Liam Luceris
The auditorium buzzed like a beehive. Hundreds of students filled the seats, all talking, laughing, whispering, but underneath it all, there was a pulse of anticipation. Everyone was waiting.
Waiting for the Apex.
I leaned back in my chair, hands in my pockets, eyes on the massive screen hanging over the stage. The Academy’s crest shimred faintly across it.
Any minute now, the star of the show was going to walk in, Sebastian Nekros.
The na alone was enough to get people whispering like idiots.
"Did you see how he killed that C-rank monster?"
"I heard he made a swarm of F-ranks just drop dead with a single word!"
"And his tiger? So freaking cool—"
Yeah. Everyone was obsessed.
I ran a hand through my silver hair and let out a quiet sigh. "This wasn’t how it was supposed to go," I muttered.
No one heard , not that they would’ve understood.
This... this wasn’t what happened last ti.
I could still rember it clearly, the orientation, the Apex, the rankings, the people who stood out. It was all supposed to follow a pattern. I’d gone through this before, lived it before, survived it before. But now... everything was off.
The nas on the leaderboard. The battles. Him.
Sebastian Nekros wasn’t supposed to exist.
I clenched my jaw, my eyes fixed on the entrance as the heavy doors stood silent. My pulse quickened, not out of excitent, but unease.
Last ti, there had been soone else. A different Apex. A different order. A different start.
And yet now, all anyone could talk about was him.
I swallowed, forcing my breathing steady. Maybe it was so kind of butterfly effect. Maybe my choices changed sothing. But no matter how I looked at it, one truth kept circling in my mind like a curse.
’He’s not supposed to be here.’
Then, as if the thought had summoned him, the doors creaked open.
The entire auditorium went silent.
And there he was, Sebastian Nekros walking in like he owned the place, his black cape brushing against his heels, the Apex emblem of a roaring lion gleaming proudly on his chest. A tiny white tiger perched on his shoulder, looking entirely too smug for a creature that size.
The crowd erupted in whispers and gasps, awe written across their faces.
And I just sat there, staring, the weight of déjà vu crushing my chest.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Not this way.Not again.
I blinked and for a mont, the cheers, the murmurs, and the gleaming light of the auditorium faded away.
All I could see... was the past.
Three years ago.
The day I woke up in my fourteen-year-old body again.
At first, I thought it was a dream, or maybe a cruel afterlife punishnt. The war had just ended... or rather, I had ended with it. I’d seen stars explode across the void, the fleets burning, worlds collapsing, the galaxies themselves twisting under the weight of gods.
And her...
I still rember the way she smiled at before the darkness swallowed her. The way her hand reached out, trembling, not in fear, but in defiance. She faced the God of Darkness head-on, even when every star in the sky scread her na.
And I couldn’t save her.
When I woke up again, young, weak, alive I didn’t feel grateful. I felt hollow.
I rember sitting on that sa bed for days, my throat raw from screaming, my eyes burning until they went dry. I kept asking why.
Why ? Why now? Why not her?
She was supposed to be here. She was supposed to lead this academy, to shine brighter than anyone else. She was supposed to be the Apex.
Not... him.
Not Sebastian Nekros, a na that didn’t even exist in the first tiline.
I clenched my fists, the mory burning behind my eyes like an old wound that refused to heal.
That war, that Dreadful War, the one that tore the galaxy apart it had ended everything. Her laughter. Her warmth. The stars themselves. And when the God of Darkness tore her soul apart before my eyes... sothing inside broke, too.
Even now, the sound of her dying scream echoed in my mind like a curse.
She was supposed to be the Apex. She was supposed to be the one standing on that stage right now, not so arrogant prodigy with a smirk and a tiger.
Sebastian Nekros shouldn’t even exist.
So why did he?
Why did the universe twist itself just to bring him into the picture?
The lights of the auditorium ca back into focus, and I realized my hands were trembling. I forced myself to take a deep breath and stared up at the stage again, at the man who wasn’t supposed to be there.
The one who’d taken her place.
Sebastian Nekros
The stage lights hit like a spotlight from the heavens or maybe hell.
I stood there, right in the center, looking down at the sea of faces stretched across the massive auditorium. Nearly a thousand students, all staring up at like I was so divine revelation.
Well... they weren’t wrong.
My cape fluttered behind , black and trimd in silver, the roaring lion of the Apex blazing proudly across its surface. The Academy’s symbol shimred on the wall behind . And just above it, hovering drones and crystal lenses zood in, broadcasting every word, every twitch of my eyebrow to the entire damn world.
I could practically feel the attention. The awe. The envy. The sheer magnetic pull of being .
Sacha sat perched on my shoulder, tail swishing lazily, her glassy fur gleaming under the lights.
"Papa," she whispered, amusent coloring her voice. "You look scary when you smile like that."
"That’s not scary, Sacha," I murmured. "That’s confidence."
"Confidence slls a lot like arrogance," she said innocently.
I chuckled. "That’s because arrogance is confidence done right."
The crowd’s whispers filled the air, my na on every tongue.
Sebastian Nekros, the Apex.
He’s even cooler in person.
Is he actually smiling at the caras?
My ego swelled to near-critical mass. I couldn’t help it. The weight of a thousand gazes pressing on only fed the fire.
And then the microphone crystal floated to life before .
I cleared my throat.
Ti to show the world their new king.
"My dear slav—" I paused mid-word, blinking.
A thousand heads tilted upward.
A thousand jaws collectively dropped.
"...Oops."
The silence that followed could’ve drowned continents.
Sacha slapped her paw to her face.
"Papa," she groaned, "you were supposed to sound humble."
I grinned, letting the silence stretch just long enough to make the tension unbearable."Oh," I said lightly, "did I not?"
The crowd’s reaction was caught sowhere between laughter and disbelief, and sowhere backstage, I was certain Belle had just choked on her drink.
The perfect start, really.
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