Richard's Pov
When I woke up, it was morning.
I was lying in the forest, smoke rising around me. The creature was gone, like it had never been there.
But something inside me had changed.
I could feel it.
A strong energy within me
I didn't want to go to the ceremony.
But I knew I had to.
Whatever happened last night, I could feel it had left me stronger, and I wasn't going to throw my life away.
The sky above Miracle Academy burned with gold and violet light as the banners of the Great Awakening Ceremony unfurled. Floating platforms circled the spires, humming with power. Drones buzzed around, broadcasting the event to every screen across the continent.
And here I was.
Standing in a line with hundreds of other hopefuls.
Many of them from Awakened families, dressed in ceremonial gray robes like we were here to be sacrificed to some gods.
Which, in a way, we were.
My hands were cold, but it wasn't the air. It was the stares.
They looked at me like I didn't belong. Like I'd polluted their sacred ritual just by breathing in the same space.
A janitor's son. Hollowborn. Trash.
I heard the whispers:
"He's just here for pity."
"Did they even vet him?"
"His parents were both Hollowborn. Zero chance."
My jaw clenched. I focused on my breathing. Inhale. Hold. Exhale.
The events of last night buzzed in the back of my mind like a storm behind a curtain. That creature. That light.
I could feel that something had changed.
"Candidates, step forward."
The voice of the Awakening Overseer echoed across the platform. He was tall, cloaked in black and gold robes that shimmered like woven starlight. A high-ranking Lawbearer. Probably A-Rank or higher.
One by one, we moved to the center of the circle where the Law Convergence Pillar stood like a spear impaled into the sky.
The others were quick.
A boy stepped forward, golden sparks shooting from his skin as the pillar pulsed.
"B-Rank. 54% Potential mastery over Elemental laws. Main ability, Electrokinesis. Stable. Accepted."
Applause.
Next, a girl. Her hands curled into a fist that looked like a rock.
"C-Rank. 42% Potential mastery over Constructive laws. Runestone Fist. Stable. Accepted."
Another round of polite clapping. Her family probably cried tears of joy off-camera.
It went like that for nearly an hour. One student after another syncing with the Laws, gaining a glowing mark across their chest, a burst of color, an announcement.
Then it was my turn.
I stepped forward.
Everything went quiet.
Even the wind.
I felt every eye in that arena snap toward me.
My heart beat once. Twice. Then I touched the pillar.
Nothing happened.
"No, this can't be it.", I murmured to myself desperately.
Whispers began immediately.
"He's Hollowborn. Of course."
"Disgraceful. Why let him touch it?"
The Overseer narrowed his eyes. "State your full name."
"Richard Sol."
He opened his mouth to dismiss me, but then it hit.
The Pillar pulsed.
A burst of red and violet light exploded from the crystal, engulfing the platform. Everyone staggered back. The ground beneath me cracked. A wind unlike anything I'd ever felt surged outward, sending several students flying backward.
"Disengage him!" someone shouted.
But they couldn't. I wasn't doing anything.
The Pillar wasn't just reacting to me.
It was syncing.
A symbol burned itself into my chest.
A mark unlike anything the Overseers had ever seen. It kept shifting. Morphing. Law glyphs from different categories cycled over my skin like a living tattoo.
Then the announcer's voice came.
"SSS-Rank. Unknown % Potential mastery over Sacrificial laws. Main ability, Null Drive. Stable. Accepted."
The silence that followed was longer than death.
No applause. No whispers. Just fear.
SSS-Rank with an ability to nullify other abilities?
That shouldn't even be possible. Those who awakened with forbidden powers were revered as gods.
I could feel a shift in how they looked at me.
A security barrier slammed down over me. Guns powered by Law Crystals pointed at my head from every angle. Even the Overseer had summoned a weapon, some kind of crystalline blade that pulsed with command.
"Do not move," he said, his voice hoarse.
"I'm not moving," I said calmly, though my insides felt like jelly.
More Lawbearers entered the arena, enforcers in white armor, their visors glowing. A woman among them raised her hand. Her presence alone sent a chill through the air.
She wasn't just high-tier.
The pressure emitting from her body made it difficult to breathe.
"Name?" she asked.
"Richard Sol."
"What the hell are you?" she murmured almost inaudibly.
I smiled brazenly, bloody lips still split from the night before.
"No idea," I said. "Why don't you tell me?"
She looked me over, gaze sharp as glass.
"He's stable. Somehow," she said. "But I want full scans, full background check. Miracle Academy just picked up a potential apocalypse. Don't let him leave.", she ordered the guards as she watched them take me.
They didn't lock me in a cell. Not quite.
But I was detained. Tested. Prodded. My blood, my breath, my heartbeat.
Everything measured against the known boundaries of Awakening theory.
None of it made sense to them.
I was fully synchronized as a potential SSS-ranked master of the Sacrificial Law with my null drive ability.
Yet, the glyphs on my body revealed a darker fact that I could potentially assimilate other laws, a power that left the academy shrouded in disbelief.
Every time they tried to scan me, their machines glitched.
A few times, I caught them whispering.
"Could he be a Lawstealer?"
"No. We'd detect a theft signature. It's... different."
"Maybe he's not even human..."
I sat in the middle of that white lab, shirtless, wires attached to my body, and stared at the blinking lights.
For the first time in my life, people were talking about me.
Not ignoring me. Not laughing. Not beating me.
They were afraid.
And I liked it.
Hours later, the high-tier woman stepped back into the chamber.
"You've been cleared. For now. Miracle Academy has accepted you under emergency scholarship. We'll continue to observe you."
"Oh, I feel so honored," I muttered.
She stepped closer. Cold eyes met mine.
"Listen carefully, Sol. Power like yours is a bomb waiting to go off. Don't pretend you're special. We've buried gods before."
I held her gaze.
"Then you better dig a deeper grave.", I replied coldly as I matched her gaze despite the pressure.
"You've got spunk. I like that.", she said with a mischievous smile as she walked, leaving me to sigh in relief.
The moment the woman left, the tension bled from the air like a slow leak. I leaned back against the cold wall, pulse finally steadying. The room had been suffocating, not just from her presence but from the implications of her words.
"We've buried gods before."
I wasn't special. I was dangerous.
Great.
The door slid open with a hiss. A tall, bored-looking guy in an academy-blue jacket entered, a silver badge pinned to his collar, a Level Officer. His eyes scanned the room like he had better places to be, and unfortunately, I wasn't one of them.
"Sol Richard?" he asked, voice clipped.
I raised a brow. "You expecting another Hollowborn?"
He didn't laugh. "I'm here to escort you to the entrance trial grounds. Standard orientation begins in twenty minutes."
My heart raced a bit. I might have gotten into the academy through a scholarship, but that didn't mean I could survive the entrance exam.
"Other elite cadets have trained their entire lives for this day. Do you still think you have a chance, Hollowborn?", he dragged his last words like a slur.
I raised my head to meet his mocking gaze.
I hated that expression. How people looked at me like I couldn't amount to nothing.
"I'm going to wipe that smirk off your face.", I spoke calmly, walking past him.