Chapter 1 - Initiation

"Is this it?" Lucan asked, looking apprehensive. He stood before a gigantic dark underground temple. A small staircase descended into the darkness before him.

The ground was not visible, as it was flooded, and the dark water was calm. In the middle of that place, a golden light shone; a stone circle stood above the water with a small sapling of a white tree. The tree was in the light, and golden particles danced like fire around it.

"Yes, you just need to go to the Bonfire... we can only help you this far, I'm sorry," said the girl, lowering her head. Her gaze was sincere, and Lucan saw kindness in her eyes.

"It's okay, Olivia. Nothing in life has ever been easy for me," he said as he entered the place and slowly began to descend the stairs.

"I... I wish I could give you my sword..."

Still walking, he feared looking back and sighed.

I already know you can't give me anything... you don't need to feel guilty.

Many people have made that journey towards the tree that never burns, but few have conquered it.

What hell will I find in the 'tutorial'?

As soon as he stepped into the water, the darkness came to life, and the door behind him closed. There was no turning back.

There never was...

Then the small white tree began to burn with a golden fire, but the fire did not consume it.

"Look at my surroundings... look at my surroundings... everything is a weapon..." He repeated the teaching like a mantra.

Everything is a weapon in that place...

The water grew colder and colder, and he understood that it was the cold of death. He felt the presence of the unknown there, as if he were in a vast sea being watched by a giant from the depths.

"At least I managed to get here," he said, climbing onto the circular platform.

The tree glowed, and its white branches turned golden like gold.

No matter what I have to see or face, nothing will compare to what she went through...

He walked with difficulty as if heading towards a gigantic fire; the emanating heat was increasing. Then, almost collapsing to the ground and crawling with difficulty, he touched the sapling, the Bonfire.

Thousands of echoes and whispers came; it was a crowd of them, some screaming and others laughing. A mixture of crying and laughter grew as they watched him touch the Bonfire.

"Come on! Come on, you and whoever else is on the other side! I will claim you! Whatever God is there, I will not be consumed!"

After shouting, while the wave of hot wind tried to push him back into the water, he disappeared, turning into white particles in the air. [This is the path of courage. This is your initiation! PROVE YOURSELF BEFORE GOD], the voices said.

---

### A Few Days Before the Initiation

A small raindrop fell amidst the crowd. To the sound of cars and the rapid footsteps of the crowd, only one raindrop fell, right on the boy's face as he briefly looked up while crossing the street. In that second, everything slowed down. He could see people at their own pace, talking, walking, using their phones. So robotic and methodical. After that solitary raindrop, the others came, falling desperately, but they were not special. They were just part of his routine. But the first, that solitary one, had to pass through the atmosphere, squeezed. A piece of ice crushed and broken by pressure, falling at an exhausting speed until it became a small drop. That drop and the boy were almost one, disconnected from the world's rhythm. He then put on his hood and continued his pace.

That day, only the boy and the person watching him felt the small change that the humble drop brought to an already full glass... causing an Awakening.

Lucan was walking back from his job. Since he fled from a certain person, he decided to live alone. To pay his bills, he worked at a local market. Despite working there, he had forgotten to buy instant noodles, which saved him from cooking. Maybe the most trivial thing, but it had great significance to him.

Arriving at the local market, the girl on the night shift greeted him.
“Ah, did you forget something?” She was tying her red hair with a clip and chewing her nicotine gum, a habit.

He signaled that he was wearing headphones, even though it was a lie; the headphones were not playing anything.
“I forgot to buy something to eat. Do you still have that chicken noodle?”

“You and your noodles, as always... If the manager didn’t remember to restock, it must be in a box on the back floor.”

I doubt it’s noodles... for the price, I bet it exceeded the 40% algae quota in foods.

Lucan rummaging through the boxes found his favorite noodle. It had the same packaging since a friend gave it to him.

When he stood up, he saw something at the end of the aisle... a corpse, facing away, dripping a black liquid. The corpse was banging its head against a refrigerator door with force.

