[3rd Person POV]

Arthur woke up as usual, at 6 am sharp. Over years, it had become quite a habit of his. He freshened up and looked at himself in the mirror. He was a fairly handsome guy with dark blue hair and crimson red eyes. He had fair olive skin and a regular build, nothing abnormal for a 15 year old kid. With determination in his eyes, Arthur jumped out of his room’s window, which was on 2nd floor and began his morning jog.

Arthur lived with his parents and his little sister in lower district of Xaviers City, one of the minor cities of Akaron Empire, in the continent of Raga. His parents were fairly average humans with average abilities and worked day and night in order to feed their children and afford Arthur’s school fees. His father worked in the local smith and his mother did household chores for the wealthy families living in upper district. Arthur was very intelligent since young age and understood the pain his parents went through every day to earn enough for his school fees and that is the reason why he always worked hard. He went to the local school of lower district and was always at the top of his class in everything. He was well aware that his parents had accumulated a lot of fatigue in recent years and if they continued working in this way, their health will be severely affected. Plus, his sister Amy will turn 8 years old this year and that was the official age of starting school. By their current circumstances, it was the next to impossible for his parents to afford her education and unless he did something to alleviate their financial situation, there will no hope for his sister. Arthur knew that he had only a single shot if he wanted to do something for his family, a single chance to go from the bottom of the ladder to the top in a single go, a single chance to gain power and protect his family from all harms. The Awakening.

In the world of Drexus, every living sentient species will go through Awakening when they reach adulthood, a process in which any latent talent or abilities hidden inside a child awakens and grants them special powers. Everyone awakens to some ability and the strength of each ability varies greatly. Some awaken to mediocre abilities while some have some heaven-defying and powerful abilities. After awakening his/her ability, a person can then start on the path of cultivation and is normally believed that the stronger your ability, the better your talent will be in cultivation and you’ll always be one step ahead of everyone. The strength an ability is normally measured by tiers ranging from 1-10 and can be identified during the time of Awakening by calculating the number of hours you spent in the process. A person spending an hour awakens to a tier 1 ability, 2 hours to a tier 2, 3 hours to a tier 3, so and so forth. It is also possible to awaken more than one ability which is very rare and people who do so are absolute geniuses because whenever a person awakens two or more abilities, they are of tier-5 or move and makes them extremely talented.

The World of Drexus is divided into 7 continents arranged in a hexagon shape, with one continent at the centre. The 7 continents are – Raga, Lamore, Hexalia, Fey, Land of Beasts and the Forgotten Continent. The largest continent and the one which resides at the centre is called the Central Continent. Many species inhabit the world of Drexus. A few major ones include Humans, Elfs, Beastmen, Dwarfs, Dragonkin and Demons.

The Awakening for every species happens at the age of 15 and every year all the famous Academies of Drexus across the world conduct a single, unified Entrance Test to discover and recruit talented youths. Once you are recruited by a reputed Academy, you are destined to be a powerful figure in future and getting money & resources will only be a matter of time. Arthur knew that he could only bet on his Awakening and hope that he would awaken a powerful ability so he will be able to change his family’s life. But he was also aware that only a miracle can make that possible because generally it was seen that the probability of a child awakening a powerful ability depended on his lineage to some extent and Arthur had an average one. Still, he did not lose hope and had an unwavering determination.

Today was the last of his school and his day of Awakening was coming soon. A child can Awaken at any time during his 15th year and there was no way to know the specific time. After finishing his jog, Arthur returned home. The moment he opened the door, a small figure jumped into his embrace.

“Big Brother, today is the last of your school right? Then big brother can play with Amy all day right?” A cute voice asks Arthur. He smiles and pats Amy’s head and gently places her down. “Yes, from tomorrow onwards, your big brother will give all his time to his cute little sister.” “Yay” Amy threw her hands in the air started dancing happily. Arthur smiled and shook his head. He went to the dining room where he found his mom cooking in the kitchen and his dad reading the morning paper.

“Arthur, quickly go and wash up. Breakfast will be ready in 5 minutes. You don’t want to be late for your graduation ceremony right?” His mom said. He nodded and went in to wash up. After a few minutes, he was out wearing the clothes his mom had prepared for his graduation and sat down to eat. His Mom, along with Amy joined them and the family ate silently. After breakfast, his mom stood up and started fixing his clothes. “All the best Arthur. We are incredibly proud of you and I know you will become someone great in future” she said, kissing his temples. Arthur hugged his mom in return, bade his farewell to his father & Amy and left his home.

