One hour.
In just one more hour, the second-year Cadets had wiped out every remaining Spirit Beasts they could find.
Their power was admirable.
They were just a year older than most of the first-years, but the strength they possessed put them on an entirely different level than us.
Many of them didn’t even use their Origin Cards and easily breezed through the battle.
In a way, their overwhelming strength made sense.
You see, one could only raise their Soul Rank by absorbing Essence. The more Essence one absorbs, the faster one levels up.
But a child couldn’t start absorbing Essence right after Awakening their Origin Card. No, the soul isn’t strong enough to contain all the excessive supernatural energy at that point.
If one tries to absorb Essence and raise their level at a young age anyway, their soul literally breaks apart and they die.
Well, not die exactly. They still breathe and age, but they become… hollow from the inside.
Their bodies don’t respond to any external stimuli and they just stay in a comatose state. A fate worse than true death.
So, it’s usually advised for young Awakened to wait until they are sixteen to seventeen years of age before they start absorbing Essence.
That’s around the same time most of them enroll in Awakened Academies.
Then, under the guidance of Instructors and Professors, they learn to use their powers better and level up their Soul Ranks.
One year is a long time.
So, unless they are restricted by a potential cap, most of the Cadets reach low [B] to mid [A-rank] by the time they enter the second year of their Awakened studies.
And by the time they graduate, they could theoretically achieve [S-rank], becoming something akin to demigods.
That meant, the best of these second-year Cadets were [A-rank] Hunters with plenty of life-or-death battle experience.
No wonder they were so powerful.
These Infant and Minor Spirit Beasts weren’t even a threat to them.
By the morning, the chaos had ended.
The city was in ruins.
Buildings had crumbled, streets were littered with debris and corpses, and the town square looked more like a silent graveyard.
Smoke clouded the dawn sky, and the scent of blood and ash filled the air.
The cries of the injured still echoed in the distance, but the worst had passed. The monsters were gone — slain by the valiant heroes.
I sat on the pavement, leaning against a collapsed wall, my body heavy with exhaustion.
The adrenaline had long since faded, leaving behind nothing but sore muscles and a bone-deep weariness now.
The second-year Cadets were moving with practiced efficiency, tending to the wounded, assisting rescue efforts, and ensuring no more threats lurked in the shadows.
Camps were being set up, monster carcasses were being taken away, and survivors were slowly being gathered in safer areas.
Aarav, the second-year Ace, stood at the center of it all, issuing commands with a steady, authoritative voice. His pristine white armor, now dulled with grime and blood, made him look almost regal.
I watched as he and his squad handled everything seamlessly.
They were strong. Disciplined. Reliable.
Completely different from the fools I had to work with on this mission.
“Hmm,” I mused, wondering how those guys were doing.
I had sold them out to the Overload and informed him of their attack.
I didn’t know how Lord Everan welcomed them, but I was sure it wasn’t with pleasantries.
Surely they weren’t dead. They were the main characters of this story, after all. And Xaldreth wouldn’t allow Michael to die right now.
Lily could see the future, Alexia was strong, and as for Kang… well, I couldn’t care less about him. He was a main character, sure, but his impact on the story wasn’t that much.
His role in the grand scheme of things was negligible.
I didn’t need him to defeat the Spirit King.
…Ah, the Spirit King.
As I thought about him, my gaze drifted to the remains of the beast’s head a few meters away. That thing almost killed me.
And it was only a Minor Spirit Beast.
Sure, it had snuck up on me. I was fighting in a loose formation with other local Awakened. The person who was supposed to be covering my back messed up, letting that creature slip past him.
So, I didn’t make any mistakes.
It wasn’t my fault.
Regardless, I had almost died to that beast.
To a lowly monster.
“Haa…” I shook my head, realizing I still had a long way to go before I could even dream of standing against The Ruler Of All That Is Unholy — the Spirit King.
I clenched my fists, dreading what lay ahead, when a voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
“You look like you’re thinking too much.”
I glanced up and frowned upon seeing a young woman approach me.
She was a brunette, with a complexion as fair as freshly fallen snow, light brown freckles across her nose, and eyes red like the color of embers.
“Hi.” She waved before stopping in front of me. “I’m Revisa, a healer on the second-year medical team.”
Yeah, I could’ve guessed that without her telling me.
