Ash descended from the stratosphere. He didn't fall; he simply allowed gravity to reclaim him, his passive aura completely reigned in so he wouldn't crush the students below. His silver hair caught the sunlight, flowing slightly even in the still air, and his starlight eyes scanned the grounds. His robes, woven from condensed cosmic energy, shimmered with a faint, dark gray luster that looked less like fabric and more like the night sky itself.
Below him, the academy grounds were a sea of stillness. The conceptual shockwave of his breakthrough had faded, but the air was still thick with the lingering, heavy resonance of the nine True Cosmic Laws. Millions of students and thousands of instructors were sitting cross-legged on the grass and stone plazas, locked in perfect lotus positions.
As Ash's feet pointed toward the ground, the telepathic chatter that had been buzzing across the campus died instantly. Millions of eyes turned upward.
