Leo stared out at the azure sky, sitting at the tallest peak of the playground equipment and kicking his legs. He would be turning eight in… He looked down at his watch.

8:14 P.M.

‘Four more minutes,’ Leo thought, scratching his nose.

“Leo! Come down from there.” Christina shouted at him, and Leo looked down at his mother. She was standing at the edge of the pavilion, where his birthday party was being held.

Leo sighed and crawled over to the edge of the tower’s roof that he was sitting on, and after making sure he had a good grip on its edge- and that his mom was looking away-, he swung over the side and into the tower itself.

“Hey! That’s not allowed!” One of his seven-year-old cousins shouted, pointing at him.

‘Shut up!’ Leo mentally shouted, panicking.

“Don’t be a tattletale!” Leo and his ten-year-old sister, Adina, hissed simultaneously.

The boy reluctantly nodded, and Leo shot Adina a grin, receiving a thumbs-up in return.

After going down a slide and touching ground, Leo took off towards the pavilion. He tried to keep his eyes from straying towards the small stack of presents that sat atop one of the tables as he went and sat down with Quint, one of his best friends, alongside Olivia.

“Hey, Leo! Have you tried the chip dip stuff?” Quint asked.

“The what?” Leo asked, confused.

“I don’t know what to call it. It’s made of cheese and salsa, with some beef in it. It’s really good.”

“Oh. That’s good. Why were you allowed to eat, though? Nobody else has been allowed to yet.”

“My mom made it.”

“Oh! Your mom’s a really good cook, so I bet it tastes great.” Leo said sincerely.

No response came for a few seconds.

“What’s it like?” Quint eventually asked, sounding a bit sad.

“What’s what like?”

“You’re about to be eight. I won’t be eight for five more months. You’re the first to turn eight in the entire class! You’re going to be so much older than everyone.”

Before Leo could respond, his mother called out for him. Lingering a bit, though, Leo quickly tried to answer.

“I guess; I dunno, I never thought about it. I don’t think it-“

His name was called for once again, and so Leo said bye to Quint and ran over to where his mother was.

“What’s up? Is it time?” Leo asked excitedly.

“Yep! We’re getting the cake out now, and then we’ll eat the feast we all made, and then we’ll open your presents.”

Leo had always thought it was strange that their family ate the cake before the rest of the food, since it made the rest of it seem worse in comparison, but he said nothing; after all, what was there to complain about?

His mother walked away to go and get the cake, and Leo glanced down at his watch.

8:17 P.M.

He would have been born in a minute, meaning that eight entire years would have passed since he was born. That felt like such a long time.

8:18 P.M.

Leo grinned at the number on the screen.

And then his life changed forever.

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Sigurd moved at a speed nearing light as he crossed the distance of a planet in only a few seconds, and his fist descended towards his head.

A barrier formed out of space itself was conjured before Verin, sending it to the side. If he had stopped it in its tracks, Sigurd would have shattered his arm.

An instant later, a hundred different fleshy tentacles descended towards him, and Verin stopped each blow on instinct. Space solidified, adamantine alloys formed, tremendous force shredded them, and none were able to come closer than a foot from him.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Cthulu’s attack was merely a mask for Arthur’s, though, and even though his deliberately-dulled senses meant that he had no clue of its purpose, the monarch’s near-divine sword was blown away by an explosion of power the instant that it touched his skin.

It drew blood, though; a lot of it. An inch-deep gash in the back of his neck was impressive.

Verin fought to suppress his own Existence as it locked onto Merlin’s. His mouth and fingers were moving at unparalleled speeds as he tried to cast a spell that would take days for anyone else.

He failed, though, and it lashed out at the wizard blindly. Epitome blocked the blow, though, and Merlin’s spell finished.

A black hole appeared before him. Ordinarily, such a thing wouldn’t be even remotely dangerous, but it was infused heavily with Merlin’s Existence.

His own Existence rose to destroy it, but just then, five different attacks came from five different directions.

And then, Verin’s Existence took charge. He moved at a speed far exceeding that of light and, in an instant, the All-Seer’s neck was grasped tightly in his hands. Before anybody could do anything, a detonation that not even a supernova could rival rang out from his palm.

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Leo found himself on the ground, grasping his chest as he heaved, trying not to retch. His watch beeped loudly, telling everyone around him that his heart-rate was...

“212… 214… 213… 208...” Its robotic voice droned.

He was pretty sure it was supposed to be… around 80?

So much was happening at once, that it took Leo a few seconds to notice that there was a burning pain, seemingly right by his heart. It hurt so much, but at the same time, it felt like it was good for him.

‘What was that?’

Leo felt hands rolling him over, and he barely heard people screaming and shouting. He saw his mother, father, and a few other people standing over him and talking frantically.

