A few days had passed since the start of their training. By now, Elizabeth had grown familiar with her daily schedule and had long since adapted to her ever changing appearance.
The past few days had been the most demanding of the year, second only to her first Nightmare, though that was hardly a fair comparison. They had also been the most rewarding. In that short span alone, she had made more progress than she had in months.
In her sorcery class, she had mastered the Academy's curriculum by the third day. Damon the demon had naturally continued teaching her afterward. Rather than simple spellcraft, he focused on something far more advanced: analyzing existing sorceries and learning how to reverse engineer them. Every lesson brought increasingly intricate spell patterns for her to decipher.
She poured herself into the work.
Within a few days, she was already capable of unraveling most basic enchantments. She even deciphered the sorcery inscribed on the box of Soul Shards the Academy had given her, using it as a practical exercise.
That accomplishment led to another discovery. She realized that most sorceries could be fueled by Awakened Soul Shards. Since the shards naturally contained soul essence, they could be used as a power source, eliminating the need for a sorcerer to supply the essence themselves.
Elizabeth found the practice incredibly wasteful.
The effects produced by enchantments fueled with Soul Shards were rarely more efficient than simply channeling soul essence directly, since direct control allowed for far finer precision in the output. Because of this, every time Damon casually burned through a Soul Shard for a demonstration, Elizabeth felt a faint twinge of annoyance.
Even so, the knowledge proved invaluable. By now, she had mastered every basic spell Damon knew. Before long, she had even begun assisting the professor with his sorcery research, hoping it would expand her knowledge further.
It was a decision she would later come to regret.
The professor seemed to view her less as a student and more as a convenient assistant, handing off every tedious task he could avoid doing himself.
'When I come back from the Dream Realm, I'm going to make sure my fist connects with his face,' she thought bitterly.
Combat class had been just as fruitful. More than anything, her understanding of her Aspect had grown tremendously. Choosing the elective had been the right call; the lessons proved far more valuable than she'd anticipated, opening her eyes to something she had completely overlooked.
One of the first things the instructors taught was how to fundamentally perceive an Aspect. According to them, an Aspect was inseparably tied to both soul and mind. The Spell provided descriptions and abilities, but it never truly explained how to draw out an Aspect's full potential.
To demonstrate this, the instructors divided the students into three broad categories: those with elemental Aspects, those whose Aspects enhanced their bodies, and those whose powers fell outside either classification. Each group was then assigned an instructor who specialized in that type of Aspect.
Elizabeth had joined the elemental group, and to her surprise, Nephis had joined as well. That alone gave her a clue about what Nephis's Aspect might be capable of.
As the days passed, she and Nephis had grown fairly close. Not close enough to call each other friends, but close enough that when the instructors told the students to choose sparring partners, neither of them had to worry about being left without one.
The instructor of the elemental group possessed a Wind Aspect.
Rather than beginning with theory, he chose to demonstrate.
"Aspects are shaped by perception, the more firmly you impose your will upon them, the more they become extensions of your intent. Someone with a Fire Aspect, for instance, might be able to extinguish flames they themselves created, even after those flames have spread. The same principle applies to most elemental Aspects."
Then he raised a hand and swept it in a single motion. A razor thin blade of wind burst forward, slicing cleanly through a training mannequin before continuing several meters farther, leaving a perfectly smooth cut in its wake.
That display shattered Elizabeth's understanding of Aspects.
Wind wasn't supposed to cut, not like that. By every scientific principle she knew, it was impossible. Then she finally realized the flaw in her thinking. She had spent all this time trying to impose the laws of science on something that was fundamentally magical. She should have reached that conclusion the first time water had mended her wounds, but somehow it had never truly registered. She had accepted the miracle without ever questioning what it implied.
The world still obeyed natural laws, but Aspects were different. They were powers born from the soul, forces that existed beyond nature and bent reality according to the will that shaped them.
That revelation changed everything. From that lesson onward, she devoted every spare moment to experimenting with her own Aspect. She wanted her water to "cut" just as the instructor's wind had.
It proved far more difficult than she'd imagined. Only after asking the professor a few questions did she finally get an idea of what to do. He hadn't told her to abandon science entirely, the way she'd been ready to. Instead, he urged her to use it, to understand her element and apply that understanding.
He gave her an example. Wind, by nature, couldn't cut. But if it were concentrated enough, compressed enough, it might manage something close, so long as one's will forced that condition onto the Aspect.
Elizabeth adapted quickly and put the lesson to use. Within days, she could will her water to "cut" with in clean, sharp motions. But she didn't stop there. Her curiosity never let her rest. She pushed past water's natural form, forcing it into mist, into ice, into whatever shape her mind could hold long enough to command.
