After that, the introductory combat class was over. Sore from the beating they received, Sleepers headed for the showers.
Steam filled the tiled chamber, mixing with the sharp scent of soap and bruised pride.
Caspian stood beneath the hot water longer than necessary, letting it drum against his shoulders. The ache in his muscles was pleasant. Honest.
Caster had been fast.
Nephis had been terrifying.
And he—
He had won.
The water ran down his back in rivulets, and instinctively, without meaning to, he felt it. The flow. The subtle shifts in density, the tiny currents adjusting around his skin.
When he stepped out, wrapping a towel around his waist, the locker room was already buzzing.
Sleepers surrounded him.
"That flip— how did you even—"
"Thirty-four?! That's insane!"
"Are you hiding some kind of enhancement Aspect?"
He answered politely. Calmly. Vaguely.
Across the room, another circle had formed around Caster.
Legacies gravitated toward Legacies.
Admiration toward pedigree.
Then—
He heard it.
Caster's voice.
Low. Controlled. Irritated.
"I might have expected such behavior from them, but you should know better."
Caspian didn't look.
He listened.
Another voice responded — confident, slightly arrogant.
"Why? Is there something special about that peasant girl?"
Caster's heartbeat skipped.
Just once.
Then accelerated.
"Peasant… peasant girl? Do you really not know who she is?"
Silence.
Caspian's interest sharpened.
Caster opened his mouth several times, as though not sure what to say. Finally, he shook his head and answered:
"She is Nephis of the Immortal Flame clan."
The air shifted
.
Even those who didn't know the name felt the weight of it.
The other Legacy went pale.
"I trust that I don't need to tell you about her grandfather. Her parents were Smile of Heaven and Broken Sword."
Caspian's mind stilled.
Inmortal Flame, the first master.
Broken Sword, the first saint.
Legends.
They weren't just powerful.
They were pillars of human history in the fight againts the spell.
The pale-faced Sleeper asked in a trembling voice:
"Then why… why is she so…"
Caster sighed.
"Because they're all dead. The Immortal Flame clan is long gone."
Silence swallowed the locker room.
"She's the only one left."
Alone.
Royalty without a kingdom.
A blade without a sheath.
Velpam's voice slipped into Caspian's thoughts.
"This locker room have one more shadow that it should."
Caspian's mind paused.
He turned his gaze slowly toward the far corner Velpam was looking at.
Nothing.
Lockers. Benches. Steam.
But—
When he held his stare there for a few seconds—
He could have sworn something shifted.
Not on the floor.
Not behind something.
In the shadow itself.
The darkness felt… thicker.
Velpam hummed softly.
"Interesting…"
Caspian didn't move.
Didn't react.
If something was watching— it would know he noticed.
After a moment, the sensation faded.
The shadow returned to normal.
---
Days flew by.
Caspian had only four weeks to prepare for his journey into the Dream Realm, so there wasn't a single minute to waste. He was relentless, pushing both body and mind to their limits in an attempt to absorb as much knowledge and skill as possible within that short time.
During the day, he studied with Teacher Julius and attended combat classes, gradually learning more about how to survive and take care of himself in the absence of civilization. Their lessons ranged from comparatively simple topics, like various methods of producing fire, to far more obscure and esoteric subjects, such as celestial navigation.
What was so difficult about celestial navigation?
As it turned out, the Dream Realm was inconsistent in terms of star geography. Different regions had different stars and constellations, and even a different number of moons. While the sun appeared to be the same everywhere, its behavior was highly unpredictable.
Still, with sufficient knowledge, one could study the skies and use them to navigate.
Most of these lessons were supposedly already included in standard school curriculums and known to the majority of Sleepers. However, learning something from a textbook and learning it from an actual Awakened were two completely different matters.
Teacher Julius had a habit of going far deeper than necessary when explaining his subject. Thanks to this time-consuming tendency, the three of them not only learned the "what" but also gained glimpses into the "why" This budding understanding of the Dream Realm's underlying principles gave them at least some measure of readiness for whatever they might face.
