FALLEN ORACLE

Chapter 0：The Fallen Goddess

**Chapter 1**"Take off your ring.""It's not a magic ring."Sergeant Mary gestured at the engagement ring on her left middle finger."Hmph?"The black-robed man in front of her didn't even bother using any facial feature other than his nose to make a sound.Hearing the argument, Chief Petty Officer Lynde, who was undergoing security checks on the other side, commanded, "Mary, do as he says."Her fiancé had cheated on her. But Mary—too proud to admit it—had chosen to pretend nothing was wrong. In private, though, she'd been stress-eating her feelings into oblivion for a month straight.Which was why getting the ring off turned out to be a bit of a struggle.After passing through security, Lynde and Mary continued down a dim corridor.This was a massive prison. The entire facility housed only one cell, and that cell held only one prisoner. In other words, they'd built this prison specifically for that one person.And the two of them had received orders to visit."Are you insane? Didn't you see the three gold rings on his badge?" Chief Lynde scolded."You mean he was a high-rank archmage?""Figure it out. Black robe, three rings on the badge."Only then did Mary feel the delayed chill run down her spine. These people could crush her, along with that sub-half-carat diamond on her finger, with nothing more than a twitch of their pinky.They passed through an elemental barrier, then a psychic barrier. The corridor suddenly widened. Before them sat three white-robed figures, motionless around a mysterious magic circle, like three stone statues.Mary took a deep breath, steadied herself, then tiptoed as carefully as she could between them.Another half-kilometer or so, and they passed through a third barrier—this one made of anti-magic stone. Only then did she finally exhale. "This is insane. Three Saint-level archmages? Is she really that dangerous?"Saint-level archmages were among the few truly powerful beings in the world. Seeing three of them in one place was almost unthinkable.Lynde snorted. "You think those three are here to stop her from escaping? Between you and me, if she actually broke out, all they'd have to do is activate the circle beside her before she takes them down and get the message out. That's it.""Who even is she..." Mary wished she could go back in time and slap the version of herself who, in a fit of self-pity, had volunteered for this assignment."Right ahead," Lynde said. He'd memorized the map and procedures so thoroughly that he managed to look like he knew exactly what he was doing.As he spoke, a cell made entirely of anti-magic stone appeared before them, glowing with an eerie luminescence in the dim corridor.Mary knew that inside that cell was Tiya—the woman who bore the titles "Elemental Master," "Psionic Master," "Expert of the Secret Tongue," "Lifetime Honorary Professor of Chaos Academy," "Chosen One," and "Fallen Witch."Lynde stepped up to the door and activated the tiny magic circle embedded in it. The anti-magic stone gradually turned transparent, letting them see inside.Several white-robed figures gathered around a cross made of the same stone, fiddling with a dark cyan rock.A woman was bound to the cross. Her tangled hair obscured her face.One of the white-robed men turned around. "The ceremony's about to start. Why are you here now?""Sorry, we only need a few minutes," Lynde apologized. He sounded more confident now—under the suppression of five layers of anti-magic stone, even Saint-level archmages couldn't outfight him in hand-to-hand combat."Make it quick. Five minutes," the man said impatiently, then stepped back behind the cross with the others."Ahem." Lynde cleared his throat. "Tiya, we're from the Lower Realm Management Office of the Magic Net."The woman on the cross didn't move."The Council ordered us to show you a file. They hope it might make you reconsider their offer. The Council and our director both believe you'll do far more good outside than in here."Lynde had expected her silence, so he didn't let it bother him. He nodded to Mary.Mary quickly pulled a document folder from under her arm, took out the papers, and held the first page up for the woman on the cross to see.Tiya lifted her head with visible effort and glanced at the two of them. Then her unfocused gaze slowly sharpened on the file.Only now could Mary see Tiya's face clearly. And in that instant, she found herself blushing and her heart racing, as if someone had hit her with a charm spell.A moment later, she remembered that she was, in fact, a woman, and the attraction conveniently turned into jealousy.Forcing her eyes away from that almost perfect face, Mary noticed the Krol's Thorn spell binding the woman's limbs to the cross.The thorns were just sharp enough to keep the wounds from healing but also from bleeding. That was the Council's message: as long as she didn't die, anything goes.Two hundred years ago, at the spell's unveiling, Krol himself had boasted that if used in interrogation, even a newborn baby would strangle itself with its own cord without a second thought.At that thought, Mary's jealousy conveniently gave way to a flicker of sympathy.Tiya, straining against the psychic assault of