2026-01-20 21:40:43Andrew didn’t collapse immediately.
He stood there long after the others fled, chest rising and falling unevenly, eyes fixed on the doorway as if expecting them to return. His fists were clenched so tightly his fingers trembled. The adrenaline that had carried him through the fight still hummed beneath his skin, sharp and restless.
Then it faded.
The pain arrived all at once.
His knees buckled, and he barely caught himself against the wall. A sharp gasp escaped his lips as fire spread through his ribs, his arms, his legs—everywhere at once. His vision blurred, the world tilting dangerously.
“Hey—!” Eli rushed forward and grabbed him. “Don’t you dare fall now!”
Andrew let out a low breath, teeth clenched. “I’m… fine.”
“You’re lying,” Eli said flatly, hauling him toward the wall and forcing him to sit. “You’re always lying.”
Andrew slumped down, the strength draining out of him like water from a cracked cup. His head dropped back against the wood, eyes closing as he focused on breathing.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
The hut felt smaller than before. Quieter. Like it was holding its breath.
Eli finally broke the silence.
“…Since when could you fight like that?”
Andrew opened his eyes slowly. “I don’t know.”
Eli frowned. “You don’t know, or you won’t say?”
“I genuinely don’t know,” Andrew replied.
Eli folded his arms, staring at him. “That wasn’t panic. That wasn’t luck. You moved like you’d done it before.”
Andrew looked down at his hands. They were still shaking slightly.
“That’s the problem,” he said quietly. “It didn’t feel new. It felt… familiar. Like my body already knew what to do, and I was just watching it happen.”
Eli’s expression shifted from suspicion to confusion. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“Nothing makes sense,” Andrew replied.
He took a slow breath and leaned his head back again. “When they rushed me, I didn’t think. I reacted. Angles, timing, distance—I didn’t calculate it. I recognized it.”
Eli rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re saying the old you knew how to fight.”
“Maybe,” Andrew said. “Or maybe this body learned how to survive before I ever woke up in it.”
Eli studied him carefully now. “You really don’t remember anything, do you?”
Andrew shook his head. “Just fragments. Feelings. No faces. No events.”
Eli let out a long sigh. “This is bad.”
Andrew glanced at him. “You keep saying that.”
“Because it is,” Eli replied. “You didn’t just beat some random troublemakers.”
Andrew straightened slightly. “Explain.”
Eli hesitated, then lowered his voice. “Ashwake House isn’t just an orphanage.”
Andrew waited.
“It’s where the city throws away what it doesn’t want,” Eli continued. “Kids without talent. Without backing. Without money. People like us.”
Andrew’s jaw tightened.
“The ones you fought?” Eli went on. “They’re not the worst. They’re just the ones closest to us.”
“Backed by who?” Andrew asked.
Eli hesitated again. “Low-tier factions. Talent scouts. Sometimes gangs. They let those guys run things inside Ashwake in exchange for information.”
Andrew’s eyes darkened. “Information.”
“Who’s strong. Who’s desperate. Who might awaken something useful,” Eli said. “And who’s disposable.”
Silence settled between them.
“So when you fought back,” Eli said quietly, “you embarrassed them. That doesn’t end well.”
Andrew let out a humorless chuckle. “It never does.”
Eli glanced at him sharply. “You’re not scared.”
Andrew met his gaze. “I should be.”
“But you’re not,” Eli said.
Andrew didn’t deny it.
He looked around the hut again—the cracked walls, the threadbare mat, the faint smell of mold and sweat. “I’ve lived in cages before,” he said slowly. “This one just looks different.”
Eli snorted. “Trust me, this one bites harder.”
Andrew turned to him. “Then we shouldn’t stay.”
Eli blinked. “What?”
“We should leave,” Andrew repeated. “Ashwake House. Blackmere City. All of it.”
Eli stared at him like he’d lost his mind all over again. “Leave? Just like that?”
“Yes.”
Eli laughed. “You really have lost your senses.”
Andrew remained calm. “Tell me why it’s impossible.”
Eli opened his mouth—then paused.
“…Because no one does,” he said finally. “Because the guards don’t care if you live or die. Because the city outside eats people like us.”
“Those aren’t reasons,” Andrew replied. “Those are fears.”
Eli bristled. “You think I haven’t thought about this? Every night I imagine it. Running. Escaping. And every morning I wake up still here.”
Andrew leaned forward slightly. “Then you haven’t found the right moment.”
Eli shook his head. “There is no right moment.”
Andrew’s lips curved faintly. “There will be.”
Eli stared at him for a long time. “…You’ve changed.”
“I died,” Andrew said simply. “That tends to change people.”
Eli swallowed. “If they report this… if word spreads—”
“Then staying becomes even worse,” Andrew interrupted.
Eli looked away, jaw tight.
Andrew softened his tone. “I’m not saying we run tonight. I’m saying we start preparing.”
“Preparing how?” Eli asked bitterly. “We have no money. No power. No place to go.”
Andrew’s gaze sharpened. “Then we find information.”
Eli hesitated. “About what?”
“About this world,” Andrew said. “Its rules. Its cracks.”
Eli scoffed. “You sound like you already believe you can win.”
Andrew looked at his hands again. “I don’t need to win. I just need to survive long enough to stop being powerless.”
That word hung in the air between them.
Eli exhaled slowly. “…You know,” he said, forcing a grin, “the old you used to say things like that too.”
Andrew glanced up. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Eli said. “Then you’d laugh and say it was stupid to dream.”
Andrew was quiet.
“…Maybe dreaming was the only stupid thing I stopped doing.”
Eli didn’t reply.
They sat in silence for a while, the weight of the conversation settling in.
