Key City

Nightwing Academy

The hallways were completely empty. Most students had gone home for the holiday. Except for the sixth-year students.

Today they would all be undergoing their First Entry, so all of them were in the buses, ready to head to the gate.

Nearly all of them.

"Hey! Is anyone there? Let me out of here!"

The banging echoed down the empty hallway. Winston slammed his fist against the bathroom door again, the sound bouncing off the walls with nowhere to go. One last hit. Then he clicked his tongue and exhaled sharply.

’Those idiots actually locked me in here.’

He had only come to use the bathroom. That was it. But Mark and his two stooges had shoved him inside, slammed the door shut, and locked it from the outside, all while laughing like it was the funniest thing they’d ever done.

Their footsteps had faded down the hall, leaving Winston alone with the sound of dripping water and his own frustration.

’Just because I didn’t give up my seat for him back in our first year.’

That one moment had made him a target for the entire academic year. And the years after that. Winston clenched his fist at his side, jaw tight.

Mark came from a class holder family, it had practically been guaranteed he’d test positive for the Trait Factor. For him, it was birthright. For Winston, it had been a surprise to everyone, including himself.

Winston was a Fortunate. Someone who had no class holder blood in their family but had still tested positive for the Trait Factor at twelve.

He didn’t even know his parents but the records showed they weren’t class holders and there was nothing special about them at all.

And yet here he was, admitted into a class holder preparatory academy on pure luck.

’Luck that hasn’t done me much good so far.’

He was at the bottom of his class academically and second to the bottom physically. Compared to classmates who had grown up training, studying their family’s abilities, and preparing for this life from birth, Winston was painfully behind and Mark had never let him forget it either.

Winston pressed his back against the bathroom wall and exhaled slowly.

’Once I awaken my class, whatever it turns out to be, I won’t be this weak again. I refuse.’

He had always been stubborn. It was one of the things that kept Mark coming back to bully him.

An easier target would’ve broken down but Winston never did. But stubbornness alone didn’t close the gap in talent, and he knew it. Knowing it didn’t make it hurt any less.

Winston pushed off the wall and raised his fist to bang on the door again.

Then he heard a soft click as the bathroom door swung open.

"So this is where you’ve been." Zelda leaned against the open doorway, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised. "I was worried. I thought you’d chickened out already."

Winston stared at her, his eyes going from her blue hair to her blue eyes and the Nightwing uniform sitting neatly on her slender frame before letting out a long breath.

"Thanks, Zel."

Zelda Quin was a Fortunate, just like him. No class holder blood or family legacy. She had tested positive at twelve and earned her spot here the same way Winston had, through sheer chance.

Physically, she ranked at the bottom of their year. But academically, she sat comfortably in the top twenty out of all two hundred sixth-year students, which was no small thing.

Their bond had formed naturally. Two Fortunates dropped into a class full of students practically born to awaken, it hadn’t taken long before they’d gravitated toward each other.

Six years of that kind of isolation had a way of forging something solid.

Zelda stepped forward and patted his shoulder.

"Let me guess. Mark again?"

Winston just nodded.

"Don’t worry." She smiled, and there was something firm behind it. "Once we awaken and clear the gate, we won’t have to see that fox eyed bastard for a long time."

"That’s exactly what I’m hoping for."

After that they moved fast and by the time they reached the buses, the engines were already running.

Four buses lined up outside the academy to carry all two hundred sixth-year students to the gate location.

Through the wire fences lining the road, Winston could see parents pressed up close. They were waving, calling out names and holding signs. The kind of send-off that made the moment feel real.

He looked at the fence for half a second, then looked away.

He followed Zelda onto the last bus. They were barely through the door when Winston spotted him on the fourth row, with his blond hair, fox eyes and a crooked grin sitting on his face like it was glued there.

Mark lounged between a goth girl with black hair and contrasting blue eyes on one side, and a broad, shaved-head bruiser with brown eyes on the other.

His gaze slid to Winston the moment he stepped on and the grin widened.

Winston’s jaw tightened. He held the stare for exactly one second, then kept walking.

He and Zelda slid into their seats but no one sat in the row beside them. No one ever did. Six years of that same routine and neither of them had any reaction left to give.

They’d stopped expecting anything different a long time ago. It was quieter this way, and they both preferred it.

Then the commotion started, from the front of the bus, spilling out the windows from students on the other buses too.

