The house of the First Elder is big and the biggest section that occupied the space of the house is the Sanctuary's library.
It was placed in the First Elder's house so that he can live in there and guard it.
The Library holds many important informations about the inhabitants of the continent and their history as well as their behavior towards the Desolate Zone.
It was said in the books that the Desolate Zone is the homeland of demons and star beasts that are old enough to not move in their den or temples, built by their predecessors who are also strong and intelligent beasts.
That's why Feng and Mizu always bothered their grandpa in there for reading different books that are prohibited for their age to read.
They're mother taught them how to read the moment they turned four. And they quickly learned how to, making them be called geniuses.
Feng is older by two years from Mizu. Her older brother is very fond of her and always protecting her from other kids.
Of course Feng didn't fought the bullies physically, he likes to battle using his mind so, no one ever bothered Mizu again, except Jed and Luke. But truthfully, Feng is the one bothered by Luke.
They are of the same age, and their looks match each other as well.
Some of their playmates always teased them of marrying each other when they grow up.
While Jed, well, even Mizu can deal with him. Though it's annoying because he's the one who teases them of marrying each other frequently.
And so, Mizu had a little crush on Luke because of that. She always became embarassed whenever she sees Luke.
And when she can't handle the embarassment anymore, she talked with her mother. They're really close with each other.
She told her mother the problem of meeting Luke.
"Aww, my baby has a crush on Luke now? Well, I knew it was coming but, this is so early.", Her mother pondered loudly, making Mizu more embarrassed.
"I don't have a crush on him, I just get embarrassed every time I see him, that's all.", She blushed.
"And that's the meaning of having a crush on someone. But, get read to fight for him. Because, when he grows up, he will surely be handsome and many girls will fall for his charms."
Mizu's mother was excited to give tips to her daughter. Even though it's too early, she will try her best to make her a proper lady.
"How can I win him then? I hope he will choose me, though."
Mizu blushed at what she said and her voice became a whisper at the end of her sentence.
"Then I'll teach you how to be a proper lady! Don't worry, Mizu! Luke will surely fall for you!"
Her mother's eyes had a fiery determination in them and Mizu also joined in.
Like that, days of training to be a proper lady turned in weeks, then months.
Mizu's behavior changed drastically by that period of time.
She will always kept her waist-long black hair combed everytime she will go outside. She always remembered her mother's teachings in her mind and apply them to herself with great vigour.
"Remember, always keep your hair combed and your face uninjured. I don't know who will comb your hair but, they must at least comb it a hundred times. And for the face... just don't get hit in there and if there's some who hit you there, tell me and I will speak with him, sincerely.", Her mother is combing her hair while Mizu is looking at the mirror.
"Yes, mother. I will remember it.", Mizu nodded.
It was approximately a year and a half since Mizu began behaving like a noble lady will be. She also thought of wearing a veiled hat to hide her face when she grows up.
She ignored Luke during that time and saw that Luke also stopped wanting her attention.
However, Mizu is blaming herself now that Luke suddenly became unconscious.
'If Luke just hadn't used that bead, it wouldn't have happened.'
'If I should've used it instead of him, maybe he's the one who was worried sick about me.'
Those were her thoughts while crying on her bed. She is seated in one side that was close to the door.
The door then opened, and light entered the room but, Mizu kept crying.
"It's not your fault that it happened. Don't blame yourself, Mizu.", Feng seated beside her and wiped her tears.
"But, if I just didn't ignored him that time and took the bead to use, then I-", Mizu tried to explain but was interrupted.
"You what? You're the one who fell unconscious? You will be the one who will make your family worry about you?", Feng pointed out.
"I'm just very worried about him, okay? I don't blame myself. I won't blame myself, because I was the one who kept ignoring.", Mizu reassured his older brother.
"Then why are you saying that you kept ignoring him? I'm always watching you and see you glance at Luke everytime he's focused on something.", Feng wasn't reassured.
"You're just saying that because you're not me! You didn't see it!", Mizu raised her voice.
"Then tell me...What did you see? What made you look so afraid?", Feng said, with a calming voice.
"It was Luke's star soul. I saw it, in the darkness, when I used my gracia to suppress the shadows, it was a large snake with red eyes and black body. I saw it staring at me like I was it's prey and I became so afraid that I just cried until Grandpa arrived."
Mizu told her brother what happened in a trembling voice while clinging to him.
"It's alright now, that snake is gone. I will stay with you until you're asleep, okay? Big brother will stay here beside.", Feng comforted her and gently lay her down.
Mizu calmed herself and felt drowsy after a minute, she quickly fell asleep after that.
Seeing that she fell asleep, her big brother walked outside the door and closed it.
But he didn't know that Mizu was awoken by the sound of the door clacking and heard what he talked outside.