Lucan quickly glanced at Sasha, who was still at the counter, busy with her phone, while the corpse banged its head harder.

It’s started! I’m seeing it again...

The corpse kept banging its head, and Lucan had to pass by it to get to the counter. When he got close to the corpse, he could hear a whispering sound from its mouth. Lucan ignored the apparition and went to the woman at the counter.

“The usual, huh? Are you paying or should I deduct it from your salary?” she asked.

“I’ll pay.”

Luke placed his phone on the tablet and paid.

As he left, he didn’t see the corpse banging its head against the refrigerator door anymore.

Lucan left, internally distressed. He was starting to see those things more frequently and felt the duration of these apparitions was increasing.

No one saw that... am I really going crazy? But this time, it lasted. It wasn’t a fleeting moment; it was... but it’s impossible... I must be losing it. I need to sleep and stop playing video games all night.

If it were someone else, they would have fainted, but the shock of seeing something like that froze him. Doubt crept into his mind at that moment. He wasn’t sleeping well, had constant nightmares, and insomnia haunted him. It was normal to see black shadows; he was used to it. Days without sleep or poor sleep were normal. But this was different.

“I really need to sleep.”

At home, he grabbed some milk and wet food for his visiting cat. Lucan lived in a small almost one-room apartment in an alley.

After heating his noodles, he watched the black cat eat the food.

“Stupid animal,” he said, laughing, watching the cat that appeared occasionally.

After eating his noodles and drinking the broth, he was heading to bed when he passed by the TV.

“Maybe I should just play a little…” he said, then turned on the video game.

On the television, he saw on the news a group of students from the kingdom alongside soldiers. “The Deviants... the superhumans of our society. Great, now they’re going on an expedition to that other world.”

While fiddling with the video game, he could see from the corner of his eye a black figure standing and watching him. Sometimes he could see it standing for a long time, always staring at him. Lucan preferred to pretend he hadn’t noticed, hoping the black apparition would disappear. This time it stayed while he played. A lot of thoughts ran through his mind.

Part of me wants to turn and see that it’s some visual phenomenon caused by looking out of the corner of my eye... but another part fears looking and seeing the figure still there.

The night continued until he passed out, losing consciousness and dreaming again of that endless desert.

A desert world and a black sky, an abyss...

Upon waking, he had lunch with food he ordered and walked to his job.

“You here? I thought you’d be out smoking…”

“I should be taking care of my hair, but I closed the store early yesterday. After you left, it felt... strange.”

“Ah, scared? I thought Sasha was used to danger, always running from the government police when caught graffitiing…”

“Seriously, the atmosphere yesterday felt sad, and I could hear strange murmurs.”

Hearing this, Lucan froze...

It must be a coincidence. Did she see it too?

“It must have been the wind or the rain. Hardly anyone was on the street yesterday... I thought ‘daddy’ would ease up,” Lucan said, changing the subject.

“That miser, even though I’m his daughter, deducts from my salary for every cigarette I take here.”

Lucan was putting on his uniform when a strange girl entered the store. She wore a different school uniform, a skirt, and long socks. She carried an umbrella on her back.

It’s the Deviant Academy uniform, but why is she here?

“Excuse me,” she said, entering. “I’m looking for... someone. Have you seen anything strange around here?”

Something strange?

The girl took a piece of paper from her bag and placed it on the counter. Lucan was shocked when he saw it.

A Rorschach test!

 

---

### Back to the Initiation

In the sea of darkness, there was a desert that seemed endless. There were buildings, cars, and even statues of what once were people standing in the street. They all appeared as marble, but most were looking in a single direction.

The sky.

The sky was black, there was no night or day. There was no light, only darkness and something more. In that celestial abyss, there was a presence, as if everything above was its gaze and its realm.

Is it coming? Is it getting closer?

Lucan saw a person in a dark robe and clothes. He walked in that barren, desert world using a staff for support and a cloth over his face protecting him from the sand. Then, from the sky, two white moons emerged, and they were deep. It was a white tearing through the darkness, illuminating that world like a sun, but there was something wrong about staring at them.

