Axel's childhood had been a study in contrasts. Raised in a rigid household with an authoritarian father and devoutly religious mother, he found solace with his grandmother and in the sanctuary of darkened rooms (his light sensitivity making him prefer shadows).
This early isolation fostered a rich inner world where imagination reigned supreme.
As he matured, Axel channelled this creativity into physics, finding comfort in the universe's mathematical order. But academia's harsh realities - the politics, the betrayals, the crushing expectations - gradually eroded his idealism.
The final blow came when a protégé stole his research, shattering his faith in both people and the system.
Now twenty-six, unemployed, and living with his parents, Axel embodied wasted potential. His once-brilliant mind clouded by disillusionment, his personal life a string of failures, he drifted through days devoid of purpose or hope.
His brilliant but restless mind had long contemplated humanity's insignificant place in the vast cosmic expanse. While scientists warned of Earth's environmental crises, he questioned whether humanity's existence mattered at all in the infinite universe. Were we destined to be forgotten cosmic dust? These existential questions haunted his waking hours.
Despite his academic achievements, Axel now found himself trapped in a career rut. Poor choices and chronic procrastination had derailed his promising future, leaving him unemployed and isolated.
Beneath his cynical exterior still lingered a yearning for connection and purpose - for the intellectual camaraderie of fellow scientists, the thrill of theoretical debates, and the satisfaction of unravelling complex problems.
Once a passionate physicist, Axel had abandoned his dreams for the perceived stability of civil service, only to discover its promises were hollow illusions.
Years of professional failures had extinguished his passion, leaving behind only numbness and resignation. His days blurred into a monotonous routine, often spent staring blankly out his window at the bustling city below, a solitary figure lost in thought.
Memories of his laboratory days taunted him - the excitement of experimentation, the triumph of solving impossible equations. These recollections made his current stagnation more bitter.
Even his relationship with a fellow physicist and kindred spirit had collapsed under the weight of diverging paths and personal demons, leaving emotional scars that never fully healed.
Recently, Axel's reality had begun fracturing through increasingly vivid dreams. In these visions, he became a subatomic particle hurtling through cosmic voids, simultaneously terrified and exhilarated by this glimpse into existence's infinite scale. Each awakening left him drenched in sweat, heart racing, the boundaries between dream and reality growing disturbingly thin.
On September 2nd, 2022, another such dream overtook him. As consciousness slipped away, his journal's final entry echoed ominously: "The visions intensify...reality unravels...something dormant awakens..." These words would prove prophetic.
Axel's vivid dreamscapes had always been his escape, but one night transcended all others. As sleep took him, his consciousness was violently pulled into a swirling vortex of light and sound, detaching completely from his physical form.
He found himself in an ethereal realm of infinite possibility, pulsating with strange energies. Before him materialized luminous formations representing mysterious "Symbols":
School of Cognition
School of Radiance
School of Brightness
School of Blue and Red
School of Daggers and Swords