Chapter 13- Awakening (Part 2)
Rin listened quietly to his family as they conversed with Alfred. Their social skills were just stupidly higher than his as they were nobles while he became one merely 3 days ago. The way they handled a conversation was just impressive from his 'averga-dude' point of view.
However, that didn't mean he was completely clueless in how he should speak in such situations.
'I must keep a neutral smile and reply respectfully. One or two words for each reply if possible. Ok, one breath, two breaths… I'm calm…' He thought in his head.
"Cute…" Aria muttered under her breath as she kept her eyes on Alfred. However, her smile turned warm for a split second.
No one saw that, not even Rin who was standing behind them. After conversing for a while, Alfred turned toward Rin and said.
"It's nice to meet the young master."
"Me too." He replied calmly.
"Good, good. Please, come with me from here. You can watch if you." He said.
His family nodded and followed them to a room at the back of the hall, exactly behind Lili's statue. It was well-hidden but not too hard to find.
After entering inside, they found themselves in a fairly smaller room. The walls were made out of smooth stone and minimally decorated. The ceiling was at least 15 feet high with no visible pillars around.
In the middle of the room stood a small pedestal made out of marble. A small child could be seen carved into the pillar holding an orb of light. The child had no features but anyone could see how important the orb was to the child.
Other than that, nothing else could be seen inside the room.
'Wait! Is this really going to be the usual 'assessment orb' thingy? Damn, this world really likes to be a by-the-book cliche fantasy I probably saw millions of times before.' Rin smiled with a defeated look.
He really hoped that it wouldn't be the case and that something interesting will happen.
"Please, stand in front of the pedestal and hold your hand on top of it," Alfred explained.
Rin nodded and did exactly what he was asked to do. His hand touched the cold and hard marble. In the first few seconds, nothing happened. But, the orb in the child's hand suddenly started shuddering.
The color of the orb was white but then it started changing color from white to red and then to blue before changing to a shade of violet. All the colors Rin knew of appeared on the orb in quick succession.
Everyone watched attentively and waited for the color to stop at something. Moments passed like a slow hour as the orb kept lighting up like fireworks.
Then, in one of the most shocking scenes, the orb turned completely black out of nowhere. The color black never appeared on it till that point.
Before anyone could even react, another thing happened. The orb started cracking quickly. Each crack spread all around it before it eventually broke into small shards startling the group.
The first to react was Alfred who tried to approach Rin to pull him away before anything weirder happens. This was the first time in his life he saw the orb react like that. He was basically as clueless as everyone there.
Yet, his worst fear happened, the broken orb had something weird inside. A black, almost colorless substance started crawling out of the whole where the orb was. The substance was not like liquid or even solid things… It was more like smoke, shapeless yet also heavy enough to be felt when touched.
Swiftly, the weird thing approached Rin and started crawling up his body.
"RIN!!!" Aria shouted as she tried to run to him. However, before she could even reach him, the substance detected her presence.
How did she know that you might ask? Well, she was sure of it, the substance was looking at her now. The heavy, suffocating feeling of being watched by a predator was not something new to Aria as she fought her fair share of strong beasts. That animosity, that hatred… It was the most malicious thing she ever felt.
Her gorgeous face turned deathly pale as she fell to her knees and started shuddering visibly. Her eyes were wide open and her breathing was more than erratic.
"Aria, are you ok?!!" Damian already pulled his daughter away and gazed at his son with an extremely serious look.
"Rin!! What's going on with my son?! Alfred!" Selina grabbed the pastor by his collar and shook him violently.
"I-I really… don't know…" He replied with an agitated look.
For some reason, even in this chaotic situation, Rin didn't make any reaction. It was as if he was frozen in time never to move again. The substance reached his face and seemingly gazed into his eyes.
He saw no eyes inside that foggy, black mess but he was sure it was gazing at him.
[In the darkness, we exist. In light, we rule. We are eternal, shapeless, and ever-changing.]
A deep, hoarse voice spoke in his mind and filled his vision with darkness. Yet, even that didn't make him feel anything. He didn't fear this darkness and instead felt connected with it.
'What is… this? Shadow manipulation?' He asked himself in a daze.
[Every place is our domain and every land is our own.]
The darkness became even stronger than before whenever the voice spoke.
'Every place is our domain? What does that mean?'
[We are monarchs. Born to rule and destined to reach the peak.]
'Born to rule? I was born to rule? How is that possible?'
Rin didn't get anything from what the voice said. He was talking as 'we' so he was definitely including Rin in his speech. Yet, Rin could not wrap his head around these things at all.
[Our souls are one, Rin. We can't escape the inevitable. We can't escape greatness.]
'I… see.' He thought.
His mind was still in shambles but when he tried not to overthink, he somehow started to accept whatever the voice said.
For him, it made some kind of sense. It was arrogant yet also somehow true. A weird mix he never thought he could feel from the words someone uttered.
[Our journey has just begun. We are still not worthy. But, we are definitely capable of becoming worthy. Our goal is in front of you, Rin. All you have to do is…]
The voice didn't continue but Rin had already moved with his instincts. He extended his hand forward in slow motion.
[Extend your arm and grasp it.]
'All I have to do is grasp it.' He thought to himself. The task was simple, just extend your arm and get that.
He was very close to touching whatever was calling for him. However, before he could do that, something shook the whole world around him and crushed this whole formless existence that he was going to touch.
Then, as if he was pulled out of some kind of deep ocean, his eyes opened again and he found himself back inside the church.
For a second, he forgot that he was there for the awakening ceremony. His mind simply stopped working normally when he entered that illusion.
"Rin, Rin… Rin!!" Aria called for him with a loud shout.
His focus finally came back to reality and he finally noticed the weird situation he was in. His body was pinned to the ground, held by the limbs of his parents and the pastor. Aria was sitting on his abdomen and shaking his face gently.
Tears were filling her eyes as she tried to hold herself from crying.
"What… happened?" He asked with a whisper.
Aria didn't wait any longer and jumped on him as she started weeping silently.
"Rin, Rin, Rin…" She whispered his name repeatedly as if she was scared of losing him for even a second. Her voice was weak, fearful yet also delighted to see that he was fine. Her grip was strong around his neck as she buried her face in his shoulder.
'Huh? What the hell is going on?! Why is Aria crying? What the hell happened?'
His eyes wandered to his parents who were also looking at him. While not as agitated as Aria, they were visibly horrified. Selina was the one most affected between the two as her arms were shaking and her teeth were biting her lips anxiously.
Then, finally, he noticed another detail that he missed the whole time. Something that should've been easily noticed but was completely ignored because of the situation with his family.
A detail that made him blink a few times… The room where he had to take the ceremony… was destroyed beyond recognition. The walls, the ceiling, and everything else were blasted into smithereens.
(A/N: The journey is about to start so buckle up. It will be crazy! :) )
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