Chapter 20 – Shadows Stir Beneath Aflety
Scene One: Celebration or Warning?
Aflety Academy buzzed with excitement. The conclusion of the Pocket Realm Trials sent waves through every corridor, dormitory, and training field. Crystal screens replayed highlights: Evan's descent with Nex, the tyrant serpent's fall, and the moment the third core was claimed.
Students cheered for Team Rochel. Professors whispered. Nobles in the spectator balconies shifted uneasily. Something had changed.
In the Hall of Achievements, banners unfurled—Team Rochel officially etched as top scorers of the first semester trials.
But Evan stood silent before the central display, his mind far from the cheers.
The memory of the cocoon pulsing in that void…
The voice that had no mouth…
The chill that hadn't left his spine.
Lilith approached quietly, holding a wooden badge—the symbol of trial completion. "You should smile. You beat the Realm and tied with a prince."
"I saw something," Evan said. "Something that shouldn't be there."
"I know," she replied. "That cocoon… it wasn't just part of the trial."
Evan nodded slowly. "I don't think the Academy built that place. I think they found it."
Scene Two: A Name in the Shadows
Meanwhile, deep below the Academy—in the forbidden sector only known to high-ranking staff—a council gathered in silence.
Dean Varos. High Priest Syralein. Commander Aldros. And an elder professor draped in golden inked robes, his eyes blind but glowing with inner sight.
A crystal projected the scene of Evan's team inside the Heart of the Realm.
"He saw it," Syralein said. "The Cocoon responded. That has not happened since the fall of Tarethia."
Varos folded his arms. "And the Black Nest sent an agent into the trial. One not registered under any academy."
The blind professor spoke. "The Cocoon of Origins is awakening. That boy—Evan Rochel—his Divine Beast reacted to it. More than any other."
Syralein hesitated. "Should we inform the Emperor?"
Varos replied, "He already knows."
Scene Three: The Emperor's Letter – Part Two
Back in his dorm, Evan found a second envelope waiting for him. This one was marked with the Imperial Sigil—a phoenix intertwined with a serpent.
He opened it carefully.
"Evan Rochel,"
"The time to remain passive has passed."
"You are hereby summoned to a private audience within the Imperial Beast Sanctuary, three weeks from now."
"The Cocoon stirs. You are no longer merely a student."
"You are a Candidate of the Hidden Path."
There was no signature, but the seal burned into the paper told him everything:
The Emperor had written this personally.
Lilith read over his shoulder, eyes widening. "The Hidden Path? That's… old magic. Forbidden."
Evan folded the letter. "No. It's not forbidden. It's lost."
Scene Four: Eyes in the Dark
Elsewhere, a figure walked through a shattered underground ruin, one hand pressed to a stone tablet etched in ancient beast runes.
A voice whispered from the darkness.
"He touched the Heart?"
The figure didn't answer.
Another voice joined in—a deep, female tone.
"Then the seal is weakening. We must recover the Egg before he hatches it."
The man finally turned. His eyes were swirling black, and his cloak bore a silver insignia: The Black Nest.
"We have time," he said. "But not much. The Cocoon chose a vessel. A beast-born heir. If he awakens what's inside… even gods will fall."
Scene One: A Dangerous Curiosity
Aflety Academy's library was a towering labyrinth of floating tomes, restricted archives, and enchanted scrolls. Evan, Lilith, and Rena now sat in a secluded corner of the lower wing—reserved for top-ranking students.
Rena whispered, "I found something. Barely mentioned. 'The Cocoon of Origins'—a relic from the early Beastfall Era, believed to be the embryonic form of a god beast… or a failed one."
Lilith blinked. "Failed?"
Rena nodded. "Some theorized that in ancient times, when gods tried to birth new divine beasts, sometimes they went… wrong. Either too powerful, too unstable, or too alive."
Evan leaned back, fingers brushing the scar Nex had left on his palm when they formed their bond. "What if the Cocoon isn't a failure—but something else entirely? What if it's… evolving?"
Lilith's voice lowered. "Or worse—choosing."
Scene Two: Rivals and Tension Rise
Later that day, Aflety's courtyard was filled with tension as other academies began arriving early for the Winter Convergence Banquet. Cloaked airships hovered near the academy's sky towers, and foreign flags flew in the wind.
From the stone steps of the eastern tower, Prince Ralvon of Moonvale descended with his team, eyes sharp as glass. His armor shimmered faintly with elven magic.
He approached Evan.
"Whatever lies in that Cocoon… the Elven Empire wants it. And if you're what it's chosen, I won't let you hoard that power alone."
Evan didn't flinch. "It's not a toy to be hoarded. And it didn't choose me."
Ralvon's lip curled. "Didn't it?"
Behind him, a silver-haired beastkin from Skyfang Academy let out a low chuckle. "So this is the human who stirred the Heart."
Another stepped forward—tall, draconic eyes, a pendant glowing at his neck. "I heard you survived the Serpent of Roots. Impressive. But surviving isn't claiming."
Aflety was no longer just a school. It had become a battleground for something greater.
