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Chapter 12 - Chapter 12: The Prisoner of Stars

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> "Some awakenings aren't meant for mortals.

Some names should never be whispered.

But he remembered me.

And now I remember him."

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🌌 Scene 1 — Far Beyond the Mortal Realm

The camera shifts.

Not to Aegis Academy.

Not to Aric.

But to a prison outside time.

Suspended in a void of shattered stars and dying galaxies — an Astral Cage floats, bound by runes older than gods.

Inside, chained in silver flame, hangs a man… or what was once a man.

He is blindfolded. Skin carved with names no tongue remembers.

Yet he breathes.

Suddenly, his eyes open beneath the blindfold.

He whispers:

> "Aric Vale.

The name breathes again."

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🔗 Scene 2 — The Chains Tremble

The prison shakes.

Runes flare.

The void tries to hold still — but reality itself bends.

A thousand whispering voices hiss:

> "The Marked One stirs…"

The chained man smiles. His voice crackles like thunder inside silence.

> "You thought he would forget.

But I left my seed in him."

The stars dim.

Planets around the cage shatter.

> "Now… he remembers pain.

Next… he'll remember me."

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🔍 Scene 3 — Back on Earth: Cassia's Vision

Cassia jolted awake in the library, her head hitting the table.

She gasped. Sweating. Heart racing.

> That dream—

No… that vision…

She had seen a prison floating in the dark.

A chained man whispering Aric's name.

And one word echoing over and over:

"VOX."

She flipped open a forbidden tome she'd hidden — The Tome of Broken Gates.

On the last page, written in invisible ink, a phrase now burned into reality:

> "Vox: The Voice of the Forgotten Star.

Binds itself to rage.

Rebuilds itself in memory.

Returns only through death."

She slammed the book shut.

> Aric didn't just come back.

Something ancient came back with him.

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📜 Scene 4 — Council of Aegis Reacts

Far below the Academy, in a secret hall lined with golden masks, the High Council of Aegis gathered.

A bell rang — once every century — signaling a breach in the Astral Cage.

The Headmaster removed his mask. "It's begun again."

An elder mage hissed, "Who triggered the return?"

Another replied, "Not who. What. The boy."

"Aric Vale?"

"No… Vox."

A third whispered, "Then the stars will bleed again."

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⚖️ Scene 5 — Aric Feels the Pulse

Aric sat alone on the academy roof.

Wind still.

Sky silent.

And yet… he felt something move inside him.

Like chains uncoiling in his blood.

He grabbed his chest — right where V.O.X. had burned into him weeks ago.

A second heartbeat pulsed beneath the first.

> No. Not again.

He heard a whisper in his skull:

> "I watched you die.

I wore your skin.

Now let me teach you how to make them kneel."

Aric screamed — silently.

No one heard.

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📓 Scene 6 — Notebook Entry

Later that night, his notebook didn't open.

Instead, the pages flipped on their own.

Words wrote themselves:

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"Phase 7: Astral Awakening"

Cosmic interference detected

Vox presence no longer passive

Host resistance: weak

Countermeasures: Incomplete

> "Aric is no longer alone in his body."

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🧠 Scene 7 — Final Revelation: The Mirror Awakens

In the tower Lena once ruled, a mirror began to bleed.

Not crack. Not ripple. But bleed — black ink flowing like tears.

A girl stepped into the room.

Young. Pale. Gold eyes.

She smiled.

> "I told them the boy would return.

Now let's see if the monster is worth the wait."

She touched the mirror.

And the prison in the stars shuddered again.

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