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Chapter 3
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The False Star Chapter 9
Before my voice had even faded, the beast that had swallowed Lucian seemed unsatisfied.Its crimson eyes pierced the clouds and fixed on every last soul in the Ashveil Order.It opened its mouth and loosed an earth-shaking roar.The savage soundwave hardened into a physical shockwave and came crashing down again."Look out!"Garrick and the other two elders blanched and at once joined their power to raise a defensive barrier."All of you, form the blade formation! Defend the Order!"Lyra finally shook off her shock and regret. She drew her sword and shouted out commands.Yet their strength was pitifully small before that ancient monster.The barrier the three elders raised together held for less than three breaths before it webbed over with cracks, on the verge of breaking.The blade formation the others threw together was torn apart by a single soundwave. Many vomited blood where they stood and were flung backward through the air.The whole Ashveil Order teetered on the edg
The False Star Chapter 8
In that moment, every member of the Ashveil Order finally understood.The source of this towering catastrophe was the very youngster they'd all doted on.Another tremendous crash sounded.Eaten away by the monstrous aura, the Order's great mountain-ward let out a strained groan, its light guttering unsteadily.A colossal claw that blotted out the sky tore through the clouds and came slamming down toward the Order."Aaah!"Lucian finally broke.He let out a shrill scream and lost his mind entirely."System! System, save me! Didn't you say I was the chosen one?"Didn't you say I'd crush every prodigy underfoot and rule this whole world?"Why is this happening? Why?"He shrieked at empty air, his words tumbling out in a jumble of phrases no one there could make sense of.The others listened in bafflement and assumed terror had simply driven him mad.Only I narrowed my eyes a fraction.Seeing the monstrous claw about to fall and his pleas answered by nothing, Lucian abruptly
The False Star Chapter 7
Lucian himself had gone paler than paper.He stared at his own hands in disbelief, feeling the muddy, churning power inside him.The disguise around him—the shell of a supreme Tidewater Gift, piled together from some secret art and a fortune in rare reagents and relics—had been shattered to nothing by my palm."No... impossible... this is impossible!"He screamed, half out of his mind.He turned, pleading, to the senior women who had once doted on and shielded him in every way they could.But now those women looked at him with shock, with disgust, with contempt.They drew back as if from a plague, putting clear distance between themselves and him.So he flung his last hope toward the teacher who had once prized him like a gem—Lyra Moonglass.Lyra was watching him too, her expression a tangled knot.There was the anger of being deceived, the regret of being fooled, but most of all the hollowness left when a dream falls apart.For this so-called chosen one, she had gambled her
The False Star Chapter 6
Then, from a corner, came a student's faint mutter."Th-that's surely because... Lucian has the once-in-a-thousand-years Tidewater Gift..."He's the future of the Ashveil Order, the chosen one destined to ascend to godhood..."We... we only treated him well for the Order's sake..."The words were a spark dropped into dry grass.At once, plenty of others chimed in."Exactly! Lucian's talent is one in a million. Of course we'd pour everything we have into raising him!""Once Lucian ascends, the Ashveil Order will rise with him and become the foremost power in the whole mage world!""For the glory of the Order, what's the harm in sacrificing a few things?"Listening to such absurd reasoning, I actually laughed from sheer anger."A supreme Tidewater Gift? A chosen one?"If I'd been his age, watered with this many rare reagents and relics and still couldn't so much as touch the First Circle, I'd be so mortified I'd have crawled into a hole and died."My words came down on the ro
The False Star Chapter 5
That slap left Lucian utterly dazed. He cupped his face and even forgot to cry.I stopped looking at him. My gaze cut back to Lyra like a blade."One last question."The Ashveil Order's tradition, kept for a thousand years, says the Harvest Moon Banquet is held to welcome new members."Why did tonight's turn into one student's birthday feast?"Lyra Moonglass—is this how you lead this Order?"A cold, killing edge had crept into my voice.Lyra couldn't hold herself up any longer. She crumpled to the floor, shaking like a leaf."Grandmaster... I know I was wrong... I know I was wrong..."Beyond repeating those words, she could manage nothing else.Seeing this, Garrick, Merrick, and Alden could no longer keep their feet.The three elders dropped to their knees with heavy thuds and pressed their foreheads to the floor again and again."Grandmaster, please, your anger!"The fault is ours! The fault is ours!"Garrick wept with regret."These past years, the three of us chased t
The False Star Chapter 4
The onlookers who'd gathered their wits gaped and whispered among themselves."The elder's own master... then that would make him our Ashveil Order's...""Grandmaster Rowan Ashveil?"The other two elders behind Garrick finally surfaced from their shock as well.One was the little beggar I'd once scooped up off the roadside, now the elder of the Alchemy Hall—Merrick Hale.The other was the blade-obsessed boy I'd raised with my own hands, now the elder of the Blade Hall—Alden Pine.Merrick rubbed his eyes, and when he saw clearly that it was me, his beard quivered with emotion.Alden was blunter still. With a heavy thud he dropped to his knees."Your student Alden Pine welcomes you back from seclusion, Grandmaster!"The three of them seemed to have found their footing again. They crowded around me, fussing over me all at once."Grandmaster, a hundred years you've been shut away. We missed you so badly!""Grandmaster, are you hungry? Thirsty? I'll have the Alchemy Hall brew the
