University B premises,
Orientation Class
"Are we all settled then?"
The balding professor's words were drowned out by shuffling sounds as the students tried to settle amidst faint complaints of not having enough places to sit or move around.
Outside the boxed room, through the windows, were several curious gazes peering in. Making the ones seated inside annoyed yet averse to meet their gaze, feeling their scrutiny as they studied the packed room.
Sanit, having been delayed, was one of them and was hopelessly looking at the ones seated inside comfortably.
What's with the crowd? Is this professor a celebrity?
"Ahem," the professor cleared his throat before looking up at the students. A smile on his lips as he reminisced about his own past as an eager student when they were introducing new concepts at a similarly interesting class in college.
"Right, realms," he muttered as he began the orientation lecture. Turning around, he scribbled the same on the blackboard.
Sanit's attention was immediately piqued at the word and he found himself locked in.
"Our world has been made aware of the existence of the Lokas or otherwise known as Realms. 14 of them in fact, but the number is debatable as these are planes of higher dimensions and to us humans, with our limited purview of the vast cosmos, can only comprehend a certain segment of these dimensions. So even if it were handed to us on a silver platter we would fumble trying to understand it in its naked form."
"But what's to take away from this is the fundamental concept of human understanding and how we have grown to accept, change and adapt to this newer frontier."
He paced a little, eyeing a few in the front rows and behind to gauge their interest or lack thereof before continuing.
"You've got to understand...it was a baffling situation in the pre-independence era, somewhere in the 1900s, when these Rakshasas or monsters started disrupting human life. No one knew how, where and why they would spring up back then."
The professor paused before adding with a chuckle, "Not like they've any better idea about it now either, I still see the authorities running around clueless behind monsters with Colonial-era weapons after all."
The class snickered at the comment before the professor brought them back to his lecture. "Well now we seem to have had an answer, as according to some joint studies it's been revealed that there is a barrier, almost alive and alien-like around us that prevents any sort of cohabitation with other greater dimensions."
He adjusted his specs to look straight at the wide room.
"This barrier's property might really be of interest to any of you computer engineers and related fields students, as it's believed to be a self-sustaining intelligence so advanced that its code can rewrite itself in case of errors. And the greater part is that this intelligence is using just a fragment of its ability to create and perceive the barrier."
He paused and added, "imagine that...just a fraction."
"It'd have been a happy story if it functioned as it did, but it began to wear off sometime ago and continues to decay. And as it continues to lose its ability to regenerate the barrier, our worlds…our different dimensions will only be more exposed to the other."
The professor's grim tone was not lost on the students paying attention as they all seemed to silently gasp at the possible horrors or uncertainties that faced them.
But the professor continued, trying to pull them away from that part of the lecture to the more academic side.
"This is where you engineering students come in, you can get into the Realm Engineering departments, they're doing some amazing things which I will not pretend to understand, but it's a prospect worth considering for you geeks."
"Onto more interesting things. What else…ah, yes."
The professor paused and turned to face the board sideways.
"The Realms itself are theorized to be expansive worlds of their own. Now how exactly it is difficult to be determined but this here is the flowchart. Take it as a representation of what the government and scientists have put out. Keep in mind this is constantly getting revised over time."
The professor unveiled a huge sheet of smooth paper that catalogued a series of horizontal divisions every 10 inches on the surface of a huge sphere, like a map with words and scrawls scribbled over some of them.
"You guys spot where we are? Yeah…right here," he said pointing to the midsection of said map, "what a pair of buffoons we are, eh?" he cackled and the class mildly chuckled, "look at all of us, gathered in dear old mother earth. Fighting for pittance when there's whole worlds out there..."
He waved at the air seemingly to stop being distracted.
"Right, so the above and below. The higher realms and the lesser realms. And no, it doesn't have anything to do with good and bad, it's just for the sake of classification, ok?"
He traced a line along the middle horizontal axis.
"Bhu loka or the plane of existence from where we hail on Earth is right in the middle and extending upwards till Swarga or Satya loka, or whatever you want to call it by, are the upper realms. Likewise the realms from here to all the way down to the Netherworlds or infamously known as Patala loka are the lower and lesser realms."
"I won't go into much detail about the various theories, nomenclature of it all as that's for you all to ponder upon. But you should know that these aren't exactly rigid structures. Set in a constant flux of space time, there are pocket realms, places between realms where beings of higher dimensions and powers exist...which is something truly, truly awe inspiring for us mortals."