His vision swam as a wave of pain exploded in his chest, and this time, it didn’t feel like it was good for him. Instead, it felt very dangerous.

And then, everything went dark.

----------------------------------------

Leo’s eyes snapped open, spotting nothing familiar. He tried to move, but was unable to. Pain still radiated from his chest in waves, and it still felt dangerous. There was a man standing over him, and Leo noticed that he was holding a syringe in one hand and applying a band-aid with another.

And then it hit him; he was in an ambulance.

The man noticed Leo staring at him and his expression changed, becoming soft and kind.

“Everything’s gonna be alright,” The doctor said, “In fact, you might be very lucky.”

And then, an overwhelming tiredness struck his consciousness like a hammer.

----------------------------------------

When he awoke, it took a bit of effort for him to open his eyes. He felt exhausted as his eyes slid across the room, taking it in. He still ached, but it wasn’t even a quarter as bad as Arthur’s blow to the back of his… no, Verin’s… neck.

That thought concerned him, but it was drowned out by everything else.

Leo was clearly within a hospital room. There was a television mounted on the opposite wall, and he was in a rather comfortable bed. There was a heart rate monitor next to him, as well as a bunch of other things that he didn’t recognize.

There was a button on the end table next to him, though, that said it was to call an attendant. Leo wasn’t sure if wanting to know what was going on was enough reason to call one, but he hesitantly reached out and pressed it anyway.

Only a minute later, a man burst through the door. He looked middle-aged, with dark brown hair that was slicked back. He wore a black tailcoat over a white button-up shirt and tight black pants.

Leo couldn’t decide whether he looked like nobility or a butler.

“Is everything alright, Awake… Leon?” He asked, and Leo’s brows furrowed

‘Awake... awakened? Did he start to call me awakened? Am I just hoping that’s what happened? Did all of this happen because I formed a soul sphere already?’

“Uh… I just wanted to know what was going on. I’m sorry if I wasted your time…” Leo paused to stare at his nametag, “…Maxwell. It’s just… I was at my birthday party, and then I was in an ambulance, and now I’m here.”

Maxwell nodded, “It’s alright. I’ve already called your parents to come here. In the meantime, I won’t keep you in the dark.”

As he spoke, he pulled a wheeled stool out from beneath a desk sitting in the corner of the room and sat down before continuing, “Your soul sphere formed two days ago, on your eighth birthday.”

‘I was right.’ Leo thought, stunned.

Maxwell gave him a while to process it, but before he could continue, Leo asked a question.

“Isn’t that supposed to be a good thing? Why was I hospitalized?” Leo asked.

“It’s because you were too young to bear an awakened soul, causing it to damage your body. For the most part, though, you’re fine, because you were brought to the best hospital on the planet.” Maxwell told him.

“Why?” Leo asked.

“Because you’re the youngest person to have awakened their soul in the history of the Ander Empire,” Maxwell said solemnly.

Leo’s brow furrowed. Why did that matter? He understood that awakening at a young age was rare, but he didn’t see why the Ander Empire cared.

It was pretty cool to know that he was the youngest awakened out of all twenty-five planets under the Ander Empire’s control, though.

‘Planets just as large as Lavend III…’ Leo thought. He knew the scale of a planet better than most, since his family liked to travel.

Leo shook his head, refocusing on Maxwell.

“Why does that matter, though?” Leo asked.

Maxwell hummed as he thought over his answer, “Well… awakening early doesn’t really make much of a difference when you view it objectively, but it’s generally a sign of talent. The earlier you awaken your soul, the better.”

“But why?” Leo asked.

“I’m not really… ah, but I can…” Maxwell muttered to himself. A few seconds later, he refocused on Leo and resumed speaking.

“It’s because your soul doesn’t reach full maturity until you’re pretty old. At eight, your soul hasn’t come even remotely close to nearing its full natural potential, and it was still enough for your soul’s power to crystallize in your body. It also means that your body and soul have a greater connection than normal.”

Leo didn’t respond, leaning back in the bed and sighing. Quint, Olivia and Adina were going to be jealous. Would it ruin their relationships?

‘Everyone at school’s going to hate me or suck up,’ Leo thought, unhappy.

After a few long seconds of silence, Maxwell spoke up; “Your parents are going to be here in a few minutes, Leon. I need to go, but if you need me, just call.”

“Don’t call me that… please. Just Leo.” Leo told him as he stood.

“Alright, Leo.” Maxwell told him.

“There’s no reason. I just don’t like it. Leon, I mean.” Leo made sure to emphasize.

He knew that it was dumb and childish, but he hadn’t liked the name ever since Fred had said it mockingly… which also meant that there was, technically, a reason, but that didn’t matter.