The soft hum of his ceiling fan was the last sound Neo heard, and the gentle chill of synthetic air was the final sensation against his skin. No pain, no panic, no realization—just one moment of sleep, and then…
Stillness.
He didn't open his eyes so much as realize he had no eyes to open. No body to lift. No breath to take.
The world had become white. Not blinding—more like fogged glass stretched to infinity. He couldn't feel the ground, yet he was standing. Couldn't see a sun, but something cast a soft glow.
Then a voice.
"You died," it said, without fanfare. "Rather peacefully, too. I like that."
Neo blinked—or tried to. Reflexes that didn't exist.
The voice didn't echo. It was just… there. Warm, amused, distant. Female.
"Where…?" he asked, or at least thought he did.
And then she appeared.
A woman drifted out of the mist like a ripple in silk, her figure wrapped in a veil of layered whites and silvers. Her hair shimmered like moonlight on still water, and her skin had no color at all—like pearl smoothed by time.
Her smile was strange. Not cruel, not kind. Just unreadable.
"Don't bother asking if this is Heaven or the afterlife or reincarnation or any of that. The answer is yes, and also no."
Neo stared at her, unsure whether to kneel, bow, or laugh. He settled for silence.
"I am what your kind would call a Goddess," she continued, circling him with slow steps. "I manage a handful of realms. Yours was one of them. Well-managed. Full of routine. Not much chaos. Very predictable."
She stopped in front of him. "Until you died."
"…Sorry?"
She gave a soft laugh. "Don't be. It happens. Your body simply… stopped. No illness, no murder, no poetic tragedy. One clean expiration."
He tried to remember. His room. His pillow. A game still running in the background. A bowl of instant noodles left half-eaten.
So that was it.
"So… what now?" he asked. "Do I get judged? Reincarnated as a cow? Sent to a burning pit for playing too many games?"
"No judgment," the Goddess said, brushing a strand of glowing hair from her face. "You were statistically neutral. Neither saint nor monster. Just another ordinary life. However—"
She raised a hand, and in the air beside them, a dark screen flickered to life. It showed a rotating 3D model of a figure—Neo's custom game avatar. Long black coat, glowing violet trim, twin daggers at the hip, and a smirk that always made him feel cooler than he was.
"You did spend an unusual amount of time playing as him," she said. "Over twelve thousand logged hours across five years. Even I took notice."
He stared at the figure.
Neo. His main. His build. His aesthetic. His escape.
"Would you like to become him?" the Goddess asked.
"…What?"
"You're dead," she said. "But that doesn't mean your existence must end. In another realm—one under my influence—there is a vacancy. A role to be filled. A soul-shaped hole in a summoning circle."
She waved a finger and the mist rippled. An image appeared:
A wide marble hall with burning lanterns. A circle drawn in silver runes. A girl with pointed ears and white-gold hair kneeling before it, hands clasped. Her lips moved in silent prayer.
"This is Astralis Sanctum. A place where mortals summon guardians from the spirit plane to form pacts. One of them is about to summon… well, you, if you wish."
Neo stared.
"You'll retain your mind," she said. "But you'll become your character. The version you crafted and mastered. That's who the girl will meet. You'll be her spirit guardian."
"Or," she added, folding her hands, "you may fade now. No memory. No self. No pain. Just peaceful nonexistence."
He didn't hesitate.
"Send me."
The Goddess blinked. "No questions?"
"She looks like she needs help," he said, nodding to the girl in the circle.
A glint passed through the Goddess's expression—something like approval.
"Very well, Neo of Earth."
She stepped forward. Her fingers brushed his forehead.
"Go. Take your darkness with you."
And then the white vanished.
---
Replaced by fire. Smoke. Light. Cold marble.
And a voice—
"I call to the veil. From shade and silence, I summon thee—"
The world yanked him forward.
As her fingers brushed his forehead, Neo had felt warmth—like something pouring into him. Memory. Strength. Shadow. Every skill tree he had mastered, every combo, every frame-perfect dodge, every subtle counter and rotation—he remembered all of it.
And then it hit.
A shock, like falling without a floor.
His body—new, heavier, taller—formed around him in real time. He felt boots against stone before he opened his eyes. His coat brushed against the back of his legs. His fingers flexed, and he felt power humming beneath his skin like liquid static.
He stood inside the summoning circle.
And hundreds of eyes were staring at him.
The marble summoning chamber echoed with whispers and shifting feet. Students stood in neat rows, each waiting their turn at the ritual circle. Runes glowed faintly across the floor, charged with spirit essence. Instructors watched from an elevated dais, robes trailing like curtains behind them.
And in the center, alone in the light, knelt a girl.
Elnia Valessiel.
