The marble temple glimmered underneath the sun that was near to finally descending, a scene Viran had seen countless times. With his feet standing firmly on the marble flooring, Viran stood alone amongst the crowd that surrounded him. As though he was a rock in the middle of a gentle stream, the water, or in this case the other children, all walked around him. They all kept their distance, it didn’t matter whether they were the lowest of Barons or the highest of pedigree from the Eminent Houses. Even Gregory who had attacked Viran the day before still had people surrounding him, though Viran supposed it was due to a bad elixir dose given to him. The blame was immediately given to Spion, of course.

The eyes of Gregory were bright now and his hands no longer shook, he even spoke with a confidence towards these other kids that Viran could not hope to muster. Yet the familiar anger and hatred still remained in his eyes whenever he spotted Viran, and a loose grin would always find its way onto his face.

Currently the almost one hundred children that were participating within the Day of Awakening were walking slowly in this temple that seemed to go on forever. The sheer size of it was amazing, and they were forced to walk through it all. Viran never thought of himself to hate the traditions within the Empire, but some could definitely have some fine-tuning.

As the sun descended fully, the entirety of the temple was put forth into darkness and Viran could feel a small object thump into his side.

“Eek! I touched the Devil!” The shriek resounded throughout the entire Temple.

Chuckles rang out around Viran as he looked towards who had harshly bumped into him, yet that figure had already disappeared into the crowd. Within the same moment multiple bangs rang out around the temple, to replace the sun multiple torches have been lit simultaneously. Viran was unsure whether or not it was by the use of a rune or a spell.

“Tsk.” Viran clicked his tongue as he looked around him once more in the newly illuminated room, though he hated being called Devil he hated being ignored and avoided more.

Despite the taboo and fear of Devils that manifested itself in the Empire, no one there was willing to believe such an absurd thing from a boy that was drugged with some bad elixirs. Rather, no one simply wanted to associate with Viran at all. His own faction had plenty of children the same age of Viran, yet everyone there could clearly see the disdain Lord Idicium showed towards Viran, and Gregory’s own hatred as well, so prompting any misunderstandings could never benefit them. Earning the abhor of either Lord Idicium or Gregory was close to a death sentence in many cases. For the other factions and even the neutral Nobles, there was simply no real reason for them to associate with the black sheep of the Idicium Family.

Viran walked forward in a steady motion, and he could still feel gazes follow him wherever he went. Despite their reluctance to actually talk or even get close to him, many of the people there still held some curiosity as to how he ever ended up in a situation like this. It was almost completely unheard of for a bastard child to be elevated to be the heir while the legitimate child was instead discarded, the situation itself betrayed any of all common sense. But Viran only ignored them all, he had much better things to think about.

Within the Empire the class differences between the Noble and the commoner were immense, the Day of Awakening served as an undelightful reminder of the true gap that existed between the two classes. Within the amazing temple the Nobles walked in there was not a single commoner in sight, even the guards that protected the children and the ones that helped with the ceremony and ritual itself were pure Nobles. For the thousands of commoners that lived within the Empire they all used the temples that were, with much regret, gifted to them by the higher class, and even those were rubbish in comparison to the Noble-only temples.. The Gods only spoke with and gave to their respondents in clean and sacred environments like these. But even then it didn’t simply stop there for the disparaging difference between the two classes, it was a terribly sad sight for most.

As the crowd’s feet finally stopped at the furthest point of the temple, what stood in front of them were numerous men dressed in white robes each armed with expensive weaponry. The guards that stood nearby were no longer clad in the silver armor used for practically all Knights, instead they were dressed in a heavier metal that was a dark grey. A stark difference from the gallantry the Knights dressed in silver gave off, the grey metal armor gave off a malicious and dark intent, as though they were the villains while their counterparts were the heroes.

“You don’t sit in the presence of the Gods. Stand tall and with your heads up, showing respect may just decide whether or not you’re noticed by the Gods.” The robed man in front said in an empty and languid voice. “Stand still and wait for your name to be called.”

As the man steps back the names are called and multiple kids the same age as Viran walk forward. No one showed any surprise when the only children that stepped forth were those from the Eminent Houses, and Viran himself.

“Good luck Lord Belde!”

“Go get ‘em Lord Gregory!”

Numerous cheers rang out from the crowd of Nobles as they urged the Eminent Households to go forward- not that any of the encouragement and cheers did anything though. Now it was all up to fate, the fate the Gods themselves saw within you.

“Annoying. Tsk.” The angry mumble of Belde was heard clearly by Viran, yet he didn’t make much of it. Though it seemed he was the heir to House Oriens Viran clearly saw how he berated his own sister over a simple mistake, having suffered the same disrespect Viran didn’t feel any good will to the boy.

“What are you looking at?” Belde angrily demanded from Viran as he turned around in a swift motion.

Contrary to his expectations, Viran merely stood and stared back at Belde. Viran was now able to get a good look at the kid’s face and it was true he possessed the same aura that his own Father had, and of course the same handsome face. It wasn’t a savage look like Viran, or a gentle face by Gregory but just a remarkable handsome face with a golden head of hair.

‘Looks like Marianne’s hair…’ Viran stood in thought while staring back directly at Belde.

