Thalora

Prologue

Planet Thalora: 2137 AD

The stars blinked in the velvet blackness, their light casting faint reflections across the surface of Thalora's sprawling academy. From above, it looked peaceful. But deep beneath the polished steel and glass buildings, secrets hummed like a low, constant pulse.

In the heart of the Academy's subterranean chamber, Headmaster Vael stood motionless, staring at the ancient device unearthed decades ago when the first humans arrived on this planet. Vael stood as a towering figure, even in his fifties. His physique, honed from years as an elite soldier, was still formidable—muscles sculpted with precision, a face carved from stone, and eyes that carried the weight of countless battles concealed behind sleek holo-glasses. The glasses, a remnant of technology once known as "virtual reality" in Earth's final days, seemed to add to his air of quiet authority.

Vael kept his gaze on the Eldarii obelisk, which pulsed with a strange, almost hypnotic light—alien, yet familiar.

"The time is near," a cold voice whispered behind him.

Vael didn't flinch. He'd been expecting her.

Marla Zhen stepped into the dim light, her red and black Academy uniform as immaculate as ever, her expression calm and unreadable. Her stunning bright eyes, however, held a hint of something darker—anticipation.

"Are they ready?" Vael asked without turning.

Marla nodded, her gaze fixed on the glowing obelisk. "Most of them are. But there's one... Alyssa Tan. She's... different."

Vael's lips curled into a faint smile. "Different... how?"

"The kind of 'different' that could bring trouble to the Academy," Marla replied, her gaze dropping as she fought to hide the anger simmering beneath the surface.

"Like him?"

"Yes."

Vael turned to face her for the first time, locking eyes with an intensity she had seen countless times before—the gaze of a man standing at the brink. A man who had lost everything and would go to any lengths to protect what little remained.

He smiled again, but it carried the weight of a promise this time. As the obelisk's hum grew louder, Vael allowed himself one last glance at the ancient artifact. The power trapped within it would soon be released, and the Academy would no longer be just a school for the best and brightest.

It would be the battlefield.

And Alyssa Tan was the key.