It took another three days until Ember awoke, his rampant flames stopping long enough for me to help him out.

As I did so, he seemed troubled by something, which I assumed to be a result of waking up in a medical facility you can’t afford to be cured in.

“Good morning, brother. I hope the fourth refinement revealed to you as much as it did to me?” I ask, grinning as he struggled to stand up.

“A world of flames, liquid fire and a burning ice, it was so twisted, so extremely wrong, and yet we look at it every day. It is beneath the ground, and above the skies. Is this the power we might one day command? Rivers of lava rising and falling at our command?” he asked, seemingly still struggling to comprehend what he had witnessed.

“Welcome to reality, I had a gaze into the crack between the planes, and I got to say, it's quite impressive how everything interacts with null.” I agree, pushing a bottle of water towards him, I had just filled by condensing.

“How have we never noticed that the sun is a titanic ball of flames? It makes so much sense. Balls of fire really are the ultimate form of power.” He said, drinking enough to come down from his high.

“We are in a hospital, probably about to be adopted and very likely to find passage to the second ring. Now, you are an adult, from what I can tell, but that won’t stop them from helping you get in, it seems the fourth tier is a big enough deal that commoners like us aren’t meant to reach it.”

I explained, grinning as his face morphed between surprise, exasperation and resignation.

“You know, before I met you, my life was very free of sudden events, now you are here and flip everything by just passing through. If I wasn’t profiting from your power as well, I would call you a demon or something.”

I stroked my chin at that, considering for a second.

“I am a partially eldritch creature capable of writing contracts that affect reality and gain power by consuming peoples souls, memories and a bit of their essence. That’s pretty close to your average demonic entity, I assume. I would consider myself more along the lines of the fae though, alien morality, and primarily a force of chaos, not destruction.”

His eyebrows were raised at my explanation, his eyes getting that slight glaze one had when looking at system windows privately.

“You are just an alien entity, a monster and an undead, I guess. So, call yourself whatever you want, just keep on making my life easier so we both can turn this world upside down.”

At that, he finally began getting dressed before we headed for the door, a nurse quickly greeting us.

“Hello there, three families claim your membership, and two orphanages say you ran from them. We will leave it to you to find where you belong. If you followed me? I am not getting paid enough to work with nobles.”

At that, she led us through the entire building towards an almost empty hall, fifteen people standing in groups of three, all wearing somewhat formal clothes, their eyes trained on us the moment we entered.

“Sorry to everyone, we spend a lot of time improving, so we have problems feeling our bond, so the only way of finding the right family will be a throughout screening of our compatibility.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Ember exclaimed as we moved towards the first trio, an old man with two people waiting in his shadow, the light bending around the three of them.

“We consider you strong enough to impart the affinity of lumen onto you.” The elder explained, and while they would surely help Ember become even more destructive, it felt wrong to follow them, and thus I asked.

“You plan on teaching us how to attain a second affinity?” The Arcana danced across my body as I smiled innocently at him.

“I don’t think we are part of your family, for we already know how this process works.” The man looked disappointed, but as Ember and I exchanged glances, we agreed this was a dodged arrow.

The next family included three people of pretty overwhelming strength, their mind, body and soul radiating a power that my Analyze estimated to be above the fifth refinement.

“You are worthy of reentering the family, we really thought you boys dead or something when we left you alone out there. I sense your familiars have acquired power as well, I am sure they can thrive under our guidance, every discipline is a form of power after all, and power is everything. You just need to confirm you are part of the trinity clan.” He offered, and it was quite impressive as an offer, but as Ember and I looked at each other, we decided not to make a decision yet.

“We need to test the other families, it has been quite some time since we last saw our family, so we don’t know who they are for sure.”

They nodded, leaving a positive impression as we approached the third group, wearing many emblems and the black to white fading robes our priest had worn, the radiant energy coming off them nearly blinding me.

“We sense you are destined for good, child. A great divine power brims within your heart, doesn’t it?”

The elderly women leading this trio asks, Ember put his hand on my shoulder as I suppressed the urge to attack the clerics before me, shivering a bit, while the murderous gleam in my eyes was enough to make the orphanage people shut up.

The next group we talked to were visibly at odds with the clerics, which made them immediately shoot up my rankings, before I took a look at their soul, where a rotten, twisted soul lingered.

I simply ignored them and walked away before they got an opportunity to talk, knowing how incredibly good they are at charming people and twisting opinions when they get to use their silvered tongues.

They were quite dumbfounded to be left standing like that, probably not used to it as I walk to three scholarly people in Grey robes wearing ebony masks.

They reeked of death in a way that dazed me, their souls instable and leaking power I immediately began to absorb.

“Welcome home. We promise warm fires and enough food for people as promising as you two.” The first said, his presence like a swamp, and only as I tried to ignore him did I notice how entranced I had gotten.

The second was like the aftermath of a forest fire, his presence simmering at the edge of my attention, but still radiating enough to be noticeable.

“We see you two have walked the path of ashes, and we hope to further your advancements on it.”

He said, the third nodding solemnly, their voice like the whisper in a winter night as they simply greeted us with a “Welcome home”.

That moment, the choice was made for Ember and me, our smile blooming in synergy as we observed them, his mostly coming from the people reacting to his presence as well, mine coming from the rune they had crested on their robes and masks, implying this family was probably founded by a fellow transmigrator, making it the fourth I knew of, including myself.

This world was growing more and more suspicious by the second, maybe these people could help me understand what about this world seemed to draw so many foreign souls to it, and in the worst case, I could just leech power from the badly stitched together souls these people seemed to all have in common.

Ember and I shared a glance, before he finally spoke.

“El and I are really happy to finally see you again, we didn’t expect to survive out there, but we did, and we are proud that you will take us back in.”

Thus, we walked with them, Nemo and Hannibal following shortly.

It was a bit weird to notice him again, given that he had sneaked off a lot in the last few weeks, and given my own situation, we rarely checked in on each other.

It was a new part of my life unfolding, and I had about two weeks to learn proper etiquette if I wanted to have any success in the academy. If I managed to not slaughter everyone involved for the next few years, I might actually learn something.

Though somehow, I doubted it would be this safe.

________________________________________________________________________________

The last few months had been filled with intense training, Nemo optimizing his mind as Hannibal continued to train his body, both watching their friends growth and knowing they had to keep up. Back alley fights and meow competitions had been held and won by them, the ever-increasing amount of rogue undead quickly disposed of whenever the opportunity presented itself.

They were ready for everything, and it was time to test their power in the greatest exercise of all.

They had to stay calm until their talents were needed.