"... There!"
Voices rose behind him. From the corner of his eye, he saw they were after another candidate and not him. But just to be safe, he continued running until he reached the interior checkpoint.
"Phew." He wiped a hand across his face, not to remove sweat, but to erase the moment.
Inside the Transfer Complex Hall, order replaced the chaos outside. White floors, structured lines, and uniformed officers scanned IDs. Nova approached the desk and placed his identification chip forward.
The scanner pulsed. The officer paused and looked up, then straightened. "Planet Herya?" the officer asked.
The second officer leaned over, reading the data. "The Overall Champion of Herya's prelim."
The tone shifted instantly. "Welcome, Candidate Nova."
Nova was handed a badge and guided away from the general line. He didn't wait. He didn't stand in line. The badge clipped to his collar glowed a different color from the others.
Then they arrived at a massive dock. But instead of ships, there were spaceships — more than a hundred. They were not that large, about half the size of an airplane.
Though the God's Ruins lay on a floating island in space, any technological devices that came into its orbit would malfunction and refuse to work. But surprisingly, spaceships could land and take off. This almost made most scholars lose their sanity as they began having doubts about reality.
At the docks, several academies stood separated by insignias. But the MPU's top five finest institutional planets stood out among them.
Nova was then escorted to his academy's designated section. The doors opened automatically. Inside, the seating was structured, but he was directed toward a side row.
"Please wait here," the attendant said respectfully.
Nova sat down, chill and relaxed. Around him, the other top three candidates filled rows in the room in tense silence. Nova felt a little uncomfortable. By now, he would have put on his headphones, but gadgets were strictly forbidden as they could mess with the spaceship's alignment when entering and landing at the God's Ruins. And this discovery made most scholars quit their jobs.
When boarding was complete for all ten candidates, the transport vessel hummed to life. Outside, engines ignited with controlled thunder. The ship lifted.
The ceiling dome of the dock slowly opened, and one by one each spaceship flew out. They moved in perfect unison as if it had been planned beforehand.
Through reinforced glass, the skyline of the Transfer Complex planet shrank below. Ahead, the clouds gathered. As it passed through the planet's stratosphere, the stars shimmered brightly.
Then the spaceships entered the warp stage or something similar, and the stars now looked like streaks of trailing tail lights. The spaceship did not feel fast on the inside, and there was no force pushing them back into their seats. It felt like a normal ride, but outside it was not.
After a few seconds, it finally stopped and returned to its normal speed. Just up ahead, a floating island nearly the size of a continent could be seen, and surprisingly, it had an atmosphere.
The spaceship landed, and everybody came down. What caught everybody's eyes was the God's Ruins.
The God's Ruins stood in solemn silence.
A colossal arch of blackened stone pierced the landscape, its surface carved with ancient glyphs that seemed to shift when not directly observed. Mist coiled at its base like something breathing. Above it, the clouds churned in slow spirals, as though the sky itself acknowledged the structure below.
The camera drones couldn't enter the planet. But thanks to their super zoom — up to x200 — that gave the cameras leverage and people was able to see the God's Ruins.
Across the MPU, murmurs rippled through crowded observation halls, public gatherings, and homes.
"Look at the inscription—"
"It's glowing brighter than last cycle."
"They say comprehension rates are higher this year..."
Speculation moved like electricity. Children stared upward at the hovering screen in awe. Elderly men on the road folded their hands behind their backs, their eyes sharp with old regret as they stared at the big screen on the street. Some monitored the broadcast with clinical interest. Officers in dark uniforms stood in silence, knowing that today would determine recruitment numbers for the coming cycle.
The people watched not with ambition, but with longing. Some leaned forward as though proximity to the image alone might allow them to decipher a fragment of the text etched across the stone.
But no matter how the camera tried to capture the inscription, it could never be clear. Some people were upset, thinking it was done intentionally, but it was not. And this damn strange rules and events drove some scholars mad.
The inscription flickered faintly and blurred across the broadcast feed. Even through the screen, something about it unsettled the viewers.
The symbols were neither fully physical nor entirely energy. They seemed suspended between states, as though carved into the air itself. A low hum pulsed through the transmission. Commentary channels fell silent.
