23 (Ch 23)Trial of the Familiars

Following his instincts as his mother recited her greeting again to the subject beneath her, his gaze landed on one black-haired demon girl with silver streaks in her hair and slight tints of purple in her blue eyes.

'Huh…' - Faith thought gazing at the girl at least twice his age eyeing him like he'd slapped her in the face with a pile of horse shit.

It didn't take him long to realise this girl had anything but good intentions from the signals his shadow sense gave off. She kept starring at him maliciously until the younger girl next to her with silver hair and purple eyes shook her out of her stupor, forcing the hateful ten-year-old to move her gaze to his mother adorning a true look of reverence.

'I wonder what that was about?' - Faith wondered, unsure what relationship he had with that girl.

It took him a minute to recognise the younger one, someone he'd come across a few times in the training hall of his castle. It made sense that she'd be here since she wasn't much older than himself but he still didn't understand in the slightest how Sira was related to the ball of anger that had it out for him.

He was only brought out of his inner thoughts when his mother's greeting ended and Eshir started discussing the rules of the event.

"As you all know our great forefather Exodus made this tradition not only to give all a chance to flourish if their talent and handwork allowed it but also because familiars are an exceptional Companion to accompany you across your life" - Eshir said to the masses, summoning her sparrow Ciza for all those below to get a good idea of what a familiar could look like.

Many surprised gasps followed from both demons and Dark elves as they saw a familiar for the first time being tamed. Familiars were rarely tamed and to do it before adulthood was even rarer yet the current queen of demons had done it at the young age of 9. Considering how pure her blood and how much she resembled Exodus it wasn't that surprising but it was still amazing.

The truth was the only reason Eshir had been able to was because of her father and mothers strict and rather abusive training and teaching methods. Eshir took her parents as a perfect example of how to not raise Faith because they clearly hadn't cared about her nearly as much as they should have, treating Eshir as more of a tool than a child.

Her disconnect from morality didn't come from this as she was simply born that way but it certainly didn't help. Even now Eshir only valued Faith, everything else was just a necessary chore for her in order to spend more time with him. One should note that the majority of demons weren't exactly like Eshir.

Through thousands of years of war Full-blooded demons didn't even make up 40% of the population, most being crossbreed between members of other races that had fallen into their hands. This caused a lot to merely be more inclined to violence rather than being heartless monsters breed for destruction.

Back to Eshir as she prepared to continue her speech under the enthralled and envious gaze of her guests and subjects.

"Familiars alas are fickle things, If you don't meet the qualities needed to become a trainer then your only chance to obtain one is when under the age of ten. For safety and contract reasons only those of Five years old and over may enter the forest but all you brave young ones shouldn't carry fear in your hearts, the forest is perfectly safe with the Rexel watching your every move. Treat this as a perfect chance to shine, bringing honour, status and wealth to your families if you succeed" - she announced, both cheering up and exciting those who were eligible to participate.

Some still carried anxiety but the majority including the girl eyeing Faith earlier were entranced at their mighty queen's words, Imaging the honour they would receive as well not wanting to let their glorious sovereign down.

"Though most will fail, again don't let this loss dishearten you. Having a familiar is not a must to grow your strength and power it simply helps. As you can tell we have guests among us, Dark elves, please treat them as you would your kin since our race is striving towards peace more then bloodshed nowadays" - Eshir continued, not missing the gazes of contempt held between her subjects and guests.

Progress was progress as at least they weren't killing each other before she got there.

"Before I begin with the rules, a piece of advice for you all. Band together instead of trying to sabotage each other. Familiars are smart and anyone that would accept a traitor as its partner for life cant be trusted in the first place" - She said clearly stating that getting the drop on someone wasn't a good idea.

'Sometimes I forget I'm surrounded by demons, some were really planning to do that weren't they? Well not like anyone could get the drop on me but I should probably still be cautious' - Faith thought to himself.

He'd never openly announced having Shadow sense to anyone else since it was his trump card. Everyone with enough magic had what could be considered a sixth sense for mana but shadow sense went far beyond that. Without his dragon heart, it'd been like a gut instinct but now I'd morphed into a full-on seventh sense. Anything within a certain range the shadows could see, hear or feel were transmitted to him.

Of course, counters to this existed such as taking away his advantage by surrounding the area in light so no shadows existed apart from his own but it was still something to be reckoned with, especially when he was the only one aware of it.

"The rules for all you young ones are as follows. You will al be warped to a random place In the forest via the Spatial gate at the forefront of the forest" - she said pointing to the giant empty stone arch next to the forest's entrance.

With her words two guards to either side inserted a shining stone Faith knew as a mana crystal, turning the arch into a functioning spatial gate in seconds.

"Once inside you are to try your best to contract a familiar with a blood seal. The methods can be decided by both you and the familiar you with which you wish to contract but please be aware that forcing a blood-seal on a familiar won't work, trying to do so will only insight the wrath of the Rexel at which point you might really be in danger. The time given is also another thing you will have to worry about as well as one of the main reasons people fail to get a contract. Your mana will constantly be exhausted to stabilise your body inside the forest as it's not meant for beings like us to enter. When it reaches 10% regardless of how close you are You'll be forcibly brought back here" - She said giving some hopeful one's looks of pure horror as they realised luck would not help nearly as much as talent.

Faith on the other hand wasn't too worried. His mana capacity far surpassed what it should be and since his dragon heart came to be it had been constantly expanding even without his need to train it. The passive effect wasn't nearly as fast but having it constantly stressing his mana so it could expand and grow was far more helpful then even Faith realised.

Not to mention the passive strength gains it gave him.

"Apart from that, however, you're free to do what you wish during the time you spend in this trial, the same of course goes for our guests. I wish you all the best in your trial" - Eshir said, ending her speech she'd read more then she would have liked over the past years.

After that the ceremony was complete and the trial could now take place. Unsurprisingly Faith, being the prince of the hosting race, was allowed to stand at the front of the line of both demons and Elves, joined by Krus to his right.

Most demons his age apart from the Royal children and some nobles had never even seen their prince in the flesh, noting that he was even more imposing then they could have imagined. His scarlet iris's with tints of purple sweeping over his kind and guests as his white hair unmistakably stood out among them.

Streaks of silver or partly silver hair wasn't too rare but having a full head of pure white hair, dazzling like snow stood out in the crowd an announced a clear and pure linage.

Inwardly though Faith thought process was a little different from what most would imagine.

'Shit!! Why are there so many people starring at me, I just wanna get my animal buddy and go home please stop!!' - Faith thought as stage fright took hold.

Multiple thousands of people waiting for him was something he wasn't used to.

"You ready?" - Krus asked as they both stood in front of the spatial gate.

"Honestly, I just wanna get this over and done with" - Faith replied, still stiff as a board from the sheer amount of people peering into his back.

'Damn he really is on another level isn't he. Doesn't treat it like a challenge at all and just wants to "Get it over with". Gotta remember how much of a monster this kid if I wanna keep my people safe. Still satisfying to know we at least have him on our side, that blessed princess over on Light-darks side will probably be given a run for her money with this one' - Krus thought completely misunderstanding Faith's meaning as well as remembering a particular scary Half-human Half-spirit princess he absolutely never wanted to see again.

If anyone reminded him of that witch it was this little white-haired demon.

Meanwhile...

'Wait so if you're allowed to do this when you're ten and it gives you a chance to get an animal pal with mysterious abilities that you can travel the world with and the professional term is a trainer... oh.. oh my Exodus... ITS FUCKEN POKEMON!!' - Faith thought, realising the simplicity of the event that even the author himself hadn't put together until now.