Howard moved down the platform and presented the four options.
★Titan fire ape
★Arctic serpent
★Raging earth bull
★Gliding gryphon
"I will choose the, Titan Fire Ape."
"That's a great choice, young master." Said Howard.
Azrael turned towards the Duke, nodded and walked towards one of the chambers.
He stepped in and the door closed behind him.
The tension in the air caused by Azrael's presence finally dissipated.
Inside the chamber,
The whole chamber was made of stone, and was partially dark.The only light source was a single torch protruding from the centre of the wall. Right below the torch was a stone slab for people to sit.
Master White materialized and sat upon the slab, while Azrael just walked around the place looking for something interesting. But there was nothing.
"So, what do we do now?" Azrael questioned.
"We wait for six to seven hours and then go out." Replied Master White.
Azrael sighed thinking about spending the next seven hours doing nothing.
Then his eyes lit up as he thought of something,
"Why don't we try out our abilities?"
"We haven't tried them even after two years, worrying that someone might notice the abnormality." Master White reminded him.
"And you want to try it now, when a whole crowd of awakened people are present?" Master White asked.
"We are here to awaken. Even if they notice something out of the ordinary, they will just rule it out as part of the process."
"What if they notice something wrong and barge in?" Master White was concerned.
"Did you forget? No one is allowed to interfere during the awakening, even if something goes wrong.They are only allowed to enter after twelve hours."
Master White thought about it for a while,
"Okay, but we will only do it in the final hours. For the initial few.. we wait."
Azrael was excited and agreed with White's suggestion.
Four hours later,
"Can I start now?"
"Can I start now??"
"Can I start now..?"
Master White was irritated, Azrael had been asking the same question over and over again for the past half an hour.
"Okay! But don't go overboard; just try out the simple ones."
Azrael nodded fervently and called out,
"System!"
[Yes, Azrael.]
"Which ability should I try out now, and how?"
[I would advise you to try out the passive ability, {Elemental overlord} to access the five elements.]
[But don't use {Energy manipulation} as it will amplify the elements and the commotion will be huge.]
[To activate the ability, just think about the elements. For example, Fire—it is hot, it burns anything it touches, and is one of the common elements of destruction.]
Azrael then began to imagine fire as per the system's interpretation. Suddenly, he extended his right hand, as he felt a surge of energy building up and flowing to the tips of his fingers.
And then with a whoosh,
A ball of fire, with a mixture of white&black colour gradient is burning in his hand.
But he did not feel the heat.
Even Master White was surprised, seeing the manipulation of an element like fire without any medium was impossible in their previous life.
Azrael was beyond excited and began playing with the new ability by bouncing the ball of fire from one hand to another. Creating two more balls of fire, he started juggling them.
While doing this, he missed something strange, but Master White was fully focused on understanding the ability rather than playing with it. So, he caught on.
"Why is the flame black&white system? It should be burning red or orange, right?"
[Even I do not understand this phenomenon, Master White.]
Azrael stopped fooling around, and Master White tensed up.
This was the first time, the system said it doesn't understand something.
Just as they were going to ask more questions, The system interjected.
[Don't get me wrong, I understand what is happening, but I do not know why it is happening now.]
[Open your status, so I can explain it better.]
"Status." Azrael immediately called out.
[Name - Azrael Vaeloreth (Master White)]
[Age - 16]
[Existence - Beginner Layer-1]
[Realm - Blood revitalization]
[Rank - Mediocre]
[Battle power (Restrained) - 50 (5000)]
[Soul power - 0]
[Law (incomplete) - Life and death]
[Affinities - Fire, water, earth, wind, metal...]
[Passive abilities : Super strength, Energy circulation, poison immunity, curse immunity...]
[Active ability : Force manipulation, Energy manipulation.]
[Items - The veil(ultimate), Bracelet of restraint (Layer-1)]
[System store] (unlocked)
[Legacies] (locked)
[Everything is normal and expected from you status, except {Law - life and death}. This is not something which should be accessible to any being of Layer-1]
"When we asked you about the Law, you said we shouldn't be concerned about it for now." Said Azrael.
[At that point in time, I didn't think it would be applicable this early. As I said, you shouldn't have that Law by any logic.]
[Laws are something which are only accessible to beings beyond Layer-4.]
[The only explanation I had is that, it may be a future indicator of your destined law.]
[But after today, I don't think that is the case anymore.]
Azrael and Master White were both astonished; they never would have imagined something like this. Laws are accessible to only beings beyond Layer-4, but they did not even understand anything from Layer-2 yet.
"What is a Law, system?" Master White questioned.
[I cannot explain it fully, Master White. Before you unlock my restrictions, even I only have a rudimentary understanding of such things.]
