That day, Rafael went back to the dorm after buying food from the cafeteria. The night passed in a slow, syrupy silence, broken only by the distant hum of the Meg-glide station.
In the morning, Rafael left for the Core Control and Void Manipulation classroom. It was in the Core Training Hall, on the right side of the Classroom building. It was layered with reinforced metals and nano barriers. The Hall was much like the Arena. But it had separate sections for each year's students.
Rafael entered the section for 1st years. His so-called classmates were already present there. Fredric came forward as soon as he saw Rafael.
"Hey, Raf. Morning." Fredric greeted. Few eyes were already on them.
"Morning, So, today, is it an Ability control lesson?" Rafael asked in a subtle and low voice.
'If I have to show my ability, it'll just be humiliating for me. Ugghh... I wanna vanish!' Rafael groaned softly, rubbing the back of his neck. He could already feel the stares burning into his skin.
Fredric looked around for some moments and answered with a grin, "It looks like it. But don't be afraid. I am here for you."
'Yes, you are here for me... so are you gonna beat them when they humiliate me?'
Fredric's grin softened into something more sympathetic, as if he could almost hear Rafael's silent retort. "I mean it," he said, clapping a hand on Rafael's shoulder.
Before Rafael could formulate a response, a sharp, resonant chime echoed through the training hall, signaling the professor's arrival. The ambient chatter died instantly.
A severe woman with hair the color of polished steel pulled into a tight knot. Her eyes, a piercing cerulean blue, scanned the room, seeming to catalog every flicker of nervous energy. They lingered on Rafael for a fraction of a second too long, and he felt his stomach clench.
"Good morning," she began, her voice cool and clear, carrying to every corner of the section without needing to be raised. "Myself Aris."
"Today, we move beyond theory. Today, you will manifest your cores. Not in a burst of uncontrolled power, but with focus and intent."
A wave of excited murmurs rippled through the other students. This was what they had been waiting for.
'Is it really a thing to be excited this much? You damn fools." Rafael's heart was running faster as each second passed.
"Your core is not a muscle to be flexed," Aris began, her voice cutting through the last of the whispers. "It is a generator, an engine of potential deep within your being. To access it, you do not push. You listen."
She began to pace slowly, her boots making no sound on the reinforced floor. "Close your eyes. All of you."
A collective rustle followed as the students complied. Rafael squeezed his eyes shut, the darkness behind his lids swimming with spots of nervous light.
"Good. Now, block out nearby noises, the sound of my voice, the person breathing next to you. Turn your attention inward. Search for the silence between your heartbeats. In that silence, you will find it. A point of warmth. A hum of energy that is uniquely yours. It may feel like a knot of heat behind your navel, a pressure in your sternum, or a faint vibration in your palms. There is no wrong sensation, only your truth."
Rafael did as she said, closed his eyes, and darkness enveloped him. But this time, no shadow awaited him; it was pure black.
He tried to cancel out all the noises, the teacher's voice, the breathing, the sound of people walking, everything.
Then he felt the warmth around his navel. His Rank-0 core.
At first, it was faint, barely there—a flicker in a sea of black. Then it pulsed once, twice, like a heartbeat echoing from somewhere too deep to name. The warmth spread slowly, spiraling outward in threads of light that seemed to dissolve as soon as they appeared.
Rafael's breath hitched. He felt it, yes—but it was thin, fragile, trembling like a candle on its last breath.
'This is it? This pathetic ember?' he thought bitterly. 'No wonder I can't do anything right.'
A soft hum filled the air. Around him, the other students' energies began to flare—some faint, some bright enough that their bodies were outlined in shimmering light. The air thickened with the static of budding power.
Rafael opened his eyes just a sliver. He could see them—cores flaring like miniature suns, painting the Hall in rippling hues of violet, gold, and azure.
And his?Nothing.
No glow. No shimmer. No proof he was even trying. Just him, standing there like an empty shell while everyone else glowed like gods.
Fredric's core blazed a clean, steady white, like a forge fire. He looked over at Rafael, worry tugging at his grin. Rafael quickly looked away.
Aris's footsteps approached, slow and deliberate. Her presence pressed down on the air like gravity.
"You," she said quietly.
Rafael froze.
"Keep your eyes closed," she instructed. "You're listening too much to others and not enough to yourself."
Her voice wasn't sharp this time—it was cool, measured, and oddly patient.
"Your core isn't weak. You are simply deaf to its call."
Her words lodged somewhere in his chest, stinging and comforting all at once.
He swallowed, trying again. He closed his eyes, forcing the world to fade. The whispers, the heat of embarrassment, the burn of Fredric's glow—all gone.
In the silence that followed, he sank deeper. The warmth at his navel trembled again—but this time, he didn't judge it. He just… listened.
And then—something moved.
A whisper, almost too quiet to notice, rippled through the void inside him. It wasn't warmth anymore. It was cold. Endless. Vast.
The world outside dimmed. The blackness behind his eyes stretched into infinity, and somewhere in that infinite dark, something looked back.
It wasn't his core. It was something else. Something older. Something that had been waiting.
A voice, soft as a sigh, brushed against his mind.
You finally came back.
Rafael's eyes snapped open.
For a moment—just one fleeting, impossible moment—the space around him warped, and a ring of shadow rippled beneath his feet, swallowing the light.
Every head in the Hall turned toward him.
Aris stopped mid-step. Fredric's grin vanished.
And Rafael—heart pounding, palms trembling—could only whisper,
"…What the hell was that?"