The Author's Draft

Chapter 84 - 3: Seventy Hours II

Aiden took a breath, let it out slowly, and said the words he’d been preparing since his mother’s text came through.

"I’ve awakened."

The silence that followed was absolute.

His mother stared at him like he’d just started speaking another language, her eyes going wide and disbelieving. Callum’s mouth fell open slightly, shock written plainly across his face.

"What?" his mother finally managed. "Aiden, what are you—how is that—" She shook her head sharply, denial and confusion warring in her expression. "You failed the awakening ceremony. Thirteen years ago. Everyone knows that. The stone didn’t react, you didn’t develop a mana core, the instructors said—"

"I know what they said," Aiden cut in gently. "I was there. I remember every second of standing in front of that stone while nothing happened and people whispered about me being a dud."

His mother flinched at the word, but Aiden pressed on.

"The normal awakening ceremony isn’t the only way," he continued. "Even if you don’t awaken naturally, if a constellation favors you, they can grant you power that makes you awaken regardless of whether you have a mana core or not."

His mother’s expression shifted, confusion giving way to something that might have been recognition. "A divine contract," she said slowly. "Like... like Sarah’s son? The one who works for Thornwatch Guild now?"

"Exactly like that," Aiden confirmed. "He failed his ceremony too, but a year later some god chose him as a contractor and he awakened anyway. It’s rare, but it happens."

"But..." His mother was processing this, her mind clearly racing through implications. "When? How long have you—why didn’t you tell us?"

"It’s recent," Aiden said, which was technically true even if the timeline was more complicated than she knew. "Very recent. And I’m telling you now because..." He paused, choosing his next words carefully. "Because I’ll be registering at the Hunter Association. And when the barriers fall in seventy hours, I’ll be fighting in the war too."

His mother’s face went very still.

Then she shook her head, denial coming back stronger. "No. No, Aiden, you can’t—you just awakened, you said it yourself, you don’t have training or experience or—" Her voice was rising, panic bleeding through. "This is an invasion from a planet that’s stronger than us. They’re saying the enemy soldiers are worth nearly nine of our hunters each. You’ll be killed!"

"I won’t," Aiden said firmly.

"You don’t know that!" His mother was on her feet now, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "You can’t possibly know that. You failed your awakening thirteen years ago, you suddenly claim some god picked you, and now you want to throw yourself at an invading army? Do you have any idea how insane that sounds?"

Aiden walked to his desk and picked up the black demon mask.

He held it out so she could see it clearly, the demonic features and the material that had become so recognizable over the past few weeks that half of London had seen it on the news.

"I was the one who saved Dad," he said quietly. "At Whitechapel. During the dungeon break."

His mother’s face changed.

The color drained from her cheeks, her eyes going wide with recognition and something that looked like horror dawning across her features. Her hand came up to cover her mouth.

"The masked hunter," she whispered. "The one everyone’s been talking about. The one in all the videos. That was..." She looked from the mask to Aiden’s face and back again. "That was you?"

"It was me," Aiden confirmed. "I was the one who went into the danger zone. I was the one who carried him out. I was the one who fought the monsters while the guilds refused to help because the payout wasn’t high enough."

The room was silent except for the TV in the background, some analyst discussing Safe Zone locations and projected casualty numbers.

His mother’s eyes were filling with tears again, but these were different from before. Not fear or stress, but something deeper and more painful.

"You risked your life," she said, her voice breaking. "You went into an active dungeon break, you fought B-rank monsters, and I had no idea. I was standing at the barricade screaming for someone to help, and my own son..." A sob cut off her words.

She sat back down heavily on the bed, and Callum moved closer to her but didn’t try to touch, giving her space to process.

Aiden waited, the mask still held in his hands.

When his mother finally spoke again, her voice was very small.

"I was praying Cal wouldn’t awaken," she admitted, not looking at either of them. "When I got the message about the emergency ceremony, my first thought was... was that I hoped he’d fail. Like you did. That he’d be ordinary and safe and never have to fight." She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. "But now you’re telling me you awakened anyway, that you’ve been fighting anyway, and if Cal awakens too..." Her voice broke completely. "Both my sons. I might lose both of you when those portals open. I can barely say your names without..."

"You won’t lose us," Aiden said firmly. He crossed the room and knelt in front of her so they were at eye level. "Mum, look at me. You won’t lose us. I’m strong enough to protect myself. And if Cal awakens, I’ll take care of him too. I won’t let anything happen to my brother."

His mother looked at him through her tears, searching his face desperately for reassurance that he couldn’t possibly guarantee but was offering anyway.

"How sure are you?" she asked, her voice cracking on every word. "How sure are you that you can protect him? You just claimed you’re strong, but how do you know? How can you be certain?"

