Whatever chasm he was falling into didn't seem to have a bottom.
Or at least, after an hour or so of just falling, he had not found it yet.
He wondered if his sense of time was right, or if he was just in a slowed state, as his body awaited his swiftly approaching demise.
But he doubted he could remain this lucid if that was the case.
Indeed, he was falling, and even steadily accelerating; he could feel the air pressure growing against his back. It was safe to say he had long passed his terminal velocity.
He knew, regardless of the bottom, once he hit a certain speed, that he would die anyway, as he could feel it getting harder to breathe the longer he fell, so it would be by suffocation. or a spectacular collision of ground and man.
He couldn't say he expected this to be the way it ended; it all seemed rather... abrupt.
But when had life ever been fair, he supposed that this was just life's way of faking him out, killing him just when he had thought there was change coming.
Something fell on his cheek then.
And above him, where he assumed he had fallen, something changed.
He was no longer where he had been.
This was a familiar expanse.
His innate spiritual domain.
The small light far above the abyss, it seemed to have changed slightly, coalescing into something new.
But it was not quite there yet.
But this transformation had led to something new; from the source, there was light dripping down onto him.
It was collecting and sticking to him, and he suddenly realized it seemed quite hot.
Burning him.
He yelled and tried to run from the light, but more fell onto him. He screamed and tried to fight against it, but it kept coming and coming until he could resist no longer.
It took him over, and the light seeped inside his very soul.
He had not been unmade once again, but something new had taken a spot inside his soul.
He was back in his body.
And sound returned to his ears.
Chatter.
He was standing in front of his teacher.
He found it hard to process all this after what he had just gone through, so he just stood there for a while.
Eventually, his teacher tentatively looked him up and down and side to side, before tapping him on the shoulder, snapping him out of this trance-like state
"Ah, good to see you're back with us. I was afraid you had done something silly like selling your soul. We can't have that now, can we?"
Sacril shook his head, "No, just a little... overloaded at the moment."
The teacher smiled, "Oh? You caught the eye of a big one, did you? Lucky you. I won't pry; contracts are usually private stuff anyhow."
Sacril frowned, contracts? What on earth was he talking about? He hadn't encountered anything other than whatever had chased him, and he knew that thing had no intentions of talking to him.
The teacher took note of this, tilting his head.
"Wait, you did make a contract... right?"
Sacril shuddered, surprised by the teacher's acute intuition
However, he saw no reason to lie, especially considering he had no way to back up the lie and no knowledge of the subject, for that matter.
"I um, didn't talk to anything in there."
A serious expression flashed across the teacher's face.
"That is impossible, the wall is the domain of the ones from whom we receive our contracts. I understand if you must hide the nature of your contract, but there is no reason to lie about it
Still with absolutely no clue what his instructor was waffling about, Sacril simply shrugged.
"Do you have a way to check?"
The teacher's incredulous expression faded and was replaced by a confused frown.
"Er yes, but..."
"Then do it."
His teacher shook his head before reaching out a hand.
A thin black mist seeped out of his open palm and hovered in the air for a moment before blasting toward Sacril.
Before he could even flinch, the mist was blown away. In a strange reaction, the teacher's outstretched hand also exploded.
He stared in shock at the teacher's stump; THe teacher himself had a much stranger reaction.
letting out a sigh, the teacher simply pulled a bottle out of the inside pocket of his jacket.
Sacril watched with a stunned expression as the man calmly drank the entire bottle in one sitting, immedietely his pupils dilated, and his veins bulged; he seemed to be temporarily overcome by intense pain before the veins disappeared on most of his body except his damaged arm.
Just a few moments later, a cluster of bloody cells burst out from the stump, forming a ball. The ball slowly shaped itself back into the man's hand.
After the strange display, Sacril was left with an uneasy feeling and a bunch of unanswered questions.
His teacher faced him with an indifferent expression.
"Well... you don't lie, I don't know how it's possible, but you have no contract, you seem to have just awakened your internal energy, I suggest you take one of the notebooks from the survival classroom that informs you of how contracts works, that way you will at least know what your dealing with when it comes to other awakened, oh and one more thing."
He paused, his indifferent expression breaking for a split second as he spoke.
"Your internal energy is some of the most volatile I have ever seen. It directly destroys any other type of internal energy on contact. This comes at a steep cost; it also destroys itself, and if you were to use it, you would likely damage yourself as much as your opponent."
Sacril looked around. He had felt no damage, certainly nothing close to how the teacher had lost his entire hand.
"Why am I undamaged if this is the case?"
"There are two answers to that: I directly invaded your reserve of internal energy with a minor contracted spirit, so it didn't affect your body; only part of your supply of energy was destroyed, which will quickly replenish, however, for one like myself, more specifically, a risen who has integrated with their internal energy and become one, the spirit being bound to my left hand being destroyed caused a chain reaction that destroyed it."
Sacril was satisfied with this explanation and gave the teacher a respectful nod.
"Thank you, I'll head to the survival class quickly."
The teacher expressionlessly nodded in return.
"Yes, I know today was busy, so get some rest after you read that book. I am afraid the coming days will be busier."
Sacril turned and left; indeed, every day from now on was crucial for his survival. If he prepared poorly, he could kiss this world goodbye.
The last day of the cycle was approaching; soon, every awakened alive would be forced into the first layer once again.