It drained her. Forcing water to deviate from its natural state consumed her mental energy like nothing she had ever experienced, leaving her dizzy and strangely hollow. It was far more difficult to manipulate water she had absorbed than the water of her own body. But she learned anyway. She always learned. At least she had finally found a cure for her insomnia.
At her imaginary brother's insistence, she had begun naming her abilities. He claimed that visualizing a technique before executing it made the action faster, cleaner, almost instinctive. Shortcuts, he called them. And with her second brain working in parallel, those shortcuts actually helped. Once a move was mapped out, execution came almost instantaneously.
One of her abilities was called [Piercing Water Bullet]. She would absorb water, then focus and compress it while spinning the mass at high speed before releasing it under immense pressure. The resulting projectile was capable of piercing skin, human skin at least. She wasn't yet sure it could punch through armor, or the hide of a beast. Its range, too, depended on how much water she'd absorbed, and her aim was still a little off, but nothing practice wouldn't solve over the next couple of days.
Another technique she developed was called [Ice Hold]. It was considerably more difficult to execute than [Piercing Water Bullet], as it required her to transform water into ice. The technique worked by encasing a target in water before gradually freezing it solid. Naturally, it had a major weakness; it was only effective against opponents who remained still long enough for the ice to form.
However, she eventually discovered a more practical application. Instead of trying to trap an opponent outright, she could scatter a fine mist of water across the battlefield. Once the droplets settled on her target, she could gradually freeze them, slowing their movements as ice spread across their body.
It was a far more versatile approach, but it demanded tremendous concentration. Maintaining control over countless droplets while gradually transforming them into ice pushed her to her limits, requiring both of her minds to work in perfect unison. The price was also steep; while sustaining the technique, nearly all of her focus was devoted to controlling it, leaving her with little awareness of everything else happening around her.
She didn't develop any more techniques. Instead, she focused on refining the mental shortcuts she had already created, spending her days making them faster, smoother, and more instinctive. More than once, she sought guidance from her teacher, a far more experienced Awakened. Each time, he was astonished by how far she had managed to push her Aspect. While most Awakened could eventually learn to manipulate their Aspect in unconventional ways through years of practice, Elizabeth's progress was on an entirely different level.
What surprised him most was her ability to transform water into ice. According to him, altering an element's molecular structure was vastly more difficult than simply manipulating the element itself. Most Awakened would never even attempt such a feat, let alone master it so early in their training.
She had reflected on that more than once. Even she had begun to realize how quickly she was progressing compared to everyone else. Sure, she possessed a Divine Aspect, but was that really the reason everything came so easily to her? Or was it simply natural talent? To Elizabeth, every new discovery felt almost instinctive, as though she had always known it and merely needed to remember.
It left her with a question she couldn't answer. Her Aspect described her as a vessel, one meant to hold a god. Those words had once seemed like little more than poetic nonsense, but the more she progressed, the less certain she became. Just what did it truly mean to be a vessel of a god?
Yet that didn't stop her from continuing to progress. Just like that, day after day passed, slowly turning into weeks. Before Elizabeth even knew it, the winter solstice had arrived.
***
Elizabeth woke before sunrise, as she usually did. But unlike most mornings, when she rose feeling refreshed and alert, today was different. Her mind felt shrouded in fog, and a deep mental exhaustion weighed on her despite having just opened her eyes. She stared blankly at the ceiling for a long moment before letting out a quiet sigh.
She knew exactly what that feeling meant.
It was the same familiar sensation she had experienced on the day the Spell had chosen her to enter her First Nightmare.
"Today's the day."
No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than a familiar figure materialized beside her bed, hovering lazily in the air with his usual carefree smile.
Her brother.
He had rarely appeared over the past month. Between her relentless training and the Academy's demanding schedule, Elizabeth had hardly spared a moment to summon him. There had always been something occupying her thoughts, leaving little room for idle conversation. But now, with nothing left to distract her and her mind focused entirely on the approaching trial, he appeared once more.
"You should rest and mentally prepare," he said. "But knowing you, you're just gonna stick to your schedule, huh."
Elizabeth smiled widely at that.
"Of course. Today more than ever, in fact."
Her brother rolled his eyes, though a smile tugged at his lips.
She pushed back the fatigue she felt and stood up. She was currently in a body a few years older than her original form, so her training gear still fit her well enough. She was about to leave for her morning run when her communicator vibrated. She turned to look at it, already expecting Tessie, but to her surprise she saw a name that made her freeze for a moment.
It was Jennifer calling.
A strange feeling bubbled in her chest before she pushed it down. Realizing she had let the call ring for a while, she answered at once.
"...Hello?"
A tired voice answered, and Elizabeth hesitated for a moment.
"Jennifer. I'm surprised you called."
The voice went quiet for a moment before sighing.