"How is she?", She heard her grandpa's voice.
"She became scared but had calmed down now.", Her brother answered.
"So, are you're suspicions correct?", asked her grandpa.
"Yes, it really was a snake type based on the mark that I saw before it disappeared above Luke, and it was intelligent as it's dangerous.", Feng said, with a calm tone.
"That's just the might of his royal bloodline. If it was compared to the Regulus bloodline, Luke's bloodline will spit it in the face.", her grandpa said.
"I better be grateful that Luke grew up as my brother, not an enemy. He will definitely slaughter that bastard who killed my father.", it's the first time that she heard her brother say bad words.
"Watch your words, Feng. Mizu might hear you.", her grandpa warned him.
Mizu heard they're footsteps getting away from her room and sighed a relief.
She learned many things just after hearing them talk and she had a completely different goal after knowing those things.
'I will help big brother take revenge by getting stronger and attract Luke's attention after I become strong. That's killing two birds with one stone.', she felt a fiery determination by setting her goal.
Mizu then finally go to sleep again and dreamed about her and Luke, flying at the sky, looking at rivers and mountains while hugging each other.
Morning came and everyone in the First Elder's house started early to prepare breakfast.
The noise of footsteps awoke Mizu, then she left her room and immediately went to the dining room.
There, she saw her mother, her grandpa and her big brother who still looked sleepy and his hair was disheveled.
"Morning, sweetie. Come sit here with you're big brother. You will have a big day today.", her grandpa invited her, tapping the chair beside Feng.
She sat on her chair and waited for the breakfast while playing with her brother's red hair.
She made it look like a chicken's crest. She giggled at what she saw.
Her big brother smiled at her, not knowing the thing she did to his hair and that made her laugh more.
After eating, she and her mother bathed together, then helped her dress up after they cleaned themselves.
She wore a nice white dress with cute laces on the strap, matched with a blue ribbon tied in her hair.
Mizu looked so pretty in the mirror and cannot hide her happiness that her mother picked the best dress for her today.
Their family of four walked together to the village square and saw many children ranging from the age of seven to ten.
Mizu recognized some of them. They were all students of the Elders but, the exceptionally talented children were picked and the rest were trained by the Fifth Elder and the queen's guards.
In the end, only eight of them were the last group of students that passed all the training of the Second Elder and the lessons of the First Elder.
Mizu thought that it was due to their privilege that they were an Elder's grandchild that she passed all the test.
So, she continued to circulate her gracia and achieve higher levels so that the other people won't be discouraged about their lower status.
She looked around the square and her Sister Mir and Mimi chatting about something.
"Mother, I'll go ahead. See you later.", Mizu ran off to them and greeted them
"Good morning, Sister Mir and Sister Mimi.", she said cheerfully.
"Good morning, Mizu. Where's Feng? Is he with you?", Mir looked around to see Feng waving at them by the distance.
"You look so pretty today, Mizu! Are you finally confessing to Luke?", Mimi observed Mizu while hiding her gleeful smile using her hand.
Mizu just blushed at her questions and didn't answer.
And Mimi hopped at her cute little sister and brushed her cheeks against Mizu.
Every family in the village who have a child that will awaken their star soul today kept on increasing by the time.
Mizu and the others are assembled now in the square, except for Luke who is the son of the queen that will give her speech before the event starts.
When the expected number of families arrived in the square, the queen finally went up to the stage that was prepared for the ceremony together with Luke.
Everyone knelt at the sight of them, and happiness filled their hearts to see that the royal family graced them with their presence, although the Elders see them very often due to meetings.
The queen, wearing her black dress with dark purple lines in the chest area, moved forward and started to speak.
"Today, we will witness the awakening of the star souls of our children and make them achieve more of their goals in the future. We will provide our full help to our talented young and let them carve their own path. This day will be a special occasion to see our children become warriors! Let the awakening commence!"
The people cheered loudly after the speech then Second Elder went to the stage and bowed to the queen and Luke before stepping forward and spoke.
"We, the soldiers and the queen's guards trained the students to prepare them for this event. Now we will awaken their star souls to turn them into a full pledged warriors of the army! For the ones who got names called, step forward!", Second Elder's voice echoed through out the square.
Mizu can't believe how this burly man is related to her Sister Mir.
The name calling and awakening continued for an hour and finally Mizu's moment is about to come.
"Cole Barley! Innate star power, [Level 4]! Star Soul, [Iron Elephant]!", the Fifth Elder finished the last member of the common students.
"Now we are going to proceed with awakening the star souls of the children who showed exceptional talent and determination that received harsh training from me and never ending lessons the First Elder.!", the Second Elder announced.
'Ugh!', the eight thought simultaneously when they remembered their training.
