The first rays of dawn had only just kissed the academy's tallest towers when Rylan and his friends were summoned to the Headmaster's Tower. A faint chill still lingered in the marble halls, dew glistening on the ivy-covered windows. The group stood in a tight line within the grand hall—its towering stained-glass windows filtering the sun into shifting mosaics of blues and golds that danced along the polished floor like watchful spirits.
Headmaster Veylor, his robes rippling as though touched by unseen wind, stepped forward with an expression carved from stone.
"Today, you will undertake your first sanctioned assignment as apprentices of this academy," he declared. "Your destination is the Dark Forest."
A collective silence followed, broken only by the rhythmic ticking of the gilded clock mounted above the entrance.
"You are to retrieve a Kyra Crystal," he continued, his voice echoing with solemn weight. "It blooms only once a year—deep in the corrupted wood. Your task is to find it, extract it safely, and return with haste."
Grace's brow furrowed. "Just us? No instructors?"
Veylor nodded. "Correct. This is a trial of unity, instinct, and trust in your training."
He stepped aside, and from the shadows emerged Mr. Will, the summoning arts instructor. He carried an object in his gloved hands—an orb-like compass encased in silver bands, pulsing gently with pink and violet hues. He handed it to Blaze.
"This crystal compass will lead you to the Kyra bloom," Mr. Will explained, his voice quieter than usual. "But be warned. Creatures… tainted by shadow have begun to stir again in the deeper parts of the forest. Some say the darkness sleeps there—but I fear it may be waking."
No one spoke for several seconds. The gravity of the assignment had settled over them like a cloak. Rylan met Blaze's eyes, and the two shared a nod.
They were ready.
The journey to the Dark Forest began under a steel-gray sky. Birds chirped in strange, discordant melodies—some of them echoing notes that felt almost intentional, like forgotten languages sung in fragments. As they walked, the trees grew thicker, older. Their bark was gnarled with veins of black moss, and their branches hung like arms reaching for the ground.
Strange whispers echoed now and then, carried by a wind that didn't touch the leaves. Sometimes they were unintelligible murmurs, other times… names. Rylan's name, whispered faintly and lost the moment he turned to listen.
Despite the growing unease, the group pressed forward, led by the glow of the crystal compass. It pulsed brighter with every step they took, illuminating the path ahead with gentle hues of pink, violet, and blue.
After several hours of hiking, they arrived at a narrow cave hidden beneath a canopy of roots and hanging moss. A swirl of mist lingered at its mouth, and the air beyond was unnaturally cold.
"This must be it," Riley whispered, gripping her staff tighter.
Blaze stepped forward first, holding the compass aloft. "Let's go."
Inside, the walls were lined with bioluminescent fungi, their glow illuminating twisting passages like veins of liquid moonlight. The deeper they went, the more intense the humming from the compass became. It resonated through their bones, vibrating in tune with something ancient.
At the cave's heart, they found it.
The Kyra Crystal.
It bloomed atop a jagged stone pedestal, its petals shimmering in radiant hues of blue and violet. It didn't just glow—it sang, a high-pitched harmony only heard in the soul.
"Beautiful…" Grace murmured.
But just as Rylan stepped forward to collect it, Blaze raised his hand sharply.
"There's something else… over there."
They turned toward a pile of tangled moss and stones, where something stirred. As Rant cleared the debris with a flick of his wand, the figure beneath was revealed.
A boy.
He couldn't have been older than Rylan—though the state he was in made it difficult to tell. His clothes were in tatters, clinging to a body covered in cuts, bruises, and dried blood. Dirt caked his skin, and his face was barely visible beneath layers of grime.
And even though his eyes were closed… they glowed. Faintly red. Faintly wrong.
"He's alive," Rylan said, checking for a pulse. "But barely. We have to get him out of here."
"Wait," said James, his voice sharp. "Look at his arms…"
Carved into the boy's skin—almost grown into it—were lines of symbols glowing faintly red, like scars made of fire.
Suddenly, a deafening roar tore through the cave, shaking the walls and causing pebbles to rain from the ceiling.
From the shadows above, a colossal dragon dropped down, obsidian scales scraping the cave walls like blades against stone. Its eyes burned with the same hue as the boy's—malicious and unnatural. Behind it, two phoenixes swooped in, wings wide and terrible: one wreathed in crimson fire, the other shrouded in frost so cold the air itself crystallized around it.
"Get ready!" Blaze shouted. "Formation Alpha!"
The cave erupted into chaos.
The dragon's breath spread a cloud of corrosive smoke, melting the stone it touched. The fire phoenix set the air ablaze, while the frost phoenix cast ice spears that shattered mid-flight, raining down shards like daggers.
Blaze launched into the air atop his lightning dragon, arcing between blasts of fire and frost, retaliating with thunderclaps. His silver flame dragon breathed purifying fire across the cave, blinding the phoenixes momentarily.
Rylan's Soulbound emerged from the shadows like a phantom beast—half-dragon, half-serpent—its tail lashing into the frost phoenix, sending it tumbling into a wall.
Riley, Joy, and Rant chanted in unison, casting protective wards while James and Grace guarded the unconscious boy, deflecting stray blasts with magical barriers.
"Focus on the dragon!" Blaze called out.
Rylan gathered his aura. All three colors—purple, blue, and that unstable black-white blend—swirled around him like a tempest.
"Vareth-Sol!" he cried in Draconic, unleashing chains of pure energy. They shot forward, latching onto the dragon's wings and pinning it mid-air. Blaze's silver dragon slammed into the beast's side, and with a final burst of coordinated power, the group forced the dragon back.
The cave trembled.
Cracks split across the ceiling. Rocks began to fall. With one last screech, the dragon and the phoenixes took flight—defeated but not destroyed—vanishing into the darkened sky beyond the cavern's mouth.
The return to the academy was tense. The boy, unconscious in Rylan's arms, stirred faintly as they passed through the gates. Every healer in the ward was waiting.
Healers worked feverishly. They cast cleansing spells, applied rare salves, and chanted in ancient tongues—but the boy's body fought back. His aura pushed against their magic, and the glowing red eyes under his lids flared every so often, pulsing in sync with the sigils on his arms.
From behind a transparent crystal wall, Mr. Will and Headmaster Veylor watched silently.
"This is no ordinary child," Mr. Will muttered. "Those markings… they're not natural. They're seals. Ancient ones."
"Then why did the corrupted beasts attack him?" Blaze asked. "Shouldn't they have been protecting him?"
Veylor didn't answer. His gaze was distant, and his fingers tapped thoughtfully against his staff.
That night, as the academy grew quiet, Rylan stood at the infirmary window, watching the boy sleep. The glow from his eyes hadn't faded, and neither had the strange tension in the air.
Blaze joined him, rubbing his arms as a chill settled over the corridor.
"Do you feel that?" Blaze asked.
"Like something's watching us?" Rylan whispered. "Yeah."
They didn't speak after that.
The hallway torches dimmed slightly as midnight struck. A gust of wind blew past them… but the windows were shut.
Inside the ward, the boy's fingers twitched. His eyes opened slowly.
They glowed.
Bright, unholy red.
Somewhere far beyond the walls of the academy—deep in the darkened woods where the battle had taken place—a figure in a tattered cloak stood atop a twisted stone altar. A gnarled staff, dripping with black ichor, was raised toward the stars.
"They found the Vessel," the figure whispered to the shadows that slithered around him. "The awakening begins."