They aren’t moons… they’re eyes!

Reality shattered into exploding shards.

“Shit!” Lucan woke up sweating, it seemed he had slept for a long time.

It was just a dream…

His sense of time and space was a mess; he tried to look around and understand where he was.

The place was almost dark, but a light came from a torch on the wall. The flame’s glow was orange, and the place was dusty. There were some wooden chairs, buckets, and mugs on the floor.

“I… I made it?”
I reached the damn Bonfire!
“Is this my…?”

[Welcome to your Initiation]
Golden letters made of sand, shining like fire, appeared in front of him and then vanished.
“What will my trial be?”
[Location: Lucan’s Inner Self]
[Objective: Kill God]
[Devour or be devoured]
“Hahaha” Lucan started laughing. “You’ve got to be kidding me, if I didn’t know that God was my Inner God… I would definitely have crapped myself now…”

He checked himself and saw he was wearing different clothes. His attire was from another time; he wore old pants and a dirty white shirt.
“Damn! I don’t even have armor! What kind of mission can I complete without any weaponry?”
[Look at the table, idiot]
“Ah… sorry.” Lucan got up from the floor and looked around better at his environment.
“This is definitely a cell…”

At least it’s spacious.

He walked to the table and saw three cards lying on it. Each card had an image, and something was written below.
“I hope this helps me.” He touched the cards.
[You claimed a card]
[You claimed a card]
[You claimed a card]
Each time he touched the card, they transformed into particles and disappeared.
“Okay, I became the owner of the card. Does this mean I can summon what was on it… how exactly do I do this?”

Suddenly, a sharp pain came, and he fell to his knees. He felt such intense pain coming from his nape that he didn’t dare to touch it. It was a burning sensation, as if a hot iron was stuck to his skin. He felt it piercing like a knife molded in lava, digging into his flesh and kissing his bones.
“Damn it! Shit!” He fell to the ground, and slowly the pain subsided. Lucan didn’t dare to get up. He lay face down until it disappeared.
“What the hell, man, what the hell! What was that?”

Lucan got up and, sitting down, placed his hand on his nape. Then, in front of him, the air started to change, and something ethereal emerged in his hand. There were the three cards.
“So, that’s how it works? This is the soul connection?”

The soul connection was the link between the physical world and the Inner Self. A spiritual mark was created on the nape, allowing the person to check what was linked and understand their own status.
The cards were now linked to him. Only he could summon them from his prana core.
He took the summoned cards and read them.
[Torch Unique
Description: This torch is unique
Effect: Always lit, its fire does not consume it, and it never extinguishes. The torch is special, made from the Great Tree. Congratulations, you’re lucky.
Rarity: Unique]
This place already has a torch on the wall… kind of useless for one of my three initial random items to be this… at least I won’t be in the dark.
[Strange Bucket
Description: This bucket was filled with remnants of a liquid that took the servant a lot of work to clean.
Effect: The liquid is highly slippery.
Rarity: Strange]
“You’ve got to be kidding me, what am I going to do if a demon comes here to try and kill me? Splash water on it?”
[Common Broom
Description: A common broom
Effect: Helps clean up dirt.
Rarity: Common]
“My god! I’m definitely dead… dead as a doornail… how am I going to complete the tutorial and kill an Inner God with these things?”
Lucan paced around the dungeon cell, incredulous. He wasn’t curious about the Deviant world, but he had read stories and accounts online about people who went through their tutorial and were lucky to get good armament. Even if it was just a simple sword.
“Usually, the items always help the Initiate face their God, this has to have some relation. It’s not possible that I’m this unlucky!”
There was always a balance, the Inner God would be claimed in a fair fight. It was always possible if you knew how. The Initiation is an internal puzzle only the person can solve.
“Right, this definitely has to be useful at some point.”
Running to the cell door, he realized something that scared him.
No way
“I… I’m locked in!”