Aeric stumbled forward as Head Mistress Lysandra gave him a slight shove. When he turned around, her sharp eyes dared him to argue. "What are you waiting for?" she snapped. "Move!"
Aeric looked away from her and straightened his posture, then he inhaled sharply before walking to the round door and stepping through the threshold of the sanctum. Once he entered the dark place, the door creaked shut behind him with a dum! that made his skin prickle.
There was very little that he could see there. The stone walls were dark and they pressed in around him, making him feel like there were people standing beside him at all corners, watching him. It was also strangely colder here, and an energy thickened the air, buzzing on his skin like static.
Shadows curled in every corner, refusing to be dispelled by the poor light provided by the floating crystal orbs overhead. They glowed softly, giving just enough bluish light for him to see a staircase below although it had made everything seem slightly distorted.
"Watch your step," he heard the Divine Priest say.
'Yeah, now you say it. I could have fallen and shattered my skull if I wasn't more careful,' Aeric thought with slight annoyance. He didn't like at all to be told to do something when he had already done or was about to do it, now it felt like he was doing it only because he was told to.
The staircase was winding and it led him deeper into the chamber, with each step he took, it creaked slightly beneath his weight, causing him to worry that the whole thing might break anyway. Didn't matter how careful he was.
As he descended, he felt the air grow denser, carrying with it the undeniable scent of old magic and earth. The floor opened into a wide circular chamber where the walls seemed to sing with power, lined with special drawings of celestial bodies and ancient symbols.
The center of the chamber was bare except for a large, cracked sigil inscribed into the stone floor as it shimmered faintly with a dull light. Overhead, the ceiling was arched, disappearing into the shadows above, leaving him to feel as though he was standing beneath an endless void.
'This looks like an inner sanctum alright,' Aeric thought. 'What an ominous place.' His eyes danced around the room cautiously. He couldn't quite pinpoint what made the place so unsettling, maybe it was the disconcerting stillness, or the feeling that something was watching him from within the stone itself.
"Prepare yourself for the tests," the Divine Priest's voice echoed through the chamber, breaking the silence as he began to arrange the needed supplements. As usual, his tone was flat and emotionless.
Aeric blinked, confused at what the Priest meant. So he asked. "What do you mean, prepare? What am I supposed to do?"
The Divine Priest looked at him with a gaze that could freeze a sea of magma, and in his cold, unfeeling tone, he said, "Remove your clothes."
Aeric's heart skipped a beat, and his eyes widened as a wave of disbelief crashed over him. "You said what now?"
"Remove them," the Priest repeated, his eyes never leaving Aeric's.
"Look... " Aeric said, clearing his throat and looking around. "I don't know what kind of freaky stuff you're into, or if this is some kind of bribe... I just, I don't move... that way."
The Priest looked at him with no change in his emotion. "Take off your clothes, boy."
Aeric looked into his eyes and saw that he was not messing about. 'Wait, he's actually being serious? Why would he want me to... Ugh, whatever."
He obeyed and began to take off his expensive royal clothing.
As he did this, the Divine Priest began to place some golden magical objects on the ground, making a circle with them, while explaining the need of him removing his clothes.
"It is necessary for the test to be pure, unobstructed. Clothes, especially those woven with magical fibers, can interfere with the revelation of your Divine Body. We need to see the truth."
'The truth,' Aeric pondered, half naked. He should have felt a sting of humiliation rise in his chest, but not when he possessed the kind of body he had now. Remembering his life back in the real world, all those shredded guys who were always waiting for an opportunity to show their sick abs. He was those guys now.
After a short while, Aeric had completely peeled off his garments, and he felt the cool air bite at his skin once he was fully disrobed. Soon, he stood there, stripped bare, his chiseled body catching the faint glow of the room. His muscles were tense, his frame tall and sturdy, showing the blessing of peak physical beauty and fitness that came with being a child of Eros.
A brief flicker of pride tried to sneak into his mind — after all, he knew he looked good. But it was quickly buried under the weight of his growing dread. His thoughts raced as he tried to keep his mind still.
The Divine Priest lifted his head and his eyes stopped at Aeric's manhood. He seemed shocked, though his emotionless face barely showed any surprise, the way he stared at it was telling, and Aeric was quickly becoming uncomfortable.
