'So many new faces,' Wei Sha thought as he walked inside a narrow cave leading to the site of the Awakening Ceremony. 'Who are they?' he kept on wondering.
Soon he arrived at an enormous cavern.
Stepping into the cavern proper, he started to feel his legs twitch and shake with each step. And his gut spun around itself, or so Wei Sha perceived the sensation in his stomach.
Excited static run all over his body.
"It'll be fine," Li Li whispered to him.
His mother's words eased his anxiety, though not much since Wei Sha couldn't suppress his restlessness that grew with every eye belonging to a judging demon. Even before this, his excitement had kept on growing because too much banked on today being a smashing success.
'If I'm able to catch something good, there's a chance everything will turn out fine.' Thinking so, they arrived at the site for the Awakening ceremony.
"Look who came." At their pre-determined spot, Wei Sha received a mocking welcome from Wei Bo.
"Maybe he got lost?" Wei Ba joined in with the same tone.
Wei Sha acted as if they didn't exist.
"What? Have you become deaf?" Wei Bo's hand pushed him.
Wei Sha's shoulders swayed to the side. However, after that, he struck back. "Nah. Unlike you two, I don't have any 'conditions'." Enough was enough.
The two boys provoked by Wei Sha's counter stepped closer, their bodies almost in touch with Wei Sha's. But before they got to say anything, Wei Sha stole the opportunity.
"Stay away." Wei Sha pinched his nose. "You stink."
"Oh no, you didn't—"
"Ugh." Wei Sha acted as if puke rose in his throat. "Breath too?"
"Don't push it." Wei Bo raised a fist, even hardening its scales.
"Or what?" Wei Sha responded with a fist of his own. He had no reason to back down when his scales were larger and thicker than Wei Bo's.
The duo backed.
"What happened?" Wei Sha laughed, taking strides to keep his distance with them as close as possible. "You saw a ghost?"
"Play nice." The two's mother stopped him from advancing further.
"Just a game." Wei Sha retreated with a broad smile on his face. "See you around." He had gotten a moral victory, and no more could be achieved. Furthermore, his victory over those thugs brought him a wave of much-needed confidence.
On top, Li Li smiled.
From seeing it, Wei Sha felt a tingle in his heart. Nothing would beat Li Li being approving of him.
With that out of the way, Wei Sha had an unobstructed view of the Awakening Ceremony. Also, as the ceremony wouldn't start in a minute or two, so he had time to study the surroundings.
The first thing Wei Sha noted was in the form of a smell. His nose had discovered it the second he had arrived here. The whole cave had this smell very distinctive for a demon's nose.
'Pure, so pure,' he thought as his nose sniffed it time and time again. Smells and stenches in Hell were the same, mainly because they were a mixture of blood, ashes, and smoke, yet this was different.
"You find it pleasing?" Li Li asked with a giggle.
"Yes, very." Sure enough, Li Li had noticed his nose huffing and puffing, though it didn't stop him from continuing.
"People say those who do are destined to enjoy time in the Primal Plain since the rot is from there."
"You don't enjoy the smell, mother?" Going with her logic and words, it seemed so.
"I despise it." She shook her head.
Her retort puzzled Wei Sha because, for him, this smell was like a drug.
"Don't think about it much. Focus on what's important." Her head turned away from him, towards the middle of the Awakening Pool.
'Right, focus.' Wei Sha too gazed at the blue pool of liquid, which surface was too thick to see past.
As he did so, his father flew out of the cave, into the cavern, and with Wei Dai arrived a strong current of wind.
"Welcome!" Wei Dai sang as the wind current hit everyone.
Wei Sha's hair still blew from his father's entrance as three more voices joined in.
""Welcome!"" The three other voices sang in perfect unison as they flew right by him, towards Wei Dai, who flapped his wings above the Awakening Pool.
'Who are they?' Wei Sha had never seen these people before, and as they didn't wear the same black colours as the Wei Family, he was at a loss.
"Welcome, Wei Family!" Wei Sha opened first when the shouts of welcome which had echoed in the cavern deafened.
"Welcome Xiro Family!" a broken-winged demon next to Wei Sha spoke right after Wei Sha had closed his mouth. "Welcome Suar Family!" a four-winged demon who wore golden robes over his blue skin took his turn. "Welcome Kong Family!" a demoness who had no wings but flew on a sword spoke last, yet her shout wasn't any less deafening.
