Chapter 29: The Birth of Bright Star

Gwen looked for the best position to relax her body comfortably on the wooden tub barrel that was full of lukewarm water with salt. She let some time focus and close her eyes before taking a couple of deep breaths. With each breath that she took in, she released them slowly until her mind and soul were already being freed from any form of destruction passing through her. As her mind was being lifted into a clear one, there she goes again into a place where she see the darkness turned into light. It was the same place where she meets her adoptive parents but this time they weren't there to greet her. But the glowing light was still radiant the last time she saw it and it was still beating like a heart. She went closer to it and took a deep breath.

"Here it goes." Gwen mumbled before she touched the glowing light before her. Once she managed to touch it, she indeed felt the warmness coming out from it and it was calming her even more.

As she was feeling the calmed warmness passing through her entire body, she could hear some snapping chains or moving chains followed by opening gates. The sound wasn't either creepy or a loud cluttering but they opened smoothly as if they were welcoming her apart from one huge gate that suddenly appeared in front of her.

'Are you ready to open that?'

Gwen didn't give her mother's voice her answer when she heard that question. She took her time to decide and there were some memories went flashing into her mind. It was reminding her of how she faced her nightmares that sometimes confused her or even scared her. There was also the moment when she faced the hideous face and memory of the person who made her see positivity in her life again. She smiled recalling them.

"Slavica…just thinking of her made me feel that I'll be fine." Gwen slightly chuckled to herself when Slavica's face flashed into her mind. She really feels positive and makes herself smile just by thinking about her. She loves that effect on her and she was very grateful for that.

Gwen looked determined once again and the radiance around her body began to glow brightly. She began to open her mouth to give her mother's voice her answer.

"I managed to open a hideous memory from Slavica before and started to face my own nightmares and this one…I know that I could face it again as long as she stayed beside me – with me." Gwen firmly said without any hesitation or doubt in her mind or in her tone that her biological mother was proud of her.

'Then opened it but if can't hold it, I'll call for her aid as soon as you needed it.'

"Thank you." Gwen smiled before raising up both of her hands and opening the very huge gate in front of her.

But to her surprise, the glowing and huge silver-black-white gate suddenly opened for her before she could manage to touch it. It opened willingly as if she was being chosen to wield it and not forcing it to be used.

'That never happened to me and only a few babaylans were chosen by the gate itself.'

"What this gate was about anyway?" Gwen was totally curious as soon as it opened and her curious cat was fueled when she heard those words from her biological mother.

'Gate of change that's why it's grey.'

"Make sense." She agreed before she released a sigh just to relax her nerves.

'Off you go. Just call up her name if something you can't handle alone, I'll call her to be your aid.'

"Thank you, mother." Gwen glanced at her and smiled before she went inside the particular huge gate before her. It was the only remaining gate that didn't open for her as soon as she get into her meditation until now.

As Gwen was doing her cleansing meditation, something began to ring around the bloody strings that were surrounding the whole perimeter of the cabin. It actually alarmed Slavica and her team. They all woke up from their peaceful slumber and just run to where it was coming from. They all looked at each other when they all meet outside the cabin's backyard.

"Where's Gwen?" Yui noticed as she yawned but there were some worries in her tone that made Slavica look around and found her clothing. She went to check it out and there she saw Gwen, doing her cleansing like what she heard from Gwen's biological mother.

"She was doing her cleansing meditation, we have to protect her. It'll be difficult if she was being disturbed. We don't know what power lies deep inside her yet, so, stay alert." Slavica answered as she informed her team when she saw what Gwen was doing already.

"Tacker, check the perimeter. Irina uses the air to help Tacker and Yui, you can prepare breakfast for everyone. I'm gonna bet that she'll be hungry once she wakes up from her meditation." Slavica quickly ordered her team who already agreed to her command.

"And you?" Irina wondered even though she already knew that she'll be around their whole perimeter.

"Around." Slavica smirked as she took this alarm as her warming up before she could face Gwen with their head-to-head sword combat training later. Seeing that gesture, they all knew already that their boss was going to train Gwen really hard later.

"Don't be harsh on your warm-up." Irina reminded her not to exhaust herself because she knew that whenever Slavica trained with Gwen, her energy was all over the place. But at the same time, they were calm as long it she was with Gwen.

Meanwhile, as the grey gate welcomed Gwen as it appeared in front of her opened, she didn't waste any more moments and got inside. Once she did, the door automatically closed down on its own and then vanished as if it was not even there. To Gwen, that surprised her but at the same time, she was totally focused on dealing with the power resting inside of her. She went back on walking around the clear sky with wash white that seems like white clouds floating around the space but she wasn't. She was just walking as she wondered what store was within the grey gate.

"So, what should I do here then?" Gwen wandered into the clear empty sky around her but there was nothing welcoming her. Not even a sound that could be heard around the silence of the space. She was just there alone and nothing else.

Gwen released a sigh and just stopped walking aimlessly around the same view in the same space. She just took a deep breath and released them very slowly then she took a seat on the same spot she was standing and decided to meditate there.

"I'm gonna leave this to You…help me deal with whatever comes into my life. All I'm asking was for someone You made only for me to be with for the rest of my remaining life. If it was Slavica, then I will take the gift You've given me. I will cherish and love it as she deserves because she'll be worthy of it." Gwen deeply prayed as her body immediately found its comfortable sitting position as if she has been granted already.