[I only know that comprehending a Law gives you control over the said concept of the law. In your case that is, Life and Death.]
"Control over life and death..." Azrael muttered in a low voice.
"It is unbelievable, White!" Azrael exclaimed.
They both were silent for quite a while.They had just thought of using their abilities to pass time, but they never expected to learn something so unique about themselves.
"What does that have to do with the elements?" Master White suddenly questioned.
[All the elements you manipulate are subconsciously being influenced by the attribute of Life and Death.]
[For example, this white&black flame—not only is it hot and burns, but it also carries the essence of Life and Death. The colour white signifies Life and the colour black signifies Death.]
[As for how it will modify your abilities, I can only tell after seeing its practical application in combat.]
"Okay." Both of them reluctantly agreed, they still wanted to know how they were able to comprehend a Law, and such a powerful one at that.
"Why is it incomplete then?" Azrael asked the system.
[There can be multiple reasons, it can be because you are still in Layer-1, or it can be because you only have a partial comprehension of the Law, or it can be that your body and soul are not yet able to support the weight of a Law.]
[We will not know untill you reach the required Layer for comprehending Laws.]
They both thought about the matter and chose to let go, as there wasn't much they can do about it now.
"Should I try out the other elements?" Azrael asked eagerly, ignoring the talk about Laws.
Master White was still thinking about the application of such Laws and did not answer. But the system interjected:
[I would advise you not to do that here.]
Master White's attention shifted back to the system.
[We don't know how the activation of abilities laced with Life and Death will affect the surroundings, so you should do it somewhere isolated so as to not attract many eyes.]
[We got lucky with the fire element, as Azrael just played with it and not used it for an attack.]
Hearing that, Master White said,
"System is right, Azrael. Let's stop here."
"We will try it out later."
"Alright." Azrael agreed dejectedly.
"And anyway, this much time is enough. We should leave the chamber now and announce our awakening."
Azrael was excited knowing that the wait was finally over. He steadied himself, put the vial of blood in the system space, and exited the chamber.
Outside it was a joyous atmosphere, with many celebrating their children becoming Awakened beings. Even with the presence of the Duke many were happily chatting and expressing their emotions.
The Duke wasn't some tyrant who demanded silence or control over his people; it was just his presence at the start that was intimidating but they had gotten used to it over the last five hours.
But suddenly everything came to a halt. The chamber Azrael entered suddenly opened, and he stepped out.
Seeing Azrael walk out of the chamber, the crowd was so surprised that they could not believe their eyes. Everybody just stared at him with eyes wide-open.
It is considered that the lesser time one takes to complete the assimilation, the better the talent.
For Azrael to come out in just a little over five hours was an unprecedented feat that only a few had been able to achieve in the annals of history. The Duke and others were also astonished by his performance.
Howard hurried towards Azrael and asked with an uncontrollable smile,
"Is everything all right, young master?"
"Was the awakening successful?"
It was a foolish thing to ask; anyone who stepped out of the room had completed the awakening. Those who failed died in that chamber. And their bodies were pulled out the next day.
"I am fine, Howard. And the awakening was successful."
Saying that, he walked towards the platform and again bowed,
"I once again express my gratitude for the gift, Father."
"Good child, you didn't disappoint me."
"In fact you have exceeded my expectations." The Duke replied with a happy and satisfied expression.
Julius was also looking at him with a smile, and Cesia was just happy for her brother and praised him wholeheartedly.
"My brother is the best!" She exclaimed.
As always, Duchess Elyndra had that fake smile plastered on her face and was acting strange, but no one noticed it except for Azrael. Who chose to ignore it for now.
"I would like to excuse myself now; I am exhausted after the assimilation." Said Azrael.
"Go rest, Azrael. We will talk at dinner." Duke Ragnar said
He walked through the crowd and exited the training grounds, and there was absolute silence. Because this time when he left, he wasn't just the second son of Duke Ragnar—He was Azrael Vaeloreth, the genius who finished the assimilation in five hours.
All the people in the crowd were either amazed by his talent or envied it, and they had no words to express both of those feelings.
******
Back in Azrael's room,
Master White materialized and said,
"We will begin in a few hours, are you ready?" He questioned
"I am, don't worry. We will finally be free from attention." Azrael replied.
"We still have time, you don't have to do it Azrael. I can be the one doing it." Master White said.
"You know, I am the right personality for this. And anyways, it doesn't matter who has the body; we both will equally experience the same pain." Azrael commented.
"Alright, you do it."
******
A few hours later,
The awakening ceremony was over, and the Vaeloreth Castle had returned to its original peaceful state. Only the maids could be seen moving around the training ground, cleaning up after the event.
The Duke's office,
Azrael entered and stood in front of the Duke:
"I request an official audience in the main hall, Duke Ragnar."