Chapter 60: Glory be to Neher.

The grand, winding corridor of the sky sector was entirely silent save for the rhythmic crunch of Thomas’s boots following Instructor Voss.

The beautiful, round-faced woman walked with an effortless grace, her tight-fitting bodysuit shifting seamlessly with every stride as her short bobbed hair danced lightly.

"I suppose you are wondering about the chaos you caused," Voss said, her beautiful voice dropping into a calm, level tone that echoed off the stone blocks. "Well the new rules have officially been codified, and the high-blood families are currently in a state of absolute panic. And they all want your head kid. "

Thomas kept his face perfectly smooth as glass, his dark eyes wide open as he listened intently. He stayed entirely silent about his talent, keeping his mouth shut as she began to break down the three revolutionary decrees that had effectively shattered the social hierarchy within the aademy walls.

"Rule one," Voss stated, a sharp, amused smirk playing on her lips. "All ancestral family crests, gold line embellishments, and bloodline signifier trims are permanently banned from the general academy dress code. Every student, regardless of whether they belong to a High-blood house or a lesser from a village, will wear the exact same uniform. The visual hierarchy is entirely dead."

Thomas subtly looked down at his own silver-trimmed sleeves, his were a sign of his status among the Horsemen Of Calamity.

"Rule two," she continued, her dark eyes flashing with a dangerous intensity. "The private luxury suites and isolated residential tiers of the upper towers are no longer segregated by birthright. Allocation of all high-density mana chambers will be determined strictly by combat placement metrics and tactical contributions. If a High-blood fails to maintain their tier, they will sleep in the common barracks alongside lessers they despise."

Thomas quietly nodded his head, while mapping out the massive, violent friction this rule would cause in his class.

"And finally, rule three," Voss whispered, stopping before a massive, reinforced iron door at the end of the corridor. "Any high-blood student who uses political lineage, wealth, or extra-institutional house pressure to coerce, threaten, or harm a classmate outside the sanctioned arena parameters will face immediate public expulsion. No family council, no royal court, and no sovereign lineage can stay the order. The Headmaster has drawn a hard line."

She placed her hand flat against a glowing runic terminal beside the iron threshold. The heavy stone mechanism groaned, sliding sideways to reveal a vast, sterile private training room. The walls were lined with dense, sound-absorbent lead plating and charcoal mana-dampening mesh, creating an eerie, absolute silence that completely swallowed the ambient hum of the tower.

"Step inside," Voss commanded smoothly, walking toward the center of the reinforced training circle. "This room is completely soundproof. Not even a sensory Talent can easily intercept a single word spoken within this perimeter."

Thomas stepped through the threshold, his boots coming to a halt on the cool stone floor..

"I have been strictly assigned to you by the Headmaster himself," Voss said, her dark eyes locking onto his unblinking face with a sharp, calculating focus. "It seems the aademy’s supreme ruler has an exceptionally unusual, personal interest in your development for him to pull me out of the battlefield."

Thomas’s dark eyes narrowed into thin slits behind his mask, his thoughts violently flashing back to the terrifying, law-defying mountain of mana that had crushed Cedric flat onto his stomach. He remembered Headmaster’s voice echoing across the Crimson Arena. It had sounded intensely, hauntingly familiar, striking a phantom chord deep within his oldest memories from before he ever set foot inside the academy. Thomas knew the origin of the vocal cadence, but he knew there was now way that such a thing was possible, so he firmly brushed the distraction away for now.

"We will officially begin our intensive physical lessons after the class returns from the upcoming outing in the Marshlands," Voss explained, crossing her arms over her well-toned chest. "You need to survive the wetlands first before I can begin my work with you. Tell me, kid, are you truly prepared for the wild?"

"Yes," Thomas said flatly, his voice carrying an absolute, unyielding grit.

Voss stared straight into his eyes for a long, grueling second. Then, her beautiful round face smoothed into a calm, solemn expression, and she muttered a single phrase that Thomas never, in his entire life, expected to hear from anyone else.

"Glory be to Neher."

Thomas froze instantly, his entire physical vessel locking up in a state of absolute, unprecedented shock. His body went completely rigid, his breath catching painfully in his throat. He stood entirely paralyzed, unsure if his auditory senses had completely failed him or if he had simply misheard her words under the heavy pressure of the ward.

"Excuse me?" Thomas rasped out, his flat voice cracking slightly as his farm-boy mask threatened to shatter entirely.

Voss’s lips curved back into a slow, mysterious smirk, her dark eyes carrying an unshakeable, quiet depth as she turned her back on his frozen frame, her boots crunching softly toward the exit.

"You are excused," Voss said smoothly.Without a single word of further explanation, she stepped cleanly out of the private training room, the heavy iron door sliding shut behind her departure with a resounding, icy boom that left Thomas standing entirely alone in the suffocating silence.

Thomas remained completely motionless in the center of the circle, his mind a chaotic, turbulent tangle of pure confusion and caution. But before his intellect could even begin to process the terrifying implications of her parting phrase, the cold, translucent blue lines of his system interface violently flared to life against the dark of his mind, blinding his vision with an explosive, red-bordered notification that left him utterly breathless.

[ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ]

* Entity Scan: Completed

* Target: Instructor Voss

[ CRITICAL ENCOUNTER DETECTED ]

* Status: Host has successfully encountered an Apostle of Neher Khepri.

* System Database Alignment: Registry verified. Target Entity ’Voss’ has been permanently logged as an ally.