The dust from the Labyrinth's collapse tasted like copper and old magic. Lyra stood at the precipice, her fingers digging into the jagged edge of the shaft. Below, the abyss breathed violet fire, but her eyes were locked on the figure standing just a few paces away.
"No way..." Lyra's voice was a choked rasp, a mix of disbelief and a sudden, desperate hope that clawed at her throat. "She's actually back? Now of all times?"
The girl didn't turn. She stood with her back to the ruin, her emerald eyes scanning the devastation with a cold, surgical precision that made the surrounding fires feel dim. She wasn't just a student; she was the gold standard of the 1st year—the one every professor held up as the "Peak."
She adjusted the heavy leather strap of the massive spear slung across her back. When she spoke, her voice cut through the roar of the divine inferno with a dry, unimpressed chill that seemed to silence the very wind.
"I left this Academy for three months," she said, her gaze landing on a shattered statue of a Founding Architect. "And now it looks like this. Pathetic."
"Seraphina," Lyra breathed, taking a shaky step forward. "The border mission... we heard the communications were cut. We thought—"
"You thought I died?" Seraphina finally turned, her emerald eyes flicking over Lyra's disheveled state. A flicker of familial recognition—the only warmth she allowed—softened her gaze for a microsecond before hardening back into flint. "It takes more than a few border-beasts to kill a member of our bloodline, cousin. But you? You look like you've been dragged through the Hells and back."
Lyra flinched. "The Spire fell, Seraphina. The Gods... they aren't what we thought. Everything is a lie."
Seraphina's expression didn't change. She unlatched her spear, the weapon humming as it sensed her mana. "I don't care about lies, Lyra. I care about results. Who did this? Who turned my training ground into a graveyard?"
"His name is Matthew," Lyra said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "He's an Anomaly. He has the Void Core. He's down there, in the deep levels, holding back the Sentinels so the others can escape."
Seraphina tilted her head, her emerald eyes narrowing as she looked down into the violet-stained darkness of the shaft.
"Matthew?" she repeated, the name unfamiliar and irritating on her tongue. "Some nobody with a dark heart decides to play God-slayer while I'm away? Typical."
She stepped to the very edge of the abyss, the wind whipping her hair.
"Stay here and gather the survivors, Lyra. As your cousin and the ranking student of this year, I'm taking command." She gripped her spear, the tip glowing with a sharp, piercing green light. "I'm going down there to see if this 'Matthew' is a savior or just another monster that needs to be put down."
Without waiting for an answer, the strongest first-year leaned forward and vanished into the darkness of the shaft.