Wander watched and fidgeted as Nito took out of his pocket a medal scribed with foreign symbols. It fitted his palm and its appearance did not differ much from a scrapped piece of junk. Wander guessed it must be of prime importance to Nito, since it seemed to be the only thing he kept in his pocket. He held it tightly in his hand, stared at it intensely before signaling Wander to come close.

" Before we start, I need you to know one thing: the existence of us is an absolute secret, more than that of the Singulus Digiti, more than anything in this world. You must not reveal it to anyone."

Wander answered instantly. " I give you my word."

Nito stared into his eyes. After confirming Wander's resolution, he nodded.

" For the ritual to be completed, we need a constant stream of your blood."

Wander took a knife out of his pocket and without hesitance used its point to make a long cut on his hand. His blood leaked out in a thin but steady stream. He showed the wound to Nito.

"Will this do?"asked he.

" Yeah," Nito squinted at the boy, frowning." That will do."

" What's wrong?" Wander noticed the expressions.

" No, nothing's wrong. Let's start."

Nito extended the medal to Wander, order him to let the blood drip on it. Upon contact with Wander's blood, the medal emitted a glow of sanguine color. A few seconds passed, and the glow turned darkish jade- the color of demon's blood. Threads of light from the medal emerged and coiled around the bloodstream. They began to find their way to the wound on Wander's arm in the manner of a snake slithering towards its prey. Wander realized that the blood was the medium needed for the threads to enter his body. When the first thread forced his way into the wound, it was like a bee sting. But then came the second, the third and the others, merged, so the pain and the sensation took the form of a nasty slug ripping open the wound to assimilate with the host. Wander could feel the threads run in his vein, to his heart then dispersed across his whole body. His heart twitched violently from the straining entry of the threads like it was ready to explode, causing him to undergo excruciating pain and fall to the ground, screaming in agony. His eyes got all teary as his whole body shook frantically as if thousands of razor were let loose in its blood veins. Wander's vision went blurry, his ears failed to pick up any sound, forcing him to focus on the pain. He could imagine the threads incorporating into him like parasites, dissolving in his blood, coiling around his heart, eating into his brain.

"Blutch, vuum, origos, ooh, king, dimonas ima, blutch, halcyon." said Nito as he watched Wander suffer.

That moment, a wave of electricity ran through Wander's body, and pain morphed into severe pleasure, an overwhelming sensation that left Wander gaps for breath. His brain wanted to explode, and images ran through his eyes. He began to see white, and the last things he saw before falling unconscious was the silver light from the medal and the disturbed expression on Nito's face.

______________________________________________________________________________

"Wake up, Wander."

Wander felt no lingering pain when he opened his eyes. He felt that nothing about his body had changed. He turned to Nito, who was inspecting the medal like he had seen it for the very first time.

" How long had I been sleeping?" asked Wander.

" One hour at most," replied Nito without looking at the boy." In the real world, that is."

" Then how much time has passed in here?"

" 10-12 hours or so."

Wander tried to stand up and almost fell over on his first and second attempt. When he was finally able to stand, he realized he had grown taller.

" Physical growth is the most obvious sign." said Nito." Taller and bigger, all the better, huh?"

" I guess," said Wander as he stared at his new body.

" Your face changes too."

" What?" Wander raised his voice as he took out the knife and used the blade to look at his face." Haha, very funny."

Nito chuckled as he walked towards the boy. He smiled at him.

" Since you are the same as me now, I suppose there is no need to keep secret. What do you want to know?"

Nito's question gave rise to even more questions from Wander. Nito spent the next few hours sating as much of Wander's curiosity as he can. He told Wander that beings like them both called themselves Exsomnis- a name created by someone whose own name had been long forgotten. Nito expressed doubt that Exsomnis was the true name for individuals like Wander and him. He went on to confirm that Exsomnises were powerful enough to defeat the demon lord Samundo, mostly due to the fact that they were a unique combination: the martial skills of hunters, the berserk strength of demon and the arcane ability of summoners.

"An unfair advantage!" Wander raised his voice.

Nito just smiled in return, and Wander knew that smile meant nothing good. Just as he predicted, Nito told him of the price that came with the power.

