Turning away from the scene of carnage and looking towards the disciples and clan members, a warm smile appeared on patriarch Gavin's face.
"Good morning my disciples! hope you don't mind the scene it was just caused by some friendly competition between some elders, it's nothing to be concerned about"
"the awakening ceremony will still go ahead as scheduled you can head up onto the platform and the ceremony will start shortly"
As Dante was about to head towards the awakening platform figure suddenly appeared in front of him
"Patriarch!" Exclaimed Dante
"How many times do have to tell you just call me uncle" sighed Gavin
"you're really just like your father you just love fighting and causing problems for everyone"
"And that cold look, tch, tch. wasting your good looks I tell you! trust me you don't want to end up like your father scowling and glaring all the time, look at him, he's got no friends now his only friend is his big brother, how sad is that!"
"Anyway, I just came along to check how you're doing, you're still my nephew at the end of the day!"
After saying this Patriarch Gavin lightly patted Dante on the shoulder
"well, I wish you good luck for the rest of the ceremony!"
"Thanks uncle." said Dante
As he walked towards the platform
'Strange?' wondered Gavin
'Wonder why he's calling me uncle all of a sudden. he seems to really have changed'
As Dante walked forward an uncontainable excitement started growing in his heart, after watching his father's destructive powers in action his thirst for power only grew
'This is the first step in my story towards the top it all starts here.
A slight smirk of anticipation appeared on his face as he daydreamed of making fighting all the way to top becoming emperor of the world.
'Damn I need to calm down, I'm getting drunk on power I don't even have. while being supreme in the world is nice, I need to think realistically here. just awaken the regular flame snake martial spirit and stably inherit the position of First Elder from father and live a content life' thought Dante pushing away the wild thoughts in his head
...
Minutes later, the awakening platform was fully packed with around 40 children ranging 12 to 14 from children of elders to children of servants all of them were gathered here to determine their future. In front of such an important occasion all of them were equal at this point in time.
Suddenly the patriarch spoke out
"I hope all of you are ready it's now or never let the ceremony begin"
Then there was an extravagant cheer from the spectators while the kids on the platform waited with baited breath.
all of sudden the platform Dante was on stood out burst out in a magnificent light!
Soon,there was a commotion to his side.
Dante turned around a looked and saw a floating plain longsword above one child's head .
Seemed as if someone had awakened A martial soul allowing him to take first step to becoming a martial master
As if to start a chain reaction, martial spirits start appearing from Plants to spears but the most common was the flame viper although they all varied in length from 30cm to 3 m long around 25 of 40 children ended up awakening flame viper spirit
All of sudden there was shout and commotion this time even elders were affected
A wave of vibrant red martial energy rushed towards Brian from the awakening platform
"Bang!"
"Arrrrgh!"
There was a fierce explosion and Slowly, a giant phantom of a 5 metre long flaming king cobra wearing a crown of black scales appeared.
"This.. that's the flame king cobra martial spirit!"
"The same martial spirit as the patriarch!" exclaimed another onlooker
Meanwhile on the stand for the elders
"hahaha my disciple is a genius , I knew my vision couldn't be wrong!"laughed grand elder Harrison
"How about it patriarch definitely a talent worth the clan training resources should be poured into talents like these" continued Harrison
"Uh-huh " replied Gavin nonchalantly seemingly pondering something else
"By the way How's your son doing Winton he seems to be struggling don't tell me he's not gonna awaken a martial spirit?" Asked Harrison with fake concern.
"That's none of your concern and anyway the ceremony has still not finished don't look down on him he might surprise you, he's my son after all."
hearing this response Harrison's face contorted into an ugly grimace
"well we will see if he truly is amazing as you say" snorted Harrison
…
Back on the awakening platform Dante was still stood proudly with a cold look on his face but internally he was sweating a storm
'Fuck, why am I not awaking my martial soul don't tell me I can't even awaken one'
'Fuck I'm gonna embarrass myself in front of everyone. I knew awakening my memories changed something I should've just stayed in bed, ahhh fuck my lifffe!' Screamed Dante internally
On the outside whispers and talk started seeing no change in awakening platform
"Seems like the ceremony's over"
"How can that be Dante still hasn't awakened a martial soul he's the son of the first elder you know "
"Trash will always be trash nothing will ever.."
