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Condemned To Death
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11th September, 1507
“Phase two will begin now. Those who failed the first phase will stay behind.” Elara’s voice echoed through the cold night air.
Logan and Landon stayed behind with those who failed the first phase, while Elara led the remaining 24 youths toward the Luminar tree. Among those left behind were not just commoners but also heirs of some Lexarch families as well. Their families had held great expectations for them, but it was not lineage that decided victory—it was talent and the will to risk everything.
After the age of 15, your chances of becoming a Lexarch are greatly diminished and you will have to find unorthodox ways to become a Lexarch which is not only extremely hard but also dangerous.
But the sheer difficulty of the Rite stems from the fact that each year a new opponent is summoned by the Luminar tree so no one can predict what they will be fighting next. Lexarchs that have gone through the process teach their kids to fight in all different kinds of situations.
This was even more so for breaking the gem as very few people in the history of Realm’s Rite managed to break the gem. Almost all the breaks happen during the first 5 – 10 matches of the Rite before their opponent gains enough intelligence to not fall for any useless tricks.
...
After reaching the base of the Luminar tree everyone could clearly see the 100s of white dandelion silently drifting in the wind. Just the base of the Luminar tree stretched out over 200 meters with each of its trunks being at least 5 meters thick and in the ethereal night that was filled with countless stars, the dandelions were giving off a soothing light that calmed the soul with their tiny pellets that swayed gently.
Elara's voice then broke the majestic mood, “The order you will be going in is the same order you fought the minotaur. Finn, you’re up first”.
Finn walked forward with unsettling steps, and when he reached the field of dandelions he looked back in Elara’s direction with wariness in his eyes.
‘This is all you want to say right, there’s not going to be any monster out for my life this time right?!’
Elara just smiled back at him without saying anything.
This only made Finn raise his guard even further as he cursed in his mind.
‘Fuck my past self. Not only did I not break the gem with my own strength, but not even a single girl came up to congratulate me. Like hello??? You just saw a tall, beautiful man like myself pull off something someone might not even accomplish in 100 years and you're not even going to fall for him’.
He reluctantly plucked a single dandelion and took a close look at it.
After staring at the dandelion for 10 seconds, Finn took a deep breath as drops of sweat formed on his forehead. Then he closed his eyes and threw the whole dandelion into his mouth, but he could not get it to go down his throat. So, he had to chew the dandelion which tasted extremely bitter with a gross taste that made Finn want to throw up, but he held out till the end and finally gulped it down.
Then with heavy breathing, Finn placed his hand on one of the tree trunks and waited.
10 seconds went by and nothing happened.
30 seconds went by and still nothing.
By the 1-minute mark, Finn was almost on the verge of tears since this meant that he had no resonance with the Heavens, so there was no way for him to become a Lexarch.
Finn was from a mid-sized Lexarch family and was one of the main heirs of the family. He was expected to be at least Apex grade or Ethereal if lucky. The kids from Lexarch families that are deemed to be incapable of becoming one usually end up being cast out of the family and abandoned.
Finn was about to take his hand off the bark when his body suddenly gave off a blinding red light. The tears that were on the verge of erupting instantly broke free as they rolled down his eyes. With a large smile, tears rolling down his face and a bit of snot coming out his nose, Finn turned around and shouted happily.
“HAHAHA, Lorien look I’m an Apex grade, I’m not going to be a commoner for the rest of my life!”
Lorien heaved a sigh of relief when he saw this because even he was worried that Finn might have hit the 20% possibility of having a dissonate body that was rejected by the Heavens.
Finn then walked back with a big smile on his face like a puppy that had just gotten its first treat. Just when he walked past Elara, he heard him say “Oh, did I forget to mention you’re not supposed to eat the dandelion but only place it in your mouth, if you eat it then it just slows the process down”.
Finn looked at Elara with his mouth wide open and eyes twitching slightly. Finn then instinctively leaped towards Elara like a crazed monkey that had spotted its prey as it shouted with a contorted face.
“YOU SHIT FACE! DO YOU NOW HOW STRESSED OUT I WAS!” is what he wanted to say. But he held himself back as he stayed rooted in his spot. He then forced a smile on his face, his eyes twitching as he said in an obviously annoyed tone, “Sir, please be mindful of your memory”.
Lorien on the side let out a chuckle before quickly stopping himself, then Finn who just heard Lorien chuckle instantly teleported next to him as he gave him a side-eye and asked in a taunting tone, “Oi, did you just laugh at me?”.
“No, you must have misheard,” Lorien said with a straight face as he looked ahead, refusing to make eye contact with Finn.
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“Susie, it’s your turn” Elara called out.
The girl with the bob cut moved towards the tree without a hint of anxiety and a determined gaze. After the battle with the minotaur, she had become more confident in herself and no longer appeared as a girl who was constantly fidgeting.
While Finn and Lorien were bickering in the background, Susie had already placed her hand on the tree trunk. Then suddenly Susie’s body lit up in a white ethereal light that made the onlookers shut their eyes.
“H-Hey I’m not hallucinating right?” A youth commented with disbelief evident in his voice.
“A commoner actually managed to become an Ethereal grade in a single go?!”
Everyone was left shocked because all of them knew it takes an incredible amount of time and a long family lineage of strong Lexarchs to give birth to an Ethereal grade. This lucky girl had actually managed to become an Ethereal grade in one shot.
Then a branch from the Luminar tree came alive and extended out as it got close to Susie who was still processing what had just happened. She saw the branch get close to her and she immediately went on high alert as her grip tightened on her ninjato, but the branch didn’t do anything after coming face-to-face with Susie. The branch then broke apart on its own and landed in Susie’s hands.
