Merlin didn't wait for the debate to continue. He turned toward the direction of the distortion, a faint shimmer in the air that the others could barely see. To him, with his space affinity sharpened, it was clear as a scar in the fabric of reality.

He could feel it leaking energy, faint but wrong.

"Stay close," he said simply.

They followed.

The deeper they went, the stranger the forest became.

The trees twisted slightly as if growing toward the distortion's pull. The ground sloped unnaturally, patches of dirt slick with mana residue.

Liliana slowed, looking around. "Are we sure this is part of the test? I've trained in simulation fields before, but this…"

"It's not," Elara said quietly.

Merlin nodded once. "These readings don't belong to the academy's resonance field. They're older. Maybe from… before the campus was built."

Nathan glanced up. "You're saying the academy built its training grounds on top of something?"

"Wouldn't be the first time," Dorian muttered.

They reached a ridge overlooking a clearing. Below, the distortion shimmered like a pool of liquid light, suspended in midair, no bigger than a doorway. Around it, the earth had fractured outward, as if the rift had punched through from another layer of reality.

Ethan blinked. "That's… not normal."

"No," Merlin said, eyes narrowing. "That's a tear."

"A tear in what?" Liliana asked.

"In space," he replied softly. "Or maybe in something deeper."

The group fell silent.

Nathan crouched beside him, his tone low. "You recognize it, don't you?"

Merlin's gaze didn't waver.

He did.

The energy leaking from the rift felt identical to the simulation he'd first found himself trapped in when he'd arrived in this world, the one that had felt too real to be code, too alive to be illusion.

But he said nothing.

Not about that.

No one could know.

Instead, he straightened. "We can't leave this unchecked. If it expands, it'll contaminate the entire exam zone."

Elara's violet eyes flicked to him. "You plan to stabilize it?"

"I'll try. But I'll need time."

Nathan nodded. "Then we'll cover you."

Merlin stepped forward, raising his hand toward the rift.

Wind swirled faintly around him as he drew on both his space and lightning affinities, the combination forming a low hum that vibrated through the clearing.

The rift pulsed in response, almost as if aware.

Merlin's brow furrowed. He could feel its texture now, like pulling at silk that kept regenerating each time it was torn. There was intelligence behind it. Or at least, intention.

"Come on," he muttered.

The space around the rift wavered violently. The ground cracked beneath his feet.

"Merlin—" Elara's warning cut off as a burst of red light erupted outward, slamming into the air like a shockwave.

The others shielded themselves, but Merlin didn't move. He stood firm, resisting the pull.

He could feel something calling him from within the distortion, a voice without words, a pressure whispering:

You shouldn't be here.

His heart skipped. The voice wasn't spoken aloud. It echoed inside his mind, ancient, fragmented, but aware.

And then, just as quickly, it was gone.

The rift flickered, then stabilized slightly, shrinking a fraction.

Merlin staggered back, panting. "It's… responding to mana. It's alive somehow."

Nathan stepped up beside him. "Alive?"

"Not in the way we are. It's feeding on resonance, like it's using ambient mana as sustenance."

Ethan kicked a rock toward it. The stone disintegrated instantly. "Lovely."

Liliana frowned. "So what now?"

Merlin looked up toward the sky. The energy above shimmered faintly, the dome of the exam field flickering. "The instructors will notice the instability soon. But if more creatures spawn before they act…"

Elara finished for him: "We'll be overrun."

They didn't have to wait long to find out.

A guttural roar split the silence, this one closer, heavier.

Branches cracked. The ground trembled as several figures moved through the trees, not students, but more of those crystal beasts, smaller than the first but faster, dozens of them.

"Here we go again," Ethan muttered, drawing his sword.

"Circle up!" Elara commanded, her voice sharp.

They formed formation, Merlin and Nathan at the front, Elara covering their flank, Dorian and Ethan on the edges, Liliana providing barrier control.

The first wave hit fast.

Lightning burst from Merlin's hands, frying the first three instantly. Nathan flickered through shadows, striking with blinding speed, his daggers carving through corrupted veins.

Elara's spear danced in arcs of light, her movements elegant yet precise, each strike driving back the beasts that lunged for their sides.

Ethan swung his sword, a blaze of orange flame splitting through the mist. Dorian froze the aftermath, shards of ice impaling what remained.

But for every one they felled, two more crawled out of the mist.

Liliana gritted her teeth, channeling her water affinity into a dome around them. "They just keep coming!"

"They're being drawn by the rift," Merlin called out, eyes glowing with electricity. "It's resonating with their cores!"

"Then shut it off!" Ethan shouted.

Merlin's gaze flicked toward the rift.

It pulsed brighter now, reacting to the energy of their fight.

He didn't think, he moved.

Wind exploded under his feet as he flashed forward, his hand extended toward the rift again. Lightning spiraled around his arm, bright enough to illuminate the forest.

He didn't try to destroy it this time.

He shaped his mana instead, bending it, folding it into a stabilizing weave.

For a moment, everything went silent.

And then—

A thunderous crack echoed as the rift imploded inward, collapsing into a single point of light before vanishing entirely.

The corrupted beasts froze, then dissolved into mist.

The forest grew still again.

Nathan lowered his daggers slowly. "Is it over?"

Merlin exhaled, his shoulders tense. "For now."

Ethan let out a low whistle. "Remind me never to piss you off."

Elara stepped beside Merlin, eyes lingering on the spot where the rift had been. "You recognized it, didn't you?" she said softly.

He glanced at her, caught off guard.

Her tone wasn't accusing, just knowing.

"Whatever that was," she continued, "it wasn't the first time you've seen something like it."

For a long moment, Merlin said nothing. Then he turned away. "Let's regroup. The instructors will call off the test soon."

Elara didn't press further, but the look she gave him lingered.

It said: I know you're hiding something.

And Merlin, for once, couldn't deny it.

Back at the ridge, the forest began to calm. The exam field's mana dome flickered faintly back into stability.

They had no idea that across the academy's monitoring chamber, alarms had flared to life, red glyphs spinning across multiple displays as instructors stared at readings they'd never seen before.

Headmistress Morgana stood before the main scrying crystal, eyes narrowed.

"The resonance pattern…" she murmured. "That's not from this world."

Vivienne, standing beside her, frowned. "You mean it's—?"

Morgana's voice dropped, the faintest edge of disbelief cutting through.

"—something else found him first."