After I woke up, Richard calmly led me to a place where my fellow students were sitting around a campfire. The small embers flickered in the night sky as Richard and I sat down.
Freya was in a mixture of anger and relief, the former being towards me destroying the Healing Quarters and the latter because the mutation was done and I didn't have to destroy the rooms again. Feeling guilty about it, I apologized to her for what I did, even if I didn't mean to do it.
"So," Mimir started. "I take it the mutation is over?"
Richard gave me a pat on the shoulder and said, "Yes. Orion survived the mutation, although it would have been better if I didn't have to get into my phoenix form every night."
"Wait a minute..." I said, my eyes darted to Richard, "What do you mean by survived?"
"I didn't tell you earlier about this, but there was a high possibility that you could have died from the mutation," Richard explained. I wanted to punch him because he didn't tell me, and it was an effort to hold back. "Now now, do not look at me like that, Orion. You survived in the end."
I begrudgingly sighed as the topic was changed. We chatted for the whole night, even cracking jokes, to which we would all laugh heartily. Well, everyone except Farbauti, who only showed slight hints of a smile on his face.
It felt good to be around them.
The topic of conversation turned serious again as Merlin asked, "How does your body feel?"
"Other than the shocking change to my features..." I replied, "My body feels some sort of inhuman strength that I have never felt before. I don't know if these changes are good or not. Oh! And there's that burning sensation that I felt before I passed the last time!"
"What burning sensation?" Richard asked almost immediately with a frown on his face.
"A glowing eye mark appeared on his forehead after he passed out," it was Tulip who replied, not me.
"Oh no!" Mimir exclaimed. "Not him too..."
Mimir wasn't the only one who showed his shock. Everyone else, except Tulip, had concerned expressions on their faces.
"Can someone explain what's going on?" I asked, noticing the grave atmosphere that loomed over the place.
Richard turned to me and asked, "You have heard of the Eye of Horus, right?"
"It was believed to bring protection and peace to anyone that hold the symbol, right?"
"Yes, only for a brief time before his death, however. But do you know why it was an eye?"
"No. No, I don't," I admitted.
"Pangu, the creator of this universe, created an innate ability for those who possess his bloodline. It was called 'Divine Eye'. However, something went wrong with the process of creating it, causing him to abandon his body, and the ability was rendered incomplete," Mimir explained.
"But that's not all. Those who have the bloodline of Pangu and are unfortunate to have the Divine Eye would be cursed. If they do not complete the Eye to something that suits them, they won't be able to survive for more than two hundred years. Therefore, it is better to not have the eye than have it and try to complete it in a short period of time," Richard continued, his tone extremely gloomy.
"So I have the bloodline of Pangu? And therefore I have this eye?" I asked, hoping that they were playing some sort of joke and that I wasn't cursed. Unfortunately for me, Richard nodded his head.
Richard sighed, "Let's hope that you will be able to complete your eye quickly enough. On a brighter note, have you noticed that your cultivation has increased?"
"What are you talking about?" I checked my cultivation and... The second level of divinity. I knew now why I could sense my soul, while I couldn't previously. People below the divinity stage couldn't sense the place of their souls inside their bodies.
"How is that even possible?" I asked Richard. I was fast yes, but not this fast!
"Even I am surprised by this. But don't worry, it is a good thing."
Immediately after he finished, I felt a burning sensation on my left wrist. My eyes shifted to it as Nordic runes appeared as a bracelet tattoo: ᛟᚱᛁᛟᚾ.
My name. Orion. And under the ᛟ rune appeared another one, the rune of water, Lagiz: ᛚ.
As for my right hand, the runes were of my surname, Fistore, also in the form of a bracelet: ᚠᛁᛊᛏᛟᚱᛖ.
And under it was Wunjo, the rune of wind: ᚹ.
But it didn't stop there. My chest was also burning. Richard noticed this and cut my shirt to reveal the Nordic rune of ice, Isa, appeared at the middle: ᛁ.
The whole world suddenly started trembling trembled. I turned toward the others and saw the looks of astonishment on their faces. And then one after the other, Richard included, dropped to one knee, a hand behind the back, and another in front of their abdomen.
They said in one voice, "Hail Orion Fistore, the Lord of Ice, Water, and Wind!"
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Updated on 3/6/2024.