Lord of nightmares×
In a world shrouded by the Curse—a Veil that births nightmarish Rifts and twists humanity into the Awakened, each branded with Dominions born of terror—Xia Ying emerges from his First Nightmare irrevocably changed.
His awakening grants him a rare and insidious power tied to fear itself. But power, in this world, is as dangerous as it is coveted. To survive, he must conceal the truth. When he registers at the fortified Bureau, he reveals only a fraction of his Dominion, disguising its divine depth beneath the unremarkable title: **Lord of Nightmares**. In a society that drafts the branded into brutal acclimation camps and funnels elites into state-controlled institutions, any hint of greater potential invites scrutiny, exploitation… or quiet elimination.
Forced through mandatory terror-training camps and thrust into a sudden low-tier Rift outbreak in New Haven’s slums, Xia Ying learns to feed on dread while maintaining the mask of a capable but ultimately ordinary survivor. Public heroics earn fleeting admiration; private harvests of panic fuel his silent, relentless evolution. When the government’s infamous **Dread Legion** offers him power and belonging, he refuses—choosing independence over chains.
But refusal has consequences.
His growing profile triggers a crimson summons: compulsory enrollment in the **Academy of Shattered Nightmares**—an isolated volcanic island fortress where the nation forges its most promising, and most dangerous, Awakened. Beneath wards that barely restrain the island’s leaking dread, students study forbidden history, including the 22 lost **Ascension Chains**—shattered pathways to apotheosis once walked by godlike beings known as the Originals.
Surrounded by clan heirs, arrogant prodigies, and watchful instructors who sense more than they should, Xia Ying walks a razor’s edge. He rekindles fragile alliances from his camp days, sows loyalty and doubt in equal measure, and dominates theory without ever unveiling the true scope of his hunger. Campus politics, engineered “accidents,” and a brutal dread tournament push his control to its limits. When a student’s loss of control tears open a Rift within academy grounds, Xia Ying’s intervention earns him both rare favor… and dangerous suspicion from the headmaster.
As whispers of ancient echoes and Original legacies ripple through forbidden lectures, Xia Ying refines his Dominion in secret—advancing not through brute force, but through calculated terror, psychological supremacy, and the patient forging of instruments meant for a far greater design.
In a world that teaches the branded to fear their own hunger, Xia Ying alone embraces his—
—and hungers for more.