The Priest's gaze finally left Aeric's crotch and found his face. "I see you have abundance," he commented.
Aeric frowned. 'Abundance? Is that his way of saying I have a large cock?'
Feeling uneasy, he watched as the Divine Priest moved to the edge of the sigil, then placed the remaining of the various magical objects on the ground. They were runes, small crystal tokens, and what looked like a bowl of some strange shimmering liquid.
He worked with silent precision, his robes gliding as he moved.
'I don't know why this feels so wrong... but something about this is off. What the hell kind of test requires this?'
In order to understand what was happening, Aeric decided his best bet was to ask questions. Although he had to be careful of how he structured them, in order not to draw suspicion from the wise Priest.
"So... uhm." He cleared his throat again. "This test is gonna like... tell you what my Class and Main Skill are?"
"No. Not that. This will reveal the truth of your Divinity," the Priest explained absently, still focusing on the ground. "The aim of the test is to find out if you have any amount of Divinity inside of you. If you have a Divine Body and if there's Divinity present. That way we can be sure that you truly performed the Coming of Age and you are actually Awakened."
"Oh. That's interesting."
A stream of relief rushed through Aeric. His Personalized Class was still safe! No one knew about the God Tyrant, and even after this, no one would have to know! This was awesome. Why has eve even been so worried in the first place?
"I am bound to my Beast Companion," he pointed out to the Priest. "Doesn't that show that I'm already Awakened?"
"It is much more nuanced than that, Son Aeric."
The Prince stayed silent after that. 'Well this gets more ominous every second.'
"Are the tests difficult?" he asked.
The Priest rose to his full height and looked at him. "No."
Everything was arranged now and the magical objects already seemed to reverberate through the stone floor. As the Divine Priest spoke, the air around them thickened, vibrating with energy. He thrust his hand into the air and shouted a strong sentence of power. "Reveal the Awakened Bridge!"
Suddenly, the room darkened, transforming into a realm of pure darkness. In the very center of this realm, a bridge appeared — dark and ethereal. It extended out into a void that hadn't been there moments before. It hovered over nothingness, a thin path of bright light and shadow suspended in midair.
'What the hell is this?' Aeric's mind raced.
"You stand before the Awakened Bridge," the Divine Priest's voice echoed from afar, some distance behind him. "Walk it, Son of Starlight. Let us see your Divinity revealed."
The Awakened Bridge tested an Awakened Player's Affinity for Divinity/Divinity Sustainability in a unique style. The Bridge was only as strong as the amount of Divinity stored presently and also the amount that could be gained in the future.
If one's Bridge was weak, it meant their Affinity and presence of Divinity wasn't high. Their Bridges would collapse because of this and they would fall into the chasm below, ending the Test.
Of course they wouldn't really fall. They would only reappear right before the Priest.
Aeric stared at the Bridge as his heart pounded hard within his chest. He himself didn't know at all what the goal of this Test was for, but he stepped forward, head held high and ready to do whatever it took the get to the other side.
As his foot touched the Bridge, it didn't waver. He placed another foot, and then another, and the bridge remained steady. No creaks, no cracks.
Step by step, Aeric walked across the ethereal span, his body moving confidently even though his mind was racing.
'So far, so good...' he thought. 'I'm nearing the end now.'
'That is unbelievable...' the Divine Priest thought as he watched him carefully, his eyes narrowing in contemplation. Aeric could tell that he was weighing that gaze, but he kept moving. When he reached the other side, the Bridge still stood strong, unyielding.
"I did it, didn't I?" he turned to the Priest. "I won the test."
"Hmm," the Priest murmured, an acknowledgment that spoke volumes. When the Bridge vanished, Aeric exhaled a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He had passed the first test, but not in the manner that he thought.
Normally, the Bridges were supposed to make a little creak along the line for most Awakened Players. But for Aeric's to make no creak at all, just perfectly letting him cross. How powerful would he have to be to accomplish that?
Curiouser and curiouser.
But there was more to come.
The Divine Priest stepped forward and placed his hand on the ground. With a gesture, a large mirror rose from the floor, its surface rippling like water until it stilled. "Now, the Mirror of Revelation," the Priest intoned.
The Mirror didn't look exceptional at all. It just resembled a conventional mirror, only that it did not have wooden edges.
