A few hours earlier... in the Headmaster’s office, atop the highest spire.

  ?In the pre-dawn gray, before the sun breached the horizon, Headmaster Corneleus stood motionless in the center of a silent chamber. He lowered his palm over an ancient etched circle on the floor. Light pulsed upward, manifesting into the flickering, translucent holograms of the High Council members seated in the shadows of their own remote chambers.

  ?"Corneleus..." the deep, authoritative voice of a council member vibrated through the air. "We have the reports on the 'Fractured Crystal.' The boy, Marcus Eterno. You were adamant about his admission."

  ?Corneleus remained still, a statue carved from age and experience.

  ?"You know the risk of harboring a Fracture as well as we do. It’s not just an uncontrollable power; it’s a security liability," another member added, the hologram’s static glitching. "Should we intervene ourselves?"

  ?"I didn't let the boy in on a whim," Corneleus cut in. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a weight that made the holograms shimmer. "The Sanctum Scale chose him."

  ?Silence reclaimed the room for a heartbeat before the Headmaster spoke again with finality. "Furthermore, the boy is now my 'student.' And all students remain under my protection as long as they are within these walls."

  ?The council members murmured in discontent until the High Chancellor, acting as chairman, spoke. "Corneleus... realize that if your intuition fails, the students you claim to protect will be the first to pay the price."

  ?Corneleus didn't blink. He stared back at the ghosts in the room until the Chancellor uttered a final word: "Meeting adjourned." The holograms vanished, leaving Corneleus alone in the dark.

  ?(Present Day: The Simulation Arena)

  ?"Commence the examination!"

  ?The ground beneath us buckled as the proclamation ended. A blinding flash stripped away the dome, replaced by the scent of damp earth and decaying leaves. We weren't in a gym anymore. We were standing in a "Mechanical Forest"—a dense, suffocating wood where the trees were reinforced with iron bark. Nearby, the roofs of a "Simulated Village" stood in rows.

  ?"One-to-one scale," Vanessa noted, her voice tight. Her eyes scanned the horizon behind her lenses. "The mission is destruction, but the hidden variable is 'Control.' If we flatten that village, we fail. I’ll have to manage the atmospheric balance. If I lose the perimeter, we’re done."

  ?ROAR!

  ?A guttural, metallic howl erupted from the heart of the woods. Heat radiated outward, causing the iron leaves to curl and hiss. A massive trunk snapped like a twig, revealing a crimson iron giant wreathed in white-hot flames. An Ignis Golem. It stepped forward, venting pressurized fire from the exhaust ports along its chassis, igniting the dry undergrowth instantly.

  ?"Here we go," Ethan smirked, the six steel plates at his waist beginning to chatter.

  ?"Initiate!" Vanessa thrust her arm upward. "Vacuum Zone!" An emerald-green ring expanded, marking the battlefield.

  ?Ethan blurred forward, a heavy-caliber projectile. He slammed his iron gauntlets into the Golem’s chest with a sound like a sledgehammer hitting an anvil. Sparks showered the dirt. The Golem roared, its massive hand catching Ethan’s wrist while its mechanical knee drove into his midsection.

  ?Crunch.

  ?"Gotcha!" Ethan didn't scream. He detached a single plate to block the knee-strike just in time, then slammed his other fist into the Golem's head, denting the iron skull. The Golem retaliated with a flurry of heavy blows, splitting the skin on Ethan’s forehead. Blood began to trail down his face, but he didn't flinch. He didn't even register the pain.

  ?"Damn it! His Toll has kicked in!" Vanessa hissed. "He’s lost his sensory feedback. He can't feel the damage. If he bleeds out, he won't even know it!"

  ?The Golem vented a massive burst of fire from its shoulders, a thermal explosion targeting the forest and the village. Vanessa reacted instantly, manipulating the air molecules to starve the fire. Her chest went rigid; her lungs ceased their expansion. The Toll. To maintain the vacuum, her own respiratory system had to halt.

  ?The fire died in mid-air, suffocating without oxygen. Vanessa gasped for air as she released the hold for a split second, her face turning a bruised shade of purple before she gritted her teeth and cut off her own breathing again to stop the next flare-up.

  ?"Do something, Marcus!" Ethan yelled as the Golem shoved him back.

  ?I leveled my pistol, but the two were a mess of shifting silhouettes. I didn't have the fine-tuned control to fire into that fray without hitting Ethan. I looked at the battlefield—the shattered iron parts, the frayed copper wiring.

  ?"If I can't win with raw power..."

