The journey back to MoDAR was a blur, I remember being escorted to a van and then we drove back to London. The shock of everything that had happened had left my body trembling uncontrollably. My mind was racing, every time I closed my eyes I was haunted by the image of the team sprawled out in front of me, their bodies twisted into contorted positions.
I struggled to associate with the world around me, nothing seemed to matter anymore. I should be happy about the fact that I had awakened, but at this point I wasn't even sure that I really had.
When I finally came to my senses, my eyes snapped open, there was only silence. Not around me - but inside me. Like my internal voice had been left behind in the rubble of the gate, buried beneath ash and blood.
The ceiling above me glowed brightly, sterile white lights, accompanied by the artificial buzz of the medical facility within the MoDAR building. For a minute, I wasn't sure where I was, or how I had got here. My body was still shaking and my hands twitching, my fingers refusing to obey, like my brain was trying to steer someone else's body.
A woman's voice filtered through the brain fog.
'Vitals spiking again.'
'Is he awake?' a man asked - calm, clinical.
'He's coming out of it.'
Coming out of what?
Flashes hit like gunfire: time splintering when my foot first touched the floor, the sound of the gate roaring as it imploded; all of the seasoned heroes blinking out of existence. Her face, framed by her crimson hair, that terrible, absent look in her eyes as the world around me unravelled into ruin.
And then… nothing.
No. Not nothing. There had been something else - the excruciating pain. As if all of my nerve endings had been set on fire, the way they screamed under my skin. And then the cooling pit that came from my stomach, washing over me, relieving me of all of my woes. The comforting embrace of power.
I turned my head, slowly. The motion sent a jolt of nausea through my stomach to my chest. My vision narrowed to a pinprick and then expanded again, as if the world couldn't make up its mind whether I still belonged here.
A figure stepped into view. A white coat with the MoDAR insignia. A woman with blonde braids. She looked concerned, confused. As if she couldn't comprehend the readings she was receiving.
I looked down, an array of wires connecting me to machines. Plugged into my veins, wrapped around my arms, pads connecting to my chest.
'Mr. Jackson,' she said, her voice flat. 'You've been unresponsive for 19 hours following the sector 7-B gate collapse.'
I tried to speak. My throat was a nest of razor blades, as if I had swallowed gravel.
'Water,' I choked.
She nodded. A straw met my lips, and I drank. Too fast.
I coughed and spluttered.
'Your vitals have been fluctuating wildly since you got here,' she continued, tapping a heads up display on her visor. 'There's two opposing signatures and your mana output is cycling between near-zero and levels that jump beyond the threshold. It's…'
'Bad?' I rasped.
'Unprecedented.' she corrected hesitantly.
Another figure entered. Wearing a black suit with a golden trim - the awakening division. His expression was unreadable, but he studied me carefully like he was pondering over a riddle.
'No recorded or known awakening has lasted more than a few seconds,' he said, more to her than to me. 'His energy levels are… volatile.'
'That's right, it's not like your body is rejecting the energy. It's more like it's trying to sync with it, trying to find a neutral state,' her tone was curious, alarmed.
The man continued to size me up before deciding.
'We'll conduct a reassessment.'
—
There's a lot we still don't understand about the awakening process. Was it an evolutionary trait we had just recently activated as a species? Or a gift from a higher power trying to help level the playing field? Maybe it wasn't actually a blessing and instead some twisted experiment from alien lifeforms treating the planet as a sandbox. If the internet was to be believed, there were many wild and wonderful theories.
What we had gathered so far was that they were a single precise moment. During which the seeds of latent talent either bloomed, or wilted. There was no second chance, but that didn't stop people like me from paying to go through the process multiple times.
Gates brought monsters, but they also brought power. Triggered by stress, trauma or even being within the proximity of ambient mana. Once activated the seed would unfurl, awakening metaphysical potential that had long been shaped by the individual's soul.
The actual abilities are a complete gamble, although it's not uncommon for families to share a similar type of power. A common element that is joined through blood. The first wave of awakened was a phenomenon, as people entered gates or when they were attacked by monsters. But after that we started to learn and understand more about the process.
Now when you turn 16, you're put through an awakening process which tries to activate your awakening genes through exposure to dungeon energy, or mana.
