The Anomaly's Path

Vance’s lecture ended exactly on time.

The moment the words ”that’s enough for today” left his mouth, the whole hall burst into motion. Books slammed shut. Chairs scraped against the floor. A wave of tired students let out a long breath they’d been holding in.

Around me, people were already packing their bags, eager to escape the weight of the studies still sitting on the slate board. Roan let out a loud groan and dropped his forehead onto the desk with a dull thud.

”Finally,” Roan muttered, his voice muffled by the wood. ”I feel alive again. Otherwise I was going to die of boredom.”

I ignored him for a second, keeping my seat as the crowd slowly thinned out around our rows. I stayed still, rubbing the back of my neck as my eyes drifted back to the empty podium. Vance was a good professor.

I wasn’t saying that just because he had burned through his own life force to hold a failing barrier together during the Gate disaster, but because his breakdown of mana theory actually made sense when you were bleeding out in a real fight.

He taught us how mana wasn’t just a muscle to flex, but a precise network.

And looking back at my progress over the past three months, I realized how much of my bloodline potential I had been wasting before.

My Continuum Bloodline was strange. It generated mana passively, absorbed energies through Energy Siphon, healed my body at an accelerated rate, and adapted to new injuries through Adaptive Resistance.

Because of it, my mana channels were flexible enough to hold multiple affinities without my core shattering.

Yet, for the longest time, I had barely scratched the surface of what it could do. I hadn’t pushed its limits. Worse still, my bloodline had only half-awakened. I had no idea how to unlock its full potential, especially since it didn’t belong to the Celestial family, but to the Forgotten One.

And I sure as hell wasn’t going to ask Nova about it...

I sat there staring blankly, my mind still tangled in those thoughts until a sharp voice snapped me out of it.

”Hey. You planning to sleep in here, or are you actually going to move your ass?” Alice’s voice cut through my thoughts.

I blinked, shook my head, and got to my feet, stretching my arms with a quiet groan. Exactly how to bridge that gap and pull out its deeper layers was still a mess in my head. But I’d figure it out on my own terms. I didn’t need a system guide or an ancient being holding my hand to push past my own limits.

I stuffed my hands into my trouser pockets as we walked out into the busy hallway with the rest of the class.

”...What’s the next class?” I asked, glancing sideways at Alice.

”Elemental Control and Theory,” she muttered, rolling her eyes.

Right behind us, Roan groaned loudly, dragging his feet like he was walking to his own execution. He looked like he was about to fall over right there on the floor.

”You know...” Roan whined, throwing his head back in despair, ”I’m thinking we should just skip today’s lecture. Let’s go down to the sparring grounds or just go to the cafeteria and eat something. I don’t want another boring lecture.”

”If you’re going to whine this much, why even sign up for this class? It’s not like you used your affinity.” Alice tilted her head, a slow, teasing smirk pulling at the corner of her lips as her eyes glinted with mischief. ”What’s the matter, Roan? Did you only join because you wanted to sit near me and Leo? Hehe... missing us that much?”

I shook my head, keeping my face completely neutral as Roan choked, his face instantly turning bright red.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out why Roan had really taken the class, or why he was trying so hard to hide his nerves behind a wall of complaints. Beneath all the loud whining, the reality of the past three months still hung heavy over everyone.

Veyra had been strict, brilliant, and a good professor.

When she died holding the line, the academy had scrambled for a replacement. Because of the Gate incident and the Elf King’s heightened caution, the Elven Court had practically forced their own kind into the position. Headmaster Vega hadn’t had a choice.

And, much to Roan’s eternal misery, the new professor was his aunt.

She was a Transcendent Mid-ranker, a terrifying powerhouse with deep knowledge and real combat skill. And because she was his aunt, she knew every single lazy trick Roan tried to pull.

Roan had the legendary Time affinity, a monstrous power that could twist seconds, yet he stubbornly refused to use it, relying only on his physical strength and spear mastery. His aunt knew he was a prodigy. But she also knew he was lazy, wasting his potential while coasting on raw talent.

...And she didn’t show him an ounce of bias.

_

Despite Roan’s endless whining, we pushed through the doors and entered the class, finding our seats as the rest of the students settled in.

Down in the rows ahead, Amelia and Lyssaria were already seated side by side. They weren’t newcomers to this subject; both of them had been taking Elemental Control and Theory since the day I joined this elective.

As we slid into our row just a few seats away, Lyssaria turned her head, her jade-green eyes catching mine with a soft, polite nod of greeting.

Before I could nod back, the front rows shifted, and Alice leaned sideways across the gap between our seats, her shoulder dipping as a mischievous grin spread across her face. Her voice dropped just enough to carry over the settling chatter, sharp enough to cut through the room’s growing tension.