"Professor?" A student sitting inside the classroom raised her hand.
The professor jolted a little breaking out of his reverie and tilted his head up, "yes?"
"How powerful are these beings? Like we now have Realm Awakeners and...and we've had Inborns since forever, even though they're less powerful, so where do we matter in all this?"
"First thing," the professor's tone seemed a bit hostile, "what makes you say Inborns are less powerful? Huh?"
The student stayed quiet but the lack of dismissal from the rest of the class, made it clear to the professor that this was a subject most of them agreed upon. En masse.
The professor continued, "for the second part of your question."
"If you were to ask me, an old man nearing retirement, that existential question -- I would say....not really. As I'm more afraid of onset dementia than my place in a world I'm powerless to change."
The class laughed together diffusing the earlier tension posed by the student's question and the professor felt himself relax a little.
"Now coming to the topic of what individual powers hold for our future. What do they signify? Are we in some sort of great showdown between races of different dimensions? Possibly, yes."
The class went silent immediately. The professor waited for dramatic pause before continuing.
"The barrier I spoke of earlier, prevented a huge extent of such incursions from other dimensions and now with it going down, we can only imagine what our uncertain future holds for us. Having people born with supernatural powers not being enough, over time we've been seeing more and more people with such abilities and it can all be traced back to when the Barrier between realms began to fracture. Now they're called Realm Awakeners, a new type of powered people that are able to wield fanciful weaponry imbued with god-like power that defies our understanding."
"Inborns suck!" a shout elicited from the gathered students brought scattered laughter and chattering but the professor wasn't pleased with the interruption.
The hell?
Sanit felt a considerable sense of unease.
"Knock that shit out. I won't have such divisory talks in front of me." The professor glared at them.
"But professor, why are inborn people considered so weaker compared to the Realm Awakeners?" the student, now emboldened a little, asked again.
The professor sighed and kept his chalk down on the desk, a little tired.
"I can't say for sure, as it doesn't fall under my academic expertise."
He looked up at the class and seeing their eager faces decided to indulge them a little.
"But from what I've heard, the Inborns consider themselves to be with great talent from the beginning thus requiring no prerequisite for their abilities unlike the Awakeners who have had to go through several trials before they reach where they are."
"Basically it's supposed to be the comparison of talent vs skill."
The professor began to pace the room as he spoke.
"Is talent so great that it can surpass or completely forego the need to train till you break? Or are they arrogant to the point of ridicule for not willing to train as hard as Awakeners. My take is that there's been a sort of manufactured hate against inborns but hey, that's just my opinion."
The class fell into a bit of a murmur and the professor had to tap the desk to get their attention.
"Alright, alright back to your orientation."
"Professor, something about the Rakshasas please? Several of us are from high tier cities and have never really experienced much." A student stood up.
"Sit down, I'll tell you." The professor smiled at the little bit of respect he had got.
"Rakshasas; when they're dead and lifeless mind you, not when they're alive. They're creepy as it is."
He chuckled before continuing, "they're said to be beings from either the higher or lower realms. Historically aligning with the darker races that inhabit lower realms overtime they have changed, adapted but retain this monstrous animalistic quality that makes them difficult to control. You could say they're untamable beasts filled with bloodlust."
"So their dead parts are found to be a source of many higher dimension resources. One of them mainly being Mani's or gemstones, characterised by various types according to their individual species types. This is a thriving study into Realm Biology, or more like monster biology. It might make you retch but it can also make you rich, so choose wisely all of you medical enthusiasts."
"Professor, you didn't say anything about powers?"
"No I did."
The student flushed as he saw others turn to see him and he stammered, "no, like their combat applications?"
The professor rubbed his head, a little frustrated.
"Look I'm a college professor, not a recruiter for the 3A or those random factions of powered folks out there. You want to know about combat applications, join the military, I heard they're incentivising folks nowadays. Although private pays better, I gather not many of you here have a welling sense of duty in your cold hearts do you? I guessed not."
"My only advice to all you powered ones out there, would be to be wary and even consider not using their abilities. This is a changing world, a lot of eyes from other systems who don't align with our humanist ideals will come for you if not the government or the factions before them. By then it'll be too late for a normal, peaceful life. But that's just my opinion. You do as you see fit."
The professor stopped speaking and stared at all of them in silence before closing the diary on his desk.
"Alright you can all go now."