With his body hurting from the previous night, Nathan woke up to the faint light of morning coming in through his dorm window. Every muscle ached, as though he had been fighting for hours instead of just minutes to get out of that damned room under the library. He sat up and rubbed his temples as he relived the experience in his memory, the suffocating blackness, the broken orb, and the shadowy figure.
He heard a gentle chime in his mind, alerting him of the system's delayed notification.
New Quest Activated: Contain the Shadows
Objective: Investigate the spread of shadow magic and prevent further disturbances.
Reward: +150 EXP, +1 Attribute Point.
Nathan let out a grunt and slowly stood up. He couldn't decide which was worse: the cryptic warnings or the knowledge that he was partially to blame for the academy's increasing strangeness. He kept hearing the apparition say, "You don't understand what you've done."
Nathan forced himself to get ready, hurried out the door. He was unsure of where to begin, but he kept thinking that he couldn't manage this on his own.
Later that morning, Aurora discovered him in the dining hall, hunched over a plate of unfinished food. Her piercing blue eyes scanned his face as she slid onto the seat across from him.
She added in a half-joking but worried tone, "You look like you fought a banshee." "What's going on?"
With hesitation, Nathan put down his fork, which clattered against the plate. All morning, he had been mulling over whether or not to tell her. Though the note's caution regarding trust persisted in his mind, his worries were repelled by the image of Aurora's ferocious will during the battle trials.
"It's... complicated," he finally uttered.
Aurora put her chin on her hand and leaned forward. "Caelum, you're not going off that easy. Leak."
With a hand through his hair, he let out a breath. "All right. You won't believe me, though.
"Try me."
Nathan began at the beginning: the secret room beneath the library, the shimmering figure, the message left under his door. As he narrated the dark figure, the broken orb, and the stifling power that had almost overtaken him, Aurora listened silently. He didn't omit anything, not even the task the system had just given him or its cryptic warnings.
Aurora slumped back, her face unreadable, after he was done. Nathan's chest constricted as they remained silent for a long time.
At last, he said, "Well?" "Do you think I'm crazy?"
Aurora snorted. Crazy? No. Stupid? Of course. You went down there by yourself?
Nathan blinked. "That's your main concern?"
She leaned forward once again and shook her head. "You have been putting this off since yesterday night, and you didn't consider telling anyone? What if you were killed?
Nathan acknowledged, "I was unsure of whom to believe." "And I still don't know if I made the right decision."
Aurora's tone didn't soften, but her eyes did. "You were correct to tell me. However, if your claims are accurate, we have a more serious issue than your bad choices.
"Yes," Nathan whispered. "I'm not joking."
The remainder of the day was a haze of odd events. There were rumors circulating the academy about shadowy people seen near restricted places, weird noises in the passageways, and magical wards flickering near the library. The teachers brushed off a student's assertion that they were attacked by an invisible force as hysteria.
That night, Nathan and Aurora got back together, both of them uncomfortable from the mounting anxiety in the air. Aurora's face was somber as she clutched a little backpack of magical goods.
As they got closer to the library, she questioned, "Are you certain about this?"
Nathan gave a nod. "We must put an end to what I witnessed if it is spreading so that no one is harmed or worse."
With the typical hum of magical wards strangely muffled, they sneaked entered the library under the cover of nightfall. The only sound to break the stifling silence was the slight creak of floorboards as they made their way to the records area.
Nathan pointed to the slight indentation on the floor where the trapdoor had been and remarked, "There." "That's where it began."
With her hand lingering above the stone, Aurora knelt. The groove pulsed with dim light as she whispered an incantation, her mana burning quietly. Here, there is lingering magic. Although weak, it is undoubtedly not natural.
"Is it possible to track it?" Nathan enquired.
Aurora scowled as she concentrated on the spell. "I believe so. It's—
She was interrupted by a low growl that reverberated throughout the library. A shadowy figure appeared out of the shadows, its body twisting and flickering like smoke, and Nathan's grip tightened on his sword. Even if it wasn't as strong as the first figure he had encountered, its very existence made him shudder.
Aurora straightened her shoulders and stood up, her wand gleaming. "You didn't mention that we would have company."
"Welcome to my life," Nathan muttered.
The shadow sprang forward, its body contorting strangely as it hit. With his blade slamming into the creature's tendrils, Nathan took the onslaught head-on. Bolts of fire and ice blasted the shadow's shape as Aurora flanked it, her spells illuminating the room.
Together, they were able to weaken the beast, making its strikes more unpredictable and slower. The shadow vanished with a final, well-coordinated blow, with Aurora releasing a fierce flare of flame and Nathan's blade slicing through its center.
Nathan took a breather and rested against a shelf nearby. "That was new."
Using her magic to display a thin trail of dark energy that led deeper into the library, Aurora knelt beside the groove once more. "It's not finished. This is still going strong, whatever the cause is.
"Excellent," Nathan remarked, his tone brimming with irony. "Let's trace the eerie path of shadow magic. What might go wrong?
Aurora grinned. "Caelum, you have a way of making things worse. I hope you can resolve this.
With each step, the air grew cooler as they followed the track into the library's interior. They discovered a little nook concealed by an illusion spell at the very end of the archives. Inside was a map, its symbols glowing dimly with dark energy, engraved upon a block of stone.
Nathan's stomach dropped when he read the writing underneath the map and traced a finger over it:
"The Awakening begins where shadows meet the light."
Despite her modest voice, Aurora's comments were powerful. "I believe we have just discovered the beginning of something much more significant."
Nathan squinted his eyes. "And we will put an end to it."