Chapter 46: Opening Move
Hestian let out a long breath, the kind that carried years of dealing with impossible orders and inadequate resources. "You’re not wrong. This isn’t something the Academy can handle alone." He looked at Lucian with obvious reluctance. "So what do we do?"
Lucian studied the warped air above the manifestation site for what felt like an eternity. When he finally spoke, his voice was flat and final. "This stopped being Academy business the moment eight hundred students vanished. Contact Head Captain Aldric directly. The King’s Guard needs to know."
Hestian’s eyebrows shot up. "That’s jumping over half the military hierarchy. The political mess alone..."
"Won’t matter if we’re dealing with something that can make our strongest defenses disappear," Lucian cut him off. "You know the chain of command works for normal threats. This isn’t normal."
The weight of those words settled over everyone in the arena. They were looking at an enemy that could erase the kingdom’s most promising young awakened without a trace.
Hestian stared at Lucian for a long moment, clearly weighing the risks. Finally, he gave a sharp nod and turned to his aides. "Get me a secure line to Royal Guard command. And I want hourly reports from every monitoring station in the kingdom. No delays, no exceptions."
While his people scrambled to follow orders, Hestian turned back to Lucian. "If this was planned, if someone targeted the Academy specifically, what about the other schools? Should we be preparing for more attacks?"
"Honestly?" Lucian’s blunt honesty was somehow more terrifying than any dramatic proclamation. "I don’t think our defenses would stop another attack like this. The Academy had some of the strongest wards in the kingdom, and they might as well have been made of paper."
Principal Whitmore stood there feeling utterly useless, watching his life’s work being discussed like it was already lost. ’Forty years building this place, and now...’ "What about my students?" The words came out rougher than he intended. "The ones who were taken. Can we get them back?"
Something in Lucian’s expression softened, but his words stayed brutal. "Principal, if this were a normal rift, we could mount a rescue. Dangerous, yes, but possible. White rifts..." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "White rifts don’t follow the rules we know."
"But there’s hope, right?" Whitmore heard the desperation in his own voice and hated it.
"There’s always hope," Lucian said quietly. "But it would mean understanding how these manifestations work, finding who’s behind them, and basically rewriting everything we know about dimensional manipulation. None of which we can do right now."
Professor Aldara stepped closer, her academic mind clearly struggling with the impossibilities. "Lord Valorian, forgive me, but how do you know so much about white rift theory? Most of us consider them purely mathematical exercises."
Lucian’s smile was cold and tired. ’Should I tell them? How much can they handle?’ "Because I’ve been there. Beyond the dimensional barriers. My team and I... we were experienced awakened with decades of training. I barely made it out alive." He looked directly at Whitmore. "I’m sorry, but first-year students? I doubt they will won’t last a day."
The professors exchanged looks of shock and growing horror. If someone like Lucian considered it hopeless...
Before anyone could ask more questions, one of Hestian’s aides hurried back with news. "Colonel, urgent report from the monitoring network. The energy readings from the Academy incident are... strange, sir."
Hestian’s face went grim. "Strange how?"
"The energy signature doesn’t match our databases, sir. And instead of fading away like it should, it’s actually getting stronger."
Lucian was moving toward the exit before the aide finished speaking. "Colonel, if the residual energy is building instead of dissipating, we’re running out of time faster than I thought."
"What do you mean?" Hestian demanded, following him.
"Dimensional rifts leave scars. If those scars are getting stronger, it means what happened here was just the start of something bigger."
Professor Aldara’s voice was barely above a whisper. "You think this could happen again? Here?"
"Yes," Lucian said simply. "If the dimensional matrix is unstable, similar attacks could hit anywhere the barriers have been weakened."
Hestian was already activating his communication crystal. "All monitoring stations, this is Colonel Hestian. I want constant surveillance of the Academy site. Any changes in dimensional readings come to me immediately. And get me a line to the Crown’s dimensional specialists."
As orders flew across the kingdom’s military network, Professor Aldara caught up with them. "Lord Valorian, if the dimensional matrix is breaking down, is there anything we can do? Any way to strengthen the barriers?"
Lucian’s expression darkened. "The theoretical fixes would need more power than we have. To reinforce dimensional barriers across the entire kingdom..." He calculated silently. "You’d need every awakened in the realm working together in perfect harmony. Impossible with current methods."
"So we can’t stop it," Whitmore said hollowly.
