Right before Solstice could get his second potion, he felt a very strong presence behind him and turned only to see Bela.
“What did Victor say to you? I see him glaring at me right now.” The only person capable of seeing Victor right now was Bela, nobody had more expertise in the aspect of souls than her.
“You fucking knew about it didn’t you? My death?” Victor said with a very malicious tone. After he figured out his death was planned, he had started to try and formulate who all knew about it. He understood it had to be done, but if you found out your death was predetermined like that, wouldn’t you be angry?
“No I didn’t, but I saw the anguish in Ariel and Estel's souls, I know they didn’t want it to happen. But whatever they did that for? It was for the best. I’m not saying I agree, but knowing Estel? It was the best scenario we had.” Bela loved Victor like a brother, so seeing him die like that and finally piecing it all together really broke her. She didn’t know how to feel about it all since she understood both sides. She was fairly young for a vampire, so her sense of time and how close she gets to people is stronger than primordials.
“Then why are you stopping him? You know he’s going to have to count on himself. He needs this dammit.” Victor yelled while trying to punch the wall. He had grown attached to his protege, so he needed him to stay alive for both of their sakes.
“I just want to clear up one thing, I’m not here to stop you.” Bela proceeded to walk up to Solstice who was still immobilized and gently caressed his face.
“You have possibly the purest soul I've ever seen, don’t let it be tainted with feelings of anger and fear. I haven’t spent too much time with you but that’ll change after this ceremony. Just know I’m always going to be on your side.” Bela planted a kiss on his forehead and released him but not before glancing back at him before leaving.
“That’s going to hurt like a bitch, good luck dumbasses.” Then she left the room.
Both Solstice and Victor were bewildered, but Victor was the first to come back.
“Hey, quit fantasizing about her you creep, we’ve got potions to drink. I’ll help sustain your soul so go crazy.” Victor said with a slightly more pleasant tone.
All Solstice did was start drinking the potions as fast he could, he knew in a few minutes he was going to feel unimaginable pain but it was going to be worth it.
What neither of the men noticed was for each potion Solstice drank, a new orb of light would appear in his cosmic looking eye.
After a few minutes all the potions had been finally consumed and they prepared for him to experience the excruciating pain that followed. Time passed by but nothing still happened, after an hour passed Ariel made her way downstairs only to see Solstice perfectly fine like nothing even happened.
“Did you decide to not drink the potions?” She was hoping he did drink them for the main fact that she wanted to show him off, she wasted all her favors on them and hoped it hadn’t gone to waste.
“Yes, I did, but uh, nothing really happened.” He was just as confused as everyone else, but he liked finally not suffering pain, he wasn’t some kind of masochist.
Before Ariel turned around, she saw that his eye was back to pulsating and noticed the difference in his eye. To this day she couldn’t find anything on his eye, it scared her because not much was unknown to her about Aevis, everyone innately fears the unknown.
“Your damn mysterious eye did it.” She pointed it out which caused Solstice to flinch. He looked at the mirror and saw that it was back to pulsating and had a few extra dots of color that weren’t present before the potions.
“Do you feel any different? Any pain or foreign feelings?”
Solstice just nodded and waited for directions, he was new to the concept of mana and had no idea how to proceed.
“Let’s go ahead and step outside and test a few theories of mine.” Ariel dragged Solstice outside and began to teach him how to begin using mana that had an element. While he had been fighting in the mountains, he had just been using mana to augment himself, so it was without an element. He had no idea how to use mana that came from specific elements.
“I gave you access to a good bit of elements; we still don’t know which ones you have innately, so we’ll mess with those after the ceremony. For now, go ahead and try to do something with blood.” Ariel sat back and was half expecting something crazy to happen like every other time something happened.
Bela had started to walk towards Solstice to give him tips on starting but as expected, Solstice summoned a massive volley or blood spears in the sky and destroyed a group of targets.
“Man, that felt kind of good. I think I can keep going!” Solstice was incredibly excited after having to wait all this time to finally use magic. Solstice was curious how long his mana would hold out so he kept channeling until he couldn’t channel anymore, but that moment never came. Thousands upon thousands of blood spears were in the sky waiting for a target. He looked over at his spectators to see what was going on, but they were more confused than he was.
“Is my mana capacity just that large or something?” Solstice didn’t know what to think, he looked at Victor too since he had been with him a long time and used to his absurd training speed. But even then Victor was just looking at him like some kind of monster.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
“What does your mana capacity look like?” Victor finally came out of his daze and managed to suspect what it might be.
“Uh it’s practically full? That's not good, is it?”
“Of fucking course not, you idiot, that means you can use ambient mana in the air, which isn't possible. I bet that damn eye lets you do it too.”
Nobody had recovered even after a full minute had passed, finally Ariel composed herself and walked over to hug her son.
“You little freak of nature.” Is all she said before making a proclamation to everyone.
“I think we’re going to have a nice training camp for him, clear your schedules and get ready to beat the hell out of my son.” For the next month Solstice was beaten and maimed, all the way up until the ceremony for awakening.
—---1 Month Later
In the Lightmane Kingdoms main cathedral
“Welcome everyone, the ceremony of awakening will be starting shortly. Go ahead and take a seat and wait for your name to be called.” Said the head priest of the cathedral.
