"I don’t blame you for not knowing, you must have gotten knocked out the moment it happened."

"The moment what happened?"

The vice-captain fell silent for a brief moment, then he said. "The moment the fifth level of the sanctuary collapsed."

"Just after your match ended, and a few minutes into the next match, the fifth level of the sanctuary we currently are in collapsed. The clouds glowed a bright blue, the sky trembled, as if the heavens was preparing to unleash its wrath upon us. Earthquakes tore through the Suzana empire, toppling numerous buildings. Then the next moment, everything turned pitch black for a few minutes. Then everything returned to normal, but the same couldn’t be said for the Suzana empire. It suffered a great loss in terms of infrastructure. This is the first time in humanity’s history since dwelling in the fifth sanctuary, that a phenomenon like this occured."

The vice-captain spoke in a calm, steady voice, explaining what had happened after Rentaro’s match.

"What?" Rentaro’s eyes widened slightly as the vice-captain finished speaking.

Almost immediately, memories of his battle with Hypnos resurfaced in his mind, the shifting darkness, the endless nightmares, and the strange collapse that had felt more like reality itself breaking apart than a mere technique.

’So that’s what happens when two divine beings clash...’

Although, it was entirely one-sided.

"In any case, it seems your injuries aren’t that severe, so allow me to present to you." The vice-captain reached into his pocket and drew out a plastic card. It was marked with several inscriptions, Rentaro’s full name clearly written across its surface.

At the top center, the Soul-Hunters Association logo was imprinted, and beneath it were listed the permitted levels of the Sanctuary.

"Your Soul-Hunter’s license. Congratulations, you are now a full fledged Soul-Hunter. You are now eligible to join a Soul-Squad, and once you have joined, you will be granted permission to ascend the fifth trial."

"Wait what?" Rentaro’s brows jerked as he took the license from his hand. "I can’t ascend the fifth trial without joining a Soul-Squad?"

"Well... Customarily, you can. But in recent years, humanity had lost more of its kind beyond the fifth sanctuary after the Soul-Kings reign, so now to prevent losing more of our kind, it became mandatory to join a Soul-Squad and increase your experience. Even after reaching the 15 level, the Soul-King couldn’t do it alone."

"I see."

"Well then, I’ll leave you to your decisions. However, I suggest you join a Soul-Squad now, before all the slots are filled up, then you’d have to wait another year for the next batch of Awakeners who barely managed to ascend to the fifth trial." With his last words, the vice captain left the room.

..

[One hour later.]

"Next!" The final selection wasn’t just a battle to prove your capabilities, it was a battle to win over a Soul-Squad, and the Soul-Hunter in charge of overseeing it this time was none other than Yui Freecs.

The process itself wasn’t anything complex, it simply involved the complete evaluation of each candidate’s performance during their one on one battles.

’So that’s the final selection... Basically just an evaluation of one’s results, depending on their performance in the second stage, they had a chance to be selected and assigned into one of the fourteen Soul-Squads. But that’s where the problem was, though it seemed like the easiest selection, it’s actually the hardest.’ Rentaro sighed as he approached Yui’s desk.

"What is your name?" Yui asked, gently separating the folders one by one so she could easily find his file once he mentioned his name.

The problem with the final selection was, each year the selections were held. Only 0.01% of the Awakeners that managed to ascend got the chance to be even considered for a spot at the fourteenth Soul-Squad.

That was why the Suzana empire population kept rising, and eventually became humanity’s final settlement.

In the past three years, only three awakeners in total managed to get assigned to the fourteen Soul-Squads.

"Rentaro Mizuno." He said.

"Rentaro Mizuno..." Yui didn’t waste a second. Her fingers moved swiftly through the stack of folders, flipping each one like a seasoned professional as she searched for the folder with his name tag on it. "Ren..taro?"

Her eyes shot open, and she quickly lifted her head, and looked at him. "Rentaro Mizuno!? As in the Awakener who managed to pass the second option of the second trial!?"

"Yeah, I guess you could describe me like tha-"

The space around Rentaro started to twist, and everything began to change shape. The floor stretched, and the air shimmered like ripples on water. In just a moment, the world around him reformed into a large box with glowing walls, trapping him inside. A faint humming sound filled the air as the edges of the box sealed shut.

