Morning air drifted through the cracked window, cool and a little dusty.
Michael stepped out of the small house with his school bag slung lazily over one shoulder. The door clicked shut behind him, and for a moment he just stood there, staring down the narrow street.
The neighborhood was quiet, almost too quiet.
Concrete houses lined both sides like tired old soldiers. Rusted rails. Faded paint. Laundry hanging like surrender flags.
Then, beyond it all, the city rose.
Tall glass buildings. Floating traffic signals. Solar rails gliding overhead. Screens plastered onto walls flashing news, ads, military updates. The world shifted from poor and worn to sleek and futuristic in only a few streets.
It always felt strange.
Like two centuries forced into the same space.
"It's already 2080," Michael muttered under his breath, adjusting his bag. "And this place still looks like it's stuck in the past."
He said this looking at his neighbourhood and began walking.
The road toward school grew wider and cleaner. Students in uniforms passed him, some laughing, some staring at their phones, others training their control over faint strands of energy that shimmered around their fingers.
Obsidian energy.
Everyone could feel it.
A faint pressure in the air. Like invisible mist brushing against the skin.
Years ago, people couldn't sense anything like that. Back then humanity relied only on guns, tanks, missiles. Weapons that worked at first… until they didn't.
Lower-ranked obsidian creatures had appeared in the early days. Even those nearly wiped out cities. Bullets slowed them, explosives tore flesh, but the moment stronger variants showed up, everything changed.
Weapons began losing effectiveness.
Humans started dying faster than they could adapt.
Then humanity changed too.
People began feeling something strange in the atmosphere. A current. An energy.
At first it was dismissed as stress or mass hysteria.
But it wasn't.
People learned to grasp it, guide it, condense it.
That energy became known as obsidian energy.
The first step — simply sensing it — became normal for almost everyone. Even children could do it now. But sensing alone didn't make someone awakened.
What truly classified a person as awakened was gaining a Path and a power.
Those terms were human inventions, created later to make sense of the chaos.
Creation Path.
Destruction Path.
And countless others still unnamed.
Healing. Water control. Lightning. Fire. Barriers. Reinforcement. Strange abilities no one could even categorize.
Michael kicked a pebble down the sidewalk as he walked.
The awakened could condense energy into strands, weave them inside their bodies like threads, strengthening muscles, bones, even lifespan.
The more they condensed, the denser everything became.
Eventually, something formed.
A core.
That was how the first Arel-ranked awakened were discovered.
After that, ranks were established to measure strength.
Bio.
Arel.
Advancer.
Expert.
Breacher.
Supreme.
All names created by humans trying to measure survival.
The obsidian creatures had their own scale too.
Basic.
Medif.
Savage.
Rampage.
Legendary.
Catastrophic.
Just thinking about the higher ones made Michael uneasy.
He shoved his hands into his pockets.
"Weapons from their bodies… crystals for power… bigger planets… seventeen billion people…" he thought. "Im sure no one from 2030 would recognize this world."
Scientists still couldn't explain everything.
The energy had warped the solar system. Planets expanded to nearly a hundred times their original sizes, yet somehow nothing collapsed. Continents stayed intact, like reality had been stretched instead of broken.
No one understood it.
And no one really tried anymore.
Survival came first.
The school gates came into view.
They were massive — reinforced steel mixed with crystal plates. Tall towers stood at each corner. Security drones floated lazily overhead.
The campus looked more like a small city than a school.
Training fields. Combat halls. Energy labs. Weapon forges.
Most awakened students trained here before joining guilds or the military.
Michael passed through the gates with the crowd.
It was an above average school,that was meant for rich unawakened kids,or rich awakened.
Michael at times wondered how much Mary paid to get him into this school,and how he even stayed in the school.
It was the best choice for an unawakened while also being their worst choice.
Some unawakened from rich and affluent families would learn and gain good positions in the non fighting sectors in the world,while some would be bullied by awakened.
Unluckily for Michael,he was the only unawakened in the entire school
Voices buzzed around him.
"So you condensed yours already?"
"Yeah, almost forming a strand—"
"My sister hit Arel last week—"
He tuned it out.
Then someone bumped his shoulder.
"Oy, Mike."
Michael turned and saw Davin jogging up to him, slightly out of breath.
Same height as him, Chubby build,Round face. Always sweating even when it wasn't hot.
His uniform looked like it was fighting for survival.
"You walk too fast," Davin complained.
Michael smirked. "You're just slow."
"Rude."
They walked together.
Faint grey energy clung around Davin's hands like sticky mist.
Bio rank. Gloo ability.
It let him produce thick adhesive slime strong enough to trap smaller creatures.
Not flashy.
But useful.
"So," Davin said, voice low, "Did you see the news this morning ?"
Michael nodded. "Yeah."
"You think it's fake news,cause I haven't heard any broadcast from any suprem...."
He was caught short as every screen around the campus suddenly flickered.
A broadcast replaced everything.
The image of the military's symbol appeared first.
Then a man.
Tall,Calm,Sharp eyes that looked like they could cut steel.
Varian.
The strongest Supreme.
The head of the military.
Even through a screen, the pressure he gave off felt heavy.
Students around them went silent.
"Effective immediately," Varian said, voice steady, "all awakened individuals aged eighteen will be conscripted for active combat duty. Guilds or military assignment will be mandatory."
Murmurs spread.
"But due to increasing threats from deeper territories… the enlistment age is now seventeen."
The noise exploded.
"What?!"
"That's us!"
"No way—"
Davin grabbed Michael's sleeve. "Seventeen?! I'm seventeen!"
Michael forced a shrug. "Guess they're rushing things."
Inside, something twisted.
"One year," he thought. "They just stole a whole year from us."
Varian continued speaking about powerful obsidian creatures being discovered near the world's center. About humanity needing strength. About sacrifice and survival.
A motivational speech.
It didn't feel motivating.
It felt like a warning.
"All awakened above seventeen have one month to prepare," Varian finished.
The screen went black.
Silence lingered.
Davin laughed nervously.
"Bro… I'm dead. I'm actually dead. Those things are huge. What if I get eaten first day?"
"You're too fat to eat," Michael said. "They'll get full halfway."
"Oi!"
Davin punched his arm.
They both laughed.
But the laughter felt thin.
Davin's eyes trembled.
"I don't wanna go," he admitted quietly.
Michael looked away.
"You'll be fine," he said. "You're tougher than you think."
He didn't say what he really felt.
"I'm_toggle_ out of place again," Michael thought. "Everyone's moving forward… and I'm stuck."
Unawakened.
Still useless.
Still watching everyone else leave.
Then his phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
He answered casually. "Hello?"
Static.
Then a rushed voice.
"Are you Michael? You're listed as emergency contact for Mary. She's been critically injured. She's at Central Hospital. Come immediately."
The world stopped.
"…What?"
His chest tightened.
The noise of students vanished.
Mary.
Injured?
His fingers trembled.
"I'm coming," he said, already running.
Davin called after him, confused, but Michael didn't stop.
Fear crashed into him like a wave.
"Please be okay," he thought. "Please… don't leave me too."