”Hey, Amelia,” Alice called out casually, her tone dripping with playful teasing as she looked toward the front rows. ”I can’t help but notice you’re sitting all by yourself today. Where did your golden-boy boyfriend run off to? Did Arthur finally get tired of you, or are you two just taking a break from making the rest of the academy sick?”

A few nearby heads snapped around at the mention of the academy’s most famous couple. Up front, Amelia’s pale skin turned a bright, burning red. She froze, her eyes wide with embarrassment.

”Al-Alice! Shut up!” Amelia hissed under her breath, her voice cracking as she ducked her head behind her notebook, looking ready to melt through the stone floor.

Beside her, Lyssaria gave a soft, sympathetic sigh, though a tiny, amused smile twitched at the corner of her lips.

A few seats over, Roan groaned and buried his face in his hands. ”By the gods, Alice, do you ever turn it off? You’re going to give the poor girl a heart attack.”

”What?” Alice retorted innocently, her grin widening as she leaned back, her arms crossed. ”I’m just asking after our dear hero’s well-being. Everyone’s been wondering how much progress those two have made since it became official. Did they finally tie the knot, or are they still just holding hands in the gardens? Actually, fuck it.”

A devilish grin spread across her face. ”Hehe... you know what, Amelia? Do you know how kids are born? Do you want me to teach you? Seriously, you don’t think a fairy comes or something by just holding hands kids born, do you? Kids don’t appear just like that—”

Amelia looked like she wanted the ceiling to cave in right then and there. Ever since Arthur had finally broken through his own self-doubt and made their relationship official, the whole academy had watched the hero and Amelia become the ultimate topic of gossip.

Of course, it had drawn plenty of jealous stares from nobles and others alike who thought they had a claim on the legendary hero, but nobody dared say a word to Arthur’s face anymore. He was backed by the entire Holy Kingdom, and his power spoke for itself.

I sat there quietly, watching the exchange with a dry smirk. I didn’t feel any bitterness about it anymore. Remembering that night in the empty training hall, where the wooden swords had splintered into pieces and the heavy air between me and Arthur had finally cleared, felt like looking back at a different life.

I had let out years of poison that night, telling him exactly how much I had resented both of them. In return, I watched the crushing weight of his guilt finally break apart into dust. We weren’t friends, and we would probably never be.

But letting go of that dead weight had freed me completely.

Arthur had his own heavy path to walk as the chosen hero, and I had my own bloodline and my own limits to break. Letting out a quiet breath, I shook my head at Alice’s endless teasing and looked toward the raised podium as the heavy doors at the front clicked shut.

Stepping into the room was our new professor — Professor Lorien, a striking elven woman with perfect silver hair braided into a tight crown. Her sharp jade-green eyes held a cold, unyielding mind, and her features were so refined they carried the clear weight of high elven blood.

She didn’t waste a single second on introductions. Her cold gaze swept over the murmuring rows of students before she spoke.

”...Quiet down,” she said, her voice carrying easily across the class without any effort.

The murmurs died down instantly.

”Today we are going to learn about a different topic, and I am very sure many of you sitting here have heard or know about it,” she continued, eyes sweeping across the rows with cool authority. ”I am talking about the Soul Dominion and the Arcane Realm.”

She paused, letting her gaze linger over the room before shifting into her core lesson.

”For the past years, since the catastrophic shifts in mana density following the increasing Gate’s disaster, some of you have experienced entirely unnatural growth rates,” she began, her tone remaining disciplined and unyielding.

”Among the students sitting in this room, a few of you have already broken through to the Master rank, and at this rate, you will soon push into the Grandmaster rank. With the environment changing the way it is, it won’t take long, perhaps before your time at this academy comes to an end, or even sooner.”

A few ripples of tension spread through the room.

I leaned back slightly in my seat, feeling the weight of her words. It made sense; after all, we had reached the Master rank in just three months. Roan and I were sitting comfortably at Master Mid, while Alice was at Master Low.

The professor paused, letting her eyes linger over our section before continuing.

”I understand it must feel hopeless for some of you, sitting alongside monsters like them...” she said, her tone level and matter-of-fact. ”You look at their progress and think the gap is huge. But this is reality. You have to accept it rather than deny it. Yes, those monsters exist. But does anyone here have a guarantee that those monsters will even successfully manifest a Soul Dominion or an Arcane Realm?”

She paused, looking directly at the students who looked discouraged.

”A Soul Dominion is not handed out just because you possess a powerful affinity,” she continued, pacing slowly across the raised platform. ”If someone refuses to work on their affinity, if they laze around relying solely on physical strength and techniques, they will hit a wall they can never climb. Even the strongest affinity is useless if the wielder cannot master the flow of mana.”

