A Contrast of Ranks.

Start of the chapter is from another person's POV so don't worry about the names it's normal.

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In one of the cafetarias, a sizable batch of Sleepers was currently eating. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming as they each talked about the different classes they had, of course under the camaraderie, ranks had been formed.

Legacies would keep to themselves and so would normal Sleepers, everyone had already found their own people in the Academy, a week was enough time to socialise with people your age, for most.

Even in this place there were outliers, Sunless and Cassie were one of such group, principally because other Sleepers considered them already dead.

What good would it be to talk to a loner that only studied how to grill meat and useless history? Or worse, a blind girl. Those were the thoughts that kept Sleepers from approaching them, except for two.

Sitting at the same table side by side with the blind oracle was Nephis, she silently ate her food with her headphones rested on her ears but no music was present in them, instead she listened on the connversation that was held on the other side of the table. Facing her was Sunless, currently in a debate with Day.

"I'm telling you, it's an healing centric civilisation!"

Spitting out a heated response, Sunless tapped with annoyance the sheet of paper that was between the two teens plates multiple times, on it a string of runes was written wich they had translated together, it went along those lines.

If all the mountains were of silver and gold, what would that profit a man who lives in constant fear of death?

Hence there cannot be in the whole world anything better than our Medecine.

Wich has the power to heal all the diseases of the flesh.

"No, you forget that an Aspect isn't something you choose, how could there be a whole civilisation based off of healing Aspects?"

Day's voice had some annoyance mixed with joy, probably happy to discuss with a friend even if their views were opposed.

His and Sunless's opinion on this weren't that contrasted, but to Nephis, it felt like the radiant teen was hinting that something else was going on.

"What do you consider then, that they healed without the need of an Aspect!"

Sunless answer was meant to tease his friend, after all who would ever have such a thought? Of course there had been and still was really good medecine made by mundane people, but healing Aspects dominated the field of medecine, being able to heal most ailments by simply pouring enough essence.

But Day simply looked stunned for a second, his eyes widened, while winds were eratically rustling his ears, the lonely Sleeper had found the answer it seemed.

"Well yeah? Of course! See the inflection on the runes for Medecine? It's written not as the field of medecine but as a medecine, I'm saying their civilisation was not healing centric, but rather focused around only one Medecine."

"What? But who would even do that? That's a recipe for disaster..."

Sunless words trailed off as he realised exactly why this particular civilisation was dead. With that taken into account, the words spoken by his companion held much more meaning.

As for Day, he smiled at finally getting his point across, both Sunless and Nephis had a hard time associating the passioned teen with the crazy maniac they had seen before.

The worst part was knowing that there was no switch up in mentality, the warm smile he offered them was the same he had when cutting Instructor Rock's arm off.

As of now, he had been forbidden from using what people thought was his Aspect, the abilities it gifted him too dangerous for the combat class.

But Nephis knew.

She herself was passioned with the sword, so the way he held himself before a fight, the moves he used while fighting Caster and also the footwork he used when fighting.

She herself had a hard time recognising it but her intuition confirmed her previous thoughts when she saw the attack that cut the Instructor's arm.

It was all pure swordsmanship.

She wasn't able to grasp her mind around that, her logical side simply refusing to acknowledge that idea. On the other hand that brought so many possibilities that she'd have to consider.

How to move her own swordsmanship forward with the knowledge of what the peak looked like? She wanted to discuss it but she refrained herself to do so.

It was evident that even here multiple assassin's would have been sent after her. While it was easy to perceive most of them simply by searching among the Legacies, she could never be quite sure for other people.

It just so happened that the other two suspects were always together. Sunless's lonely nature didn't bring much to think about, it wasn't often the case for Sleepers but it was still possible to find outcasts, those would not usually last long due to the nature of the Dream Realm.

But the way he moved, his presence, it was almost unnoticeable like a shadow, and often time in combat class she would get the feeling that someone was watching her.

While not unusual there was something more about that gaze, it was scrutinising, dismantling how she carried herself in hope of finding a weakness. And who better to do such a job than someone like Sunless?

For that reason she had remembered his name.

Her reasons for suspecting Day were much simpler. He was too strong for someone who had completed his Nightmare only a week ago, possibly much stronger than her if they didn't take Aspects into account. Her mind grew cold at what the raidant teen could do with an actual sword in hand.

The little bit of fangirl in her told her that it wasn't possible for her idol to be evil, Day was always depicted as the playful one that secretly had deep morals, but that just a persona, as people said you should never meet your heroes.

Murmurs suddenly pulled her out of her thoughts, the gaze of every Sleeper focused on their table. That made Nephis remember what today was, her True Name would finally get revealed and she would have to deal with that choice for the next weeks.

Contrary to her expectation, while some gaze were focused on her, most of them seemed to be directed at Day, Sunless himself gaped, his mouth wide open as he alterned to look between the radiant teen and herself.

Her eyes filled with confusion, Nephis looked at the list that ranked the Sleepers that arrived at the Academy all throughout the week.

She wasn't first.

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'Not one but two?'

A somber look appeared on Sunny's face, he had expected his friend to be a bit special, the prowess was too tyrannical, his Aspect seemed clearly above even Caster's who had received one of Ascended Rank.

And ranked high he was... looking at the list displayed by the screen mounted to one of the cafetaria wall it read

Name: Baldr

True Name: Son of Earth

And just below it another shocking Sleeper was showed

Name: Nephis

True Name: Changing Star

Suddenly Sunny didn't know if a True Name was such a rare thing anymore... the Spell seemed to give them out like coupons.

Jokes aside it did made him wonder what kind of impossible achievements they had done to receive those, did they also have Divine Aspects like him?