His school was a short distance away from his house so he reached his destination in short 10 minutes. He made his way towards the only hall his school had, where the graduation ceremony will take place today. Along the way, a lot of people greeted Arthur and he waved back. He was a popular figure in his school since he always topped the exams and everybody liked him because of his good nature. He reached the hall in no time and found it already filled with a lot of students. He took a seat towards the back and closed his eyes.

[Arthur’s POV]

After some time, someone tapped on my shoulder and I turned my head around only to be greeted with the sight of a heavenly beauty. She had platinum blonde hair, icy-blue eyes, cherry red lips, an hour-glass figure and a country-toppling face. Sylvia Roseheart, the prettiest girl of my school and my best friend. I had once saved Sylvia from a bullying incident when we were kids and since then we have been best of friends.

“Is the seat next to you taken Mr. Topper?” she says with a mischievous smile.

“For a beauty like you, it is always empty” I reply with a smile.

Sylvia giggles and sits next to me. “So what do you plan to do after school?” she asks with a nervous tone. “Well, most of it depends on the ability I awaken to, but if it is tier 3 or above, I’ll try my luck with the Entrance Test and if it is not then maybe I’ll join the Adventurer’s Guild. Honestly, I am not sure what I’ll do. What about you?”

“Well, I have a high chance to Awaken a healing type ability and if it is above tier-3, then I’ll try the Entrance Tests too or maybe join the Holy Church like my mother” she replies. She then turns towards me and with a worried look asks “Hey Arthur, you’ll still come and see me after this right?”

I chuckle and hold her hands. “Idiot. Ofcourse I will. Don’t you remember my promise? I’ll always be there to protect you.” Her face turns deep red and she meekly nods her head. We then turn towards the centre of the stage where our head-master had already started his speech, still holding hands. I am well aware of the fact that Sylvia likes me and I like her too, but right now my biggest priority is my family. Sylvia is a very beautiful girl and I am sure those rich noble brats will sure eye her one day. Until and unless I have the power to protect the people I love, I cannot get involved in matters which will endanger my family.

The rest of the ceremony was pretty boring with Head-master telling us about the basics of the Awakening process, what precaution must be taken, etc. Towards the end of his speech, however, he said something which grabbed my attention.

“It has not been confirmed yet, but there has been news in the royal capital that during the Entrance Test of next year, elders of the 5 renowned sects will be present and there is a high chance that they may choose personnel disciples from the top 50. So everyone, do your best.”

Personnel Disciples? That’s a huge thing. Sure enough, as soon he finished, the whole room erupted into excited whisperings and chattering. Sylvia slightly squeezed my hands and said “Arthur, let’s inform each other as soon we awaken our abilities so we can decide what to do next ohk?” I nod and we bade each other farewell.

Soon, 3 months passed without anything important happening and it was the last month of the year. Sylvia and I have yet to awaken our abilities and we had a feeling that we will soon. Today I have promised to spend some time with Sylvia in the forest just outside the city to help her collect herbs. Her mother is a priest in the Holy Church since she has a tier-3 ability [Minor Heal] and her father is an herbalist with a tier-2 ability [Minor Herb Identification]. She often helps her father pick herbs from the nearby forest.

I reach our designated spot outside the city gates and spot her standing there wearing a pink dress. She was becoming more and more beautiful in my eyes and it was becoming difficult for me to control my feelings.

“Hey”

“Hey. You are late. Let’s go, we have a lot of herbs to pick” she says and we slowly enter the forest. This forest was just outside the city so there were no monsters present in its vicinity, only normal wild animals. Monsters are beings who have the innate ability to cultivate and are incredibly dangerous and ferocious. They are divided into 12 grades and any monster above grade 10 were legendary creatures and could cause massive disasters on the scale of destroying several cities instantly. It was rumoured that on the continent of Land of Beasts, some grade 11 and 12 monsters resided. This continent was famous for its abnormal population of monsters and it was normally used as a training or hunting ground by practitioners.

