The Fractured Mana Core
The inside of the Central Sealed Area resembled an ancient ruin more than an academy. The walls were built from black stone, while the floor was densely carved with sealing runes that glowed with interwoven threads of gold and blue. Those runes were no mere decoration. Each step sent faint ripples of light across their surface, and the glow traveled upward along the walls toward the ceiling. The ceiling itself soared high above us, and suspended within the domed space like a cathedral vault was a massive crystal sphere. It rotated slowly, its interior swirling with mana that resembled blue starlight. The mana core. This was the true reason Saint Ignis Academy had been founded, and why the empire had placed the area under joint control of the imperial family, the Holy Church, the Magic Tower, and the great nobles.
In the original story, the protagonist received a portion of the sealed ancient mana here and experienced his first awakening. It was a scene that hinted Edan Gray was no ordinary commoner special admission student, but someone tied to the empire’s oldest secrets. Even in the novel, that moment had been striking. The blue mana core would tremble, Rhea would fall into danger, and Edan would save her while awakening part of his hidden power. Afterward, Rhea would stop seeing him as just another commoner and begin to regard him as someone capable of shouldering the same burdens she did.
But the person standing here now was not Edan. It was me. The villain who should have been eliminated in the novel’s opening chapter. That single fact pressed against my throat more sharply than the cold air of this chamber.
“Kyle.” Aria called softly from beside me. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” It was a lie. The closer we drew to the mana core, the more my chest throbbed. My damaged mana circuits were reacting to the immense flow of energy in this place. It felt as though sharp grains of sand, not blood, were coursing through my veins.
Aria must have noticed the falsehood, because she wordlessly wrapped a thin layer of divine light around my arm. The warmth was comforting, but it did not last long.
Black cracks had begun to spread across the surface of the mana core—fractures that had never existed in the original story. Dark lines spiderwebbed outward from the center of the blue crystal sphere, as though something inside had clawed at it from within. Every time the cracks pulsed, the entire sealed chamber resonated with a low, ominous hum.
Noel’s expression hardened. “This doesn’t look good.”
Rhea asked, “How bad?”
“The outer seal is still holding, but the internal structure is warped. No one forced the door open from the outside. The mana core itself was guided into opening.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Not through normal means.” Noel knelt and traced the sealing runes with her fingertips. A violet magic circle bloomed beneath her hand. “But if someone knows the exact sequence of the inner seals, it becomes possible. They reversed the four lineages—imperial, church, tower, and knight order—so the seals would clash with one another.”
Siella spoke in a low voice. “That means someone with inside knowledge was involved.”
Rhea’s eyes turned cold. “If an assistant priest from the church reached this far, he did not act alone.”
Aria’s face grew even paler. She knew exactly who that assistant priest was. Rowen had not been merely a colleague to her; he had been one of the adults in the world she belonged to. The realization that he was connected to the Black Moon was both a betrayal and an earthquake beneath her roots.
“Lady Aria,” I called quietly. She forced her head up.
“I’m all right. I have to be, right now.” Her words were not a statement of how she felt, but of what she needed to be. The difference weighed on me.
At that moment, black shadows rose from beneath the mana core. They were far clearer than before. Black knights. Priests. Mages. Imperial guards. And behind them stood Rowen. He looked even more indistinct than he had in the underground corridor; parts of his body scattered like black feathers before reforming. This was only a projection, not his true body. Yet his presence felt heavier than ever.
Perhaps because he was linked to the cracks in the mana core, his voice echoed throughout the entire chamber.
“Excellent. You truly made it this far.”
“You invited us,” Noel replied coldly.
Rowen smiled. “I sent the invitation, but whether you accepted it was your choice.”
“Hearing the word ‘choice’ from your mouth is unpleasant,” Rhea said.
Rowen tilted his head slightly. “Choice always exists. There is only the right choice and the wrong one.” His gaze settled on me. “And Kyle Diaren’s survival was the wrong choice.”
I gripped my sword. My palm was slick with cold sweat.
