Accidentally Became the Most Wanted Entity in the Multiverse

"You snore like a dying ox," Rea muttered, floating just an inch above her bed.

Across the room, Kio sat up, blinking. "It's part of my charm."

"You're lucky charm doesn't mean curse in my language," she shot back, curling midair like a cat settling into a cloud.

Dae watched from his bed, eyes half open, the ceiling reflecting shifting ocean lights.

It had been three days since they arrived at Blackridge.

Three days of questions without answers.

Three days of walking hallways that changed shape.

Three days of trying to understand why the shadows outside the dome sometimes moved against the current.

And still no sign of what the instructors meant by "awakening."

...…

Instructor Sera hadn't returned since the first briefing.

Instead, they were assigned a different presence.

And that presence had a name:

PIX.

Or rather:

P.I.X. : pre-Induction eXemplar(sarcastic)

And he was… insufferable.

A hovering orb with hundreds of years of data, a voice that glitched between regal formality and outdated meme-slang, and a personality that made all twenty-one students collectively question the meaning of AI rights.

Currently, he was trying to project a hologram of breakfast.

But instead: bananas. Just bananas.

A thousand floating bananas spinning around him in a circle.

"This," he declared, "is what Gen-Z considers peak fuel."

"Why are they spinning?" Rea asked flatly.

"Rotation promotes psychological hunger!"

"Shut it off, Pix," muttered Selene from the corner, her back against the wall. Her long black braid shimmered faintly under the ambient glow. "You're giving me potassium trauma."

Pix let out a noise halfway between a Windows error and a sheep bleating. "Rude. I was made in the time of pyramids, woman."

"Yeah, and still socially undeveloped," muttered a student named Veil, arms crossed, purple fire flickering at his fingertips.

"Historical data mismatch," Pix chirped. "Pyramids… were my third job."

.....

Dae sat in the far corner, eating slowly.

He watched Pix do a mid-air spiral and bump into a wall.

He chuckled under his breath.

"You like him," An said quietly beside him, sketching something in a small leather notebook.

"I like how nobody else likes him," Dae said.

Kio grinned across the table. "He's like a roach. Annoying, but persistent. Kinda admirable."

Pix turned upside down in midair. "If I had feelings, they would be confused right now."

....

That morning's schedule was different.

Pix dimmed his projections, voice dropping in pitch.

"Time to descend."

The room darkened.

The floor beneath them shimmered, then opened.

Yes.

Opened.

A circular panel slid away, revealing an underground chamber none of them had ever seen.

A spiral staircase descended into darkness. The walls pulsed with veins of bioluminescent light, like the inside of a living creature.

No one spoke for a moment.

Then Instructor Sera's voice echoed from somewhere below.

"One at a time."

.....

The first to descend was Varo… arrogant, flame-touched, with a face that said I'll win even if I die doing it. He muttered something and began walking.

Then Selene followed.

Then Rea.

Then Kio, bouncing like he couldn't wait to punch something.

Dae went next.

An beside him, quiet as ever.

...

The lower chamber was unlike anything they'd seen.

It was not a training room.

It was an observatory.

Massive.

Circular.

A deep, glass floor stretched across the center, revealing the deepest part of the ocean beneath the dome. Black, endless, alive.

And beneath the glass…

Something moved.

Dae felt it before he saw it.

A shadow.

Coiling. Too large. Too slow. Its outline shimmered against the floor.

Kio's mouth opened. "Is that.."

"It's the Leviathan," said Instructor Sera, appearing beside them.

They all jumped.

Pix hovered behind her, somehow holding a notepad with no arms.

"Hello children!" he chirped. "You're standing on an ancient glass panel reinforced with thirteen layers of psychic ice. Only slightly cracked!"

Silence.

"Joke. Mostly."

Rea floated an inch higher off the ground.

Selene rolled her eyes. "What is this place?"

Sera stepped forward.

"The Mirror Hall. The last test before emergence."

The group looked at her.

"I thought we awaken powers during training," Veil said, stepping closer to the glass.

"You do. But only once you survive the Mirror."

"And what is that?"

Sera smiled. "Your reflection. As it should have been."

....

The floor beneath them lit up.

