.
Selene struck with a whip of void-light, wrapping it around the figure's throat, dragging it back, slamming it into the Crucible wall.
"Back. Off." she said, eyes glowing faint silver.
The others froze.
Even Pix fell silent.
Dae looked up, dazed and saw her.
Really saw her.
She looked away instantly.
But it was done.
He'd seen her.
She turned and walked away without another word.
As if it meant nothing.
But her chest?
Was burning.
...…..
Later That Night
She was sitting at the edge of her dorm bed, hair wet from a cold shower, trying not to think about him.
And failing.
He hadn't spoken to her after.
Hadn't said thank you.
He didn't have to.
Because the way he looked at her when she stepped between him and that version of himself?
It was enough.
She closed her eyes.
An image flashed behind her lids.
Not from the arena.
From her Crucible.
From weeks ago.
The same phrase, echoed in fragmented voices:
The boy with the ring will burn or bind the stars.
He is the key. The lock. The reckoning.
And she will stand between…
She never understood that last part.
Until now.
Until today.
Until the glass.
...…
The dome shook.
The sea convulsed.
The figure drifted closer.
Now it was only meters from the glass.
Inside, students screamed. Some ran. Some didn't move at all.
Sera's voice crackled through the comms…firm, urgent:
"All first-year units: return to your quarters immediately. I repeat. Return to your…."
The transmission cut.
The lights died.
And in the silence that followed…
A single sound.
Tap.
A hand.
The figure's hand.
Pressed to the dome, fingers splayed.
Right above Dae.
Right above his heart.
Kairoth pulsed violently on his finger, a beacon of heat and warning.
Selene's breath hitched.
That sound again..thump-thump..but it wasn't from the dome. It was from her chest.
She should've stayed back. She told herself she would.
But something in her legs had already decided otherwise.
And then….
She stepped forward.
She didn't run. She didn't shout.
She walked.
Slow. Certain. Like fate had been waiting for her cue.
Her silhouette carved through the chaos…cloak alive with a shimmer of moving shadows.
Students parted without understanding why. The storm in her eyes warned them off.
And then…
She stopped.
In front of Dae.
Between him and the thing beyond the dome.
She didn't speak. Didn't even breathe loud enough to notice.
But her presence said everything.
"You want him? You go through me."
The figure paused.
Head tilted again…not mockingly. Not like a predator.
Almost… like it noticed her.
Like it remembered.
Behind it, Leviathan's body spiraled lower…shredded and glowing dim.
Wounded. Still watching. Still protecting.
But failing.
The dome's surface rippled.. hairline fractures threading like frost across a window.
Selene didn't look back.
She didn't need to.
She knew Dae hadn't moved.
She could feel his fear in the way the air tensed behind her.
Could feel his heartbeat echoing louder than the alarms that no longer worked.
Her own emotions waged war inside her: terror, awe… and something else she hadn't named yet.
Whatever that thing was outside… it wasn't just dangerous.
It was inevitable.
And somehow… it had chosen him.
Her hands curled into fists at her sides.
Not because she thought she could fight it.
But because she knew damn well she'd die trying.
The figure began to fade, melting into the deep like smoke dissolving in water.
Gone.
But not forgotten.
A final gesture.
One finger raised.
Pointing.
At Dae.
Again.
Then nothing.
Silence swallowed the room. The cracks in the dome glimmered faintly. Kairoth stopped pulsing.
The storm was over.
For now.
And still, Selene stood there.
Still between him and the glass.
Still pretending her hands weren't shaking.
Still acting like it was nothing. Like she didn't care. Like she hadn't just stepped in front of the unknown for a boy she barely knew…
…But somehow always knew.
And she didn't dare look at him.
Because if she did… she might break the illusion.
She might say it.
She might want too much.
She turned away instead. Pretended she was only curious. That she was just checking on the others. That this whole thing hadn't carved something open inside her.
And no one questioned it.
No one saw the way she gripped the railing so hard her fingers went white.
No one noticed how she stayed up that night, staring at the faint glow of the fracture, wondering what would've happened if she hadn't stepped forward.
Wondering why she had.
Wondering what that figure had seen.
Not in Dae.
But in her.
Was it protection?
Or prophecy?
A fragment of memory surfaced, one from the Crucible.
The voice. The fire. The stars collapsing.
And the whisper:
"The boy with the ring… will burn or bind the stars."
She hadn't told anyone.
She didn't even believe it.
But now…
Now she wasn't so sure.
...….
To Be Continued in Chapter 23