Awakening

Adrien walked to the middle of the square and stopped unconsciously in front of the stone of awakening. The gigantic obsidian rock transcended him by two or three times its size, and its contours, scratched and pointed, reflected the ravages of time.

After all these years, seeing an awakening stone again seemed strange to him. Who still used these things? Repelling the beasts had required total mobilization; testing them no longer made sense.

Adrien turned and blinked a few times. The high priest was next to him, and a crowd of 12-year-olds waited off to the side, watched by the meticulous eyes of their parents.

His eyes flitted off into the distance, meeting the city walls with dread. The ruins of the past were still only a future here.

He looked at their ecstasy and a wave of sadness embraced him. Those who had died would not come back to life. They were not the people he had known; none of this had happened to them yet. Nothing...

His eyes grew dim. He sighed. In his flight, Adrien's soul had escaped, but not his body. The person he thought he was no longer existed.

"Well?" Asked the priest with a smile. "Don't worry, your awakening went very well!"

The crowd of adults cheered. Their children followed.

'The bellowing of victims.' he thought with disdain. They were preaching honor to their children, but none of them understood its meaning.

His eyes searched from left to right for the loudest place. That was where his servants should be. The hundred or so children had better clothes as he proceeded to the right. It was no longer a religious festival. Just another opportunity to show off.

'And the more you show power, the less you have.'

His enemies hadn't tried to show it. Mana fluttered naturally toward them as if they were in the center of a vortex.

His eyes fell on two boys he barely recognized. Adrien stepped out of the middle of the square to join them.

"Congratulations!" said one boy - he couldn't remember if it was Valentin or Paul. "Given the words of the high priest, your talent must be at least good!"

"Not that I did anything," Adrien replied. "you just need to be lucky."

No result was announced, he remembers. But the priest was careful writing off talent detected, and if he could see it, others could too. He looked at the crowd of his parents and saw his father - a tall and robust man - looking at him with eyes of greed. Beside him stood a thin, puny woman, barely conscious, forced to be his mother.

- Gustave Jobin. The priest called.

Adrien turned away and concentrated his attention on the scene. The teenager put his hand on the stone, suddenly remaining motionless, eyes closed.

Adrien closed his eyes, feeling his soul. It was a large sphere, almost filling his belly, continually spilling fine hymns in all directions, like tentacles. He willed to extend it, slowly expanding it to his eyes. Then, he tried to cover his body. A shock happened. His eyes reddened, and a stab of pain hurt his body. He felt full, wishing he could just open his mouth and spit air. But only mana worked this way. He immediately stopped his doing, and several seconds later, the pain decreased.

'So this is the limit without mana?'

His eyes had become sharper, and he could faintly see the mana in front of him. It had a blue color and some fluctuations.

'But that's only one kind of mana.'

His amplified sense only worked a few steps away from him; he couldn't detect any talent or soul.

'I don't remember any real talent here anyway.'

At most, there would be a few ranks 4 and maybe a rank 5.

He returned to his natural vision and began to think about his future plans. A cultivator's strength was built on this foundation: a high talent would be quickly wasted. If he wanted to build up his own strength, he would have to act early.

His eyes slid over his two servants. Both were rank 2 talents, barely better than the average person. And given their difficulty in becoming an elite, they must not have had materialized souls. Still, they had the most important thing: they were loyal.

The old him considered them almost like family. It reminded him that a child was a fool.

"Once you get back to the academy, don't try to play with your mana immediately." Said Adrien ". If I really do have a good talent, I might have some advantages, and I will definitely share them with you. We'll do this together!"

He ignored their joyful chatter and made plans in his mind. The ceremony ended before noon - for them, the tilt of the red star, the creator of energy, had an impact on the awakening. Then, a soldier arrived.