"Elias, step forward," the calm voice of the Yseult, master of the Asylum, rang out, and it was almost as if his body responded before his mind could follow, and he took three steps forward.
'How fascinating,' Elias thought, 'I knew that powerful Siphons had abilities beyond what I understand, but to control my body by just speech alone is… concerning. Have they been going easy on me all these years I have been with them?"
Of course, he did not let any of his thoughts show on the surface as he gave a bow to the figures overhead after walking two steps forward; any more and his sight would be blocked by the metal arches above.
"Five minutes from now, your fate will be decided, and you will touch Lumina and become a Siphon. If you are not chosen, you will remain a mortal. Whatever Fate has in store for you, we have no hand in it… at least for a long time that had been the case, but Siphons have fought countless battles for the hand of Fate itself to be… adjusted, and in this place, that hand can be shifted a bit in our favour. The God of Fate is dead, and some of his radiance dwells in the metal around you. Do not forget your history as a Siphon, and what it truly means. We take... we dominate... we rule!"
Yseult's voice was like a whip to his brain, compelling Elias to listen to everything she said with rapt attention, and it almost felt as if his heart was about to fly out of his chest.
"Prepare yourself for this moment, for you will be burdened with the gifts of Miracle or Condemnation. None is lesser than the other, and we bear them with grace."
'Gifts?…' Elias pondered, 'that was a strange way to refer…' that was all he had the time to think about before his mind was ripped from his body, and from his position, he saw himself standing as a statue staring upwards, with his eyes rolled into the back of his head, as once again he experienced the feeling of his mind leaving his body behind.
'I thought I still had three more minutes to prepare myself. Rhys, you bastard, of course you are wrong about the time too.'
[INITIALIZATION COMMENCING… 3…2… ERROR… SUBJECT LUMINA COUNT FAR EXCEEDS NORMAL PARAMETERS… ADJUSTING…]
His vision was suddenly flooded with arcane runes that he could somehow understand, but they brought such incredible strain to his consciousness that Elias passed out. The runes continued engraving themselves into his soul, even when he was no longer aware.
[MIRACLE COUNT BELOW THRESHOLD… DAMNATION COUNT EXCEEDINGLY ABOVE THRESHOLD…]
[ADJUSTING…]
[ADJUSTING…]
[OLDEN TALENT FOUND… MATCHING…]
[FRAGMENT OF UNKNOWN BROKEN GODHOOD FOUND… ALERTING HIGHER AUTHORITY… ERROR… FRAGMENT SHATTERED BEYOND RESURRECTION… NO THRONE... NO ALTAR... NO DOMAIN... ALERT ENDED.]
[OLDEN TALENT MATCHED… INITIATION BEGINS]
[LUMINA AWAKENING… ERROR]
[LUMINA AWAKENING… ERROR]
[MULTIPLE SUBJECTS FOUND WITHIN HOST... ADJUSTING...]
[ADJUSTING...]
[MULTIPLE SUBJECTS LINKED WITH OLDEN TALENT... BRIDGE FOUND... TALENT UPGRADED TO MATCH NEW PARAMETERS... ERROR, TALENT NOT WITHIN DATABASE....]
[LUMINA AWAKENING… ERROR]
[LUMINA AWAKENING… ERROR]
[TALENT... ADAPTED?! #Error#]
[LUMINA REAWAKENING… SUCCESS]
[THREAT DETECTED.... ERROR.... ALERT CANCELLED.]
[Bless us O Father of Destruc.... #Error#]
㉫
"You must eat your wings, my son… only then can you fly… Eat!"
The sudden, loud cry, which seemed to come from a woman and emerged all around him, made Elias flinch; his vision flashed as if he were suffering a fainting spell, and when he could perceive his surroundings again, everything had changed.
His body still stood in the same position, but he was no longer in the strange metallic room where he was brought for his ascension; instead, he was surrounded by bright light, as if he had been transported into the center of a massive Ember Orb.
There was no way to determine where he was or how big this space was, because it was featureless; he could either be in a room or in a space as large as the town, and he would not be able to tell.
His body was standing below him, but his consciousness was hovering above it.
Elias had researched the ascension of mortals from birth to the moment they touched the Lumina, and he had never heard of anyone experiencing anything like this.
According to countless descriptions of this event, there was usually a feeling of pain, as if a blanket too hot was wrapped around the body, and an accompanying headache, as if a hot poker were skewering the brain. Then everyone's mind could access their [Status], which was seen as the doorway into the Lumina, a way for mortal minds to touch the domain of the gods.
It was a relatively straightforward process, and the outliers were usually mild, but surrounded by this whiteness all around him, the thing Elias had feared most seemed to be happening: the poison, that damned Passenger inside him, was affecting his ascension.
He should have been panicking, but he wasn't; instead, he was grinning. Because he could feel something different surrounding him, and he instinctively knew that it was Lumina.
What Elias had feared from the start was not being able to touch Lumina, leaving him mortal and his life beyond his control. If there was an opportunity to change his fate, then he did not care how difficult it was to do so; he would take it every time.
"But first, I need to return to my body."
Existing as a disembodied consciousness over his body was not a pleasant experience. As if his thoughts were the trigger, he felt his consciousness begin to descend to his body, then the strange voice that awakened him slammed against his consciousness.
"Down is pain… Down is betrayal… Eat your wings and fly, my son… FLY!!!"
This time, the cry was much closer, causing Elias to flinch, but he did not pause his descent. Although he was aware that he was in a strange place, Elias had long prepared himself for the possibility that anything might happen at his ascension, and he knew the only way to handle it was to compartmentalize and move forward.
He was a hunter and a killer, and he knew that one of the biggest mistakes made by those he had hunted in the past was indecisiveness; it was always better to make a choice, even if it was a bad one, than to be frozen in place.
His choice was to enter his body, because that was the seat of his power, rather than to remain a disembodied consciousness trying to figure out what these strange cries meant.
His past experiences had shaped Elias's actions in ways he knew he would not have taken; he would not be a hunter without the Passenger's voice in his head, and the last thing he wanted was for something new to continue dictating how he lived.
However, as his consciousness descended, it began to slow down as if a hand was holding him back from entering his body, and from the edges of his perception, he could see that the whiteness that surrounded him in this featureless space was beginning to dim, and a growing darkness was pressing in.
His body was so close and yet seemed farther away as his descent slowed, and the darkness that had surrounded this space began to rush in, whooshing like a whirlwind.
The closing darkness had nearly reached his body, and Elias instinctively knew that he did not want his consciousness to be outside his body when this darkness reached him, else he would lose something extremely important to him.
His consciousness touched his body, and he began to feel the warmth of his flesh, but not all of him had entered his body when the darkness covered him, and he felt a soft and wet heat on his ear as if someone pressed their mouth against it, and he heard a woman whispering,
"You did not eat… You did not fly… Now you are here with the beasts, and they are hungry, my son… hahahahahahaaaa… They are so hungry."
[Lumina Reawakening Completed.]
[Title Earned]