After a few hours of herb-picking, suddenly Sylvia started swaying and I quickly caught her. “Hey Sylvia, you ohk? What happened?” Suddenly her body started glowing and I realised that she is Awakening. I carefully placed her in the ground and helped her sit down comfortably. “Sylvia, listen to me. You are Awakening, so you’ll have to concentrate and bear the pain which will follow. Don’t worry, I’ll be here for you. Just bear with it” I say and grab her hands. She nods and closes her eyes.

A few minutes passes and the glow on her body is still present, albeit a bit dim now. Suddenly, Sylvia’s face scrunches up and I know that the pain has started. I squeeze her hands and gently caress her hair. An hour passes and I can see her gritting her teeth. Two more hours passes and her body starts shaking from time to time. One hour later, the shaking of her body has started getting intense, and I was shocked to see that the glow was showing no signs of weakening which means her ability will be a tier-5 or above. That was amazing, but it also gave me some pressure. One more hour passed and I could see tears in her eyes. I gritted my teeth and hugged her tightly “Sylvia, bear with it. Your ability is very powerful and is probably a tier-5 or higher. You have a bright future ahead of you, so please bear with it.” I whispered in her ears. Her shaking calms down a bit and the process continued. Two hours passes and during those two hours, Sylvia had started screaming a bit, but somehow I managed to calm her down. Suddenly, blood started coming out of her eyes and mouth and I was incredibly shocked. Her body was intensely shaking and her platinum blonde hair was gaining a golden tinge at the base. Her hand started glowing intensely and I had to close my eyes. After a few minutes, the glow subsides and I saw a tattoo mark on the back of her hands. It was in the shape of a phoenix and was golden in colour. Her bleeding stopped and her body stopped shaking. Thirty minutes later, which marked exactly 8 hours since the beginning of her Awakening, Sylvia’s body slumped down and she fell unconscious.

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I hurriedly checked her vital signs and relaxed when everything was normal. But still, never in my wildest dreams had I ever thought that Sylvia will awaken to a tier-8 ability. A tier-8 ability user was considered a genius among geniuses and even the five renowned sects will fight with each other to recruit her. She was now destined to stand at the summit of the world at some point and she was the girl I liked. Hah…talk about pressure right? Man…..I can’t even imagine myself getting a tier-5 ability, forget about tier-8. Is God playing a joke on me or something?

Suddenly I started feeling hot, but I ignored it. Must be my nervousness or exhaustion. First, I’ll have to help Sylvia. I took out of water bottle and cleaned up her face from blood. I took out a few herbs which we had collected, grinded and mixed them with water and made a paste. Sylvia had taught me a few things regarding herbs and this paste will help her heal her internal wounds. The only problem is, how do I feed her? She can’t drink this on her own…….will I have to do that? I am damn sure she’ll kill me if she comes to know I took her first kiss without her permission, even though in high likelihood it belongs to me. But this is an emergency and I have no choice. I nervously drank the paste and slowly touched her lips with mine. Wow, so soft. I opened her mouth with my tongue and poured the entire paste in it. That………was an awesome experience. I quickly separated myself from her and sat down panting. Phew…I guess I gotta wait until she wakes up.

Then out of nowhere, an azure glow covered my body. Shit, this is an extremely bad time for me to awaken. But Azure Glow? I have read in my book that the Awakening process is always accompanied by a yellow glow, then what’s with this Azure Glow? Well….whatever. I closed my eyes and sat near Sylvia. I had to concentrate and keep my mind clam when the pain starts. 30 minutes passed and I began to feel a pit of pain in my body. It was nothing serious and was something like the feeling you get when you fall down from a certain height. An hour passed and slowly the pain started increasing. Two more hours and I had to grit my teeth to bear the pain. By this time, I felt like I my bones were being twisted from inside. Again, Two hours passed and the pain was getting worse. It almost made me cry but I held on thinking now that I have survived 5 hours, I have an ability of tier-5 or higher and my dreams of changing the lives of my parents was possible. With that though in my mind, I held on and faced the pain for two more hours. By this time, I was feeling the pain in every part of my body and it felt like all my intestines, muscles and bones were violently twisting and breaking. One more hour passed and it was my 8th hour, the same as Sylvia. I had no time to be happy as I could feel that the pain had started reaching my soul, and I gotta say, the pain of soul is thousand times worse than physical pain. I screamed and almost collapsed but then the image of Sylvia came to my mind. If I give up now, she will be forever out of my grasp. I’ll lose the only girl I have ever liked and I didn’t wanted that. My mind screamed in defiance and I held on. After the 8th hour, the pain showed no signs of stopping and increased exponentially. By this time I had lost my mind and the only thing holding onto my sanity was the thought of my family and Sylvia. One more hour passed and the pain kept increasing. I had already lost sense in my limbs and I knew they were broken, bones badly twisted and muscles destroyed. Slowly I started to feel the bones in the rest of my body creaking and on the verge of collapse. I had already lost my thinking process and had subconsciously raised my hands towards my neck to end my life and stop the pain. But then my hands brushed against a locket, the gift which Amy gave me on my 13th birthday. Inside the it was a picture of us hugging each other and smiling. A little bit of sanity returned to me I tightly gripped my locket and resisted the soul-torturing pain. I thought about all the happy moments I had spent with my family and Sylvia and by the time the 10th hour was over, I was already unconscious, my body all bloody and battered.