After the priest said this, groups of nobles began to form groups and talk.
“Ivis, why did your father invite the elves here? Shouldn’t they be attending their own ceremony?” Asked a very pompous teen.
“Who are you to question my father? Do you believe you know what’s best for this kingdom? Feel free to let my father know.” Is all Ivis said before scanning the room looking for someone. He had been waiting years to see how he stacked up to his rival and had been training incredibly hard since his embarrassment when he was younger. His father had drilled into him many things like proper values and wisdom. Ivis was no longer the childish kid he once was, he was obsessed with justice now thanks to his father's beatin- teachings. But the royal family did suffer a lot of backlashes from some nobles of the kingdom over inviting the elves, but they couldn’t stop the king from doing what he wanted.
After Ivis finished talking, a large group of around 100 elves walked into the cathedral and sat on the other side of the cathedral. Luna was the head of this group and greeted the head priest and Ivis.
“It’s very nice to see you again Ivis, you seem to have grown a lot since the last time I was around you.” She said with a nice tone but Ivis could hear the venom laced in her tone. Nobody found that day more hilarious than she did and it showed here today once again.
Ivis felt an arrow pass through his heart when he heard this, but he didn’t let it show on his face.
“Of course, Lady Luna, I am the son of the king here, if I’m pathetic then that just isn’t acceptable, is it?”
Luckily no nobles here minus Ivis and Luna were present that day or Ivis would be a complete laughingstock.
“Where is Solstice by the way? Shouldn’t he have arrived with you?”
“His mother wanted to take care of something before he showed up, he’s been in a very intensive training camp for the past month and he’s changed a lot, way more than the last time you saw him.” Luna said with an incredibly bright smile. Being able to live with Solstice for so long only heightened her interest in him which bordered obsession now. Ivis picked up on this and decided to not mess with the crazy girl anymore, clearly, she was incredibly zealous about her crush now and it showed very clearly.
“Are you disrespecting our prince, you tree hugger?” Said the overly pompous teen from earlier, his father was a Duke of the kingdom and his sense of superiority very clearly showed.
Before Ivis and Luna could say anything back, a huge aura of bloodlust washed over the entire cathedral. A few teens collapsed to the ground shaking while some just flat out passed out. The overly pompous teen was shaking and clinging behind Ivis who was almost if not equally terrified as he was, but Ivis saw Luna’s lack of surprise and was instantly flabbergasted.
“There’s no fucking way that’s him, no I refuse to believe that.” Ivis was practically chanting this in his head before he saw Solstice walking into the room with his two parents. But the entire atmosphere changed when they all saw Solstice get smacked in the back of the head by his mother.
“Hey idiot, reign in the bloodlust. There are weak people here who can’t handle that.” Ariel said this in a stern way, but everyone heard how she addresses the masses as weak.
Luna saw this and immediately walked over and bowed to Ariel and greeted her.
“Greetings ancestor, I’m glad your family arrived here safely.” Luna in public was told to respect Ariel so her prestige wouldn’t drop at all. When everyone heard Luna call her ancestor, many nobles on the human side were confused, but the elves had their jaws wide open. But in their amazement the next moment filled a lot of them with jealousy.
“Oh, stop with that stupid noble appearance, you're basically my future daughter in law you little girl.” This one statement invoked many emotions, the elven nobles experienced jealousy, anger, and burning resentment. But that was only furthered by seeing Luna going to hug Solstice, but what surprised them was how fast the image of Solstice changed. He walked in as a killing machine and immediately became red faced and stunned.
“I know I was only gone for a few months, but I missed you so much, future husband.” Luna loved poking Solstice and had learned a lot about him from his own mother. This one statement completely shut down Solstice mentally, he offered no reply and just sat there in a daze. Telarion just watched with a bright smile on his face, his only goal in life was to see his son live the dream he couldn’t, a harem. But he was completely tamed by Ariel before he could go on and do it, he didn’t regret it but he was sad he could never experience it.
Shortly after this spectacle, Ivis made his way to the group and greeted them all.
“Hello Lady Ariel, Sir Telarion, and Solstice. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen you, but you all seem very well.” He bowed and showed his maximum level of showmanship in hopes of getting a little respect from the elven nobles. The ancestor is practically a god to them, so she deserved the utmost respect from all.
The first to speak up was Telarion who destroyed the image of Ivis to all.
“Aren’t you that kid Solstice tossed like a doll across our yard,” After hearing this statement many human nobles were outraged by this defamation of character. Before they started to yell, Ivis raised his hand to silence them all. The males in the room were awfully loud but the females were all locked onto the visage of Solstice. It wasn’t even close in a matter of looks when one compared the males in the room. Ivis wasn’t by any means ugly, but Solstice had the grace of an elf which was popular with women, and the stature of a refined warrior. But none would say anything because of how inferior they were to Luna.
Ivis managed to reign all the nobles in and salvaged what he could.
“Indeed, that was me, but I want to thank him for that experience. My father since then has taught me a lot and I think as a whole I'm an entirely different person. Next time we battle, ill beat you my rival.” Ivis stuck his hand out to Solstice for a handshake, Solstice reached out and squeezed like last time but to his surprise, Ivis didn't falter, only a wince this time which put a smile on his face.