Roan twitched slightly beside me, muttering a quiet curse under his breath, while a few muffled snickers rippled through the nearby rows. Everyone in the room knew that last line was aimed at him, the elven prodigy who spent more time being lazy than working on his affinity.

”Didn’t Professor Vance teach you all how a fighter with a lower rank could defeat someone of a higher rank simply because their mana control and efficiency were superior? The same principle applies here. If someone has absolute mastery over their element, they can bridge the gap. And that mastery directly feeds into your Soul Dominion or Arcane Realm.”

She stopped pacing and pressed her hands flat against the podium.

”Let us return to today’s core topic. Can a Soul Dominion depend on your affinity? Yes. While it is true that a Soul Dominion is forged from your will, intent, and experience, it is also shaped by your affinity... the very nature of the element you command.”

She snapped her fingers.

The air in the class changed instantly. The walls disappeared. The normal light of the lecture hall twisted into a breathtaking, unreal night landscape made of black glass and starlight.

A soft, glowing mist rolled across the ground like shining fog, casting long, ghostly shadows that seemed to breathe on their own. Above us, instead of a normal sky, hung a huge, twilight space of bruised purple and deep indigo, pierced by countless glittering stars that pulsed with a hypnotic, steady glow.

A quiet, heavy stillness fell over the place, carrying a sweet, intoxicating smell of night-blooming jasmine and silver pine that instantly made everyone’s eyelids feel heavy. Even I felt a sudden jolt of surprise. The sheer surreal beauty of it was stunning — a dreamscape made manifest.

The space grew into a wide, hauntingly beautiful place where ghostly mists and drifting starlight bent to an hypnotic rhythm. We weren’t sitting in a classroom anymore. We were standing inside a living, breathing dream world driven entirely by her mastery over the rarest form of wind.

As the first heavy wave of her ghostly breeze washed over everyone, students around me sucked in a sharp breath, their heads snapping around in complete awe as they tried to take in the sheer size of the illusion.

High above the black ground, Professor Lorien appeared, her perfect silver braids flowing behind her as she drifted effortlessly through the air, her form hovering gracefully on invisible currents of starlit wind like a queen of the night.

Below her, strange, fantastical creatures woven entirely from glowing mist and drifting starlight began to form from the shadows, clear stags with antlers of pale fire, and ghostly birds of prey gliding silently through the twilight sky, all bound to her domain.

Her voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere at once, carrying a soothing, resonance that bypassed our ears and drifted straight into our minds.

”What you are seeing right now is merely a fragment of my Soul Dominion, just a tiny fraction of its true power, because a full manifestation here would overwhelm your fragile consciousness,” she said, her eyes gleaming with starlight as she looked down at us from the sky.

”The environment around you reflects the nature of my affinity. Dream Wind, a quirky, specialized affinity that carries the essence of sleep, illusion and wind. In simple terms, a Soul Dominion exists to amplify your affinity, and your affinity exists to anchor your domain. Here, within the bounds of this dream, I am the queen, and every breath you take is mine to lull or awaken.”

She looked down at the stunned rows of students.

”If you master your affinity, your domain grows stronger. The higher your skill, the more absolute your authority becomes,” Professor Lorien continued, her voice cutting cleanly through the dream-like haze still clinging to the edges of our minds.

”Every one of you carries a different affinity. That means every one of you will forge a completely unique Soul Dominion or Arcane Realm — one shaped entirely by your deepest spiritual resonance, your combat style, and the limits of your soul’s design.”

She let the gravity of her words settle over everyone, her cold jade eyes sweeping slowly across the rows of students as we all struggled to shake off the lingering phantom scent of night-blooming jasmine and the heavy, intoxicating pull of the sleepy gale we had just inhabited.

Before anyone could fully process the sheer size of the pressure that had just been pressing down on our minds, she snapped her fingers a second time.

The magnificent night landscape shattered like glass. Brilliant pieces of starlight dissolved into thin air. The room snapped back with a sharp, jarring pop. We were instantly back in the familiar, stone-walled room, blinking against the sudden, harsh return of normal lecture hall reality.

A heavy, awestruck silence gripped the students for a long heartbeat. No one dared to speak. The sheer majesty of what we had just witnessed, even if it was only a tiny piece of her true power, had left everyone mentally frozen.

Slowly, the first shock began to wear off, replaced by the crushing realization of how huge the gap truly was between us and a seasoned master. Near the front row, a nervous hand went up, trembling slightly.

”Professor,” he asked. ”If... if an affinity can shape a Soul Dominion or Arcane Realm like that, what happens if someone has more than one affinity? Do they get two Soul Dominions?”

The question hung in the air, drawing curious glances from around the room. It made sense, after all, in the known world, everyone possessed only a single affinity, leading to one unified domain. Except, right here in this room, sitting quietly among the students, there was an anomaly.

...And that anomaly was me.