"Mirage Atlantis. Step forward."
The words echoed through the cathedral as the crowd started murmuring insults or praises.
Leo felt the world vanish into a white expanse as he only saw Mirage within that void. She turned to him with a frightened expression. Leo hid his own fear and gave her a reassuring, warm smile.
'Go get them, tigress.'
Although he only thought it, it felt as if she heard him. Mirage slowly stood up and walked through the white expanse. Soon, the world returned to normal, and Mirage was already in front of the wood.
She hesitated for a while, glancing at Leo again. Then she summoned her courage and outstretched her hand. The vines grabbed it like a hungry monster.
Time seemed to slow. Nothing happened for the next few seconds until the wood immediately burst into a bright glow that blinded everyone for a split second.
The voice came back. This time it was a bit joyous.
[Able to farm!]
[Mortal has awakened the Advent Volume]
[Mortal shall follow the Path of Ascension]
Leo's eyes widened.
'She did it. She did it!'
Soon the whole cathedral was drowned in roars.
But then Mirage immediately screamed, her eyes wide in horror as the vines unwrapped from her hands. She ignored the crowd and ran into the embrace of Jean.
"It was big... A very big snake... It almost killed me."
Jean petted her with no sign of surprise, as if he had seen this a billion times.
Leo heard what she said. 'What snake?'
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard his own name.
"Leo Atlantis. Step forward."
Leo summoned all his courage and walked forward. As he walked, he heard all sorts of murmuring.
"Isn't he one of the remaining survivors of the Zahara Clan?"
"And now he's in the Dravenor Clan. From the frying pan into the fire. Poor boy."
"Wonder how he was saved from the Shadow Assassin."
Shadow Assassin. That's what they call the vile shadow that wiped out an entire clan, singlehandedly. People believe he'll still come back. And when he does, Leo will be waiting. That's one of the reasons he needed to pass the awakening: to kill the Shadow and avenge his clan's death, while also stopping the vile thing from causing more havoc.
He had learned everything about awakening and had spent his whole life preparing for this day. Getting trained by Yariel, learning more about the Aura system, and many more events gave him a guarantee he'll surely awaken. He had also learned that the system chooses randomly and gifts abilities based on how the human can handle them.
So Mirage's part about seeing a huge snake still remained confusing to him. If she had seen a snake, she should have killed it. They hadn't been training for naught. What kind of snake had she seen?
'Let the vines wrap around my hand and then give me my volume. That's all.'
It wasn't much more than that.
As he got to the tree, he noticed Taren giving him a thumbs up. Mirage was already fast asleep in Jean's arms. Fang Rui was Fang Rui.
'I hate that bastard. "When ducks fly," huh? I'll show you.'
A sinister smile appeared on Fang Rui's face as he formed a heart with his two hands and gestured, breaking it... which translates to...
"I hate you two. The feeling is mutual."
Leo took a deep breath and stared at the wood. It was ethereally beautiful up close. It glowed and hummed, making Leo's heart ache. Leo slowly stretched his hand forward and closed his eyes. Soon, he felt the vines slowly crawling up to his elbow, then stopping at his shoulder.
'Just wait for the voice. Wait for the voice. Wait for the voice.'
His thoughts were interrupted when sand blew in his face and he couldn't feel his body anymore.
The stone floor, the roaring crowd, and the hum of the mini-orb vanished, replaced by a crushing, suffocating heat. Leo wasn't standing anymore. He was low. Uncomfortably low.
He tried to wipe the grit from his eyes, but he couldn't find his hands. In fact, he couldn't feel his arms at all. Panic flared in his chest, but when he tried to gasp for air, his tongue flicked out, tasting the air for heat.
He wasn't in the cathedral. He was in a vast, endless desert of obsidian sand under a sky the color of bruised ribs.
He tried to run, but his legs were gone. Instead, his body moved in a rhythmic, terrifying S-curve. He felt the scales on his belly grate against the sharp volcanic sand, a dry, slithering sound that echoed in the silence. He was a long, muscular cord of golden-brown diamond patterns, winding through the dunes with a speed that felt like liquid lightning.
He tried to speak, but no words came out. Then, Mirage's words echoed in his head, hitting him like a physical blow:
"It was big... A very big snake... It almost killed me."
He was the snake.
The realization sent a jolt through his long, coiled spine. How had she seen him like this in such a short time? Nothing in the recorded history of the Aura System mentioned being transported to another realm during the ceremony.
'Is this because of the Advent Volume?' he wondered, his lidless eyes scanning the dark horizon. 'Is this a test? If it is, how did Mirage pass it so quickly?'
Questions swarmed his mind, but he was too disoriented to process them. Frustration boiled over, and he tried to yell, to scream at the empty desert—but what came out wasn't a hiss.
It was a deafening, earth-shaking roar.
Leo froze. 'Snakes can roar?'
That didn't make sense. Nothing made sense. He was a thirteen-year-old boy trapped in the body of a golden predator in a world made of black glass.
Suddenly, the godly feminine voice vibrated through the air, and the hexagonal Auric Codex appeared directly in front of his snout. It looked tiny now, like a small book compared to his massive form.
[Mortal! Pass your first Seek and reach the Castle of Light!]