Luckily, the storm had been quickly disposed of by the time he arrived in front of the Barracks, by some weather Virtue that was leagues better than his own. Radiant sunlight took its place, beaming down onto the building in front of him.

  For a name like the Barracks, it looked more like a blend of hotel and castle than an actual place where the Loom of the city spent their time. The centre of the city, crowned in flags and surrounded in spires, plunged into the sky and drew a smattering of clear blood.

  Now that he was actually here, the queasy nervousness from before rose like a net that tangled his lungs. Zayne shook himself free, marching forward in false confidence.

  There were no guards at the front, only a wide-berth screen that peered out with an intelligence of its own. Even though artificial intelligence was outlawed for the people, it was perfectly fine for the people in power to use it.

  What looked like just faint artificial light scanned him as he drew closer.

  “ID: Zayne Althus. Status: Nascent. You are Chosen for the upcoming Instruction Course. Is that right?” it sounded far too human, mimicking a feminine tone.

  “Yeah.”

  “Welcome, Chosen. Please proceed through the right corridor and head to the large metal facility on the left. Your temporary rooms will be assigned shortly. Within two days, your batch will leave.”

  That was how long he had to prepare before they would begin his proper training. Not that long.

  Zayne watched the wall split open, allowing him to stride past and into the magnificence behind. A few clots of brightly armoured people stood around, chatting. There was a pool in the centre, flooded by makeshift fountains that had flourishing bridges arcing above.

  For that reason, he doubted that he could make friends here. But the odds were someone would find him peculiar and try talk to him. Then he’d end up annoying the wrong people, and being hated by everyone was the last thing he wanted. But the other option of acting like an edgy loner didn’t sound particularly appealing. If he really wanted to, he could play the kind, enthusiastic guy that went out of his way to talk to people. Though, just the thought of it made him shudder. There were no good options.

  The facility in question was quite modest compared to everything else inside the Barracks. There was an imposing structure next to it that Zayne guessed was an armoury, along with long swathes of field and intimidating looking drones being piloted by a few in white coats.

  It took him far too much strength to pull open the double-iron door and was confronted with a wide array of snaking hallways, like a labyrinth that he had no idea how to navigate.

  “Hello, AI? Are you still here?”

  “You good, man?”

  Zayne jumped, looking towards the sleepy voice that had spoken. A boy with dark skin, frazzled hair, a crumpled version of the uniform that looked made for bed, and glasses that looked like they were already half broken, rubbing droopy eyelids as if he had just woken up. Yawning, the boy barely seemed to look at him as he waited for a reply.

  “I’m new here. Do you know where I’m meant to go? This place is so big, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of other people.”

  He received a lazy flick of the hand, “Oh, don’t worry. You’ll receive your room in the evening. Until then, you can put any stuff you’ve got in the lockers outside. Now, if you want to know where the others are, I’m pretty sure they’re all watching a duel.”

  That at least was something that Zayne was pretty familiar with. It was a pretty common trope, where two Loom challenged each other in an epic battle, only a little more common than the thousands of tournaments that apparently took place within the world of the Loom.

  “Aren’t we a little too inexperienced to duel already?”

  Another shrug was all he got.

  “Don’t ask me. It’s two of our local geniuses; they do what they please. The duel’s in that pretty big room over there. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll rest for a bit longer.” he tapped something on the glowing ring surrounding his finger and slowly plodded away, humming to himself.

  Well, that was an interesting experience. He supposed he was wrong. That guy didn’t seem like either an emo or spoilt. Instead, he was just a lazy dude that liked to sleep. That felt far too normal for the Chosen.Zayne had worried there for a second.

  Hesitating, he decided to go see the duel that everyone seemed so interested in. Perhaps it would let him get a gauge on how strong his companions were.

  All the doors in the building appeared to be made of metal for some reason. Zayne sighed, before shoving against the second iron door with all his might.

  And then stumbled into the massive hall when it caved in at the slightest touch.