The boy was prepared to argue back immediately, but upon thinking of the now departed women whom he shared only a single trip with, he lost any thought of it. Viran knew was bound to get made fun of for this by Ry, but he didn’t feel like getting caught up in a mess right at that moment.

“...Yelling in the temple isn’t very respectful. The Gods wouldn’t like any fighting in their place of worship.” Viran said plainly and with a straight face, though in reality he was suffering the berating of Ry within his head.

Belde’s features grimaced in only a moment once realization struck him, despite that his own pride had to come first.

“Fine, we’ll fight outside of the temple Devil.” The kid darkly cursed towards Viran before ignoring his presence completely.

Nodded softly, Viran decided to look around the temple more, only for his own gaze to meet directly with the young miss of Oriens, Belde’s own sister. Unfortunately for Viran, her good features immediately disappeared as she looked away immediately only to then walk a few more steps away. Viran couldn’t help but feel disheartened that his own gaze drew others away from him.

After their group drew farther away from the rest of the Nobles, Viran could see four altars sitting side by side. Multiple fires were already lit all around the altars. The altars themselves were alike in every feature, Viran couldn’t even tell the difference each had from one another. Somehow Viran had a strong premonition that things weren’t quite as they should be.

“Why do they all look the same?” Viran attempted to ask Ry, but received no answer. Occurrences like these were few and far between, Ry would at least usually yell at Viran to shut up yet only the boy only received complete and utter silence in return.

“Please, my Lords and Ladies, line up to your House’s God.” The robed man said.

Viran’s terrible premonition was immediately fulfilled, though he supposed something like that wasn’t something to be excited about. Viran looked around and saw clearly which altar Gregory had walked towards, and he followed in his path immediately. Despite the nonchalance Viran showed, he was really quivering in his boots.

It was obvious what was going to happen next, something that Viran could tell straight away. Yet he still held onto that faint hope that maybe somehow it wouldn’t happen.

“Tch. Get the hell away from me Devil.” Gregory spat out at Viran before stepping forward to receive his blessing from the Gods above.

It was an interesting sight for someone that had never seen such a thing before. As every altar but one was filled with people, the person in front would walk forward until even their legs were leaning against the altar. Their hand would then open and be placed plainly on top of the marble altar, and as their eyes closed a thunderous pressure would exert itself over the entire area. Viran wasn’t even feeling most of the pressure yet he could feel his shoulders being weighed down as his stomach flipped inside of him and he began to feel queasy.

“Quite frankly Viran I really do wish you’d just let your gut fall out onto this disgusting altar. Disrespect is something only these beings deserve.” Ry said plainly as he calmly watched on as Viran forced his stomach down, and with a breath of fresh air the pressure dissipated immediately. However there was no longer silence held within the temple, only laughter and joy.

For commoners, they merely hoped to be picked by a God due to the benefits, they could only dream of the other benefits. Yet for the Nobles who’s allegiance to a God was practically assured, what awaited them was the hope to obtain knowledge and blessings from the Gods above. As such, two people were immediately imparted with some form of blessing from the Gods above.

“I got it! I know how to awaken my gift!” The scream of Gregory, quite frankly, caused one of Viran’s nerves to bulge in anger.

“I- I got a blessing!” Hal Zora stuttered as he yelped in amazement, his own hands covered his mouth.

Belde on the other hand, remained completely silent amongst the crazy uproar surrounding him. His own gaze was covered in a shadow, it was clear to Viran that the boy didn’t get anything from the Gods and was greatly disappointed. Viran wasn’t too confused as to why the boy was excited, the Day of Awakening was meant for the Gods to bestow gifts upon the mortals.

A natural gift was one thing Viran learned from Sir Leonard over the year, and the ways you can obtain a gift for yourself. A natural gift could manifest itself in any way, such as Marianne’s emotional sight or Lord Idicium’s herculean strength, yet the commonality doesn’t simply stop there. A gift can manifest in a person in four different ways: Bloodline, Natural, Blessing, or Awakened. A bloodline gift was completely hereditary and was considered the norm in many Noble Houses, the Eminent Houses especially. As said before, Lord Idicium’s strength and Marianne’s emotional sight were both bloodline gifts from the Idicium and Kieller families. The natural gift on the other hand is seen as a mutation and largely considered unresearched. The natural gift varies from person to person and cannot be passed down to future generations, though there are rumors concerning the evolution from a natural gift to a bloodline gift. A blessing gift was exactly what all Nobles wanted, a gift bestowed upon them by the Gods above. The blessing gift could not be given to any descendants though, only a God could impart such things. An awakened gift was just a natural gift that wasn’t awakened at birth. It is theorized that everyone in the world has some sort of natural gift, they just haven’t awakened it yet. The only problem with awakened gifts is having to awaken them. The path to awakening a gift varied in every way, it could be simple like ingesting some form of medicinal plant or complicated like vanquishing hundreds of mana beasts. For most, the process was no quandary as long as they obtained his gift.

As Viran stepped forward, he gulped nervously. His gaze looks towards the divine pressure that put itself forth on the other kids. Viran slowly places his hand onto the top of the altar underneath the harsh gazes of Belde and Gregory.

Within the pressure there was no divinity, the pressure was only the fury of a God.