Especially the older ones, they were the ones were put to the test every single session and the one who ran the most laps during training.
"Step forward when I say your name! Aidan Marlendo Storm!"
Mizu watched Aidan climbed up to the stage and stood in front of the queen.
The queen weaved a ball of her own gracia, she made it float towards Aidan and it touched his forehead.
After the gracia touched him, Aidan was suddenly enveloped with powerful gist of wind but, it's color is deep green. Then, an ethereal crow that fumed a green smoke and a beast mark came out above him. He's beast soul made the metal it touched rusty.
Aidan concentrated and had retracted his gracia back to his body and then whispered the name of his beast soul to the Second Elder.
'What a powerful name for a beast soul.', Second Elder thought.
The names of you star soul will vary if they are a beast type or a weapon type. Only the warrior with a star soul can know their own star soul's name.
The Second Elder nodded and spoke loudly.
"Aidan Marlendo Storm, Innate star power, [Level 9], Star beast soul, [Nether Storm Crow]!", Second Elder's words shocked the people in the square.
This is the is the first time they heard of a [Level 9] innate star power awaken in the Sanctuary. Mostly, this kind of innate star power is from the royal family only.
This is the highest awakened star power they've seen in fifteen years. The highest recorded innate star power was from the queen that had a [Level 13] innate star power.
Mizu was simply amazed by Aidan's level. She read the recorded innate star power the Sanctuary had in their history and Aidan is the only one that didn't come from a royal descent.
If Aidan had just waited a little more time, his level would've made him able to absorb a beast core and have his first star core already.
Nevertheless, Aidan's innate star power impressed the audience and got them all fire up. This made Mizu more nervous.
"Next, Hestia Shuya Salacia! Come up to the stage!", Second Elders' voice rang out again.
The applause of the people improved after what they've previously. Especially Hestia's mother. Auntie Hela's voice made the other's cheering seemed inaudible.
"Go, Hestia!! That's my daughter, right there! She's coming up on the stage, ahh!!!".
The queen can't help to shake her head to what her Queen's guards is doing. While Luke also cheered for Hestia beside her.
"I'm scared. Is it okay?", Hestia whispered to the queen while bowing lightly.
"Don't worry, Auntie Lilith will take it easy.", the queen whispered back to her and touched her forehead using her index finger, shining with gracia.
Hestia took a step backwards and felt her gracia is overflowing inside her.
The purpose of touching them with a lot amount of gracia was to make their own gracia to compress and form into a star core.
This star core only appears when a warrior reaches level ten and the process for the next star core appearing is the same.
Every star core represents ten levels of star power. The limited number of star cores can get is nine.
And when they reach that level, they will be referred as a [Demi-god].
Hestia's gracia compressed and formed a core and floated around her. Then a beast mark appeared above her head, it was big enough to be seen clearly by the people in the square.
Hestia's beast soul came out in ethereal form, it made a big splash water in the stage, spraying all over the Second Elder and the people below it. They felt rejuvenated after they were splashed by the water.
It was a dolphin, with a brilliant hue a sky blue smoke coming from it, and big enough to be rode on the back, then it immediately disappeared inside Hestia together with it's beast mark.
Second Elder lend his ear to Hestia to know what's the name of her star soul. Her core is now gone, and Second Elder glanced at her for a second to see her level.
The second Elder nodded then cleared his throat.
"Hestia Shuya Salacia! Innate star power, [Level 10]! Star beast soul, [Battle Saint Dolphin]!", the Second Elder announced proudly.
Then cheers boomed in the square. The people were all amazed by Hestia's level.
"Wow, a [Level 10] in awakening? What a talent."
"I didn't even make to [Level 5] when I was first awakened."
The people excited behavior made Hestia a little calmer. It's her first standing at a stage with so many people watching her.
She even splashed them with water but, they still cheered for her.
She excitedly went down to the stage and hugged her mother there.
Mizu became more nervous because of that. She doesn't know what might happen in the stage.
"Now, that we're done with the youngest talented students, let's proceed to awaken the others. Let's first watch the grandchildren of our First Elder! They've been honed seriously by the First Elder to make them a strategists if a war came to us. Let's see what's their capabilities!", Second Elder announced.
"Feng, step up here! Let's awaken yours first."
The siblings were both surprised to see their grandpa above the stage now.
They expected it was only Second Elder who will host the ceremony.
Feng climbed up to the stage and bowed to the queen and Luke. Feng is showing courtesy for the public to see.
"Greetings Auntie Lilith, Luke.", Feng said
"You should know what you're beast soul might be, right?", the queen asked him with a narrow smile.
"Yes, mother said it is a fire type bird soul.", Feng answered
"Well, let's see if it's true, then."