Aiden held her gaze steadily. "You saw what I did at Whitechapel. What I’m capable of. The footage people have been sharing online—that’s me, Mum. I saved Dad from a dungeon break that the major guilds wouldn’t touch. I fought monsters that trained hunters were afraid to face." He paused. "That should tell you I’m strong enough."

The silence stretched between them. On the desk chair, Callum was watching the exchange with wide eyes, clearly overwhelmed by everything being said.

"I need..." She took a shaky breath. "I need to process this. All of it. You awakening, you being the masked hunter, you planning to fight when the barriers fall..." She looked at Callum, then back to Aiden. "But right now, Cal’s ceremony is more immediate. If they’re requiring everyone to report within twenty-four hours..."

He stood up, giving his mother space. She wiped at her face again, trying to pull herself together through sheer force of will.

The TV showed more footage from the rifts, close-ups of the Valdris armies waiting on the other side. Orcs in formation. Goblins with weapons that looked more advanced than the crude tools Earth’s dungeon monsters typically carried. Something that might have been war machines or vehicles in the background, though the dimensional distortion made them hard to see clearly.

[69:33:47... 69:33:46... 69:33:45...]

"We should leave soon," his mother said quietly, her voice still shaky but more controlled than before. "Before it gets worse out there."

Aiden looked at Callum, who’d been silent through most of the conversation. "You ready?"

Callum swallowed hard, his adam’s apple bobbing. "Not really. But I don’t think waiting will make it better."

"Probably not," Aiden agreed.

He grabbed his jacket from where it hung near the door, checked that his phone was in his pocket even though the networks were barely functioning. The black demon mask went into his inside pocket, hidden but accessible.

His mother stood up from the bed, moving on autopilot toward where Callum’s coat was draped over one of the bags.

"I’m coming with you," she said.

"Mum, you should rest—"

"I’m coming with you," she repeated, more firmly this time. Her eyes were still red, her face blotchy from crying, but her voice was steady. "You’re taking my son to his awakening ceremony in the middle of a planetary invasion. I’m not staying here alone while that happens."

Aiden looked at her for a moment, then nodded. There was no point arguing, and honestly, he understood. She needed to be there, needed to see with her own eyes what happened to Callum rather than sitting in his flat worrying.

They gathered their things—coats, phones, Callum’s identification documents that his mother had remembered to pack. The flat felt smaller with three people moving around in it, and Aiden was suddenly very aware of how cramped and dingy the space was compared to his parents’ home in Whitechapel.

’After this is over,’ he thought, glancing around the moldy walls and the crooked bathroom door. ’After we survive the invasion, I’m getting a better place.’

He pushed the thought away and opened the door.

The hallway outside was quiet, most of his neighbors either evacuated already or barricaded inside their own flats. Distant sirens wailed from multiple directions at once, and the emergency lighting cast everything in harsh white that made the shadows deeper.

Aiden locked the door behind them, then led the way toward the stairs.

His mother walked close beside Callum, one hand resting on his shoulder like she couldn’t quite bring herself to let go completely. Callum’s face was pale but set, the look of someone who’d decided to be brave and was holding onto that decision with everything he had.

They descended the stairs in silence, passing graffiti-covered walls and the perpetual smell of damp that seemed to live in the building’s bones. When they reached the ground floor and pushed through the entrance, the black sky and red lightning greeted them like a physical presence.

The streets were chaos.

Not panicked running or rioting like Aiden had half expected, but chaos nonetheless. People were everywhere—some heading toward designated Safe Zones with bags and children in tow, others queuing outside shops that were still somehow open and selling supplies at prices that had probably tripled in the last few hours. Police and military vehicles rolled past at regular intervals, loudspeakers blaring instructions that most people seemed to be ignoring.

A rift hung visible in the distance, maybe two kilometers away. Close enough to see the dimensional barrier shimmering across its surface, close enough to make out the vague shapes of the army waiting on the other side.

Callum stared at it, his eyes wide.

"Is that—"

"Don’t look too long," Aiden said quietly, gently redirecting his brother’s attention back to the street ahead. "Come on. The Hunter Association headquarters is in Central London. We need to move."

They started walking, joining the flow of people heading in various directions. The city felt wrong in ways Aiden couldn’t fully articulate—the sky too dark, the air too heavy, the sounds too loud and too muffled at the same time.

[69:28:14... 69:28:13... 69:28:12...]

Less than seventy hours until the barriers fell.

And Aiden was walking his younger brother toward a test that might give Callum the power to survive what was coming.

Or might leave him ordinary and helpless when the war began.

Either way, they’d find out soon enough.