Awakening

'Ugh, I've been hearing this for ages. When will it be over?' Dom sighed as he buried his head in his hands.

It was the same story over and over again, since primary school. From the age of 2, they'd been told the same story. 'It's getting boring.' He sighed, and he wasn't the only one.

"By chance, am I boring you?" Mr. Aziel asked. The suffocating feeling and the black mist (aura) became present once more. Sweat trickled down Dom's face as he felt the pressure.

"No, sir!" They shouted in unison.

"Good." The aura vanished, like it was never there in the first place, carrying the suffocating feeling with it.

"I know you've been hearing this since you were babies, but get used to it. This won't be the last time you'll hear it."

'When will it be over?' Dom mentally sighed.

Mr. Aziel continued: "With the history of Keer out of the way, we will be moving on to the next agenda." A smile slowly found its way to Mr. Aziel's face. "It's time to awaken."

With that, the once-normal wall behind him slowly opened up. There was a small humming sound as the walls moved aside, presenting a huge square room with a smaller, but large, transparent box in it. A huge, extremely black mist swirled in the box. Dom stared into the room, his eyes opened wide, with a huge amount of excitement filling them.

"Woah! It's huge!" The dust torus was as big as a duplex, with the box being bigger and the room being way larger. He heard Nat shout, but he didn't register what she said.

'It's finally time. I'm going to awaken!' He thought.

Not waiting for the students' excitement to settle down, Mr. Aziel began speaking. "Inside this huge box is the dust torus. Coming out row by row, each of you will receive your arcanum." His eyes scanned the front row, causing the students to hold their breath in anticipation. Finally, his eyes settled on a thin-looking boy. "You, come first." He pointed out.

A nervous smile ran across the boy's face as he stood up in anticipation. He slowly made his way to the Assembly Head. "Once you make your way into the huge box, you'll go close to the dust torus, close enough for it to engulf you. Once engulfed by the dust torus, it'll feel like you've been engulfed with burning lava. The pain will be unbearable, but temporary. Later on, the pain will be gone and replaced with a warm feeling."

Once he finished explaining the process, he glanced at the boy. "Good luck." His smile, now replaced with the former ice-cold expression.

He walked towards the huge box, with the thin boy following behind him. Once they reached the door attached to the box, Mr. Aziel's eyes and hands were scanned. The door opened with a hiss.

Mr. Aziel glanced at the boy once and made a gesture for the boy to enter. The smile that ran across the boy's face was now replaced with a bit of fear.

Dom watched as the boy made his way to the huge dust torus. He looked like an ant compared to the huge dust torus. The boy kept on walking to the dust torus, but suddenly stopped. He stood in the same place for a few seconds, causing confusion in Dom's head.

'What's he doing?'

Suddenly, the tiny boy was swallowed by the dust torus. "Oh fuck no!" Dom shouted. He wasn't the only one; some students also shouted in disbelief. The scene looked like a horror scene. It was obvious, due to the huge size of the dust torus, but when the boy covered a certain distance, the dust torus began moving towards him. Seeing the tiny figure swallowed by a huge swirling mist looked frightening.

Meanwhile, in the dust torus, the boy was convulsing. He screamed as he scratched his body; the pain was unbearable. Mr. Aziel surely wasn't joking when he spoke. What felt like hours actually passed in a minute, and the boy was finally washed with the feeling of cool ocean water. He breathed heavily, struggling for air. Even with the new feeling, the old one still remained in his memory.

As he struggled for air, he began coughing, coughing out black smoke. The black smoke continued leaving his mouth, and then, suddenly, the boy screamed. His body was suddenly engulfed with fire. The fire raged, burning extremely bright. The dust torus had left the boy, allowing the scene to be seen by everyone. In front of their eyes, someone had unlocked their arcanum. The fire was huge, but compared to the dust torus, it looked like a cockroach. Then, the fire gave out, and the boy slumped. The floor beneath him opened up, and he slowly descended into it.

'That was unbelievable!' Dom thought. He had seen someone awaken, and the scene was not short of being breathtaking. If he gets the fire arcanum and it was bigger than the one he saw, he'd be extremely strong, strong enough to beat Nat in a fight. But if he were to awaken an undiscovered arcanum, there's a chance he'd be unparalleled. Close to no one would be able to defeat him in a fight. Fuck, he could even be the new King of West Kendall!

His lips curled up into a huge grin.

Nat glanced at him and smiled. "What are you thinking about, pervert?" Dom's thoughts were paused as he turned to look at Nat, his grin still there.

"Nothing much, just how I will soon be able to bully you."

"I see, you are courting death." Nat smiled, a grin also finding its way to her face.

Again, not waiting for the excitement to die down, Mr. Aziel called out to the next person, and so it continued.