After a few seconds, the branch began to transform as its body morphed into a liquid form. First, the branch elongated into a long, smooth, dark stick. Then, at one end of the stick, a 90-degree angle formed with a curved part transitioning from wood to a material resembling steel. The resulting steel blade took the shape of a half-crescent moon that had a deep, dark blue hue to it.
The weapon that Susie had gotten was a scythe and an extremely large one at that.
All the youths stared with jealousy at the girl who had not only gotten an ethereal grade but also a weapon from the Luminar tree. Even Elara was a bit surprised because, in his whole life, he had only seen 10 kids that managed to break the gem on the minotaur and all of them only received 1 gift from the tree. Susie wasn’t from a Lexarch family, so it logically does not make sense for her to be an Ethereal grade unless it was a gift from the Luminar tree, but Susie had also obtained a weapon.
Susie still didn’t understand the gravity of her situation. If she was nurtured well, she might even be able to become as strong as one of the 3 family heads that govern Chimera Vale.
Finn on the side who saw this was getting ready to hang himself after witnessing the absurdity of this girl’s luck and blamed the gods for being unfair to him and not giving him a gift.
“Keep a watch on that girl” Elara instructed Kaelen in a strict tone.
After Susie walked back with the scythe in one of her arms, she was instantly surrounded by the kids who bombarded her with questions.
“How did you become an Ethereal?”
“Does that weapon have any special abilities?”
“C-can we be friends?”
Susie felt overwhelmed at the sudden attention she was receiving because she had never really interacted much with people her age. She was always busy with training, working a job to get food on the table, or spending what little time she had with her family.
“Alright enough, you guys can do this stuff after the Rite is over,” Elara said in a commanding voice. The youths backed off slowly. They then prepared themselves mentally for their results for the second phase.
Slowly, one by one, all the youths came forward for their turn in assessing their grade. Most of them were grade Arcana, while a small portion of them received Lumina. There were even some who didn’t receive a grade and had their dreams shattered.
To nobody’s surprise, both Kai and Lorien received Ethereal grades because they were the direct descendants of the Valorheart and Ashbourne families.
One of the bald brothers managed to get an Apex grade while the other one only received an Arcana grade.
“Hey, aren’t those two Ethan and Noah from the Valorheart family?” Someone from the crowd asked curiously.
“No, even though in name they belong to Valorheart, both of them are not direct decedents. They are from a mid-sized family that was absorbed into the Valorhearts 50 years ago” Another kid explained.
“Ah yes now I remember, I believe their family was called”
“Mirrorborn”
Some of the kids in the crowd discussed quietly, trying not to be overheard by the two brothers.
Both brothers seemed to be happy with the results and didn’t seem to care about the difference in grades.
While the crowd was discussing the new developments with their soon-to-be classmates, their attention was suddenly caught by another blinding white light that came from the direction of the Luminar tree.
Another Ethereal was being born!
“WAIT WAIT, both Kai and Lorien have already gone and there’s no one else left from the large the families” one of the kids said in bewilderment as he tried to make out who it was through the blinding light.
When the light finally subsided, and the onlookers finally regained their vision, they were instantly confused after taking a look at the new ethereal grade.
It was the girl with the jet-black hair, a deep blue ruqun and cold cyan eyes.
No one recognized which family she was from until one of the youths said with a look of enlightenment in an unrestrained voice “Wait, I just recalled she’s Elise from the Frostshade family”.
“Huh, isn’t Elise an illegitimate child who wasn’t even let into the family” one of the youths tried to confirm.
“S-so you’re telling me our class has another ethereal grade” A sense of incredulity settled in as the youths tried to wrap their head around the situation.
Elise didn’t look surprised at receiving an ethereal grade. With a cold expression, her eyes moved to the side a bit and took a sneak peek at Kaelen, who was observing this scene with an apathetic expression.
She retracted her gaze and went back to join the crowd. The kids weren’t sure if they should approach Elise or not since she was cast out from the Frostshade family and being close to her might drag them into the family drama of the Frostshade.
Surprisingly, everyone chose to ignore Elise and stay away from her for the fear of getting caught in unwanted trouble.
While this was happening, Elara interrupted in a loud voice “Seren, you're the last one”.
Seren got up from his secluded spot and walked up to the Luminar tree with an unperturbed expression. After putting the dandelion in his mouth, he stretched out his hand. When his hand touched the bark, his body instantly lit up in a yellow light.
Seren had no change in his expression as he had already expected to be given the rank Lumina, but Seren was waiting for something else.
Then, suddenly his brain was hit with a wave of information, he endured the relatively mild pain with ease. The pain only lasted 3 seconds before the information was fully transferred to his brain.
Seren’s eyes for the first time, turned wide open as he couldn’t believe the gift that was bestowed to him by the Luminar tree. Seren even suspected that ‘He’ might have influenced the Luminar tree to give him this absurd gift.
Not having any time to analyze his current powers, Seren quickly controlled his facial expression before returning to an expressionless state and turning around to walk back to the group.
No one was surprised that Seren, even with his impressive performance with the minotaur had only received a lumina grade, but they were very much interested in what gift Seren might have received from the Luminar tree.
Elara and the other elders tried to read Seren’s expression to discern the quality of the gift he had received, but they didn’t infer anything useful from Seren’s expressionless face.
Putting this matter to the back of his head, Elara then announced with a smile “Congratulations to everyone that have made it this far. You are now qualified to become full-fledged Lexarchs”
The crowd of teenagers gave a big sigh of relief before some of them started crying.
“Mom, I've made it... I'm going to become a Lexarch. All those years of sacrifice, all your hard work... it's finally paying off. Now, you can finally rest knowing that your efforts weren't in vain."
All the commoners and some kids from small Lexarch families had similar reactions to this.
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Condemned To Death
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