  ?I sprinted toward the debris. "Buy me time, Ethan! Don't let it look at me!" I gathered coils and sharp metal fragments, circling to the Golem’s blind spot. I flicked my pocket knife open, slicing through a dangling fuel line at its hip, then dove behind a massive tree to assemble an IED—an improvised explosive—from the scrap. My hands were shaking, but the mechanical logic was clear in my head.

  ?The Golem noticed the fuel leak and pivoted toward me. Ethan intervened, separating his steel plates to orbit the giant, harassing its optical sensors with high-speed strikes.

  ?"Ready!" I roared.

  ?"Ethan! Lock the joints!" Vanessa commanded, her voice a desperate wheeze.

  ?Ethan forced every plate into the Golem’s knee and elbow hinges, seizing the hydraulics. I sprinted through the heat haze, slamming the explosive into the fracture at the Golem's neck. But the giant swung its arm, catching me mid-sprint.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  ?Thud.

  ?I was launched into a tree, the impact rattling my ribs. I coughed up a spray of red, the world spinning. I forced my eyes to stay open, leveling my pistol with a trembling hand. The Fractured crystal flared a violent purple. I pulled the trigger. A concentrated beam of energy lanced through the air, hitting the IED with surgical precision.

  ?The recoil was apocalyptic. It threw my battered body back into the tree a second time. The venting valve on the gun shrieked, a high-pitched alarm echoing across the forest. Ethan called his plates back to form a shield just as the explosion ripped the Golem’s head from its shoulders.

  ?BOOM!

  ?The construct disintegrated. Vanessa collapsed, clutching her throat and drawing in ragged, agonized gulps of air. Her skin was translucent.

  ?Silence returned to the arena. A victory bought with blood and stolen breath. Marcus slumped against the base of the tree as the smoke cleared.

  ?I opened my eyes to the sterile scent of antiseptics. The infirmary. As my vision focused, I saw the "army" gathered around my bed.

  ?Ethan sat nearby, his head wrapped in bandages like a mummy, loudly crunching on an apple. Vanessa sat with her arms crossed, her expression flat but her eyes reflecting a quiet relief.

  ?In the bed next to me, Noah was fast asleep. Elias sat in the chair between us, arms folded, maintaining his cold, aristocratic mask. Evie sat at the foot of Noah's bed, looking at me with worried eyes.

  ?"Marcus! You're awake!" Ethan grinned. "Thought you were a goner. Leaving us to pass out by yourself, typical."

  ?I looked at Elias. "What are you doing here?"

  ?"Don't flatter yourself," Elias looked at Noah. "My teammate is in the bed next to yours. I am merely watching over my own."

  ?"Hah!" Ethan cut in, wagging a finger. "You're just playing it cool. Weren't you the one who wanted to kick Marcus off the train for his crystal?"

  ?Elias’s brow furrowed. "I follow the rules. Dangerous variables like that crystal shouldn't be near... specifically my team."

  ?"Rules? Your rule is to abandon people?" Ethan dropped his apple and glared. "If Marcus hadn't used that 'dangerous variable,' we’d be charcoal by now!"

  ?"It’s called responsibility as a leader," Elias shot back coldly. "Gambling lives on an unstable Fracture is negligence. I don't have time to repeat this with you, Ethan."

  ?Elias turned his back, leaving Ethan to mumble something about "lifeless nobles."

  ?The tension broke when the infirmary door slid open. A man in his forties entered, wearing simple but elegant robes. His gray eyes were as calm as a still lake.

  ?Thud.

  ?The room went dead silent. Elias stood at attention so fast his chair nearly tipped. Vanessa stood with formal grace. Even Ethan, mid-chew, started choking on his apple as he scrambled to his feet.

  ?I stared at them, confused. Who was this guy?

  ?"Uh... hello, mister?" I blurted out.

  ?"Marcus! You idiot!" Vanessa hissed under her breath. She bowed deeply. "That’s... Headmaster Corneleus!"

  ?I flinched, pain lancing through my ribs as I tried to sit up. "H-hello! Headmaster!"

  ?The man let out a soft laugh. "Lie down, Marcus Eterno. No need for ceremony. And you can call me 'Professor Corneleus.' I prefer the title."

  ?He walked to the foot of my bed. "I could hear your bickering from the hallway. It seems those wounds didn't do much to dampen your spirits."

  ?Elias looked down. "My apologies, Professor. We were just—"

  ?"No need to explain, Elias. Conflict often leads to understanding if channeled correctly." Corneleus looked at me. "Lean on your friends, Marcus. And rest."

  ?The Headmaster offered a faint smile before moving to Noah’s bed. He looked down at the unconscious boy. "How is he, Elias?"

