Somewhere in School Premises
A ring lay on the ground amidst countless small broken stones. If someone looked closely at the small black crystal on top of it, they would see a faint crack.
Around it, a few books were scattered, and the Awakening Pillar stood tall nearby.
This was Jack's space ring, which had fallen when he rushed to stop the slime's attack—it had slipped from his hand.
"I'm really lucky, or what?" In front of the Awakening Pillar stood a fourteen-year-old boy with black hair and blood-red eyes. His face was above average, but dark circles hung under his eyes, making him look like someone who hadn't slept for days.
He was wearing the Evergreen School uniform.
"This… happened because of… me…" He looked past the Awakening Pillar at the destruction ahead. He didn't know if anyone had died, but if they had, he was the reason for their deaths.
These thoughts ran through his mind as his right hand tightened around the silver pocket watch he was holding.
He pressed a small button on its edge, and the front cover sprang open immediately.
Inside, three needles moved with mechanical precision—the smallest showing the seconds, and the largest the hours.
Currently, the largest needle was between XI and XII, while the middle one, showing minutes, pointed at VI.
"Hmm… why did something like this belong to our family?" he muttered softly as countless questions spun in his mind.
"But first…" He walked close to the Awakening Pillar while pressing the button on the watch again, closing it.
He quickly slid it inside his pants pocket.
He was the one who brought the dead slimes into the school and started all this just so that he could awaken.
This world isn't fair to everyone—he was just one of many who faced injustice. In a world where strength was everything, he was among those discarded even before their paths began.
Born in poverty, both his parents died young, and because no one paid his fee for awakening, he wasn't allowed to awaken this year.
That's why he chose this way to awaken. When everyone was distracted, he snuck in to awaken and become a climber.
It's just that when he came, the Awakening Pillar was already gone. He almost thought all his planning had been wasted.
Swallowing hard, he felt his breathing grow heavy. He had heard how dangerous self-awakening could be—that's why you needed a good support-type mage or priest.
But he didn't have any choice. He couldn't wait for years just to awaken.
'I promised… Mom.' His hand trembled in fear as he pressed it against the pillar.
A faint light glowed—then nothing happened…
He opened his eyes and in wide fearful eyes of his. He show his hand pressing on the pillar, viens budging out of is skin and busting. Blood slashing everyehere and this didn't stop at just hands, vein all over his body poped.
"WAAHAHAHHWHWHA SOO MUCH PAINNNN SHIT SHIT SHIT WAWAWAHAHA!" He fell to ground, with his left hand grabbing his visible head skeleton. His one eye socket was empty, from other blood flowed like tears.
BANG!
And like that, blood and tissue of body flew everywhere, but it did stop there with a constant poping sound every tissue and blood of his were erased by mana explosions at atomic level leaving nothing.
This was one of the cruelest death a person can get, when awakening goes wrong.
Mana will constantly overflow creating a explosion in body. Even soul isn't spared. This kind of death guarantee that the person will die and erased forever.
---
High Above The Clouds
The World Spirit, aka Shiro, had witnessed everything—from Alex's unimaginable strength to the boy's death.
"Such a pity," Shiro sighed at the boy's death.
"To think I went so far to make all this work." He pouted as he remembered how much effort he had put into everything.
As a World Spirit, the stronger and larger his world became, the freer and safer he would remain.
And to make it stronger and larger, the most basic requirement was its inhabitants. That's why he had pulled some strings with that boy and his artifact.
That artifact was of a grade even he didn't know, but as a World Spirit, whenever an event related to his world changed, how could it remain invisible to his eyes—unless the person involved had the ability or an item to conceal karma, fate, and destiny itself?
But how many could truly touch that domain? And even those who could—how long could they remain cautious?
"That artifact could glimpse the future… even I can't do that. Pity I can't obtain it." He looked toward the place where the boy had died, but nothing remained.
He wasn't surprised by that, because the artifact was bound to the boy's soul. And since that boy was an inhabitant of his world, Shiro could use the artifact as long as the boy hadn't left his world.
It was how he saw everything that was going to happen, and with a bit of divination, he found the best path to help the boy awaken.
He had even killed two slimes himself and thrown them into a dump so the boy would find them.
Even the mistake that nearly caused Doran's death was his doing—to force Jack to move.
The ring falling right beside the boy was also his doing, even the reason for the crack—it was him.
All in all, he was the true mastermind behind today's events.
"Still… I did get some good talents for my world." Shiro smiled as he looked down.
"It's just that I can't see the future anymore," Shiro said with some sadness. Even though he was the World Spirit, he was still too weak and too young. His world didn't yet have a proper time domain of its own.
"I still have a long way to go," he said as he lay on the clouds.
Even though things hadn't gone exactly as he had planned, they had gone well enough. After all, he still had Alex—the ultimate card at his disposal.
Even if he couldn't control Alex, and in some ways Alex could control him, as long as this was the world he was born from, Alex would never let it be destroyed.
After all, he had watched him long enough to know that much.
And Shiro wasn't really hungry for power—he just wanted to live.