Even the lessons in dead languages — which they had initially dismissed as useless — turned out to be far more fascinating than expected. This was largely because they concerned the Spell itself. After all, the Spell communicated with humans in one of those ancient tongues.
By understanding the language, Caspian could interpret its remarks and descriptions more accurately. The simplest example was his own True Name: "Moonlight Deliverer." While technically correct, the translation failed to capture the exact nuance.
By studying the grammatical structure of the rune language, it became clear that a more precise translation would be "Bringer of Moonlight." More than that, there were different runes for "Moonlight" each carrying its own connotation. Depending on the specific rune used, his name could also mean "Bringer of Hope" or "Bringer of Salvation."
Yet even that seemingly holy interpretation had another side. In some ancient dialects, "Moonlight" also symbolized corruption or fear. In that sense, his True Name could just as easily mean "Bringer of Corruption" or "Bringer of Fear."
"Wow… those civilizations must have truly hated the moon" Caspian thought.
A subtle shift in wording could mean an entirely different destiny.
Teacher Julius also insisted on holding practical lessons every other day. Even when they had to rely on virtual reality simulations, he demanded the use of full-immersion stations with enhanced physical feedback.
From time to time, while Caspian was focused on other things, Velpam would murmur:
"There he goes."
Or—
"I wish I had that freedom too."
While looking at the nothing in particular, but each time he felt the same thing as in the locker room.
His rising popularity also made him the center of gossip and sudden romance. It seemed that placing a hundred beautiful teenagers together — all of whom might die within weeks — ignited a desperate craving for love. In a single day, he turned down seven girls.
He felt a bit guilty.
But attachments before the Dream Realm were dangerous.
He also practiced with his Aspect. The Aspect ability stated that he could manipulate the characteristics of any liquid he touched, so he wanted to test its limits.
Using a bucket of water, he experimented with his feet. After several attempts, he succeeded — the water hardened the instant his foot made contact, forming a solid surface beneath him.
Encouraged, he wanted to know what would happen with liquid metal.
But there were problems, obviously.
First, he didn't know whether it would even count.
Second, he couldn't significantly alter temperature yet. At best, he could shift a few degrees. If he attempted to cool down liquid metal from hundreds of degrees in a fraction of a second he incinerate him before his Aspect could compensate.
And theoretically, almost anything could become liquid if heated enough.
If he managed to cool liquid metal and let it harden, would he retain control over it?
His theory was no — he would only be able to manipulate substances while they have the temperature of their liquid state, so if he wanted to control metal, he shouldn't cool it down, he would have to control it while being at hundreds of degrees, althought the idea of using a scorching red sword was like a childlike fantasy, he loved his hands enough to not try it.
To test this, he grabbed a soda with ice. Taking one cube, he tried to liquefy it directly.
Nothing happened.
He was disappointed.
But at least now he understood his limitation: he could only alter the properties of substances that were already liquid when he activate his Aspect, so temperature was the key, he could alter water only beetween 1⁰C and 99⁰C .
And so the days passed.
Then the weeks.
Until it was winter solstice.
On that morning, Caspian woke feeling exhausted and drowsy. No matter how hard he tried to shake the suffocating sleepiness, it clung to him.
He recognized the sensation.
It was the same feeling he had experienced before his First Nightmare.
This was his last day on Earth — at least for a while.
By nightfall, the Spell would take him once more, this time into the vast expanse of the Dream Realm.
There was no point speculating about what awaited him. He had prepared as thoroughly as he could. He had studied relentlessly. Trained without mercy. Refined his Aspect.
He was the strongest Sleeper of his batch.
All things considered—
He was ready.
With a quiet sigh, he rose from bed and followed his morning routine. If this was to be his last hot shower for a long time, he would savor it.
If this was to be his last proper breakfast—
He discovered he had no appetite.
The cafeteria was full, yet silent. No laughter. No casual chatter. Even the Legacies, calm as ever, kept to themselves.
Caspian didn't feel like eating. He went to his usual table instead. Alice, Cassia, and Sunny were already there.