  In a fit of alarm, he failed to catch himself and landed face flat on the floor. The loud noise, along with the thunder of the door behind him attracted a wide range of eyes, and Zayne’s face flushed red.

  There went a good first impression. With as much dignity as he could muster, he rose upwards, all but his reputation intact.

  Then he realised that not as many people had seen his little stunt, as he found himself hooked by the clash happening on the screen before him.

  A handsome, muscular giant peered down at a comparatively, puny panting blonde girl. His axe was pressed against a thin, flashing dagger that quickly gave way, but she pulled herself out of the way in a blinding flash of angry rage. The blonde-haired young woman had righteous fury blazing in her movements, falling back with practised ease.

  He practically recognised this type of fight from all the books he’d read. The underestimated weak force winning against the giant.

  As he focused on the battle however, he overheard whispers.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I hope Markus teaches that self-righteous bitch a proper lesson.” one snarled.

  Another chuckled, “Who does she think she is?”

  “That guy over there just tripped himself.”

  Ignoring the last one, Zayne nestled his way into a nearby empty table, quickly realising that the vast majority of the crowd wanted the giant to win.

  The battle itself took place on an elevated dome, enclosed and transparent with multiple cameras allowing the watchers to get a proper view of the situation. Around them, what he estimated to be three or four dozen people were either watching or making conversation, chatting around the edges.

  Meanwhile, the girl that everyone seemed to hate gritted her teeth. Her opponent remained standing, unmoved. His armour had a few scratches, and a single bruise purpled his face. Other than that, it was pretty obvious that so far, Zayne’s initial prediction was wrong.

  She raised the pair of knives within her grasp, and disappeared in another bright flare. Her ability seemed tailored around fast flashes of speed, blazing light which was probably intended to stun the enemy. He at least, felt his eyes wince looking at it.

  In her dash, the bright angry vermillion did not disappear however. Instead, it grew even more pronounced, engulfing her in a shroud that poured into the next lunge towards the large man’s neck.

  The armour disintegrated, bursting into thousands of midnight shards that warped the very air it floated in, reshaping into a long stretch of a broadsword that he brought the hilt of right into her blurring form. It was a movement so quick that Zayne struggled to catch it, and it was clear the girl wasn’t expecting it either. She was knocked off her feet again, and this time, Markus clearly wanted to finish it.

  He raised a hand, and in a flourishing motion, his gesture applied a force that collided her lithe body against the walls of the dome. She screamed, her resistance captured by speakers and causing annoyed cries to spurn her efforts.

  Zayne found himself pretty impressed, transfixed as the searing streak of Flow cut down and broke through Markus’s hold. She flung the daggers in a surprise twist that the shapeshifting tool in his hand was too slow to predict, but neither did anything other than graze his chest.

  Now unarmed, the young woman finally began to lose her resolve.

  “Surrender honourably.” the large man sounded cool, and perfectly collected, a tinge of mercy in his words, “There’s no need for this.”

  Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. She clenched her fist, and suddenly the flare that was around her beamed out of Markus’s eyes instead. It was his turn to grit his teeth, completely taken off guard.

  “Did she just make him ?” someone said incredulously.

  Zayne was pretty astonished as well. That felt a little too overpowered for a Nascent to hold.

  But instead of rushing, the young woman encircled Markus, gazing at him like she was looking at a terrifying beast. Her entire focus was abnormally strained.

  Then Markus laughed, and began to walk towards her. Hearing her footsteps even if he couldn’t use his eyes.

  “It leaves you helpless, doesn’t it? And requires concentration. If someone can just, I don’t know, figure out where you are, there’s nothing you can do.”

  Her jaw appeared absolutely set on edge, before his eyes returned to normal. But before the young woman could streak away, Markus seized her arm and pointed the axe against the neck.

  “Victory goes to Markus Azure!”

  A cheer erupted amongst most of the onlookers along with a dam of surprise within Zayne as he watched the Chosen offer a reconciliatory hand towards his adversary. She looked up, and flashed away, storming off without saying a word.

  The cheer became an angry hush, but Markus just smirked and left the other way.

