In Singapore, we have two major exams every year. The first is either before or after the June Holidays, the next one is either after September Holidays or during mid-October, all of which is dependent on various types of school. For mine, the first exam is directly after the June Holidays.

We just finished our Mid-year Exams and currently is getting our papers back. The first paper that I get back was my Mathematics paper.

“As expected of Queen Alicia, scoring over 90 for the tests!” everyone that surrounded her says.

Somehow because of her status as the daughter of the President, she easily earned this title from the other students, but not from me.

I got my paper back next. I was happy of the results, though not perfect but well enough.

Alicia walked over to my side, smiling.

“So, how well did you score, you lowly Creature?”

She snatched away my paper before I even had a chance to stop her. She took a glance at my paper and her smile vanished. On her face it was replaced by an expression that I could only describe it as an angry bull.

“How could anyone possibly top over Queen Alicia?! You must have cheated!”

She shook her fist while pushing my test paper on my table, on it is a score of 97. She showed me her own paper, which has a score of 95.

“How could I have cheated? Just believe that there are always going to be someone stronger than you in the outside world. This is a lesson that you should have learnt when you are much younger, but it seems you never had. Now you know.”

She looks like she is about to burst any moment. However, instead of exploding in anger, all she resort to is to make a pouting face.

“I will still not give you any credit even if you make that face. You lost, accept it and move on.” I mentioned.

“Now, now.” Mr Sem came over to us. “There is no need to fight over the scores. You all are together in the same class, so it is important to unite and keep the class spirit alive. Additionally, you all are supposed to be responsible adults now, you should not fight over such trivial things.”

Alicia kept silent. I took back my paper from her and kept it.

The same thing happened for Biology and Chemistry. I ended up being in a bad relationship with her. With her having this “Almighty Queen” attitude, I have to truthfully say that it annoys me, and it makes her extremely difficult to be approached. To make it even better, she views me as her rival, and in her fantasy world of belief, rivals cannot be friends until the challenger has been subsided. In this case, that challenger is me, even though I didn’t challenge her to anything. She just assumed me as the role of the challenger.

Ever since I have known about Transcendence, I and the three girls have been diligently practicing our performance.  We also went for all the rehearsals. In the beginning, the following feedbacks were given, signifying how poorly we are ready for the great performance:

“Time. You need to be more deep and active on singing the second verse. Listen to the song I have and try to mimic the exact same singing style the singer is adapting in the second verse.”

“Charlotte. You forgot your chords halfway through the song. This entire song is in C major key, you played some other chord which I do not recognize after the first verse.”

“Nicki. Your beat is off at the ending. It should be ba-da-da during the entire verse before ending the song with a ba-da-da-dum. Not whatever beat that you were trying to make. Also, remember the song is in 4/4, do not go off beat. You hold the most important position in the entire band, once your beat is off the whole group’s synchronisation will be off as well”

“Innight, you have to ensure you synchronize with the 3 of your other group members. For now, you have been playing the piano as if you are doing a solo, which you are not.”

That was 3 months ago, after our first rehearsal. We have greatly improved since then.

Today is our last rehearsal before the real Transcendence itself. We gathered in the auditorium after school on Wednesday. We are excused from our own CCAs for attending the rehearsals. We and 25 other performers sat down and waited for the teachers in charge of the event to arrive.

Now you might be thinking about this, why do we have rehearsals when the event itself is a competition? Perhaps I need to explain this a little bit more. To ensure the quality of the competition is of a certain standard so that it doesn’t look like any amateur is able to enter this competition. As such, we are to practise really hard to produce a significant amount of improvement and meet a certain quality standard for Transcendence itself.

Two teachers came in, their names are Mr. Tick and Ms. Shirlyn. They are the teachers in charge of the entire Transcendence, hence they provide feedbacks for us.

“Alright everyone!” Ms. Shirlyn said in a lively voice. “Today is the last rehearsal we will have before tomorrow’s Transcendence, so everyone please make sure to have the least amount of mistakes possible today, so that you are ready for the big performance tomorrow.”

Our group, Dynamix, is the first perfomers. We took the stage and performed our song item. When it was over, we went back to our seat and waited for our feedbacks.

“Alright, Dynamix, here is your feedback.”

