"Look into my eyes," Luminelle said to Zane, her voice a velvet whisper that coiled around his senses, pulling his gaze like a moth to a flame. Zane met her stare as her emerald eyes, alight with the churn of countless stars pressed into twin galaxies, swallowed him whole. Each speck in her irises danced, drawing him deeper into a cosmic void where time seemed to dissolve. He was adrift, spellbound, her beauty a siren's call that drowned out the world.
"Good luck on your tutorials," she murmured, her tone warm as a distant sun, but Zane's mind reeled, caught in a dreamlike haze. The last image burned into his vision was Daikyn Zodiache lifting his stone cup.
"Did you see that, Dazai?" Daikyn said to Marius who stood behind him with a surprised expression.
"Yes, I saw it but, I don't believe it." Marius answered lost in thought.
'To think he would be able to touch Ruinblaze, the sword that cursed everyone who wielded it to death by instantly draining their life force. But that wasn't even the absurd part, he was able to hold it and swing it around like a toy. Ruinblaze tripples it weight by the maximum weight its wielder could handle. This made it impossible for just anyone to hold it with one hand, unless.....'
"I think the tutorial shouldn't be a problem for him anymore. At the begining, he could barely crawl, but now he descended the mountain with Marius in less than thirty minutes." Luminelle said as she turned her gaze to Daikyn.
"Yes it shouldn't, but..." As he pulled the cup close to his lips, the Master whispered to himself.
"What's your next move, Dark Disciple?"
*****
Zane blinked, and reality slammed back. He stood atop a shattered skyscraper several stories above a battlefield choked with the guttural roars of Geminis. Cracked streets glowed faintly with the flicker of dying flames, casting eerie shadows. A storm brewed overhead, its clouds swirling with unnatural energy, the air mixed with the acrid sting of smoke and blood. Zane's white hair whipped in the gusts, his face splitting into a wry grin.
"This is still an unpleasant place, with or without the Geminis," he said under his breath, hands buried in his pockets, peering into the maelstrom below.
Onilia's lessons surged through his mind, sharp as a blade. The world of Awakeners was a chaotic tapestry of powers. The abilities people often awakened with were sometimes sparked by their desperate wishes or nature, others by primal fears, or spun from the system's capricious dice.
Some Awakeners could evolve their abilities, growing deadlier with mastery, while others remained stubbornly static. Some Awakeners chose their class, carving their path; others had roles forced upon them, molded by the system's unseen hands.
The rules governing it weren't public knowledge and neither was the information about how it was first created. Beyond Earth's fragile sphere, infinite multiverses and uncharted planes loomed, realms the Awakener's community had yet to breach. Onilia had spoken of the Tower, a two hundred floor structure where rankers were tempered. Reach the thirtieth floor, and you earned the ranker title; climb higher, and your rank soared. Onilia had clawed her way from Beta to Apex, a grueling ascent few mirrored—most Apexes bled for every step. Her warning rang loudest: the system was a wild beast, untamed and fickle, defying all logic.
[System Notice]
You have arrived at the tutorial site. Analysis has began…
Awakened rank pending...
Zane scoffed as the holographic text shimmered before him. "Analysis? Save it. Just slap a name on me—Handsome King, God of good looks, or maybe King of Cool Guys." His grin sharpened, unbothered by the screams tearing through the air below. Geminis rampaged, their claws slashing through panicked crowds, blood painted the scene so visibly it could be seen all the way up from where he stood.
"Though day for them," Zane remarked, leaning over the edge, his posture casual, hands still pocketed, as if watching a street brawl.
His neutral attitude towards mayhem, suffering and the pain he endured wasn't due to the difficult life he lived on earth nor was it because of the harsh training he endured on Zoic. No, it was something far more deeper, something he had yet to learn himself. And for that reason, the world had yet to find a way to move him.
His gaze sharpened, catching glints of resistance. Awakeners fought back—some stood at a distance, hurling spells that lit the gloom: fireballs roared like comets, ice shards gleamed like daggers, and bolts of raw energy crackled. Others dove into the fray, their enhanced bodies moving with brutal precision, fists and blades meeting Gemini hides in a dance of steel and bone.
"Well if it isn't the Awakeners," Zane muttered, his mind whirring. "Gotta figure out the lay of the land before I dive in. Hang on, Ariel. I'm coming for you."
'Come to think of it, I feel so light even with the weight belts on. It makes me wonder just how much the ratio of Zoic's gravity to Earth's differs.'