The fact that the three of them arrived at the Academy at the same time proved that his [Fated] attribute still worked wonderfully, much to Sunny's dismay.

Looking at the two top rankers also reminded him of his own position, how ironic was it that the two individuals with the most potential in this batch sat with the ones that were assured to die?

Everyone was trying to be friendly in the Academy because you never knew who you'd end up with. But no one wanted to end up with them.

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'So here we are.'

It was late at night, Baldr had sneaked into the dojo, knowing no other people should be here around this time from what the winds told him. Of course that meant he had to navigate between the Sleepers who also used this time to fornicate with their lovers.

"So the first thing I should do is pretty evident."

He couldn't do so before, in fear of people knowing his Flaw, but now it was time to try, he approached a specific part of the dojo where rows of sword were kept, all made of polished metal with well refined edges.

Baldr hesitated for an instant, not afraid of the pain, rather, afraid to face the truth he had postponed for so long. Steeling his will he grasped one of them.

Or he tried to.

He expected pain or some sort of resistance, but not such... impotence. His fingers wouldn't even constrict themselves around the handle of a sword.

Baldr backed away, slowly, before sitting in the middle of the dojo, his gaze was distant and the smile had almost left his face, with much difficulty as if tearing itself apart from his eye a single tear rolled down his cheek.

"So it's true after all..."

He closed his eyes inm resignation, he'd leave the dojo soon but first he had to cope with his Flaw, his mind was empty, filled with a single wish.

To hold a sword.

The Wind hesitated, before deciding that the moments it had passed with the radiant teem truly had meaning, sending part of themselves to his ear, they whispered a little something.

That made Baldr's eyes widen a little, he slowly got up, hesitating to speak the few words he had been secretly given. He knew there was no way to recite them without either having been taught how to say them or having a natural connection to them.

Wich he did, to unheard levels. A single word left his mouth.

"Anem."

Baldr instinctively anchored the word to his True Name, and as the syllables left his mouth, they coalesced the wind around them into a shape he was most familiar with.

'—A blade!'

Or at least the idea of it, there were no real handle or blade but the radiant teen knew what it was meant to represent, a chance. For once possibly due to being materialise, the voice of the winds was delivered to his mind, much louder than before.

Do not mourn the loss of your friend, for you have gained plenty more companions in return.

That striked true to Baldr core, he had held a deep attachment to the idea of holding a sword, but would it even feel as good as he hoped?

It was human nature to greed for what they couldn't have, losing interest once they obtained it, going for the next thing out of their reach in an unending cycle

'So why don't I break it?'

His hands grabbed the winds and he swung with strokes he had never shown before, and would never show again, except right now, with the winds as a witness.

So Baldr danced with Mania.

He held the winds dearly, moving them like he would a sword and they readily followed, doing more than a weapon ever could. Baldr half-smile blossomed into a bright one as he swung the winds.

An hour passed before he could contain himself. All this restraint he had gone through before... He wasn't used to it.

He couldn't use his essence since he didn't have enough of it to make it count without exhausting himself and he couldn't swing an object like a sword, with the risk of people discovering his Flaw.

Things he had taken for granted and would do instinctively for the last ten years of his life had been taken for him in an instant, it was maddening at first, like an unbearable itch you just couldn't scratch, and then it got better.

And now it disappeared.

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Days flew by, each spent learning in the morning and training at night, rumors about Baldr had already done the circle of the whole Sleeper population in the Awakened Academy. The gashes left by his attacks had been attributed to him and his Aspect.

The rumours right now would go like this.

"He's actually a Great Terror that can wear people's skin but he needs to unleash his true self at night."

That one was quickly dismissed unter the simple fact that they would all be dead by now if that possibility was true.

"I heard it's his Flaw, it turns him into a storm of blade every week."

That one made little to no sense, a transformational ability as a Flaw? What kind of rank would be needed to get such a Flaw, Divine? As if.

The next one, the most popular as of right now, had been spread by the Legacies who inadvertently bickered about the subject of the number one Awakened.

"I heard while listening to some Legacy that he was the twin of Valor's Princess."

"What?"

"I don't know much either, but they associate her with him."

Baldr himself didn't know why the Legacies would think so, but he paid it no mind. The rumors had died down the same day the Winter Solstice arrived.

a feeling of neverending sleepiness ensnared all the Sleepers of the Academy, currently a glum atmosphere was present in the cafetaria, everyone lacked either appetite to eat or energy to talk.

Even Baldr wasn't sparred from this, his smiled having mellowed out quite a bit as he kept to himself for once much to both Nephis and Sunny's relief their social batteries having been drained by the Spell.

Before long they were all taken to the sleeping pods, Sunny and Baldr had already given their goodbyes to Teacher Julius. Following their batch to the Academy's medical center.

Instructor Rock had taken them to the wing containing the hollows, after letting them take the sight in he turned to them with a somber look on his face.

He gave a speech on survival before finishing it with a short note.

"...so don't die out there."

This steeled the Sleepers nerves as they directed themselves to the wing containing the Sleeper Pods. It was time to face the Dream Realm.

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In one of the rooms, the blind oracle, Cassie, 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, 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.

In another room a treacherous Shadow, Sunless was somberly talking to his own shadow, with a sigh he went into the pod.

Finally, not far away from those, Baldr bid goodbye to the elements around him, they had said that while they would find each other in the dream realm, they wouldn't be the same. The radiant teen had already been imparted with the names of the Wind, the Earth and the Water.

He was as prepared as he could be. Finally ready, Baldr closed the pod he rested in and closed his eyes.

In the darkness of the Spell a voice ringed.

[Welcome to the Dream Realm, Baldr!]

Sending him directly into the mess hall of the Bright Castle.

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Done with the waking world, onto the Dream Realm!