Kapitel 3: Just A Hallucination?

"W-What? Are you kidding me?", shouted Greg after seeing a black stone floating in front of his face.

Looking at the stone closely, it was just like the other Soul Stones, without anything special about it, except for its black color.

"What in the world? This is some kind of jo-",

Just as he wanted to finish his sentence, suddenly strange scenes started to appear in his mind one by one.

Six different looking creatures, tons of exploded dimensional zones on earth's different points, beginning of a new calamity and the start of humanity's extinction.

In the next second, these horrible pictures suddenly changed into a new one. Six artifacts, a black Soul Stone with a small rotating universe in its inside and another scene with the six creatures, but this time they were all collapsed in their blood, while next to them was a mysterious figure, who was standing proudly above all of them.

If someone saw the man, somehow they started to feel disgusted, pity, anger, and some unknown negative emotions appearing inside their chest.

Greg felt all these strange emotions swelling deep inside him, even though he didn't know who the man was. It was a strange and bizarre feeling.

All these strange things appeared and vanished in Greg's mind.

When everything finally stopped, suddenly the black stone started to hover closer to Greg's head and when it touched his temple, a blinding light broke out.

***

Outside the Altar, people watched as Greg was about to put his hand into the bowl.

"Let's see what that trash can get. It would be a miracle, if he could get even just a yellow one, haha!", said William loudly, while he looked at Joe on the other side of the Altar.

"As for you... You just wait Joseph. I will show you that our family is much stronger and mightier than yours. You will be crushed under my feet and will cry for my forgiveness!"

As one second went after another, someone started to feel strange and asked confusedly, "Hey, what's happening? Why did nothing happen?"

"Yeah, now that you say it... Greg is standing there awhile."

Feeling that something was wrong, people started to murmur with each other. Even Joe felt that something wasn't right.

Seeing the strange scene too, the teacher said quietly, "Strange... it couldn't be that no Guardians want him, because he succeeded to get into the Altar. Even if he can't get a common Soul Stone, a black one should be the minimum."

When the time reached 1 minute someone shouted, "Hey... Are you kidding right? It has been already one minute, so doesn't it mean he is already in there about 10 hours?"

Realizing this fact, everyone was stunned in an instant. Just as the teacher wanted to step forward to do something, suddenly a blinding and colorful light broke out.

"Damn! My eyes!!"

"I can't see anything!"

People instantly closed their eyes, because of the blinding light, however, the teacher didn't. He was watching the scene happening before him like a movie in a theater, but instead of enjoyment, his expression was dumbstruck.

"All six colors broking out at the same time? There was once in history when a guy got two different Soul Stones, but it was only two. Don't tell me he got all six."

As the colorful light continued to shine, Greg started to pull his hand out and in that instant, the light started to dissipate.

When his hand was fully out of the bowl, everything turned back to normal.

Seeing as everything stopped, people started to open their eyes one by one, but the moment they saw the stone in Greg's hand they froze up.

It was black. As deep black as the deepest abyss in the world. However, that was all, nothing else.

"Huh? Black? I thought I saw a red light, so why is it black?"

"Red light? I saw a blue."

"What are you talking about? I thought my heart will stop when I saw the white light, you morons. It was white, not red nor blue!"

People started to argue and say similar things like those, cause they saw different colored lights, but one thing was common between their statements. What they all could see at the moment was a black Soul Stone and nothing else.

"Hahaha!! I knew it! Trash always remains trash! Hahaha!!!" William on the side started to laugh crazily while pointing at Greg.

Ignoring the laugh, Greg was silently looking at the stone in his hand.

"No... Was it really just an illusion?", thought Greg confusedly, not believing what he was watching at the moment.

Seeing that he wasn't hallucinating at all, he looked up and a while later he walked back hurriedly to Joe.

When he arrived next to him, he noticed the questioning look in his eyes, but not knowing what to say, Greg just shook his head with a wry smile.

After seeing that strange scene from a minute ago, the teacher cleared his throat and started to talk.