The queen gathered her gracia in her index finger and pointed it to Feng.
'I hope it's true.', Feng thought.
The reason they know what their beast soul might be is because of their half human blood.
When a human child is born, a beast mark will appear above them, showing what will be their beast soul if they were to be awakened.
Feng and Mizu had this phenomenon that's why their grandpa and Mother knows what their beast soul will be.
The queen made the gracia in her finger float and shot it towards Feng.
Feng took a step backwards by the force. He almost lost his balance, thankfully his grandpa caught him.
Feng closed his eyes and concentrated on his gracia forming a core, then made it float in the air.
Suddenly, Feng opened his eyes as soon as he felt the heat coming outside of his body.
"Get away, grandpa. It's coming out!"
Feng brushed off his grandfather and let his gracia overflow outside his body.
Flames suddenly gushed out of his body and a beast mark appeared. It had a giant bird opening it's wings while basked in flames.
Just like in the beast mark, a phoenix flew out from Feng. With its ethereal body, red flame-looking smoke in its body.
It landed it's giant body behind the struggling Feng and covered him with it's enormous wings.
That scene made the people stunned. They are seeing a beast soul intelligent enough to protect it's master.
The flames subsided and the queen waved her hands to release the barrier she made to protect Luke and the people below.
They saw Feng with tattered clothes and an exhausted look radiated from him, his grandfather then helped him get up and Feng whispered some words to his grandfather's ears.
"Feng Kaitel de Leviathan, Innate star power [Level 13]! Beast soul, [Heavenly Phoenix]!", the First Elder proudly announced it.
His grandson just got a beast soul that was on par or even more powerful than the Crimson Lion King, the ancestral beast soul if the Regulus Empire.
The First Elder took Feng down to his worried mother beside the stage then took Mizu's smooth hands up to the stage.
"Leader, please. Mizu's all yours.", her grandpa bowed and so is Mizu.
Mizu looked up then met eyes with the queen. She has a ferocious look in her just like the beast soul of Luke.
She gulped and then stared next to Luke, who was wearing a black formal clothes. He is looking more princely everytime Mizu looks at him.
"Hi, Mizu. Don't worry about mother, she won't eat you. Just relax.", Luke waved a hand at her while swinging his legs under his chair.
"Okay.", Mizu nodded with a little blush at her face.
The queen noticed her blushing cheeks but, she didn't mind it. She knew Luke might attract many girls if he had the looks of his mom.
Once again, the queen gather her gracia in the point of her finger and aimed it at Mizu.
She flicked the ball of gracia towards Mizu's forehead, enveloping her little body immediately.
Mizu gathered all the gracia she had and felt very cold all of a sudden.
Her beast mark appeared, showing a big, white crane that looks like it's dancing in the water.
Mizu dreamed of this moment many times. She wanted to amaze Luke using her elegant dance.
She had dreamed about her and Luke, bathing in a pond, peacefully relaxing with the warmth of each other.
However, what she felt isn't warm at all. It was freezing cold and the brushing cold wind furiously attacking her skin made it worse.
"Control it, Mizu! Control your gracia and make it yours!"
Mizu heard her grandpa's voice. She looked at him and nodded.
She concentrated again, molding the uncontrollable force inside her into solid form.
The formed core was then released outside her body and sucked all the cold winds that surrounds Mizu.
Then, the ethereal form of her beast soul came out, Mizu quickly saw it's beautiful feathers even though it's in ethereal form.
The white crane circled her then leaned it's long neck on her shoulders.
Mizu glanced at everyone at the stage, she saw her grandpa took a sigh of relief, and the queen clapping her hands together with Luke.
When she released all her nervousness with a hidden huff behind her hand, Mizu's beast soul, beast mark and her core simply disappeared into thin air.
"What's your beast soul?"
Her grandpa approached her while moving his gracia in his eyes, Mizu thought it was for seeing what her level is.
"White Crane Empress?", Mizu said to her grandpa.
When children who awakened their star soul for the first time wanted to know their star soul's name, they will instinctively thought about their names.
Maybe it's their star soul's will but, it became a tradition in the whole continent that only the awakened person will recognize and name their own star soul.
But, there are some occasions that the awakener can recognize the star soul of the children if it's a star soul that is commonly seen and have been recorded in books.
"Okay then."
Mizu watched his grandpa going in front of the stage to proudly announce again the beast soul of his grandchild.
"Mizu Kelana de Leviathan! Innate star power, [Level 10]! Beast Soul, [White Crane Empress]!"
Mizu proudly step down the stage and quickly go to her mom and big brother that is now wearing a new white robe.
She hugged and them and tearing up. She finally took her first step in getting closer to her goals.
The ceremony still go on as they watched it together.