  Then Zayne noticed a tall, lean person that had a definitely far too fake broad smile that had been watching him for a while now finally approach him.

  “I know right. She’s crazy, isn’t she?” he extended his arm in a slight angle, palm open like an invitation, “Name’s Jerrick. You’re a new guy, aren’t you?”

  Zayne looked blankly at Jerrick’s extended hand and then clasped it, having forgotten all about whatever this weird introduction ritual was. He saw a little disappointment for some reason.

  “I’m Zayne. Zayne Althus. Yeah, I’m the new guy. I was actually more surprised that you have someone from the Azure House itself in your cohort.”

  He didn’t voice the fact that he had seen the girl walk off, and had guessed that her exaggerated anger was most likely a fa?ade. But that would probably lose him some sweet reputation, and after tripping over, he decided to stick with the narrative of the popular ones.

  Jerrick did puff up a little at that, “Yeah, Markus is pretty cool. He’s a direct relative of Iskaria herself.”

  “Why did that girl challenge him then?”

  He dropped his voice as if speaking a horrible rumour, “Violet, really, isn’t one of us. We have no idea where she came from, but if you ask me, definitely some insane alley kid that got lucky.”

  “Oh.”

  Zayne supposed he should feel more sympathetic, but he didn’t really care.

  “Exactly. Pray that you don’t end up in her group.” he looked disgusted at the prospect, “Anyways, you pretty strong?”

  “Not really. My Virtue looks like it’s more built for support.”

  Some of his good mood felt like it evaporated, “Really? Oh, don’t worry. Even if it isn’t that good in fighting, I’m sure you can still help out on the side. Well, it’s nice to meet you, Zayne. If you have any questions, just come ask me. I’ll be sure to help you out.”

  “Yeah, I actually do have one actually. So, how does this place exactly work? Someone out there told me that I’ll get keys to my room in the evening, but where do we go?”

  “Who’s out- Ah. Well, don’t worry. We mainly get to spend time by ourselves and practice here. Meals are served at the kitchen any time you want. Eventually, they should call your name through the speakers and then you’ll go speak to Officer North. He’ll do like a little interview before handing you your keys. Nothing to worry about. Anything else?”

  Jerrick barely waited for Zayne to say no before he fled back to his posse, where Markus sat by a table sharing a story loudly to his friends. As he run, Zayne could have sworn he caught a snicker.

  Sighing, he was again left alone. No-one else had yet to approach him. Zayne was left to scrutinise the dynamics of this group of Nascent. So far, it was pretty clear Markus was the popular person, made even more apparent by a few side-glances from some girls that clearly didn’t have standards. He was pretty sure that the relation that Jerrick was talking about was something like fifth nephew twice removed, since anyone even remotely traced to Iskaria adopted the name Azure, but that clearly didn’t matter to them.

  A few outcasts loitered in the corner, scrolling through the projection from the ring on their finger, but most were in small groups scattered around talking. Out of them all, none appeared particularly formidable, apart from one with hair? Her choice of hair dye aside, something told him that she was a key ringleader along with Markus.

  But clearly, he wouldn’t have much of a role in their little games. Zayne sighed, leaning back. There wasn’t much to do until the meeting. Well, there was a lot to do, but he had no idea how to use any of it. Most of the technology here was alien to him, apart from the One-Rings. But even that was a more advanced model than the one his dad used to have.

  It felt pretty depressing. He would have been fine with training by himself, but just doing nothing was such a waste. Especially since he had only two days to prepare, with a Virtue he still barely understood. Zayne was tempted to go speak with Markus, just to see if he could somehow borrow his way into that inner circle.

  Or maybe just get some early lunch. Good food was something he could never tire of, after all the time he had spent without it.

  As he got up however, he spotted a very familiar figure marching towards him, shock plastered all over her face, and his heart lurched. Now that he saw her again, he could visibly see the similarities between her and the chained man. The satisfaction he had gotten from berating her long ago turned into terror.

  He might just be screwed.

  This New World