The air in the dean’s office was crisp. Silent. Heavy.
Class Zero stood in formation, not out of protocol—just instinct. Something about this room always brought a weight with it. Maybe it was the way the windows stayed shut. Maybe it was Garos himself, standing with his hands clasped behind his back, watching them like a man looking through time.
Athena leaned on the desk beside him, arms folded. She didn’t say much. Just watched.
Lucian stood near the back, behind Evelyn and Silas. Reia was to his right, silent as always. Vyn hadn’t spoken since they walked in.
"Seventy-two hours," Garos said finally. "That’s how long it’s been since you all submitted your joint request."
"To be clear," he continued, "you’re requesting early graduation from Ashvale Academy. Effective immediately after completing a live raid in an S-Rank Gate."
His tone didn’t change, but the weight behind it sank a little deeper into the room.
"Yes, sir," Evelyn answered, voice clear.
Garos glanced at her. "You’ve done well in your trials. But this isn’t a trial. This is a classified gate, sanctioned by the Guild under provisional control."
"We know," Silas added.
Athena’s eyes flicked to Lucian.
Garos stepped to the side of his desk and tapped the display on the wall behind him. A dark terrain projection lit up. Jagged, mountainous. Trees warped and twisted like giant thorns, black mist circling at the edges.
The gate came to life on the display. Pulsing faintly. Alive.
"Previously dormant for years. Recently surged in energy and confirmed as unstable. We detected multiple signatures—predators. Not basic mana beasts. Wyverns. Spectral fiends. Possibly an A-class drake in the lower depth."
"Hell," Reia murmured under her breath.
Lucian didn’t say anything. His eyes were already scanning the layout.
"Visibility inside the gate is limited," Garos went on. "Long-range communication is cut once you enter the first layer. There’s no safety retrieval. If something goes wrong, you fight your way out or you don’t come back."
Evelyn nodded once. "Understood."
"You’ll have forty-eight hours once inside. After that, the gate’s shift cycle activates, and the inner zone will collapse. It won’t kill you immediately—but it will lock you in for the next twelve days."
Vyn finally spoke. "We only need two."
Everyone glanced at her. That was the first thing she’d said all day.
Garos raised a brow. "...Confident."
"She’s not wrong," Lucian said casually, finally breaking his silence.
Athena’s gaze sharpened slightly.
Garos stepped back from the display. "Your objective is simple: survive, clear as much of the inner zone as possible, and extract the core if feasible. You do this... and your graduation will be processed."
Then, just as they started to turn—
Garos looked straight at Lucian now. No smile. No tilt in his tone.
Lucian tilted his head.
Garos walked a few steps forward, just enough to narrow the distance without making it hostile. His next words were calm. Measured. But every syllable struck.
"How did you get to Rank S this quick?"
Everyone turned slightly toward Lucian.
Even Athena blinked once.
Evelyn was already doing the math in her head.
Lucian stood still. Didn’t flinch.
Garos didn’t blink. "You were Rank B less than two weeks ago. A full S-Rank jump... doesn’t happen like that."
Lucian didn’t answer.
The dean went on. "And don’t say it’s the S-Rank cores. We ran the projections. At best, you could’ve hit peak A-Rank. But you’re not just A. You’re something else. So—"
"Tell me. What happened?"
Lucian’s expression didn’t change. He didn’t shift, didn’t twitch.
He smiled. Just a little.
Silas choked on a laugh.
"I had time. I used it."
"I fought things I wasn’t supposed to. Took hits I shouldn’t’ve survived. Got lucky. Got smarter."
Athena narrowed her eyes slightly, trying to read beneath the calm.
Lucian went on. "I stopped waiting for permission to grow. That’s it."
"Bullshit," the dean said quietly.
Lucian didn’t blink. "Believe what you want. It won’t change the result."
Garos studied him. Really studied him.
Lucian met his gaze without effort. Calm. Unshaken.
"...You’re hiding something," Garos said.
Lucian’s voice was low. "Maybe."
The air froze for a second.
Garos didn’t repeat himself.
Lucian didn’t explain.
And for whatever reason, that was enough.
The dean stepped back.
"You’re a wild card."
Lucian nodded once. "I get that a lot."
Garos exhaled slowly. Then turned toward the rest of Class Zero. "You’ll enter at dawn."
"Yes, sir," Evelyn said, almost a whisper now.
"You get in, clear the zone, and you get out. Do that—" his eyes flicked to Lucian again, "—and I’ll sign the papers myself."
He waved his hand, and the projection flickered off.
They started to file out one by one. Silas nudged Lucian on the way out. "Bro... what the hell was that?"
Lucian didn’t answer.
As they left, Athena lingered behind.
She watched Garos for a long second.
"You’re still not convinced."
Garos shook his head.
"He’s different," he said. "That wasn’t advancement. That was transformation."
Athena nodded. "And?"
He looked toward the door.
"...I just hope it’s still him on the other side."
Outside the building, the sun was setting low across the Ashvale skyline. Orange and violet clouds hung like ink spills over the glass towers. The wind felt cooler now, brushing past them as they stood just outside the stone steps.
Reia turned toward Lucian, eyes sharp. "You okay?"
Silas crossed his arms. "What the hell did you do, man?"
Lucian didn’t answer.
Instead, he looked up toward the sky—just beyond the clouds, past the atmosphere, to the faint tug he could feel again.
His sister’s death was close now.
The world just didn’t know it yet.
He adjusted the black coat on his shoulders and walked down the steps without another word.
Behind him, Class Zero followed.
And Lucian Black was already standing in its eye.