(NARRATION) Awakened Clara was a seasoned and respected Awakened.
In her former years, she was a soldier of Bastion.
However, once her nephew was infected by the Spell, she decided to leave her job as a soldier to become an administrative worker for the Awakened Academy.
She had been one for nearly six years, and through those years she had spoken to countless Sleepers and heard countless recounts.
Most of the Sleepers she spoke to had terrible Nightmares that they were hesitant to talk about.
However, they still did, and she guided them through it.
There was a certain kind of pride that came with her job, as helping young men and women felt like a natural responsibility.
Dozens of the Sleepers she spoke to were so grateful to her that they even returned to the Awakened Academy a couple of times just to show her how grateful they were due to her guidance.
Needless to say, she was happy and pleased with her job…
until today.
Sleeper Martin, unlike almost all other Sleepers, showed genuine happiness while recounting the atrocities that he had committed in his Nightmare.
Clara was, of course, terrified to continue the interview after that, and of course she was.
The most impressive thing that a Sleeper had ever done in their Nightmare was Sleeper Nephis, who, although not very talkative, had in fact told her that she received a True Name!
It was only recorded that her mother, Smile of Heaven, had done the same.
And it seemed that the whole family had a knack for True Names.
Had Sleeper Martin told her that he had also received a True Name among all the other things he did, then she might have fainted.
But thankfully, that strange Sleeper entered the room and took him away.
She was too confused to say anything.
However, only a minute later, Sleeper Martin returned with a much less joyful expression and simply said that he had received a simple sword Memory.
After he left the room, Awakened Clara sighed audibly and closed his folder on her notepad.
‘Okay…
this was just a one-time thing.
I’m sure that the next one will be normal.
Hmm, let’s see.
Ah, Sleeper Liam.’ Unfortunately for her that was not the case.
What followed after Sleeper Martin was a pretty much constant stream of bizarre and unbelievable tales.
Sleeper Liam apparently managed to help a Saint in his Nightmare kill a Supreme Beast.
The fact that it was Supreme instead of Great was due to the fact that he was placed in the Beast Realm before the Tide of Corruption swept through the realms.
Of course, he didn’t just stop there.
He then killed the heavily wounded Saint and took the Holy Ambrosia that Beast God left behind, claiming Beast God’s lineage.
His Aspect was also almost mythical in just how rare it was.
She was almost completely sure that it was either Supreme or Sacred.
Following Sleeper Liam was Sleeper Damian, who was apparently supposed to be a sacrifice for a Corrupted Deity.
However, he managed to persevere, and in the end, he had managed to actually sacrifice his captors to the same deity.
Thus earning its blessing and gaining an Aspect related to corruption…
After he said that, she kindly requested that he leave the room.
Of course, not without the usual practiced smile, this one far more obviously forced.
And well, after that it just kept getting more and more ridiculous.
The newer four Sleepers came.
One had saved a research facility from a disaster, which was actually not too crazy, until he started rambling on about how he awakened a primordial sea of chaos that belonged to an ancient god.
He also asked her if she could stop writing things down on her notepad.
It seemed to offend him for some bizarre reason.
Then after that came a strangely beautiful lady who had apparently survived the Underworld and managed to somehow kill a Great Tyrant.
Of course, she also gained the Divine Lineage of Storm God.
And also apparently became the Princess of the Underworld.
And of course, another young Sleeper came in who had apparently killed off an entire tribe of people in a bid to get a good appraisal and then managed to kill an Awakened Devil just by stretching out his hand slightly.
Not without gaining the lineage of Heart God, of course.
Most normal of them all was the young Sleeper that had taken Sleeper Martin out of the room.
He was rather polite and only said that he was an inhabitant of what he believed to be an older version of Bastion.
There, he was a slave and just managed to survive a terrible disaster by the skin of his teeth.
He excused himself, and Awakened Clara just stared at the office door with empty eyes.
Then she promptly turned in the digital notepad and decided to leave early.
All the information they gathered was of course confiedential so it wasn’t like she could tell anyone else about it.
So she took her Academy-issued PTV and went ahead to NQBC, where she coincidentally ran into another fellow Awakened who was also having a rough time with Sleepers.
