Luke sat in stunned silence, his hands still resting on the table, numb from the weight of his mother's words. The world felt like it was crumbling around him, slipping away piece by piece. He had never been one to dwell on fantasy or things that couldn't be explained, but this was no longer some distant idea. This was his life. His reality. Something his mom had said had clicked, he felt the power he had in the wrestling match and his mothers casual use of her so-called aura that had washed over him when he wanted to argue earlier.
"This is real," he thought, gripping the edge of the table so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He had felt it before—the burning sensation in his skin, the pull at the edges of his consciousness. The mark, that had somehow called from this other world a calling to him, even if he couldn’t understand what. But now, it was becoming impossible to ignore. He felt it deep and knew something was building, knew that what his mom was saying rang true that eventually it would reach a crescendo and he would be pulled through has his mother had stated.
His mother’s eyes softened as she watched him struggle with the truth even the little she had been able to share. “I know it’s a lot to take in, Luke. And I can’t pretend it won’t be hard. It will be. You’ll face challenges you can’t even imagine, and there will be times when you feel like you’re losing everything.” She paused, her voice breaking slightly. “But you’ll be stronger for it. Stronger than you ever thought possible.”
Luke’s gaze flickered toward the door, half-expecting it to swing open and someone—something—to drag him away from all of this. Maybe this is just some crazy nightmare, he thought. Maybe I’ll wake up in my bed, and it’ll all be gone. But as his eyes wandered back to his mother, the reality of the situation sank deeper into his chest. “No, you won’t wake up,” she said, almost as if reading his mind. “The ritual has already begun. The connection is opening, Luke. The fabric of this world is weakening, and soon you’ll be pulled into Neverworld, whether you’re ready or not.”
Luke recoiled, his thoughts spiraling into chaos. Pulled? He felt his heart race, his pulse thundering in his ears. "I don't want to go," he muttered, his voice barely audible. “I don’t want any part of this.”
Rebecca’s gaze hardened, though the sadness never left her face. “You don’t get to choose, Luke. Not anymore. You’ll be pulled back by the forces of the Neverworld. And the mark—it’s a signal, a call to the gods themselves who built the Academies to train their pawns in their game of war.
Luke shot to his feet, his breath coming faster. The room seemed to close in on him, suffocating him. "But you can’t just send me into this! I don’t know anything about war. I don’t even have any power! And you’re saying—" His words faltered as he took a shaky step back, overwhelmed by the idea of being thrust into something so far beyond his comprehension.
Rebecca’s expression softened once more, though the weight of the conversation hung between them like an invisible wall. "I never wanted this for you, Luke. I wanted to keep you safe, away from the power struggles and the wars. I wanted you to have the life your father and I never had—a life where you could just... be. But now... now you have to face your destiny."
Luke's mind was reeling, trying to process the impossible information. A war. Pocket dimensions. Gods. Sages. What was all of this supposed to mean for him? He had never wanted any of it. He had wanted to be normal, to be a regular kid who didn’t have to worry about fighting or powers or ancient rituals.
Rebecca took a deep breath, her voice steady but filled with urgency. “Let me explain a little more, Luke, so that you understand. The world you come from—the Neverworld—is built on power. Only the strong survive, and the wars never end. There are multiple battlefields in which pocket worlds from across the void pop up unprcedented, and each faction is ruled by a god. These Gods send their factions to delve into these worlds whether they are filled with people or not in the hopes to find a way for them to grow. These factions fight others as well as the denizens of the various worlds they break into. Knox is the Academy of one of these gods, Karack. Only those who have reached the pinnacle of power—Sages—can even be close to their level. They could be called pinnacle warriors possesing their own Authority. But those like us? We’re pawns. We’re born to fight for the gods. Bring them more people, more warriors to continue this endless struggle of war. It’s just the way it works.” She paused, choosing her words carefully. “ You will be a pawn, yes but remember that having power is what you must strive for. Do that, never let those stronger push you down. Do what you can to overcome. Only in struggle can you grow.