We waited anxiously. We have been practicing very hard lately, after lessons every day the first thing that we do once we reach home is to practice. And practice is the only thing we do from the time we reached home until late at time, when it is time to take a bath and sleep.

“We have no feedback for you. You have completely mimicked the song to perfection that we have no comments to give you. Good work! Next group please.”

Happiness arose in our hearts. If we can keep this up for tomorrow, then we should be able to win the competition and spread Mili’s music to the world.

We actually joined Transcendence with two motives in mind. One is to, of course, win the competition itself and claim the position of the best music performer in the school itself. The second motive is the real objective, and that is to spread Mili’s music to the world. Most people will not know of Mili unless they are players of Deemo themselves, which are already very rare itself. So my job is to make Mili’s name well known, at least to the school itself.

The other performers went up and performed their item. None of them are as impressive as we did as most of them still have tiny mistakes here and there. This comforted us and gave us the impression that we will win among all of the competitors here.

“Alright everyone, remember to be in the auditorium of Region D tomorrow on time, by 5 p.m. and no later than that! You are dismissed!”

“So you are participating in a competition? Interesting.” Master said.

“That is not so important, new update for you, Master. In the Digiverse, we met The Great One and he mentioned that the Styx Cult and The Gathering has gathered under the same leader. From here I can safely assume that their previous leader died and someone that has connections with this two groups of Creatures and with a high position decided to merge the groups together. From what he describes as well, the objective of the group has changed. They have sort of combine and recreated a new objective, that is to extract my power, awaken the Ancient Beasts and revive The Unknown.”

“If that is really the truth we have to stop them at all cost. Only you have the capability to stop the Ancient Beasts so your power must not be extracted. Also, awakening the Ancient Beasts will possibly cause the history to repeat itself, which we will want to avoid at all cost. I do not wish to experience Ragnarok at all.”

“I will also like to not do that at all, if possible. There is another way to completely destroy the Ancient Beasts once and for all, eliminating this threat that has been present in the Existence for far too long, but to do that will require a great sacrifice.”

“Tell me about it.”

“…”

“Are you sure you are to do that?”

“If it has to come to the day, then I have to. That is only if The Gathering managed to awaken the Ancient Beasts. I wonder do they even want to do that.”

“The leader must be crazy. That will only bring The Existence to destruction and nothing else.”

“The successor of the Styx Cult is definitely crazy, after what I have seen in the Nightmare I can definitely be sure of that.”

“Alright, if there is nothing else I need to command our troops ready for the next battle of Light.”

“Alright then. Good night.”

The day of Transcendence is finally here. We gathered in the Auditorium half an hour before 5 and were instructed to prepare ourselves, do our make ups, etc. at the backstage. Charlotte plucked the strings of the guitar to test the pitch and volume, Time sang a few notes to ensure she is using the right voice, Nicki and I waited anxiously at the backstage.

Finally, the program begins.

“Welcome, everyone, to tonight’s Transcendence! My name is Wright!”

“And my name is Olivia!”

“And we are the Emcees for the night!”

The audience clapped.

“As you all may know, Transcendence is a competition of performance of different performers of different variety of music. The winner of this competition is dependent on you, the audience! You should have noticed by now that there is a screen on your tables, use it to vote for your favourite band or solo performer, we will collate the votes at the end of the last performer and declare the best performer for Transcendence!”

“And now, without further ado, let us welcome the first perfomers of the night, Dynamix!”

The audience clapped. We walked out of the side curtains and gave a big bow. I sat on the piano, Time stood at the microphone stand, Charlotte plugged in her guitar and tested it, and Nicki sat near the drums and have her drumstick ready.

I tapped on the floor with my feet.

One, two, one two three go!

We begin to perform one of Mili’s songs, named “Meatball Submarine”:

Tomato sauce simmering with onion blocks,

How Exciting.

Butter up the sourdough submarine,

Marinara flavoured bedding.

Meatball seats in my submarine,

Delivery under the sea.

So I leap,

And swim against Atlantic stream,

to show you what I’ve achieved.

Going deep,

Tonight we’ll make dinner a feast.

Just count it on me, Just count it on me.

Soaring through the barnacle valley,

And peachy coral reefs.

Wait for me,

Tonight we’ll make dinner a feast.

