Morning came too quickly.
Aurelion woke to the sound of Ikea humming loudly while brushing his teeth. It was a jarringly normal sound in a place that felt so clinical and sterile.
"Rise and shine, Godframe kid!" Ikea chirped, spitting into the small sink. "Today's the day we find out if you're actually a big deal or just a fluke."
Aurelion groaned, sitting up. His body ached from the day before, but his mind felt clearer.
"Noah?" he thought.
"I'm here," Noah replied, his voice steady. "I'm ready."
The training grounds were massive.
They looked like a football stadium, if a football stadium had been built for giants. The floor was covered in thick, hard-packed sand, surrounded by towering walls embedded with hard-light projectors and kinetic dampeners.
Dozens of recruits stood in the center, all wearing the same black and gray uniforms. They looked pristine. They looked ready.
Aurelion felt like a child playing dress-up.
Instructor Vael stood on a raised platform, her arms crossed. Beside her stood a recruit that made Aurelion's stomach drop.
He was a teenager, maybe seventeen, with broad shoulders and a jaw that looked like it had been chiseled from granite. He was at least twice Aurelion's height and three times his weight.
"That's Brutus," Ikea whispered, leaning over. "Top of the class. He's a high-tier recruit. They say he's days away from his Light infusion."
"Great," Aurelion muttered.
Vael raised her hand, silencing the murmurs. "Listen up. The Light is not a tool for the weak. It requires a strong foundation, a resilient body, and an unbreakable spirit. Today, we test your foundation. Today, we separate the wheat from the chaff."
She pointed a finger directly at Aurelion.
"Recruit Reyes. Since you have already demonstrated a... unique interaction with the Light, you will be tested first. You will spar against Recruit Brutus."
The crowd gasped. Even Ikea looked pale.
"He's going to kill us," Noah whispered.
"No," Aurelion thought, his eyes fixed on Brutus's thick, armored boots. "He's going to underestimate us."
Aurelion walked into the center of the sand.
Brutus towered over him. The teenager smirked, cracking his knuckles. "This is a joke. They want me to fight a toddler?"
"Standard sparring rules," Vael called out. "No Light allowed. This is purely physical. Begin."
Brutus didn't even take a stance. He just lunged forward, throwing a heavy, wide right hook. It was a strike meant to knock Aurelion out cold.
Aurelion didn't block. His body was too small to absorb the blow.
He simply stepped to the side.
Brutus's fist whistled past his ear, the wind alone strong enough to ruffle Aurelion's hair. Brutus stumbled forward, thrown off balance by his own weight.
Aurelion drove his heel into the back of Brutus's knee.
Brutus grunted, his leg buckling. He swung wildly behind him, trying to catch Aurelion with a backhand, but Aurelion was already gone, slipping under his arm.
"Too slow," Aurelion said.
"Shut up!" Brutus roared. He threw a flurry of punches. To the onlookers, it looked like the child was moving impossibly fast, but Aurelion knew the truth. He wasn't fast. Brutus was just telegraphed.
Three thousand years of combat. Millions of battles. This is just a child throwing a tantrum.
Aurelion used Brutus's momentum against him. He caught the hem of Brutus's sleeve, pulled hard, and used the giant's own weight to pull him off his feet.
Brutus slammed into the sand with a heavy thud. Aurelion didn't hesitate. He climbed onto Brutus's chest, grabbed his wrist, and wrenched it into a joint lock.
"Yield," Aurelion said.
Brutus thrashed, his ego bruised and his arm burning. "Get off me!"
"I said yield."
Brutus struggled, but Aurelion used his body weight to pin him. Finally, with a humiliated growl, Brutus tapped the sand.
"I yield."
Aurelion let go and stepped back.
The arena was dead silent.
Instructor Vael stared at him, her mouth slightly open. The other recruits looked like they had just seen a ghost. Ikea was grinning so wide it looked like his face might split in half.
"We won," Noah breathed, a mix of relief and excitement in his voice.
"We won the battle," Aurelion corrected, his eyes scanning the instructors' faces. "But we might have just lost the war."
After the sparring match, Vael approached him.
"Your technique is flawless," she said quietly, so the other recruits wouldn't hear. "But it isn't the technique of a child. It's the technique of a soldier. A general."
Aurelion kept his face blank. "I read a lot."
Vael didn't smile. "We are done with the physical tests. Follow me."
She led him out of the arena, away from the other recruits. They walked through a series of heavily guarded blast doors, descending deeper and deeper into the Academy.
"The Light is not something you can just absorb," Vael said as they walked. "It is alive. It tests you. You passed the physical test, but the Light requires a mental one."
They stopped in front of a massive metal door.
"Where are we going?" Aurelion asked.
"To the Seraphim Integration Chamber," Vael said. "It's time to see if that fragment you swallowed has killed you or changed you."
The chamber was a massive, dark room. At its center was a single chair, surrounded by rings of humming machinery and glowing conduits.
"Take a seat," Vael instructed. "We're going to push your mental limits. See what the Light has done to your mind."
Aurelion sat in the chair. The machines hummed louder.
"Noah," Aurelion thought. "If they look too closely, they'll see us. They'll see two minds."
"Then we need to hide you," Noah said. "Let me take the front. I can take the pain."
"No. If they push too hard, they might break you."
"I'm just a kid, Aurelion. They won't expect me to resist. They'll think I'm weak. I'll let them see me. You hide."
Aurelion hated the idea, but he knew Noah was right.
"Okay," Aurelion said, retreating into the back of their shared mind. "Just scream if it gets too much."
Vael stepped up to the chair and placed a glowing helmet on Aurelion's head.
"Try to stay conscious," she said, and pulled the lever.
The simulation was brutal.
It wasn't a memory of his past. It was a nightmare. It was an endless loop of the Academy burning, of Colossi tearing through the walls, of the people he was supposed to save dying at his feet. The Light, still lingering inside him, amplified the fear.
It was designed to break the mind. To see if the pilot could handle the pressure.
Noah took the brunt of it. He screamed. He cried. He thrashed in the chair. But he held on. He didn't break.
But Aurelion felt it. Every tear. Every scream.
"That's enough!" Aurelion roared from the back of their mind. "Noah, pull out!"
"I... I can't... it hurts..."
Something inside Aurelion snapped.
He wouldn't let the Light hurt the child. He wouldn't let the Light hurt Ami. He wouldn't let the Light hurt anyone.
The shards of Azrathor reacted to his rage. The darkness swelled.
Aurelion reached out from the back of the mind, grabbed the mental simulation, and tore it apart.
The chamber shattered.
The machines exploded. Sparks flew, conduits melted. Instructor Vael was thrown backward by the shockwave. The helmet on Aurelion's head cracked in half and fell to the floor.
Aurelion sat in the chair, his eyes glowing a dark, bloody crimson. The Light inside him and the darkness of the shards were swirling together, fighting for dominance.
Vael stared at him. Her hand went to her weapon.
"What..." she whispered. "What are you?"
Aurelion looked at her, his vision swimming. Then, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed.