Chapter 23– When Divine Beasts Remember
Scene One: A Crimson Eclipse
The sun never rose that day.
Instead, the sky burned crimson with layered clouds, pulsing like a beating heart. Lightning streaked silently, and even the lesser beasts at Aflety whimpered and hid in their dens.
From the highest tower, Evan watched the sky crackle.
Nex stirred in his soul realm. "It's not natural. This is a summon. A call."
Just then, a winged figure tore through the clouds.
The Crimson Zephyrlis.
Its feathers shimmered between red and black, divine and corrupted. But its eyes—those ancient, burning eyes—held no malice.
Only memory.
It descended slowly into the central courtyard of the Academy, ignoring the barriers and the protective wards. Professors poured out of buildings, students gasped, and the nobles readied their beasts.
But the Zephyrlis didn't attack.
It bowed its head—only slightly—before Evan.
And then…
It spoke.
"The first of the old has returned. The oaths are undone. The trials… have failed."
Scene Two: Echoes from Before the Bonds
Gasps filled the air. No beast had spoken with words since the age of the Founders.
Evan stepped forward cautiously. "What do you mean? What trials?"
The Zephyrlis's voice echoed through minds, bypassing the physical.
"Your kind thought the trials were meant to test you. They were not.
They were to test us. To see if we could be controlled.
You passed. We forgot. We obeyed.
But obedience is not peace. It is silence forced."
Caelith and Veylan emerged through a portal.
Both looked shaken.
The headmaster whispered to Caelith, "This is older than the Empire. Older than the Beast Pact."
"You sealed us," the Zephyrlis continued. "You made us forget the old purpose.
We were guardians, not pets. Sentinels of a rift deeper than the gods could bury."
Evan's voice cracked. "Then why come to me?"
The Zephyrlis's wings flared open.
"Because you are not like them. You bonded a beast that should not have chosen.
The Basilisk Nex is a creature of endings. You… are a herald."
Nex hissed low. "They know. Damn it, they remember me."
Scene Three: The Sky Fractures
Without warning, a second Divine beast broke through the clouds.
A golden wyvern—wreathed in lightning and flame. From the foreign academies. A bonded beast.
Its master stood atop its back.
Prince Kaelen of Draconis.
"You're not welcome here, Zephyrlis," he growled. "Return to the wilds, or be put down."
The Zephyrlis looked toward Evan. Its wings pulsed. Then—
It launched itself upward, wings cracking the air.
Kaelen gave chase.
Lightning and crimson fire tore through the sky, and the students watched open-mouthed as two Divine-ranked beasts clashed—not over territory, but over truth.
Scene Four: The True Trial Begins
In the aftermath, the Zephyrlis fled—wounded but not slain.
Kaelen returned, bleeding, furious.
"Evan," he snarled, "control your cursed aura. You attract enemies like rot draws flies. This isn't your Academy anymore."
Professor Veylan intervened. "Enough. This proves it. The old beasts are waking."
He turned to the assembled students.
"Forget the traditional structure. The Beast Trials are over.
Now begins the True Trial—not of beasts, but of yourselves.
Who do you trust?
Your oath-bonded beasts?
Your gods?
Your kings?"
He looked directly at Evan.
"Or… the beasts who remember."
Scene Five: Message from the Sky
That night, a storm tore over Aflety.
Evan stood alone in the observatory. Rena arrived, holding a piece of parchment—sealed with gold and crimson.
"It was left on your door," she said.
Evan opened it.
No name.
No signature.
Just a line:
"The one who remembers will either break the world… or awaken it.
The Crimson Wing chose you.
The others will follow.
Beware the Sixth Beast.**"
____
Scene One: Whispers Beneath the Vault
Deep beneath Aflety Academy, in the hidden section of the Vault reserved for unbonded and sealed beasts, Evan stood before a long-forgotten door. Ancient, circular, and inlaid with six beast emblems—five glowing faintly.
One remained dark.
The Sixth Emblem.
A jagged silhouette, neither serpent nor bird. Not scaled nor feathered. Just… void.
Behind Evan, Lilith held a torch made from her spirit flames. Her gaze scanned the faded inscriptions.
"This door wasn't built by humans," she murmured. "These runes… they're older. Dwarven? No. Elven? No—it's older than both."
"It reacts to my Divine beast aura," Evan said quietly. "Nex trembled the moment we approached it."
From within, something stirred. Not movement. Not sound.
Memory.
Nex's voice echoed in Evan's mind.
"The Sixth isn't a beast. It's what comes after. The world forgot it for a reason."
Scene Two: The New Arrival
The next day, a new student arrived at Aflety.
He wore a plain robe, travel-worn, and a blindfold wrapped around his eyes. But the moment he stepped into the Academy's grounds, every beast on the campus flinched.
Evan felt it too. Like pressure folding around his heart.
Headmaster Veylan met him at the gate. "You're earlier than expected."
The blindfolded boy bowed slightly. "I was called. My beast heard something. And it's waking."
No beast was seen at his side. No aura flared.
But Nex whispered, shaken for the first time.
"That boy… he's bound to something not of this world."
Lilith narrowed her eyes. "Who is he?"
Professor Caelith answered grimly from behind.
"His name is Ashen.
He's bonded to the Sixth."
Scene Three: The Dream of Beasts
That night, everyone who had bonded a Divine-ranked beast dreamed.
Not of victory.
But of chains.
Crimson chains wrapped around the necks of mighty monsters. Screams of beasts long forgotten. A sky burning with golden fire. A world ruled by fear, not harmony.
And above it all—a gate.
Shattered.
Beyond it: something watching.
Evan awoke in a cold sweat. Nex appeared beside him in spectral form.
"The dreams are bleeding through the veil.
The past is trying to rewrite itself."
He turned to Evan with a look almost… human.
"You're not the only one chosen. But you might be the only one who chooses us back."
Scene Four: The Beast Council is Summoned
By morning, Aflety went into lockdown.
The Divine Beast Council—an assembly of high nobles, ancient professors, and royal envoys—was summoned to decide what would happen next.
Evan and Ashen were both summoned to testify.
Kaelen watched from the side, arms folded, his Golden Wyvern behind him.
"You brought this upon us," he hissed as Evan passed. "You and your cursed Basilisk."
Ashen, however, simply smiled behind his blindfold. "Or maybe we're waking up from a long lie."
The council debated. Should the trials end? Should the Divine beasts be sealed again?
Then, one voice broke the tension.
The Crimson Zephyrlis, in spiritual projection, entered the chamber.
And said just one line:
"You cannot cage what remembers the sky."
Scene Five: The Awakening Begins
Outside the chamber, as the council erupted in arguments, Evan stood alone with Ashen beneath the moon.
"I've seen you before," Evan said. "Not in person. In visions. You were there when the gate broke."
Ashen smiled faintly. "We all were. You just forgot."
He raised a hand. A mark pulsed on his palm—six-pointed, not five.
"The Sixth doesn't destroy. It reveals. The beasts were never meant to be tamed.
They were meant to remind you who you really are."
Then his spirit beast stirred.
And the ground shook.
A pulse, like a heartbeat, echoed across the campus.
One by one, the Divine beasts all over Aflety raised their heads.
And remembered.
[End of Chapter 23]