…Jua Village…4 hours after midday….

The plasma-blue sky which decorated the day was gradually receding as airy clouds drifted around the sun. The sun was still burning strong turning the trees and vegetation in the village into a flaming collage of colors: scorching-reds, golden-yellows and wooden-browns. The scene’s strange glamour elicited some long buried memories in Mwana.

“Keep your thoughts and heart as one. Rationality or emotion, they don’t matter, what matters is your own will.” For a moment he heard his father’s voice. “Father,” as he reached his hand towards the sun, a nostalgic atmosphere surrounded the young boy.

His hand blocked the sun from his sight but when he lowered it, the sun was no longer there. In the push and pull between the gleaming sun and the drifting clouds, the clouds emerged victorious. A soft cool wind started blowing causing the leaves to sway left and right.

“It is going to rain.”

Not a second passed after this statement that a drizzling mist-like rain approached the village. The drizzle was like white noise to Mwana’s ears as it amplified his thoughts of the past. The plip and plop of rain hitting the ground and dripping off the roofs brought back memories of simpler times, memories of his late father.

By the time he awakened from his day dream, he had already arrived at his destination. He had just awakened his bloodline and it was crucial to take the next step, the awakening ceremony. Bloodline Awakening was divided into several stages namely, Gateway, Entry, Initiation, and True Awakening which involved the methods of Blood Boiling and Blood Rush.

At this moment, Mwana was standing at an isolated pathway, the road to the village shrine. When he arrived at the entrance of the shrine, there were already other people there including his family and some of his classmates.

“What took you so long? What did you do?” While still lost in thought, Sana’s voice reached his ears. Mwana only give a sheepish smile. He felt his mother’s questions had destroyed the melancholic atmosphere he had been building up on his way here. However, he did not dare answer her lest he implicate himself. He had played with his friends before and after school dirtying the clothes Sana had prepared for him so he had to freshen up before showing up here. Even his friends had arrived at his own ceremony before him.

Apart from Sana, his uncles and aunts were also there and another additional man was standing beside them. This man was tall and dressed in black but his hair was flaming red. His robes only covered one side of his body showing off half of his chest and left arm which was well muscled.

“Come greet your uncle.”

The man did not wait to be introduced and called to Mwana. The boy recognized full well who this man was and walked over to give his greetings.

‘As her guardian, her guardian maybe one day I will have to ask this uncle of her hand I marriage.’ After thinking of this, Mwana even straightened his clothes before greeting the man in the most respectful manner he could manage.

“What a well behaved child. It’s just been 2 or 3 years since I last saw you and you have really grown up,” the man said while patting Mwana’s small head with his massive palms. This man was Fury Jua’s father and Malkia’s uncle and current guardian, Jin Mwaki. If he knew of Mwana’s thoughts regarding Kia, what would he think? Behind the adults, Mwana could see some of his friends like Cheza, Nyaga, Mwanga, and even Malkia and Fury who had accompanied her father.

After respectfully greeting all the adults gathered there including some of his teachers and neighbors, everyone turned to enter the shrine.

“Son it is your big day. Today you will take the ‘first step’.” These words by Mwana’s ‘little’ father, Jua Vumilivu, had a double meaning. After taking a deep breath, Mwana finally took the first step into the shrine with everyone following behind him.

The shrine entrance was decorated by two statues of man and woman. These statues were extremely huge dwarfing most huts in the village. Mwana remembered once when he saw these statues as he passed outside the shrine at night, “They scared the living-monkey out of me!”

As far as Mwana knew, these statues were of the Human Emperor and Human Empress. Both characters were dressed in white with golden haloes radiating from the statues.

“Recite the True Spirit Canon.” A voice appeared out of thin air and Mwana knew the ceremony had started. ‘The Shrine Master!’

There was nobody in the Zika world who did not know of the True Spirit Canon. This was not just a mantra or technique but a way of life. A means that allowed people to gain enlightenment in whatever path they pursued by unearthing a human’s full potential. It could even be considered as an art or even a religion as it involved worship, chants, a mantra, hand signs, dances, and mental imagery.

This art was taught to human children since their young age. It had been created by the Human Emperor Sanaan Jinfire Ngao also referred to as ‘the Shield of Humanity’ and the Human Empress ‘Rose Doctor’ Waridi also referred to as the ‘Divine Mortal’. Their names appeared in the chants of the canon and could help humans awaken the power of their True Spirit thus raising their talent. For a martial artist, this would help in training martial arts, mental arts, spiritual arts, and finally synchronizing all 3 aspects of human existence.

The Human Emperor and Human Empress, Sanaan and Waridi, had developed this art to close the gap between humans and other races with outstanding ancestral inheritances such as Demons who could utilize many powerful abilities such as Demon Arrays and Ancestral Power Summoning.