He stepped to the rooftop's edge, his hair flaring upward in the wind, scars stark against his pale skin. With a reckless grin, he leaped, plummeting like a comet with his hands still in his pockets, the air howling past him. A few seconds later, he hit the ground, pavement splintering beneath his boots. The chaos swallowed the sound—survivors too consumed by flight or fight to notice. Zane stood, hands still in his pockets. He stared at his storage ring, where Ruinblaze waited with a quiet promise of destruction. His eyes swept through the mayhem.
"Let's see what this tutorial's got," he said, stepping forward, his boots crunching over debris.
He looked to the right, watching a man in his mid-thirties shove a woman in her early twenties to the ground, drawing the Geminis' attention like a coward tossing bait. The beast lunged towards the helpless woman, and Zane's mind flickered to Ravenloch, where he'd been trapped in a classroom with the Whisperkin.
One would think that because he'd been on a similar desperate situation, he would help the woman, but no, he didn't. For what benefit would helping a total stranger bring him?
That was just the kind of person he is.
"Now that I think about it," he said, a grim smile tugging his lips, "I hope those cowards made it out safe. How else would I get my chance to repay them?"
"Help me please, someone, anyone..arh"
The woman's screams faded as the Gemini ripped through her, but Zane was already looking elsewhere. His boots crunched over the debris-strewn streets, as he searched for someone with answers.
'Wait, if I had saved that woman, I could've asked her for the answers I needed. Too late now.'
"I wonder why Geminis kill but don't eat," he muttered as he turned to look at the woman from earlier lying in her pool of blood with her limbs apart and torso ripped.
"It's annoying how loudly she screamed, overreacting like she was choking on acid." His thoughts drifted to Zoic's brutal training under Instructor Marius.
On Zoic, it didn't matter what you breathed back home, a special elements in the air helped all trainee to breath safely.
On the first day of the Muscles Adjustment stage, they'd been locked in a vast chamber, the special element sucked out of the air, replaced by a colorless gas Daikyn had crafted. It didn't harm the skin but, once inhaled, dissolved organs slowly, in a searing agony. Regeneration was instant, trapping them in a cycle of rotting and regenerating.
Zane had remained silent while the others screamed, though his insides melted away. The gas seeped through his pores and carnal, amplifying the torment.
He looked to his right and saw Onlia trembling vigorously and he instantly knew she was at her breaking point. Nenis faired no better with her veins nearly popping out.
Stretching his arms and yawning, he walked to one corner and sat with his legs crossed.
'This is without a doubt the most excruciating pain I've ever felt.' Zane thought, coughing blood while some oozed from his eyes, nose and ears. He wiped them with the back of his hand and closed his eyes
Some trainees run to the end of the chamber punching and kicking while screaming, trying to find a way out.
"let me out of here, I quit, I can't take it anymore. Please, I want to go home." A trainee screamed, unable to endure the torcher a second longer.
Nenis trembled but never broke and so did most of the high ranked trainees.
How could they when Zane sat cross legged like he was meditating. He was oozing blood everywhere, which meant he was experiencing the same pain they felt if not more, so as long as he remained calm, they could never brake.
Onilia glanced at Zane who dozed off through the pain.
'Zane, how are you doing this? Just what is your limit, how much longer can you endure. We're at our limit and all of us are waiting for you to scream so we can follow.'
Oxin coughed blood as he glanced at Zane who sat cross legged with his eyes closed, occasionally wiping blood from his eyes, ears and mouth.
'Damn it, I don't want to be the first to succumb. But how long can I hold out?' He thought as he cursed inwardly.
Most trainees screamed untill they lost their voice.
They endured until their bodies adapted, organs no longer dissolving after countless cycles. That was just the start. Nightmares of melting flesh kept them awake for weeks, the pain etched into their bones.
Zane kept walking through the chaos, then...
"Please help me save her; I no longer have the strength to move,"
A woman's voice stopped him. She clutched a wounded child, a girl no older than six, blood seeping from a gash on her shoulder. The woman's face was gaunt, dirt-streaked, her right leg bent at a sickening angle, a raw claw mark slashing her left thigh. "Sir, please take her and run," she begged, her voice raw, holding the unconscious girl out.
Zane paused, his eyes narrowing. "You'd die for your daughter?" he asked, curiosity sharp in his tone. He had expected her to ask him to save them both, but she chose to save the child, knowing she could no longer walk and would be a burden if he took them with him. His father would've scoffed at the idea, abandoning even kin for survival.
"She's not mine," the woman said, her voice trembling but firm. "I Found her crying in the street when the panic hit. I tried to help her, but we got attacked. Please, she has lost a lot of blood so help her, I beg you dear sir."
Zane's mind raced as he look at the woman's own injury. 'Helping a stranger's kid? How foolish. She'd have escaped faster alone. Now she's begging me to make the same mistake.' He turned to leave, his hands in his pockets, as a Gemini's shadow loomed closer. "Sorry, I've got somewhere to be."
