The sky was bleeding again.
It always did in his dreams — red streaks tearing through clouds like claws across skin. But when Ash opened his eyes, there was only silence, stone ceilings, and the echo of the past gnawing at his thoughts.
He sat up, chest heaving, breath frost-edged.
His nightmares didn't fade. They just waited.
Ash.
Eighteen. No last name. No legacy.
Just scars and silence.
He had survived what should've killed him.
Now he stood on the doorstep of the Arcane Dominion — the academy that shaped kings, broke monsters, and crowned gods.
He wasn't here to fit in.
He was here to rise.
The academy gates were massive. Etched with runes that pulsed like veins. Floating spires curled into the sky, and mana hummed in the air like static before a storm.
Crowds of new students flooded the plaza — nobles wrapped in family colors, commoners trembling in awe, battle-hardened heirs flaunting their summoned spirits like jewelry.
Ash walked through them like a ghost.
Plain black uniform. No family crest. No entourage.
Just a blade hidden under his coat, and eyes that never blinked.
Some students stared.
Others mocked.
One tried to shoulder-check him.
Big mistake.
Ash didn't move. The other kid bounced back like he'd slammed into a wall of iron.
"Watch it, peasant," the boy snarled.
Ash's reply was silence — the kind that wraps around your throat and makes you regret breathing.
Then came the voice that didn't belong in this chaos.
Soft. Measured. Dangerous in its calm.
"You've got quite the aura for someone trying to stay invisible."
Ash turned — not in surprise, but in curiosity.
She stood just off to the side, hair like gold spun from firelight, posture regal, not arrogant. Her uniform had the faint embroidery of the Student Council, but it was her eyes that caught him.
Seraphina Lys.
He didn't know her.
But she looked at him like she already knew who he was going to become.
And that... was new.
"Wasn't trying to stay invisible," Ash said, voice like a blade dragged through smoke.
"Just trying not to waste time."
She raised a brow. "That's funny. Most people waste their whole lives trying to be seen."
Her words hit like a spell aimed at his soul. Not hostile. Not flirtatious. Just real. Like she wasn't playing the academy game everyone else was addicted to.
Ash tilted his head.
Most girls flinched when they met his eyes.
She didn't.
He hated small talk.
But for some reason… he stayed.
"What's your name?" she asked, arms folded.
"Ash."
"That's it?"
"Names are like blades," he said. "Too many, and they slow you down."
She smiled.
Gods help him — it wasn't fake.
"I'm Seraphina," she said. "And I'm not interested in slowing down either."
From the other side of the courtyard, Kirito watched — arms crossed, eyes sharp.
He'd seen Ash burn cities and silence warlords. But this? Talking to a girl?
He whistled under his breath.
"The world really is ending."
Back in the plaza, Seraphina stepped closer.
"I've seen a hundred new students already. You're the only one who feels like… a puzzle."
Ash's voice dropped. "You don't want to solve me."
She held his gaze.
"Maybe I do."
For the first time in years, Ash felt something shift — not in the world, but in him.
It wasn't weakness.
It wasn't fear.
It was curiosity.
And maybe… just maybe… the start of something dangerous.