"Not with what we know now," Lucian agreed. "But whoever did this already achieved things we thought were impossible. We have to assume they’re working from completely different principles."
Another aide approached with more bad news. "Sir, confirmed rift manifestations at seven locations across the kingdom. All in the last hour."
The news hit like a physical blow. Hestian went pale. "Seven at once? What classifications?"
"Red rifts, sir. Standard seven-day activation cycle. But the timing..." The aide sounded bewildered. "We’ve never recorded seven simultaneous manifestations."
Lucian stopped walking entirely, his attention focused on something the others couldn’t see. ’The energy pattern... it’s cycling. Building toward something.’ "Colonel, the energy signature isn’t just getting stronger. It’s cycling, building toward another manifestation."
"The white rift could reopen?" Hestian’s voice was tight with control.
"Not reopen," Lucian corrected. "It’s been challenged. The students are still alive somewhere beyond the barrier, and that’s keeping the rift from fully closing. But if they fail..."
He didn’t need to finish. Everyone understood the implications.
Whitmore felt his legs go weak. ’They used my students to break our defenses.’ "They sacrificed eight hundred children just to destabilize our dimensional network."
"The students should have a chance though, right?" Whitmore’s voice cracked slightly. "They have three professors with them."
Lucian’s expression was grim. "The students are facing beasts designed to break experienced warriors."
"But they’re alive?" Whitmore pressed.
"For now," Lucian confirmed. "Their presence is maintaining the dimensional connection. But if they fail, if they all die..." His pale eyes reflected terrible knowledge. "The rift reopens completely. And this time, it won’t be dormant."
Hestian’s blood went cold. "You mean it becomes active immediately? Like normal rifts, allowing beasts to cross over?"
"Yes," Lucian replied. "A white rift fed by death becomes a permanent gateway. Whatever exists in that space, whatever kills the students, gets direct access to our reality."
Professor Aldara’s voice was barely audible. "You’re saying if our students fail, we face invasion from beyond dimensional space?"
Lucian nodded grimly. "And based on what I know about these trial spaces, I’m not optimistic about their survival chances."
Hestian was already issuing orders. "Emergency alert to all military installations. Seven red rifts manifesting simultaneously, potential white rift reactivation at the Academy. All awakened to standby status. And get me that connection to Head Captain Aldric."
As military personnel scrambled around them, Lucian paused at the arena’s entrance, staring back at the pulsing glow in the cracked floor. His voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "It wasn’t supposed to happen here. Not the Academy. The children were never meant to be targets."
Whitmore caught the words and felt a new chill of terror. ’He knew something was coming. But not here.’ "Lord Valorian, if you had intelligence about dimensional threats, why wasn’t the Academy warned?"
Lucian turned back, and for a moment his careful composure cracked. "Because I thought they would hit military targets first, then political centers. Civilian institutions were supposed to be secondary targets."
"According to who?" Hestian demanded.
"According to theoretical attack patterns," Lucian replied carefully. "Based on studying dimensional vulnerabilities and strategic target value. Clearly, our understanding was flawed."
Professor Aldara stepped forward. "Lord Valorian, if this attack defied theoretical patterns, then we have no framework for predicting what comes next."
"Exactly," Lucian confirmed. "We’re dealing with an enemy whose capabilities and strategies are completely unknown to us."
"Who are we fighting?" Whitmore asked quietly. "Who has the power to create seven rifts at once while maintaining a white rift trial space?"
Lucian was quiet for a long time, his gaze distant with memories that clearly haunted him. When he spoke, his voice carried the weight of terrible knowledge. "Entities that exist between dimensions. Beings that can manipulate the barriers between realities like we manipulate physical objects. They’ve been testing our defenses, learning our weaknesses."
"And now they’ve found them," Hestian concluded.
"Yes," Lucian agreed. "The Academy attack was just the opening move. This is going to be a long and costly conflict."
As they left the ruined arena behind, emergency crystals blazing with urgent communications throughout the Academy, Principal Whitmore found himself grappling with a reality that had fundamentally changed in a single afternoon. Eight hundred students had vanished through a rift that shouldn’t exist, seven more rifts had manifested across the kingdom, and now everything depended on first-year students surviving trials in a dimension beyond human understanding.
’We’re only just beginning to understand what we’re up against,’ Whitmore thought as the scope of the crisis continued to unfold around them.