In the heart of the capital of the Arcadia Kingdom, within the hollowed-out ivory towers of Arcadia University, the air felt static. Inside the senior faculty meeting hall, the once-vibrant atmosphere of academic debate had been replaced by a heavy, clinical dread. Professor Suzuna stood by the massive floor-to-ceiling glass window, her gaze lost in the shifting, bruised clouds that gathered over the horizon.

  ?She whispered to herself, her voice barely a tremor in the silent room: "Has the movement truly begun? Is the cosmic clock finally ticking toward the hour of reckoning?"

  ?A rhythmic, sharp knock shattered the fragile glass of her thoughts.

  ?"Who is it?" she asked, not turning around.

  ?"It is I, Serene, Professor."

  ?"Come in, Serene... what news does the wind carry?"

  ?Serene entered with a gait of urgent precision. Her face was pale, reflecting the exhaustion of a staff trying to keep a crumbling institution afloat. "Professor, the Black Spear team has arrived. They are waiting for you in the Grand Lecture Hall. The atmosphere is... different. It seems matters are becoming increasingly grave."

  ?Suzuna let out a long, heavy sigh, gathering her composure as one would gather a shroud. "I am coming, Serene. So, General Akaria has decided it is time. Let us see what destiny has prepared for us in the dark."

  ?[The Vanguard of the New Era]

  ?A stifling, pressurized silence gripped the Grand Lecture Hall. The students who remained in Arcadia sat paralyzed, their eyes locked onto the three figures standing at the front. The Black Spear—the most formidable military unit in the Empire—stood like statues of cold, reinforced steel. They didn't just occupy space; they dominated it, radiating a mana pressure that made the air feel thin and metallic.

  ?Melina Aethel sat in the third row, her fingers white as she gripped the armrests. (The atmosphere is suffocating...) she thought, feeling the hair on her arms stand up. (These are the Black Spears, looking as if they are preparing for a cataclysm. And General Akaria... that title of 'The Strongest' wasn't an exaggeration. Her mere presence is a weight that could cow an entire army.)

  ?Suzuna stepped forward, joining the team on the stage just as General Akaria Valerius took a decisive step toward the podium. Akaria didn't look at the students with pity; she looked at them as assets to be forged. Her voice was cold, sharp, and cut through the hall like a winter gale.

  ?"We shall skip the formalities of academia," Akaria began, her silver hair shimmering under the mana-lamps. "I have grave intelligence. Following recent investigations, the Supreme Union has detected a tectonic shift in the balance of power. To prepare for an inevitable, existential threat, the Empire—with the full mandate of our High Sovereign, Azral Sul—has issued a new decree: The accelerated recruitment of a new elite. You will be subjected to high-efficiency 'Stress Training' under our direct supervision."

  ?Akaria's predatory gaze swept across the terrified faces.

  ?"Strengthening yourselves is no longer an academic choice; it is a biological necessity for survival. Remember the tragedy that claimed forty lives in these very halls... that was merely a whisper of the storm to come. From this day forward, you are solely responsible for the duration of your own lives. A time is coming when nothing will save you except the density of your own mana. We have selected four names to serve as the vanguard. They will be forged first, to lead and train the remnants later."

  ?Zorua Machiavelli stepped forward, adjusting his spectacles. He held a scroll of dark parchment, an enigmatic smile playing on his thin lips. "When you hear your name, step forward into your new reality."

  ? ?"Natalia Grotaro." She rose with a wicked, confident smirk, her Elven mana flaring briefly as she walked to the front, radiating a natural air of superiority.

  ? ?"Elara Meridian." She moved with a spectral precision and absolute silence, her features unreadable, a doll of ice and focus.

  ? ?"Melina Aethel." She stood up in a state of sheer shock, her heart hammering like a trapped bird. (Me? Impossible! Is this my chance? My chance to catch up to Nico... to stand beside him at the peak?)

  ? ?"Jackson Raven." He advanced with a look of bored indifference, though the fire in his eyes betrayed his ambition. (Finally, they realize they need my flames to burn away the rot.)

  ?Zorua spoke firmly: "The list is complete. You have thirty minutes to gather only your absolute essentials. The Ice Ship departs now."

  ?The four replied in a hollow unison: "We are ready, Lord Machiavelli."

  ?[The Magitech Bastion]

  ?The massive Ice Ship cut through the high-altitude clouds, propelled by the concentrated gale-force winds under Akaria's command. Below, the Three Kingdoms looked like a map made of dust and flickering lights.

  ?"Congratulations, our new elite," Akaria said, standing at the prow. "Prepare yourselves. You are about to endure a pressure that will either forge your souls into diamonds or crush them into ash."

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  ?Upon arriving at the Black Spear Headquarters, the four recruits froze. The Magitech Bastion was an architectural miracle that had taken seven years of secret construction. It was a fortress that merged High-Tech Magic with legendary barriers reinforced by the Sovereign himself.

  ?The walls were inlaid with patterns of pure gold that functioned as mana-conductors. Soldiers marched in silver-alloy armor, glowing with blue gems that channeled Lightning Mana for active defense. The training grounds were vast, designed to hold 30,000 warriors, flanked by sprawling libraries and research labs that hummed with the sound of high-frequency energy.

  ?"I shall take my leave now," Akaria said, turning toward the central command tower. "I have urgent matters regarding the borderlands. Zorua will escort you to your quarters. Make your first day productive."

  ?Zorua stepped forward with his trademark elegant, yet chilling smile. "Come along, children. Let me give you a tour of the forge where your futures will be hammered out."

  ?He walked them through the vast corridors, explaining the Bastion's inner workings with clinical detail.

