Zylas stood there in shock. His knees felt weak, like he was about to faint right on the polished marble floor.
"The Paragons… Me… Compete… With them…?" he stuttered.
The image of the massive holographic posters in the city flashed through his mind. Those were beings above him. He was just a guy who recently stopped worrying about a 5,000-word essay.
Kyler rolled his eyes and pushed off the pillar. "Yeah duh. It's a competition, kid. Get used to it. Anyways, Grant, are you gonna take him to the Dean?"
"Of course," Grant replied, his voice calm. "He's the Freshman Representative, so it's a given."
Zylas's head snapped toward Grant. "What!? Me!? What about Kai and Sylvia?? This was crazy as it is and now I'm supposedly the Freshman Representative!?!?"
Grant started walking toward the elevators, motioning for Zylas to follow. "Well yes, you. Unlike Kai and Sylvia, you were never given special privileges and yet you scored 100% just like them. Yes, Kai did disintegrate his entire testing room into nothingness and Sylvia crushed the Impure in a single attack, but on paper, all three of you got the same result."
Grant stopped and looked Zylas in the eye. "And you aren't even a Paragon. You're a mere Unbent. Even if you were Vowed level, you'd still be a lesser rank than a few students out there, and yet you scored more than them. You're more than suitable for this position."
Zylas stood frozen. He was stuck in a massive dilemma. He had spent his whole life envying the Apostles from afar. The idea of standing shoulder to shoulder with the greatest ones—or fighting against them—felt wrong. But then he remembered the cold weight of the Abyss in his chest. He wasn't the same average, weak Zylas anymore. He was stronger. He was better.
"Fine, I agree," Zylas said, straightening his back. "Let's not waste time here now."
Grant smirked.
"That's the spirit. Let's head to the Dean straight away."
They moved through the academy toward the upper levels. Eventually, they reached a set of double doors as big as a standard apartment wall. Two rows of bodyguards stood out front, all of them wearing either bronze or silver badges meaning they were Kindled and Unbent Hallows.
The guards recognized Grant immediately and stood aside. The doors groaned open.
Inside, an old man with a long white beard sat in a massive chair behind a desk. He leaned back as they entered, his arms folded. Just the way he sat created a sense of fear and respect that filled the entire room.
"Good Morning Qydal, it's been a while," Grant said. He sounded like he was talking to an old friend at a bar.
The Dean looked up. "Indeed it has, Grant. You rarely come to visit me nowadays."
Zylas blinked. He couldn't believe a professor was calling the Dean by his first name.
"But I haven't come to exchange greetings today," Grant said, stepping aside to reveal Zylas. "I've brought a boy with me for you to meet."
The Dean leaned forward, squinting at Zylas. "This young man? What's so special about him? He's just an average person. He doesn't possess any aura at all."
"Now that's where you're wrong, Qydal," Grant said with a chuckle. "He's around my level."
The Dean jumped out of his seat so fast the chair almost flipped. He slammed his hands on the table. "What!? Your Level!?"
Grant cleared his throat, looking a bit annoyed. "Ahem, yes. At the level of an Unbent Hallow with Submerged Mastery."
The Dean let out a long sigh of relief and sank back into his seat. "Oh. That's still great, but we have a few Vowed and Exalted students as well as Paragons. What's the big deal?"
Zylas looked between them, visibly confused. He was still trying to figure out why The Dean was shocked as if he didn't know that Grant was an Unbent, he was wearing a silver badge after all.
"Well you see," Grant continued, "he got the maximum marks in both the exams. Theory and Practical."
The Dean's eyebrows shot up. "Oh? That's very impressive indeed. That means he's… wait. You said he was an Unbent? Then by school policy, he's officially going to be the Freshman Representative this semester."
"That's the thing," Grant said. "I thought you should meet him."
The Dean nodded slowly, his eyes locking onto Zylas. "Yeah, I'm getting you now. This boy has potential. I'll have my eyes on you, kid."
Zylas didn't flinch. "I can assure you that you won't be disappointed, sir."
The Dean gave a small, sweet smile. "That's good. I'll be looking forward to it then."
Grant gave a short nod. "Now that we've gotten the Dean's approval, let's move Zylas."
They thanked the Dean and left the office. As they walked back through the massive hallway, Zylas let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
"So what now?" Zylas asked.
"Well, there's still a few days until the start of the semester," Grant said as they headed toward the exit. "So until then, you'll be staying with me. You can do whatever you want. Relax all day or train your abilities."
"Huh. I don't have a problem with that, but you have a personal training ground?"
"Well what did you expect? It doesn't look like it, but I have a lot of influence in this place" Grant replied. "Let's go."
They walked out to the parking lot and got into Grant's pristine white car. As they started driving down the steep hill leading away from the academy, the tires hummed against the pavement.
Suddenly, a car appeared from around a blind corner, flying upward at insane speeds. It was headed straight for them.
"Grant!" Zylas screamed.
Grant didn't have time to brake. He spun the steering wheel hard to avoid a head-on collision, but the oncoming car was too fast. To save them both without causing a massive pile-up, Grant steered the car right off the edge of the hill.
"What are you doing! We're gonna die!" Zylas yelled as the car went airborne.
"Just trust me," Grant said while trying to stay calm.
The ground was rushing up to meet them. Zylas squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the impact.
A second before they hit, Grant raised his hand toward the floor of the car. The ground below them suddenly cracked in a perfect circle, releasing a massive burst of pressure.
It wasn't enough to send the car back up, but it acted like a cushion, stopping the momentum entirely.
The car dropped the last few centimeters and landed with a soft thud.
Zylas waited for the pain, but it never came. He opened his eyes and realized they were safe. He turned to the driver's seat to thank Grant, but the seat was empty.
"Grant?"
Zylas scrambled out of the car. He checked under the seats and looked through the windows. Nothing. Grant was gone.
He looked around. They had landed in a ditch at the base of a high wall, far from the main road. It was a dead zone. No cars, no people, just silence.
Zylas started breathing heavily. He was stuck at the bottom of a ravine with a high wall behind him and nowhere to go.
"Grant! Where are you!?" he shouted, but only his own echo answered.
As he sat there thinking that he's about to go mad, he heard rumbling coming from the huge boulders next to the hill. They began to crack slowly until the biggest one broke apart revealing a passage to a cave.
Zylas knew it was a bad idea but he had no other choice, the phenomena happening to him made him think that the Universe was out for him and yet he couldn't do anything about it.
He stood up and walked up to the cave, Zylas couldn't see anything inside as it was completely dark, it felt as if it was even sucking the light from the Sun outside as it had no effect on the darkness inside.
Zylas entered the cave praying in his mind to the only God-like being he saw, The Cosmic Entity. As he walked a little further, he heard more rumbling but this time, from the outside. He looked back and his face turned pale as he saw the entrance get covered by more falling boulders.
"No, no, no. This can't happen to me, everything was going so well, my life finally became better. When I finally stopped being average, when I finally became… happy, then this happens? God, you can't do this to me. Wait…"
Zylas suddenly remembered that he borrowed powers from The Cosmic Entity, he slashed his arm at the direction he thought to be the entrance but to no avail, his powers were gone. He stood there motionless thinking about what to do, sweating continuously.
Then he remembered something else, he tried to beg again, this time in his mind as well as in real life, he begged for The Cosmic Entity to save him… but nothing responded.