A third eye opened in the middle of her forehead, filled with an unknown power that could see through the mysteries of heaven and hell.
The Dean gazed into the mysteries of the awakening ceremony to find out who had killed her favorite pet. She thought she was going to find the cause behind her pet's death, but something wasn't right.
All she was able to see was a dark mist that clouded her vision. An unknown force was preventing her from seeing through the origin.
"If you think you can stop me, then think again!" Her third eye started shining a blood-red shade, tears of blood trickling down.
She forced her way through the wall of dark mist, finally able to see the other side. And what she saw left her horrified.
She saw a horrifying scene, as if she had been caught in some illusion. But that illusion felt so real that it was hard to differentiate between illusion and reality.
She saw a scene where half the Dimensional Academy was in ruins. Monsters roamed all over the academy, killing whatever came in their sight. There were even monsters that she had never seen before in her life, despite traveling across a myriad of dimensions.
She also found a body lying on the ground, with a big hole in the chest. The body belonged to move other than herself. She wasn't breathing anymore, and even her soul was extinguished.
Next to her corpse was a person who looked like the culprit. The person's back was facing her, so she couldn't see their face.
All she could see was that their right arm was a cybernetic arm that looked like it was made from mythril or some other godly material.
Many drones floated around the person, as if they were the sun and the drones were planets encircling them.
Suddenly, one of the drones sensed her presence, flying straight toward her. A laser was fired straight at her, so fast that she didn't even think she could dodge it.
As soon as the laser struck her, the Dean woke up, clutching her chest, finding herself unable to breathe.
Just what had she witnessed? She didn't understand. What was that scene? Why did she see it when she was trying to see the cause behind her pet's death?
Her entire body was covered in sweat as she gasped for breath, almost falling to her knees. Initially, only her third eye was bleeding, but now blood trickled out of her other eyes, as well as her nose.
....
Meanwhile, Elias was still falling to his death. He braced himself for the impact, but it never came. Instead, he felt a strange sensation of weightlessness, as if he were floating on air.
He opened his eyes to find himself suspended in mid-air, as if the gravity of this place had disappeared entirely.
Unlike him, the lifeless hooded figure didn't stop falling. He fell to the ground, his skull cracking with blood splattering everywhere.
After he came to a sudden halt, Elias thought that he was going to land on the ground slowly. On the contrary, his body started rising higher and higher.
He also flew closer to the pillar that he had been climbing. He wasn't allowed to hold the pillar anymore, but his body was still flying towards the top of it.
It had taken him so much effort to climb the pillar previously, but this time, he didn't even have to move a single finger as his body rose up, controlled by an unknown force.
Was it the pillar that was helping because he was illegally removed from the awakening ceremony? He wasn't sure. His mind was simply overwhelmed to think straight.
He was flying so fast that the wind made him close his eyes. It was only when his body came to a slow halt that he opened his eyes and found himself above the clouds, with the top of the pillar present before him.
The force gently pushed him forward, making him land on the pillar. Only then, did that unknown force disappear.
Elias stumbled on the pillar, barely regaining his balance to prevent falling face-first onto the floor. He was still on the edge of the pillar, but there was nothing that could be seen from there.
He couldn't see what was down, or how high he had actually arrived. It was akin to a separate realm that was created on the top of the pillars, that was separated by the clouds.
His heart was still racing, but he didn't have time to spend calming his chaotic heart. Instead, he observed his surroundings.
In the center of the pillar, he saw a small stone table. On the table, there was a small transparent crystal sphere.
"Finally, there's that crystal." He approached the stone table and placed his hand on the crystal sphere.
The moment his fingers touched the crystal sphere, the crystal that previously looked cheap and insignificant, started shining.
Under the effect of the sphere, Elias started feeling sleepy. He tried to resist the urge, but he couldn't do it. Only removing his hand from the sphere looked like a solution, but that could very well mean failing his awakening, so he didn't do it.
Instead, he tried to use pain to stay awake. He pinched his cheeks as hard as he could, even slapping himself but nothing helped. Within seconds, his eyes closed on their own and he fell on the table, his hand staying unmoving on the crystal sphere.
....
After what felt like an eternity, Elias opened his eyes. However, he couldn't see the table or even the crystal sphere anymore.
He wasn't on top of the pillars, and there were no clouds beneath him. Instead, he was back on earth, lying on the bloody ground, surrounded by bodies that had been completely devoured by an unknown virus.
There was a knife stabbed in his chest, but he couldn't feel any pain anymore, as if his body had grown numb.
"Was it all a dream?" He couldn't be certain anymore. Was he simply dreaming about another world on the verge of death? Had he never left Earth?
He tilted his head to the other side and saw a familiar body that belonged to his sister. She was not breathing anymore, her skin as pale as snow.
"So it was a dream indeed..." He didn't know how to react. Should he be relieved? Or should he grieve? His mind was in shambles.
"Oh, one of them is still alive?" A voice came from the distance. A series of footsteps was heard, drawing closer.
Elias opened his eyes and looked at the source of the footsteps, seeing a man that he had seen before. His pupils started trembling in disbelief at the sight of the person.
It was the brother he had seen in his dream. He was accompanied by people who had Ashborn Family Insignia around their chests.