"Young Master Dasmiond, it's time to wake up."
As Dasmiond started to open his eyes, the first thing he saw was an old man who looked to be in his late 50s. His vision was still blurry. He sat up in his bed and tried to clear his mind.
He let out a small yawn and then said in a tired manner, though there was also some nervousness in his voice,"Today is the day, huh?"
"Yes, young master. We will start the day with light sparring, but after that, we will skip the rest of the training and get ready for the ceremony."
Dasmiond looked at him in an annoyed manner and spoke in a slightly angry voice."Yeah, yeah! As always, I can't even decide what to do."
After that, Dasmiond stood up and started looking for his clothes. These were simple training clothes, purple in color, with a symbol of a light pink dragon on them.
He picked them up and looked at the old man with a weird expression."Can I at least change in private, Rupert?"
The old man left the room in a respectful manner.
After some time, Dasmiond left his room wearing his training clothes. Then both Dasmiond and the old man started heading outside the mansion. After some time, they reached the training hall. It was a big room made of carved stone with beautiful dragon art all around. On one side, there were all kinds of weapons including swords, bows, arrows, and some other weird-looking weapons like a rope with a long sharp knife at the end. On the other side of the room, to the left of Dasmiond, were armors. Most were normal-looking armor made out of iron, but three in the middle were unique. They had beautiful designs and were made of a mineral called Asminn. In front of them was a sitting area. Dasmiond picked up his usual sword and walked to the middle of the training room. Rupert was already standing there with his personal sword.
Dasmiond lunged at the old man with all his force. He swung his sword from the right, but it was easily blocked. He backed away and jumped upward, striking from above, but the old man moved to the side, dodging the attack. Then he struck Dasmiond's leg with his own.
"Your footwork needs more work."
Dasmiond attacked from the side, but that was also blocked. He then tried to stab Rupert from the front, but the old man once again easily redirected the sword. They kept at it for a while until Dasmiond was completely exhausted, sweat pouring down his face.
He lay on the ground to calm his breathing and after a while, stood back up.The old man, despite his age, didn't even break a sweat. He looked at Dasmiond and handed him a small cup of water made out of clay.
After Dasmiond drank it, he said,"Shall we get ready for the aura awakening ceremony?"
Dasmiond said,"Stop acting like I even have a choice."
The old man said,"If you do well in the ceremony, your father will let you go outside the mansion as you've wished for so long."
Dasmiond replied,"And if I don't?"
The old man stayed silent. After that, they both started walking back to the mansion.
It was already evening. Dasmiond was ready for his awakening ceremony. Rupert wore even more formal clothes than before. They were walking toward the main hall of the family where the awakening ceremony was supposed to take place. After a few minutes of walking, they stood in front of the main hall gate. Dasmiond took a deep breath and said in a low voice,"Here goes nothing."
After the gate opened, he saw a beautifully decorated place. He started looking around in a gentle manner to avoid drawing attention. There were around 40 people in the hall. Almost half were from his own family, including his cousins, aunts, etc. The other half were from two allied families.
In front of him was his father, who was waiting for his arrival. Dasmiond was shocked to see his father, let alone see him waiting.
"How long has it been? Three and a half years,"he said in his mind.Even though it was his father, he had only seen him a couple of times in his entire life. At first, he was angry about it, but after some years, he stopped feeling anything toward him.
"Shall we get started?"His father said in a gentle but confident manner."Stand in the middle of the awakening magic circle."
Dasmiond did as he said. After that, his father began speaking words he didn't understand.He was quite nervous to see what color of aura would appear and how dense it would be. Different colors of aura represented different properties, and the denser it was, the stronger it usually meant.
After some time, his father stopped chanting, and the magic circle began to light up.What's it gonna be? Blue, purple, yellow?Honestly, it didn't matter much to Dasmiond what color it was. The only thing that truly mattered to him was how dense it would be.
After a few moments, the color appeared, and it was—
Red.
Dasmiond's expression lit up with fear. His heartbeat and blood flow increased.He said in a state of panic and confusion,"This can't be… I didn't make any contact with a devil. There has to be some kind of mist—"
He didn't quite understand what had happened, but the very next thing he saw…
Was his own body.
HEADLESS.