Dressed in their squad attire, Rocky and Bow sat on a boat as it left their base and headed to school. Class started at 8 a.m. It was 6.30. Though the two disagreed on many things, they believed in punctuality.

Rocky stared at the Indian Ocean with a smile. The salty smell, the clear water, and the hint of the deep unknown made her stomach do moonsaults. "We don't know ninety-five percent of what's down there, huh?" she muttered. Her brown eyes glistened with excitement. Even though she loved space and stars, she wanted to explore the ocean's depths first.

The hairs on Rocky's neck rose when the boat passed through the magic wall surrounding the school, forcing her to turn towards it.

Dar Es Salaam Reaper Academy (DRA) was a school for young and gifted sorcerers born with scythe-shaped birthmarks on their wrists, teaching and training them to become soul reapers. It had two locations: Fungi Yasini and Bongoyo. The former was for primary students while the latter was for secondary ones. The government had awarded the two islands to the Tanzania Soul Reaper Association for their help in fighting for independence against colonial rule.

"We're here," Digo, the boat's helmsman, said as he docked the boat.

Bongoyo Island had very rocky shores and two beaches—one on the northwestern and the other on the northeastern tip of the island. Everyone used the northwest because they had removed the sharp rocks and built wooden piers for walking lanes and mooring boats.

Rocky and Bow exited before Digo left. He'd return in the afternoon unless there was an emergency. The Smiling Jokers had helmsmen for different purposes. Digo's role was to take them to and from school.

The two teenagers summoned their scythes and used them to fly to their classrooms. Rocky sat on hers as it floated while one of Bow's swords spun like a rotor blade above her and she sat on the other.

The academy had ten buildings: an administration office, an indoor sports field, a training facility, a food court, and six class buildings. TSRA had gone all out to make sure this was the best reaper academy in the country. The faculty and staff were former squad captains and high-ranking members, and most of the students had the highest magic level on the continent. Soul Reaper squads from other countries tried their best to poach them.

Of the six class buildings, each had one form—a term used for students in senior school from ages 13 to 18.

Rocky and Bow were in Form 4, but in different classes. The former was in 4B, while the latter was in 4A. The grades had nothing to do with their intelligence. They went their separate ways.

Classes were an hour away from starting. Students frolicked in the hallways and classrooms. Those like Rocky and Bow who had squads wore their team attire, while the rest had on the required white shirt and gray pants or skirt uniform.

"Get out of the way, weirdo," Anita said, bumping shoulders with Rocky as they passed each other. Anita was the only other student in their grade who was in a squad, belonging to the Lost Halos. She always felt threatened by Rocky, trying to belittle her with dumb words. But it never worked because no one could mentally outshine a superstar.

Rocky scoffed at her and walked away. Anita adored Bow, which said a lot about her. It took a smart person to see a superstar like Rocky and stan them. Sadly for Anita, she wasn't lucky enough to have a brain. Not like...

"Rocky! Rocky!" two students at the back of class 4B chanted and waved upon seeing her.

With her head held high, Rocky entered the class with a smile while heading toward her two fans, Marcos and Solomon, the Wadood twins. They moved from Sudan to Tanzania as kids after their father got a promotion at work. The other students looked down on them because their magic level was the weakest in their form—they got into the academy because of their influential father—and everyone assumed they wouldn't get into any squad, leaving them to become solo reapers or pursue other careers.

Rocky believed in the twins with her whole heart. In her eyes, they were stars. Not super like her, but stars in their own right. She knew how it felt to be unwanted, which connected her to them.

After fist-bumping the twins, she sat between them. "Marcos, Solomon, my favorite little stars. How are you?"

"Shining brighter like you, Superstar Rocky," Marcos said. While he was the oldest of the twins by four minutes, he was shorter and of a heavy build. His green eyes glowed with mischief, but the fake smile on his face hid the pain he carried with him.

"Oh, thank you, Big Star Marcos." Rocky hugged him.

"I've been more super today, Superstar Rocky. Will you be as well?" Solomon asked.

"Yes, I will, Young Star Solomon."

"Wooo!" Solomon cheered. He was taller than his brother and had a slender body. His sunken green eyes revealed the sadness inside him, but he always smiled.

Though the twins were happy when Rocky was around, the constant bullying from other students made them depressed. Marcos developed a food addiction, while Solomon became anorexic after witnessing the constant weight-shaming his brother experienced.

Rocky did her best to protect them, but she was only one person. Teachers stopped punishing her for fighting the bullies because they empathized with her. Still, they did nothing. DRA was a high-ranked reaper academy, and the teachers didn't want to jeopardize the future of the country by suspending or expelling a few bad kids for "messing around".