Suddenly, I found myself in darkness. Everything around me is pitch black. I keep looking around to get a feeling of my surrounding but found nothing. After some time, an azure glow flickered in the far distance and I moved in that direction. The azure glow got stronger and I could now see that it was coming from a sword which was floating a few distance away from me. I slowly approach the sword until I was standing in front of it. I carefully looked at the sword and was simply captivated by its beauty and majesty. The sword had a lot of markings on its surface depicting a lot of legendary and mythical creatures like dragon, phoenix, qilin and some beasts which I didn’t even recognise. On the hilt of the sword, there was a single world carved in a language I didn’t know but somehow I knew what it meant.

“Emperor of all…..” I whisper.

I got a strong urge to hold the sword so I lifted my hand and slowly hrld the hilt of the sword. As soon as my hands touched the sword, I heard a whisper in mind.

“You…..have…..the……power…….of…….the……..Emperor”

“You…….will……be……..the……….ruler……of…………all”

Then the sword flew towards my chest and disappeared. Then my vision turned dark.

I heard someone calling my name but I couldn’t focus on anything. After some time, the voice got louder and slowly I gained some control on my body. I opened my eyes and a teary eyed Sylvia was hugging me crying out my name again and again. With a weak voice, I say “Sylvia….”

She stops crying and looks into my eyes. Realizing I am alright, she starts crying again and this time hugs me more tightly. I wince from the pain and realizing what she is doing Sylvia let goes off me and apologizes with a red face. She then thinks of something and nervously raises her hands to my chest. I look at her with a confused face but she ignores me and closes her eyes. After a few seconds, a golden glow covers my body and I could feel all the wounds healing at an unbelievable pace visible to the naked eye. In just 5 seconds, I was completely fine with no injury whatsoever in my body. I looked at her with disbelief and she giggled seeing my expression.

“It’s the ability I have awakened.” She says.

Right. Her ability is a tier-8 ability and it must be some Healing type ability.

“How is your condition? Are you feeling ohk?” I ask. She shakes her head. “I am alright. Thanks for taking care of me and encouraging me during my Awakening. If you weren’t here, I don’t know whether I could have successfully crossed the last few hours.”

“Silly girl, no need to thank me. More importantly, you do realize that you just awakened to a tier-8 ability right? Do you know what that means?” I ask her with a happy smile. She laughs “You are not one to talk mister. By the time I woke up, you were already Awakening and you took 7 hours to finish it. By that assumption, your ability is a tier-8 or higher.”

I scratch my head and give her a bashful smile. “Well, atleast we’ll still be together when we join an Academy.”

“Yeah” she says and a slight blush covers her face. My heart starts beating faster and I know this is the moment. The moment I woke up, I had decided that I’ll confess my love to Sylvia since now I had the ability to protect her. I slowly approach her and stare into her eyes. I had failed to notice before, but her icy blue eyes had a golden ring at its centre now. I gently hold both of her hands and she blushes a deeper shade of red.

“Sylvia, there is something I want to tell you.” I say seriously. She just nods.

“I love you. I have liked you since we were kids but in recent years, I have come to realize that I have fallen deeply in love with you. During my Awakening, it was your love which helped me keeping myself sane and bear with the pain. I cannot think of spending my life without you.”

