The sun didn't rise, it had ascended, blazing through the early morning sky with radiant authority, casting long, golden fingers across the kingdom. Its light spilled over rooftops and alleyways, pouring life into the streets below, the light comforted those that filled the street and others who had just woke up from the light.
Today wasn't just any day it was a turning point it was the day that many people longed for.
In the modest confines of his home, Drax stood before his mirror, his chest rising and falling with quiet intensity. He wore his school uniform which was a deep blue trousers that hugged his frame, polished black boots laced tight for movement, a crisp white long-sleeve shirt tucked in with perfect precision, and a sleek black pullover draped across his torso like armor.
He tilted his head, eyes gleaming with determination and anticipation, and let a half-smirk pull at his lips.
"Today... everything changes."
Rushing out his room and grabbing a toasted sandwich from the kitchen counter, he exchanged quick hugs and bid farewell to his mother and sister. There was no need for long speeches. Just knowing looks hopeful, proud, and tinged with worry for the youthful male.
He didn't look back when he opened the door. He couldn't no he wouldn't he had intended to confront this day head on. His heart was already ahead of him as if it was trying to escape.
As his boots hit the pavement, the streets welcomed him like a current sweeping a river. Teenagers of all backgrounds, clad in identical uniforms, flooded the roads with anticipation buzzing in the air.
Some walked with purpose as if they already knew the outcome while others laughed nervously, chatting to push down the weight of the unknown however one could already tell that it couldn't work.
Drax, however, ran. Daring he was.
His legs moved like pistons, wind rushing past him as he weaved through the crowd, eyes fixed ahead. His school gates loomed in the distance tall, black-iron bars that seemed to have rusted abit from the years.
And there they were.
Kade and Seronio his brothers not by blood, but by bond. They stood just outside the gates by its side, the early sunlight framing them in a golden haze.
Dressed in the same uniform, they looked sharp and focused. Kade leaned against the fence with his arms crossed, his silver hair catching the light, while Seronio paced slightly, as if unable to stand still they shared a cigarette while conversing about something.
Drax skidded to a stop, catching his breath as a grin stretched across his face, his body felt slightly winded but he regained himself.
"I see you guys are ready," he said, voice light but buzzing with energy.
Seronio turned squinching the cigarette, his eyes alive with excitement and anticipation.
He stepped forward, fist extended.
"Ready? Man, I feel like I'm in a dream still," he said, his voice carrying an edge of disbelief. "But damn it, I'm so ready."
Their fists collided with a satisfying smack, both of them grinning like kids who'd snuck into something forbidden or were given candy for free.
Even Kade, ever the composed one, let a glint of fire show in his emerald-blue eyes.
"Meh," he muttered railing in the emotions that lit his eyes, pushing off the fence. "I'm ready enough. But I gotta admit... I'm curious. Wonder what kind of chaos today's gonna bring."
After that.
There was a beat of silence. The kind that teeters just before the leap.
Drax looked at the school gates, at the countless students pouring in, at the teachers ushering people into lines and letting them go into the hall.
Drax pulse quickened.
"Let's find out our fate."
And with that, the three of them walked through the gates not as mere students, but as contenders. As survivors.
As the kind of souls the world had overlooked for far too long but they never forgot, they prepared themselves for this very day even if it felt like it would never happen.
The air inside the hall was thick with a strange energy not quite tension, not quite excitement, but something potent that hovered over the students like a fog before a storm it brewed itself into their very being giving most an unsettling feeling within their chest and made their heart beat erratic.
Drax, Seronio, and Kade walked side by side, a wall of silence draped over them. Their steps were steady, their faces unreadable.
The polished floors of the hall echoed beneath their boots, and every echo felt like the ticking of a countdown.
Around them, the rest of the students filled, already buzzing with nervous chatter and hushed theories.
Some were laughing too loudly as if they were trying wash away the unsettling emotions that flooded them while others sat rigid, their eyes fixed on the door like it might reveal their future or destroy it.
Hopes mingled with fear in the air this was the day destinies would shift or crumble like paper in water.
The three boys stood quietly, commanding attention without a single word.
And then, she noticed them.
Across the room, a girl paused mid-conversation.
Her gaze locked onto the trio, curiosity flickering in her eyes. With a soft, confident step, she made her way through the students towards them.
She was petite, yet her stride carried an undeniable confidence. Her hair a vibrant pink that danced in soft curls seemed to shimmer in the morning light pouring through the hallrooms window.
