The academy always felt too peaceful at night.Like a lie the world told itself.
Hiro learned long ago: silence means someone wants you dead.
That's why he didn't sleep.
He sat by the window of his shared dorm room — everyone else at the festival, unaware that the gods they worshipped had already started hunting him like an animal. The moon cast a silver line across the floor, stopping exactly at Hiro's boots, like it was afraid to touch him.
Something flickered behind his ribs again.That same strange pulse he'd been feeling since the underground trial.
Divinity… waking up.
He pressed a hand over his chest, breathing slow."Not now. Don't—"
The building shivered.
Not from wind.Not from magic.
From footsteps.
Heavy. Coordinated. Silent in the way only trained killers could be.
Hiro's eyes narrowed."Assassins."
The door knob turned once. Stopped.Turned again — softly, slowly.
He was already out of the chair, muscles tight, pulse steady.
The door opened with no sound.
Five masked figures entered.
Their blades weren't steel.They shimmered faintly — god-blessed steel, the kind that could cut through divine vessels and soul-bearing monsters.
They didn't speak.They didn't threaten.
They simply moved.
Fast.
Deadly.
Professional.
Hiro dodged the first strike by a breath. The blade smashed into the wall, slicing through the stone like bread. Dust rained. Another blade slashed at his face; he leaned back, caught the attacker's wrist, twisted—
Something inside him snapped open.
Not power.
Instinct.
Divine instinct.
Hiro didn't even realize he had moved until the assassin's body crumpled at his feet, neck twisted so violently the mask split.
The others hesitated.
A mistake.
Hiro's vision tunneled.The room bent.Shadows stretched like they were being pulled toward him.
His fingers trembled.A heat crawled up his throat.
"No… not again—"
The nearest assassin lunged.
Hiro's control shattered.
The divinity exploded outward like a silent scream.
Everything froze.
The assassins mid-step.The dust mid-air.Even the candle flames shuttered into stillness.
Only Hiro moved.
No — something inside Hiro moved.
His pupils thinned, glowing faint gold.
His voice came out lower, distorted."You dare touch… mine?"
He didn't remember crossing the room.He didn't remember grabbing the killer.
He only remembered the sound of bone caving in.
One assassin tried to flee. A shadow lashed around his leg — not magic, not elemental, but something ancient and divine. It dragged him screaming across the floor.
The silence broke.
Windows shattered.Beds overturned.Bodies dropped.
Hiro blinked — and the room was full of corpses.
He sucked in a breath, clutching the wall."What… what did I just—"
A sudden boom shook the academy courtyard.
Not assassins.
Not students.
Something bigger.
Hiro stepped outside, boots crunching over broken glass.
That's when he saw the carriage.
It wasn't pulled by horses.It floated an inch off the ground, runes blazing. Its metal was white-gold, embossed with a crest only fools failed to recognize —
A divine envoy.
A messenger of the gods.
He felt his jaw clench.
Perfect timing.
The envoy stepped out, robes trailing, carrying authority in every movement. Behind him came two armored paladins, faces carved from stone.
The envoy's eyes scanned the courtyard.Calm. Detached. Cold.
Then his gaze locked on Hiro — bloodstained, breathing heavy, eyes still glowing faint gold.
The envoy's expression didn't change, but the paladins reached for their blades.
"Hiro."His voice was soft. Too soft."Your existence is becoming… problematic."
Hiro spat blood."And your timing sucks."
Before the envoy could respond, someone shouted from the training hall.
"HELP! HE'S OUT OF CONTROL!"
Hiro turned — and froze.
The training hall was filled with students.Most of them on the ground.Some crawling away.Some crying.
At the center of the chaos stood Elden, a senior disciple, bleeding from a deep slash on his arm. His eyes were wide with terror.
Not because of Hiro.
But because of the thing floating behind Elden.
A mass of black tendrils.A shape with no shape.A shadow with a pulse.
It was feeding on the students' fear.
Hiro whispered, voice cracking,"What… did I unleash…?"
Because that thing — that nightmare — reacted to his awakening earlier.
And now it wanted more.
The envoy lifted a hand, divine markings flaring."This is exactly why we cannot allow you to live, Hiro."
The shadow rushed toward the nearest student.
Hiro moved without thinking, sprinting across the courtyard, ignoring the pain, ignoring the envoy's orders, ignoring everything except one truth:
He would not lose another innocent because of the gods' mistakes.
He tackled Elden aside just as the creature lunged.
The shadow slammed into Hiro instead—
And everything went black.
But not empty.
Black… like ink swirling around him. Whispering. Twisting. Forming symbols he had never seen but somehow understood.
A voice spoke through the dark.
Not human.Not mortal.
"Forgotten Sovereign…Why have you awakened?"
Hiro clenched his fists, floating in the void."I didn't choose this."
The voice laughed.Ancient. Sad. Familiar.
"No.But they did."
Images exploded —
A council room.Seven hooded figures.Papers stamped with divine wax.His name carved onto a black stone.A verdict.
"The Prince carries the sealed fragment.He must be eliminated before he remembers."
Hiro's stomach twisted.
So this was it.
The gods weren't avoiding him.They were hunting him.
The dark voice whispered one last thing:
"Wake up, Hiro.They've found you."
His eyes snapped open.
The envoy stood over him, blade drawn, divine power swirling around him like a storm.
Students screamed.Buildings burned.The shadow creature hovered, confused, twitching as if recognizing Hiro as its master — or prey.
Hiro's hands trembled.
Not with fear.
With fury.
"Fine," he muttered. "You want me dead?"
The ground cracked beneath him.
"Come earn it."
The envoy swung down with a roar.
And Chapter 16 ends with that blade falling —and Hiro's divinity waking fully for the first time.