As Gwen found it, she went on her breathing exercise and began on the second step. She closed her eyes to help her focus on her attempt at another meditation which led her onto the third step of taking a breather. She did take deep and long breaths before slowly releasing them ten times with five counts during the intake of breath and exhaling them. She kept repeating them until she finally feel the flow of her energy moves all over her body without being disturbed. She even let her mind be free from everything disturbing inside her thoughts.

"Calm down. Don't think. Just feel." as Gwen muttered those words to herself, everything around her cools down, and the flow of the energy inside of her flowed majestically. She could feel the warmness radiating around her hands.

They were getting warmer which made Gwen think of holding a sword and it wasn't just any ordinary sword. It was two small swords with one being twenty inches long pure white estoc without any handle and it's thin while the other one was a pure black scimitar that has a length of eighteen inches. As those two small swords came out from her palms, Gwen took hold of them while her eyes were still closed. She feel the steel of the blades and the weight of each sword none of them was totally heavy in her hands. In fact, they were totally lightweight or just around her hands.

"Let's make some moves." Gwen whispered as she moved according to what her mind and body could remember when her adoptive parents thought her about combat skills. She even added a couple of strengths that came from her biological parents. It made her swords glow like a bright sun and moon and the only star in the nighttime and daytime.

Gwen was enjoying herself as she trained alone with her swords when something began to alarm her. There was something definitely happening out there. She slowly opened her eyes and she was still holding her two small swords.

"Wanna get into some action debut?" she whispered to herself as she glanced over her small swords that seems like answering her as they both glowed in two beats of a heart.

Gwen chuckled and nodded at her swords' response on her before she closed her eyes once again. She let herself be awakened from her cleansing meditation and awakened into something the same but something new as well.

But while she was on the bridge to waking up, something in the backyard cabin's perimeter went on facing some chaos and blood. Tucker was getting fired up in anger when some persistently fallen rogues came on rushing to their perimeter. He was getting lost in controlling his flame that burned everything it touched and it was making Yui worried but she trusted him. As for Irina, she was forced to summon her beasts to protect them and help Tucker. The peacefulness of their cabin was being ruined.

"Tsk! Irina, Tucker come here now!" Slavica clicked her tongue and commanded her teammate to come to her side. She started to notice that it was totally getting out of hand and she have to take over.

"They were so persistence…" Tucker gritted his teeth as he licked his own wound since his hands were like lava.

"How did they find this place?" Irina asked as she panted as she kept her beast in their defensive mode around them.

Slavica might know the reason and she was to give them her answer when something suddenly began to crumble. The earthly ground began to vibrate in such power followed by a very powerful strike of a lightning bolt from the sky. The fallen rogues and other monsters that outnumbered them began to be wary about the sudden appearance of someone that emits strange power.

"Ah…and that's what you called a grand entrance." A chuckling and a very familiar voice echoed throughout the whole ground which lightened the mood of Slavica's team. But to their leader, she already noticed something that made her hands itch to release something that she never used again.

As Gwen's voice echoed around the woods, the thick dust due to the impact of her grand entrance immediately subsided as she released some electrifying lightning sparked around her. Gwen was revealed and Slavica's team was totally surprised. She was the same but she was wrapped by some protection while she was carrying two faint glowing small swords that made the wary monsters roar directly at her.

"Are they here because of her?" Irina asked as the wary monsters took their wary stances encircling Gwen.

"They were really after her. First vampires and now fallen rogues…seriously, what does she has for them to look for her like this?" Tucker gritted his teeth as he wondered what they were really after her.

"There will be a lot more of it." Slavica mumbled as she stood tall like she always did but they also notice something different around the way she stand. Slavica was totally excited over this matter.

"She's changing, right, Slavica?" Irina wondered as she watched Gwen covered with swirling lightning.

"Yes, we're witnessing the birth of Bright Star." Slavica sounded like she was smirking about what she was feeling when she saw Gwen's awakening power.

Then something came from the wary growling of the monsters encircling Gwen. It was growling and roaring as if it was talking to her and Gwen closed her eyes as she sensed that from them. She let her hearing adjusted and tried to understand what they were telling her. At first, she doesn't understand them but there was something else making her smirk. She magically heard them.

'YOU HAVE TO DIE!'

'SAVE ME!'

'GIVE ME YOUR POWER!'

'HELP ME!'

Hearing them magically, Gwen's lips started to go upward, and grinned as if any taunting hunter could smile toward their prey. It made every monster and fallen rogue surrounding her stop from their track.

"Shall we make your debut by having fun with them?" Gwen grinned as she talked to her swords but one powerful roar did not just snap them from being afraid of her. Gwen looked at them and they started charging at her.

Gwen sighed and one by one they charged for a kill but she moved smoothly as she dodged them. She did a simple back summersault which made her feet land perfectly balanced over her blood strings. The monsters kept roaring which made Gwen grin more then she crossed her arms to her chest before she kneeled down to prepare herself for a quick dance around them.

"Polaris lightning." Gwen suddenly whispered which made her two small swords glow like a bright morning star.