"Father!"
Dante exclaimed in shock as he saw his father approach.
He wasn't expecting him to silently creep In like that.
'What's with this man's ability to appear whenever you think about him like that.
is this man a ghost or something?"
Dante had all these strange thoughts in his head causing him to give Winton a weird look as he came in.
Ignoring the strange looks he was getting from Dante, Winton took a second to look Dante up and down
"I guess your feeling better, seeing how you're already dressed and ready But something still seems off about you?
Your aura... it's changed.
and the way you speak. it's so different, almost as if you've become another person" stated Winton coldly
"Who are you or more appropriately....
"what are you?"
As Winton said those words, the temperature of the room seemed to drop drastically
'Damn! he figured out I've changed so soon!'
Dante was already panicking at Winton's brief words
'How come other protagonists get away with changing souls yet with just a change in the aura I've already been exposed!'
Dante could only lament at his unfortunate fate
Under Wintons gaze, his heart almost stopped beating.
Just as he was about to defend himself, A faint black light flickered across Winton's eyes
Suddenly, Dante seemed to feel Winton's eyes peer straight through him.
As Dante looked up, he seemed to make eye contact with his father, he suddenly felt himself start to fall.
Looking around, Dante could see that his surroundings had quietly changed from his room calm and cosy room, into a strange endless darkness.
The darkness was pitch black.
It was endless.
No matter how hard he squinted, no matter how hard he searched , Dante couldn't see anything
It had gotten so bad that it was to the point where he couldn't even see his arms when he held them in front of him.
In this darkness, he found that his falling speed wasn't constant.
instead, his speed was rapidly increasing.
But that wasn't all to it as while he fell, he felt a strange pressure acting on him and as he fell faster the pressure acting him got stronger causing excruciating pain.
The pain got so bad that Dante felt like screaming, but it was then that he discovered a harrowing fact.
The pressure acting on him was so strong that the air wasn't even able to escape his lungs!
Not only was speaking impossible, but now it seemed like he couldn't even breathe!
The experience was so hopeless Dante felt it was almost like he was drowning in the endless darkness in front of him.
Seconds later Dante started to feel his bones creak under the pressure as his speed had reached ridiculously fast levels
"Crrrk!"
The sound of bones fracturing rang out all around as Dante's body sent an electrifying pain signal through his whole nervous system
"Am... am I gonna die here..."
"How pathetic... "
As Dante thought this, he felt his consciousness slowly slipping away from him, as his thoughts grew blurrier and blurrier
"Dante!"
Suddenly Dante felt a warm current of energy flowing through him looking around he discovered he was back In his room
"I'm sorry Dante, while I was checking your soul for injuries I accidentally used too much strength"
"There seems to be nothing different about your soul except for an increase in soul strength" concluded Winton
"But the thing that puzzles me is that there doesn't seem to be an explanation for the drastic increase of soul strength"
"Maybe because I won the tournament," Dante quickly replied
"What do you mean? " questioned Winton
"Before I won the tournament, I always used to feel a certain pressure to win.
It was probably my heart demon causing me to be obsessed with winning and after I won it felt like I got rid of the pressure in my mind and cultivation.
This must have been because I got rid of my heart demon possibly explaining the increase in mental strength "
Winton didn't reply to Dante causing Dante to panic inside instead he was thinking to himself
'The excuse he came up with does seem possible, and after inspecting his soul it does seem to be the same the only thing that changed was his aura '
'and I did seem to overreact it was just a change in the aura, but you never know what despicable means those bastards could use to get to me, it's not unheard of for soul possession to take place especially when the victim has been seriously injured. better safe than sorry after all'
'But I guess I should leave him alone after all everyone has their own secrets as long as the soul is the same and he's still my Dante I guess it doesn't matter' Winton concluded
"Dante collect yourself we've got your awakening in an hour let's go to the awakening platform"
Seeing that his father had changed the topic Dante breathed out a sigh internally and quickly responded
"I've been ready the whole time I was just waiting on you!"
"Hmph" snorted Winton ignoring his bullshit as he turned around
"Dante you gonna come along or are you gonna wait here all day"
after speaking Winton quickly walked out not giving Dante a chance to reply Dante could only follow him out of his room
He walked out the room with a slight smirk of anticipation thinking about the martial soul he could awaken
Walking out of his compound he admired kinsman family estate adorned with family markings a majestic red serpent spewing a breath of flames. It was the inherited bloodline martial soul of the kinsman family the profound ranked martial soul the flame viper. A strong martial soul with flame and poison affinities which was inherited quite commonly among the kinsman family allowing them to gain a foothold here in the Bright steel city.
As he neared the awakening platform his father spoke out
"Dante, I need to meet up with the other elders of the family just make sure everything is going as planned just head to the platform without me I'll see you at the start of the ceremony"
"Sure I'm fine with that" replied Dante
Leaving his father behind Dante walked to the area Dante was instantly attracted by the platform
It was an elevated platform supported by 12 thick cylindrical pillars with a short staircase of stairs leading towards it
The platform itself was cased in bronze and ordains with mystical runes and glyphs that occasionally flashed with a vibrant prismatic light.
As Dante stood in awe at the magnificent craftsmanship, a group of children appeared whispering and laughing amongst themselves.
They were dressed elegantly in robes of various colours and leading them was a muscular man that towered over 2 metres tall.
he was wearing a plain red ceremonial robe but even those couldn't hide his bulging muscles that seemed ready to explode at any time
Noticing Dante, his eyes narrowed and a warm smile appeared on his face and he walked towards Dante
"I'm surprised you could make it to the ceremony. I thought you'd at least be crippled after using that secret technique"
"We all know you're not my opponent without you're bullshit cheats. how about we have another fight just to prove it, or are you possibly scared?"