End of Spring.
Valtheim Kingdom.
Grand Arcanum Academy.
Today was the day everyone had been counting down to since their enrollment — the long-awaited Awakening Day.
In the center of the grand hall, hundreds of graduates stood in perfectly straight lines, their faces a mixture of nerves, excitement, and sheer terror.
Surrounding them like a swarm of buzzing insects, the juniors crowded the side galleries and balconies, leaning over railings to get a better view of the spectacle that was about to unfold.
At the very front, standing beneath the towering crest of the academy, was Principal Orlan.
He adjusted the voice amplifying crystal, his gaze sweeping over the sea of young faces.
"Today marks the end of your preparation," Principal Orlan’s voice boomed across the hall, silencing the whispers instantly. "And the beginning of your true lives. The potential sleeping within you will finally be drawn out. Do not fear it. Embrace it..."
He gave a moderate but powerful speech and signaled the start of the ceremony.
One by one, names were called.
Students walked up to the awakening platform, sitting down in the Conduction Circle.
Some left with cheers, pumping their fists in the air. Others walked down with slumped shoulders, tears stinging their eyes.
The line moved steadily, the tension mounting with every passing minute.
And finally, the announcer looked down at the list, his voice ringing out clearly.
"Next... Aeron."
Aeron stepped forward from the line, his expression impassive. Unlike the students before him who trembled with anticipation or fear, his steps were steady and measured.
He ascended the platform and calmly sat down in the center of the Conduction Circle, crossing his legs in a meditative posture.
"Close your eyes and don’t resist," the Senior Channeler instructed as he stepped behind Aeron and placed a heavy hand squarely on the young man’s back.
"...Yes."
Aeron’s reply was short. He closed his eyes, his breathing evening out instantly.
The process began.
A sudden influx of foreign energy surged into him.
The Channeler guided a stream of neutral aura through Aeron’s spine, forcing it into his dormant pathways. The Conduction Circle beneath him hummed to life, emitting a soft, rhythmic glow that pulsed in time with the energy transfer.
It felt like molten lead was being poured through his veins, a distending, searing pressure that sought to stretch his mortal limits. It was painful, a sensation that would have made a lesser student grit their teeth or cry out.
But Aeron remained unaffected. His face was a mask of stone, not a single muscle twitching in response to the invasion of power.
The invading energy didn’t just circulate aimlessly; it plunged deep into his lower abdomen, swirling violently before splitting into two distinct, harmonizing vortices within his ’Dantian’.
One felt heavy and dense, anchoring his physical vessel with iron-like stability, while the other hummed with a volatile, ethereal vibration, the two loci locking into a perfect, symbiotic orbit.
Then, the sensation shifted.
The ambient pressure coalesced, rushing toward a singular point. A sharp, burning pain flared on the back of his right hand, far more intense than the ache in his veins.
It felt as though a branding iron was being pressed against his skin.
Aeron’s brow furrowed slightly, but he held his ground. On the back of his right hand, a complex geometric pattern etched itself into existence, glowing with a faint, ethereal light.
It was his Resonance Mark, the physical gateway where he would absorb and channel his aura most effectively in the future.
The formation of the mark signaled the end of the struggle.
The resistance in his body shattered, replaced by a newfound sense of connection to the world around him.
He had finally awakened fully.
"You can open your eyes," the Senior Channeler spoke again, removing his hand. There was a hint of surprise in the man’s tone. "Congratulations on a successful awakening."
Aeron opened his eyes. The world looked sharper, more vibrant than it had a moment ago.
"You have awakened Dual Loci: Body and Energy," the Channeler informed him, nodding approvingly. "It is a rare occurrence. However, I advise you to quickly stabilize it before the excess aura dissipates or any problem arises."
"Thank you, Senior."
Aeron stood up and offered a polite bow.
Without waiting for the applause or the confused chatter that began to rise from the onlookers regarding his rare result, he walked straight toward the designated Aura Gathering Circle prepared for the newly awakened.
He sat down, blocking out the shouts of the juniors and the envious murmurs of his peers.
Closing his eyes once more, he immediately turned his focus inward, ignoring everything else to execute the specific stabilization method Vespera had drilled into him just a few days ago.
’...’
Thirty minutes passed.
The chaotic fluctuations around Aeron’s body abruptly ceased. The wild, untamed aura that had been leaking from his pores retracted, snapping into place with the precision of a locking mechanism.
He exhaled a long, white plume of breath, his complexion returning to a healthy flush.
"Impossible..."
Up in the VIP balcony, a scout from the Empire leaned forward, his knuckles gripping the railing.
"He stabilized Dual Loci in half an hour? That process usually takes three or four hours, minimum. Even for a prodigy."
"Who is that kid?" a recruiter from a prestigious guild whispered to his assistant, eyes narrowing. "Mark him down. Priority Alpha. That level of control must be innate."
Whispers of "genius" began to circulate among the guests who understood the technical difficulty of what they had just witnessed. They prepared to descend and make their offers the moment the boy stood up.
But Aeron didn’t stand.
Instead, he took a deep, steadying breath and adjusted his posture.
’Phase two,’ Vespera’s cool voice echoed directly in his mind. ’Do not let the momentum die. Your body and energy loci are stable, but they are separate entities. Bridge them now while your pathways are still malleable.’
’Understood.’
Aeron ignored the confusion rippling through the crowd and dove back into his meditation.
The harmonization began.
Normally, a newly Awakened would spend weeks gently coaxing their loci to sync. Trying to force two different power centers to rotate at the same frequency was like trying to balance two spinning plates on a single stick while blindfolded.
But Aeron wasn’t blind. He had a guide.
’Rotate the body locus clockwise,’ Vespera commanded. ’Slow the energy locus by three degrees. Match the rhythm... now.’
Aeron followed her instructions without hesitation. Inside his dantian, the heavy, dense vortex of his Body Locus and the ethereal, rapid spin of his Energy Locus began to hum in unison.
Another thirty minutes later.
Hummmm—!
A low, resonant sound vibrated from Aeron’s body, felt rather than heard.
The two distinct auras around him merged into a single, seamless twilight glow.
He had finished harmonizing.
"He... he completed the Synchronization Phase? Already?" The Senior Channeler, who was overseeing the other students, stopped in his tracks, staring at Aeron with wide eyes.
The hall went silent. Awakening and stabilizing were difficult enough on their own. Achieving perfect harmonization within an hour of awakening was unheard of.
"He is done, right?" a student nearby muttered, looking exhausted just from watching. "He has to be done."
Aeron remained still.
The twilight glow around him persisted. Instead, the geometric Resonance Mark on his hand flared with a blinding intensity.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, the ambient aura in the room, which was already dense due to the ceremony, began to swirl.
A violent pull emanated from Aeron’s body, becoming a vacuum that greedily tore the energy from the air and funneled it into his newly formed core.
The onlookers froze.
For a moment, they struggled to process the scene. Then, a realization struck the recruiter from the guild like a lightning bolt.
"Wait... that pull..."
He stood up, his chair scraping loudly against the floor.
"Is he... is he trying to break through to Rank 2?!"
"Right here?! Right now?!"
"Is he insane?! He just awakened an hour ago! His channels will burst!"
"Greedy! How greedy can one be?!"
Disbelief washed over the crowd.
Ignoring the outcry, the warnings, and the sheer absurdity of the situation, Aeron sat motionless in the center of the storm, devouring the world’s aura as if he intended to swallow the sky whole.
’...I have to do it.’
’...I have to!’