Just count it on me, Just count it on me.

Parmesan crispy skin,

Tasty dilemma Carbohydrates.

Season up the gluten-free submarine,

Slather it in mascarpone cheese.

Meatball sits in my submarine,

Prime shipping under the sea.

Beep Beep Beep.

What’s going on?

Radars went off,

Showing the sharks on the screen.

Closing in,

The sharks opened up their mouth.

They’re biting on me, They’re biting on me.

Licked off mayonnaise dressing,

Tore off my cheddar sliced cheese.

I may be weak,

But I’ll fight your enemies.

So count it on me, Just count it on me.

Pierce and pierce and pierce and pierce it through

All their tiny brains.

An eye for eye,

An arm for arm.

I’m invincible, Indestructible.

Ham,

BLT Salami,

Veggie and cheese.

So many submarines,

Marine marine sub.

Avocado,

Roast beef, a

nd teriyaki.

So I leap,

And race against those submarines,

To show you what I’ve achieved.

Increased speed,

Tonight we’ll make dinner a feast.

So cheer for me please, Just cheer for me please.

Instead of looking at me,

You’ve decided on the roast beef submarine.

Tomorrow I’ll come back again.

So wait for me please, Just wait for me please.

When we finished our performance the whole auditorium was filled with applause. We are certain that we have completely reproduced “Meatball Submarine” in its own glory, and have it perfected it all ways possible. We should be able to win this competition with ease. We left the stage, feeling proud of ourselves.

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We didn’t.

Another group named Glory 3usi9 earned the title of Best Performer instead. We were shocked by the results. They have committed mistakes during their performance, just like every other performers did. I wondered why did we lost. There are no indicators of any sort to why and how. I’m now curios to know how any of the audience voted for us as the best performers. Perhaps it is just a one vote difference…

After the entire Transcendence is over, the teachers in charge, Mr. Tick and Ms. Shirlyn give us a piece of envelope.

“Inside is the results of how many votes you received from the audience.” Mr Tick said.

We quickly opened up the envelope and open the piece of paper inside. We looked over the first piece of paper, which states the top 15 groups.

Ours is not on the list.

We flipped over to the next piece of paper and finally found our name on the last place, 25th place out of 25 groups.

“How many people voted for us?” Time buzzed at my ears.

I looked over at the number.

Zero.

No one voted for us.

I don’t understand. We have the best performance, we performed everything to perfection. So why no one voted for us at all?

“Hey, Dynamix.”

I looked up. It is the leader of the group Glory 3usi9.

“You all have done a great job in performing. You all have not committed a single mistake and have replicated the song to perfection, according to the Mr. Tick and Ms. Shirlyn. You all have met the standards of a professional performer. However…”

I stared at him.

“…you need to know what the world wants. If you failed to understand even this, you fail. You fail as a performer. You are not worthy of entering the world of performers if you cannot even understand this basic principal.”

He then walked away, humming his performance item.

“He didn’t have to say all that!” Time cried as we pushed our bicycles home. The atmosphere around is heavy as we thought about our lost.

“Well, I thought we were good enough.”

All of them looked at me.

“We put sweat and blood into practicing and performing. We did not commit any mistakes during the real performance. At the very least, we did ourselves proud that we can perform with such excellence. So we shouldn’t feel down about it.”

Time then asked me.

“Innight, isn’t it frustrating?”

“Huh?”

“Aren’t you frustrated by the fact that we did not win?”

“I will not lie to you that I did not, I do feel a little. However I am satisfied. We all get to stand up on a stage to perform to everyone else. That is enough for me.”

“So you did not win.” Nightius came by our house that night.

“Indeed.”

“Are you not frustrated?”

“Who isn’t? But how can anger get me anywhere? It is best for me to deal with it and look at the positive side of things.”

“You are strong, Innight. Both magically and mentally.”

“I have to. I am the husband of three young and pretty girls who needs an emotional support. If I breakdown, it will only make everybody feel worse.”

“Ah, well, I have to leave now.”

“How is the school going?”

“We are training humans to cast magic now that all the batches with magical abilities are gone. Do you think it will be successful?”

“I can only hope. Magic can be useful, but it can also be dangerous. Let Time answer that for you.”

