The stars above Universität der Ewigen Flamme did not twinkle that night.
They watched.
Ominous and still, veiled in a thin film of aetheric mist that had not been present since the Days of Ignition. An unnatural quiet settled across the higher plateaus of the campus. No ember flocks flew. No summoned guardians patrolled the crystal-lit causeways. Something had shifted in the very mana-streams of the Flamefold region.
Maximilian felt it first in his bones.
He stood at the peak of the Obsidian Spire, the only place in the entire university where the aether was thin enough for someone with his lineage to breathe freely. The air vibrated with pressure—not of flame, but of inevitability.
A war was coming.
But not the one they'd been warned about.
Not a war of houses. Not a duel of academies. This was older. Deeper. It had been coiled around the foundation of the Flame Thrones themselves.
A whisper drifted from the wind.
"He knows."
Maximilian's eyes narrowed.
Lore Drop: The Wound of the Flame
The Wound of the Flame was a forbidden name—one lost to the tongues of men after the Sundering of the Second Epoch. Hidden beneath the Eternal Flame's chambers, it was a spatial fracture, a cursed artifact, and a prison for something the gods themselves feared: Eiroz, the Ember-Deceiver. Once a Starforger like Maximilian's mentor, he had betrayed the Flame Concord and shattered time-threads to create forbidden class paths.
It had not stirred in centuries.
Until now.
Below the spire, chaos was beginning to unfurl.
In the House of Pyrolith's southern citadel, an explosion lit the sky crimson—no flare warning, no trial announcement. Just raw devastation. Students and initiates scrambled. Flames licked across the shields of the soul-barrier. Golems overloaded.
And at the epicenter stood Maelis von Draquell.
Or rather, what had once been her.
Her hair, once silver, now smoldered black. Her aura radiated an impossible heat—one Maximilian recognized from a prophecy whispered in the ruins of Uhrwerk-Dämmerung.
She had activated a Worldbreak Seed.
"Maelis—stop!" Alwin bellowed, rushing through the crumbling courtyard.
She turned, eyes glowing with violet flame, and spoke words that cracked reality:
"The Flame is a Lie."
Maximilian dove from the spire without hesitation, cloak flaring behind him, Zeitbrecher forming into its dual-blade mode. The clash was instant. The sky tore.
Character Interlude: Maelis von Draquell
Born of ash and blood, Maelis was chosen by the Twin Stars—the mythic avatars of flame and void. Her role had always been unclear, her power sealed until the convergence of a thousand time-threads.
What Maximilian did not know—what no one had known—was that her mother had once been a Flamebound, then defected into the Vaulted Dusk. Maelis carried not just noble blood, but a shard of something darker.
The Worldbreak Seed was her birthright. But it was also a curse.
Her betrayal was not of choice—but of fate.
The battle lasted less than a minute in real-time.
But for Maximilian, anchored in his evolving temporal field, it spanned eternities.
Every strike from Maelis bent causality. Her spear, Tenebrae Ignis, devoured light. She spoke in tongues only Starforgers should've known. And yet—
He refused to kill her.
Instead, he caught her in a Temporal Chain and forced her consciousness into stasis. She collapsed, spear shattering beside her.
But the cost was steep.
The moment he bound her aura, the seal below the Eternal Flame cracked.
And something laughed.
Item Profile: Tenebrae Ignis
Class: Artifact (Banned Tier)
Origin: Vaulted Dusk
Core Trait: Reverses fire into void, devours thermal-based mana, converts aura into entropy.
Restriction: Only bondable by dual-blooded heirs of the Twin Stars Prophecy.
Status: Broken.
The Flame Parliament convened in emergency.
Warden Stahlgrau demanded Maelis's execution. House Vulcanos prepared their golems for internal purging. Lirael—torn between duty and affection—spoke in Maximilian's defense, shielding him from implication.
But in secret chambers, House Grauwind and Wyrmbinder plotted.
"Let him burn the traitor," one suggested. "And expose his SSS+ soul while doing it."
"They won't wait much longer," Lirael warned him privately. "If you don't choose a House… they'll choose for you."
Maximilian stared into the heart of the Crucible that night. Not to reflect.
To prepare.
Behind him, the door hissed open—and from it stepped not a professor, nor a classmate…
…but the old Starforger again.
"She was only the beginning," he said gravely. "The Wound has opened. And it remembers you."
Maximilian's jaw clenched. "What must I do?"
The old man stepped aside, revealing a stairway descending into forbidden black.
"Claim your next Trial. The Trial of the Starbound Flame."
End of Chapter 39: Sternenverrat – Betrayal Beneath the Stars