The first students arrived at dawn, and with them came enough political tension to start three wars.
Ethan stood at the academy entrance with Nyx, watching shuttles descend from orbit. Each one bore different insignias—the burning sun of the Solar Dynasty, the crystal formation of the Celestial Dominion, the wolf crest of the Fenris Pack. Twenty ships in total, each carrying the chosen representatives of their factions.
"Remember," Nyx murmured, "you're the teacher here, not a prize. Establish authority immediately, or they'll see you as something to be claimed rather than learned from."
The first shuttle's ramp lowered, and a group of Solar Dynasty warriors emerged. Their leader was tall, with skin that shimmered like molten gold and eyes that burned with actual flames. She approached Ethan with predatory grace.
"I am Captain Vex of the Solar Elite Guard," she announced. "Empress Kara sends her regards and her finest students. We are here to learn—" her gaze raked over Ethan with obvious hunger, "—everything you have to teach."
"Then you'll start by respecting boundaries," Ethan said firmly. "I'm your instructor, not your target. Anyone who can't accept that can leave now."
Vex's smile was sharp. "How refreshingly direct. Very well, Instructor. We will behave. For now."
The other groups arrived in quick succession. Celestial warriors led by a stern-faced woman who introduced herself as Captain Lyris, clearly sent by the Empress to watch over Seris. Fenris Pack members who immediately deferred to Princess Lyra with military precision. And then representatives from factions Ethan barely recognized—insectoid species, crystalline beings, entities made of living energy.
By the time all twenty groups had assembled in the Core Chamber, the diversity was staggering. Over three hundred students from dozens of species, all watching Ethan with varying degrees of curiosity, hunger, and skepticism.
"Welcome to the Twilight Academy," Ethan began, his voice amplified by the chamber's natural acoustics. "You're here because your factions believe the Immortal Path can benefit your people. You're right. But understand this—what I'm teaching isn't just new techniques. It's a fundamental shift in how cultivation works."
He activated his spiritual sense, letting his energy radiate through the chamber. Every student felt it—the strange, flowing quality of Immortal Path cultivation that didn't hoard power but channeled it.
"Traditional cultivation traps cosmic energy in your cores," Ethan continued. "You compress it, refine it, make it yours. The Immortal Path is different. You become a conduit, not a container. The power flows through you, not into you."
A Celestial student raised her hand. "That sounds weaker. Why would we want—"
The chamber's energy suddenly fluctuated. Not from Ethan, but from something else. The temperature dropped twenty degrees in seconds, and every cultivator's spiritual sense screamed warnings.
Nyx was moving before anyone else reacted. "Everyone down! Now!"
Reality tore open above the chamber. A rift, impossible and wrong, splitting the air like a wound. And through it came something that made Ethan's blood freeze.
A Voidborne scout. Smaller than the one at Sanctuary Prime, but no less terrifying. Its form shifted between states of matter, tentacles and mouths and geometries that hurt to perceive.
Students screamed. Some tried to run. Others powered up attacks that would do nothing against an entity that existed partially outside reality.
"Hold!" Ethan's command cut through the panic. The Immortal Path inheritance flooded his mind with information—protocols the Primordials had developed specifically for fighting Voidborne. "Nobody attack! Your traditional cultivation will only feed it!"
The creature descended toward the densest group of students—all that concentrated cultivation energy drawing it like a beacon.
Ethan didn't think. He reached out with his resonance ability, not toward his bonded companions, but toward every student in the chamber simultaneously. The Path of Connection allowed it, encouraged it even. Three hundred different energy signatures, three hundred different species.
He invited them all in.
The resonance links formed in a cascading wave. Not deep bonds like with his companions, but temporary connections that let him feel every student's fear, their power, their potential. And through those connections, he channeled.
"Follow my energy!" Ethan shouted. "Don't fight it—flow with it!"
He demonstrated with his own cultivation, letting Immortal Path energy cycle through him and out into the web of connections. The students felt it, and instinctively, some began to mirror the pattern.
The effect was immediate. The Voidborne creature's advance slowed, then stopped. It wasn't being attacked—it was being stabilized, forced into a single quantum state by the flowing energy pattern that surrounded it.
"More!" Ethan pushed harder, sweat beading on his forehead. "Channel, don't compress! Let it flow!"
Fifty students grasped the concept. Then a hundred. Then two hundred. The Immortal Path energy built not through accumulation but through circulation, creating a network that encompassed the entire chamber.
The Voidborne creature solidified completely, its reality-warping nature locked into stable matter. It shrieked, a sound that existed in dimensions beyond hearing, and then—
It fled. The rift sealed behind it, reality snapping back into place like elastic.
Ethan collapsed to his knees, the resonance links dissolving as his concentration broke. The chamber was silent except for heavy breathing and the occasional sob from traumatized students.
Then Captain Vex laughed. It was a sound of genuine delight and revelation.
"By the stars," she breathed. "We just repelled a Voidborne entity. Together. With techniques we learned in thirty seconds." She looked at Ethan with new eyes—not hunger, but respect. "You weren't exaggerating. This changes everything."
Nyx helped Ethan to his feet, her expression grim. "That wasn't random. Voidborne don't just stumble into shielded planets. It was sent here deliberately."
"A test," Commander Seris said, her tactical mind already working. "Someone wanted to see if the Immortal Path could actually counter them."
"Or a warning," Princess Lyra growled. "Showing us what's coming if we continue down this path."
Ethan steadied himself, looking at the three hundred students who now stared at him with a mixture of awe and fear. One demonstration had taught them more than any lecture could—the Immortal Path wasn't theoretical. It was the only weapon that worked against the threat destroying the galaxy.
"Class dismissed for today," he said quietly. "Tomorrow, we begin proper training. Because that was just a scout. The real threats are much, much worse."
As students filed out in shocked silence, Ethan's system pinged.
**[MAJOR EVENT DETECTED]**
**[VOIDBORNE AWARENESS: YOU HAVE BEEN MARKED]**
**[WARNING: LARGER THREATS WILL TARGET YOU DIRECTLY]**
**[NEW QUEST AVAILABLE: REACH SOUL REALM BEFORE THE SWARM ARRIVES]**
**[TIME LIMIT: 60 DAYS]**
Ethan stared at the notification. Sixty days to advance multiple cultivation realms, train three hundred students, and prepare for a Voidborne assault that could destroy everything.
The academy had just become a race against extinction.
And the clock was already ticking.