In that very instant she discovered it: the wall between geniuses, prodigies, and normal people.
But contrary to what anyone might think, she didn't give up. Sure, she did at first, but then she thought and thought.
—How am I supposed to be a teacher? How will I make others admire me if I can't even focus, if I can't even push myself…?
From that reflection she resolved to chase her dream no matter what. That boy who had snapped her awake slowly became the love of her life, and with that her life started to take shape.
—Ah, those were the good times —the teacher thought to herself.
—Teacher! —Carlitos called out excited—, you didn't finish explaining Ircel.
—You're right, Carlitos —the teacher said, giving him a big smile—. So then, as I was saying, Ircel…
She couldn't finish the lesson, because unbeknownst to her the event that would change the entire course of her world had just begun.
A massive explosion blew the classroom door off its hinges. The teacher was stunned and her students terrified.
Suddenly a humanoid creature barged in —white, five-armed, with two tentacles and a grotesque skull-like face.
Just by looking at it the teacher knew: that thing was supernatural and massive. Easily three meters tall. Her first instinct was to save the kids, but fate had different plans. One single sweep of that creature's arm caused a devastating explosion that tore through the classroom, killing several children.
Some kids died crushed by debris, others burned, others by the blast itself. The teacher escaped wounded, yes, but she hadn't taken a quarter of the damage some of those kids had. Watching them die in front of her eyes was traumatic —it marked her and awoke something inside.
According to what Rhys later told recruits, there are several ways a human with the Gen Raptor can Ascend. Two of the most common and documented are: extreme stress / a life-or-death situation, and a feeling of such utter impotence that the body itself begins to generate Aura.
Back to the teacher: she was about to be killed, but that thing sensed something and ran off in another direction. That final act broke the teacher inside.
She had nothing left; her husband was also a teacher in that school, so he was most likely dead. She couldn't protect those under her care and, to top it off, the thing that killed them left her alive as if her life meant nothing. That feeling of worthlessness returned —the same one she'd felt when the doctor told her she couldn't have children that afternoon.
She thought she'd left that sensation behind, but she hadn't. Her heart filled with hatred and she swore, by everything holy, to kill that thing.
Another lesson Rhys drilled into new recruits was that the nature of body and soul determines which side of the Aura an Ascended will fall on. Not only that —the emotions you feel during your Ascension affect whether you become a Sinner on the Ego side or a Saint on the Karma side.
Turns out there were two of those things. The second one appeared in the secondary wing, just by Anyael's classroom.
Something different happened here. While the second creature attempted to slaughter students left and right, it only managed to kill three students and one teacher, because someone stopped it.
It turned out the teacher wasn't the only one who had awoken in that moment; Mark Lancer —that blond, good-vibes boy— had also Ascended.
When the thing started attacking, Mark, a huge manga nerd, thought of a way to stop it and, out of pure helplessness, he Ascended. His pure desire to help mixed with that impotence triggered his Virtue.
The deepest part of him screamed the phrase that would activate his Virtue —and he finally shouted it.
In that tense instant, all the survivors in the classroom stared at young Lancer as he yelled: "Turn the creation in to ashes, SOLARIS!"
At that precise moment his Virtue activated: Solaris, the Star-Devourer
Golden wings of fire erupted on Mark's back, and that same flame wrapped his whole body, making him shine like a deity. Without fully understanding his abilities, he burned the ground beneath the creature's feet, incinerating it completely in seconds.
Meanwhile, the other Aural Beast, sensing that intense Karma, decided to flee. Bad move.
On its way out it ran straight into her —the teacher —and likely the being she hated the most. Though the beast didn't think, its instincts already warned it of danger.
In seconds it was cleaved in two —frustrating for the teacher, who wanted to make it suffer. But whatever —the important thing was it was over.