Every strand swayed like petals in a breeze, catching the eye of more than a few students as she passed but why wouldn't she? She looked like the popular type and she was. Her dark blue skirt stopped just above the knee, flowing gently with each movement, while sleek black stockings led into polished boots that clicked with purpose.
Her black pullover sat neatly over a crisp white shirt and slim black tie meticulous, but with just enough flare to show personality.
She stopped a step in front of them, tilting her head slightly.
There was a playful glint in her eye, but beneath it, something unreadable. Calculating. Confident.
"So…" she said, voice soft but slicing through the noise like a silver thread. "You three are the infamous street dogs from the back alley, huh?"
Drax blinked, caught off guard for just a second before a grin tugged at the corner of his lips. Kade raised a brow but said nothing, his gaze narrowing as he studied her.
Seronio, on the other hand, smirked and folded his arms.
"And you are?" Seronio asked, half-amused. They hadn't met her before but then again people usually avoided them so it was a genuine question.
"Lira. Lira Vale," she said smoothly. "Top of my prep school, not that it matters now. Just thought I'd meet the ones everyone keeps whispering about."
Drax exchanged glances with his friends. So they had been noticed after all, that could of explained why people thought they were Delinquents.
"Whispers, huh?" Drax said, his voice carrying a tinge of excitement. "Hope they weren't all bad."
Lira's lips curled into a small, sly smile.
"Oh, they were terrible," she teased. "But I like trouble. Keeps things interesting."
Then, with a glance toward the front of the hall on the stage where the instructors were beginning to gather, she leaned in slightly and whispered just loud enough for them to hear:
"Let's see if the rumors live up to the awakening."
And just like that, she turned and walked back to her group, her skirt swaying, curls bouncing, leaving a lingering trail of intrigue behind her.
Drax exhaled through his nose, half-laughing.
"Well. That was something."
Kade stared after her, his expression unreadable. Seronio looked like he was dying not to make a joke.
But before he could, they heard footsteps, loud drawing everyones attention.
The room fell silent.
A voice crackled over the intercom, deep and smooth, laced with authority:
"All students are to remain standing. The Awakening Ceremony will begin shortly. Prepare yourselves."
The room shifted. The excitement turned electric.
And in that moment, every breath felt heavier. Every heartbeat louder.
The boys stood shoulder to shoulder, surrounded by the hum of hushed murmurs, anxious breaths, and pounding hearts that could almost be heard. The vast hall usually a place of idle study and morning chatter had transformed into something sacred, something ominous.
Every student from every surrounding class was packed into the chamber, backs straight, eyes forward. Some clutched the sleeves of their uniforms, others held their arms crossed tightly, fingers trembling ever so slightly.
Drax's eyes swept across the crowd. Nervous faces. Some biting lips. Some whispering hurried prayers. And then he looked at his brothers-in-arms Kade, still and sharp like a blade, and Seronio, a pillar of focus and unshaken resolve.
A silent exchange passed between them.
No turning back now not like it ever came close to their mind.
Then the sound of heels clicked against the stone floor, each step like a countdown to fate.
A tall woman with ivory skin and steel-grey eyes took her place on the dais at the front of the room. Her silver and white robes marked her as someone powerful—regal, but cold and profoundly noble.
"I am Professor Reverheart of Brightstraiten Academy," she began, her voice clear and cutting like winter wind sending shivers down a few students spines.
"Today, we begin the Awakening Ceremony."
A hush blanketed the hall. No breath dared break her cadence.
"This will not be done one by one. That is a luxury for nobles so don't get your hopes up. Instead, all of you will undergo the Awakening together. Simultaneously."
Gasps and whispers erupted, but she raised a single gloved hand and silence fell like a guillotine.
"Only twenty of you will succeed. The rest… will not be chosen. Whether you faint, fall, or fracture under the strain it will reveal your truth. Your potential. The Ceremony begins in thirty seconds. Prepare your bodies. Ready your minds. Steel your soul."
She turned her back to them and stepped down.
Drax's jaw tightened. That wasn't how the Ceremony was supposed to go it felt so rigged. Everything they'd ever heard spoke of personalized rituals, guidance, some kind of oversight. But this? This felt like a cruel joke.
Still, he looked at Kade and Seronio and grinned.
"Screw the odds. This is our shot."
A pause. Then the countdown began:
3...
