A doctor checked Joseph's eyes with a small penlight, working with practised calm.
"He's fine. No injuries, no signs of trauma." The doctor clicked off the light and stepped back. "This happens sometimes with students who stay up too late studying. Once his family arrives, he can go home."
Joseph lay on the hospital bed, surrounded by anxious classmates and Miss Lara, his teacher. Their worried faces hovered around him like concerned ghosts.
"Alright, everyone," Miss Lara said gently but firmly. "Joseph needs rest. Please give him some space and return to school."
The students filed out reluctantly, casting worried glances back at their unconscious classmate.
The moment they left, Dr. Arthur Smith entered the room, his movements tight with tension.
"Joseph." His voice was serious, urgent. "Are you truly okay?"
Joseph sat up slowly, his hand going to his head. "I'm fine now. But I honestly don't know what happened to me. One moment I was in the library, and then... nothing."
"I called your brother and sister," Arthur said immediately.
Miss Lara looked at him in surprise. "Oh! Doctor, do you know Joseph's family?"
"Yes. His older brother is a good friend of mine," Arthur replied.
Relief flooded Miss Lara's face. "Could you inform them about his condition? I need to file a report with the school."
"I already called them. They should be here any moment."
Miss Lara nodded gratefully and left the room.
The moment she was gone, Joseph grabbed Arthur's arm urgently.
"Don't tell them anything about what happened," he whispered. "Please. About Theo, about the dimension, about any of it."
Arthur studied him for a long moment. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure."
"Okay." Arthur placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Just rest."
After Arthur left, Nurse Freya entered, her face brightening when she saw Joseph awake.
"Joseph! I heard you collapsed in the library. Are you feeling better?"
"I'm fine." Joseph leaned forward eagerly. "But is Anni safe? Did they save her?"
Freya's smile widened. "Yes. Thanks to your brother and sister. They're amazing, just like you."
Relief washed over Joseph like a wave. "Thank God."
Freya sat on the edge of his bed, her expression turning mischievous. "Hey, Joseph... does your brother ever talk about me?"
Joseph blinked, confused by the sudden change in topic. "Never. But Jennifer sometimes mentions your name just to annoy him."
Freya burst out laughing. "I guess some things never change! Especially Johan."
The door suddenly burst open.
"Joseph!"
Jennifer rushed in like a hurricane, her eyes scanning him frantically. The moment she confirmed he was okay, she threw her arms around him and started crying—deep, wrenching sobs of relief.
Johan appeared in the doorway right behind her, his face tight with concern.
"What happened?" Johan moved to Joseph's bedside quickly. "Are you hurt?"
"I don't know what happened." Joseph's voice was thick with emotion. "I was in the library, and then I was here. For a moment, I thought... I thought I'd never see you again."
Johan and Jennifer exchanged a quick, worried glance.
"Can we take him home?" Johan asked Freya.
"Yes. He's cleared to leave. But first, meet the doctor"
They left the hospital together, stepping into the bustling afternoon streets of Barniglos.
The city was alive with activity—vendors calling out their wares, carriages rumbling past, people going about their daily business.
Johan studied Joseph carefully as they walked. "What happened to you today? Did you not sleep well last night?"
"No, I slept fine. But..." Joseph trailed off, uncertain.
Johan's eyes narrowed. "Are you hiding something from us?"
"No! What would I hide?" Joseph tried to sound innocent, but his voice cracked slightly.
I can't tell them about Theo. Not yet. Not until I understand what I am.
Suddenly, a sphere of swirling mana materialised directly in front of Joseph.
Before he could shout a warning, reality shattered.
The busy street vanished. In its place stood a dead forest—dead trees, flickering torches, the smell of blood thick in the air.
Joseph spun around, disoriented. This dimension... it feels familiar and foreign at the same time.
A man stepped forward from the shadows. His robes marked him as some kind of mage. His eyes burned with hatred.
"Well, well," the man said, bowing mockingly. "I found the boy who failed to attack you. What shall we do with him?"
Joseph followed the man's gesture and froze.
Theo.
The boy from school—the one who'd attacked him in the library—hung suspended in midair like a grotesque puppet. Magical threads pierced his limbs, holding him aloft. His body was covered in wounds. Blood dripped from his mouth. His eyes were barely open, glazed with pain.
"Hey!" Joseph shouted. "Leave him alone! He just misunderstood me!"
The mage's eyes widened in surprise. "You... you dare speak to me that way?"
"I'm not the lord you're looking for!" Joseph's voice rose desperately. "I'm just Joseph Bennet! Let him go!"
The mage's expression twisted with rage. "You can't be anyone else."
He took a deep breath. Mana flooded into his body, visible as dark energy swirling around him. Thick tentacles erupted from his back, writhing like serpents.
One tentacle shot toward Joseph with blinding speed.
SHING!
Jennifer materialised between them, her obsidian dagger blocking the strike. Sparks flew from the impact.
"Tilespar!"
Johan teleported himself and Jennifer simultaneously, repositioning them instantly. He formed a dark sphere and launched it at the tentacle. The corrupted flesh began to dissolve on contact.
Jennifer reappeared behind the mage. She hurled one of her daggers at his back.
The blade bounced off harmlessly—his mana barrier was too strong.
But the distraction worked.