  ?Elias bowed his head. "The damage to the puppet... Noah took it all. The shock of the severed link was severe. Physical manifestations of the trauma have appeared."

  ?"Spirit-linking is a powerful art, but the most dangerous," Corneleus nodded, resting a hand on Noah’s bedframe. "He was brave to take that burden for the team. Watch over him, Elias. Losing a match is a bruise to the ego. Losing a teammate you trust... that's a wound that never truly heals."

  ?Elias went silent for a moment before responding with a firm, "Yes, Professor."

  ?Corneleus nodded to us once more and left. The silence that followed wasn't tense; it was the quiet of people realizing the weight they all carried.

  ?The quiet was broken when a large magical screen on the wall flickered to life, broadcasting the final group’s exam. It was Roy Foster’s team.

  ?"Oh, look at that guy," Ethan pointed. "Look at the way he runs."

  ?The screen showed absolute chaos. Roy’s team was being hammered because their leader was currently sitting behind a rock, picking his ear.

  ?"Roy! Stop being useless and help us! I am not carrying you through this!" Jinny Morgan screamed. She lashed her sword—which extended like a steel whip—around a Golem before retracting it and striking with a flurry of strikes. Her face was flushed with rage.

  ?"Roy... don't be lazy," Luna Valtria said, her voice like ice. She stood perfectly still, one hand casting runes to summon vines, the other holding a small canteen. She sipped it constantly—the more plant-life she summoned, the more her skin appeared to parch and dry. The Toll.

  ?"Sorry, ladies... I’ve only had this crystal for a few weeks. I don't even know what my power is yet," Roy called out from behind cover, looking like he had just woken up.

  ?"ROY!" Jinny’s temper broke. "If you don't fight, I’m cutting you down myself!"

  ?"Fine, fine..." Roy sighed. He pulled a deck of cards from his pocket and flicked one at a stone Golem.

  ?Plap.

  ?The card hit the Golem’s rocky chest and fell to the floor. No explosion. No light. Nothing.

  ?The entire arena went silent. Even the Golem paused.

  ?"I knew it! You're a fraud!" Jinny screamed, her sword-whip trembling with fury.

  ?Marcus and Ethan burst out laughing from their beds. "Hah! He’s a total clown! Our roommate is a legend, Marcus!" Ethan laughed until his head bandages started to slip.

  ?Eventually, Luna ended it. She used her "Nature Domain" to summon massive roots that crushed the Golems into gravel. Jinny, exhausted and suffering from nutrient depletion—her Toll for the high-intensity sword strikes—began to collapse.

  ?Before she hit the ground, Roy blurred forward and caught her. He held her steady as she shook from fatigue.

  ?"Should I take you to the med-bay or the cafeteria first?" Roy asked.

  ?"Shut up... Roy..." Jinny rasped, leaning her head against his chest out of sheer exhaustion.

  ?Late that night, I woke up to a dull throb in my ribs. Moonlight bathed the room.

  ?Elias was gone, likely unwilling to be seen sleeping in a wooden chair. But he had left a guard. Evie was slumped over on the table next to Noah’s bed, her hair splayed out, one hand resting near Noah’s.

  ?On my side, Ethan was dead to the world, snoring softly. Vanessa was asleep at the table between our beds, her head resting on a stack of open textbooks. Her glasses were slipping down her nose, and Ethan’s jacket was draped over her shoulders.

  ?I smiled. For all her talk of "inefficiency," she hadn't left us.

  ?Slide.

  ?The infirmary door opened. A lanky figure in a disheveled uniform dragged his feet in. Roy Foster. He scratched his head, looking around with his usual dead-fish eyes, before sitting heavily on the empty bed across from Noah.

  ?"Quiet, Roy..." I whispered. "You'll wake them."

  ?"Sorry..." Roy yawned. "Thought you were asleep, Forest-Bomber."

  ?"Did you get Jinny some food?"

  ?"Yeah. Five loaves of bread and three steaks before she stopped trying to kill me. She's asleep at the dorm," Roy said, grimacing at the memory of the bill. "That shot of yours... the purple one. It was a good look."

  ?I went quiet. "You saw that?"

  ?"I saw." Roy lay back on the bed, pulling the covers up immediately. "I’m crashing here tonight."

  ?"What? Why? Go to the dorm."

  ?Roy pulled the blanket up halfway, peering at me with one eye. "You guys all ran off to the med-bay. Left me alone in that big room. It’s lonely, man."

  ?Within three seconds, his snoring joined Ethan’s in a rhythmic, chaotic harmony.

  ?I exhaled and shook my head. The med-bay was crowded and noisy, but it felt warmer than anywhere else I had ever been.