2026-01-20 21:30:51The hut fell quiet after Eli left.
Andrew let out a slow breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and leaned back against the cracked wall. The thin wood pressed uncomfortably into his spine, but he barely noticed. His thoughts drifted far from Ashwake House, far from Aetherion, back to a life that now felt like a dream fading at dawn.
Nightclubs filled with neon lights. Music so loud it drowned out thought. People who smiled when he entered a room because his name carried weight. Women who laughed at his jokes even when they weren’t funny. Cars, money, power. Control.
His father.
Andrew’s jaw tightened.
For the first time since waking in this world, regret seeped in quietly. Not loud, not dramatic. Just a dull ache. He had lived like tomorrow was guaranteed. Like consequences were for other people.
Now tomorrow had arrived wearing rags and hunger.
He scoffed softly. “Pathetic,” he muttered, unsure whether he was insulting his past self or his present one.
He exhaled and stared at the ceiling, listening to the distant sounds of Ashwake House. Footsteps. Raised voices. Someone laughing bitterly. Someone else crying. Survival echoed everywhere.
So this is my new life, he thought. Starting from the bottom.
A sudden noise shattered the quiet.
The hut’s curtain was yanked aside, and Eli stumbled in, gasping for air.
Andrew sat up instantly. “What—”
“Hide,” Eli blurted out.
Andrew frowned. “What?”
“They’re back,” Eli said, bending over, hands on his knees as he struggled to breathe. “The guys from earlier. The ones who—” He swallowed. “They’re looking for trouble.”
Andrew stood despite the protest from his body. “Good.”
Eli’s head snapped up. “Good?”
Andrew’s eyes hardened. “I was hoping they would come.”
Eli stared at him like he had truly lost his senses. “You’re serious.”
“They should come,” Andrew repeated calmly. “I’m not running.”
Eli grabbed his arm. “You can barely stand straight! This isn’t some story where things magically work out!”
Andrew looked down at Eli’s hand on his sleeve. Slowly, deliberately, he removed it.
“I’m done hiding,” he said.
Eli shook his head, panic flashing across his face. “No. No, you don’t understand. These guys don’t fight fair. They don’t stop when they should.”
“I know,” Andrew replied quietly.
That was exactly why he wanted them to come.
Eli grabbed his shoulders and pushed him toward the back of the hut. “You hide. Just for now. Please.”
Andrew hesitated.
Eli met his eyes. “For me.”
Something twisted in Andrew’s chest. He looked away, then nodded once.
“Fine.”
Eli shoved him into one of the smaller side rooms barely big enough to stand in. Andrew pressed himself into the shadows as Eli closed the door, his footsteps retreating.
Moments later, loud voices approached.
“Well, well,” a mocking voice said. “Look who’s still breathing.”
Andrew clenched his fists.
The leader’s voice carried easily, dripping with disdain. “Where’s your friend, round boy? We weren’t done with him yet.”
“I don’t know,” Eli replied, forcing a shaky laugh. “He left. I just got back.”
“You expect us to believe that?” another voice sneered.
The door creaked open wider. Andrew could see through the narrow gap as five boys entered the hut. Their posture was relaxed, confident. Cruel.
The leader stepped closer to Eli. “You think we’re stupid?”
“I swear,” Eli said quickly. “He was gone when I came back.”
“Search the place,” the leader ordered.
Two of them moved toward the rooms.
Eli stepped in front of them. “Hey—this is all we have. Leave it alone.”
The leader’s smile vanished. “Move.”
Eli didn’t.
The next moment, he was shoved aside and hit the floor hard. Andrew’s vision narrowed.
The sounds that followed made his jaw clench tighter with each second. Eli tried to scramble up, only to be knocked down again. Laughter filled the hut.
“Stay out of grown men’s business,” someone mocked.
Inside the room, Andrew’s breathing grew heavy. His body trembled, not from fear, but from restraint.
This is because of me.
Eli cried out once, then went quiet.
Andrew stepped forward.
The door burst open.
The room fell silent.
All eyes turned to him.
“Well,” the leader said slowly, looking Andrew up and down. “There you are.”
Eli looked up, disbelief written across his face. “Andrew… no…”
Andrew ignored him and walked forward, his posture straight despite the pain screaming through his muscles.
The leader laughed. “You came out on your own? Brave. Or stupid.”
Andrew stopped a few steps away. “You’re done here.”
The hut erupted in laughter.
“Did you hear that?” one of them said. “He’s ordering us around.”
Another cracked his knuckles. “Guess he wants another lesson.”
They moved together.
Andrew moved first.
He didn’t charge blindly. He stepped in, redirected a swing, and used the momentum against them. Surprise flashed across their faces as one stumbled back into another.
“What—?”
Andrew struck again, sharper this time. Controlled. Efficient.
The hut echoed with shouts of shock and anger. Two went down quickly, scrambling to get back up. Another hesitated, eyes wide.
“This isn’t the same guy,” someone muttered.
Andrew breathed hard, but his eyes were clear. Focused.
One rushed him from behind. Andrew twisted, using the narrow space to his advantage. The boy crashed into the wall instead.
The fourth fell moments later, backing away in disbelief.
Only the leader remained standing.
He stared at his fallen friends, then back at Andrew, rage twisting his features. “Useless fools,” he spat. “You couldn’t handle one poor, powerless man?”
Andrew chuckled softly.
The sound sent a chill through the hut.
“Poor,” Andrew repeated. “Powerless.”
He stepped forward.
The leader swung wildly. Andrew dodged, closed the distance, and struck once—hard enough to make the leader stagger back and fall.
Silence.
The leader scrambled up, fear finally replacing arrogance. “This isn’t over,” he snapped, backing toward the door.
Andrew said nothing.
The five of them fled.
Andrew stood still, chest rising and falling, as the curtain settled back into place.
Behind him, Eli stared in stunned silence.
“…What just happened?” Eli whispered.
Andrew finally turned.
“I told you,” he said quietly. “I’m not the same anymore.”
Eli swallowed.
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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