It has been a week since brother Aether had left for his rite of passage alongside father. I was surprised when I realized he had already mastered his soul space, I felt defeated once again, yet I suppose that was to be expected from brother Aether, he was always a step ahead of me.

Still, I was not going to lose, although I was late by a few days, I managed to master my soul space somewhat, beating that smug-faced Immy. Just remembering her surprise when she found out she lost made me feel immensely better, although I was fast, she still followed right after me that same day.

Ynos was the third one to succeed. I am ashamed to admit It, but I did not think he was the brightest of us, so I was amazed when he came in the second day to report that he also mastered his soul space. Little Essie on the other hand still had a lot of work to do, I was sure that should she set her mind to It she would be able to make It no problem.

'Even Ynos made It after all...' I mumbled, but her problem was that she was too much of a free spirit, I shook my head with a sigh as I remembered how she would spend every day playing outside instead of training to improve herself.

I wanted to reprimand her, to let her see the fault in her ways, and how she must not waste any time in something so meaningless, yet every time I gather my courage to do so, all my thoughts turn blank when she happily comes asking me to play with her.

Thankfully, I still had the will to turn her down. I had no time to waste, brother Aether was already a step ahead of me, and according to mother, his rite of passage was a step harder than ours. 'As expected of my older brother, still I will surpass him!'

And so, with my mind made up, mother took us towards our rite of passage. First, she dropped Immy into a forest down north asking her to hunt some tainted monster, then after that, we flew further north where mother pitted Ynos against a giant asking him to defeat It using his physical strength only, no magic.

My eyes were wide open in shock at that since the giant was as tall as a large hill, made out of grey and blackish rocks. As expected, however, Ynos was undisturbed and instead jumped headfirst with an excited expression on his face as he went to meet the giant.

Setting Ynos in his place, mother continued our flight until we reached a massive city. My mouth hanged open in surprise as I scanned the monster city below, countless humanoid monsters roamed the streets, a few were even fighting in the middle.

I didn't know if It was right to call It a city since It looked more like a gathering of monsters. Its inhabitants were tall slim humanoids with greenish skin, they had four lanky arms that ended with sharp claws. Their faces on the other hand were repulsive, they were triangular with one massive eye in the middle, right below It was a large jaw that extended across their face with rows of sharp-looking teeth.

"Your rite of passage mission is to use your strongest spell to shroud this city in darkness, and silently take care of all monsters within," Said mother as we stood watching the city from high above the ground.

"My strongest spell? But mother, I cannot move If I use my cloak of darkness," I retorted with a confused expression. To my dismay, mother simply ignored me and instead, pushed me down towards the forest that surrounded the monster city below using her wind magic. Thankfully I managed to land claw first.

Raising my head to scan the sky, my mother's figure was no longer visible. 'Calm down Sidus, you can do It, think, what would brother Aether do If he was here?' closing my eyes, I reached out to the mana in my surroundings and commanded It to plunge the city into darkness.

The mana then heeded my call as the shadows extended from below my claws and rushed towards the monster city, within seconds a large dome was arrested trapping all the monsters inside while I remained outside.

I could hear their cries of panic as they were suddenly plunged into darkness, a few had tried to run away, yet using my magic, I could easily disorient them and keep them trapped within the dome. 'Now that was easy, the real question is, now what?' I grumbled.

Keeping the dome up was already taking all of my concentration, If I were to try anything, the spell would simply break down. "Brother Aether sure is amazing with how he seems to be able to use mana infinitely, still I won't lose!"

'There must be some way I can get through this, I have to hurry up too, I can't lose to damn Immy! Dragon King forbid I lose to Ynos...' Shaking my head from such useless thoughts, I once again attempted to slowly form a claw attack within the dome.

Yet the second the claw began to appear, the dome quickly turned unstable causing me to stop with my attempt. Taking a deep breath, I continued trying to summon an attack, all the while keeping the dome in place without breaking my concentration.

The day slowly turned into night, and as the sun disappeared and the world itself was plunged into darkness, my control over the mana skyrocketed and I was finally able to catch a small breather. 'As expected, I'm at my peak when it's nighttime, I wonder how different a fight against brother Aether would be If we fought at night,'

'No, I'm still too weak!' Shaking my head, I resumed my attempt at creating an attack within the cloak of darkness. The monsters were still panicking, yet none was able to escape. A claw made out of mana suddenly appeared, silently decapitating a monster yet as soon as that happened, I quickly lost control and had to cancel that spell In order to keep the dome up.

Although It was but for a second, I still managed to do It! With my spirits lifted, I instantly resumed my attempts to clear the city of monsters. 'I'm still too weak, If It was brother Aether, I'm sure a city would be nothing for him,'

And so another day passed, and then another, my control was constantly improving, yet my heart felt heavy in my chest. It was nothing but a matter of time before I cleared the city, though what I was concerned about was Immy who seemed to have had It easy. 'I have to pass before her!'