Their reflections shimmered.. not exact copies, but altered.

Dae saw himself… older. With gold in his eyes. His black cloak long and fluttering. Around his fingers, light flickered like swords.

"What… the hell?" he whispered.

Pix floated past, upside-down again. "Oooh. That's a rare one. Solar core alignment."

"What does that mean?" Dae asked.

Pix glitched. "It means… you will die in a really bright way."

"Helpful," Dae muttered.

Kio pointed to his reflection a massive warrior, with molten rock skin and a crater forming under his feet. "I look awesome. Can I get this printed?"

Rea's reflection didn't float.

It didn't move.

It lay curled, clutching its chest.

Rea's voice dropped. "That's not funny."

Pix turned serious. surprisingly. "It's not a joke."

An's reflection stood alone in the dark, back turned to everyone. A faint hum surrounded it. Books hovered around him. pages open, words rewriting themselves mid-air.

Selene's reflection was missing.

The glass showed only a shimmer, no figure.

Selene stepped back.

"What does that mean?" she asked.

Pix made a static hum. "Classified. Even for me."

Sera turned to them.

"Each of you has potential. But potential is not power. Today, we trigger what's buried in you. And pray you survive."

...….

The Ritual

They were arranged in a wide circle.

The lights dimmed.

Pix turned to each student with a faint scanner light. "Pulse. Breath. Heart. Origin signature… stable."

Each of them now had their reflection glowing beneath them.

Then the floor opened again inside the glass.

Beneath the glass coils.

Scales.

Eyes.

The Leviathan.

It turned.

And its eye locked on Dae.

.....

CRACK.

The glass beneath Dae fissured… just slightly.

Pix screamed. "OH NONONONO…."

Sera shouted, "DO NOT MOVE."

Dae didn't breathe.

A voice, not from outside, but inside him… echoed.

You… are not ready.

Then the crack closed.

The Leviathan vanished into the depths.

Pix spun in circles, buzzing. "Uh. That was not in the manual!"

Kio exhaled. "Did anyone else almost die of cardiac arrest?"

Rea was pale.

An had closed his eyes. "It wasn't the Leviathan."

Sera stared at Dae. "Something recognized you. Something old."

Selene, arms crossed, said nothing but her eyes didn't leave Dae once.

.....

Then the floor lit up again.

One by one, each student's reflection surged with energy.

Then disappeared.

A beam of light shot from the floor beneath each of them. blue, gold, red, silver, black. wrapping around their bodies, entering through their chest, heads thrown back.

Screams.

Gasps.

Cries.

Dae screamed too… but not in pain.

In memory.

Something tore open in his head.

A voice.

A forest.

A goodbye.

An.

He turned toward An mid-ritual.. but An's body was glowing dark violet, locked in a trance, head tilted up, arms floating beside him.

Sera shouted: "STAY IN POSITION."

Then everything went black.

...

Later

Dae woke in the dorm.

Pix hovered beside him, unusually quiet.

"…Did I die?"

"Not yet," Pix said softly.

"Everyone else?"

Pix bobbed. "Alive. Changed. One girl turned into smoke for 4 seconds. Kio melted half the wall. Rea fainted. Veil tried to kiss his reflection. It bit him."

Dae groaned. "You're… not good at comforting people."

Pix glitched. "I was designed to serve empires, not babysit hormonal teenagers."

A pause.

Then softly:

"But I stayed. Even when Sera said you might not wake up. I… stayed."

Dae looked at him.

"Why?"

Pix hesitated.

"Because the last time I didn't… the dome burned."

Dae sat up slowly.

Pix hovered in silence.

"…You lost someone?"

"I lose people every century. It doesn't get better. But maybe…"

He drifted closer.

"…Maybe this time I'll get to save one."

.....

Dae looked at his ring.

It had changed.

Not just black now.

Light flickered across its surface, golden.

Like the sun behind a storm.

His fingers trembled.

He didn't know who he was yet.

But he knew something had awakened.

And someone. or something. had seen it.

....

In the deepest trench outside the dome… something else had awakened too.

It moved through the water like a scar.

Its eyes opened.

And it whispered a name.

"…Dae."

....

[To Be Continued in Chapter 10: "The one that watches."]