Kael stood motionless atop the broken tower, the cold wind buffeting his cloak, causing the fabric to tear slightly at the charred edges.

Below him, the city burned silently—a graveyard of stone and smoke.

The pulsing glow emanating from the mountain was hypnotic.

Each time the mana flow vibrated, he could feel the resonance echoing within his own body—a living, irregular frequency, almost... conscious.

He narrowed his eyes, his fingers touching the surface of the tower, feeling the slight tremor beneath the cracked stones.

"How did it get to this...?" he murmured, his voice trailing off in the wind.

It was impossible.

Even for a place like Azalith—built on centuries of enchantment, protected by divine seals, and sustained by mana circles that rivaled ancient temples—this was too much.

The living mountain, breathing pure mana... it was something not even the oldest records described.

Kael inhaled slowly, his eyes still fixed on the purple and gold glow pulsing at the base of the Academy.

It was like watching a giant heartbeat within the earth.

But there was something wrong with that rhythm—something not of this world.

It was then that the voice echoed within him, soft and distorted, like the touch of a blade on water:

"Kael…"

Umbra.

Her voice always came like this—whispering on the edge between the real and the ethereal, shrouded in a timbre that oscillated between feminine and inhuman.

"You feel it, don't you?"

Her laugh was low, almost a purr.

"This energy… it's calling to you."

Kael didn't answer.

His gaze remained fixed on the living mountain, watching the mana veins pulse beneath the stone.

"Don't play dumb, dear," Umbra continued, his tone now more teasing.

"You know what this is. Pure unstable mana, spewed from the mountain's core… no one has ever seen anything like it and remained human afterward. But you…"

A brief silence, followed by a shiver down his spine.

"You're nobody, are you?"

Kael closed his eyes for a moment.

He could feel her slipping into his mind, shrouded in liquid darkness, touching every memory, every pent-up emotion.

Umbra always did this—tested his limits.

And somehow, he allowed it.

"Don't tease me, Umbra."

"Tease? I'm just stating the obvious."

Her tone changed, becoming lower, more… hungry.

"Look at this mountain. You feel it, don't you? The taste of this energy… so dense, so… edible."

She whispered the last word with almost palpable delight.

"If you absorb it, your body will grow stronger. Perhaps even strong enough for what's to come."

Kael kept his gaze fixed on the glow.

The air around him seemed to vibrate, as if the room itself were listening to the conversation.

"You speak as if it were simple," he finally replied.

"What's down there isn't ordinary energy. It's corrupted mana. Unstable. If I get too close, I might lose control."

"Lose control?"

Umbra laughed, the sound reverberating in his mind like distorted bells.

"You always say that, and yet you keep breathing."

Before he could answer, another voice intervened—softer, melodious, and almost amused:

"She has a point, Kael."

Ahri.

Unlike Umbra, her presence was warm—a touch of sunshine and perfume amidst Kael's mental darkness.

She spoke with a smile.

"You may not realize it, but this energy... is a blessing in disguise. The entire world could be destroyed, and yet Azalith's core would still pulse."

"And what do you suggest, Ahri?" Kael asked, his voice emotionless. "That I throw myself in there and absorb everything?"

"Exactly that."

Her tone was too light for the seriousness of her statement.

"You need power, Kael. Not to destroy—but to survive. Whatever lies within that mountain is unnatural. And if even the Academy itself has fallen silent, it's because something has taken over."

He remained silent.

The wind hissed, stirring ash and dust around him.

Umbra sighed, bored.

"You were always so rational... I preferred it when you let your instincts speak. Back then, you didn't think—you acted."

Kael snorted. "And I nearly destroyed an entire continent."

"Details," Umbra replied, amused.

"You learned from that, didn't you? That's what matters."

Ahri laughed lightly.

"In a way, she's not wrong."

Kael looked up at the red sky. The glow of flames reflected off the thick clouds, and mana bolts of lightning cut across the horizon like living scars.

"You two are impossible."

"And yet, you don't silence us," Umbra whispered, an almost lascivious pleasure in her voice.

"Because you know we need to be here."

"And because we like being here," Ahri added, her tone gentler. "You don't have to face everything alone, Kael."

He closed his eyes for a moment.

Within him, the silence of the two women mingled with the pulsing of the mountain.

It was as if the world itself was calling to him—a deep, low beat, impossible to ignore.

Kael opened his eyes again.

The glow of his mana veins grew, snaking through the stone until they reached the foundations of the nearby buildings.

The entire city seemed... consumed.

Absorbed from the inside out.

Umbra whispered again:

"You feel the same way I do, don't you? This power isn't natural. It was made."

Kael nodded slowly.

"Someone stirred the heart of the mountain."

"And failed miserably," Ahri added. "The balance was lost. What you see now is what remains when mortals play gods."

