It was the middle of the night, the night right before the winter solstice, and Lec couldn't sleep. It was quite ironic now that he thought about it, but that's besides the point.
The reason for his restlessness wasn't the fear of what was going to happen tomorrow; sure, it was a bit scary knowing that he was going to be randomly displaced somewhere in the dream realm, but he had already prepared himself for that quite some time ago. No, his restlessness was instead caused by a shift in himself.
Lec wasn't happy.
He had known for quite some time now that he wasn't happy. Not since he came back from his first nightmare.
Even back when he still lived on the outskirts, he could still find comfort in how hopeless his situation seemed. He knew what each day would look like—a constant cycle of waking up, scavenging for food, defending yourself, and finding a filthy cot to sleep in.
Lec dreaded just the thought of somehow returning to that lifestyle, but it was the norm for him. There was no denying that his time in the Ark changed him. Those few weeks were the most alive that he had ever felt, and now that he was back in the waking world, he desperately wanted to go back.
So maybe it wasn't exactly feeling sad, and instead it was a kind of homesickness. Lec almost scoffed at that. 'Home...I don't think I've ever heard someone refer to a nightmare in that manner, how stupid.'
Rolling in bed, he thought about Maria and Gerald before turning his attention to more pressing matters. 'Mmmmm, sleep....'
***
Even after a long night of rest, Lec still woke up feeling drowsy, which he quickly attributed to the beginning of the winter solstice. 'Well then, by nightfall, the damn Spell is going to spirit me away once more.' It worried him a bit. What was he even going to face in there? Unlike the nightmares, the Dream Realm isn't a challenge to test him, so the chances of him running into a nightmare creature way above his pay grade were pretty high.
With a sigh, Lec quickly got out of bed and went along with his morning routine. He tried taking a cold shower to try waking himself up some more, and it worked, if only a little bit.
Drying himself off in his mirror, Lec took some time to truly appreciate his new physique. 'I'm not a narcissist for this, right?Whatever.' He'd flex in the mirror for some time before deciding enough was enough; hopefully, he'd have more time to admire his new physique later.
Channeling his chaos energy through his body to enhance himself, Lec felt most of his drowsiness get washed away in the wild torrent of power. Was this a crazy misuse of his powers? Possibly. Did he care? Not really. He did have to constantly keep refreshing the chaos energy he was using to enhance himself, just so he didn't start getting sleepy, though. 'If I start getting tired, then I'll stop. I have no business unleashing my flaw in the academy and getting myself killed.'
Now that he thought about it, how exactly was he manipulating his energy this precisely? He heard that someone needed to become an Awakened in order to have any sort of control over their soul essence. 'Well, I guess chaos energy and soul essence are two entirely different things. But does that mean I'll be able to freely enhance myself with both my chaos energy and soul essence once I become an Awakened?'
The thought itself exhilarated him. The sheer boost in power from that would be immense, putting him in a league of his own, above most other Awakened.
Getting dressed in some basic clothes provided by the academy, Lec finally walked out of his dorm and towards the cafeteria. He wasn't that hungry, but he did have plans to meet up with Sunless there. The older boy, of course, had no clue about such plans, though.
Lec thought of the two of them as friends, especially after they both had to sit through the info dump that was Teacher Julius's class. Although he wasn't quite sure that the older boy thought the same way. Lec was half sure that Sunny just saw him as an overconfident idiot, especially after his race with Jet. Which...wouldn't be too off the mark.
A part of him did kind of regret accepting the race with Jet, but at least his social credits are now through the roof. Now, only a small minority of the school hated his guts. 'Quite the improvement if I do say so myself.'
'It's no surprise, though. I am known to be highly likeable.' Grinning to himself, Lec just couldn't help himself from looking like an idiot. 'And I still managed to keep the details of my abilities hidden. A win-win!'
"Why're you smiling like that?"
Slightly jumping at the sudden intrusion of his inner thoughts, Lec glanced at the location of the voice, only to end up smiling. "Sunless, my man! Just the person I wanted to see." Walking a little ahead, Lec signaled for Sunny to follow, to which the older boy hesitantly complied.
"So, what's this about..." Sunny looked a bit confused as he said that, to which Lec simply widened his grin. "Cmon Sunny, don't act like that! We're friends, aren't we? And friends usually accompany each other to the cafeterias in schools, right?"
