Chapter 35 – The Beast That Should Not Be Named
Scene One: Echoes in the Forbidden Wing
The Forbidden Wing of Aflety Academy was sealed for a reason.
It housed knowledge deemed too dangerous for common mages—scrolls of ancient pacts, beast summoning rites that required blood sacrifices, and histories erased from public record.
And now, Evan stood within it.
The Council had granted him limited access after what happened with the core. He wasn't alone. A familiar shadow followed: the new professor, Master Varion—the one who never blinked, who always watched Evan as if reading every heartbeat.
They descended into a chamber lined with chains. Floating grimoires whispered in tongues lost to time.
"What are we looking for?" Evan asked.
Varion's cloak fluttered as if touched by wind that didn't exist. "Proof that the Watcher is not the end."
Evan turned. "What do you mean?"
Varion smiled thinly. "The Watcher is merely a sentinel. The true horror… is what it guards. A beast so ancient it does not possess a name—only titles whispered in the silence between worlds."
Evan stepped toward a stone pedestal. A single page lay upon it.
On it was a sketch—worn, frayed, old—and horrifying.
It looked like no beast he had ever seen. It had no form, yet every form. Ten eyes, but also none. Wings, claws, fur, scales, and void. It was chaos incarnate.
"The Beast That Should Not Be Named."
"Why now?" Evan asked, his voice dry.
"Because," Varion said slowly, "the seal keeping it imprisoned is cracking. And your presence… is accelerating it."
Scene Two: Reactions from the Divine
Meanwhile, across the continents, far from Aflety—
In the floating temples of the Divine Beast Council, tremors ran through the sacred crystals.
In the mountains of the Rochel domain, Evan's father, Duke Cassius, stood before an ancient altar. His Divine Beast, a thunder-winged Leviathan, trembled.
"The seal… is weakening again," the beast growled.
Cassius clenched his fist. "And Evan is at the center of it."
Scene Three: New Faces, Hidden Agendas
Back at Aflety, visitors began arriving under the guise of diplomacy and tournament sponsorship—but Evan knew better.
A young prince from the Eastern Sand Empires. A blind elf whose spirit beast radiated celestial pressure. A woman with silver eyes who claimed to be a 'Seer of Tides'.
They weren't here just for the competition.
They had sensed the shift.
They had come because the Beast That Should Not Be Named had stirred.
Scene Four: A Glimpse of the Impossible
That evening, as Evan meditated with Nex under the crimson moon, the bond pulsed.
Then—
He wasn't in the courtyard anymore.
He stood on a blood-red shore, oceans of liquid essence crashing around him. In the distance, something massive moved beneath the waves. Something impossible.
A voice echoed.
"Do you remember the pact, O heir of broken stars?"
Evan opened his mouth to reply, but no sound came.
Then—
He was back. Gasping. Nex coiled protectively around him, eyes glowing with fear.
Lilith appeared beside them, breathless. "Evan. I felt it again. The Watcher isn't alone."
Evan looked to the moonlit sky, where cracks shimmered across the magical wards.
"No," he whispered. "It never was."
[End of Chapter 35]