After everyone recited the canon, they all followed behind Mwana and walked towards the interior of the shrine. They had to walk through a long path of over a hundred meters to get to the central area. On both sides of the path, there were statues and idols set up in front of some caves. These caves were offering grounds for these minor deities and the ancestors of the Jua village. If one were to enter these caves and walk further, they would find some tunnels that took one to an open area which was the village burial grounds to the left and right.

Walking along this path was therefore similar to walking between walls of death.

Mwana had rarely been to the shrine and as he walked on this path, he was constantly amazed by the statues. The last time he was here was when the shrine master had to perform rights after his father’s death. Back then, he was naturally not in a mood to admire the scenery.

However, before he asked anything about the statues, his sister Pendo who was also looking around curiously asked their mother about them.

“These statues represent different gods. You see that red one over there, that’s Mhunzi Mara, the God of Smithing. As this is a blacksmith village, he is very revered.” Sana said while referring to a statue forged of black meteorite. The figure on the statue was extremely muscular and painted brown-red. He had a red mane of hair that looked like iron nails and golden tattoos were painted on the reddish statue. As the god of smithing, this statue had far more offerings in front of it than others due to the profession of the village.

Sana continued to explain the statues along the path such as those of Uzazi the Goddess of Fertility, Vuma the Goddess of Rain, Amani-Jutia the Goddess of Peace and many others. There were also many smaller idols of lesser gods such as human divinities and mortal gods. By the time Sana was done explaining, they had already arrived at the core area of the shrine where two old men were waiting for them. These two were the shrine master and the village priest.

While Mwana and most other children were not familiar with the shrine master, they all knew the Village Priest, Jua Mzee. This old man’s name ‘Mzee’ translated to ‘old man.’ This name had always baffled Mwana but he didn’t dare ask the old man about it.

‘It doesn't sound out of place now since he is old now, but I can’t imagine the awkwardness when he was a young man with such a name. He must have suffered.’ Mwana thought that if the old man had friends like Cheza in his younger years, he would never have a day of peace. Mwana even sniffled a little when he thought of the old man’s ‘troubled’ younger years.

The interior of the inner shrine could only be described as dark. The tall trees at the side blocked out the sun and the earth on both sides rose up like a curved valley almost forming a large cave over the shrine.

The walls of rock were carved to form the vague shape of a building with tall pillars of hardwood on the four corners of the shrine. However, these pillars did not hold up any roof. Instead the branches and leaves of even taller trees outside the shrine formed a canopy like nature’s roof. The massive size of these trees could not be imagined as the inner shrine’s width was already in the hundreds of meters! So how large were the trees that could form a canopy over it? These were trees that had been alive for thousands of years!

As for the sides of the inner shrine, several caves were carved in the walls each for a different purpose. Some of these caves had ponds in them. The three most important ponds in the shrine were the Bloodline Awakening Pond, the Maternity Pond, and the Life Pond. The function of the life pond was self explanatory as its waters were like a lesser fountain of life that could heal minor diseases and illnesses or poisons. Mwana’s uncle and mother had been frequent visitors to this pond. While it could not cure their serious problems, it could alleviate their pain as well as side effects.

As for the maternity pond, it was reserved for pregnant women who had complications during pregnancy or birth. It was said to be connected to the underworld and could improve a baby’s luck.

At the end of the shrine grounds, there was a small temple and behind it was a huge statue etched into the cliff walls. These cliff walls existed behind the entire village and the statue carved into them was countless times bigger than the others. This was the statue of the Zika world’s Creator God! This statue adopted a kneeling posture on one knee with its right arm outstretched. From this right arm, a river of multicolored water originated and split into multiple small single colored streams that flowed into the caves to the right and left forming the shape of a blossoming flower when viewed from the top.

The Shrine Master did not waste any time and called Mwana to him to begin the ceremony. This old man was dressed in white fur and above the fur, he wore an orange cloak. He was also holding a black umbrella with red strips to block the slight drizzle of rain. Unlike modern curved umbrellas, this umbrella was completely flat with no curvature and the umbrella’s cloth only dropped down at the edges. The old man grabbed Mwana’s arm and walked towards the small temple at the innermost part of the shrine with everyone following behind them.

The temple seemed to float over the multicolored river and Mwana could not understand how they would get to it but what happened next altered his very view of the world. The shrine master took off his orange cloak and used it to part the river!

“No way! Just like that a path was created?” Not just Mwana, but all the other children exclaimed in shock. This multicolored river was not small. Its width was at least 70 meters and this was just an underestimation of its size. Mwana finally understood why the Academy Vice-head had told him he could take the Shrine Master as a teacher if he wanted to take advantage of his Spiritual talent.

