To Hell's Gate

A day had swiftly passed by since the incident that had happened in the auditorium. 

More portals had begun to open in different corners of Nirvana and the task to track down these portals was rolled out to the third year students.

For the record, the only registered number for the appearance of hell's gates was three. Three gory doors of hell had opened and these gates were heavily guarded and monitored to prevent the danger looming behind it from entering their world.

Aside from hell's gates, minor portals bearing bloodsucking defying creatures had also been appearing in diverse districts.

These creatures were low rank, forming a horde to boost their ranks to major ranks, posing threat to vulnerable humans with their existence.

Finally, with the tide slowly musked into reality, Ace received a letter of service.

He and some other students had been reserved as first-tier soldiers who would be embarking on one of the most dangerous aspects of returning Nirvana to what it used to be.

A military vehicle arrived, ready to take him to his designated division of service, but when the doors of the vehicle opened, he realized he wasn't in the canton alone.

Inside the vehicle were already seated some other students whom he concluded were going to be members of his team.

"A seat for the last member right by my side." Armin said, nudging him to mount in and take the empty seat beside him.

Dawn was sitting opposite the empty seat Armin had kept for Ace while two other kids were also present in the vehicle.

One, a boy whose face was partially covered with bandages was sitting quietly while pressing hard against the screen of his phone. His eyes twitched from time to time and Ace concluded he was probably in his last game tournament.

The other student, a girl with lemon green hair, a complete opposite— in appearance to the boy who was her brother was sitting as if she could explode with excitement the moment she laid her eyes on Ace.

"Oh, them…" Armin continued, noticing the questioning look in Ace's brow. "Luci and Luki. They are the new guild members from the second year."

Ace couldn't care less about the adjustment the academy had tailored in. He casually looked away from them and mounted the vehicle, his weight giving a slight leverage.

He took his seat beside Armin and out of nowhere, Nia appeared, pressing herself closely to Ace without caution while pushing Armin to the third seat.

Ace turned at her a little, wondering why there was a subtle change to her attitude.

"What is this?" He asked.

Nia smiled, hanging her arm around his while her head slowly fell on his shoulder.

"Things are going to get hectic from now on, so I'm just trying to get some rest." She replied.

Anyone would be surprised to see this change of attitude from Nia, but for some reason, it didn't get to Ace one bit and he didn't force her away because she was already too clingy and adamant with her hold.

Soon, the vehicle juggled up into motion, driving out of the academy with some other vehicles trailing behind to different divisions they had been assigned to.

As the vehicles traveled through the city, Ace could feel Nia's breathing soften as she was already fast asleep with her hold still saddled on him without a care in the world.

Unconsciously, his gaze fell on Dawn who was sitting opposite him and he realized she had been staring for a long while.

He couldn't make up the details of her expression, but it wasn't what he had always been acquitted to. 

She had her hands folded on her laps and for a while, she would chop the tip of her nails as the journey continued. 

"Is there something wrong, Dawn?" Ace finally asked after a while, collecting the attention of everyone in the vehicle to himself.

"Uh…?!" Dawn winced, taken aback by the sudden call. "Wh…what do you mean by that?" She continued with a stutter.

"You look a little lost." 

"I'm fine." She snapped, forcing out a little attitude.

"If you say so." He said, turning his attention away from her.

Ace turned to the side, looking out through the window as the vehicle sped past some glazing building in the town. The buildings began to break out of reality into nothingness as it seemed they were being extinguished by a rumbling that tore their foundation.

But it was all in his thoughts.

These towers were also monuments for societal hierarchy, and without them, the world could be on a different edge— just if.

"The clear sky sure is nice. It won't be a bad day for the world to end." He said.

Soon, he got bored of the view and decided to check how far his progression with the system was.

Summoning his system dashboard telepathically, the order rolled into his view, granting him access to check his current stats and perhaps modify them.

—HOST STATUS WINDOW—

Host: Ace Kiryū

Age: 17

Race: Nihiliths

Class: Summoner(Draconis)

Level: 10

—STATS—

-Strength: 350

-Agility: 315

-Intelligence: 315

-Endurance: 322

-Exp(to next level): 2,500/9,000

-Mana: 100

-Stat points- 64

'There's a slow down in leveling up. I need to do better.' He said to himself in his thoughts. 

He dismissed the system window, reclining into the seat of the vehicle, closing his eyes briefly for a moment.

He could feel the unending stare of two other people on him despite his closed eyes. They were Luci and Luki.

It made sense Luci was probably staring because she had always been an obsessive fan; the face behind the ID- 'I'm a simp' ever since he went viral, but Luki…

'Is he into men?'

* * *

"Wake up, Ace. We have arrived!" Nia whispered softly.