Lucien’s eyes widened slightly.

Yin Li almost dropped his bowl. "...I don’t like that sentence."

Leo ignored him completely.

Miss Krystal had been the sole survivor of the raid which meant somewhere inside Morva Forest during this timeline...a younger version of their current instructor should still be present.

Lucien slowly leaned forward. "That actually makes sense."

Leo nodded slowly. "She survived this place originally. Meaning she’s somewhere inside the reconstruction right now."

Yin Li looked deeply disturbed. "So there are technically two Miss Krystals?"

"Possibly," Leo replied.

"That sentence alone should be illegal." Yin Li shivered.

Lucien suddenly frowned thoughtfully. "No..." he muttered.

Leo and Yin Li glanced toward him.

Lucien’s expression slowly tightened. "If the original Miss Krystal truly exists here..." He looked toward the cave entrance quietly. "Then maybe this whole thing wasn’t created just for survival training."

Leo narrowed his eyes."Explain."

Lucien stayed silent briefly before answering. "Think about it." He gestured around the cave. "Why recreate this specific event?"

"The raid." Yin Li answered immediately.

"Yes. But why this one specifically?" Lucien continued. "There were countless wars and battles after Aurafall. Why return students to the exact moment where the Seven Radiant Blades disappeared?"

Leo’s expression slowly changed because Lucien was right and was making a terrifying amount of sense. Miss Krystal could have chosen countless dangerous scenarios for survival training. Yet she specifically recreated the failed rescue raid.

The exact event connected to her past. The exact event where her entire team died. The exact event where humanity lost the Seven Radiant Blades.

Lucien exhaled quietly. "What if she’s trying to confirm something?"

Leo frowned slightly. "Like what?"

Lucien stared into the fire again.

"...Whether the outcome can change."

The words caused the atmosphere around them to shift slightly. Even Yin Li stopped making comments as a thoughtful and simultaneously confused and understanding expression surfaced on his face.

Because if Leo’s theory was correct...Then this was no longer simply an illusion. It was a recreated timeline capable of interference.

Meaning history itself could potentially be altered inside the reconstruction.

Leo leaned back slowly against the wall again. "That’s insane."

"Yes," Lucien agreed immediately. "Which is exactly why it sounds like something Miss Krystal would attempt."

Yin Li groaned loudly and covered his face.

"So let me understand properly." He pointed between them. "We’re trapped inside a partially real historical death field involving legendary Aura Farmers, ancient Eldrath monsters, and possibly two versions of our insane instructor?"

Leo nodded calmly. "That sounds about right."

Yin Li stared blankly for a few seconds. "...I miss the goblins."

No one gave him a reply and only briefly glanced at him. The chubby boy’s expression changed into a deep scowl as he gazed at the calm rays of the fire.

"It still doesn’t make any sense." He muttered enough for his two classmates to hear. They both turned their gaze to him.

"If Miss Krystal’s plan was to alter the past and change the course of history, why use newly awakened for her plans? Why didn’t she do it a long time ago?"

The two had no immediate reply as they deeply contemplated on a reasonable theory.

Yin Li continued not expecting a reply immediately. "Back then the Seven Radiant Blades had completed three to four rites each as Outsiders making them Upper Ranks within the rank of Leo to Sagittarius and thus one of humanity’s most fearsome. Then again, people gain a new Branch every rank. The higher the rank, the stronger the Branch. What if she had recently completed a new Rite and just got the ability to able to blur the similarity between illusions and reality."

Leo shook his head sideways. "That still doesn’t explain why she chose us. In fact, I don’t think that ability is only for her. Yes, I had once thought it had something to do with the academy but seeing how personal this feels, I don’t think the academy knows anything about it but still it doesn’t feel like she’ll have such an ability. If she has it, then she has to be a Scorpio or Pisces who had completed the five Rites."

Lucien immediately frowned after hearing that.

"No," he said. "If Miss Krystal was already a Scorpio or Pisces level Aura Farmer, humanity would’ve known."

Yin Li nodded slowly. "Exactly. Someone capable of blurring reality and illusions to this extent wouldn’t stay hidden."

Leo’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"And she definitely wouldn’t still be teaching newly awakened students in an academy."

That alone made the entire theory unstable again. Miss Krystal was powerful. Every student knew that much already. But what they were discussing now went far beyond ordinary strength.

Recreating a historical timeline was one thing. Bridging it with reality itself was something completely different.

Things were getting more confusing than it seemed.

For a while, none of them spoke again. The fire continued burning quietly nearby.

Leo finally broke the silence.

"There are only three possibilities."

Lucien and Yin Li immediately looked toward him.

Leo raised a finger calmly.

"One. This is a pure reconstruction and we’re misinterpreting everything."

Yin Li frowned slightly. "Meaning?"

"Meaning none of this is actually real," Leo explained. "The reactions, interactions, changes... all of it could simply be advanced illusion behavior."

Lucien folded his arms. "A historical field reacting dynamically to our presence."

Leo nodded once. "The goblins responding naturally. The Radiant Blade member saving Lucien. It could all just be part of the illusion trying to maintain realism."

Yin Li immediately pointed at him. "See? That one sounds normal. Let’s choose that theory."

Leo ignored him completely.

"The problem," he continued, "is that this explanation starts breaking apart the moment we include independent decision-making."

Lucien nodded slowly, already understanding. "The Radiant Blade member saving me."

"Yes," Leo replied. "If this were a fixed reconstruction, then events should continue regardless of whether you live or die."

Yin Li’s expression slowly stiffened again.

Leo raised a second finger. "Two. It’s a reconstruction that allows interference, but only within limits."

Lucien leaned forward slightly. "That sounds more realistic."

Leo shrugged. "In this scenario, history itself remains mostly fixed. The larger events still happen no matter what we do." He glanced toward the cave entrance. "The Seven Radiant Blades still disappear. The raid still fails. Morva still falls."

"But smaller things can change," Lucien added quietly.

Leo nodded again. "Students survive when they originally shouldn’t. Monsters can die differently. Encounters can shift slightly."

Yin Li frowned thoughtfully now.

"So basically..." he muttered, "history bends a little but corrects itself eventually."

"Exactly."

Lucien’s expression became more serious. "That would explain why we were allowed inside without immediately destroying the reconstruction."

Leo agreed. "It would also explain why Miss Krystal seems confident enough to throw students into this."

Yin Li looked relieved for almost two seconds. Then Leo raised a third finger.

"But there’s still the last possibility."

His voice lowered. "Three..."

He paused briefly.

"This isn’t just a reconstruction of history."

Yin Li swallowed slowly. "...Then what is it?"

Leo leaned back against the cave wall and stared quietly toward the ceiling above them.

"A merged timeline," he said calmly. "Past and present overlapping in real time. The original Morva raid and our current timeline existing together temporarily through the reconstruction."

Lucien’s eyes slowly narrowed.

"That would explain why everything feels so... incorporated."

Leo nodded once. "Because it is incorporated, theoretically."

Yin Li immediately looked disturbed again. "I really hate when you say things calmly."

Leo ignored him. "If two timelines are overlapping," he continued, "then this place isn’t functioning like an illusion anymore."

Lucien quietly completed the thought.

"It becomes an active point between eras."

"The students aren’t only observing history. It means we’re physically interacting with it while simultaneously existing as people from the future." Leo said.

Lucien’s expression became darker the more he thought about it. "There’s another problem with that theory."

Leo glanced at him. "The future changes."

Lucien nodded immediately. "If our actions truly affect the original raid..." he muttered, "then history itself becomes unstable."

Leo frowned. They were still missing something.

But what was it?