She was wearing a pink robe with an artistic red cross embroidered on her back — the symbol of the Healers’ Society in the Academy.
“You’re the first-year Ace, right? Aarav sent me to check up on you.” She sat down beside me.
I waved a hand dismissively. “I told him I’m fine.”
Revisa smiled. “It’s still my duty to perform a thorough checkup on all combatants who took part in this battle — especially someone as important as you.”
I narrowed my eyes at her for a moment before grinning shamelessly as my mood lifted.
“Yeah, I am very special, aren’t I?” I scratched the back of my head, feigning modesty.
Revisa laughed and summoned a Card.
Her eyes lit up in a bright cyan glow as she fixed her gaze on me. Though, it didn’t feel like she was looking at me, but through me.
Then, she nodded, more to herself. “Okay, you do look fine. Just some minor scratches, small bruises, and a whole lot of exhaustion. But… you’re under a lot of stress.”
I said nothing.
“Aarav told me you had a close call with a monster,” she continued. “It must be terrifying, coming face-to-face with death for the first time, right?”
“My first time facing death? Y-Yeah. It was scary,” I said with an awkward chuckle. “And definitely my first time.”
Of course, that was a lie.
I had already died once.
And today, I was vividly reminded of that death.
When I saw that beast coming for me, it brought back memories — memories of how suddenly I was killed in my past life.
How that truck crushed me.
Just like the beast, that truck had come out of nowhere, ramming through the convenience store walls before slamming into me.
It all happened so fast that I barely had time to realize I was about to die before I did.
It was a sudden, meaningless death.
Even after regaining those memories in my current life, I never questioned the bizarreness of it all.
Not until now.
Now that I had nearly died again.
Now, I couldn’t help but question things — like why I had awakened my past life’s memories in the first place.
Why was I reborn into this world?
Was this reality based on that game… or was it the other way around?
And then there was that weird old man.
Right before I died, that old man in the convenience store had said something to me.
Something strange. Something cryptic.
Something along the lines of, “In the place where dreams die, find the name never spoken. Only there will the heavens yield.”
What the fuck did that mean?
And who was that old man?
Was he just some lunatic spouting nonsense?
Or… did it actually mean something?
All of a sudden, I had too many questions.
Too many uncertainties clawing at the edges of my mind.
“I know that feeling,” Revisa’s gentle voice pulled me back to the present. “I almost died during my first mission too. It was terrifying. I know what you’re going through.”
Yeah, I highly doubted that.
Unless she was also a reincarnator, there was no way she knew what I was going through.
“But I suggest you enjoy this while you can,” she added with a knowing smile.
I scowled. “Enjoy what? PTSD?”
Revisa blinked, then covered her mouth and laughed. “No, I meant your days off.”
I gave her a blank stare. “Huh?”
She shrugged. “Yeah, you know. After a successful mission, you get a few days off, completion rewards, and some other benefits.”
I deadpanned. “You do realize I’m my batch’s Ace, right? I have almost limitless funding from the Academy and can skip classes whenever I want.”
For a second, Revisa looked completely speechless.
Then she coughed into her fist as her ears turned red. “Oh. Right. I’ve never been an Ace, and Aarav is way too punctual to ever skip, so I just… kind of forgot Aces can do whatever they want.”
She stood up, dusting off her robe. “Okay, I should get going. You’re physically fine, but it seems you’ve taken a mental toll. Check in with a campus psychiatrist when you get back to the Academy.”
“You second-years aren’t coming?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, we’ve been tasked with investigating this whole mess and maintain order in Kandara. We also need to find out how did the Overlord and the High Priest manage to control the beasts? Where did they get the resources and scientists? And how did they stockpile so many Spirit Beasts without anyone noticing?”
I stood up and gave her a sympathetic look. “Wow. Sounds like you guys have your work cut out for you.”
“Yeah, but we’ll be fine,” she said, flashing another smile.
I turned around and started walking away.
I didn’t think they’d be fine.
The story had already veered too far from its original course.
I didn’t know how the Syndicate of the Nameless Lords would react to this incident.
The timeline of Ishtara’s destruction had escalated a lot, and now this region would never be in their control since their pawns – the High Priest and the Overlord – were off the board.
One thing was certain, though, the Syndicate wouldn’t stay quiet.
But that wasn’t my problem.
For now, at least.