psi-based spells, managed to tear open a tiny gap through sheer will. The information from the file trickled in through that gap.In the top-left corner of the file sat a magical portrait of a man with black hair and pale blue eyes.The crisp lines of the academy uniform looked custom-tailored for his frame, and the magic rings on his slender fingers seemed to glow just from being worn by him.Five years ago, Tiya had learned about this man—who had no idea she existed—through the same kind of file.Back then, he'd been a boy, a bit raw around the edges. Now he looked like the kind of man women fell for. The name beside the portrait, "Chen Yi," confirmed what she'd guessed—but only deepened her confusion.Five years ago, Tiya had already decided this man's fate without asking him: because she had never formed a psychic bond with him, he would spend three more years at Rongqi Academy, then face expulsion.He'd go home, inherit his parents' bakery, marry a gentle, beautiful woman, have a few kids, and live out an ordinary life as a baker and a small-town mage.And that very decision had been the beginning of Tiya's own downfall.As her mentor from her student days and the head of the jury at her trial—Professor Tim—had said during a prison visit:"Being naive wasn't your crime. Going absolutely feral at that lower-realm psychic bond allocation meeting? That was the real sin."But now, Chen Yi had appeared in a file. Which meant he hadn't been expelled like she'd expected.Seeing the shock in Tiya's eyes, Lynde signaled Mary to turn the page, then pressed his advantage."Yes, he's still at the academy. At twenty-one, with no psychic bond. We both know what that means. Honestly, everyone's fighting over him right now. But all you have to do is say yes, and he's yours."Tiya smiled coldly. "Hmph. Even if I don't say yes, he's still mine."Lynde clicked his tongue.Even without magic, this woman was a handful. Her strength came not just from her spells but from her sheer confidence.And unfortunately for him, she was right. No one had yet broken the psychic lock she'd placed five years ago. So in a way, yes—Chen Yi was still hers.He realized he needed a different approach. He pointed to a table in the file. "Look at his spell list. That kind of talent is incredible. And you're going to let him get expelled? You were a professor once. You'd really waste someone this good? Have you ever asked him what he wants? The path you chose for him might not be the one he'd choose for himself."Following Lynde's finger, Tiya studied Chen Yi's spell list—which wasn't very long, in her opinion. But one spell in particular caught her attention.*Beginner Speed Reading*? She felt a small jolt of surprise. This spell only increased reading efficiency by about ten percent.But for a Fallen—a being from the lower realm—figuring out this spell on their own would take an enormous amount of effort. Unless the person was obsessively, abnormally devoted to learning and research, this spell had terrible "cost-performance."She scanned further down and quickly reached the same conclusion she had five years ago: Chen Yi had talent in magic—especially elemental magic—that rivaled her own.He'd discovered this many spells on his own, without a psychic bond and without knowing the Secret Tongue. No wonder Rongqi Academy had bent its own rules to keep him.The spell list wasn't over. Mary turned another page. And Tiya immediately spotted the key point.Tiya knew the file came from the lower-realm church, pulled directly from the academy. The spells were listed in the order he'd learned them.*Static*, *Small Flame*, *Minor Ripple*, *Slow Growth*—they were grouped together. Learning these spells in sequence, deliberately, couldn't be a coincidence.Her instincts sharpened. He knew very few spells, and they were all low-level. But unlike most of the mediocre, self-important magic researchers in the upper realm, this man was clumsily—but deliberately—exploring the possibilities of elemental fusion.Tiya sighed quietly. Only now did she understand that this man, Chen Yi, this Fallen, was the same kind of person she was—someone who didn't know how to quit.Had the path she'd chosen for him, without asking, really been the right one?Lynde noticed something flicker in Tiya's eyes—just for a second. He quickly said, "After the ceremony, if you want, I can leave the file here. Take your time, think it over.""I don't want it. Take it back." Tiya answered almost before he'd finished speaking, her tone indifferent but absolute."Alright, alright. The ceremony's starting. You two go." The white-robed men had run out of patience.Lynde wasn't satisfied, but he'd expected this outcome. He and Mary bowed to the white-robed men and left the cell, unhappy but resigned.Neither Lynde nor Mary, nor any of the white-robed men, noticed that when no one was looking, a fire had rekindled in the woman's eyes.The fire of hope.She stared at the dark cyan stone in the cell, a plan quietly taking shape in her mind:*Mr. Chen Yi. I didn't realize you were the kind of man who'd rather let madness consume him than spend his life baking bread.**I, Tiya Apfel, officially apologize to you for my arrogance.**I'm sorry. Your goddess... came late.*