บท 16: Awakening (2)

Ethan's POV

The adults quickly moved aside to discuss the final steps of the ceremony, leaving me momentarily unoccupied. My gaze drifted across the cavern, and it didn't take long for me to notice Aurelia sneaking glances in my direction. When I offered her a light smile, her eyes widened in panic, and she quickly averted her gaze. Amused, I chuckled softly, but the sound only made her stare down at her toes in embarrassment.

However, my amusement was short-lived. An embarrassed expression crossed my face as I felt Mama looking at me with a smile. I tried to act normal till Grandpa called out to me.

He motioned for me to step closer and began explaining the procedure with his usual no-nonsense tone.

"This is a top-tier World Connection Crystal," he said, his voice steady and commanding. "It will allow you to sense the elements you have an affinity with. Now, strip your upper garments and calm your mind."

Before I could overthink it, Grandpa placed a hand on my head and began chanting. A soothing blue light emanated from his palm, enveloping me in a serene calmness. Every worry, every distraction melted away, leaving my mind as still as an undisturbed lake.

With steady hands, I removed my black coat adorned with the silver-lined snow eagle insignia of the Mistborn family, followed by my inner shirt and vest. Though still young, my physique was lean yet well-defined, with muscles that spoke of discipline and effort. I stepped into the pond's cool, shallow waters, feeling its tranquillity seep into my skin as I made my way to the crystal at its centre.

Reaching out, I placed my hand on the prismatic crystal's smooth, radiant surface, and in an instant, the world around me fell silent. The cavern's hum faded, replaced by a swirling vision of colours suspended in the air, flowing like smoke and waves in a mesmerizing dance. Among the vibrant hues, one stood out: a brilliant, ice-blue light that shone with unmatched clarity.

As I stared in awe, the ice-blue threads seemed to sense my presence. They began to move, gracefully coiling around my hands and body like living streams of energy. I couldn't help but laugh in sheer delight, their touch simultaneously chilling and comforting. On an impulse, I willed the strands to take shape into flowers, then birds and to my astonishment, they obeyed, assembling into intricate, ethereal forms as though they were alive and responding to my imagination.

Then, unexpectedly, the threads began to flow into my body. I could feel the initial stirrings of a monumental transformation which was the construction of my mana veins. With the temporary advanced senses granted by the World Connection Crystal, I focused inward and saw them: dense, ice-blue pathways forming alongside my blood vessels, glowing with an almost otherworldly vitality. The sensation was strange, a mixture of exhilaration and mild pain, but nothing I couldn't endure.

This was the moment I had been waiting for, the proof of my elemental affinity, the first step onto the path of a mage. Yet as I marvelled, I sensed something else. A shift. A calling. I instinctively looked up and froze in place.

Before me, a rising mass of swirling black light materialized. It wasn't just dark but it was the purest black, a void so absolute it seemed to devour every other colour around it. The blackness radiated power and mystery, like a black hole absorbing the light of the world.

Surprisingly, I felt no fear. On the contrary, it seemed... familiar, even intimate. As though responding to my will, the black mass surged toward me, hungry and unstoppable. It collided with my body in waves, rushing into my veins, fusing with the ice-blue pathways.

My heart raced with exhilaration as awakening two elements was a phenomenon so rare it bordered on the miraculous. But my triumph was short-lived.

Suddenly, an acute and searing pain erupted throughout my body, unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was as though I had been struck by a bolt of lightning. Blood began to pour from my nose and eyes, and I could feel my limbs twisting and swelling unnaturally, my body growing larger and denser, as though trying to contain something far beyond its capacity.

Panic gripped me. The pain surged, relentless and unforgiving, and I collapsed in the pool, barely able to register what was happening. As the world began to fade, a torrent of thoughts rushed through my mind:

"Am I going to die so soon? I have so many desires and goals I haven't fulfilled. What will happen to Mama and Aurelia when I'm gone? Will they grieve for me, or will it be like my first death, where I passed into oblivion, unknown and unmourned?"

With that final thought, darkness consumed me, dragging me into unconsciousness.

Eleanor's POV

I watched him with bated breath as he stepped into the icy pond, moving steadily toward the prismatic crystal. For a few long seconds, nothing seemed to happen. Then, without warning, streams of ice-blue light began converging around him, swirling like a storm caught in motion. The phenomenon was something only mages could truly perceive that was the visible manifestation of elemental energy shifting and responding to its master.

A wave of relief and joy washed over me as I saw birds and flowers begin to take form around him, their delicate shapes materializing out of the ethereal light. I couldn't help but cry out, my voice trembling with shock and joy. This was no ordinary awakening. This was the unmistakable sign of legendary-grade talent where a mage whose elements obeyed him as though they were servants when he/she awakened.

For the first time, I saw my father laugh and it was a loud, unabashed laugh, one that seemed to break the usual stern composure he wore like armour. The other two men, who had been watching with intense focus, were left stunned. They congratulated my father, yet I could see the the envy behind their smiles.

But beneath the wave of joy, a grim thought crept into my mind. How would we conceal his talent?

The moment the news spread, it would ignite chaos across the continents. Human powers, and worse, forces from the Demon and Elf realms, would come crashing down, each with their own motives and it would be mostly assassination. My heart twisted at the thought of the dangers my baby would face.

As my mind spiralled into a storm of worry and tension, I suddenly heard a loud scream of horror, I turned around and it was Aurelia's, I was about to respond when my father shouted, his voice raised in alarm. I looked up, and time seemed to slow as my gaze landed on what awaited me.

My thoughts turned blank. The world around me seemed to shift, warping as though reality itself was bending under the weight of what I was seeing. I felt a chill creep up my spine, my heartbeat accelerating in dread.