The top of the green sea sprawled like boiling water, bubbles bursting from the drowning Leon's mouth and nose as he sank deep. For a moment, his heart stopped beating, his brain got foggy with empty thoughts, and his body became extremely numb.
When a heavy tide of waves pushed the still body of Leon out to the shore of the now fertile land, crabs and small sea creatures with hardened gold bodies crawled on the human.
Leon lurched up, gasping heavily after he felt a sharp sting pierce through the center of his chest. He coughed up green leaves and small shells and stood up abruptly while brushing the crabs from his skin.
"Where am I?" he asked in a loud voice while whirling around to find a clue, yet all that he saw were the shadows that kept on appearing and disappearing at the back of the thick trees at a distance away from him.
Beneath him, the crabs got pushed and dragged back as the sea pushed a mixture of white and green foam onto the shore.
"This feels colder than it looks," Leon said while jumping two steps forward. He crouched down, brushed the sand off his thighs with a calm face, but when he lifted his head, he froze.
At a distance from him, slim grey beings with eyes that looked like voids stood there. They were not like the chittering creatures that he escaped from at the Shattered Land, nor were they like the one he fought at the Granum Tower; these ones looked older and more intelligent.
'I shouldn't let them see me,' he thought and began taking slow steps back, thinking he could escape from those wide blacked eyes.
After taking four steps back where one-third of his feet had been swallowed by the green sea, all the featureless faces of the beings turned toward him and began raising long fingers at him.
Leon's fingers and breath twitched as terror struck him whole. No matter where he looked, there were no alternative paths of escape. Either to suffocate in the green sea again, stand there and wait for the beings to reach him, or move forward and face them head on.
With no other choice, and also with what he had gone through as he drowned, Leon forced his legs forward and began to walk toward the beings while they also moved toward him.
'Wake up. Wake up. Wake up!' Leon screamed in his head as the distance shortened.
One of the grey beings screamed and broke free from the pantheon. Its elongated legs pierced through the solid ground with every step it took.
The scream vibrated through the land and pierced through Leon's dream core like a sharpened sword.
The remaining beings also rushed forward in unison, following the one that was nearly a few meters away from Leon.
Just as they reached his side, the first one slammed Leon down, while the others formed a tight ring around him.
"Are you the wielder of Solflare?" the being looming over him asked without opening its mouth.
'Wielder of Solflare?' Leon pondered on the word while crawling in the sand, but every direction was already blocked by beings who stood there with jagged teeth that seemed to be piercing through their jaws.
Two seconds after Leon opened his mouth to speak, a being slashed its claws that moved like liquid metal across Leon's forehead.
Leon screamed as pain rattled through his skull. At the same time, his body trembled violently on the bed in his room while a faint Y sunburst materialized on his forehead.
The being raised its head and screamed in a loud voice that cracked the bones in Leon's ears. "FAKE WIELDER!"
Then the others rushed onto Leon and began peeling the skin from his arms, chest, and face. Every flay of skin sent Leon screaming in a raw, soundless agony, choking out gasps that mirrored violently onto his physical body.
As the last skin fell off Leon's dream body, the golden energy tore out of Leon's bones and exploded with a fierce heat. It rushed forward like lightning and branded one of the beings with a sunburst mark on its chest.
When the dream slowly collapsed, it left Leon with the eyes of the being that questioned him being the exact same as Tiger's. A wild gold blast tore out of him, thrumming through his nerves with so much force that it caused his body to convulse over the bed and smack hard on the ground.
As his sweaty, blurry eyes flickered open, Leon tried raising his head but stopped when he saw a man with the same legs as the grey beings that had ripped his skin apart standing right in front of him, in his room.
Without hesitation, Leon pushed himself off the floor and went and flipped the lights on. The bright light exploded through the room as Leon stood there with a fast heaving chest.
He watched the now empty space with a pale face and screamed. "HOW?!"
He rushed and checked the bed's side, underneath it, moved on to the wardrobe, and stopped by the bed again. When his wild eyes adjusted to the side of the bed he had slept on, his body began to shake extremely.
On the bedsheet was a perfectly ghostly form imprinted on the bed like how it is done on murder scenes.
The grey beings he dreamt of had vanished with the dream but had left a message that needed answers: the battle had already begun, not in the ring of a vast audience, but in his very own mind. The true wielder the beings searched for was now becoming the person he really was.
…
Two hours passed like the speed of light, shining the room with the morning glow.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The walls at the side of Leon's door shook as three impatient slamming sounds echoed.
Leon jolted up and walked to the door that had its bolts promising to break free, then swung it open.
His heart turned like a frantic drum against his ribs as he saw the hallway empty.
"Ah..." he hissed under his breath, turned, and then slammed the door shut. The tiny ray of the morning sun made the ash imprint on his bed glow as it fell across the bed.
Before he could process it, the knocking returned. This time, it was accompanied by a cold, authoritative, threat-laced voice.
"Open the door. Now!"
Leon's mind dulled for a second but just as it returned to normal, he screamed in his head. 'I overslept!'
The rumors he had heard about the awakening special training program hit him all at once, sparking a desperate panic in his chest.
"Oh... no!" Leon cried inward as he neared the wardrobe and wore his uniform without caring about taking a bath.
Two men in full combat armor stood outside the door wearing opaque shades when Leon dashed out of the room.
He saw them but didn't stop for them to question or give him the punishment that was mentioned in the manual, which was given to each student that survived the Shattered Land.
"We've seen your face," one of the armored men said in a loud voice as they watched the slightly skinny boy sprint down the hall, nearing the end of the corridor.
The words promised future punishments, but Leon didn't bother to look back as he ran.
Leon slid into the back of the assembled students when he exited into the assembly point, while the head proctor was on the stage speaking.
"Welcome, promising participants. Today will be the day some of you join your ancestors in their graves." A collective tremor flew through the air, causing the students to tremble.
"Be ready because today's training surpasses every training you have ever passed through," he said in a cold voice, turned and gestured to the armored soldiers who had fanned out behind him, and focused back on the students.
"This training is not about power. It's about control. Unleashed power is a mindless explosion, destructive but useless. Controlled power is a scalpel that wins wars."
A broad-shouldered student who was already in the left queue twitched his nose after tilting his gaze from the proctor to the Dusthollow boy who had just joined.
"Hey, kid," he whispered, squeezing his nose. "Don't you know how to bathe? You smell like shit."
The casual cruelty, on the heels of his terror, was now a tinder match. His heart ached as he slowly clenched his fist, while the golden energy thrummed against his chest.