"Rumble! Rumble!"
Just as he was speaking thunder clouds rumbled across the sky blotting out the sun Turing the sky dark
Suddenly rain started pouring from the sky
Then Dante heard a sound
"Ding!"
"Welcome to Dragon Dawn !"
'The hell is that sound' wondered Dante
Looking up at the loud thundercloud and seeing lightning flickering across it Dante had bad feeling
'Surely not right , the chances are too small'
"Bang !"
Before he could finish thoughts
Dante was hit by bolt of lightning sending electric currents coursing through him
"Fuck meeee!" Dante let out a loud wail of pain
"Bang !"
Another lightning bolt struck Dante
"Arrrrgh!" Dante's mind seemed to go blank with pain all he could do was left out a gut wrenching scream of pain
"Roaaar!" suddenly a bone chilling roar erupted from Dante's body seemingly synchronising with his wail of pain
"The fuck is that" asked one onlooker in fear
"Seems to be Dante" said another in terror
"Boom!" A geyser of flames erupted from Dante evaporating all the rain in area . While the roar emanating from his body got stronger until it seemed to shake the very heavens.
From the roaring flames walked out a gargantuan beast, bringing with it a wreaking stench of brimstone and sulphur.
It was covered in armour-like Scarlett scales whilst also being supported by four huge limbs that seemed to be packed with explosive power.
Furious amber eyes glared from within the creature's skull while two enormous obsidian horns rise out from its head curved backwards. Its head was supported by a long muscular neck.
Gigantic wings grew from its shoulders down to it's its back. They were spread out showing their humongous wingspan glowing in a bright red hue as if they were made of fire itself. A long scaly tail extended from its rear swaying around to claim its territory.
Dragon! It was a dragon a majestic dragon from western fantasy. A creature at the apex of food chain, true rulers of the material plane
…
Meanwhile at the elders stands
"What… what sort of beast is that ?" Asked an elder in fear
"Seems to be a type of mutated fire lizard " said another
"Mutated my ass! no matter how mutated you get it impossible to have that kind of fearsome aura plus why does it have wings!"
Back on the platform
Dante let a fierce howl intoxicated on the power he felt flowing through him
In fear all surrounding children backed off
All but one, Brian
'How amazing can a mutated fire-lizard be anyway' he thought to himself
'All must submit before the aura of the king, the aura of me!' he thought to himself blinded by his arrogance.
As he thought this the cobra above himself let out a screech an invisible regal aura like a king before it's subjects it seemed be demanding submission from its people.
Feeling the aura, the red dragon turned to look at the king cobra.
Seeing a lesser creature dared to challenge its prestige, it saw it as nothing less than a great humiliation' how dare such an inferior breed of snake dare and try to subdue it, an actual mature True Dragon, an apex species throughout the multiverse ! The Red Dragon couldn't handle such an insult, it's pride as a True Dragon just wouldn't allow it. It was completely and utterly infuriated!
The Red Dragons eyes flushed red with fury,Then the Dragon then let out a sky-shaking roar sending furniture and weaker people in the audience flying about randomly.
But it didn't end there as a horrendous and maddening aura erupted with the dragon as the centre. Releasing an iconic skill of dragon kind, 'aura of dragon fear'
"Crac!"
One after another, Martial spirits started to shatter under the irresistible pressure of dragon aura like fragile pieces of glass.
The victims were brought to there knees shivering under the pressure.
Weaker people couldn't even withstand it and rendered unconscious wetting themselves in fear'
"Arrgh!"
" Someone help me please!"
"I don't want to die!"
shrieks of terror erupted from the surroundings
"Stop him now before he cause any more damage!" shouted an elder in desperation as he tried to calm and organize the surrounding clansmen
Seeing the chaos an elder shot into the sky rushing towards Dante
"Dante stop can't you see the chaos your causing!" screamed the elder
Turning his head towards the sound there was no reaction on Dante's face . If you looked closely at his eyes, you could see there was only a primal fury left without even a speck of reason left inside!
