The training yard behind the Ember Halls was shrouded in pre-dawn silence—until Maximilian Kriegswald broke it with a sharp exhale.
His breath steamed, not from cold, but from inner friction. The Stellarweave pulse inside him twisted like a whirlpool of light and gravity. He knelt alone, surrounded by shattered fragments of mana shells and broken temporal anchors—each representing a failed synchronization attempt.
"Again," he muttered, voice hoarse but resolute.
He extended his hand.
The soul-bound weapon Zeitbrecher shimmered into existence—its form flickering between longsword, chakram, and scythe. No longer purely steel, it now pulsed with star-forged quintessence, its edges burning faint lines in the stone.
He wasn't training to kill. He was training to contain.
Not his enemies—himself.
If the University's ranking sensors recorded his true synchronization rate, if anyone even glimpsed the fractal constellation of his evolving Class Core, it would invite Divine scrutiny. He wasn't ready for that.
Not yet.
So he broke himself down instead, over and over, regulating the flow of power like an alchemist bleeding poison from gold.
"Temporal Anchor – Reverse Phase…"
He clenched his fist, casting a ripple of decelerated light around him. For a moment, the flow of time bent inward. Leaves suspended. Flames froze. His heartbeat echoed.
Then his anchor collapsed with a crack, launching him backward into the dirt.
Failure. Again.
But as the ache bloomed across his back, he smiled faintly.
He'd lasted six seconds longer this time.
Meanwhile: Flamebound Path – Council Chamber
The Flamebound Faculty had convened in secret.
Meisterin Veltraxa von Rauschglanz paced around a burning model of the university's internal trial grid. One of the modules was glowing violet—a color reserved for unstable trial domains.
"He's approaching the threshold," she said, pointing to Maximilian's cadence data. "Not just of Class Evolution—but metaphysical instability."
"We should seal the Stellarweave Protocols," argued Chancellor Vulkrand's proxy. "He's already warping localized timeframes. He could unmake one of the inner spheres."
"Or remake it," murmured a dry voice.
Ashborne Maelis had entered without invitation, black-flame robes whispering behind her. She stood by the hearth like she owned the room.
"Don't mistake his divergence for danger. Divergence breeds ascension. The last Starforger walked the same edge."
Veltraxa narrowed her eyes. "And became a myth."
Maelis smiled. "So let him myth-make."
Training Interlude: The Ember Nexus – Day 19
After three more collapsed anchors and one minor spatial fold (which Lirael had to reverse using an emergency rift catalyst), Maximilian rested beneath a soulwood tree near the central Ember Nexus.
Lirael Veinsturm sat beside him, her normally pristine gloves stained with purple catalysis fluid.
She'd been watching his training quietly for hours, occasionally muttering calculations or warning him when his pulse vectors destabilized.
"You're not burning yourself out," she said finally. "You're tempering. Like glass—heated, broken, reforged."
"Romantic way to say I'm failing upward," he replied.
She didn't smile, but her eyes flickered with warmth. "You know what failure teaches alchemists?"
"How not to explode?"
"That explosions can be useful. In the right vessel."
He turned to look at her more closely.
"Why help me?"
She hesitated, then reached into her satchel and withdrew a thin vial of liquid starlight. The bottle was etched with the alchemical symbol of Prima Stella—the first star.
"My family… follows old Ignian rites. We believe in the Chain of Transmutation—not just of matter, but of soul. When I saw you duel, I recognized the instability. Not as danger, but as potential."
Her voice dropped.
"Your soul is… transmuting into something the world hasn't seen in centuries. And I intend to help it finish the process. If only so I can study it."
That, finally, earned a smile from Maximilian.
"Deal. Just don't dissect me."
System Alert: Trial Reshuffle DetectedNew Compulsory Trial: Die Sphärenprüfung – The Sphere TrialCategory: Sovereignty/Survival HybridParticipants: Ranked 1–20 Flamebound CadreEnvironment: Unknown Sphere Layer 7A – Codename: Verdant RuinHazards: Political Subterfuge, Hostile Fauna, Quantum Memory Drain, Unknown EntitiesTrial Commences in 3 Hours
Trial Chamber: Verdant Ruin – Three Hours Later
The moment they arrived, the world tilted.
They stood atop a massive, broken Dyson Sphere hovering in the void. Overgrown with alien jungle, its segments cracked like glass, drifting in fragmented timezones. Gravity was inconsistent. Time loops occurred sporadically. And in the distance—visible only through mana-sight—was a shattered throne radiating divine echoes.
