CHAPTER 106: DANGEROUS.

Academy Head Valeria observed the arena from her crystalline chamber with the kind of calm that came from witnessing seven centuries of magical evolution.

Her silver hair caught the afternoon light as she leaned forward slightly, ancient eyes sharp with interest that few living souls had ever earned.

The roar of thousands of spectators was a distant hum through her dimensional barriers.

She had seen countless tournaments, watched generations of promising students rise and fall, but today carried significance that transcended normal academic competition.

The boy below represented something that shouldn’t exist.

Throughout history, the fundamental laws of magical theory had been absolute: only women could weave.

The loom itself rejected male consciousness, turning away any attempt at connection with forces that could shatter minds unprepared for the contact.

Yet Ren stood in her arena, having not only connected to the loom but mastered it with techniques that defied conventional understanding.

’Fascinating,’ she thought, her analytical mind cataloguing every detail of his posture and magical aura. ’And potentially catastrophic.’

Mirabella took her position with the confidence of someone who had never truly been challenged.

Her magical presence radiated power that most year 2 students would envy, despite her young still being a prospective.

She was exactly what the academy system was designed to produce; brilliant, capable, and operating well within established parameters.

But Ren...

Valeria’s enhanced perception could detect the subtle wrongness in his magical signature.

Not weakness—quite the opposite. His connection to the loom carried undertones that reminded her of historical accounts she’d hoped never to encounter firsthand.

’Please let me be wrong,’ she thought with the weight of someone who had lived through too much history.

The witch below raised her staff with ceremonial precision. "Begin!"

Mirabella’s response was immediate and devastating.

Her legacy art exploded to life at full power, a technique that should have been beyond any prospective’s capability.

Magical energy erupted around her in patterns that spoke of bloodline abilities refined across generations of magical excellence.

Valeria nodded approvingly. The girl was exceptional even by academy standards, her combat instincts perfectly honed and her magical control operating at near-master stage despite her youth.

But it was Ren’s counter that made Valeria’s ancient heart skip a beat.

Instead of the single weave responses she’d observed throughout the history of this tournament, he began casting dual weaves simultaneously!

Two mind arrows formed in perfect parallel, their construction flawless and their targeting precise enough to thread through Mirabella’s defensive matrix.

’Dual weaving!’ Valeria realized with growing alarm. ’That’s not just rare—that’s impossible without...’

Her worst suspicions crystallized into terrible certainty as she analyzed the fundamental structure of his magical techniques.

Normal weavers, even the most gifted, could only maintain single-thread connections to the loom. The human mind simply lacked the capacity to process multiple weaving streams simultaneously.

There was only one exception in all of recorded history.

Chaos mental seas.

The legendary mental constructs that had produced the most feared magical practitioners in history, beings whose power had grown beyond all constraint until they became threats to reality itself.

The practitioners who had once been called the Voided, individuals whose connection to chaos had granted them abilities that normal weavers simply couldn’t counter.

’By the ancient laws,’ Valeria thought, her composure finally cracking slightly. ’He’s not just a male weaver. He’s developing chaos capabilities.’

The implications were staggering. The Voided had been systematically hunted to extinction precisely because their power grew exponentially beyond any known limitations.

But it was not just their powers that changed, their chaos mental seas also warped their mentality and character gradually over time, turning them into twisted, sick versions of themselves.

Historical records spoke of individuals who had started as promising students and evolved into reality-warping entities that entire kingdoms couldn’t contain.

The last confirmed Void Touched had required the combined efforts of twelve legendary masters to eliminate, and even then, the battle had left permanent scars in the dimensional fabric that persisted to this day.

And now one was manifesting in her academy, during a public tournament, in front of thousands of witnesses.

Valeria’s decision was immediate and non-negotiable. Whatever the cost to tradition or expectation, this exhibition had to end before Ren revealed any more of his true nature.

She stood from her observation throne with fluid grace, her magical presence expanding to encompass the entire arena complex.

Every person in attendance suddenly felt the weight of her attention like a physical force.

"ENOUGH."

Her voice carried clearly across the arena despite its measured tone, enhanced by weaving techniques that made every word impossible to ignore.

The very air seemed to still as her will imposed itself on the environment.

Both fighters froze mid-attack, their techniques dissipating as Loom pressure made further combat impossible.

The thousands of spectators fell silent, recognizing that they were in the presence of power that transcended normal understanding.

"This exhibition has revealed magical signatures that require immediate academic analysis," Valeria announced, her tone carrying the authority of centuries.

"Both contestants have demonstrated capabilities that exceed standard tournament parameters."

She could see confusion rippling through the crowd, but her focus remained fixed on the two figures in the arena below.

Mirabella looked puzzled but accepting—she had fought well and could accept whatever judgment was rendered.

Ren, however, was staring upward with an expression of shocked disappointment that made Valeria’s ancient heart ache with sympathy.

"I therefore declare both contestants joint winners of this tournament, with identical recognition and rewards pending further evaluation of their unprecedented techniques."

The crowd’s reaction was muted, more confused than disappointed. They had witnessed something extraordinary, even if they couldn’t fully comprehend its significance.

But Valeria’s attention was entirely focused on the young man whose life had just become infinitely more complicated.

Meanwhile, the words hit Ren like a physical blow.

Joint winners. After everything; all the preparation, all the analysis, all the determination to finally prove he could overcome Mirabella’s overwhelming power, it was ending in a draw?!

He had been so close. His dual mind arrows had been perfectly positioned to exploit the gaps in her defensive matrix.

His strategy had been flawless, his execution precise. For the first time since their initial fight, he had felt confident that his tactical innovations could overcome her raw magical superiority.

And now...

’Joint winners,’ he thought bitterly. ’After everything I’ve worked for, everything I’ve learned, I still can’t definitively prove I’ve surpassed her.’

The disappointment was sharp and immediate. This had been his moment, the chance to finally answer the question that had driven him since their first encounter.

Could analytical thinking and the evolution forge overcome overwhelming bloodline heritage?

Instead, he was left with uncertainty and the hollow feeling of an unresolved challenge.

But then a voice spoke directly into his mind, warm and kind despite its obvious power.

"I had already known you were very unique, young one. But it seems I had still underestimated you once again."

Ren immediately identified the source. The voice carried the weight and authority that could only belong to Academy Head Valeria herself.

She was speaking to him through some form of advanced mental weaving that bypassed all normal defensive barriers.

"But now," the voice continued with what might have been regret, "I find myself uncertain whether you are simply unique... or genuinely dangerous."

The words sent a chill through him that had nothing to do with temperature. There was something in her tone, not hostility, but a kind of ancient wariness that spoke of knowledge and experience he couldn’t begin to comprehend.

Dangerous? What could possibly make the most powerful weaver alive consider a prospective dangerous?

As he stood in the arena, surrounded by confused spectators and facing an uncertain future, Ren realized that his victory or defeat against Mirabella had become the least of his concerns.

The Academy Head knew something about him that he didn’t know about himself.

And whatever it was, it was significant enough to make a legendary figure who had seen centuries of magical evolution genuinely uncertain about whether he represented hope or threat.