Sunny lifted a cup of coffee. As he took a sip, Cassia turned toward him.
"W-what?"
"Happy birthday" she said softly.
Birthday?
"Uh… thanks."
"It's your birthday?" Caspian asked. "How old are you now?"
"Yes. I'm seventeen."
Seventeen?
Caspian stared.
"Seventeen?! You're older than me? I still have to wait two months before I turn seventeen!"
Sunny gave him a faint smirk.
"It appears so. I thought you'd be older. Turns out you're younger — so respect your senior, brat."
The brief spark of humor faded quickly, swallowed by the heavy atmosphere.
There were no classes that day, but they still visited Teacher Julius to say goodbye. The old man grew emotional, repeating "one last tip" at least a dozen times and promising to arrange research assistant positions once they returned as full Awakened.
Then—
There was nothing left to do.
When the sun was close to setting, Instructor Rock gathered them in the foyer of the Sleeper Center and led them outside.
In the snowy parks that surrounded the white building, other Awakened were leading their own batches of Sleepers to the same destination. It was the Academy's medical center.
The center looked more like a shrine than a hospital. Its interior contained both highly advanced technology as well as some of the best Healers among the Awakened. For the duration of their first journey into the Dream Realm, the bodies of Sleepers would be kept safe in specially designed pods and sustained by the magical powers of those Healers if anything unfortunate were to happen on the other side of the Spell.
Of course, whether or not they would wake up in the end wholly depended on the Sleepers themselves.
after entering the medical center, Instructor Rock did not take them directly to the wing containing Sleeper pods. Instead, he led them to a comparatively deserted floor and then opened the doors to a spacious gallery that was brightly illuminated by the beautiful crimson rays of the setting sun.
There, they saw rows and rows of wheelchairs. In each wheelchair, there was a person with a blank, strangely peaceful expression on their face. All these people were completely silent, motionless, and still. They did not show any reaction to the appearance of guests.
They all seemed to be… empty.
Instructor Rock looked at the empty people with solemn eyes.
"There is a reason I brought you all here. Look well and remember. Some of you may know who these people are… for those of you who don't, they are called Hollow."
He gritted his teeth.
"Each one of them was once either a Sleeper or an Awakened. Some of them were weak, some of them were strong. Some were even incredibly powerful. All of them have perished in the Dream Realm."
"No souls on those husks" Velpam said simply.
"If you're lucky, once your spirit is destroyed, your body dies with it. But if not, you'll become just like them. Hollow."
Instructor Rock glanced in the direction where Caster, Nephis, and him stood, and then added:
"So don't die out there."
Half an hour later, Sleepers had been led to their personal rooms and were preparing to enter the pods.
In one of the rooms, the blind girl, Cassia, was helplessly trying to orient herself in the unfamiliar space, touching the walls and strange pieces of machinery with her hands. Tears were streaming down her beautiful, doll-like face.
In the other room, proud Legacy Caster was staring listlessly at the floor. His lips were moving, repeating one strange phrase over and over again. He was trembling.
Somewhere else, Changing Star Nephis, the last daughter of the Immortal Flame clan, was looking down at her hands. Underneath her skin, soft white radiance was slowly growing brighter and brighter. Her face was contorted in a grimace of harrowing agony.
Almost at the end Sunny was in his own room talking with himself.
In his room, where above the door it could be read Moonlight Deliverer Caspian, but he was not alone, Saint Bloodweave was with him to fulfill his promise.
He gave his hand to Caspian, and told him that this was the gift of the house of night, and the runes talked, Saint Bloodweave gave him a memory.
[You have received a memory: Blood pond.]
It was a bottle, Bloodweave explained that it had 100 litters of different bloods, going from awakened to Saint, so no matter how long he would spend in the dream realm, he won't succumb to his hunger.
After that he departed and Caspian was left alone.
With that, he stepped forward and climbed into the pod.
---
In the vast echoing darkness, he heard:
[Welcome to the Dream Realm, Caspian!]
[Welcome to the Dream Realm, Velpam!]