A strange static hum filled the air as if a electric discharge was fired. The lights dimmed unnaturally as if the sun was setting for some reason.
2...
The temperature dropped to the point that it was freezing. Every student now stood locked in place some shivering, and a few collapsing as they body went into shock. The amount of fallen students 10/50.
1...
A whisper touched every ear. Soft, ancient, and incomprehensibly alive.
It slithered into their skulls, bypassing sense and reason speaking in tongue that was foreign to all.
0.
Then agony unparalleled agony.
It was like a blade of pure energy had been stabbed through their chests, into their lungs, their hearts and their bones felt as if hammers hammered into them as if it was trying to turn them into powder.
Students screamed their voices breaking from the sheer volume and most collapsed immediately how sad and fruitless. The amount of fallen students, 35/50
36/50
40/50
42/50
The remaining few clawed at the air or fell to their knees trying hard to fight it but fate is cruel. The Awakening was not a blessing it was a war with your own soul and what the failing students felt was the prestigious awakening was actually a curse.
Drax's body spasmed, and for a moment, he couldn't breathe. His muscles twisted, like molten fire licked his insides. His body bent slowly but even then he forced himself to stand straight with a growl. His hands clenched so tightly his knuckles cracked. But through the pain… came something else. A surge.
A current of power. His vision pulsed with color. His skin prickled. And somewhere deep inside, a fire he always had burst throughout his body.
"I will not fall. Not now. Not here. I will not bow!!!."
Remaining students in the Awakening 7 out of 50.
Kade's body shook violently. His vision blurred then sharpened in terrifying clarity catching the minute details his eyes missed before. His emerald-blue eyes snapped open, now glowing with an eerie brilliance. A slit formed in each iris, reptilian and dangerous but coldly predatory. Blood ran down his lip from where he bit into his cheek but he welcomed it. The taste grounded him. The chaos became quiet.
"If this is pain, I'll dance with it."
And just like that, the pressure eased. The fire inside him was no longer burning him alive it surrendered to him.
The remaining student withing the Awakening Ceremony 6 out of 50.
Seronio refused to move. He was rooted, shoulders squared, legs locked. His whole body screamed to fall but he refused he would never fall. He couldn't afford to crumble he didn't have any right to collapse.
His vision blurred. His ears rang with a loud ring. He saw flashes of his father, his past fights, the broken alleys, the dreams whispered in quiet corners and the day he promised he would never buckle and yield. He roared inwardly, his spirit swelling against the crushing force.
"BRING. IT. ON."
His feet burned against the floor, but he never fell. Not even once.
All around them, others screamed. And fell like domino's. The other's that were on the floor convulsed on the ground.
The remaining students within the Awakening Ceremony
5 out of 50.
Five remained.
Drax. Kade. Seronio.
They stood. Heads raised. Bodies shaking but their eyes burning with something unbreakable a will that will never be crushed.
The first test had come and it tried to break them.
It failed.
Professor Reverheart stood still, her long silver cloak whispering against the cold marble floor as she stared across the battlefield of unconscious bodies. The Ceremony had ended but not without its toll. Nearly the entire room had crumbled.
Students lay scattered like broken dolls, groaning, twitching, or completely silent as if they were dead.
She exhaled through her nose slowly, deliberately.
"Predictable," she muttered to herself, eyes scanning the collapsed forms without a hint of compassion.
This was the outcome she had anticipated. No, this was the outcome they had engineered. It was all predictable.
The other professors across the kingdom were doing the same thing, orchestrating similar bloodless massacres in halls filled with desperate hope. They had all agreed: no common-born child should cross the gates of Brightstraiten Academy.
This Awakening Ceremony was never meant to empower them it was meant to eliminate.
To break.
To remind them of their place and that place was beneath nobles.
She tilted her chin up, proud of herself, ready to declare the collective failure of these lowborn aspirants.
"A waste of resources," she whispered. "Barely worth the ink used to sign the approval scroll."
But just as her voice curled with contempt, she paused.
Five.
Five were still standing.
Her gaze sharpened, slicing through the fog of disbelief.
There she, Lila was a small girl with wild, curly pink hair and a fierce fire in her eyes. Blood dripped from her nose, but she stood, fists clenched and legs shaking ready to collapse but she didn't. Near her was another girl with long, obsidian-black hair, down on one knee, breathing raggedly but refusing to fall.
And then lastly the three boys.
Drax. Kade. Seronio.
Reverheart's breath caught.
