The world-tree that held the city of Ragnar was older than most kingdoms that no had ever doubted to come into existence. That is to say its trunk rose like a continent of living wood and the academy of Luminas clung to one of its highest branches where the light of the artificial sun never fully faded. Nietzsche was another kind of man. Well, you shall know him from n0w on. On the morning of the Awakening the air smelled of sap and ozone and the faint metallic tang of distant blood. In that way the whole hyperverse seemed to be holding its breath for what was about to happen.
Nicolas Nietzsche Prime Sinclair sat in the back of the lecture hall with his eyes half-closed. Golden skin caught the filtered light. Hair the color of spun brass fell across one amber eye. After all, he was getting ready in his sleep for this day. He had not slept the previous day. The faint radiant aura that always clung to himwarm as a dying sunsetmasked the colder hunger that lived beneath his ribs. He had learned long ago to keep that hunger quiet. The thing is he had always kept it quiet because mixed blood was already enough of a crime in a place that only respected pure ranks and pure spirits.
Daniel’s voice cut through the quiet like a dull knife.
“Look at him. Sleeping through the most important day of his life. Typical. Half-vampire, half-elf, full waste.”
Milk’s chair scraped. The Jokai girl’s voice was low and sharp. “Say that again and I’ll break your teeth.”
Max laughed. Laura and Mina stared at their desks. Leah the succubus watched Nicolas with unreadable interest. Jack the devil smirked. The rest of the twelve stayed silent. What is more every single one of them already knew what Nicolas was and what he was not. Pure. Ranked. Chosen. He was none of those things.
Professor Mark slammed the end of his staff against the floor. The sound rang like a forge hammer. His Very Rare Dwarf King Forger spirit flickered behind him for a heartbeat,an armored dwarf with a crown of molten iron before vanishing.
“Enough. Sinclair. On your feet.”
Nicolas stood without hurry. The movement was clean, measured, the discipline of Sun Elf blood overriding everything else. After all the Sun Elf blood was the only clean thing he had left.
Mark’s eyes were hard. “You already know the stakes. No martial spirit means no place at Luminas. No place among the hunters. You become a farmer. A laborer. A body for the lower branches. Or a nobody. Your parents are hunters. Your blood is mixed. The gods do not care about mixed blood. They care about results. Today you prove you belong… or you leave.”
He listed the races present as if reciting a ledger of assets and liabilities: succubus, imp, devil, elf, humans, Jokai. Each name was a reminder of what Nicolas was not. That is to say pure. Ranked. Chosen. In that way the professor turned every word into another weight on the scales that were already tipping against him.
“We go to the temple. Now. I do not want to see this happen at the temple. We have a reputation to watch out for.”
The temple of Ragnar was grown, not built. Living wood rose in spiraling pillars shot through with veins of golden crystal. At its center stood the Awakening Altar, a perfect disc of translucent root-crystal that pulsed with the distant heartbeat of the hyperverse. Above it the canopy opened just enough to let a single shaft of pure light fall onto the stone. The thing is the light itself looked like judgment waiting to fall.
One by one the students stepped forward.
Leah placed her hands on the crystal. Pink mist rose and formed a crowned, winged figure of impossible beauty. Very Rare Queen Succubus. The same spirit her bloodline carried. Soft applause.
Loyd the imp Rare Imp Trickster. JackEpic Hellblade Devil. Lita the elf Rare Moonbow Archer. The humans received a scatter of Common and Rare spirits: steel wolf, flame fox, stone golem, wind hawk, shadow cat. The four Jokai girls pulled Rare and Very Rare beast-spirits without difficulty. What is more every single one of them walked away with something. Something that proved the gods had looked at them and decided they were worth a name.
Then the altar waited for Nicolas.
He stepped onto the crystal. The light of the canopy fell across his golden skin and made it shine like living metal. For a moment the radiant aura around him flaredwarm, clean, almost holy like the eternal moon emperor of the world. The vampire hunger inside him stirred once, curious, then went still. After all even the hunger seemed to know this was the moment that would decide everything.
He laid both palms flat on the altar.
Silence.
No light answered. No silhouette rose. No voice of any godAbrahamic, Greek, Norse, Egyptian, or otherwise spoke his name. The crystal remained cold and empty beneath his hands. That is to say the hyperverse itself had looked at him and chosen to give him nothing.
The silence stretched until it became ugly.
Daniel’s laugh was the first sound. “Nothing. Of course. The mongrel gets nothing. What else would it be? this has nothing to do with us.”
Milk’s fists clenched. Max kept laughing. Leah’s expression did not change. The others looked away. In that way the entire class turned the empty altar into another proof of what they had always believed.
Professor Mark walked forward slowly, boots heavy on the living wood. He stopped in front of Nicolas and looked down as if examining a flawed forging.
“You felt nothing. HAHAH! How stupid you can be. Just try it again.”
“Nothing,” Nicolas answered. His voice was steady. The Sun Elf discipline held. The thing is the discipline was the only thing still standing between him and the hunger that had waited so long.
Mark’s jaw tightened. “Then the law is clear. You are finished at Luminas Academy. Collect your belongings. Be off academy grounds by sundown. After that you are no longer our concern.”
He turned to the rest of the class. “The rest of you report to the training grounds at dawn. Dismissed.”
They left in small groups. Leah glanced back once. Milk looked ready to start a fight she could not win. Daniel made a mocking little bow. Then the temple was empty except for Nicolas and the silent altar.
He stayed on the crystal a moment longer, as if the hyperverse might still change its mind. It did not. What is more the cold of the crystal seemed to sink into his bones and stay there.
Outside, the vast canopy of Jupiter stretched forever. Far below, the city of Ragnar glowed along the branches like a constellation of lanterns. Somewhere in those branches his mother Lili still hunted with her Very Rare Queen Succubus spirit, and his father still called the Epic Colossal Goblin. They had given him mixed blood, golden skin, amber eyes, and an immortality that refused to age. They had not given him a martial spirit. That is to say they had given him everything except the one thing the academy and the gods demanded.
Nicolas walked down the temple steps with the same controlled stride he always used. Inside his chest the vampire hunger uncoiled for the first time in yearsquiet, patient, and no longer content to stay hidden as if he were some kind of gem in the desert. After all the hunger had always been there, waiting for the day the gods refused him so it could finally rise. That was the end of his career there. Well, maybe not.
He had failed the awakening.
The gods of the hyperverse had looked at him and decided he was not worth a spirit.
Somewhere far above the Snake Galaxy, in a place that was not heaven and not hell, something older than the nine super universes opened one eye and smiled.
The empty altar had not been empty after all.
It had simply been waiting for a different answer.
That is to say the answer was already waking inside him.
Damn bro! my Nicolas got rejected like me when I got rejected by that girl and when I failed the EILTS
Thank you for reading! let me know what you think about the story.