Inside a room, one with all its windows sealed, at the centre, an unconscious man lay on a bed.
The man had several tubes connected to his body, the tubes carrying a red liquid, and above him, from the ceiling, a green light in a circular radius fell on his form.
It was pin silent within the room, time passing till the figure's eyelids trembled and opened, his chest strongly rising as he took in a deep breath.
As Hulio breathed out, his eyes opened, first coming in contact with the green light.
The shine above did not bother his gaze, and after watching it for some seconds, he moved his head right and then left.
Taking in the dimensions and contents of the room he was in, Hulio's eyes went down to his body, his gaze moving to the stump on his left where a dull ache wormed.
The fingers on Hulio's right arm twitched, and with a grunt, he moved his hand over his shoulder, feeling the empty space, rubbing the bandages that sealed his wound.
Hulio's expression was blank, the baldness of his head hidden under the green light, but as the seconds passed, his features relaxed.
A tired look suddenly spread across Hulio's face, his eyes losing their intensity.
"What a bust."
Hulio's right hand left his stump and began rubbing his forehead, going over the creases that had formed on it.
He had lost, and it really sucked.
The next thing now was to rebuild, come back stronger, and claim his spot, and while that sounded sweet, heroic on paper, reality mocked such thoughts.
A challenge between two Supremes had more than just their ranks and their benefits at stake, the loser of the fight lost half of what they had acquired in the academy.
Luxury credits, resource credits, and academic credits, the winner took half of these, and then there was also the treasury vault.
As a student of the academy, you didn't have a choice, this was where you put your money and precious items.
No matter the level of genius, access to resources played a major role in deciding how high one could go.
To spend weeks, months, and years grinding and then suddenly losing all you've worked for was beyond painful.
Hulio was low on luxury credits and had made a significant dent in his resource credits, but his academic credits, he had been accumulating them.
Then there was his treasury vault, the staggering wealth he had in there, the items he had saved, preparing to use them after making a breakthrough in his training.
Caught off guard by Kael's challenge, given no chance to empty his coffers, Hulio had ended up a fattened cow.
The rumors in the school about him hadn't been wrong, Lilith's analysis had been spot on.
While others cried when they were born, he looked at his mother and the midwives around him, wondering why they were like giants.
The world Hulio was born into spoke the exact language as his past world, so when he could crawl, he couldn't resist satisfying his curiosity.
A baby that spent its time flipping the pages of books, Hulio could still remember the wariness and caution on his parents' faces.
Coming from a world where power had already been seized by the old, togetherness was the only way to survive, and betrayal was a cup of tea, the eyes of a baby brightened when he encountered the possibility of personal power.
Training from little with the determination and will of a man who had lived past 30, how could Hulio be mediocre?
Sadly, no matter how old a dog was, it could never outgrow a tiger.
The rest were catching up, the true geniuses blossoming.
Hulio pushed himself to the bitter limits, but it was not just enough, his progress had slowed to a snail's crawl.
It was only a matter of time before it stalled, and if one was not improving, then they were on a decline.
Resources were Hulio's clutch to dealing with his lack of innate blessings, now he had gone and lost half of it.
Then there was his arm.
"Fuck."
A seat challenge was no different from a battle, at the end, the victor claimed his spoils.
"I can't lose that arm."
Hulio's palm fell on his face, a trace of desperation in his tone, and then his hand moved down to make way for his eyes, which looked at the ceiling with uncertainty.
Seconds passed, and done despairing, Hulio pushed to sit up, but halfway through, he paused as his eyes fell on a silver metallic box resting on his belly.
"How did that get here?"
Hulio's body registered no sensation of the box on his body, something which could only have been possible if it was weightless, but then how had he not noticed it?
Going on alert, Hulio's eyes swept around the room, and then he reached for the box.
"Cold."
Just as Hulio had this thought, the world in front of him instantly tore apart, the bedroom and the bed beneath him disappearing, his figure landing in a world with dark clouds and a red moon.