"I know. Heck, if I hadn't set a reminder beforehand... never mind. How are you doing?"
Elizabeth's eyebrow twitched at the first part. Her mother had a way with words that always seemed to get on her nerves.
"I'm doing fine. As prepared as I can be." She hesitated, already regretting what was about to come out of her mouth. "What about you?"
There was silence on the other side that seemed to drag on forever for Elizabeth.
"I'm doing fine. Thank you, for asking."
"Okay. Good to know."
A long silence followed. Elizabeth had nothing to say to her, or rather, she had far too much, and didn't know where to begin. Whenever she talked to Jennifer, old questions she'd long since given up trying to answer resurfaced, dragging her mind somewhere dark. That was one of the reasons she didn't like her mother. She never knew what to say to the woman.
'Weren't daughters supposed to be closer to their mothers?' she thought with a sheepish smile.
As if reading her mind, Jennifer chose that moment to speak.
"I know I'm not exactly the mother you wished you had. I know it's too late now to change your mind about anything, just like when you were a child. Stubborn, just like your brother. Don't know where you got that from." She let out a short chuckle that Elizabeth didn't return.
"Why did you call, Jennifer?"
Elizabeth's voice came out colder than she'd meant it to, but it achieved its effect all the same. After a moment of silence, Jennifer answered.
"Today is the day you enter the Dream Realm. I wasn't there when you first challenged your first Nightmare, and that has eaten at me more than you can imagine. So today, at the very least, I wanted to talk to you before you go."
Elizabeth remained quiet, and Jennifer took it as a sign to continue.
"Elizabeth, I know my words probably don't mean much to you anymore, but know this; I care for you, and I love you. You, my daughter, mean so much to me. So please...please come back alive."
Elizabeth could hear her mother's voice tremble over the call. She felt her fist tighten slightly.
'If you love me like you say you do, why are you never with me?'
She let out a sigh.
"I will. Don't worry. My story won't end the same way it did for my brother. I'll be A-Okay."
"...Good."
Silence settled over them again, and neither said anything for a while.
"Well, Elizabeth I... I really am proud of you. I wish I'd said that years ago... Call me when you get back."
With that, the call ended. Elizabeth remained standing, staring at her communicator, a storm of thoughts churning through her mind. She wasn't sure how long she stood there before she snapped out of it and walked out of her room to continue her routine.
A few hours later, Elizabeth was wolfing down her breakfast in the body of a fifteen year old, one of the oldest forms she'd taken at sunrise. On her fourth plate, she looked around the hallway in silence. Unlike the usual festivity and noise of the days before, the cafeteria was grimly quiet, so much so that it had started to affect her appetite.
'Geez. It's like they're all going to die or something.'
Although, quite literally, that was exactly what would happen to most of them. Some of the faces that had always looked at her with longing would probably be doing so for the last time.
She sighed and stopped eating, her appetite ruined. She glanced at Nephis, who sat beside her. It seemed the same heaviness had settled over her too; she hadn't touched her pancakes at all and had been staring at them with blank eyes.
Elizabeth sighed. She'd wanted to listen to Night&Gale one last time before what might be a long while, but she couldn't bring herself to disturb Nephis.
'Gods, this mood is going to kill me.'
Unlike the others, she wasn't weighed down by the grimness in the room.
"Maybe that's because you're not exactly the most mentally healthy person," her brother said in her mind. "Not exactly something to be proud of."
She quickly ignored him.
As she walked to drop off her plate, she noticed a piano. It was normally reserved for the maestro who came in during supper, but he wouldn't be returning; by then, they'd already be in the Dream Realm.
She stared at the piano for a moment, an idea slowly forming in her mind as she walked toward it.
'Maybe this would help lift the mood a little. Nothing music can't fix.'
She sat down and let her fingers rest along the keys. The sound, in such a quiet room, drew a fair amount of attention from the sleepers around her. Two months ago she would have squirmed under that kind of attention, but her attribute had long since made her used to being watched.
'Let's play something motivating. Can't go wrong with a Night&Gale song.'
She let her fingers dance across the piano, and soon an uplifting melody filled the hall as she began to sing. The song was one Night&Gale had dedicated to Awakened who faced Nightmares day after day, meant to inspire them and thank them for what they endured.
She kept singing, losing herself in it entirely, tuning out everything around her. So she didn't notice the look of awe spreading across the group of sleepers watching her.
Slowly, as they listened, the mood began to shift. Smiles appeared one by one. Some got up and started dancing, inviting others to join. Conversations grew easier and more relaxed. But Elizabeth was lost to it all, her mind focused only on the song.
Only when she finished did she take note of the change. Laughter filled the hall once more.
She smiled slightly at the peace she'd created.
'Great. Maybe I can actually get a fifth plate.'