Half-elf. Daughter of House Valessiel. Known for her quietness, her long white-blonde hair, her disciplined posture—and her social invisibility.
She whispered the incantation again, slower this time.
"From shade and silence… I summon thee…"
Her voice trembled slightly. Most students had already summoned their guardians—firebirds, stone lions, shimmering sylphs. Nothing dramatic. Nothing… dangerous.
She didn't expect much.
She just wanted someone. Anything. A connection.
The runes flared violet.
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Even the instructors leaned forward.
"That's not her affinity…" one whispered. "Wasn't she supposed to be Light?"
A boom of dark energy erupted from the circle.
Violet-black mist poured upward like a reversed waterfall. The light in the hall dimmed. A cold wind pulsed outward from the center of the circle—
And then, he stepped forward.
A tall figure, cloaked in wisps of smoke that refused to settle. Silver lines etched along his arms like circuits. His eyes glowed violet. His voice, when he spoke, was calm and clear.
"This isn't how I imagined first impressions."
The silence was too heavy to last.
"A speaking spirit?" one instructor murmured.
"Sentient. Possibly sapient," another muttered, scribbling on a slate.
"That's not possible," someone else said, loud enough to echo. "Even greater spirits can't—"
Neo turned his head slowly. His gaze swept across the students, the instructors, the glowing runes.
He rolled his shoulder. Felt the cloak of shadows respond. His power wasn't just in his limbs—it was his limbs.
"I'd appreciate fewer comments like I'm not here," he said.
A few students flinched. One fainted. Elnia, still kneeling in the circle, looked up at him slowly. Her eyes were wide—not with fear, but something closer to awe.
"Are… are you really my guardian?" she asked, voice barely audible.
Neo looked down at her. She had dark circles beneath her eyes. Her robes were simpler than the others'. Her hands trembled slightly.
"Looks like it," he said, then glanced around. "Unless someone else wants to file a claim."
She blinked, startled by the joke. He offered a subtle smile.
The head instructor, a woman with sharp golden eyes and braided white hair, finally stepped forward.
"Guardian, state your classification."
Neo paused. He felt a pulse in the back of his mind—like an instinctual recall.
"Dark element," he said clearly. "Combat type. Unique-class, independent intelligence."
The room exploded in whispers.
"Unique-class…?"
"But they haven't appeared in decades!"
"An actual intelligent summon… How did she—"
"SILENCE," the head instructor snapped. Her voice alone quieted the chamber.
"Elnia Valessiel," she said, stepping toward the girl, "you have summoned a Unique-Class Dark Elemental. This is beyond your predicted affinity. Explain."
Elnia stood, barely.
"I—I don't know. I just followed the standard call. I didn't modify the circle, I swear—"
"It wasn't her," Neo said, stepping forward. "I came because I was called. That's the whole point, isn't it?"
The instructor narrowed her eyes. "You're unusually... conversational."
"Thank you."
"Not a compliment."
"Still taking it as one."
The woman let out a long breath.
"Very well. The contract is sealed. We'll observe closely. If the bond proves unstable, you'll both be re-evaluated."
"Re-evaluated how?" Neo asked.
"Dispelled. You, back to the void. Her—possibly expelled."
Neo's eyes darkened.
"Try it."
A flicker of violet static pulsed from his coat.
Elnia reached out suddenly and grabbed his wrist. Her hand was small, and it shook.
"Please," she whispered, "don't."
He looked down at her. For a long moment, he said nothing. Then the light in his eyes dimmed, and the shadows calmed.
"Fine," he said. "No murdering the welcome committee. Got it."
The runes beneath their feet began to fade, the last wisps of the summoning smoke dispersing into the air.
Neo turned fully toward Elnia.
"So," he said, "you're my summoner now."
She nodded cautiously. "And you're my spirit guardian."
"Guess we're stuck together."
"Guess so."
A pause.
"You have a name?" she asked.
"Neo."
"Neo," she repeated, as if tasting the word. "I'm… Elnia."
He gave her a respectful nod. "Nice to meet you, Elnia."
She blinked. "You're… not what I expected."
"Same. I was told I'd be helping a summoner in some high-fantasy realm. I figured robes and dragons. Not glowing circles and judgmental wizards."
She actually smiled, a little. Just a twitch at the corners of her mouth.
"You're really… you, aren't you?" she asked.
Neo tilted his head. "What else would I be?"
Another pause.
From the instructor's podium, a final announcement rang out.
"Bond recorded. Classification: Unique-Class Dark Elemental. Spirit Master: Elnia Valessiel. Evaluation pending. You are both dismissed."
Elnia looked at Neo.
"Ready?" she asked quietly.
"Let's go shock the academy," he said, stepping forward with her.
They walked side by side from the circle, two shadows trailing long behind them in the light of a hundred stunned stares.