The instructors at Knox will teach you to use the essence to fuel your bodies to be stronger, faster in every way. That will be how you grow. What you think of as a normal human in this world is not what is normal there. These people were born using their power and they have honed it before even coming to the Academy. You do not have that luxury so pay attention. Further training will involve History in the faction you have been called to, I and your father are from this faction and you may learn of us.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Not to get side tracked further she took a deep breath and continued. "Once you come to the end of your first year you will endure a trial that will make or break you. If you pass you will be then sent off to a battle in which you will be tested again. If you survive your first battle you will then move up the ranks through attempting other trials. Some involve other pocket worlds, or trials of gods themselves. It's all very confusing I know but understand that things have most likely changed since I was there last. Time is different within pocket worlds. Just know that this is what I can tell you with the limited knowledge I remember.” At that moment something changed in the fabric of the world. Rebecca looked at her son with new teary eyes and knew that their time was down to shear minutes. Soon Luke would be sucked into Neverworld and she would never see him again. She had only been able to gloss over the very basics, and she knew he would have countless more questions. He had just found out he was from a different world in which Power and War ruled everything and he was going to go from his ordinary life into a world that he would know nothing about. She thought she had given him a better future but now in this moment she knew they had made a mistake that she had set him up for failure. Hopefully Sean could give him an ounce of a chance at survival before it was too late.
The air in the room seemed to thicken, as if the very walls were closing in around Luke. His mother’s words echoed in his mind, each one heavier than the last, until he thought he might suffocate under the weight of it all. A pawn in a war. A soldier for a god. He felt the sting of panic rise in his chest, and for a fleeting moment, he wished he could just shout, No, and make all of this disappear.
But the mark on his skin—burning hotter with each passing second—reminded him that there was no escape. This wasn’t some bad dream. He wasn’t going to wake up. His world was slipping away, and there was no way to stop it.
Rebecca’s voice was steady, though the tears in her eyes betrayed the depth of her emotions. “I’ve given you everything I could, Luke. But the world is much bigger than either of us. Much more dangerous. Your only chance to survive is to grow strong. I don’t want to see you go, but I can’t stop this. The connection between the worlds is opening now, and soon you’ll be pulled through. The ritual... it’s almost completed.”
The words hit him like a punch to the gut. A physical force, an invisible hand reaching for him, drawing him toward something far bigger and far darker than anything he’d ever imagined.
"I don’t want any of this," Luke choked, his voice cracking. "I don’t want to fight, I don’t want to be some soldier... I don’t even know what to think!" His words came out in a rush, a desperate plea for his life to go back to normal. But as soon as they left his mouth, he knew it was pointless. He couldn’t unhear the truth. He couldn’t unlearn what he’d just discovered. His body—his very soul—was already tied to a world he didn’t understand, a world that demanded blood and strength.
Rebecca stood slowly, her gaze not leaving him. “I know, Luke. I wish more than anything that you didn’t have to face this. But we are not strong enough to alter the reality of Neverworld. Luke stumbled back, his mind spiraling, his body trembling. The pull from the mark was growing stronger now, surging like a tide inside him. It was a calling he couldn’t ignore, a force dragging him toward an inevitable future he didn’t choose.
He opened his mouth to say something—anything—to keep this from happening. But before the words could form, he felt the air around him shift. The space between him and his mother seemed to warp, as if the very fabric of reality was beginning to tear. His mother’s voice, though calm, was tinged with sorrow.
“Luke,” she said, stepping forward. “This is goodbye. There’s no more time.”
The room was spinning now, the walls dissolving into mist. Luke gasped, reaching out to his mother, his hand trembling as he tried to grasp onto something—anything—familiar. But it was already too late. The connection was pulling, pulling him toward a new world, a world where everything he thought he knew would be shattered.He felt himself lift off the ground, his feet no longer touching the floor. His stomach lurched, the sensation of being sucked into a vortex overwhelming him. His mother's voice seemed to fade into the distance, as though it were coming from the other side of a thick glass. “Remember, Luke, everything you do now will shape your future. Learn, survive, and become stronger than you ever thought possible. I love you.”
Before he could even process her words, a sharp pain shot through his body, and the world around him splintered. His vision blurred, colors shifting like a kaleidoscope, and the world as he knew it shattered like glass. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out.And then, just as suddenly, everything went still.
He stood in an unfamiliar place—in a grassy open field surrounded by a forest on all sides. In front of him was a pedestal that contained a small sphere that oddly looked like what some in his old world would describe as a perfect spherical representation of Earth. Old world. His breath came in shallow gasps, and he instinctively reached for the mark on his skin. Thinking further on that thought, he was no longer on the world he called Earth and was in what his mother called the Netherworld. Burning with a searing intensity now, like a live wire pulsing beneath his skin, his body felt like it was a sponge being filled with some weird energy. The pain building, Luke fell to his knees feeling the energy coming, something alive inside his body, the pain hitting a crescendo till his mind couldn’t take it anymore and he collapsed unconscious on the ground.