I tossed and turned in the bed that night. I cannot sleep at all. I took a look at the clock, it is 5 a.m. in the morning, and it is raining. I decide to pay a visit to the sea. We live near the seaside if I have not mentioned this.

“Where is Innight?”

The house is in a state of chaos as the three girls looked around for Innight.

“Calm down, the both of you! We can track where he is using magic!” Charlotte cried.

She performed a tracking spell.

“Innight is in the sea!”

“He – it can’t be …”

“The two of you stay here, I will look for him!” Time shouted out over the commotion.

“We are going too!”

“NO! Overclock: Temporal Prison!”

Charlotte and Nicki both froze in time.

Time ran over to the seas and begin to shout: “Innight! If you hear me, please appear! Innight!”

She feared for the worst to happen to Innight. She continued shouting.

I was alone in the sea, trying to seek comfort of being alone in the Darkness and floating in it. It reminds me so much of The Void, then I heard someone shouting my name.

“Innight!”

I recognize the voice, it is Time. I swam upwards and popped out of the surface of the water.

“There you are Innight! What on earth do you think you are doing?”

“I was seeking for comfort. It has been long since I have the feeling of stranding in the darkness and being all alone myself. I wanted to think some things over.”

“So what were you thinking?”

“I wanted to know what else besides wrong songs leading to our failure.”

“Did you find it?”

“Nothing comes to mind. Nothing at all.”

A period of silence continued.

“I have been thinking. I cannot foresee things happening and I cannot plan anything well enough. Yet I want to be successful. This is why we all tried so hard to practice and practice again. I wanted to change the world, even though it may be small, on certain things.” I began.

“Take this performance, for example. I wanted the world to know about Mili, I want them to learn about something new. I want to share with them the joy of knowing that such creators of music exist. That was why I wanted to enter Transcendence. If I win, it shows that the world is eager to accept such new ideas and tastes, and are keen to test them out.”

“Yet what we got was the opposite. Yet we got zero votes. Zero....”

“We practiced so hard together, we worked so hard together, we trained so hard together, we picked the songs together, and we performed our best together. We aimed to be the best performers in the school itself. And yet!”

I banged my fists on my head.

“And yet it is a zero! It’s so frustrating! I don’t care if we don’t win, or if there is a big difference! It’s frustrating! It really is frustrating…” I screamed.

Then Time hugged me.

“I never knew that you cared so much. I thought you don’t have feelings like us.”

”I am still a human, you know! I have to stay strong since I am the one who brought this upon all of you, and if I breakdown, everyone will feel horrible. That’s why…” I whimpered.

“You don’t have to do that. We all feel bad about it but that does not mean that you have to hide away your true feelings. You weren’t the one who forced it upon us, we all decided to follow you. I did, Nicki did, and Charlotte did.” Time let go of me and stand beside me.

“Innight!”

That was Charlotte and Nicki, standing on the shore. They probably overheard the entire conversation. They then walked into the sea and towards me, then they hold my hands.

“That is why you should not try to hide your feelings. Let them pour out. We are all in this together.” Time said.

Tears begin to build up in my eyes. When it finally reached a point where I cannot control, I let it out. I let the tears flow and cried. I cried and let out all the frustration I have in my heart.

“It may be a zero now. But we will change it. We are unable to reach a large number right away from zero, but we can possibly reach one. We will see to it that it changes if we continued to work hard enough. We still have next year to try it out and we will like to see if it will work out.” Time continued.

“Okay…” I said as I continued crying.

The sun shone through the clouds and the rain ceased. This day will always been imprinted in my mind. The day that I discovered I still have human feelings and became human again. I dried my tears.

“Now let us go back and take a shower before we catch a cold!” I told all of them.

Deep under the city of Singapore, a group of hooded Creatures is exploring the ruins of an ancient city. The leader is using his authority powers, the Unseen Hand, to move aside the rocks blocking their way.

“Leader, are you sure that the portal exist?” One of the Member asked.

“I have checked it again and again diligently. It definitely is. Keep looking for it. Do you have the ball of mana?”

“It is with me, Leader.” Another Member said.

“Keep it safe. It is the activation key of the portal itself. Now, continue looking.”

When they moved away a gigantic boulder, behind it they found an inactivated portal.

“Is this the one, leader?”