"Well... It seems everyone got their Soul Stones, so tomorrow we will size up your Guardians. Until then go home and rest. William and Joseph, you two come with me."

Hearing his name, Joe turned to Greg and after thinking for a bit, he said, "Sorry, but it seems I can't go with you. But we will meet tomorrow."

"Sure, no problem.", said Greg with a smile and turned around to leave.

"Now I start to feel sorry for him. His mother and father died years ago, he is alone all the time and now his future dreams are broken. I don't understand how he didn't look depressed after getting his Soul Stone." said Sarah from Joe's side, as she watched Greg's leaving figure.

Joe started to think about something, but after a while, he just sighed and said, "I know him well. Maybe he looks sometimes pitiable and a lot of people look down on him, but I don't. Because he is the only person I know, who works harder than anybody else, so this is why I know, he will be fine. He always finds a way, because that's him... a guy who never gives up."

Sarah looked at Joe's firm eyes and with a chuckle, she said, "Oh look at you. You look so cool even as you talk about your friend."

Joe just shook his head, turned around, and started to walk toward the teacher. Sarah just smiled and followed him from behind.

***

Somewhere in the city, Greg was standing before a small house. After opening the door, what waited for him was nothing but sheer silence.

After going in with a sigh, he closed the door behind him, and with a lazy jump, he fell on top of his bed, while burying his face deep into his pillow.

After an unknown amount of time, he turned around and slightly raised his right palm.

As he watched his hand, suddenly a black stone appeared at the top of his palm, which floated gently above it.

The stone was an egg-shaped, deep ink black crystal-like stone. It was like small charcoal, but with a shining texture. However, except for the shape and color, there was nothing special about it.

Greg looked at the stone above his palm and after a while, he sat up and said, "Strange. Why can't I feel anything from it? It's like it has no Guardian in it."

Thinking for a bit, Greg tried to concentrate on the stone, but still, nothing happened. Just as he was about to put it away, a light came out of the stone.

What appeared before him was a white rabbit, which looked at him with its black little eyes.

"A rabbit? How funny.", said Greg with a wry smile and tried to take the rabbit in his hands, however, it suddenly changed into a blackbird and started to fly around the room.

"A bird? Don't tell me..." thought Greg, but a while later his eyes started to get rounder and rounder.

After the bird flew back to him, it changes into a small green lizard, which after climbing up on his chest it changed into a yellow snake, making Greg's body stiffen in an instant. The snake went around his neck and after stopping before his face just it looked deep into his eyes.

Not knowing what he should do, Greg started to think for a solution, but not even a second later the snake went back down and changed into a blue turtle, then into a reddish little fox.

In the end, it turned back into the little white bunny, which looked at Greg with those bean-sized eyes.

Greg was so dumbstruck that he couldn't even move for a while. Only after a minute did he came back to his senses and looked at the rabbit and the stone in his hand.

"Strange... I don't remember learning that body changing spirits could be found in black Soul Stones. They only appear on the blue level or above." thought Greg confusedly and after a while, he said to the rabbit," Turn into a snake!"

The rabbit, after hearing Greg's order, instantly changed into its yellow snake form.

"Woow! Amazing!" shouted Greg excitedly.

Greg started to look closer and noticed that the snake was only one foot in length There were no scales or anything else, only the skin itself was yellow.

"Now change into a bird! Now let me see your fox form! So cool!!"

While Greg was experiencing and studying his Guardian, somewhere far away in a huge mansion two people were kneeling before a man.

"Sir, it seems another one with a white Soul Stone appeared today. And what we heard he has a special Guardian."

"Another one? It's the second one today. How interesting... What is his name?"

"Yes. His name is Dia Joseph. However, he is from the Dia family, one of the five Great families. What is your order, Sir?"

The man started to think and after a while, he said," Bring him here alive, but the Dia family should know nothing about this so do it precisely, not making a huge fuss."

"Yes!"

With that, the two kneeling figures disappeared in an instant, leaving the man standing alone in the moonlight...