People continued awakening, displaying a grand scene to the students. After the first student awakened his fire arcanum, many others awakened the same thing. Some got water, lightning, earth, and so on. Those who were unable to give a grand scene probably awakened mind control, technopathy, and so on. Someone even turned tiny; if not for her pink clothes that contrasted with the black torus, they would have thought she went invisible.

It was Aurelia's turn. She had simply slumped down when the dust torus left her.

Nat had unleashed a huge fire around her, but hers looked huge. Compared to the other students, Nat's arcanum was clearly better.

'Can I beat that?' Dom's confidence dwindled a bit.

The one who had caused a better scene, or worse, was Atlas. After the dust torus left him, a figure appeared in front of him. He seemed to reach out to the figure, but his arm simply passed through it. He fell on the cold metallic floor, losing consciousness. The ground opened up, and he descended.

While the students looked confused, Dom could already tell what happened. Atlas must have probably awakened the illusion arcanum, and the figure that appeared in front of him was his mom, or rather, his late mom.

Dom sighed as he stood. It was his turn, and he slowly made his way to the box. He entered the cubicle after Mr. Aziel scanned his face.

'This is extremely huge.' He said as he looked up at the towering dust torus. Calming himself down, he made his way to the dust torus, taking slow steps. He had seen how the others were swallowed by the dust torus, and the sight still frightened him.

When he was a few steps away from the dust torus, it began moving. The huge torus made its way to the tiny being. He stared at the approaching torus, unable to move. Sweat trickled down his face as he tried to move.

'Shit, shit, shit! The fuck is this! Arghhh!' The torus engulfed him. His vision turned black, pitch black. With the sudden loss of sight, his fear was heightened.

After a while, he was finally able to calm down.

'At least I can still hear.'

Not long after that thought, everywhere became dead silent.

'Argh, fuck me.' He sighed. Tiny white dots began appearing in the black environment. Dots? No. They looked more like stars. Stars began appearing around the black environment.

'Mr. Aziel didn't say anything about this.' He said in confusion.

He was able to fully take in the calm sight when he suddenly began moving with the speed of a rocket. The white dots turned into lines as he moved with astonishing speed.

"Argh!!" How many times had he screamed today? Well, who's counting. He continued screaming, and he continued moving. He came to an abrupt stop. In front of him were planets, many huge planets.

'Aren't there meant to be no planets?' 'The planets were said to have been sucked into the black hole; then is this where they were sent to?'

His scenery changed, and in front of him was a huge dome. The area around the dome was filled with sand, almost like a desert. Ancient cars were parked behind the huge dome.

'This must be one of the planets, but what year is this?'

Before the planets were sucked by the black hole, about 11% of humans inhabited some of them. The moment the planets were sucked into the black hole, Keer lost 11% of its population. The cars in front of him seemed to be ancient. In the history textbooks he was made to read, it showed the evolution of cars. These ones looked like they were invented 500 years ago.

His thoughts were put on halt as a strange man walked out of the huge dome. He was dressed in a suit and held a briefcase. His hair was badly kept, and his beard looked poorly shaved, but that wasn't what made him strange. He had a thin necklace on his neck, with a lock on it. He opened the lock, and a picture of a pregnant woman was inside.

"Just where are you?" the man said, as a tear fell down his face.

Dom's heart ached as he saw the sad scene. He wanted to say something, but no words left his mouth.

A shadow moved behind the man, causing Dom to look behind him. Behind him was a dark misty figure that moved without making a sound. On his waist was a black, misty sword.

'An assassin!'

Without thinking much, he shouted, "Behind you!" but no words came out.

In front of him, the man's neck was sliced apart. His head slowly fell down, and blood began pouring out. Time seemed to slow down as the blood poured out, some even splashing on his face.

"No no no no NO!!"

The scene changed once more, and in front of him were his friends.

"Hey Dom, why is there blood on your face?" Atlas, worried, asked as he bent to Dom's level. Removing his face from his hands, he looked up to meet his friends' gaze, but rather than looking at them, he looked behind them. The misty figure was standing behind them.

"No no! Someone is trying to kill us!!" but no words came out. He turned his gaze to meet his friends'. His mouth opened in disbelief, and he began crawling back.

From every hole in their body, blood flowed out, covering them.

"Dom, help," one of them said, making a gurgling sound as blood poured out of their mouth. They all reached out their hands. "No no no No!!"

......

[In the Hall]

The students who hadn't awakened started into the box, with disbelief clearly written all over their face. In the huge box, a huge amount of misty fire raged from the small figure. The dust torus had long left Dom's body. The black misty fire was incredibly huge, higher than what Nat was able to produce.

Mr. Aziel looked into the box, his face replaced with a grin. 'Finally, a prodigy!' He thought in excitement.