“We only know if we test it out. Give me the ball of mana!”

The Member holding the ball of mana handed it over to the leader. The leader uses his Unseen Hand to place the ball of mana on the top of the inactivated portal, where there is a hole. The ball of mana fits perfectly, and the sides of the blackened portal begin to be filled with blue mana from the ball. Swirling energy begins to fill the emptiness of the portal. The portal is activated.

“Now we need to test it out. Which Member is willing to put himself to the test of faith?”

No one moved from their spot.

“You! You looked like you are an ideal follower with the best test of faith, off to the portal with you!”

The leader pointed at one of the Members, picked him up using Unseen Hand and threw him straight into the portal.

Silence.

Then the Member’s voice came from the portal.

“It is as what the leader mentioned, this portal links to the Infinity Dimension! Come in, all of you!”

“Good! Perfect! Overjoyed! Delightful! Charming! All of us, let’s move! To the place where The Unknown is sealed to find his remains so that we can revive him!”

One after another the Members passed through the portal. The leader was the last. After he passed through the portal, the Unseen Hand came out of the portal, took out the ball of mana embedded in the portal and disappeared into the closing portal. The portal then deactivates.

“You found traces of swirling energy deep below the city?”

After crying out in the morning and we took a bath after, Master arrived at our house. He came by personally because he was concerned about The Gathering. (We called the combination of The Gathering and Styx Cult as The Gathering now) Today he sensed that there were swirling energy deep below the city of Singapore itself, and was worried that The Gathering has started to make their move.

Swirling energy, if you did not know, is a special kind of energy that portals used. Portals are very complex mechanisms that uses large amount of mana to create a point of connection between two separate places. In the activation of such portals, an activation key, usually a collection of mana, is needed. Portals then uses a very complicated series of energy conversion to convert from pure mana to swirling energy, which enable the connection of two places.

As far as I can recall and read about the history of Singapore, there are no invasion of Creatures of any kind on the land itself, nor are there any records of any other Creatures other than human that stayed on the island. As such, common sense will tell you that portals would not have existed in the soil of Singapore.

“It appears to be the case. I suspect someone has activate the portal deep under the city itself.”

“You knew about that, Master?”

“I do. There used to be a group of Creatures named Mastroys living on this island. They were very advanced Creatures, just like humans are. They created a city on this island itself before the humans lived on the island. From what I remembered, they have connections to the Infinity Dimension, what exactly I cannot remember. They set up a portal in the city itself and it connects them with the Infinity Dimension, to activate it you will need a mana orb, or a ball of mana, whichever does not matter.”

“But how is it that there is no records of such Creatures on this island?”

“I wasn’t sure about this myself. From what I know, they vanished from the island itself one day in an earthquake that caused Singapore to be separated from other islands. The whole city buried itself under the dust and earth thereafter, and the island was deserted for many years. It was only until much later humans started to populate the island itself. Even I have almost forgotten the existence of the portal until this morning.”

“So now we have known about this portal, we need to figure out who is activating it and why. I can use a Time reversal spell to figure out who, but to do that I will need to find out where is the portal first. Do you have a map or any record of the city?”

“I have a map of it in my head. I should go with you. I wanted to visit the city myself.”

“That will be fine as well. Now we need to find a way to access the city itself. Do you know of any entrance that does so?”

“No I do not. I do know the location of the city based on the energy signal this morning. We can teleport there as since I have the exact location.”

“Should we go now? Tomorrow is Sunday so we don’t have school. We can go without sleep for a day anyway.”

“It will be good to. The Coordinates are…”

The 4 of us, with Master successfully teleported into city. We found everything is in ruins, buried under layers of dust and earth and various paths covered with dust. We turned to the front, and saw the deactivated portal. I begin to do an analysis of the users that used the portal this morning.

“I can only see a robed people. I can identify the robes matches those of the Styx Cult. This means that The Gathering has used this portal this morning.”

“So they have indeed taken their first step. What can they be up to?”

“I think I know. Do you remember that I sealed The Unknown in the Infinity Seal, and it is connected to the Infinity Dimension? Since their objective is to revive the Unknown, they will need to locate pieces of him to do so. The only place that is left of his remains are within the Infinity Dimension, so they have used this portal to access it.”