"Sir, please, I'll do anything," she cried, her voice breaking. When she saw that he was still walking away, she pressed further.
"Don't you have someone precious? What if they get abandoned by a stranger in their time of need just like you're about to do to us. Please, save the child for them, please." Zane's thoughts snapped to Ariel, her grin flashing in his mind. He was also a stranger on Zoic but Onilia helped him, 'Not that I asked for it. I need info anyway. She might know something.'
He spun back with a blank expression. "Look at you trying to make me the bad guy. Your persuasive skills are nothing short of impressive." he said with sturdy voice, stepping toward the woman.
"I'll take the kid. And in return, I need you to tell me you're telling me everything that has been going on for the past few days." He scooped the girl into his arms, her weight slight, her blood smearing his jacket. The woman nodded frantically, relief flooding her eyes.
"Watch out, mister!" the woman shrieked, her voice slicing through the chaos like a blade. She thrust her trembling hands upward, pointing frantically at the monstrous figure looming behind Zane. Her wide eyes gleamed with terror.
[System Notice]
You have encountered a Gemini.
Species: Silver Bear,
Rank: Beast
Stats:
- Strength: A
- Agility: A
- Speed: S
- Intelligence: B
Final Rank: Silver Bear A
Abilities: Resistance to sharp objects
Weakness: Brute force
The Gemini towered over them, a hulking beast standing nearly two meters tall. Unlike any earthly bear, its fur shimmered like polished steel, glinting ominously under the stormy sky. Its dark blue eyes burned with a feral hunger, locking onto Zane with predatory intent. The ground quaked faintly beneath its weight, cracked pavement splintering further as it shifted its lumbering bulk.
Zane, still cradling the small child in his arms, turned slowly to face the creature. His eyes narrowed, studying the Gemini with a calm that seemed almost unnatural. "Two ranks below an Elite, huh? Not bad," he muttered as he recalled the Gemini classification the system had explained during his first encounter with the Whisperkin.
"We're doomed!" the woman gasped, her voice trembling, her face pale, drained of hope, as she stared at the Silver Bear's gleaming claws and bared fangs.
The Silver Bear roared, a bone-rattling bellow that echoed through the desolate streets, shaking loose pebbles from nearby ruins. The sound snapped the attention of nearby civilians—Nays, ordinary people caught in the apocalypse's grip. Pandemonium erupted as they screamed and scattered, their footsteps splashing through puddles, their cries swallowed by the storm's growl. A man tripped over a broken curb, scrambling to his feet as others shoved past in blind panic.
The Gemini charged, its massive paws pounding the ground, sending tremors through the earth. Its silver claws gleamed like polished daggers, slashing through the air with deadly intent, aimed straight at Zane's head. The woman shrieked again, covering her eyes, certain the blow would end him.
With a deafening a terrifying force behind its attack, the claws struck, the force shattering the pavement beneath Zane into a spiderweb of cracks. The Silver Bear pulled back, expecting to see its prey torn apart, but instead, it howled in agony. Its massive paw was mangled, silver fur torn and bones twisted, as if it had struck an unbreakable wall. Zane stood unharmed, his jacket barely ruffled, the child still safe in his arms. His eyes glinted with a quiet confidence, unshaken by the beast's fury.
"For a Gemini, that was a pathetic swing," Zane said, his voice cool and taunting. He gently set the child down on a nearby slab of concrete.
The woman gaped, her hands still raised, frozen in shock. "How… how are you okay? Are you an Awakener?" she stammered, her voice barely audible over the distant thunder.
"Let me show you what a real punch looks like," he said, his smirk widening into a fierce grin. Without warning, he vanished—or so it seemed to the woman. One moment he stood before her, the next he was a blur, a streak of motion too fast for her eyes to follow. He surged forward, his fist cocked back like a loaded cannon.
With a ground-shaking strike, Zane's fist collided with the Silver Bear's skull. The impact was cataclysmic, the pavement buckling beneath the beast as shockwaves rippled outward, sending puddles splashing and debris skittering. The Gemini's head snapped back, its tongue caught between its teeth, ichor spraying in a gruesome arc. Its massive body crumpled, legs buckling like a toppled statue, and it crashed to the ground. The beast lay still, its once-fearsome form now a broken heap, dark blue eyes dimming as ichor pooled beneath it, steaming in the cold drizzle.
Zane straightened, shaking out his fist as if he'd merely swatted a fly.
[System Notice]
You have defeated a Gemini.
Gemini Rank: Beast,
Species: Silver Bear
Rewards will be calculated and distributed after the Tutorial.