'The other Families?' Wei Sha blinked. 'Memorise, memorise,' he snapped to himself. Xiro, Suar, and Kong were no doubt influential families in Hell's Fourteenth Layer if they could stand side by side with the Wei Family.
"On behalf of the Wei Family, we will begin the testing right away." Wei Dai's eyes came close to Wei Sha, although he didn't stare at him. "Wei Bo, go in." The call for action came for Wei Bo, who still hid behind his mother's dress with Wei Ba.
"Yes, father!" When the shout came for him, Wei Sha could discern how Wei Bo picked the bits of his confidence still left before shouting, "The son will make the father proud!" Then, taking a foothold of the railing behind which everyone stood, Wei Bo dived into the Awakening Pool.
His half-brother gone, Wei Sha's focus went to the other families. "Kong Kan!" "Suar Sun!" "Xiri Xin!" The other family heads called for one of their own.
"Xiri Khan's son will bring glory." A demon whose height towered over Wei Sha's jumped into the pool. "Long prosper the Kong Family!" a demoness with the highest pitch Wei Sha had ever heard screeched.
'And whose Suar Sun?' Wei Sha searched the audience.
There came no response, and neither did Wei Sha see anyone diving into the Awakening Pool.
"Suar Sun!" the four-winged demon shouted.
Soon every blue coloured demon began to turn about, their white eyes peering everywhere and at everyone.
"Suar Sun!" The four-winged demon flapped over the crowds of demons, repeating his roar over and over again to no success. It appeared as if Suar Sun was not here.
"Family-Head Runron!" someone in the audience shouted with a meek tone.
"What is it?" Suar Runron appeared over the person. "Where is Suar Sun? Where is my son?"
Wei Sha didn't need to hear Suar Runron to recognise he wasn't pleased, for the very air darkening around this fuming four-winged demon was enough of a giveaway.
"He's dead—" There came no more words, though choking noises continued the sentence.
The air around Suar Runron that had darkened became consumed by pitch-black smoke. The demon himself vanished from Wei Sha, who couldn't see through the smoke.
"What!?" Came a roar from the ball of smoke
"Ah." Wei Sha's hands scrambled to block his ears. 'He's going mad!'
"Suar Runron." The other three who had stayed neutral so far interfered. And they didn't seem to have a problem in apprehending the black ball of smoke either. Their hands shot straight through the smoke and dragged out a shaking Suar Runron.
"My son! My son!" Suar Runron screamed, attempting to attack the three demons holding him in place. However, as Wei Sha had imagined, these demons were around the same strength — Xiri Khan appearing the weakest as the arm he had grabbed almost escaped.
"Stop you fool!" Wei Dai with the others tried their best with words,
yet nothing changed.
"My heir." Suar Runron's screams turned into wails. "What happened to him?!"
"We will find whoever did it, but you need to stop!"
"No! It was you, people!" His head shifted around, staring at the demons holding him in place. "You killed him. You wanted my heir dead!" And as Suar Runron raged, he emitted enough smoke to engulf the Family-Heads.
Then the smoke ball flew at a speed hard for Wei Sha to keep up with.
By the time Wei Sha's eyes got where he had heard the ball of smoke collide with the cavern's walls, another one, a fresher sound, appear somewhere else.
'Strong!' Wei Sha commented. Also, for a weird reason, he didn't feel scared. Neither did anyone else take a step back. Everyone kept their focus on that ball of smoke containing their Family-Head.
"We need to contain him!" Wei Sha discerned his father's voice.
"But--" a female voice objected.
"Wei Dai's right." Xiri Khan gave his deciding vote before the demoness could speak her objection. "I can't hold him much longer."
"O-okay."
"Do it now!"
The ball of smoke began crashing downwards. Their sheer speed rose so much that the smoke Suar Runron emitted dissipated enough for one to discern their figures as they plummeted.
With a loud thud, the trio slammed their captive against the ground.
The rubble and dust from the impact blew onto Wei Sha, standing hundreds of meters away from the crash site.
Wei Sha spit out dry dust while his hand wiped it off his face. Next, he hopped onto the railing, separating him and the Awakening Pool. 'He's still kicking!?' His eyes shot outwards of their sockets. 'Not even that could stop Suar Runron?'
"My son," Suar Runron bawled.
Wei Sha could not believe what he saw, though he didn't need to because something from the Awakening Pool's side pulled him.
"What?" Wei Sha realised he had lost balance, but how? He, a demon who had trained for five long years, lost his balance on a railing?
[Welcome] something or someone called for him.