The air in the Upper Spire tasted wrong.
It was clean, filtered, and faintly scented with synthetic pine, devoid of the familiar metallic tang of recycled exhaust and open sewage that defined Lower Sub-Level 4.
To anyone else from the slums, stepping out of the armored transport into the towering, neon-drenched plazas of Sector 1 would have felt like entering paradise.
To Sunny, it felt like stepping into an oversized, brightly lit cage.
‘Too many lights,’ Sunny thought, his posture hunched, his hands buried deep in the pockets of the dark, issue-standard jacket the Awakened Bureau had tossed at him.
‘Too many open spaces.
If something jumps me out here, there isn’t a single alleyway narrow enough to block a heavy strike.’
The transport driver, a silent man with a heavy cybernetic arm and a neural port humming behind his ear, didn’t bother escorting him inside.
He simply tapped the console, causing the gull-wing door to slide shut with a heavy pneumatic hiss, and sped off into the gleaming, multi-tiered traffic lanes above.
Sunny turned his gaze toward the towering structure standing before him.
The Awakened Academy wasn’t a school; it was a fortress.
Constructed from massive blocks of dark, blast-resistant composite stone and reinforced steel, the building stretched fifty stories into the overcast sky, surrounded by a high, perimeter wall lined with automated point-defense turrets.
Heavy banners bearing the emblem of the World Government hung from the high balconies, snapping in the cold, high-altitude wind.
A sleek, glass-walled security checkpoint blocked the main archway.
Sunny stepped forward, his boots making a soft, dry tap against the polished white granite plaza.
As he approached the glass doors, a pale blue holographic grid swept over his body from head to toe, rendering his vitals, soul signature, and citizen registry in bright golden text floating in mid-air.
[Scan Complete: Sleeper Sunless]
[True Name: Lost from Light]
[Status: Provisional Registrant – Sector 25]
[Clearance Granted. Welcome to the Academy.]
The heavy glass doors slid open with a soft, hydraulic chime.
Inside, the lobby was vast, marble-floored, and bustling with activity.
Dozens of teenagers—some looking barely fifteen, others older and sporting expensive, tailored training suits—were gathered in small, tight groups across the main hall.
They moved with an easy, casual confidence that only wealth, high-grade nutritional supplements, and years of private martial arts tutoring could buy.
They were the scions of the Legacy Clans, the children of high-ranking Awakened, and the elite students from the upper spire academies who had spent their entire lives preparing for the Nightmare Spell. This chapter was taken from novelping.com without permission.
Sunny stuck close to the dark basalt pillars lining the wall, blending into the shadows as naturally as breathing.
‘Look at them,’ Sunny observed, his dark blue eyes scanning the room with cold, calculating detachment.
‘Flawless skin.
Perfect posture.
Custom-fitted soul-armor under their coats.
They look like gods compared to the trash in Sub-Level 4… but none of them know what frozen blood tastes like.’
A group of three teenagers standing near the central fountain caught his attention.
In the center of the trio stood a tall girl with long, pale silver hair tied in a neat ponytail.
She wore a simple, unadorned white training uniform, her posture straight as a blade, her striking grey eyes completely calm despite the chaotic noise of the lobby.
She didn’t talk to the young men hovering near her; she simply stood there, an aura of absolute, terrifying composure radiating from her skin.
[Innate Attribute: Mark of Divinity]
The dormant spark deep within Sunny’s Shadow Core twitched slightly, reacting to the girl’s presence.
‘She’s different,’ Sunny’s mind hissed, a instinctual, roach-like warning shooting up his spine.
‘The rest of these kids are playing soldier.
She has killed something real.’
As if sensing his gaze, the silver-haired girl shifted her head slightly, her cool grey eyes slicing through the crowded hall to lock directly onto the dark pillar where Sunny was standing.
Sunny didn’t flinch, nor did he look away.
He simply let his shadow wrap a fraction tighter around his heels, pulling his presence deeper into the ambient darkness of the pillar.
After a long, quiet second, the girl turned her gaze back toward the fountain, unbothered.
“Attention, Sleepers!” a booming, amplified voice echoed across the marble lobby, cutting through the chatter of the crowd.
Sunny shifted his eyes toward the grand staircase at the far end of the hall.
A tall, broad-shouldered man in a dark military uniform was descending the steps.
His chest was covered in campaign ribbons, and his right eye was replaced by an intricate, glowing crimson cybernetic optic that swept over the crowd like a searchlight.
The noise in the lobby died down instantly.
“I am Master Jet,” the officer stated, his voice flat, harsh, and devoid of drill-instructor dramatics.
“And for the next twenty-one days, I am the man responsible for making sure you don’t instantly die the moment you enter the Dream Realm.”
He stopped at the base of the stairs, leaning his hands on his hips as his glowing crimson optic scanned the fifty-plus teenagers gathered in the hall.
“Some of you come from rich families,” Jet continued, his tone laced with dry, cynical amusement.
“Some of you have spent ten years learning how to swing expensive swords in climate-controlled dojos. Some of you received Memories from your parents on your sixteenth birthday. I don’t care.”
He pointed a thick finger toward the heavy, iron doors leading to the subterranean training grounds behind him.
“The Dream Realm isn’t a tournament arena. It doesn’t care about your family name, your money, or your private tutors. It is an open, howling graveyard filled with ancient horrors that will eat your soul and turn your corpse into a puppet before you can even summon your armor.”
Jet paused, letting the heavy silence sink into the room.
“You have three weeks before the Winter Solstice,” Jet said coldly.
“In those three weeks, you will learn how to fight in formation, how to read environmental hazards, and how to kill Nightmare Creatures using your Aspects. If you fail the physical evaluations here, we don’t kick you out—we simply assign you to the front-line vanguard in the Dream Realm, where the survival rate is less than twenty percent.”
A ripple of anxious murmurs ran through the crowd of wealthy teenagers.
Sunny, however, stood quietly in the shadow of his pillar, a cold, tiny smirk touching his lips.
‘Twenty percent?’ Sunny thought, his hand resting casually over the hidden shadow core in his chest.
‘Those are the best odds I’ve had all week.’
“Group assignments have been sent to your personal communicators,” Master Jet commanded.
“Find your dormitories, report to the lower armory for physical testing in two hours, and don’t get lost. Dismissed.”
The crowd began to disperse, teenagers pulling out sleek digital wrist-comms to check their assigned rooms and team rosters.
Sunny walked over to a public terminal near the wall, tapping the interface to bring up his registration details.
[Sleeper: Sunless]
[Dormitory: Block B, Room 104]
[Training Group: 7]
[Combat Evaluation Instructor: Master Jet]
Sunny memorized the details in a second, closed the terminal, and turned toward the residential corridors.
He had three weeks.
Three weeks to study every combat style, analyze every potential threat among his peers, and master the silent, hidden strength of his Divine Aspect before the Spell dragged him back into the dark.
As he walked down the long, metallic hallway, his living shadow glided smoothly across the wall beside him, matching his stride step for step in the quiet light.