By the time I finish, there are already tears in her eyes and with a happy face she hugs me.

“I love you too idiot. Took you long time to finally say it.” She says with a shaky but happy voice.

“I am sorry. I was just scared that I won’t be able to keep you happy. You are just so beautiful and I just….” I couldn’t complete my sentence as she placed her finger on my lips.

“Sshh. I know. I know how you feel from the very beginning. Idiot, you are the only one I love and I’ll gladly spend the rest of my life doing the same.” She says.

In reply to her sentence, I simple seal her lips with mine. She is surprised for a second, but returns the kiss and holds me in her embrace. We kiss like that for minutes before we separate, out of breath.

“That was……so amazing.” I say, panting. She gently hits my chest, but stays in my embrace. We stay like that for a few minutes before I ask “So Sylvia, what exactly is your ability? How could you heal such severe injuries of mine in no time?”

“Well, my ability is called [Holy Scion of light] and it gives me the ability to heal anyone suffering from any kind of negative effect like injuries, poison, etc in a very short amount of time. I am not yet proficient with my ability but I think with higher cultivation, I can heal a person one step away from death instantly. There are also some other hidden powers of my ability but I don’t know what those are. Oh, it also gives me some holy attack spells.”

Wow, isn’t this a little bit too overpowered? I mean, healing any kind of injury instantly? Once she reaches higher cultivation stages, her opponent will cry tears of blood when fighting her.

“So, what tier is your ability?” she asks me. I can’t tell her that I have a tier-10 ability. Holy Shit, even I can’t believe I have one, but after going through that pain, if I didn’t get atleast a tier-9, that would have been unfair.

“Mine is a tier-8 too” I reply. I feel a bit bad about lying to her, but it’s for her own good. I have heard of some abilities which can read minds or force a person to say the truth. I’ll tell her the truth in the future when it is safe to do so.

“Hehe…..we are the same.” She says and kissed my cheek. “So, what does It do?” she then asks. “I don’t know. How did you check yours?”

“Just think about your abilitiy and the information about them will appear in your mind” she says with a smile.

Ohk, let’s try that. I think about my abilities and I feel a warm sensation in my heart. Suddenly, some information appears in my head.

Abilities

[Sword of the Emperor (Tier- ??] – Locked

[Ability Devour (Tier- 10)] – Grants you the ability to devour the ability of your target and use it as your own. Target may retain their ability if the user wishes.

Range – 100 metres

Abilities devoured – N/A

“….”

“…………………”

“………………………………..”

“…………………………………………..”

WHAT THE FUCK??????

What kind of messed up abilities are these? Ability to devour any ability? Won’t that turn me into some god-like figure? I mean, if I have the ability to steal my opponent’s abilities, I can severely weaken them without lifting a finger. Just like that.

And what’s with this [Sword of the Emperor]? Why is there a question mark next to the tier? It doesn’t have a tier? Or does it exists outside the range of tiered abilities? That’s messed up on a whole different level.

Seeing my panicked face, Sylvia nudges me “What’s wrong Arthur? Did you see your abilities?” she asks worriedly. I wake up from my inner thoughts and look back at the divine beauty in front of me. “Nothing. It’s just that I was a bit surprised with my ability. I am sorry Sylvia, but I think it’ll be better to not tell you my ability. It’s a bit messed up and I don’t know if it will be safe for you to know about it. There are a lot of weird abilities out there and I don’t want anyone to harm you. I’ll tell you one day when it is safe to do so.”

She looks me in the eye for a second and then fives me a dazzling smile “I trust you Arthur. If you think it is the right thing to do, then sure. By the way, I think we should get going. We have been here in this forest for more than half of the day and our family must be worried. We’ll talk later about all this ohk?” she says and stands up. I nod and start arranging our things spread nearby. We pack up and leave the forest. I realize that it’s already evening.

“Hey Sylvia, except you parents, do not tell a single soul about your ability. There are a lot of dangerous and jealous people out there. We’ll leave for the royal capital together in two months, just after the New Year. Let’s meet up tomorrow in this forest, in the very same spot. We need some plans to get a better idea of how to use out powers and know their limitations.” I say. She nods. We kiss and go on separate ways.

I wonder how my parents will react after knowing I have a tier-8 ability. Hehehe…….