"Hey! What’s this!?" Rentaro banged on the door hard, he didn’t understand what was going on. Was this some kind of test? Maybe part of the final selection?

THUD!

Almost immediately, the box broke apart, shattering into countless pieces that fell around them. Both Rentaro and Yui stood frozen, their eyes wide with surprise as the fragments slowly faded away like ashes in the wind. "W—What?"

"What the hell do you think you’re doing to one of our Soul-Hunters, you damned alchemist?" A voice came from behind them, and they both turned around. Zarek stood there, his wooden sword stretched out in front of him.

"Zarek Veyl... What the hell do you think you’re doing interfering with my experiment?" Yui let out a low growl and frowned deeply, her brows tightening in anger. Interfering with her work was one thing, but when it came to her experiments, it made her even more furious.

"Experiment? Are you mad? The head commander said we need all the Soul-Hunters we could spare, you want to dissect the kid?"

"It’s not my fault he’s so fascinating, in fact..." An evil grin curled up the side of Yui’s lips. "He reminds me of you when you first joined the 9th Soul-Squad."

"Tch, don’t get weird ideas you bastard." Hiro scoffed. His first day hadn’t been pleasant at all, not after Yui tried to put him through all sorts of dangerous experiments and crazy tests.

"Whatever." Her expression returned to normal, now that Zarek had interfered, the thrill and rush of a new test subject had washed away thanks to him. "One way or the other you’re going to pay me back for this Zarek."

She leaned back in her chair and opened the stack of folders on her desk. After checking through them for a while, she found the one with Rentaro’s name written on it. She pulled it out and handed it over to him. "See you around, Y15"

Rentaro swallowed hard as he took the folder from her hands. He couldn’t tell if he should feel relieved or uneasy. The association was supposed to protect the kingdom, but right now, it felt like the most dangerous place he could be in.

"Let’s go kid." Zarek said, using the belt of his trousers as a makeshift sheath before slipping his hands into his pockets. Then he walked away with Rai following behind him.

"I’m also not done with you Zarek!"

"Sure, whatever."

"Who are you?" Rentaro asked, his brows raised as he sensed something off about the strange man in front of him.

His Soul-Energy was completely off.

"Hm?" Zarek turned, then glanced down at Rentaro with a smile. "I am the lieutenant of the 9th Soul-Squad."

’The 9th Soul-Squad huh?’

"What did she mean by Y15?" Rentaro asked, feeling a bit uneasy about the name she had given him. It sounded oddly familiar, almost like the name of a sports team from his old world.

"Hm? Oh that, Y is her initials and the number behind it is the total number of Soul-Hunters she has experimented with. But I wouldn’t worry too much about it."

"What? If I’m 15, that means she has experimented with 14 Soul-Hunters before me?" 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"Like I said kid, I wouldn’t worry much about it, although Yui’s gone after 13 Soul-Hunters before you so she always gets what she wants. I’m the fourteenth but I’d never let that mad alchemist mess with my body, but I bet this isn’t what you want to know. You want to know if you made it into one of the fourteen Soul-Squads don’t you?"

"Yeah... I guess that’s the dreams and hopes all awakeners had when taking the selections isn’t it? The golden opportunity to join the fourteen Soul-Squads. You’re the lieutenant of the 9th, surely you know how many awakeners passed the selections?"

Zarek paused, his steps coming to a sudden halt. Rentaro stopped too, watching him closely. There was something different about Zarek’s expression, it looked distant, like he was lost in deep thought. After a short silence, he finally spoke.

"This year, a total of 10 candidates passed."

"10?" It wasn’t as bad as the previous years, but even so, selecting only ten out of a hundred plus Awakeners was still unbelievable. It showed just how strict the association’s standards for becoming a member of the fourteen Soul-Squads were, and how strong you needed to be if you wanted to ascend and survive.

"But." Zarek’s voice stopped him cold.

"Like you know, not many passed the final evaluation. Especially some of the Soul-Hunters that passed the second option with you."

Rentaro’s eyes widened in disbelief.

"Eliza, Timmy, Alexa? They didn’t pass?"

"...Yeah."