'I guess that's what's going to... x-ray my body.'
"Face the mirror," the Priest ordered. "Stand in attention."
Aeric obeyed. He turned fully and stood before the mirror, dreading what would come next, but also a bit curious.
The moment his gaze captured his reflection on the mirror, it did not seem like his reflection at all. Perhaps it had shifted, but before his eyes, the image that was there appeared like the a human shaped energy form.
In the mirror, his body was vibrantly glowing. It was a swirling mix of colors, mostly purple, green, blue, and pink. They were dancing beneath his skin, moving like rivers of energy, flowing through his veins.
The Priest's eyes widened and he brought his face closer to the reflection to get a better look. "Well, isn't that interesting."
One of Aeric's brow raised in curiosity. "Interesting? What is interesting?"
The Divine Priest looked at him, almost like he was worried, curious, scared and uncertain at the same time. "Your Divinity... it is overflowing."
Aeric frowned, glancing at his own reflection, his thoughts spiraling.
'Overflowing? What does that mean?'
"Normally, the Divine Body reflects the flow of Divinity, like blood in the veins," the Priest explained, his voice slightly tinged with awe. "It moves in a controlled rhythm, filling the body as needed. But in your case... it seems to be pouring out in excess. It's... unnaturally powerful."
Aeric's heart raced, though outwardly he remained calm. The colors surged in his reflection, and he felt a pang of fear. 'Is he saying that I have an excessive amount of Divinity stored inside of me?'
"You have an excessive amount of Divinity stored inside of you," the Priest declared.
Aeric frowned. 'Yeah. That's exactly what he's saying.'
"This has never happened before in this world. Your pattern, your Divine energy streams, they're pumping the Divinity through your body in an accelerated pace, your whole body is being advanced by the Divine energy."
The Priest traced his hand through his reflection. "Its strengthening your lungs, which will give you stronger breathing, your muscles which will give you strength and resilience, your heart which will give you stamina and defiance, your brain which will make you smarter and quicker to absorb information, and surprisingly even your manhood, which will make you perform better in the act of romance. You have been blessed with the peak body of man."
Aeric wanted to gasp or punch the hair in excitement, but standing naked there, the only thing he truly wanted was to put his clothes back on.
Nevertheless, what a splendid news!
The Priest sighed and went ahead to document his discoveries in a large tome he used as a journal. "Go on now. Put your clothes back on."
With gratitude, Aeric hurriedly wore his clothes while the Priest documented.
"I have reached a conclusion based on the tests," the Priest announced once he was done.
"Okay," Aeric said, buckling his shirt. "What's your verdict?"
"You are Awakened. In fact, you are even more Awakened than everyone else in this Institution."
Aeric nodded. "That's a relief to hear. So can I go now?"
"Which is where the problem lies," the Priest said, seemingly not finished earlier.
Aeric's eyes narrowed with some worry and his heart sunk a bit. "What problem?"
"You have questioned the order of things in this realm more than once. No one has ever been Classless or Skill-less after their Awakening. And no one has ever amassed as much Divinity as you have in your Divine Body. Your Affinity is so high that if it had shone inside that hallway, you would have ended up blinding the entire Daughters and teachers."
Aeric wasn't sure whether he was exaggerating.
"So you have left me no choice but to put you in my list for Suspicious Tampering of the Magical Order!" The Divine Priest declared, causing Aeric to recoil back in fear.
'What?'
"I could put you straight away into the list of certainty, you'd no longer be a suspect but a full culprit who has somehow found a way to tamper with the magical system of our world. A Hacker!"
Dum!
Aeric snapped backwards in fear once again. 'What! He thinks I'm... hacking the game?!!!'
"I will assume for your father and mother's sake that this is only a small misunderstanding and perhaps your Class is taking a bit of a time to allow itself for Declaration. So I'll give you the days of seven for it to reveal itself! Once seven days pass and there is still no Class to be Declared to the world, you'll leave the Suspect list and become a Felon! An enemy of the Divinity!"
Aeric was still shock, his eyes staring at the Priest who stared back with his cold, stern ones. "Am I understood, boy?!"
He nodded his head slowly. "Yes, Divine Priest."
"You have seven days, Aeric of Starlight!" the Priest warned. "Seven days!"
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