My name is Arin Vale, and today is the day my life is supposed to begin.
Or end.
I stand in the mud, cold rain soaking through my worn-out academy uniform. All around me, the air crackles with energy. Bright lights flash, one after another, as students my age awaken to their powers. A boy to my left shouts with joy, flames dancing around his fists. A girl to my right vanishes and reappears a few feet away, laughing.
This is the Great Awakening Ceremony. The day every seventeen-year-old discovers their unique skill. It decides your future. It defines your worth.
For me, it's a public humiliation.
"Next! Arin Vale!" Instructor Gorvan's voice booms over the rolling thunder. The man is a mountain of muscle, a former guild warrior. He looks at me with barely hidden pity.
I walk forward, my boots sinking into the churned-up mud. The rain feels like icy needles on my skin. I can feel hundreds of eyes on me. Whispers reach my ears, sharp and clear even through the storm.
"That's the orphan from the lower zones."
"I heard his sister…you know."
"He's probably a dud.No family, no power."
I clench my fists, my knuckles turning white. I try to block them out. I try to focus. I have to awaken something. Anything.
This is my last chance.
I reach the center of the field, under the shimmering Awakening Stone. I close my eyes, just like they taught us. I reach deep inside myself, searching for that spark, that connection to the energy that flows from the dimensional rifts tearing our world apart.
I pray. I beg. I think of my sister, Elara.
Her face flashes in my mind. Her smile, so warm and bright. The way she'd ruffle my hair and call me her little hero. Then, the memory twists. I see her in that cold, dark church. I see the fanatical gleam in the priests' eyes. I hear her screams as a blinding, terrifying light consumed her. They called it an "ascension ritual." I called it murder.
'Don't give up, Arin.'
Her last words to me. A ghostly whisper in my mind.
"Don't give up," I mutter to myself, pouring every ounce of my will, my hope, my rage into this moment.
Nothing happens.
The Awakening Stone remains dull. No light embraces me. No power surges in my veins. There is only the cold, the wet, and the crushing weight of nothingness.
A snicker starts from the crowd. Then another. It grows into open laughter.
"Freak!" someone yells.
"I told you! A null!" shouts another.
The word hits me harder than any punch. A null. Someone with no skill. Useless. A burden on society. My body goes numb. The rain mixes with the hot tears I refuse to let fall. I stand there, exposed and empty, as the laughter washes over me.
Instructor Gorvan sighs, a sound of pure disappointment. "Arin Vale… unawakened. Step aside."
My feet feel like blocks of lead as I shuffle back to the edge of the crowd. The students part around me, not wanting to be touched by my failure. I am invisible again. Just a forgotten orphan, destined for the slums or a early grave in the monster-infested wilds. I am nothing.
That's when the sky tears open.
It starts as a low hum, a vibration that shakes the very ground. Then, with a sound like ripping metal, a jagged purple scar appears in the clouds. It's a rift. A gateway to some other realm. I've seen them in the distance before, but never this close.
Panic erupts.
The cheerful lights of awakening are replaced by the chaotic flare of combat skills. Students scream as monsters pour out of the rift. They are hideous things, all gnashing teeth and glistening dark flesh, moving on too many legs.
"Defensive formations!" Instructor Gorvan roars, his own skill activating as stone armor encases his body. "Awakeners, to the front! Protect the non-combatants!"
But it's chaos. The rain makes footing slippery. Fire skills fizzle and die in the downpour. Swords shatter against the thick hides of the beasts. These are not training dummies. This is real.
I stand frozen for a second, my own shame forgotten. This is a nightmare. I see a boy I recognize, a kid who awakened super speed, trip and fall. A monster lunges for him.
I don't think. I just move.
I am unawakened. I have no magic, no super strength. All I have is my body and a desperate, foolish courage. I sprint through the mud, slipping and sliding, and crash into the boy, shoving him out of the way just as the monster's claws swipe down.