Then Eli spoke again, voice lower. “There’s a rumor.”
Andrew’s attention snapped to him. “What kind of rumor?”
Eli hesitated, then leaned closer. “They say a caravan is coming. One tied to a minor cultivation sect.”
Andrew felt something stir faintly inside his chest. “When?”
“Soon,” Eli said. “They test people. Aptitude. Talent. Anyone who passes gets taken.”
“And anyone who fails?”
Eli shrugged. “They’re forgotten.”
Andrew’s eyes gleamed.
A test.
A gate.
A crack in the cage.
Eli watched him carefully. “Don’t get ideas.”
Andrew smiled faintly. “Too late.”
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
The Monster Called Kael
The atmosphere around the recruits changed after the visit to the armory.Even the way they walked through the halls of Astral Vanguard carried more confidence than before, though most of them tried hiding it behind calm expressions. Weapons had a strange effect on people. Holding one for the first time made a cultivator feel closer to becoming something greater than an ordinary human being. It gave shape to ambition. It made the future feel real.Andrew noticed that immediately the following morning.Ronan had barely separated from his sword since yesterday. The weapon rested against his shoulder as though the two already belonged together, and every few minutes faint sparks of lightning flickered unconsciously around the blade whenever his mood shifted.Lyra moved differently too.Her daggers remained hidden beneath her sleeves, yet Andrew could tell she had practiced drawing them repeatedly through the night. Her movements had become cleaner, lighter, more deliberate.Even Eli look
The Armory of Astral Vanguard
A month changed people more than Andrew expected.The realization came to him quietly as he walked through the corridors of Astral Vanguard alongside the others, heading toward the lower district of the guild under Seran’s guidance. The same group that once looked like starving refugees dragged out of Ashwake House now carried themselves differently. Their backs were straighter, their movements firmer, and even the hesitation that once followed them everywhere had slowly disappeared under weeks of brutal training.Astral Vanguard had rebuilt them from the ground up.Painfully.Andrew glanced sideways at Eli, who was currently complaining while stretching his shoulders dramatically as though he had survived a war.“I still think Kael enjoys violence too much,” Eli grumbled. “There’s no reason a training instructor should smile while throwing people into walls.”“You screamed before he touched you,” Lyra replied calmly from beside him.“That was tactical fear.”“That was cowardice.”“It
The Terror Called Kael
If Selene’s cultivation class felt like torture—Then Kael’s combat training felt like punishment for crimes they had not committed yet.The thirteen recruits arrived at the combat grounds shortly after midday, still exhausted from the previous session. Most of them had barely recovered from the breathing exercises and posture training forced upon them earlier, especially Eli, who walked like a man whose soul had been separated violently from his body.“I still can’t feel my arms,” he complained while dragging his feet across the stone path.“That’s because Lady Selene corrected you seventeen times,” Lyra replied calmly.“It was not seventeen.”“It was nineteen,” Andrew corrected.Eli looked horrified. “You counted?”“You were distracting.”“I was suffering.”“You were loud.”Eli muttered something under his breath that sounded deeply offensive toward cultivation itself.The combat grounds of Astral Vanguard were located behind the main training halls, separated by high grey walls rei
The Beginning of Cultivation
The next morning arrived quietly.Unlike Ashwake House, where every sunrise had once meant shouting, hunger, and exhaustion, mornings inside Astral Vanguard carried a different atmosphere entirely. The guild was already alive long before the recruits woke up. Footsteps echoed through the distant corridors, servants moved supplies between halls, and somewhere far outside their quarters, the faint sound of metal clashing against metal rang through the guild grounds repeatedly.Training had already begun for someone.Andrew opened his eyes slowly.For a brief moment, he simply stared at the ceiling above his bed.The mattress beneath him was still far better than anything he had ever touched inside Ashwake, though nowhere near the comfort he once enjoyed in his previous life. Even now, after weeks inside this strange world, there were moments where memories returned suddenly and without warning.Cold drinks.Luxury cars.Nightclubs.His father’s towering company buildings.The freedom of
The Things People Don’t Say
A few recruits still remained seated, trying to imitate the breathing method he had shown them earlier, while others quietly discussed everything Seran had taught them about Aether, affinities, and the monsters beyond the Rifts. The atmosphere was no longer as noisy as before. Everyone seemed more thoughtful now, as though the reality of the world had finally settled properly into their minds.Eli was stretched across two chairs dramatically, one arm hanging downward while he stared at the ceiling with the expression of a man who had just discovered life was far more difficult than he expected.“I miss ignorance,” he muttered weakly.Andrew, who stood nearby with his arms folded, glanced at him briefly.“You say that every hour.”“Because every hour this world becomes more terrifying.”Lyra remained quiet beside them.Unlike Eli, she wasn’t joking around. Her eyes occasionally drifted toward the exit Kellan had used earlier, and the more she thought about it, the more uncomfortable sh
The Boy Who Survived
For several moments after Seran left the hall, nobody moved.The enormous classroom that had earlier been filled with discussion and questions suddenly felt strangely heavy, as though the information they had just received was still hanging in the air around them.Rifts.Monsters.Forbidden affinities.Void.Guild wars.The competition.Everything they had learned in a single afternoon was more than most of them had ever known their entire lives.Eli slowly slid downward from his chair until he was sitting directly on the polished floor.Then he leaned backward dramatically and groaned.“I miss being ignorant.”A few of the recruits laughed weakly.Andrew remained seated, one arm resting against the side of his chair while his eyes stayed fixed ahead thoughtfully.He had expected this world to be dangerous.But not like this.Not organized danger.Not an entire civilization built around surviving horrors powerful enough to wipe out cities.His mind drifted briefly toward the word Sera
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