"I'd say that we're more like acquaintances..."
"Tomato, tomâto."
Sunless deadpanned at that as Lec walked ahead and entered the cafeteria, instantly dapping up a random student. Catching up, Sunny was a bit surprised at Lec's current level of popularity. Especially after his horrid first day at the academy, it made him wonder if he could somehow fix his own reputation, but he very much doubted it.
"You've gotten quite popular, haven't you?"
Lec shrugged at that. "Well, having strength and a welcoming personality often makes people drawn to you. Luckily for mine self, I have the blessing of both." Lec seemed to shine brightly at the end of his sentence, causing Sunny to back up a foot or two and think to himself.
'Is that even correct English?' As much as Sunless did want to shame the boy in his head for being an idiot, there was a part of himself that thought he was kind of right. Having a welcoming personality does, in fact, make people drawn to you. 'Something I can't quite afford to have.'
Sunless found the matter quite irritating, actually. As he himself couldn't really do something like that due to his flaw.
'Maybe that's just my jealousy talking though.' He thought with a bit of trepidation and approached the coffee machine.
Everybody in the cafeteria was being oddly introspective today. The usual loud and rowdy group of sleepers seemed to have disappeared, replaced by people doing the mannequin challenge. It made Lec take everything a bit more seriously, but even his impending transportation into the dream realm could not stop his stride now. In fact, nothing could.
"The Spell really does allow anyone to become an Awakened, huh?"
'Well, except for that...' Slowly turning around, Lec could feel the pure annoyance bubbling under his skin. He had really been hoping not to see the stupid bird today, but it seemed like whatever divine being was watching over him enjoyed watching him suffer. "What do you want, feather duster?"
Jet's face turned into a scowl at the mention of the nickname, a vein bulging in his forehead. "Watch your tone, ya stupid rodent!" Coughing into his fist after his sudden outburst, Jet tried to ignore Lec's smug face after he got a rise out of him. Instead, he put on the friendliest face that he could, which sent Lec through a bit of a loop.
Squinting his eyes, Lec crossed his arms over his chest. Tilting his head as he spoke, "I know that face. What do you want?" Watching from a safe distance, Sunny sipped on his coffee before deciding to walk towards his usual seat near a blind girl.
"I just want to say good luck." Lec's jaw almost dropped at that, but he soon shook his shock away, a teasing smile growing on his face. "Wow, feather duster. Do you think we're friends or something?"
Jet chuckled, his usual smirk showing up on his face. "No. I'm only worried I'll have to find another racing partner. No one in my clan's my age and comparable in speed to me, and racing against the adults is just overkill. You couldn't imagine my surprise when a clanless bum almost beat me. Granted, I only started taking the race seriously in the fourth lap."
Rolling his eyes, Lec muttered. "You could have just said, thanks for a good race." Jet just shrugged at that, his blue eyes traveling to his usual seat next to the other legacies. "Well, then, this is probably the last time we'll talk until we all become Awakened rank."
Glancing over to Lec's blank face, Jet chuckled. "Like I said after our race, I'm going to be looking for a rematch when we both come back. So make sure to get faster, I'm going to be expecting more of a challenge next time...Seeya"
Turning around, Jet began walking off, with Lec just staring at him with a blank expression. 'That was kinda cool. He's still a bastard, though.'
***
Walking over to where Sunny was seated, Lec managed to catch the words said by the blond girl seated next to him. "Dude, why didn't you tell me it was your birthday?" Lec appeared out of absolutely nowhere, causing Sunless to jump a bit, before glaring at the intruding boy.
Glaring at the chaotic child, Sunny tiredly responded. "I just forgot."
"How do you forget your own...What?" Completely ignoring Sunny, Lec instead focused all his attention on the clear-eyed girl beside him. 'A-again?'
If Lec got a quarter for every time he's met a girl who looked almost exactly like his dead sister, he'd have two quarters. Which isn't much, but it's strange that it has happened twice.
Taking a few moments to recuperate, Lec stared at her intently, trying to keep images of Lyra out of his mind. Sighing, he'd think to himself, 'She reminds me of Maria more than Lyra.'
