Merlin didn't wait for the debate to continue. He turned toward the direction of the distortion, a faint shimmer in the air that the others could barely see. To him, with his space affinity sharpened, it was clear as a scar in the fabric of reality.
He could feel it leaking energy, faint but wrong.
"Stay close," he said simply.
They followed.
The deeper they went, the stranger the forest became.
The trees twisted slightly as if growing toward the distortion's pull. The ground sloped unnaturally, patches of dirt slick with mana residue.
Liliana slowed, looking around. "Are we sure this is part of the test? I've trained in simulation fields before, but this…"
"It's not," Elara said quietly.
Merlin nodded once. "These readings don't belong to the academy's resonance field. They're older. Maybe from… before the campus was built."
Nathan glanced up. "You're saying the academy built its training grounds on top of something?"
"Wouldn't be the first time," Dorian muttered.
