"150 years ago, the Nightmare race created a rift in the Earth's dimensional barrier, marking the beginning of their invasion and the destruction of civilization. However, the barrier's power prevented the strongest nightmares from entering, allowing only low-level nightmares through, which preserved humanity's hope to survive and resist. Five years later, humans awakened due to prolonged exposure to the energy emitted by the nightmares, and the first Seeds of Emotion appeared with supernatural powers, maintaining balance to this day."
The teacher spoke slowly, his voice deep, his eyes scanning the students' faces as if weighing every word before releasing it.
"Teacher, we already know this," said Sarah, the class president, echoed by the rest of the students: "Yes, sir, we study this at the beginning of every year."
The teacher smiled lightly, adjusting his glasses: "Enough. You know that the annual Awakening Ceremony will take place in five days, on December 7th. After that, you will face your first encounters with the nightmares."
'December 7th… huh…' Silas Forn thought quietly, his hands clasped together automatically. He was tall, with an athletic build typical for his age, black hair and eyes, and average facial features. This was exactly the day he would turn seventeen, the age at which the Seed of Emotion begins to awaken. 'Seems like I'll be very busy that day…'
Anyone born after this day starts their studies a year later, to ensure they reach the required age for the seed to awaken.
Suddenly, a familiar voice echoed in his mind: "Hey, Silas! Isn't that your birthday? Haha, looks like you're having a double celebration!"
Silas turned his head toward the voice. Before him stood Adam, tall at 1.8 meters, athletic, with brown hair and green eyes. His handsome face was merely a mask for mischief, his forced smile saying it all.
Silas said sarcastically, "No doubt you're not invited, Adam."
Adam pretended to be offended: "You rascal, I'll come even if I'm not invited." His eyes sparkled with amusement, as usual.
Silas smiled: "Seems you'd make an excellent thief."
Adam cracked his knuckles, forming a fist: "Let's see if you're fit to be a punching bag."
Silas met his challenge: "Can you even punch a chicken?"
A brief silence followed, then they both burst into laughter.
"There they go again," Lina shook her head. She was short, with blonde hair, wearing the girls' school uniform. Her gaze shifted between surprise and concern.
The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, accompanied by the sound of students' footsteps heading home. Silas, Adam, and Lina walked together, as they lived near each other.
'How long will I continue this charade?' Silas thought. Despite the joking and laughter with Adam, he felt nothing. Coldness was his nature, always a wolf among a flock of sheep. He had accepted this truth long ago. His kindness and childhood were the only link to his humanity, not his emotions; he realized humanity encompassed all human actions, beautiful or ugly, even those they tried to hide.
During the walk, a silence briefly settled among the three. Adam watched some students practicing small exercises in controlling their initial energies, while Lina clutched her bag cautiously, occasionally glancing at Silas with curious eyes, trying to read what lay behind his cold expression.
'If I can control my seed… maybe I can finally understand what's going on inside me…' Silas thought, trying to curb the emptiness that had controlled him since birth. Yet, he felt a deeper weight this time, as if despair itself had become part of his body.
Five days passed quickly, and the day of the test arrived.
"All right, line up," the proctor's voice boomed in the examination hall. Everyone lined up slowly as names were called one by one. Students always heard the words: "Awakening successful."
Until Silas Forn's name was called last. He stood inside the examination device, filled with strange symbols in the **Philum** language, used by humans across the ages to form spiritual constructs and manipulate cosmic energies. All he had to do was stand still while the machine activated.
The machine turned on, then the cold voice of the proctor rang out: "Awakening failed."
Three years passed, and the long-awaited day finally came.
"Awakening failed!"
The voice echoed again, silencing the entire hall.
'Impossible… I… failed…' Silas murmured in his mind, his chest tightening.
"What trash… he could've just accepted it when he failed at seventeen…" mocked some boys from the other side.
Whispers filled the hall: doubt, ridicule, disgust. No one tried to hide it.
Silas collapsed to his knees. A single tear rolled down his cheek, his heart shattered. Every ounce of his tiny emotions vanished. All that remained was despair, heavy and dense, clinging to his bones, pressing on his chest mercilessly.
Then, suddenly…
Something strange began to happen.
The air in the hall grew heavier, as if gravity itself had shifted. A faint shadow started forming around him, dense and cold, wrapping around his hands and shoulders. Laughter and whispers gradually faded, as if the world itself had paused for a moment.
'What… is this?' he whispered in his mind, his heart racing.
A thin black mist began to emanate from his body, winding around him like luminous wires in the darkness, pulsing with strange rhythms. He sensed the presence of something new within him… something he had never felt before.
The other students didn't notice anything; all their eyes were on the machine.
At this moment, the automated voice in the monitoring matrix for the awakening rang:
[Detection Error…] [Rebooting…]
The screen suddenly glowed, the data lines rearranging rapidly, numbers and fields spinning and disappearing, then stopping abruptly.
[Detection Complete: Undefined Seed. Status — Awakened]
Silas could not believe what he saw. The world around him had not changed, but inside… something had started to move. Something that hadn't existed moments ago.
'I… have awakened…' he whispered to himself.
A small piece of darkness, simple yet eerie, crept into his consciousness, a strange sense of power, though not yet clear. It was something bigger than a mere feeling… the beginning of something dark, something that could change everything around him.
He even felt a strange tingling at his fingertips, as if the darkness itself were watching him, wrapping around him, breathing with him.
The other students saw nothing. They did not know that Silas, who had just failed, was now different. Something within him was beginning to form, something immeasurable, something… that neither nightmares nor humans could predict.
Silas slowly turned, breathing heavily, feeling a lightness he hadn't felt in years. The black mist wrapped around him, as if protecting him, as if the entire universe had begun to acknowledge him, something that had never existed before.
[Note: Additional monitoring required. Level undefined. Seed of Despair — unstable]
He stared at his hands, watching the black threads forming from his inner void. No one in the hall knew what had just happened. But deep inside, he realized the truth: his dream of awakening had come true… yet he still felt nothing.
The despair that had drowned his heart for three years might have been only the beginning…
Silas inhaled slowly, trying to control the flow of mysterious energy within him. The black mist began shaping into intricate forms, as if waiting for commands, or as if silently watching, enduring… ready to explode at any moment.