(Grey)
I was sitting on a bench outside the Lock Academy, looking at a picture I was holding in my hands. In the picture was a family of four: a father, a mother, a daughter, and a son.
The father was around thirty years of age, with blue eyes and jet-black hair. The mother was around the same age as the father, with long, pale blond hair and jet-black eyes. The daughter was three years of age, had her mother's blond hair and her father's blue eyes. Then there was the son, me.
I was fifteen years old, had my mother's pale blond hair and my biological father's golden eyes.
A drop of water fell on the picture, and I wiped the tears before they could appear again.
'I wanted to spend more time with them'
I did, but why should I?
I was going to die.
Was there a point in spending time with a dead man?
There wasn't.
Putting the picture in my pocket, I got up and entered the academy's main hull.
The hull was crowded, filled with people between the ages of fifteen and twenty. It was filled with chatter and loud voices.
I stood in the crowd, waiting.
Soon enough, someone with blue eyes and black hair approached the podium, observed the crowd, and then she spoke.
"Chosen. I am Hunter Morgan. All the people who are present have one thing in common. All of you are starting to develop Akashic runes, and all of you will be transported to the Akashic realm once the runes are fully developed. No one, and I mean no one, can survive in the Akashic realm alone. I am not a woman of many words, so I'll keep it simple. Do not make enemies in the academy; you will regret it. Please choose your classes well."
With that, Hunter Morgan left without a single word more, and the crowd exploded into a fit of chatter once again.
The last piece of advice that the female hunter gave was useless to me; I discovered the runes forming on my back and right shoulder too late. At first, I thought that the pain in my sternum, shoulder, and spine was just that, pain. By the time I noticed the runes, I only had three days before the complete formation of the etheric runes and my ether core.
Today was the third day, and the day I would be transported to the Akashic realm.
[Chosen who will be transported today, stay in the hall; the rest head to your classes.]
A voice echoed through the hall.
Soon enough, most of the people present left. If once there were a thousand chosen, there are now a hundred at most.
The crowd was separated into three groups: the legacies, the normal people, and the outskirts kids. I was in none of the groups, choosing to stay alone; several people made the same decision.
A different person appeared from the shadow of the podium and spoke. The person was a male. An old one at that. He has a full, long grey beard and a head without hair; his posture was slightly arched, and he stood with the help of a cane.
"Hello, young chosen." He spoke, his voice weak like a whisper but reaching every chosen present. "Today, you will be transported to the Akashic Realm by the Akashic Records. Your job is to survive. Mine, however, is to tell you the necessary thing for survival. First things first, the ether sea. The ether sea is not something outside you. No, it is a part of your body that exists inside your ether core. You can only enter it with your consciousness, and you will stay there for about five minutes or so. So use that time to…"
The old man paused for a moment, coughing, and then spoke again.
"So use that time to check the runes. The way to summon the runes is simple. Just think of words like 'Information', 'Runes', 'Myself', or 'System'. Once the runes appear, focus on your Art, its description, and abilities. Your attributes and their description. More importantly, your flaw." he said, his voice tired.
"And finally, when you are teleported to the Akashic Realm, there are two types of zones there are discovered zones and undiscovered ones. If you are transported into an undiscovered zone, do not panic and try to find a gateway. You will now be led to the capsules."
With that, he disappeared into the shadows just like he appeared.
After the old man disappeared, we were led to a different building and assigned a room each, and given a black tracksuit with the number of our room on it. The room itself was normal with a simple sofa and a table.
The abnormal thing in the room was the vertical capsule. It was big enough to fit a grown adult and a kid at the same time, and I was currently in it, waiting for the moment that would seal my fate.
A moment passed, and another, and another. With each moment that passed, the pain in my sternum, shoulder, and spine got more and more intense.
Eventually, white particles started flowing from the runes on my spine and shoulder into a single spot, forming a tear in the fabric of reality.
I didn't have time to take a good look before I got swallowed by darkness.
***
The darkness was peaceful. I didn't know if a moment passed or a year, but the darkness was eventually swallowed by an amethyst space filled with a myriad of stars.
A voice echoed through the space.
[Chosen! Welcome to the Akashic Records.]
[The seal of art has been broken.]
[You have ascended a rank.]