Nuriel woke up in a daze and quickly sat himself straight up as he gasped for air.
His vision was filled with the last remnants of what he saw in those few short seconds of chaos—disoriented vision, an orange-colored street, then a large impact where he got the lights knocked out of him. Even now, he was still not thinking straight.
He dragged his hands across the floor and found it to be very cold and very smooth. It was the floor made of nothingness that, the floor he was familiar with.
"I'm here?" Nuriel recollected his thoughts. That accident from before must've put him to sleep—or worse, death.
But he shook the idea off. If he was dead, then he wouldn't be here in the throne room. He hoped that was the case, and so he quickly made his way toward the throne and spun the untainted scepter to reveal the dreams of people.
Unlike the faculty dormitories, he was closer to the densest part of the campus. He expected that the surrounding area was occupied by many more dreamers, and so a thick cluster of white streaks crossed the surrounding area.
In fact, it was so thick that it was quite hard for Nuriel to see what was in front of him. However, before he even noticed it, his vision began to somewhat clear.
'They're disappearing?' Nuriel turned and twisted to look around him.
One, two, three strings—and so on—quickly disappeared from the throne room.
'I guess a lot of people are waking up due to the incident,' he thought, breathing out a heavy sigh.
The College of Magic and its spire, one of the most prominent colleges in Owhen City, and perhaps even one of the top in the whole world had been destroyed.
Already, two figures came to mind, Sayla Mass and George. Those were the last two people he saw before he left the spire and the whole college altogether.
Nuriel couldn't help but cover his mouth in fear. There was no way they could've survived such an explosion. He then remembered Vivienne, who disappeared for a while in the middle of their work.
He rubbed the space between his brows and sat on the throne, completely dejected by the possibilities he was formulating.
There were possible explanations for what happened to the spire.
The explosion might've been a freak incident of some sort, but such an explosion would be impossible to create with a mere breakdown of school equipment.
The accident could have been a result of a terror attack. Given the tense relationship between the Kingdom of Bose and the Empire of Solaris, a surprise attack on one of their biggest institutes would serve as a killing blow to the kingdom's greatest intellectuals.
But it didn't make sense to attack at midnight, when the majority of professors would be safe in their own homes.
Another thing was the scepter!
'The researchers I encountered... did an incident happen?' Nuriel looked at the scepter fragment of Desacares and grabbed it.
It had the usual slightly rusted metallic texture—there were no abnormalities he could see.
He let the fragment go to float along with the other fragment as he hunched over in deep thought.
Eventually, as more and more people woke up from their sleep, the throne room was now devoid of any dreamers—except one!
He noticed the prominent aquamarine colored string that belonged to Yevdokiya.
Whatever the case was, he had to do something, and so Nuriel strummed the aquamarine string.
The melodious sound reverberated throughout the throne room and into Nuriel's mind, slowly eating away his vision as he eventually found himself waking up in the dream realm.
Nuriel spawned standing in a vast void. His only point of reference was Yevdokiya's back, who was a couple of meters in front of him.
She was sitting in a wooden chair. In front of her was a wooden table, which was occupied by a dismantled rifle. Metal pieces were scattered, along with what seemed like cleaning materials.
Yevdokiya was silently holding the long metal rod, which was the barrel of the rifle. Her other arm held a long metal stick that had tiny bristles.
She shoved it in and out a few times. After she deemed that it was enough, she held the barrel upside down. A dark, fine powder was poured onto the floor. Unsatisfied, she repeated the process, yet it yielded the same results as before.
She did it multiple times and eventually grew tired of the lack of results.
Yevdokiya placed the barrel on the table, then grabbed the wooden stock and a small towel.
She sprayed something on the wooden surface before rubbing it. Each stroke made the wooden finish much cleaner, shinier, and glossier. Only then was she happy with the results.
'Aren't children supposed to be dreaming of fairytales and whatnot?' Nuriel quietly lampooned.
He imagined himself to be invisible and weightless, but before he could try and float toward her.
Something appeared.
[Scepter network within your area is being disrupted by an unknown entity]
Nuriel swallowed. He looked at the panel, which was glitching out before disappearing entirely.
'An unknown entity...'
But he didn't dwell on the possibilities. Without hesitation, he made his way toward Yevdokiya, who was still occupied with her rifle maintenance.
Slowly but calmly, he placed both of his hands on her shoulders. He held his breath to make this encounter as strange and surreal as possible.
He knew she felt the touch on her shoulders since she flinched.
Nuriel leaned in closer to her left ear and imagined his voice to be clear and devoid of the impurities of the human vocal cords. He spoke in a way so angelic that it could put a crying baby to sleep peacefully.
A voice so powerful that it could reverberate through one's physical body and very soul.
"There's an attack
Wake up
Yevdokiya Nochnaya."
***
Gasp.
A ringing noise coursed through her as she pushed her body up in an instant, covering her left ear to ease the loud and piercing screech.
Calming herself down, the ringing subsided—followed by a vivid recollection of her dream.
Yevdokiya patted her head as she thought about those strange words she'd just heard that caused her to wake so suddenly.
"An attack?" she muttered through heavy breaths.
Before she could begin processing the thought, a chilling sensation ran through one side of her body and out the other. It all happened in an instant, but she instinctively knew what she had just felt.
She turned to face the window, one that pointed directly toward the College of Magic.
To use magic, one could draw on the essence of the world, commonly known simply as essence.
If one couldn't manipulate essence on their own, they could commune with their god to serve as a vessel for divine power.
But the essence just now—
It was incredibly foul.
So putrid that she nearly vomited.
It couldn't be called essence.
It couldn't be from any god.
Yevdokiya recognized the scent. It was the same as a fallen creature.
Along with her comrades, she lived on the edge of the university's vast territory.
It was a forested region, and the building they resided in resembled more of a military compound than the elegant, tasteful structures that stood proudly in the university's heart.
Despite the distance, It was still powerful.
One thought flashed in her mind again, that strange voice.
There's an attack.
She got out of her single bedroom and rushed to the barracks which was a larger room filled with tightly arranged beds.
"WAKE UP!" Yevdokiya's voice rang through the ears of every sleeping person.
"Hrnghh... no, five more... minutes..."
"Ah! Are we late for class?!"
"M-Major?!"