Seeing no reaction from Dante, the elder prepared to attack
Seeing the elder approaching, Dante roared while the chest of the red dragon rapidly expanded as tongues of flames flickered across its nose.
"Roar!"
As the elder entered range of the dragon he was quickly bathed in a tyrannical dragon flame
"Bang!"
Quickly, the elder threw up a energy shield but it was too late.
a horribly burnt but still breathing elder fell out the sky plunging into the earth like a meteor.
"Bang!"
Letting out triumphant roar the Red Dragon flew into the sky looking down on the crowd arrogantly, as if it was a God looking at a group of ants.
Suddenly a tired sigh was heard in Dante's ears
"Sigh, Dante that's enough"
"void shattering fist."
All of a sudden, a gigantic fist of purple energy condensed in the air
"Swoosh "
The gigantic fist was sent hurtling at the dragon
Sensing the terrifying aura of the fist, the Red dragon's aura erupted in attempt to resist but in the face of such a complete power gap It was futile
"Bang!"
"Roaaar!"
Feeling the unstoppable power of the fist, the Red dragon let out a heart-chilling roar of fury!
"Crac!"
Despite the efforts of the Red dragon it still shattered under the force of the fist exploding into fragments
"Blergh!"
As soon as the Red dragon shattered Dante collapsed to the floor and spat a mouthful of blood.As he rose up from the floor up from the floor, Slowly Dante's senses started coming back to him
'What the hell happened? and why do i feel like I've just been hit by a truck?' Dante thought to himself
As he looked up to the sky he
Saw the patriarch floating in the sky
"With that I will conclude the ceremony" said patriarch Gavin
"Despite the troubles caused, the ceremony was still completed marking the start of your cultivation journey and for those whose martial spirits have shattered. You don't have to worry, no damage was caused to you since the martial spirit was summoned by the awakening platform "
"But don't think that shattering your martial spirit has no affect, a shattered martial spirit can severely damage if not cripple you, so be careful when summoning them. Not like it's something you'll have to worry about any time soon, you kids won't be able to summon your martial soul at your current cultivation level so don't get ahead of yourselves "
After saying this patriarch Gavin Flew away
Seeing that Patriarch Gavin had finished his speech Dante sluggishly walked away. He was so stunned that when he walked away he didn't notice the looks of fear cast his way as they rushed out of his path as he walked back to his room
As he entered his room Dante felt his splitting headache get worse. he was so tired that he didn't even bother to take off his robes and just jumped straight into his bed
…
Meanwhile in a sect in a faraway place, a shrivelled old man seemed to be bleeding from all orifices but a cruel smile appeared on his face.
"Hahahaha" cackled the old man
"Finally he has appeared, the last child of heaven has been awakened!!" cried the old man out in joy
Just as he was rejoicing to himself a charming young man walked into the room
"So any details? " questioned the young man
"Yes young master " responded the decrepit old man
" he seems to be from a smaller continent on that continent his background seems to mildly strong but definitely not from any major sects or clans on the main continent "
"In addition to this he seems to have only recently awakened a martial spirit" said the old man
"Is that all you could find"asked the young man
"Yes young master Callius, nothing else can be found no matter how hard anyone else tries the heavens won't you to know anymore,"said the old man
" I see so you have accomplished your purpose," said Callius
"Bang!"
Before the old man could react his head burst exploding into pieces flying across the room
"Unfortunately you knew just too much" lamented Callius with a sigh
" out of all the children of heaven, It seems that none are a threat to my domination. The only other children of heaven worth paying attention to are the dragon-Prince of the merfolk and maybe the sword maiden after them all other children of heaven are trash in my eyes" said Callius thinking aloud
"Even then no one can stop rise to heavenly emperor all can only be my nourishment even if your the dragon-prince" as he said this a crazy smile appeared on Callius's face
…