They tear through my shoulder instead.
White-hot pain lances through me. I cry out, stumbling back. The beast towers over me, drool dripping from its fangs. It smells of rot and ozone. This is it. This is how I die. Powerless.
I scramble backward, clutching my bleeding shoulder. I see Instructor Gorvan fighting three other creatures, unable to help. I see other students running, too scared to fight. No one is coming for me.
The monster prepares to pounce.
And then, everything stops.
No, not everything. The world keeps moving, but for me, it feels like time has slowed to a crawl. The monster leaps, but its movement is a sluggish, floating thing. The rain hangs in the air like glittering diamonds. The screams are a distorted, drawn-out echo.
A voice, colder than the rain and clearer than anything I've ever heard, speaks directly into my mind.
[Executor Detected.]
[Activating God-Slaying Protocol.]
[Welcome, Arin Vale.]
What? Who's there? My thoughts are frantic, confused.
[System Initialization Complete. Greetings, Executor. You have been chosen to slay the gods.]
Gods? What is this? Is this a skill? Some kind of illusion?
[Primary Objective: Terminate Divine Entities. Collect Divinity. Rewrite Fate.]
The world snaps back into full speed. The monster is mid-air, its jaws wide open to tear my head off. But something is different. I feel… different. A new energy, alien and immense, floods my veins. It's not warm or comforting. It's a cold, hard, logical power.
My vision sharpens. I can see a faint, pulsing purple core in the center of the monster's chest. A weak, sickly light. A… divine fragment? The voice called it a Divine Entity.
An instinct takes over. I don't have a weapon. I see a broken piece of a student's sword lying in the mud. I dive for it, my movements faster and more precise than they should be. My fingers close around the hilt.
The monster lands where I was just standing. I roll to my feet, the shard of metal in my hand. It feels useless against such a creature.
[Execution Mode: Available. Activate?] the cold voice prompts.
Yes! I scream in my mind.
A silver light, thin and sharp as a razor's edge, outlines the broken blade in my hand. I don't think. I just thrust forward, aiming straight for that glowing purple core.
It should be impossible. The monster's hide should deflect the metal. But the silver light doesn't care. It passes through the flesh like it's not even there.
There is no sound. No roar of pain. The beast simply… freezes. Its eyes, full of mindless hunger, go wide with a shock that seems almost intelligent. The purple core in its chest shatters into a thousand motes of silent light.
Then, the entire creature dissolves into black dust, washed away by the rain in an instant.
I stand there, panting, the broken sword shard still in my hand. The silver light is gone. The pain in my shoulder is still there, a dull, throbbing agony. But I feel… powerful. A strange, euphoric heat spreads from my core. It's the energy I felt before, but now it's settling inside me.
[Divinity Absorption Successful.]
[Divinity Fragments: 1/??]
[System Integrity: 99%]
A transparent, blue screen flickers in front of my eyes, filled with text. A Status Screen. This is real. This isn't a normal skill. This is a System.
I look around. The fight is still raging, but in my immediate area, there is a moment of calm. A few students nearby are staring at me, their mouths hanging open. They saw what I did. They saw the unawakened null kill a rift monster with a piece of broken sword.
Instructor Gorvan stares at me from across the field, his stone-covered face a mask of pure confusion.
But my eyes are drawn to someone else. A girl with soft, worried eyes, huddled under a makeshift shield of earth created by another student. Her name is Lira. She's a healer, one of the first to awaken today. She's looking straight at me. Not with fear, or mockery, but with a deep, unsettling curiosity. Her gaze feels like it can see right through me, right into the new, cold thing growing inside my chest.
The System's voice echoes in the silence of my mind, its final words a promise and a threat.
[Main Mission Updated: Survive. Grow. The gods are watching.]
And I know, with a terrifying certainty, that my life as a powerless orphan is over. Something much more dangerous has begun.
To be continued...