She stared at the fresh bruises on the twins' faces, and her heart drowned in sorrow. She knew they wouldn't tell her who was responsible, even if she begged them. It would only mean more trouble for them when she wasn't around.

She hugged them.

"What's wrong, Superstar Rocky?" Marcos asked.

"Did something happen?" Solomon said.

"Nothing."

Secretly, Rocky had threatened to leave the Smiling Jokers if Captain Tomboy didn't pick the twins during graduation. Captain Tomboy, amused, didn't believe her. But she had assured the teen she didn't have to worry. Having seen how much Rocky cared about the twins, she had promised she'd ask them to join the squad when they entered Form 5 instead of waiting until graduation, catching the young superstar by surprise.

Even though she couldn't save everyone, Rocky was glad she could protect them.

Also, the twins would be her responsibility, and she'd have to help them increase their magic level—the teachers had deemed it impossible. Rocky had agreed anyway, accepting the task. Who better to accomplish such an impossible feat than a superstar?

Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Rocky's wristwatch warned, followed by the sound of the school's siren filling the island. Rev-Det's recent upgrade proved useful once again, precisely detecting a revenant's potential landing area.

The school siren had eleven sounds. The first nine alerted them about the three to nine-eyed revenants, while the last two focused on the Revenant Knights and Lords.

The current siren was for a knight.

The Knights were second-ranked behind the Lords—acting as the latter's lieutenants—and above the multiple-eyed revenants, whom they referred to as Savants.

Unlike the Savants, the Knights could shapeshift between their human and monstrous forms, with the former preventing detection from Rev-Det and the latter enabling them to use their powers. Soul reapers could identify them by their human appearance because the sun burned their skin and the moon made it shine like diamonds, forcing them to carry an umbrella all the time.

Rocky wasn't born the last time a knight or lord showed up in the earth realm.

"How did a revenant pass through the barrier?" Marcos asked.

"Isn't it supposed to be unbreachable?" Solomon added.

Rocky had similar thoughts, but she didn't have time to ponder the questions. The other students in the classroom ran outside, joining the commotion.

Before the three could leave, Bow appeared. "Marcos, Solomon, seek shelter with the others." She pointed at Rocky. "Shorty, you're with me."

"Best of luck," Marcos told Rocky.

Solomon nodded at her. She nodded back.

The twins left the classroom in a hurry.

"I'm not a shorty. I'm a superstar," Rocky said as she joined Bow.

"Whatever." Bow rolled her eyes.

Outside the classroom, teachers stood in the hallways, urging students without squads to go hide inside the training facility. Five magic barriers surrounded it, capable of stopping attacks from the strongest sorcerers in the world, according to the Tanzania Soul Reaper Association.

"The revenants are in the canteen area," a female teacher said.

Rocky and Bow nodded before heading there. Upon arriving, hundreds of staff, students, and visitors' corpses lay on the ground, shriveled up like prunes after the revenants had sucked their souls. There were over fifty savants moving from one incapacitated body to another, draining their souls and then discarding them.

The two teenagers joined the four survivors—the headmaster, Mr. Pascal, Anita, and two other students—hiding behind a destroyed canteen.

"We're going to die," Anita said with a shaky voice, her legs and hands trembling while she held her scythe. She looked like she was about to lose consciousness. "I don't want to die."

"Everything will be fine," Bow told her.

"Really?" Anita looked at Bow with stars in her eyes as tears ran down her face.

"Yes."

Some fans stan the wrong people. Rocky shook her head.

"All we have to do is hold them off until help gets here," Lucas, a student in Form 2 and a member of Lost Halos, said. He was the second youngest student to join a squad, behind Rocky.

"We can't rely on help," Mr. Pascal said.

"Why?" Lillian, a student in Form 5 and a member of the Fighting Spirits, asked.

"Do you see the silver magic wall surrounding us? The portal the revenants came through created it, preventing anyone from entering or leaving. I've received reports of people all over the island trying and failing to break it. If we want to leave, we have to kill their leader." He pointed at the knight standing behind the savants. It was in its human form, wearing a black suit and shades while holding a black umbrella. It seemed uninterested in fighting the soul reapers, instead observing them for now.

Because the Knights hadn't been in the earth realm for many years, older soul reapers dismissed the stories about them being capable of controlling savants like puppets as rumors, folktales to scare young reapers into working hard or chase away those who didn't have the guts and backbone to fight the monsters head-on.

But in recent months, the nine-eyed savants had become as powerful as the knights used to be. While the knights had matched the former power of the lords. Which meant... If a lord was once as powerful as a meister, were they now at the same magic level as a grim reaper? If so, that would mean the end of soul reapers.