They didn't look like survivors. They looked like conquerors.
Their uniforms were messy and wet, bodies trembling, but their backs were straight, their eyes unbroken.
They stared back at her not with reverence or fear but with challenge. Like they were ready to for more.
Drax stood like a war-god reborn, sweat clinging to his brow, chest heaving with each breath.
Inside him, something had changed he could feel it in every bone, every muscle. Power, ancient and immeasurable, surged through him. It whispered in a voice neither male nor female, ancient as is descended from the stars.
"Rise."
His vision pulsed and his hazel eyes blazed into deep purple amethyst, radiant and fierce.
Kade was eerily still as if was floatint. The pain had ceased or rather submitted and vanished. The force inside him was colder than flame, older than shadow. Colder than any winter he had experienced.
He felt no fear, no uncertainty only dominion as if he ruled.
The voice in his head spoke in riddles that he couldn't translate, but the meaning was clear: he was ordained.
His pupils, once slitted, now reformed, and his emerald eyes metamorphed, his emerald blue eyes glowed and deepened as if the blue was sentient and darkened like a lightly dimmed sky that had distanted stars sparkel.
And then there was Seronio.
His stance radiated calm intensity, like a storm trapped within human flesh. He didn't blink. Didn't move. And yet, he felt like the air around him shivered with pressure. His dark eyes still pitch black now seemed to glow subtly, like a black hole pulling everything toward him. He wasn't merely standing he was anchored. Unshakeable.
Reverheart's lips parted, the barest flicker of unease tugging at the edge of her composure.
"Impossible…" she breathed, more to herself than anyone else. Or so she thought.
This ritual, this trap was designed to break. And yet these five… they endured. Worse… they had awakened.
The murmurs of the other academy officials behind her became hushed whispers disbelief. Some even stepped forward, as if needing to see the anomaly with their own eyes.
Silence then followed.
The kind of silence that comes only after a storm.
The moment the pain vanished and the ritual ended, the world seemed to inhale again and time began resuming, light settling, gravity returning. The once glowing aura in the hall dimmed. The whispering that clawed at their sanity was gone now.
Only five remained standing.
Just five.
Professor Reverheart stood motionless, her sharp heels clicking once as she pivoted to face them. Her gaze was cold, unreadable but something glimmered there. Amusement? Approval? Disbelief? Perhaps all three.
"You five have passed," she said, her voice clipped and emotionless, though the weight of her words thundered through the room like a bell. "Be proud. You aren't as pathetic as I thought."
She paused, as if considering whether they were even worth another breath.
"You leave for the Academy tomorrow. Prepare yourselves."
Without another word, she turned her back to them and walked away, her long coat swaying behind her like a judgmental shadow.
Moments later, other teachers stepped cautiously into the hall. Their expressions shifted from confusion to shock as they saw the sea of unconscious students and the lone five still standing amidst the wreckage.
The room was chaos.
Professors and faculty scrambled between rows of collapsed students, checking their pulses, calling out their names, their voices a blend of panic and confusion.
A few teachers moved like machines, trained to respond yet even they couldn't mask the fear that clawed at the edge of their expressions it frightened them..
One woman, pale and trembling, pressed a communicator to her ear and whispered hoarsely, "Contact every parent immediately… No, there will be no classes. Not after this." Her voice cracked under the weight of disbelief.
Fifty students had stepped into the hall that morning.
Fifty bright, hopeful souls.
Now, only five remained standing. The rest lay scattered across the floor like fallen leaves, motionless and unconscious some twitching faintly, while others were ghostly still.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Then, as if guided by the same invisible force, the five remaining students who had withstood what should have broken them swayed slightly and collapsed.
Not from pain.
But because their bodies had reached a threshold beyond human understanding.
A single figure stepped forward from the shadows of the hall.
Academy guard clad in obsidian armor traced with glowing glyphs. He moved with quiet certainty, not even glancing at the fallen like he was use to being surrounded by body, as he approached the principal.
His voice, low and smooth, cut through the silence like a blade through still air.
"These five will depart for the Academy tomorrow. Inform their families. Their fate no longer belongs to this place."
Before the principal could even muster a reply, the guard vanished. Not in a flash, not in a blink but like he simply ceased to exist, as if he had never been there at all.
The teachers, the students who had watched from afar, everyone remained frozen in the gravity of that moment.
Five remained.
Five had survived what should have been impossible.
And now, the Academy itself had come calling.