[Reminder: novel is editing. Not recommended to read]

At the top of the stairs, the wind hit her like a wall—sharp, chill, and charged with something ancient. Verena squinted into the sudden brightness. Gone were the cold, star-lit corridors of the labyrinth. Now, she stood atop a wide plateau of marble and glass, floating high above the academy's skyline. The sky bled pink and gold, constellations still faintly etched in the clouds like ripples of memory.

The Trial of Ascendance was over.

The moment should've felt like a victory. Instead, she felt… hollow.

Saphira coiled loosely around her arm, unusually quiet. No sarcastic remarks. No cheeky flirting. The snake felt it too—the unease, the strange static clinging to the air like an unfinished sentence.

A bell tolled below. One, then two, then twelve. The academy was announcing their return.

Others began appearing one by one—Isolde, Penelope, Evelyn, Raphael, Clarina, Beatrice. Each stumbled into the light at different times, shaped by different trials, different ghosts. Some looked stronger. Some looked broken. Some… were simply missing.

A long pause. Then the headmaster's voice echoed from the heavens—calm, authoritative, impossibly large:

"First-years of Irasios Academy. You have passed through the crucible. But the heavens do not rest. And neither shall you."

A glowing seal opened beneath their feet, not one of transport, but recognition. It marked them now—not just as students, but as contenders.

As chosen.

Verena felt the glyph burn onto her wrist, silver-hot and star-etched. She didn't flinch. She just watched it sink into her skin, another thread sewn into her fate.

Someone behind her sniffled. She turned. Vivienne was crying again, though quietly this time, as though unsure whether they were tears of relief or sorrow. Verena reached over and patted her head with the gentlest "there, there" she could manage without rolling her eyes.

"Don't get used to this," she muttered.

Vivienne beamed. "I already did."

Before Verena could threaten to drop-kick her off the floating island, Evelyn appeared—confident, calm, and beautiful. Their eyes met. Evelyn offered no words, only a nod. A promise.

Verena nodded back. The affection points were maxed out, apparently. Whatever that meant now.

Suddenly, the sky rippled.

Above them, a hole tore open like a wound. A great celestial rift blinked into existence, not unlike the zodiac gates they'd passed—but this was wrong. Twisted. Off-tempo.

The headmaster's voice faltered. "...This is not scheduled."

Another ripple.

Then a scream.

One of the students collapsed, their body spasming. Another followed. Panic surged through the crowd like wildfire. The glyphs began reacting—burning red now, unstable.

"They're being drained!" someone shouted.

Beatrice immediately raised a barrier of wind around their group. "Everyone close ranks! Now!"

"By the constellations…" Clarina whispered, blade already drawn.

Saphira hissed, eyes narrowed. "Something's hijacking the academy's core grid."

Raphael stepped forward, hands igniting in golden flame. "It's not over."

Of course it wasn't. Verena almost laughed.

Because why would it be?

The Trials may have ended.

But the real arc had just begun.

From the instant the celestial rift tore the sky apart, everything spiraled into a chaos that didn't belong to the academy's usual brand of controlled spectacle. This wasn't another trial. This was an invasion.

The air buzzed with interference as the sky cracked again—this time more violently. Through the jagged tear spilled a torrent of dark energy, inky and starless, like someone had spilled oil over the heavens. It didn't shimmer or glow like magic—it absorbed light, consumed sound, and bled dread into every heartbeat.

And then… they emerged.

Beings unlike the Zodiabeasts—amorphous, faceless, and yet horribly sentient. Their bodies shifted with every glance, like memories you couldn't quite place, wearing armor of broken constellations. These were no summoned constructs. These were external.

"I knew we should've just skipped school today," Verena muttered, stepping back beside Isolde and Evelyn.

Saphira coiled tighter. "This is a breach. A real one."

"A breach from what?"

"The Outside."

A shriek ripped through the clouds as one of the beings lunged for a student. Clarina intercepted, blade flashing with righteous steel, but the thing twisted, turned into smoke, then reformed behind her. She barely parried in time.

"This doesn't make sense!" Raphael shouted, shielding three collapsed students with a wall of fire. "This isn't part of the Zodiac system!"

"Because it's not," Verena said under her breath.

Above them, the headmaster's voice was trying to cut through the chaos again, but it was strained, glitching—like he was being overridden.

Then came the voice.

It wasn't loud. It didn't need to be. It whispered straight into their minds, bypassing the air, the noise, the resistance.

"The stars chose wrong. Let us correct them."

One of the entities struck the glyph seal on a student's wrist. It shattered into light, and the student collapsed—breathing, but… dimmed. Like a candle about to go out.