Those who have awakened are then categorised into one of the main archetypes depending on your capabilities:
Blaster - long ranged attackers, whose powers focus on dealing damage from a distance.Controller - battlefield manipulators, who are able to control the flow of battle.Supporter - healers and supporters, who are able to provide help to others.Rogue - close ranged attackers, who prefer to get up close and personal.Tank - durable defenders, who are able to hold the attention of multiple enemies or bosses
So you could have siblings who both had fire powers. However one of them would have healing flames, making them a supporter. And the other could cover their body in protective flames, making them a tank.
Abilities then grow and develop over time, as the wielder's body becomes more adjusted and the power grows due to killing monsters and absorbing ambient mana.
Depending on an individual's power output and capabilities, their abilities are categorised into various tiers. This is particularly useful for responding to threats of a certain level. But it also sets an unspoken pecking order.
The first tier, tier 0 is for your average civilian. This was me before today, completely ordinary and unable to awaken any abilities.
The highest tier, tier 6 is a world ending calamity. A superpower amongst superpowers. There are only a handful of tier 6 heroes.
—
The awakening room was colder than I expected.
Not that I had ever actually been inside before. But I had seen it in videos, heard stories from awakened people who had been tested here. Every newly awakened experienced something similar - under layers of suppressive runes, surrounded by observation decks and reinforced enchantments. All to prevent the catastrophe of newly awakened heroes who had yet to discover restraint and control.
Now, apparently, it was my turn.
I stood in the center of the chamber, barefoot, my heart pounding in my chest. My clothes had been replaced with a regulation white body-suit laced with mana-insulating fibers. Connected to monitors for the awakening division to decipher behind the layers of shielding.
Above me, a dome of reinforced steel lined with dungeon metals I didn't recognise. Behind the glass walls, I could make out the silhouettes of analysts, scientists, and probably a few agents who were either nosey or there in case things went sideways. I tried not to think about that part.
'Begin,' a voice crackled over the intercom system.
I took a breath.
The room began to fill with ambient mana, coaxing out my powers.
The world fell away around me.
It wasn't dramatic at first - just a pit in my stomach, like a heartbeat echoing against a second rhythm. But then there was light. Not from the room - from me.
My veins lit up gold. Luminescence crawled across my skin, etched in radiant vines. I could feel the power building from my stomach, spreading across my entire body with warmth and energy.
But then it turned against me, the veins in my hands became muddied. And then black. Like a web of shadows that ran under my skin, entwined with the golden power like oil and water. It pulsated with a sickly shade of violet.
Pain followed. Because I hadn't been through enough already…
My knees buckled. Every bone in my body was telling me to scream, to let it out. But I bit down on my tongue, grinding my teeth until I tasted blood. My body felt like it was internally tearing itself apart.
As if there were two forces flowing through me, at war with each other.
I fell to one knee, gasping for air. My right hand cracked with golden lightning, casting long arcs of light that sliced through layers of the suppression field in volatile outbursts. My left hand engulfed in purple flames, searing the ground beneath me with flames that fed on mana itself.
The two forces continued to fight for dominance, feeding off of each other and growing uncontrollably.
I saw her in my mind again - crimson hair, a black empty stare, her voice like the end of all things. She had done this. Marked me. Broke me. I wasn't meant to have power and now it felt like my body was paying the price.
The walls around me began to shudder, metal panels twisting up as if they were trying to get away. The ceiling groaned as suppression runes cracked and shattered into brilliant displays of orange light.
'Shut it down!' someone yelled.
'No, wait,' a female voice barked. 'Look at the readings - it's stabilising.'
She was right.
The pain had started to recede, my pulse was slowing. It was becoming easier to breathe.
The light radiating from my skin dimmed, it didn't go completely - but it was controlled.
The golden lightning coiled beneath my skin, charging my muscles and nerves. The purple flames condensed within my blood, fueling my body.
Together, they harmonised. Creating a unity of azure flames that wrapped around my hands and magnified my vision. I could see the people beyond the walls clearly and in such detail that it felt like they were standing in front of me.
I stood. Slowly. Wobbly, but upright.
The information overload was overwhelming, I could feel the runes at my feet cracking, singed at the edges.
'Assessment complete,' the intercom buzzed with static feedback. 'Subject: James Jackson. Status: Awakened. Tier: Unknown. Ability… undetermined.'
I could hear them whispering from the control booth.
'Run it again.'
'He barely survived the first time, another run might kill him.'
'He should be dead already!'
The lights flickered.
I focused on the sound of my heart, pounding triumphantly in my chest. The room fell silent.
I looked up toward the glass, my eyes meeting a dozen frightened faces staring back.
After feeling that pain again, I knew they were right.
I should have been dead twice over now.