‘This is the Shrine Master. The man rumored to be a Spirit World Master, a Rank 4 Divine Spiritualist; someone at the same level as the Sword Elder!’ Mwana felt that this could not just be a rumor anymore. It was probably the truth given this display of power.

In the small temple, the ceremony finally began. First Mwana’s family had to make some offerings and libation to the ancestors. The shrine master then led them to bathe in ash and kneel in prayer to the Creator God. The next step was a cleansing ceremony which used the water from one of the streams to spiritually cleanse Mwana’s body. This was followed by the born again ceremony where Sana was involved. This ceremony represented the fact that Mwana would be reborn on this day.

Through all this, the shrine keepers stood at the side of the shine beating their drums as Sana Jua danced while everyone else chanted and sang. At this point, she had forgotten her pain and her sickly body did not hinder her. It was her son’s big day. She danced with her arms moving widely all around. She whirled and jumped as happiness flooded her. Her sweat decorated the air but she did not feel tired at all. This was true dancing: a foot forward, a step back, a twist here, a jump there, a shake of her waist. When was the last time she had moved like this, she could not remember. As the drums and singing came to a stop, her feet came to an abrupt stop as she stood there breathless. However, a bright smile was etched onto her face. She was happy. For a long time maybe no one had seen her smile as much as she did today.

At the Bloodline Awakening pond, Mwana finally went through his bloodline awakening ceremony after receiving the ancestral blessing. It was said that this ritual would awaken latent bloodline abilities. In Mwana’s case, he had already experienced the enhancement of his senses since this morning. “Maybe after this I will be able to use abilities like Dragon Claw or Dragon Roar!” Mwana said excitedly.

Seeing the young man deep in fantasy land, the shrine master could not help but remind him to concentrate.

“Stop dilly dallying. Step into the pond and sit at the edge and then meditate. Remember to deeply concentrate on your bloodline as you meditate. You cannot sense it now but you will after you step into the pond.”

Taking the old man’s words into account, Mwana finally sat cross-legged in the pond. He almost let off a laugh as the pond water tickled him. This slightly red water had a nice scent that immediately put him in a meditative trance. Mwana found himself in a world of red as if he was standing in an ocean of blood.

“How do I even find my bloodline let alone concentrate on it? The old man should have been clearer in his words.”

However, as soon as he had this thought, a heartbeat entered his ears. Remembering back to some of his dreams and visions, he understood that he had to follow the sound of the heartbeat. Following this sound, his small figure drifted over the endless ocean of blood before reaching a giant swallowing current that formed a hole in the ocean. He could not resist it as he was swallowed into the deep black abyss.

In this world of darkness, Mwana saw another vision. A giant green dragon with scales like ruby, torch like eyes, and massive wings that spanned across space was flying in the void. The dragon threw out a terrifying claw attack which ripped right through a planet in the deep black space smashing it into pieces. Once again, an apocalyptic scene that Mwana could not comprehend ensued. The claw was not only destructive but it also seemed to have a corrosive effect that wiped out the massive chunks of rubble from the destroyed planet completely annihilating them.

Before he could even comprehend the scale of the attack, the green dragon turned and locked eyes with him. Even though this was an illusionary world, Mwana was frozen in place by the dragon’s stare. The dragon then let out a great roar that reverberated across space shattering the void. The force was so powerful that in the real world Mwana’s nose started to bleed and his bones started to emit audible growls like a dragon.

The shattering void was enough to break Mwana’s meditation as he woke up with a start. His bones still emitted growling noises which even caused the interior of the cave to slightly shake shocking everyone around.

However, Mwana was ecstatic as he had finally understood what all his previous dreams of the same nature had been trying to tell him. When he combined all his previous dreams with the present one, he vaguely understood that they were spelling out a vague mantra, the [Green Dragon Mantra].

“Dragon Bone Refinement.” He exclaimed out loud. This method was just a small section of the Green Dragon Mantra that he had deciphered and was the main reason his bones were growling. It was a method to forge dragon bones! Remembering the feeling he experienced when facing the green dragon and replicating it would allow Mwana to smoothen his path through Bone Forging.

“An inherited ability? You are one of the lucky ones.” The shrine master’s voice finally brought Mwana back to reality. Hearing that her son had an inherited ability, Sana was almost crying in joy. Today had been a happy day for her.

With a few more pleasantries to the villagers who attended, Mwana and his family returned home. Although he wanted to spend time playing around, he knew he had to prepare. Not only did he have a big fight coming but he also had to aim for Bone Forging. In a few weeks, it would be his 10th birthday. From then on, he would only have 5 years. Only 5 years to become a Crystal Warrior or else he would have missed his window for good. Time was tight.