Smiling at his sister's second lookalike, Lec tried his best to act cordial. "H-hey there you..."
'Fuck'
Sunny stared at him like he was an idiot, while the blond girl simply giggled a bit in response. "Sorry for him," Sunny muttered before continuing. "And, uhm, thanks for wishing me a happy birthday.
Nodding, the blind girl turned away and seemingly lost interest in having a conversation. Lec simply stared and remained uncharacteristically quiet, which startled Sunny a bit, but not enough for him to say anything.
Eventually, breakfast ended, with both Lec and Sunny walking out and heading to Teacher Julius's class. Not before Lec turned off his chaos energy enhancements as exhaustion started setting in.
The old man got pretty emotional when sending both of them off. He gave them "one last tip" a dozen or so times in a row and even promised to apply for a research assistant position to be opened after they had become fully Awakened. Lec politely declined, though. With Sunless just thanking him.
With the sun setting soon, Instructor Rock gathered them in the foyer of the Sleeper Center and led them outside.
In the snowy parks that surrounded the white building, other Awakened were leading their own batches of Sleepers to the same destination. It was the Academy's medical center.
The center looked more like a shrine than a hospital. Its interior contained both highly advanced technology and some of the best Healers among the Awakened.
For the duration of their first journey into the Dream Realm, the bodies of Sleepers would be kept safe in specially designed pods and sustained by the magical powers of those Healers if anything unfortunate were to happen on the other side of the Spell.
Lec was a bit nervous, though; he had never slept in such a highly advanced piece of technology before. Even his bed on the Ark was more or less a normal bed, albeit an incredibly comfortable one. There was also no doubt in his mind that Gerald would be capable of building something exactly like the pods, if not way better.
As the Sleepers entered the facility, Lec was a bit surprised after Instructor Rock did not take them directly to the wing containing Sleeper pods. Instead, he led them to a comparatively deserted floor and then opened the doors to a spacious gallery that was brightly illuminated by the beautiful crimson rays of the setting sun.
There, they saw rows and rows of wheelchairs. In each wheelchair, there was a person with a blank, strangely peaceful expression on their face. All these people were completely silent, motionless, and still. They did not show any reaction to the appearance of guests.
They all seemed to be so… empty.
Lec stared at them, a heavy feeling in his heart.
Instructor Rock looked at the empty people with solemn eyes.
"There is a reason I brought you all here. Look well and remember. Some of you may know who these people are… for those of you who don't, they are called Hollow."
He gritted his teeth.
"Each one of them was once either a Sleeper or an Awakened. Some of them were weak, some of them were strong. Some were even incredibly powerful. All of them have perished in the Dream Realm."
"If you're lucky, once your spirit is destroyed, your body dies with it. But if not, you'll become just like them. Hollow."
Instructor Rock glanced in the direction where Caster and a random girl with silver hair stood, and then added:
"So don't die out there."
***
Half an hour later, all the Sleepers had been led to their personal rooms and were preparing to enter the pods.
In one of the rooms, the blind girl, Cassia, was helplessly trying to orient herself in the unfamiliar space, touching the walls and strange pieces of machinery with her hands. Tears were streaming down her beautiful, doll-like face.
In the other room, proud Legacy Caster was staring listlessly at the floor. His lips were moving, repeating one strange phrase over and over again. He was trembling.
In another room, Jet was already preparing to open his pod, getting one last stretch in before his deep slumber. His ever-present smirk remained on his face as he climbed into his pod, thinking about what awaits him in the dream realm.
Somewhere else, Changing Star Nephis, the last daughter of the Immortal Flame clan, was looking down at her hands. Underneath her skin, soft white radiance was slowly growing brighter and brighter. Her face was contorted in a grimace of harrowing agony.
Elsewhere, a young boy with orangeish hair was nervously pacing around his room, debating whether or not he should climb inside his pod now.
Down the hall, Sunny was probably talking to himself or something.
And finally, there was a room where The Ultimate Lifeform was desperately trying to keep himself awake, to no avail. "I guess it's time, huh. Hopefully my RNG is good..."
Walking up to his pod, he finally decided to stop procrastinating and open it.
"Here I go, I suppose." And with that, he climbed in.
***
In the vast echoing darkness, he heard:
[Welcome to the Dream Realm, Lec!]