Johan teleported again, snatching Theo's floating body and pulling him away from the battle.
He materialised beside Joseph, laying Theo gently on the ground. The boy was barely breathing.
"Is he okay?" Joseph asked desperately, kneeling beside Theo.
"Not even close." Johan's face was grim. "Jennifer! This boy is dying. We need to end this now!"
Jennifer nodded and pressed her attack, her daggers moving in a deadly dance.
Johan turned to check on Joseph—
He was gone.
Joseph was already running toward the mage, his body moving on instinct.
His eyes began to glow—a brilliant, golden light that seemed to come from somewhere deep within his soul.
A sword materialised in his hand.
Not a normal weapon. This blade was made of pure concentrated light, shining like a fragment of the sun itself. The moment it appeared, the entire dimension brightened as if dawn had broken.
An overwhelming aura exploded from Joseph's body—thick, radiant, crackling with divine energy.
I won't let anyone else die because of me!
Joseph screamed and leapt forward, moving with impossible speed.
The light-sword came down in a perfect arc.
SLASH.
The blade cut the mage cleanly in half. There was no resistance. No struggle. The man simply ceased to exist where the light touched him, his body dissolving into motes of fading energy.
Silence fell.
Johan appeared instantly, grabbing Joseph and teleporting him back to safety.
"What the hell was that?" Johan's voice was sharp with shock. He witnessed the power of the lord himself, the lord of this realm.
Joseph stood there, panting, the light-sword still glowing in his hand. Then it began to fade, dissolving into golden particles that drifted away like fireflies.
Jennifer was already kneeling beside Theo, her hands glowing with healing power.
"Rizas, cure him."
Dark roots emerged from her palms—but these ones were different. They pulsed with soft green light, the colour of new growth and healing. The roots spread across Theo's wounds, knitting flesh, closing cuts, repairing damage.
Theo's eyes fluttered open slowly.
"We need to get him to the hospital," Johan said immediately. "Joseph, you go home. Now."
"But—"
"Now, Joseph."
The dimension dissolved like morning mist.
Johan teleported Joseph directly home, dropping him in his bedroom at Jardin Paisible.
Then he and Jennifer vanished again, taking Theo back to Memorial Hospital.
Joseph stood alone in his room, his heart still pounding.
He looked down at his hands. They were trembling.
So, that is their power. The untold reality that works beyond an ordinary human's realisation. It wasn't normal for anyone except those who lived it.
But…that power. That sword. That overwhelming feeling of... of rightness.
It hadn't felt foreign. It had felt like coming home.
Like remembering something he'd always known but had forgotten.
"I have power," he whispered to himself.
Real power. Not just the ability to sense emotions as he had with Anni. This was something else entirely—something vast and ancient that had been sleeping inside him. The secrets of the world and life were revealed one by one. The reality he wants to know.
Dr. Arthur was right. I'm not just a normal human. I'm... something else.
He sat down on his bed, his mind racing.
Everything made sense now. The changing curriculum. The government's lies about the three worlds. His siblings' desperate attempts to keep him safe and ignorant.
They'd been protecting him from the truth.
But the truth had found him anyway.
If I have this power, Joseph thought, clenching his fists, then I can use it to help people. I can protect my family. I can stop that danger from hurting innocents.
I can make the world safe. I can end the suffering.
A new resolve crystallised in his chest, burning bright and fierce.
I'll become strong enough that Johan and Jennifer never have to fight alone again.
Outside his window, the sun was beginning to set over Jardin Paisible, painting the sky in shades of gold and crimson.
Joseph didn't know it yet, but his awakening had been witnessed.
In the half-dissolved dimension where Joseph had fought, a figure moved through the fading remnants of reality. The bangles with the symbol of the Dark Lord were on her hand. She is the very same figure who took Jevier's skull.
She was young—perhaps twenty years old—with silver hair that seemed to shimmer with its own inner light. Her robes marked her as a scholar, a keeper of ancient knowledge.
She knelt where the mage's body had been destroyed and picked up something from the ground.
Crystals.
They glowed with residual divine energy, still warm from Joseph's power.
She held them up to the fading light, examining them carefully. Her eyes widened as she recognised what they were—fragments of the Lord of Knowledge's true power, manifested in physical form.
This was proof.
Undeniable, incontrovertible proof.
Then, use her mana on the dead body, and the flash of the head began to melt. The black skull was visible again with the same symbol of the Dark Lord.
The girl stood slowly, clutching the crystals to her chest. Tears began streaming down her face—tears of joy, of relief, of religious ecstasy.
She raised her hands toward the sky, her voice ringing out clear and strong:
"Our Lord has awakened!"
The cry echoed through the dissolving dimension, carrying across the barriers between worlds.
In temples and hidden sanctuaries across the World of Souls, devoted followers of the Lord of Knowledge felt a sudden surge of divine energy.
They fell to their knees in prayer, not understanding why but feeling in their hearts that something momentous had just occurred.
The Lord they had mourned for fifteen years—the deity they thought had been lost forever—had returned.
Not as the tyrant who had destroyed their world.
But as a fifteen-year-old boy with kind eyes and a desperate wish to protect the people he loved.
The girl with silver hair vanished through a portal, the divine crystals clutched tightly in her hands.
She had to spread the word.
She had to tell the faithful.
Their Lord had returned.