And so they drank all day and complained about their encounters with the new generation of Sleepers.
*** After the gang was done with the interviews, it was already late, the cafeteria was closed, and all the classes were over.
So the seven of them decided to go to their rooms for the day.
They spoke to one another while waiting for their interviews and during the interviews of the others, so they had all gotten a gist of everyone’s situation.
Martin was, however, pissed at Nathaniel, of course, so he was going to take a bit of time to get over it before he talked with him.
So everyone simply walked together, just talking about regular old things.
If there wasn’t a certain treacherous shadow that could spy on them and listen to what they were saying, they would’ve talked about more important things, but unfortunately they couldn’t do so in confidence.
Since there was also a chance of being overheard by others besides Sunny, they refrained, knowing they would get the chance later on.
Currently, Sammy entered his new room, and the moment he saw it, he sighed in exhaustion and immediately went over to lie on his bed.
“Ahhhhh…” Relaxing on his bed with a heavy sigh, Sammy looked at the ceiling and groaned as he felt a slight pain pass through his back.
‘Right, kinda forgot about that…’ The moment he tackled Liam to the floor in a hug, he had felt a bit of pain, namely the pain that Liam had experienced.
‘Stupid Aspect.’ Thinking about it, he decided to summon his Runes.
Name: Samson Macey True Name: Last Light Rank: Dreamer.
Class: Beast Soul Cores: [1/7].
Soul Fragments: [4/1000].
Memories: — Echoes: — Attributes: [Fated], [Spark of Divinity], [Alluring Nature], [The Fire], [Divinity], [Heart of Light].
[Fated] Attribute Description: “The strings of fate wrap tightly around you.
Unlikely events, both good and bad, are drawn by your presence.
There are those who are blessed, and there are those who are cursed…
but rarely both.” [Spark of Divinity] Attribute Description: “Every fire starts from a spark.
Somewhere deep within your soul, a radiant spark shines with divine light.” [Alluring Nature] Attribute Description: “Your body has inherited the properties to house the divine.
As such, your blood, soul, spirit, flesh, shadow, and bones have been endowed with unique and foreign properties…
those that will be allured by you, however, remain to be seen.” [The Fire] Attribute Description: “You have claimed the Lineage of Sun God.” [Divinity] Attribute Description: “Your very nature is divine, thus making you the natural enemy of beings of corruption and imbuing you with strength when facing such beings.” [Heart of Light] Attribute Description: “Within your heart lies a vestige of resplendent light, granting you radiant powers.” Aspect: [Promise of Salvation].
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Description: [Light is the meaning of everything.
Your very being is one that was bathed in the light of creation, granting you its luminous blessings.] Innate Ability: [The Blessed].
Ability Description: [Those that you hold a powerful bond with may receive your blessing, granting them greater power while also empowering you with each person that bears this blessing.] Aspect Abilities: [Flame of Passion].
Aspect Ability Description: “You may manifest and control the flames of passion.
All that are following the path of ascension shall be healed, while all that have been burdened by corruption shall be cleansed.” Sequences: [Sequence 9, Spectator] Digestion (1%/100%).
[Sequence 9, Bard] Digestion (0%/100%).
[Sequence 9, Sailor] Digestion (0%/100%).
[Sequence 9, Reader] Digestion (1%/100%).
[Sequence 9, Secrets Suppliant] Digestion (0%/100%).
His eyes then lowered, and he grimaced.
Flaw: [Bearer of Humanity] Flaw Description: [You will bear the pain of your fellow humans.] Instead of fusing over the grandiose implications of his flaw, Sammy simply groaned in annoyance and took his clothes off, and turned in for the day.
*** Sitting on a chair in his own room, Nathaniel fiddled with a pen in his hands and continued to scribble on a piece of paper.
On it were multiple words.
‘…Honorific name ideas: Can’t do Klein’s or CW’s since it might get to them and not me.
It has to be a three-part one.
Something, something ruler, and something, something gray fog.
Either I’ll be the Fool or get a different alias, maybe Mr.
Mysteries, or maybe The Error.
Now that might just alert Amon…
…The Fool will have to do for now then, an honorific name and a prayer.