Kael's gaze hardened.

The idea made sense.

The Academy possessed its own mana core—an ancient network of crystals and runes capable of sustaining the city's entire magical system.

But for the flow to behave like that... someone would have had to have directly interfered with the mountain's core.

And no one in their right mind would do that.

"Or perhaps someone without a conscience did," he murmured.

The wind roared, and a blue spark exploded at the base of the mountain, like a bolt of raw energy.

The ground shook.

The surrounding ruins vibrated, cracking a little more.

Kael braced his feet and watched.

The energy spiraled upward, as if something within the earth were trying to escape.

And for an instant—a single instant—he heard it.

A sound.

It wasn't the roar of a beast.

Nor the rumble of magic.

It was... a beat.

A heartbeat.

A deep, rhythmic sound that echoed throughout the city.

Each pulse made the flames tremble and the shadows dance.

Ahri spoke first, her voice almost reverent:

"This isn't ordinary mana... this is life. Something is being born."

Umbra laughed, low, with a timbre that mixed wonder and hunger.

"Or something is waking."

Kael kept his gaze fixed on the growing glow.

The wind was now blowing against him, charged with pure energy, as if the air itself were trying to push him away.

But he didn't move.

He didn't blink.

"Whatever it is," he murmured, "it won't leave."

"Do you intend to stop it alone?" Ahri asked worriedly.

"As always."

Umbra gave a satisfied laugh.

"Then prove you're still the same monster you were before, Kael. Swallow this power. Make it yours."

Kael didn't answer. But his eyes began to glow—silver and purple merging into an intense, almost divine glow.

The aura around him rose, dense, distorting the air like heat on metal.

The wind roared harder.

The ash rose.

And, from above, as the heart of the mountain pulsed and the city seemed alive, Kael smiled for the first time in a long time.

Not with joy.

But with certainty.

"Then let us see…" he murmured. "…what Azalith still has to show me."

The ground vibrated beneath Kael's feet.

The sound of the subterranean pulse echoed throughout the city, reverberating off the walls of the ruined buildings and turning the air into a constant, almost suffocating hum.

Ash danced around him, drawn to the energy that began to stir in his presence.

Umbra laughed, the sound drawn out, sensual and dangerous. "Ah, yes… that's the rhythm I wanted to hear. The heart of the world beating—and you at its center."

Ahri replied in a tone half worried, half awed:

"It's getting too strong. The flow is out of control."

Kael remained still, his gaze fixed on the mountain.

The purple and gold glow grew, pulsing as if something within the rock was trying to escape.

With each beat, the air grew denser, and the vibration reached his bones.

He could feel the mana touching his skin—heavy, dense, almost material.

"Do you feel it?"

His voice was hoarse, low, as if speaking to himself.

"This isn't raw mana… this is living energy. An echo of something that has breathed before."

"Do you think it's the core?" Ahri asked tensely.

"The magical heart of Azalith…?"

Kael shook his head slightly. "No. The core doesn't pulse like that. This… feels like a fusion."

Umbra made an amused noise.

"Someone tried to fuse the heart of the mountain with the Academy's mana flow. A bold… and suicidal attempt."

Pause.

"But… delicious, if you know what you're doing."

Ahri snorted.

"Umbra, not everything is a feast."

"It is for me," she replied with dark sweetness. "And it should be for him, too."

Kael ignored them both.

From where he stood, he could see the outline of the ancient magical road—a path made of white crystals that led to the Academy's gate.

Now, those crystals were cracked, black, as if burned from within.

Yet they still glowed.

Faint, but alive.

That was the way.

The only way.

He took a step forward, and the metallic sound of his boots echoed through the ruins.

The wind carried with it a sweet, cloying scent—the scent of corrupted mana.

"Be careful," Ahri murmured. "The air there is already saturated. Staying too long could start to corrode your very body."

Kael gave a half-smile.

"I've survived worse."

"That's what worries me," Ahri replied, almost sighing.

Umbra, on the other hand, laughed, the sound reverberating in his mind.

"Oh, how I missed that. Watching you walk to your death like it was just another practice run."

Kael leaped from the rooftop.

He fell into the shadows, landing soundlessly.

The impact sent small cracks rippling across the ground, but he didn't care.

His cloak billowed around him, covering him like a living shadow.

The city was eerily silent.

No monsters, no screams, no sounds of battle.

Only the distant echo of the mountain's heart and the hiss of wind through the ruins.

With each step, the air grew thicker.

More... heavier.

More alive.

Then he heard it.

A crack.

Something moving inside a nearby house.

Kael turned his head slowly, his eyes narrowing.

From the cracked roof, something began to slide down—a dark, misshapen form that writhed like living mud.

The ground around it began to burn, corroded by pure energy.

A mana golem.