Soul Ceremony

[Nexus City]

As the two were walking toward the ceremony on foot, Joe looked at Greg and asked, "So...What do you think about the Soul Ceremony? Are you excited about the fact that we will get our very own Guardians?"

Hearing the sudden question, Greg looked up to the sky and after a small hesitation, he answered, "Well... I'm curious yes. But I hope I won't get a black one, cause that would be horrible."

"Black? Why not black?"

"You never listen in class?", asked Greg with a questioning look.

"Hehe. Don't look at me like that. It's not like I don't, it's just that the teacher's explanation is really boring, so sometimes I fell asleep."

Listening to this, Greg only shook his head and explained, "There are thousands of stones in the Altars with six different colors. Black, Yellow, Green, Blue, Red, and White. From these six, black stones have the smallest potential and they have the weakest Guardians, while white stones have the biggest potential with one of the strongest Guardians, which you can get."

"But with the dimensional cores from the zones, you can get stronger powers, so these things like Guardians from a black Soul Stone or a white one doesn't really matter, no?"

Listening to this, Greg shook his head and asked, "Okay then here is another question. Would you rather choose a Lambo or a Beetle for a race?"

"Of course the Lambo, but what if we swap the two car's motors? Would you choose also the Lambo?" asked back Joe in an instant.

This unexpected question made Greg to answer with a small chuckle.

"Of course not."

"See? Then what if you get a black stone? If you kill monsters and go up in power ranks, also if you get strong Soul Creatures by the dimensional cores, you can be as strong as a guy with a white Soul Stone." said Joe with a smile.

"Well yeah, that's partly true..." answered Greg, but still thought, "But that doesn't erase the fact that you have weak Guardian."

As the two talked for almost half an hour while walking, they finally arrived before a huge building.

"Finally. We are here!", said Joe and looked before him.

Greg looked up also at the gigantic thing before him. It was a huge pillar made out of white jade, which floated above the ground about five meters.

Below the huge pillar, a circular table with a bowl could be found in the middle, while strange carvings were all around on the floor, making the place look much more mysterious.

"Woow... It doesn't matter how many times I see it, it looks as amazing as always.", said Greg with awe.

"Yeah, it's truly amazing!", answered Joe with a nod.

"Heeeey~ Joe!! Over here!"

Hearing his name, Joe turned around and saw a girl jogging towards them with a smile, while waving at their way.

She looked like she was in her twenties. Smooth skin, brown hair, and beautiful green eyes. She was wearing a white top and a black skirt making her look very normal, but because she was wearing a golden necklace, it showed that she was from a rich family.

When she arrived before them she stopped, looked at Greg, and asked Joe, "Are you with him again?"

"..."

Seeing as Joe was getting angry, Sarah sighed and with a bow said to Greg," Sorry, it was my mistake to say that."

Watching as a girl bowed and apologized to him, Greg scratched his neck and said, "No, no... Don't worry about it."

Joe after seeing the apology, sighed and asked, "So Sis, why are you here?"

Standing up from the bow, Joe's sister, Sarah smiled and said, "Mom and Dad wanted me to come and see how you will do on your very first ceremony."

"Well, whatever. Do as you please, but Greg and I need to go. The class started the ceremony.", said Joe and started to walk toward the middle of the pillar where the rest of their classmates were waiting in a row.

Greg followed suit and when he arrived, he heard that his teacher has already started to demonstrate the steps for the ceremony.

"Okay kids, listen carefully. Here you can see the passage to the Altar.", as the teacher said this, he pointed towards the bowl next to him and continued, "The first thing you need to do, is that you put your hand in it and when it's in, you just start and relax. You will feel a tingling sensation in your chest, but don't fight against it and just let your soul connect to the Altar. After connection, your body will relax wholly and you will be in a huge hall, full of Soul Stones all around you. That's where you will get to choose your very own Guardian with the stone. So... any questions?"

Hearing this, a girl with glasses raised her hand and asked, "Sir, won't it take a lot of time if we do this one by one?"

"Nice question Emma. However, don't worry about time. One second here means 10 minutes there, so you can take your time."

Listening to this, the teacher looked around and asked, "So? Who wants to start?"

Hearing the question, without any hesitation, a voice came from behind.

"Me!!"

Watching the hand, the teacher smiled and said, "Okay William. Come up here."

William went up to the table and as the teacher said, he put his hand in the bowl. After a while, his body started to twitch, but in the next second, it relaxed as nothing special happened a second ago.