Must maintain some sort of symbolism tied to me…’ Nathaniel twirled the pen in his hand like an expert.
After all, he was a Marauder, so his natural proficiency in using his fingers had increased significantly.
While twirling it around, he wrote multiple potential names down.
As he did, he thought over how to tie it to himself.
Sefirah Castle was kind of like an email app, so he just had to make himself the address.
After more than half an hour of thinking it over, he scribbled down the best he could get on a fresh piece of paper.
‘…The Unfathomable Existence that Governs above the Gray Fog.
The Fool that doesn’t belong to this World.
The Shadow that has Witnessed Past, Present, and Future…’ After writing it down, he nodded in satisfaction.
An honorific name that was pretty much completely pointing to him.
Honorific Names would only really work if they were actually pointing to him.
If he were to write some nonsense about being a god, then it would be completely pointless since he wasn’t a god.
So this honorific name was basically perfect, as it pointed to him directly and indirectly made him out to be a mysterious and unknown god.
Without him actually referring to himself as one.
‘Lovely, now then, a prayer.’ He took out another piece of paper.
After staring at it for about five minutes, he looked at what he had written down on the other three papers.
‘…The Fool that is mysterious and unknowable.
I pray for your attention and guidance.
May your gaze fall upon me.
Oh Mr.
Fool, I pray for an answer…
Then followed by whatever they want to say.
Yes, this should do…’ The prayer was simple, but it would be effective for now.
So he went ahead and wrote down the honorific name and prayer on another piece of paper before tearing everything else up.
Just leaving the piece that had the writing on it.
Then he took out the pieces of bread he had taken from Amy’s plate and put each of them in the corners of the room.
‘Hah, this better work.
I don’t wanna wait till tomorrow.’ He stood in the center of the room and exhaled.
Taking a step forward, he went in a counter-clockwise direction in the shape of a square.
On the first step, he spoke a chant.
“The Immortal Lord of Heaven and Earth for Blessings.” Once he finished, he took the second step.
“The Sky Lord of Heaven and Earth for Blessings.” During this step, he felt a strange shift occur in the room, and even his shadow seemed bewildered.
However, he ignored it and took a third step.
“The Exalted Thearch of Heaven and Earth for Blessings.” At the fourth step, murmurs began to almost overtake his mind.
However, he had grown accustomed to such things, so he chanted once more.
“The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings.” After the four steps were taken, he returned to his original spot and closed his eyes.
After he waited for a few seconds, the murmurs abruptly stopped.
Opening his eyes once more, he saw that the paper in his hands was obscured by fog, and within moments it was completely gone.
Pumping his fist and holding back the urge to scream, ‘SUCCESS,’ he went over to the table and removed the remaining pieces of paper.
Placing the pen on the table and making it the only thing there, he clasped his hands together and recalled the prayer.
“The Fool that is mysterious and unknowable.
I pray for your attention and guidance.
May your gaze fall upon me.
Oh Mr.
Fool, I pray for an answer.
Please take this humble servant’s offering.” After finishing the prayer to himself, which he of course knew was rather narcissistic, but whatever, he felt a voice sound in his head.
Strangely, it was the voice of the Spell.
[A prayer has been directed to you.] Nathaniel instantly widened his eyes.
However, he decided to shake himself out of it and dove into his Soul Sea.
This time it was seamless, and the moment he entered the Soul Sea, he was once more sitting at the head of the table.
Then, he heard a voice echo above the Gray Fog.
Of course, it was his own voice.
The fog gathered above the table and twirled steadily.
Extending a hand outward, he felt as if he were pulling on a string, and once he did, the fog disappeared, and the same pen he had been writing with appeared before him.
His eyes were still filled with wonder, and as he grasped the pen, a crooked smile spread across his face.
“Ohh…
I can work with this…
hehe.” ____________________ Author’s Note: I’ll realease the Auxiliry chap on Sunday.
And i don’t feel like making two more chaps that have Martin and Damian POV’s that have them showing their Runes.
Anyway i don’t know how often i’ll be able to post next week since work will be hellish.
So yeah i’ll see, i can guarantee a chap on Tuesday tho.
Give me your thoughts on the chap and be sure to comment :).
Have a good day!