Candidates began to gather at the base of the massive arch, small figures beneath impossible stone. They wore simple training attire from their academies, some standing tall with pride, others trembling despite their attempts to appear composed.
This was the only day civilians were permitted to see this much.
Awakening Day was not about spectacle. It was about filtration.
Some would leave with the Channeler's Mark seared into their consciousness.
Most would not.
Across planets in the sects, hearts synchronized unconsciously with the slow thunder rolling above the gateway. The camera angle shifted, focusing now on the inscription carved above the archway. The glyphs shimmered faintly, as if reacting to the presence of the gathered candidates.
The sky darkened a shade deeper. The air around the Ruins rippled.
Across billions of screens, the entrance to the God's Ruins seemed to breathe. The door was still shut, and only those with the mark knew what lay beyond it.
Then it began.
"All candidates of the top five institutional planets of the MPU, step forward," a man in a red outfit said. He looked to be around his fifties.
Among hundreds of candidates, fifty stepped out, including Nova, as they walked a little closer to the inscription at the entrance.
"We will start with Planet Nebu. All ten candidates of Planet Nebu, line up in front of the inscription. Focus and keep your minds at peace as you try to understand the words."
All ten candidates of Planet Nebu stepped forward. Through the badge on one candidate's collar that resembled Nova's, he knew this was Planet Nebu's Overall Champion, Nathan Hertz. The guy was fairly average except for his well-built body, tall stature of about six feet, black hair, and yellow pupils.
Those yellow pupils were what differentiated higher humans from lower humans. They were nearly the same in every way, but the only difference was that higher humans had yellow pupils while lower humans had different pupil colors. Also, higher humans had a higher success rate of awakening the Mark.
After some minutes—
WOOHHOM!
Like a gentle storm, the God's Ruins reverberated as though welcoming a member. Across the MPU, those tuned in watched intently as white light bathed all ten candidates of Planet Nebu.
"Wow!"
The thought crossed everybody's mind in sync.
Nova stared at them and saw the same tattoo-like symbol glowing on all of their arms. They were all identical.
"The Channeler's Mark... wait, all ten of them?!" Nova was a bit surprised. Though it was not the first time, it was rare to see an entire academy's candidates all receive the Channeler's Mark.
"It seems Planet Nebu is blessed, as all ten of their candidates have awakened their marks and are now Channelers," the news reporter's voice sounded excited as it informed the public.
"Congratulations to you all. You are now Channelers. You can now join a guild and pick out a free skill. The Overall Champion gets two," the man in the red outfit said. "Alright, Planet Dermot, please step forward."
All ten candidates of Dermot stepped forward, and just like before, after a few minutes the light spread across them, bathing them in a welcoming embrace. All ten candidates awakened the same tattoo-like symbol, the Channeler's Mark. There was no difference; everybody had the same symbol. There had never once been a different mark known.
"Once again, another planet blessed with all new Channelers."
"Alright, congratulations to you all. You are now Channelers, and like before, you may join the guild you like and pick out a skill, while the Overall Champion gets two. Now, candidates of Planet Herya, step forward," the man in red said.
"It seems Planet Herya too might be blessed, as it is the institutional planet where the young man named Nova Orion, a lower human, became the Overall Champion," the news reporter announced. His voice rippled across the MPU, sparking various discussions.
Nova and the nine other candidates of Planet Herya stepped forward close to the inscription. Nova's heart was pounding out of his chest.
"The inscription that mysteriously grants the Mark of the Channeler..." Nova took a deep breath. He had trained here probably more than anyone else present. Then he concentrated. He focused his mind on the inscription.
OWOOHOOM!
This time it was more intense. Nova felt something different. The light came like a storm, blinding all the cameras. Then suddenly, the world seemed to shift as Nova felt his body floating up by itself.
"This is it... I'm finally getting the Mark!" Nova yelled in his head excitedly as he thought he was getting his mark.
"How naive."
A voice suddenly echoed in his head, and the tone dripped with derision.
The air changed as a blinding white light mixed with a hint of gold flooded his vision, making it hard for him to see.
Then slowly, the light dimmed.
And he could now faintly make out the perfect silhouette of a man, as if sculpted to perfection. A chill of confusion spread through Nova, as the youth couldn't help but ask, "Who are you?"