But not even a second later, suddenly there was a red light coming out from the bowl and with a fast movement, William pulled out his hand, while holding a small red stone.

"Hahaha!! It's a red one! I'm just too good! Hahaha!!!", while laughing loudly and holding the stone, William turned around and pointed at Joe.

"Can you see this? The second best and what is more my Guardian is really strong. I hope you won't disappoint me, Joe! Haha!!"

"Nice job William. The red stone is the second-best among the six Soul Stones. You really have a lot of potential, so continue your hard work."

Hearing the teacher's praise, William's ego skyrocketed and with a never-ending laugh, he walked back from where he came from.

"Okay, next one."

After William, others went up one by one, however, no one was able to get a red stone again.

"7 Blue, 11 Yellow, and 4 Green and no Black stones. It seems today kids are something else." Said quietly the teacher under his breath.

The next one was Joe who went up and put his hand in the bowl.

After going through the same twitching and relaxing phase, suddenly a blinding light came from under his hand.

The holy light put everyone into awe. With a strong pull, Joe held up a beautiful white crystal clear stone in his hand.

Everybody was gobsmacked because the last person who also took out a white stone was 2 years ago and now that person was on the peak of humanity.

"W-wow..."

"Are you kidding me? White? Someone, please hit me! Maybe I'm dreaming!"

From behind, Sarah was smiling and said, "Well, that genius did a miracle again."

After the light dissipated, Joe looked at the stone in his palm and after confirming it's not an illusion he looked up at William.

Seeing that William was crunching his teeth together in frustration and anger, Joe shook his head and walked back to Greg.

"Amazing as always. Congratulations for getting your hands on one of the strongest Guardians in history Joe.", said Greg with a smile.

"Well, I was lucky", chuckled Joe and said with a smile, "But it's your turn. Only you remain. So hurry and get at least a red one. I believe you can do it."

Seeing that everyone was looking at them, Greg cleared his throat and said, "Sure."

Walking up to the bowl, now Greg could clearly see what was inside it.

Looking in it, he saw stars swimming gently on the surface of the liquid. It was like a galaxy was in that small pot.

"Beautiful.." thought Greg, but voices ruined this sight in an instant from behind.

"Hey man, will you hurry up a little?"

"Are you scared white cat? If so, say and we will call your mom! Hahaha!"

The teacher walked next to Greg and said, "Don't bother with them. Take your time and put your hand in it whenever you feel you are ready."

Greg nodded and without any further hesitations, he put his right hand in the bowl.

He thought the stars were only illusions and the pot will have a bottom, but no matter how deep he put his hand into the bowl he didn't feel its end.

After a while, the twitching sensation came, and in the next moment disappeared, just like with the others.

Greg was waiting for a light to come out but waited for a minute and nothing came, so he wanted to ask the teacher what happened, but realized that the class disappeared and he was standing in a middle of a huge hall.

On the walls, there were thousands of different kinds of crystal-like stones, all having a different color.

"Wooow... So these all are Soul Stones."

As he was looking around, suddenly stones started to shine and vibrate one by one.

"It seems they want me to choose them

It feels strange, but it's not a bad feeling."

Greg walked toward one of the closest stone and looked at it.

It was a stone as blue as the clearest sky.

Looking at it suddenly Greg felt different pictures running through his mind and with awe, he said, "So it's a water fairy. Strong in defense and healing. Hmm... Sorry, but you are not my type."

Leaving the bluestone there, Greg went and watched the other stones one by one.

There were Blue, Yellow, and Green ones, however, none of them were his type.

Of course, there were black ones also, but he didn't even bother to look at them.

When he thought he can't be picky and needs to choose one, suddenly a red light shone next to him.

"A-are you kidding me? A red one?", asked Greg with an amazing look. He looked at the red stone, while images appeared in his head one by one.

"It's the legendary phoenix? The one with the strongest healing and attack in legends? I think I'm dreaming!" thought Greg, but after confirming he wasn't hallucinating he said, "Then I think I will choose y-".

But before he could grab the stone, something strange happened.

His body froze and he couldn't move. Suddenly all the stones started to shake all around Greg.

"Why does it feel like the stones are in joy?"

While looking at the strange scene before his eyes, suddenly a colorful light appeared before Greg, almost blinding him.

It was so colorful that he couldn't even leave his eyes open and needed to close them.

When the light finally disappeared, Greg opened his eyes slowly.

However, the moment he did, his mouth opened extra wide and a while later he shouted up with disbelief.

"Huuh?! Are you kidding me??!!"