  ?"To your right is the Armory. This is where cutting-edge military technology is fused with elemental mana. Our engineers work around the clock to develop equipment that extracts the maximum energy from every atom of mana."

  ?He led them to the adjacent hall, where the air hummed with a searing heat. "This is the Armor Forge. Here, we smelt Black Steel, our strongest alloy, at temperatures reaching 450°C. To make these suits invincible, we infuse them with Energy Crystals extracted from the deepest dimensional rifts."

  ?Zorua stopped before massive doors of ancient ironwood and gold. "The Central Library. It houses approximately 31% of the world's total written knowledge. Enlightenment is the only weapon that never runs dry."

  ?The moment Melina saw the endless shelves, Nico's image flashed in her mind. She remembered him drowning in books back in Arcadia. (If only you were here, Nico... you would have vanished into these shelves and never come out.)

  ?Finally, they stood before a grand room filled with complex, rotating machinery. "The Power Scanner. It measures your elemental capacity and compatibility. From here, you receive your official rank. This device can measure up to the Legendary Rank (Intermediate Level). As for the higher tiers, such as the Dragon Rank or the Emergence Rank, they require the 'Nova' device located at the Supreme Union headquarters."

  ?Zorua concluded the tour at a massive training arena that looked like a colosseum of stone and mana-glass. "And this is your battlefield. Tomorrow, the real pressure begins. Rest well. You will need it."

  ?As they dispersed, Jackson Raven sighed, looking around with a smirk. "A place worthy of my power. Finally."

  ?Natalia Grotaro turned on him with visceral contempt. "Shut up, human. I have no idea what criteria they used to select someone as arrogant and common as you."

  ?Jackson's smile sharpened. "They chose me because my strength is incomparable. As for you, Elf, your only power seems to be your vanity and that long tongue."

  ?Natalia's face flushed, her eyes igniting with green Elven mana. "How dare you? You have no idea of the Grotaro lineage!"

  ?"Frankly," Jackson replied, walking away, "I don't care."

  ?Natalia turned to find Elara watching her with silent, piercing eyes. "What are you looking at?"

  ?Elara's voice was a ghost of a whisper: "Let's go, Natalia. We need rest before the hell begins. Don't waste your mana on words."

  ?[The Cipher of the Dark Age]

  ?While the students slept, a single light flickered from a window high in the Bastion. Zorua Machiavelli was not sleeping. He was buried in the pages of the ancient, tattered book he had smuggled from the Celestial Star Kingdom: "The Age of Darkness."

  ?Zorua's eyes widened as he read a specific line concerning the "Legendary Heroes of the Dark Age." One figure stood above the rest—a man of absolute dominance and savage physical strength. A warrior named "Nicholas Denomgris."

  ?Nicholas had led a legendary army known as the [Red Ruin]. He was a warrior of mysterious powers who fought wars that reshaped the world's geography. He had been a loyal servant to the Moon Queen before turning against her in a series of events that the book described as "cosmic betrayals."

  ?Zorua's expression hardened as he read the account of the hero's end:

  ?"Nicholas Denomgris was the victim of a treacherous assassination while preparing to march on the Moon Queen's throne. His closest confidant stabbed him with a blade cursed by the Queen—a weapon designed to ravage the body from within, crushing vital mana-molecules continuously. Nicholas managed to escape after a brutal battle against his own betrayed unit, only to die alone on the very battlefield where he had always been the victor."

  ?The narrator was one of the few soldiers who witnessed the death of the greatest warrior to ever challenge empires.

  ?Then, Zorua's eyes fell upon the description of the Moon Queen, Royana Frenai. He felt a physical chill run down his spine. Royana was described as a hybrid entity existing outside the laws of nature. She possessed four additional spectral arms and two pitch-black hands. Any being she touched turned to ash in seconds, as her body emitted a lethal radiation that incinerated cellular structures instantly. She was titled "The Mother" of all mutated creatures, possessing the terrifying ability to resurrect the dead as hollowed-out thralls.

  ?Zorua closed the book, staring into the flickering candlelight. (Nicholas... Nico... could history be repeating itself? Or is he the history itself?)

  ?He continued reading, his senses paralyzed by awe:

  ?"The Moon Queen draws her absolute power from the Full Moon, transforming into an unstoppable celestial entity. Her threat reached such a magnitude that four entire empires were forced to forge a desperate alliance. They succeeded only through a magitech deception: a genius scientist synthesized a material capable of total light absorption. By using this material to augment cloud magic, they successfully veiled the moonlight. For ten minutes, the world fell into an unnatural darkness... those ten minutes were enough to strike down the Queen, despite casualties that annihilated the combined imperial forces. And then it was... [Line illegible due to the decay of the ancient pages]..."

  ?Zorua cursed under his breath, tilting the book toward the light, but the ink had been devoured by time. He closed the tome slowly, wiping cold sweat from his brow.

  ?"Impossible..." he whispered into the silence. "This information has been suppressed. Someone intended to erase the Era of the Moon Queen from human memory. The only power in our age that mirrors such terror is the Sovereign, Azral Sul... but his source is the Sun, while hers was the Moon."

  ?Zorua paused, a terrifying realization striking him. "The Sun and the Moon. Light and Darkness. They are tethered by a single celestial thread. Could they belong to the same transcendent rank? My mind is reeling... how was this hidden? And what more does this book hold?"

  ?He glanced at the clock. He had a session with the students in a few hours to begin their training.

  ?"I doubt sleep will find me tonight," he muttered. "The curse of these secrets will haunt my thoughts until the sun—or the moon—rises again."

  ?

  [End of Chapter 19]