Verena's heart raced. "They're severing Zodiac links."

"Then let's sever them first," Penelope snapped, fists charged with kinetic force.

"Don't you mean 'beat them up first'?" Saphira asked.

"Whatever gets me out of here alive!"

Beatrice flung a gust of wind that cleared a ten-meter radius around them, shouting, "Form up! We can't let them isolate anyone!"

"We're not strong enough to fight them directly," Isolde said sharply. "We need to relink with the Zodiac leyline and reboot the grid!"

"You mean—"

"Yes," Isolde cut her off. "We're going to the Astrarium."

Verena's face twisted. "That's under lockdown!"

"Not anymore," Saphira said. "They broke the lock from the outside."

"...Oh, wonderful."

The group moved. It wasn't graceful. It wasn't tactical. But it was fast.

All around them, students—some unconscious, some fighting with sheer panic—dotted the marble arena. Teams broke formation. Some instructors were trying to help. Others had already fallen.

Verena glanced back and saw Vivienne, dragging a dazed student behind her, using Dreamtide magic to veil their movements. Every now and then, her illusions pulsed out like fog, confusing the entities and giving allies room to escape.

The girl was still crying.

But she wasn't useless.

They burst through the edge of the platform, down the spiraling staircase that led into the underbelly of Irasios Academy—into the sacred sanctum of celestial computation: the Astrarium.

It pulsed dimly now, drained of its usual brilliance. The Zodiac Rings that floated above its crystalline core were flickering, misaligned. The whole room felt sick. Off-key.

Isolde ran to the interface. "Raphael, channel ignition directly into this conduit. Verena, you and Saphira fuse—strengthen mimicry feedback and patch the connection loop."

"On it!"

They moved like pieces of an intricate spell circle. Evelyn stood at the edge of the chamber, shielding the entrance with Balance magic, holding off three approaching entities.

The Astrarium groaned.

Then pulsed.

The Zodiac Rings sparked, one by one: Aries. Pisces. Scorpio. Libra. Taurus.

But not all of them.

One ring remained dark.

Verena stared at it. It was hers.

The 13th.

Unwritten. Unrecognized.

"Saphira…"

"I know."

They didn't hesitate.

Together, they fused again—her aura coiling with Saphira's, wrapping around the mimicry thread and pushing it upward like a scream trapped too long. The energy wasn't refined. It wasn't elegant.

But it was raw.

The ring cracked.

And then, it shone.

The 13th constellation ignited in the sky above Irasios.

And with it, the breach trembled.

The breach quivered like a struck drum, ripples of celestial distortion pulsing outward. For a moment—just a breath—the invaders halted, as if sensing something ancient wake from slumber. The 13th constellation hadn't been part of the cycle. It wasn't even supposed to exist. Yet there it was—etched in starlight across the heavens, wild and spiraling, resisting order like a rebellious heartbeat.

Verena staggered, breath shallow. Her hands trembled from the force of the fusion. Saphira, half-merged and glowing with primal magic, curled around her shoulders like a living circuit of energy.

"You broke the system," Isolde murmured in awe, eyes fixed on the thirteenth ring above.

"I improved it," Verena wheezed, grinning despite herself.

The Astrarium pulsed again. This time, the other Rings responded—not in isolation, but in harmony. Zodiac threads connected across the campus, webbing students into constellational grids. Energy flowed through the leyline again—restored, strengthened, amplified.

A sudden shriek tore through the chamber entrance.

"INCOMING!"

Evelyn stood alone, her Balance magic cracking. An invader lunged—its arms distorted into jagged spears of anti-light.

Before Verena could move, a blur of wind intercepted. Beatrice, flanked by Penelope, unleashed a coordinated strike. Air and impact collided into the beast, slamming it back into the wall with an explosive force that rattled the Astrarium itself.

"Hey," Beatrice said, brushing off her robe, "next time, try not to take all the dramatic spotlight, will you?"

Penelope smirked. "You act like she's ever gonna share."

They weren't just surviving now.

They were fighting back.

And the tides—finally—were turning.

The Astrarium trembled beneath their feet, but this time, not from collapse—from awakening. Glyphs blazed to life across the floor, pulsing in sync with Verena's heartbeat. Her friends flanked her, no longer scattered but united, their magic resonating like chords in a song only they could hear. The invaders shrieked in dissonance, stumbling back, disoriented by the rising harmony. Verena took a step forward, her eyes shining with purpose.

"This world isn't yours to rewrite," she said coldly.

And with a single flick of her hand, the thirteenth ring pulsed—unleashing a ripple that shattered illusions and silenced everything.

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