Grandmaster Belrick stood quietly in the observation box, then clapped once and muttered. "This is a rare display of insight... and control."
Darius rushed down and grabbed Kelvin in a bear hug. "That was an insane move."
Kelvin smiled faintly, but his eyes were not on the crowd. They were on Xerion, who lowered his head.
We are flame, the draconic voice echoed but we are more.
After the peer ascension, Kelvin's name is now a steady echo in every corridor, dormitory and classroom of Sanctum.
Kelvin sat at the east wing's private training yard with his leg crossed before a shallow basin of water with steam rising in lazy pattern.
Darius walked up to Kelvin from behind, talking with unrestrained enthusiasm.
"You shut down a Titan-class beast with your coordination. That is what really hit people, how smoothly you and Xerion moved without hurdles.
You were not just casting spells or fighting. You were really coordinating with your beast to make things happen."
"I was not just coordinating," Kelvin murmured. "I was also trying to survive."
Darius paused.
"But you did not just survive. You adapted and you disrupted Rowan's bond and exposed the flaws in his control with his beast. That which you did is not just survival. That, is an act of mastering the strategy."
Kelvin did not reply. His eyes were locked on his reflection in the steaming water for a moment, it was not his face that he saw but a shadow of something that was deeper and stronger.
Xerion stirred behind him. The massive drake had taken a coiled position nearby with his scaled tail curling around a patch of blackened earth.
Before Kelvin could respond, a low chime echoed through the yard with an official summons.
Darius frowned and pulled the message scroll from the air to read. "This is from Instructor Nalia. She wants you in the Crimson Vault now."
Kelvin stood and asked. "The Crimson Vault?"
"She doesn't call people there unless she is testing them or preparing them for something." Darius said.
The Vault was nothing like the polished halls above.
It was carved deep into the mountain beneath the Sanctum made of molten stone, ancient sigils, and sealed relics. Flames flickered along the edges of the blacksteel walls, casting ominous shadows.
Instructor Nalia stood alone at the center of the chamber. Her iron bear beast loomed silently behind her, although the beast was not moving yet it was radiating.
She didn't look up as Kelvin entered. "Close the door." She said.
Kelvin obeyed. The moment the vault sealed, the air grew heavier, thick with heat and pressure.
"You impressed the instructors today," she said casually, still facing the massive wall ahead. "But strength shown once is nothing, it must be tested again... and again... and again."
Kelvin bowed his head slightly. "Understood."
"I have a task for you," she said. "One that was not assigned to any other tamer this term."
She turned at last, her scarred face was lit up by the firelight.
"There has been an incursion. A minor Rift opened beyond the northern ridge two nights ago.
We believed it to be stable... but last night, a scouting team of Adept-class tamers vanished with no signal, no beacon and no response."
Kelvin's breath was caught up immediately. "You want me to go there? Alone?"
"No. I want you and only your beast to investigate it. You are not to engage... unless necessary.
You will be wearing an observer seal. It will only record your experiences, but will not protect you. Do you accept this mission?" She asked Kelvin
Kelvin looked at Xerion, whose eyes gleamed like molten suns.
Yes, the draconic voice whispered through the bond. Let us see what stirs beyond the veil.
Kelvin nodded. "I accept."
The wind blew across the broken cliffs as Kelvin arrived at the site. The land here felt... wrong and twisted about the place. Even the birds avoided the skies.
Kelvin stepped through.
*** Instantly, the world warped.***
He emerged into a forest but not like any one he recognized. Trees with dry like bone, leaves were made of flickering embers.
The ground was soft, damp, and oddly warm. There was no sun. Just an ever-burning twilight.
Xerion followed, taking a ghost-like form to conserve his energy. His massive presence was felt in Kelvin's bones, even without his full manifestation.
Something ancient walks here, Xerion said.
They advanced in silence, Kelvin marking his path with threads that glowed faintly as tracers for their exit. Minutes passed and these minutes turned into hours.
Kelvin encountered a beast. It was a beast with a wind falcon that is torn into half.
Kelvin knelt beside it and said. "This wasn't a normal Rift beast..."
No, Xerion agreed. This is something from beyond. Something old.
Then the wind shifted and the trees screamed.
From the shadows came a beast unlike anything Kelvin had seen, it has ten leg that is translucent, its core flickering like a dying star.
Its body seemed to be half-formed, slipping in and out of the material plane.
Kelvin flared his bond. "Xerion! Take a full form!"
Xerion erupted into existence with flames crashing outward in a protective ring. The ghost-beast screamed with a sound that shredded the air.
Kelvin did not hesitate in taking action.
"Strike from above!" he screamed.
Xerion soared upward, then dove like a streak of light, smashing into the ghost-beast. But his fire did not burn it.
The creature's form twisted, avoiding destruction. A claw raked across Xerion's side, drawing ichor.
Kelvin shouted. "He is not physical... Try resonance flame!"
Xerion roared and this time, his fire was blue-white, vibrating at a frequency that sang through the Rift.
The beast shrieked as the resonance fire stuck it, its form twitched violently. Kelvin rushed forward with his dagger drawn this was not to kill, but to pierce its core while it was still under bound.
With a single thrust, he drove the blade into the dying heart of the creature and everywhere went still.
From within, three more of the creatures emerged.
At that moment Kelvin struggled to breath.
Xerion looked down at him.
Run?
"No," Kelvin said to Xerion. "Is not yet time for that."