Rowen continued. “A party of five. Villain, princess, knight’s daughter, saintess candidate, and observer. Under normal circumstances, such a combination should never have gathered.”
“Still going on about the ‘original story,’ I see,” Siella said, raising her blade. “What stands here now is reality.”
Rowen nodded at her. “Precisely. Which is why reality must be returned to the story.”
Black feathers scattered from his fingertips. The shadow soldiers moved as one.
“I’ll take the vanguard!” Siella charged first. Her sword was swift and precise, yet she no longer tried to cut through everything alone. After parrying a shadow knight’s greatsword, she deliberately retreated half a beat. Rhea’s ice spear filled the opening, piercing the shadow knight’s legs with blue frost.
“Three on the right,” Rhea called. Siella was already moving, her blade cleaving through the shadows on that side. Aria’s divine arts protected our rear, deflecting a shadow priest’s curse with a barrier of light rather than meeting it head-on.
“The curse is traveling along the left side of the floor!”
“Understood.” At my shout, Noel’s magic circle sealed the floor.
The battle felt different from before. No one rushed ahead while the others simply followed. When Siella opened a path, Rhea anchored the space. When Aria shielded us, Noel severed the flow of spells. I read the distortions in the mana between them. Our coordination was still imperfect, but at least we were no longer getting in one another’s way. That alone was a significant change.
Rowen watched in silence. For the first time, displeasure showed on his face.
“How strange,” he murmured. “Their roles have become jumbled, yet they are more stable than before.”
“Proof that you were wrong,” I said.
Rowen’s eyes locked onto me. “Wrong?”
“People do not move because of roles.”
“Then what moves them?”
“Choice.”
The smile vanished from Rowen’s face. “You can say that because you possess memories from outside the story.”
For a brief instant, everyone’s movements faltered. Rhea’s gaze turned toward me. Aria’s divine light wavered. Siella’s sword tip trembled. Noel merely narrowed her eyes, as though she had already suspected.
Rowen laughed. “Did I not tell you? I know. You are not Kyle Diaren.”
My heart seemed to stop. The noise of the chamber faded until only his voice remained clear.
“The original owner of that body has already been broken by the flow of the story. You are an external variable that slipped into an empty shell.”
Aria called my name. “Kyle… sir?”
I could not answer. Rhea’s expression was unreadable. Siella clenched her teeth. Noel spoke quietly.
“So it was possession after all.”
“Senior.”
“We’ll ask later.” Noel snapped her fingers, and a violet magic circle cut off Rowen’s voice. “That bastard is deliberately trying to shake us.”
She was right. Rowen did not want me to waver. He wanted the people around me to waver. He was using the truth itself to sever our bonds.
Beyond the barrier, Rowen’s lips moved in a silent taunt.
— Tell them. Will they still believe you?
I clenched my fists. I could lie. I could deny it. But too much had already been revealed. If I faltered now, our formation would collapse. The most terrifying thing was not that my identity had been exposed. It was the possibility that their eyes would change when they looked at me.
Then Rhea spoke.
“Kyle.”
I looked at her. Her eyes were cold, yet they held no hostility.
“I’ll hear your explanation later.”
Siella added while cutting down a shadow knight, “What matters right now is whether you’re an enemy or not.”
Aria’s voice trembled. “Sir Kyle… saved me.”
Noel grinned. “Whatever your identity is, we still have to stop that priest.”
My throat tightened. They had not completely accepted me—understandably so. Yet in this moment, none of them had let go of my hand.
I drew a deep breath. “I’ll explain everything later.”
“You will,” Rhea said. “If you run, I’ll drag you back using imperial authority.”
Siella smirked. “I’ll drag you back with my sword.”
Aria spoke quietly. “I’ll… wait.”
Noel chuckled. “I’m already deducing the rest.”
I almost laughed. The situation was dire, yet my heart felt strangely calm.
“Senior Noel, how much time until the seal is released?”
“Three minutes.”
“Then we’ll hold for three minutes.”
Rowen raised his hand. The cracks in the mana core widened further. A flood of black shadows surged toward us all at once.
The first joint front line had entered its true trial.