My Almighty Werewolf System

Chapter 7

Kai stood in the middle of a barren field, the sky above him split and bleeding red as though the heavens themselves had been torn open. Black feathers rained down from the sky like ash. The wind howled like a dying creature, carrying with it voices that spoke in tongues he couldn’t recognize......but somehow still understood.

"You're too late…"

"You were warned…"

"You should have died in the womb…"

He turned in place, his breath clouding as if winter had seeped into his bones. Shapes flickered just beyond the edge of sight, tall, gaunt silhouettes with hollow eyes and skeletal wings. A ring of them circled him. Their presence pulsed against his skin, heavy as guilt.

Suddenly, the ground beneath him cracked open like fractured glass. From the depths below, a hand clawed its way out, bloodless, and unmistakably human.

Kai stared, frozen, as his own hand dragged itself from the abyss, followed by a second, then a broken mirror of his face rising from the pit, mouth split too wide in a grin.

"You’ll fail them all."

"No one survives what’s coming."

The other Kai’s eyes glowed red, and from his back burst long, black tendrils that writhed like serpents. One shot toward Kai’s chest.

He screamed.............

And snapped awake to the sting of a slap across his face.

“Get up, man! First day of the festival and you’re having nightmares like some cursed prophet!”

Kai blinked rapidly. His chest heaved, his sheets clung to him with cold sweat. Jace stood over him, scowling, hand still raised mid-air from the slap. Sunlight spilled through the high dorm window, golden and innocent, mockingly so.

“Are you serious right now?” Kai croaked.

“You were talking in your sleep,” Jace said, grabbing his cloak from the wall hook. “Muttering creepy stuff. I thought your shadow was gonna eat me.”

Kai rubbed his temples. His heart still thundered like it hadn't gotten the message that the danger was over.

Even though it is just a dream, it didn’t look like one. It looks too real for him to believe as just a dream.

“We need to move,” Jace said. “Dean Arvenn's calling everyone to the courtyard. Festival’s starting today.”

Kai dressed quickly, the ghost of the dream clinging to him like smoke. As they stepped into the corridor, the academy buzzed with energy, students of every faction in polished gear, laughter and nervous chatter bouncing off the marble walls, banners fluttering from balconies. It should have felt festive, but it didn’t, especially not to Kai.

They arrived just in time to join their team at the edge of the academy’s ceremonial grounds. Dozens of students stood in formation, arranged by squads, their colored cloaks signifying allegiance and faction logo, blood-red for vampires, ash-gray for Stone Born, sapphire for mages and more. The central platform rose like a throne made of starlight, etched with sigils older than any written language.

Then she stepped forward.

Dean Arvenn.

Clad in a black robe lined with silver runes that shimmered like constellations, her presence silenced the entire gathering. The wind stilled, the grace at which she moves saturates the whole surrounding.

“Students,” she said, her voice like distant thunder, commanding and cold. “Welcome to the Festival of Factions.”

A cheer went up.

She raised a hand, and silence returned like obedience was stitched into the air.

“You stand at the edge of a grand tradition,” she continued. “This is more than games and rivalry. This is survival. This is history. You are not here merely to win but you are here to become.”

A murmur of anticipation rippled through the crowd.

“This year’s festival,” she said, “will begin with a challenge drawn from the oldest relics of our world. A trial that predates this academy. A quest rooted in the soul itself.”

Kai felt his stomach tighten. Something about her tone was different and somehow heavier. As if she spoke of something far older than any of them truly understood.

“The first phase of your trial is called The Soul Lantern Run.”

Just then, she made some humming chants with some certain gestures, and a low tremor buzzed beneath their feet, soft at first, like the earth was exhaling. Then the stone floor ahead of the stage began to shift. It didn’t explode or shatter, but slowly parted with an unsettling smoothness, as though the academy itself had been waiting for this moment.

From the opening rose a massive archway, dark and glistening like wet glass. Its surface looked carved from some kind of bone or black stone, too polished, too perfect to be natural. Inside its curved frame, a pale light flickered, not warm like firelight, but cold and strange, like moonlight seen through deep water.

People stopped breathing.

It wasn’t just a portal. It was a door between worlds.

Dean Arvenn turned to face it. “Inside this gate lies a path where your physical body cannot die. But know this, you can still be lost. Lost to fear. Lost to madness. Lost to time. Those who enter may not return, even if no blood is spilled.”

Gasps echoed around them.

Kai swallowed hard.

“The first team to retrieve the Soul Lantern will be awarded a surge of points,” the Dean continued, “but let it be known that survival, leadership, sacrifice, and wit will be weighed equally. Winning the lantern is not the only measure of success.”

“Therefore, these are the instructions........”, She was about to speak but was interrupted by sudden movements.

At that moment, a ripple of movement swept through the crowd. Students began sprinting toward the portal, some with laughter, others with grim determination. Jace grabbed Kai’s shoulder.

“They didn’t even wait to hear the rules,” he said.

Dean Arvenn paused, watching the eager competitors vanish into the shimmering gateway. The look on her face was like that of a disappointed elder.

Then she smiled.

Not warmly. Not kindly.

A slow, curling smile that carried the weight of centuries.

“Foolish kids,” she said, almost to herself. “So eager to leap into the lion’s den… before I warned them what waits inside.”