“Should we enter it to stop them?”

“The things is, no one here is familiar with that dimension. From what the last discoverers said about that Dimension, normal physics of Time and Space is not obeyed there. Going left will cause you to end up right, going up will cause you to end up below. Time that passed there is not equivalent to any period of time passed here at all. I would rather not enter there without any knowledge of that dimension. “

“Besides. I am sure that they will not be able to revive The Unknown. Even if they managed to gather up sufficient pieces to do a revival, they will need large amount of magic to do so. From what I have analysed, their strongest magic caster is of Arch level. To successfully cast a revival spell, one needs to be at least of Lord level magic. Also, they are reviving something of great power, which is going to raise the level of magic requirement even further, to at least low end of Infinity level magic. They are not going to be able to revive him without enhancing their powers, which can only be done through magic transfer, which is not possible without knowing the power signature of the transferred party.”

“So what can we do now?”

“We don’t need to do anything. They wouldn’t be able to revive the Unknown with their current power. To awaken the Ancient Beast will also require intense amount of magic, it requires at least the amount of magic at the far end of Infinity level magic, which I myself don’t even have. I can see what they are planning and how they are carrying out their plans now.”

“They aim to extract my power to revive The Unknown, then use The Unknown to awaken the Ancient Beasts. However they shall not pass their first objective. I suspect the magic draining spell that was casted some time ago was casted by them, using a machine. I have been very wary of it ever since and am ready to encrypt my magic anytime that it happens. All we have to do now is to actually discover where the machine is located on our school compound, destroy it, and their plans will fail completely.”

“Should we go back now?”

“Do.”

Inside the Infinity Dimension, the Members of The Gathering gathered small pieces of white coloured energy and piled them up together.

“Now what should we do, leader?”

The leader opened up a small bottle, inside is filled with a liquid that constantly changes colour.

“What is that, leader?”

“That is a portion of Zealus’s and the other magic caster’s magic. We extracted little by little from him while he is unaware of it using the machine. We did not managed to extract everything because he encrypted them before we could extract it completely. By doing it in small amount he is unlikely to notice and we can advance our plan slowly in accordance to Time as well. We have successfully extract about half of his magic, which is about enough to put our plan into action. I’m going to drink it now.”

The leader opened up the bottle and drank the contents of it.

“Ah… my brain trembles…. So much power…. I can feel the Universe trembling inside myself…” The leader mumbled.

“Alright. Time to test out if our plan is successful! Mikene: Soul Revival!”

Large amount of mana flowed from the leader to the pieces of white coloured energy. The mana created a sphere and enveloped the entire energy pieces. The sphere grew and from it a large white arm stretched out, followed by another. Afterwards a large head followed, with a sinister smile on it. The sphere then condensed into a floating body that supports the head and arms.

“Hi, hi, hi. Whats do us haves here? My dear follower?”

“Indeed. We are now known as The Gathering, no longer as the Styx Cult. We welcome you back, Grand Master, to The Existence.”

“My, my. I am indeeds grateful for you have done. My tiny mistake in combining with Luricerite ha’ led to my de’truction. I am indeed gratefuls that I have left behind piece of my’elf for you all to revive me. Let u’ continue our journey to the Ordeal.”

“Not yet. My Grand Master. We need more time to do so. Zealus is likely to detect you if you return to The Existence now. I suggest you turning into human and hide among the students of my school. I can hide your identity under as a transfer student. You can approach Zealus at the same time as well to know more about him. Let’s see, can you transform into human?”

“Indeed I can.” The white Creature shapeshifted into a handsome white haired human with white eyes.

“I shall enrol you into my school by tomorrow. Go and research about Rescendant College. Tomorrow come to school with the correct school uniform, and I will use my authority to ensure you enter the same class as Zealus. By the way, his human name is Innight. Do not forget this. Be in the school by 7 in the morning. The school itself will inform you everything else.”

“Very wells.”

“Alright, let us move back to the Physical Realm. Grand Master, if you please.”

“Dimension Shift: Breakthrough!”

 A blue portal opened up in the middle of the room, and the Members begin to enter the portal.

The leader was the last to enter. As he entered, he mumbled this words:

“I will show you, Innight. Who is the strongest in the world. Just you wait!”