Scene Three: The Arrival of Professor Caelith
That night, Headmaster Varos called an emergency assembly in the Grand Lecture Spire.
Students gathered, murmuring in anticipation.
A shadow stepped into the light. Cloaked in grey robes, with hair like silver threads and eyes that shimmered like constellations, the man radiated authority. Beast runes coiled along his gloves.
"This is Professor Caelith Varn, your new instructor for Advanced Beast Synchronization," Varos announced. "He was appointed directly by the Emperor."
Caelith's voice was calm, almost melodic. "Some of you touched a force in the Realm that predates even your ancestors' myths. I'm not here to teach you how to pass exams. I'm here to prepare you for what's coming."
His gaze paused—on Evan.
And Evan felt it. Not power. Not menace.
Recognition.
As if Caelith already knew him.
Nex stirred within the soulbond.
Warning. Ancient Presence Detected.
Scene Four: The Hidden Spark
Back in his room, Evan sat beside his beaststone, watching Nex's form pulse faintly in its spiritual cocoon.
Lilith entered quietly, holding a small metallic token. "This was found under the ruins of the Pocket Realm. A sigil of the Third Path."
Evan turned. "I thought that sect died centuries ago."
"It did," Lilith said, eyes narrowing. "Unless someone's reviving it. And they're doing it… inside Aflety."
Outside the tower, on the rooftop opposite theirs, Professor Caelith stood watching the stars, murmuring a single name beneath his breath:
"Sepntis…"
And across the continent, deep within a volcanic ruin, another egg pulsed in darkness—twisted, malformed, and whispering Evan's name like a curse.
Scene One: The Secret Lesson
It was well past midnight when Evan received the summons.
A single rune burned against the wall of his dorm—marked by an ancient sigil known only to a few: The Spiral of Binding, used in forbidden beast synchronization research.
The rune pulsed, and Evan followed.
He found himself in the abandoned Colosseum beneath Aflety—a training ground used only during war-era drills. There, under pale blue mana torches, Professor Caelith waited.
"I'm only going to ask this once," Caelith said without turning. "Do you want to control your power… or do you want to understand it?"
Evan stepped forward. "Understanding leads to real control. I want both."
Caelith nodded. "Then let me show you the truth behind Divine Beasts."
With a wave of his hand, the arena shifted. A phantom world unfolded around them—images of primordial beasts, titanic cores, and soul-forged contracts that shattered dimensions.
Evan's eyes widened as he saw a vision—a beast with no name, no form, sealed inside a cocoon, screaming against the world itself.
"That," Caelith said, "is what your Basilisk is connected to."
Scene Two: Black Threads
Elsewhere in the quiet dorms, Lilith stirred uneasily.
She felt it too—a sliver of something wrong.
Rena burst into her room, holding a cracked student badge. "Someone just tried to forge an identity crystal. They were using it to spy on Evan."
"What? Who?" Lilith's eyes narrowed.
Rena hesitated, then whispered a name.
"Lioren."
The quiet, unassuming student from Duskwind Academy. He had barely spoken two words since the inter-academy exchange began.
But now they knew—he wasn't from Duskwind.
He was a plant.
Scene Three: Revelation in the Garden
The next day, Evan returned to the alchemy gardens behind Aflety's tower—one of the few quiet places left.
Caelith met him there again, tossing a vial of red elixir into his hands. "Bloodroot of a God Beast. Drink it."
Evan paused. "Won't this damage my bond?"
"It'll awaken your spiritual sight."
He drank it. Pain lanced through his veins. His eyes blurred.
And then—he saw it.
The world behind the world.
Threads connecting beasts to masters, glowing cores of fate buried within students, and above all—
A thread of darkness, moving not toward him—but around him.
Coiling.
Plotting.
From the shadows of the rose arch, a figure stepped out.
Lioren.
Except his eyes were wrong. His scent was wrong.
And the mark glowing beneath his jaw…
"Black Nest…" Evan growled.
Scene Four: First Strike
Lioren dropped the illusion and lunged.
His beast burst from its seal—a Void Talon, a beast not recorded in Aflety's bestiaries. Jet-black feathers, obsidian eyes, and talons that rippled reality.
Evan pushed Nex's core outward—spiritual form only—and blocked the first strike with a flare of venom mist.
But it wasn't just a test.
Lioren was trying to kill him.
Lilith and Rena appeared just in time, launching coordinated attacks. Caelith arrived last, his mere presence freezing the beast in place.
"You're sloppy, Black Nest," he said coldly. "And I know who trained you."
Lioren's form shimmered—then disintegrated into shadow birds.
A message lingered in the air:
"You cannot stop what has already hatched."
Scene Five: The Final Warning
Later that night, Evan sat by the moonlit lake behind the Academy, bandages on his arm, Nex coiled beside him in spirit form.
Lilith sat close, unusually quiet.
"Do you think… you were chosen by the Cocoon?" she asked.
Evan looked at her. "I don't know. But whatever it is, it's watching me. And now, the Black Nest is moving openly."
Lilith leaned against him. "Then we'll fight openly too."
The water rippled.
And deep beneath the lake… something stirred.
[End of Chapter 20]