"The power eats away your existence. Most of us don't live past 30. At worse, not past 22. And the time we spend living is not exactly enjoyable."

Wander stared at Nito, brow furrowed. After a while, he lowered his head, and melancholy took over him.

" I see. That's... sad." he said in a guttural voice.

" You take the news quite well. I had expected you would yell at my face."

Wander also marveled at the fact that he harbored no anger towards Nito for keeping such an important fact hidden from him. He wondered if the joy of attaining great power had completely overwhelmed the fear of death, or maybe for a long time he had always been like this, seeing age as nothing more than number, and living till 30 or till 90 simply had no difference for him. But he realized he did feel melancholic about that truth, and he wondered why. Deciding to stop dwelling on the matter, Wander changed the topic.

" I wonder how my blood looked like now." said Wander and he poked at his fingertip with his knife.

A drop of green blood leaked out. Wander clicked his tongue.

" So it's still normal." said Nito, squinting at Wander's blood.

" Were you expecting something else?" asked Wander.

" No." Nito shook his head. "Not at all."

" Anything else I need to know about us?"

" Yeah," Nito suddenly got all fidgeting." Uhm, so, an Exsomnis is created, not born. You know what this means right?"

It took Wander more than 10 seconds to process the information and draw the conclusion.

" I see." Wander said, looking down.

" You are nonchalant about lots of things, huh? Are you usually like this?"

" Well," Wander went silent briefly before continuing." I'm not sure. But, I... "

Nito stared at him, waiting for him to finish.

" I don't know anymore." Wander frowned.

" Anymore? You used to know then?"

" I don't remember. This is weird. Does becoming an Exsomnis alter your memory?"

" In my case, it doesn't. And in other cases I know, it doesn't, either."

"Maybe I will remember later." said Wander." How exactly does the transformation process work? What does it do to our bodies?"

" I don't know. It just turns us, somehow." Nito said, shrugging.

" Aren't you supposed to answer my every question?" Wander raised his eyebrows.

" Don't be absurd. I'm young enough to be your older brother. And at my age, you really don't get anything figured out."

Wander looked up. The pocket dimension was too silvery for his liking.

" Then can you at least tell me where do we come from and why we need that medal to turn?"

" Well, the first Exsomnis lived more than a millennium ago. You know, that guy who named us Exsomnis. He was just like us, a normal being, until the day he found the medal. "

" He just found it? Like randomly?" Wander frowned in doubt.

" Uhm, yeah. Our creation was mere luck. This medal," Nito said, showing the metallic piece to Wander," is the key to awaken our potential. Without it, we would be like all the others."

Wander inspected the medal. Nothing was particular regarding its appearance, saving for the insignia resembling a tornado chiseled onto it.

" So we are not the chosen ones? We are the lucky ones?"

" You can say so."

" Cool, I prefer it this way. The idea that the fate of the world is dependent on chosen individuals always repels me."

" Oh, why so?" Nito asked, smiling." Boys and girls your age love to be the chosen ones. You sure you aren't one of them? From what you tell me I know you're not quite the popular kid at school."

" I'm not one of them," Wander said, clenching his fists."Why do I hate the chosen ones? Because their existence means that no matter how hard other people work, how tremendous their efforts, how desperate they are, in the end they have no choice but to put their faith in the hand of a few people to save them. Don't you realized how twisted, cruel and horrendous that is?"

Nito stared at Wander, then gave him a smile of pity.

" But that's how the world works."

" Yes," Wander said, biting his lips." That's how it works. And I hate that. But now I know we are the exceptions, we are lucky, not chosen. That's good."

" Hum, yeah. We're not chosen."

" I suppose you have nothing else to add?"

" There are few things left. Nonetheless, you will figure out by yourself sooner or later, and that's the best way to learn something new. I leave them in the dark for now. And prepare yourself for an annoying friend."

Wander frowned.

" Then I'm going home. I need some rest. Oh, and by the way, will you take me out of this city? To wherever Samundo is? I cannot just find him on my own."

" Yeah, of course. That's a given. Get ready for some worldwide traveling."

" Sweet." Wander smiled." I'm looking forward to that."

Nito nodded as he cancelled the pocket dimension. Wander bid him goodbye and left the ruin without looking back.

Sorry for the late update! Leave a comment if you can <3