Chương 150: Ceremony

"Milo!" Blood released a heartfelt roar at the arrival of Milo.

The small fox stepped off the canyon's edge and let the breeze break his fall. He landed quite a distance away from the cohort, but close enough to see him clearly.

He raised his paws and removed his hood, immediately revealing his pointed snout and triangle shaped ears.

Before Emile could say anything, Blood began walking towards the fox, excitement fueled his every step. Blood pushed his natural hand forward and shook Milo's paw once more, sticking it to Emile and the others behind him.

Meanwhile, Emile stared at the fox. In fact, Emile, Willow, and Roy held simultaneous empty gazes at Milo. Each of their brains frozen in an attempt to scramble whatever information they have into something that makes sense.

Blood dragged Milo closer to the group. His venomous gaze penetrated Emile's corneas as he parted his lips and introduced the red orange fox:

"Guys, this is Milo. Milo, these are my —" Blood got caught on his words, "these are the members of my cohort: Spright, Willow, and Roy."

Milo widened his eyes as his tail pushed his cloak up, "Hello! Hello!" he said enthusiastically.

At this moment, Emile's brain finally decided to press play and he snapped out of his daze.

"Milo!" Emile stepped forward to shake the fox's paws as well, "We were just talking about you! It's a pleasure to meet you so soon, it's not very often we meet someone shorter than Blood."

Emile quickly slid his eyes across Blood's face.

"Really?" Blood retorted.

"Blood didn't get a chance to fill us in about you —" Emile ignored Blood's comment, "please tell us about yourself."

"I actually just got back from meeting with my boss," Milo said, "he'd like to invite all of you to a Ceremony."

"There are more of you?" Willow suddenly asked.

"What's a Ceremony?" Emile asked.

"There are lots of us," Milo responded to Willow first, "and Boss told me not to tell you what the Ceremony is. He said it's better as a surprise."

"Did he?" Emile replied through a forced smile.

The moment a talking fox actually emerged Emile entered damage control mode. He not only has to deal with Blood's bragging from now on, but he's technically acting as Fallen Sky's representative, possibly even humanities representative considering the current situation.

As a result, Emile is currently acting like sunshine and rainbows. Forest natives? They must know the forest inside and out; all the treasures, dungeons, labyrinths, and even the passageways and tunnels that are hidden beneath the seams.

Befriending Milo jumped to the top of his to-do list.

"The Ceremony takes time to prepare, it'll be ready in two days." Milo added, "When it's ready, I'll return to Underneath's main entrance to guide you all through the back."

"That sounds perfect," Emile readily agreed.

After that, Milo and the rest spoke for some time more. Emile was hesitant to mention the Dead Tree and Victor, the last thing he wanted to do was get uninvited to the Ceremony.

As they bid Milo farewell, the party of four returned to normalcy. Blood dragged his eyes over Emile, a palpable heaviness contained within.

"Kiss-***," Blood immediately remarked.

"How was I supposed to know you were telling the truth?!" And the argument ensued.

Luckily, they were running out of daylight and the mysteries contained within the deserted forest pressed just the right nerves to coerce the two to drop their petty debacle.

A couple of hours later they passed the walls leading into camp and prepared for the journey ahead of them.

***

Emile sat cross-legged in his room, a stone square constructed by the builders for all the members of the camp. The room wasn't large, nor was it small; no more space than enough to fit a simple bed and chest.

At this time, Emile was sitting on his bed, a lazily thrown together amalgamation of dirt and twigs for the base covered in a thick quilt to prevent Emile from sleeping in mud.

His eyes were closed, but he was sitting upright and his hands were balled into fists. His fists sat comfortably in his lap, pushed against one another so that the grooves of his knuckles perfectly intertwined with one another.

Beneath the surface of his skin and flesh, buried deep within an unfamiliar space lay his soul core. It was iridescent, unequivocally filled to the brim with life and energy.

At this moment, Emile was concentrating heavily on that energy. He felt it constrict and expand, moving in rhythm like its own breath.

The energy coursed through his body, flooding his veins with pure essence, reinforcing his cells and purifying his impurities. After hours of concentrating on this feeling, Emile was able to follow the flow of essence through his body.

It started at his core, a semi-real semi-fictive component of his person, like a soul to some. The essence was birthed in the core and stored there, then it traveled directly into his heart and was thoroughly pumped to the rest of his being.

It was this final step that separated Emile from the likes of thousands of other Chosen, the constant flushing of essence throughout his body. In most cases and for most people, this act of integrating one's essence and body is reserved for incredibly advanced Chosen like Willow.

In many instances Willow has willed, or manipulated, her essence to reinforce and strengthen herself, such as directing essence into her legs to run faster or her arms to hit harder. This process of strengthening starts with directing your essence from your core to your heart, crossing the bridge between the realm of souls and the physical domain humanity resides in.

It is considered an advanced technique because that bridge is normally unformed, in fact, for most it is incredibly difficult to pump essence throughout your body in the first place, let alone controlling it.

Emile's enhancement crosses this bridge automatically. Without any intent or will from its owner, Emile's soul core pumps essence into his heart as it exhales and regenerates essence as it inhales.

This is how Emile's body is always regenerating, the essence is contained within his blood which reaches every inch of his body, healing him and recuperating him when it needs to.

Emile's body is constantly filled to the brim with essence, with power, but he's never known how to recognize it or control it.

Today, while sitting on a pile of mud and carbon, hidden away by the quilt he's resting on, Emile accomplished the first step; he recognized the flow of essence throughout his body and with recognition comes understanding.

Emile opened his eyes for the first time in over a day. The crust encasing his eyelids broke and light rushed into his vision.

Pushing himself off his bed, he left the stone cube he called home and entered camp. Beside his stone cube erected all the others, Willow, Roy, and Blood were already waiting outside.

"Let's go —" Emile said, stretching his muscles, "to the Ceremony."

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