"Oh my god, is that her? I thought it was just a rumor she’d be coming."

"Why wouldn’t she come? She’s a Nightwing student."

"A Nightwing student who hasn’t attended a single class in six years. Does that even count?"

"When your family is one of the strongest class holder families in the city? Yeah, I think it counts."

Winston turned to look. A girl stood outside near the first bus, her white hair was tied back in a clean ponytail and her violet eyes made her lineage obvious without a single word, as she moved without hurry, completely unbothered by the stares and the noise rippling around her.

Freya Valeria.

Winston knew the name. Everyone did. She had never once shown up to class, yet she held the top rank in both academics and physical assessments for the entire sixth year.

She hadn’t just topped the charts, she’d broken records that had stood for years. And she had done all of it without being present for a single lesson.

As Freya stepped onto the first bus, the noise died almost immediately, like someone had cut the sound.

Then Winston felt it.

A pressure slid across the bus like a cold current. His spine stiffened before he even understood why. Around him, other students shifted in their seats, some glancing around with uneasy eyes.

He turned to Zelda.

"Did you feel that?"

She nodded slowly, still scanning the windows.

"It must have been a class holder, scanning for threats."

Winston turned toward the first bus already figuring out why such a level of precaution was taken.

The engines soon rumbled louder as the teachers loaded up and the buses began to roll. Through the fence, parents waved until the academy disappeared behind them.

‎‎‎❖❖❖❖

The buses rolled to a stop at a wide stretch of cordoned-off land. Yellow barriers and official markers from the Class Holder Association lined the perimeter, keeping the area sealed from the outside world. And at the center of it all stood the gate, a Tier One blue gate, shimmering with quiet energy against the open sky.

Winston stepped off the bus and took it in.

More than a century ago, Red Gates had torn open all across Earth without warning. They led to a realm called the Astral Heaven, and through them came monsters, creatures that didn’t belong in the human world.

But the Blue Gates worked differently from the red gates. Step through one, and a person with a positive Trait Factor would enter the Astral Heaven, awaken their class, and return to the human world ready to fight, close the Red Gates and push back against the threat that had never stopped coming.

This was what six years of training had been building toward.

All two hundred sixth-year Nightwing students plus other academy students of Key City stood in formation before the gate.

The academic supervisor of Key city — a Rank Three class holder — stepped up to address them.

His voice was steady and carried easily across the open space.

"The day you have all trained for has finally arrived. The moment you step into the Astral Heaven, your lives as you know them will never be the same."

He let that land before continuing.

"Some of you will awaken Normal classes. Others may awaken Rare, or even Epic. And a rare few —" his gaze drifted briefly, almost imperceptibly, toward the front row where Freya stood "— will awaken Sacred classes. Classes that define eras."

He pulled his eyes back to the group.

"But regardless of what class you receive, you will all share one future, protecting humanity. Whether for profit, for honor, or out of responsibility. So step through that gate and give it everything you have!"

The students applauded as he stepped down.

Around Winston, the mood shifted. Nerves, excitement, quiet focus. Everyone processed it differently.

Fortunately most students had already received spell scrolls from their families, ready to learn the moment they crossed over.

Winston and Zelda weren’t left empty-handed either. The academy had provided them both with scrolls.

It wasn’t the same level of support that came from a holder family, but it was enough.

One by one, the procedures were completed. Then the students began walking forward into the blue light and whatever came next.

When Winston stepped through, the space folded around him. It felt like the world bent sideways for half a second and then snapped back into place and floating directly in front of him was a panel.

He had known this was coming. Every student with a positive Trait Factor who entered the gate would awaken a class, that was guaranteed.

But knowing it was coming and actually seeing it were two completely different things. His chest tightened as he steadied himself and read through the panel carefully.

[Winston Vance]

[Class: Soul Emperor]

[Trait: Soul]

[Class Grade: Legendary]

[Trait Type: Abstract]

[Rank: 1]

[First Realization: Soul Garden]

[Mastery: 5] [0%]

[Spells: None]

[Energy: 100]

His eyes moved straight to the grade.

That was always the first thing. Class grade determined the ceiling, how far a holder could go and how much power they could eventually reach.

Normal, Rare, Epic, Sacred. Those were the grades everyone knew. Those were the grades the supervisor had just listed in front of more than two hundred students but now Winston was looking at something completely alien.

’Legendary?’