Why are you here, Serena?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at her suspiciously. "I know you're not here to check on my well-being, so just get to the point already."
She stood in the doorway, arms crossed, a smug little smirk tugging at the corners of her lips like she'd just won a bet against the universe.
"Tch. So dramatic," she said, flipping her hair with enough flair to trigger my fight-or-flight instincts. "I'm heading to the HuaShan Sect for Specialized Training. Rin and Kaira are coming too, but... I figured I'd ask if you want to come. Or not. Whatever."
I blinked. "Wait, you got Father's approval for that?"
"Obviously," she replied, rolling her eyes like I'd just asked if water was wet. "If I go there before joining the Academy, I can sharpen my swordsmanship and improve my inner aether control. Besides..." She paused for dramatic effect, flicking her hair back like a diva in a shampoo commercial. "The old geezer specifically asked me to bring you too. Can you believe that?"
I raised a brow. "The old geezer?"
"You know who I mean. Master Liang. Half-deaf, sword-crazed, eyebrowless fossil."
Ah, yes. Master Liang. The same man who once made me do 400 pushups for "blinking too loudly." He claimed it disrupted his 'aetheric concentration.' I think he just hates joy.
"I just thought I'd offer," Serena continued with that casual, stab-you-in-the-gut tone only siblings have mastered. "You coming or not? Decide quick, or I'll leave you behind and go with the girls."
I sighed and rubbed my temples. I already had a PhD in anxiety and she was giving me a practical exam on top of it.
"Let me think about it," I muttered, trying to sound composed but mostly just broadcasting a mental breakdown in surround sound. "I'll give you an answer tomorrow. Just... give me some space, okay?"
"Whatever. I don't care if you come or not, idiot," she said, like any emotionally constipated older sister would.
Then, because some people express affection through violence, she punched me in the gut.
"OW—Hey! What the hell was that for?"
She didn't answer. Of course. Just strutted out of the room like she'd unlocked an achievement.
Achievement Unlocked: Punched My Brother and Walked Away Victorious.
I groaned and flopped onto my bed, staring at the ceiling like it owed me a refund for existing.
---
Okay. Let's rewind.
In this world—because someone decided fantasy also needed career counseling—every student, after finishing secondary education, has to go through a mandatory one-year program called Specialized Training.
Think of it like a gap year, but instead of "finding yourself," you find out how many ways a monster can try to eat you. It's the government's way of saying, "Hey, congrats on surviving puberty. Now let's see if you can survive aether-enhanced hell."
The idea is that during this year, students choose a path—martial, academic, magical, military, or a blend. They train under sects, organizations, or institutions tied to their focus. Some go solo. Others join groups. And yes, the dropout rate is exactly what you'd expect when teenage egos meet swordplay and spellfire.
After that, most join one of the big-shot academies. The top-tier ones include:
The Union Awakened Academy (UAA): Where they train awakened elites, elemental prodigies, future politicians, and power-influencers. Basically, it's Hogwarts if it got colonized by a reality show.
The Union Military Academy: Where you're taught to kill, survive, and maybe cry a little in your sleep. Graduates go on to defend the borders from the Asuras—nightmare-fuel abominations that currently infest the cursed southeast zone, aka the place even GPS doesn't want to navigate.
Long story short, Specialized Training is the first real step toward your future. It's also where things start to get serious. Because from here on out, you're no longer just a kid with dreams. You're a chess piece on the world's aether-infused warboard.
---
Now, the juicy stuff: Aether, Cataclysms, and the Great Cosmic Middle Finger.
Before the Cataclysm, aether was scarce and subtle—like ambient WiFi for magic users. Only a few individuals, known as aether awakened, could harness it to control the elements or channel it through techniques.
These people had to understand aether deeply to manifest anything meaningful. But if they succeeded, they unlocked something called an Insight—a fundamental truth or concept of aether that granted them a new ability. Not flashy power-ups. I'm talking stuff like elemental mastery, memory-based spell shaping, or the ability to predict magical patterns.
Then came the Cataclysm.
No one knows exactly why it happened—divine punishment, cosmic accident, or the result of some idiot poking holes in dimensional space for fun. But after the event, the world changed.
Rifts began to tear open between realms. Monsters came through. Aether density spiked globally, like the planet chugged three cans of magical Red Bull.
Suddenly, even average people could awaken. But unlike before, many began gaining Insights unnaturally—without the slow grind of study or meditation. Some call it evolution. Others call it cheating.
Me? I call it terrifying.
Because now, power is everywhere. And not everyone is mentally stable enough to handle it.
---
As for me—Rayan Aryan—I'm just trying not to explode. Literally and metaphorically.
Unlike most, I do have an Insight. It's... weird. Some kind of advanced perception form. I can see aether—its threads, flows, disruptions. It's like watching the world's code in real time. And yeah, it messes with your brain if you stare too long.
This ability lets me analyze the structure of spells, deconstruct barriers, even anticipate magical attacks by seeing the aetheric intention behind them. I don't just react—I understand.
But—and here's the big ol' BUT—understanding doesn't mean mastery. It's like being given the blueprint to a spaceship when you still can't fix a bicycle.
So yeah, it's useful. Crucial, even. But also overwhelming.
Serena doesn't get that. She sees me as some lazy prodigy who needs a push. Or maybe a punch.
Hence the offer to join HuaShan Sect. Master Liang may be insane, but he's also one of the few people in the world who can train someone like me. He understands how aether moves. How it thinks. And more importantly—how to weaponize that knowledge.
So... do I go?
Honestly?
I have no idea.
But what I do know is this:
If I don't choose a path soon, the world might choose one for me.
And historically speaking, the world is kind of a jerk.