Veltraxa's voice echoed across the psychic interface.
"This sphere was once home to the Archivists of Final Thought—gods who recorded outcomes that never occurred. It is unstable, fragmented, and filled with relics that defy cause and effect."
"Your goal: survive. Then restore a central archive node before extraction."
Maximilian blinked.
Survival and reconstruction? This wasn't a trial. It was a test of dominion.
The 20 students split into factions immediately.
Haus Emberwrought led one, seeking control.
Haus Cinderguard another—aiming to catalog relics.
Maelis, unsurprisingly, walked alone. So did Lirael—though her aura now burned with a self-sustaining catalytic loop. She was evolving.
Maximilian hovered between factions until he saw Alwin Noxrot—silent, pale, muttering to an old drone.
The boy hadn't spoken much in weeks.
But now, he turned to Maximilian and said:
"They're waking."
"Who?"
"The Archivists. They're inside the broken time. Watching us through could-have-beens."
A chill ran down Maximilian's spine.
And just then—the forest attacked.
Combat Phase: Sphere Distortion – Time Hazard Tier 2 Activated
Vine-beasts stitched from fragments of forgotten timelines exploded from the foliage. Some wielded weapons. Others were weapons—old relics animated by grief.
Maximilian leapt into motion.
"Form Switch: Zeitbrecher to Nova Recurve Mode!"
Chakram beams lashed out, slicing through incorporeal time-echoes and anchoring to stable physics nodes. Lirael detonated a condensed starbloom grenade, forcing a quantum reset of the local area.
But then—something new emerged.
Not a beast. Not a relic.
A humanoid figure, cloaked in archival bindings, eyes glowing with inverted runes.
"The Trial has been compromised," it said.
"I am the Echo of Never. And your fates are unwritten."
Mid-Trial System Notification
"Unregistered Entity Detected: Trial Hijack in Progress.""Protocol Override – Player Agency Unlocked.""Special Reward Enabled if Echo of Never is Defeated."
Item Profile: Sigil of the Star ArchiveCategory: Trial Relic – Limited Reality AnchorProperties:
Allows the bearer to resist up to 3 timeline collapses.
Grants temporary access to Archivist Pathway abilities.
Reveals "Unwritten Fates" of other players in proximity.Current Holder: Maximilian Kriegswald
Battle with the Echo of Never
Maximilian activated the relic without hesitation.
As time bent, the Echo struck—its arms unfurling into scythes of entropy. He barely dodged. Lirael screamed from somewhere behind him, caught in a recursive loop.
"Time Anchor!" he shouted, chaining a burst of Stellarweave into the artifact.
Reality stabilized.
"Skill Synchronization: 73% — True Class Trait Unlocked: [Starshard Dominion]"
Zeitbrecher split into orbiting fragments—each carrying a piece of his will. They moved as he thought, forming a starlight web.
The Echo flinched.
Not from pain.
From recognition.
"You… were not supposed to exist."
Maximilian advanced, eyes glowing with constellations.
"Neither were you."
He struck.
Post-Trial Summary
Echo of Never defeated.
Star Archive partially restored.
Lirael's Core stabilized, unlocking Catalyst State: Nova Alkahest.
Alwin's whispers now recognized as Archivist Fractals.
Maelis claimed a fragment of silent fire buried in a no-time zone.
Maximilian rose to Rank 1 in the Flamebound Cadre.
His Class Path now reads: "Stellarweave Initiate – Subdesignation: Fatewright of the Lost Constellation."
Lore Drop: The Archivists of Final Thought
Long before the Divine System encoded the laws of existence, a sect of godlike beings known as the Archivists recorded not reality, but possibility. They cataloged every failed world, aborted timeline, and potential catastrophe.
Eventually, they were deemed too dangerous. The Prime Divinities shattered their spheres—and bound their essence in unstable trials.
Yet they remain.
Watching.
Waiting for someone like Maximilian.
Someone who could have been anything—and still might be everything.
Final Scene: Ember Nexus – That Night
Maximilian sat alone, his relic glowing faintly.
Lirael approached, her usual gloves off. Her hands were silver now—coated in alchemical resonance.
"We didn't just survive," she said softly. "We were chosen."
He looked at her.
And for once, let down his mask.
"I'm tired of hiding."
She nodded.
"Then stop."
They sat in silence.
Above them, the stars formed a new pattern.
One that had never existed before.
But now—was written.
End of Chapter 16: Die Sphärenprüfung – The Sphere Trial