It was early dawn in Acton city. The just-risen sun shone softly on the city streets, bringing with it a flurry of early-morning activity.
In the southern part of Acton city which was also known as the residential area, stood a two-story traditional Japanese house.
"I need to come back earlier than usual today so I better not waste time and get to training." Michael said as he got off his bed after a good night's sleep.
Michael headed towards the bath to freshen up.
A few minutes later he left his room.
As soon as he climbed down the stairs, he heard Erica's Voice,
"Heading early today?' he saw his stepmother sitting on the couch.
This was his daily routine, he every day went to train in the forest. Every day he went to train in the morning and would return in the evening, just before dinner.
"Yes, mom. Today Ciara and I will be heading towards the library at noon, so I thought of going early today" occupying the seat next to her, he responded.
With a smile on her face, she said,
"Nervous for tomorrow's awakening ceremony."
Michael gave a slight nod. Nervousness was visible in both his eyes and expression whenever he thought about the awakening ceremony.
This was something common among children of his age. There was not a single child who would not get nervous talking about the same, awakening ceremony.
With a gentle smile while caressing him she said,
"Don't worry you will awaken something good enough. As for being nervous, I am pretty sure almost everyone is at your age. Now go and get to training or you will be late."
Michael nodded and headed towards his usual training spot, the rocky patch in the Maplewood forest's outer area.
Michael paced through the empty streets towards the forest. The streets were generally packed with people but right now at early dawn, the people Michael saw could be counted on hands. These were mostly night-shift guards.
Michael as soon as he reached the same rocky patch, started his usual training.
Soon it was noon.
Michael was so engrossed in training that those few hours felt like a few minutes to him. Whenever he trained, he felt like the time passed quicker than usual, to him it felt like how you feel while reading a novel.
Michael was yet to completely exhaust himself. He has been training his physique for the last 4 years, due to which he had a stronger physique than most and had very high stamina.
"Haah I guess I should head home now or else I will be late." said Michael, heading back to his house.
A few minutes later,
"Mom, I am back." Michael pushed open the door and walked into the house.
"Welcome back, go freshen up quickly, you both should head out as soon as possible for the library." he heard Erica's voice from the kitchen.
Michael rushed to his room to get a quick bath with hot water.
A few minutes later Michael left his room and climbed down the staircase.
"So you are finally ready." he heard Ciara's voice.
"Yeah, let's get going."
Both Michael and Ciara left the house a headed towards the library.
Michael and Ciara then hired a horse-drawn carriage from the hidden savings, as the library was quite far from the residential area.
They talked about a lot of things along their way as there was nothing else for them to do while riding a horse-drawn cart.
After travelling in the horse-drawn carriage for almost 3 hours, did they finally the library.
They saw a a two-story building with the area of almost 5 residencies. It was a plain wooden building not too extravagant as one expected it to be.
"I hope Daria is available today." said Ciara heading inside the building.
"Well as long one offers money she is available." Michael said walking next to Ciara.
As they entered the building, they noticed only a few people were present here. Walking across the bookshelves they finally got a glance of a somewhat beautiful lady. She sat behind a table situated in the middle, skimming through the pages of a book.
Michael and Ciara approached the table and gave a slight knock on the table, gaining the focous of the lady.
The lady noticed them and said in a surprised tone,
"oh, Michael and Ciara right? What a pleasant surprise, here to read books? I recently got some new____"
"Daria, why waste time, you were already aware that we would be visiting you today and it's not like you didn't detect us as soon as we entered the library." Michael spoke out before she could finish.
Noticing the resolution in both his and tone, Daria sighed and said,
"You win, You win. So what is it that you want to know about."
"Tell us about the world and about some academies that will be sending representatives to recruit the young talents tomorrow at the awakening ceremony."
Both Michael and Ciara rejoiced and took a seat. After 5 minutes later Daria came back with a book. Placing the book on the table, she spoke,
"As you both already know there are five continents, we are on the Elon continent, it is divided into 3 different empires. We live in the Acton town of Zuweth empire and it alone is home to thirty percent of the empire's commoners. It also houses the least intent-users in the entire empire."
"There are three ruling empires on Elon continent. Elon continent has a population of around 700 million beings. There are a total of 21 higher worlds including our won, due to the concentrated spiritual energy here, our world is referred as a "higher world", we people of the higher world don't cultivate using laws; like those "lower worlds", we cultivate using different intents. As a result, we the inhabitants of higher worlds have much more strength than the people of the lower worlds, there are 3,000 lower worlds and only 21 higher worlds. So you may realize that how lucky you are to be born in a higher world"
Michael and Ciara had their mouths agape as they listened to the explanation, they had never imagined themselves to be so insignificant in the vast cosmos, at the same time they were also grateful that they were in a higher world. Daria chuckled to herself observing their reactions and continued,
"According to the legends, there once existed 42 higher worlds and 6,000 lower worlds, 21 higher worlds were destroyed along with 3,000 lower worlds by an omnipotent unknown entity. Despite the fact that there is no written proof since the higher-ups erased all the records to avoid chaos, nearly every intent-user knows this to be true."
They both had their eyes wide open in shock as the listened, Michael couldn't hold back as he heard this and asked,
"So does this mean that there exists an entity out there who can erase us at anytime they wished to?"
Catching a glimpse of fear in his eyes Daria smiled and answered "No one is currently strong enough to destroy an entire higher world single-handedly ,and even if they do exist, they are present in the God's realm"
"Does God's realm really exist?" Ciara asked with her eyes sparkling with curiosity.
"It definitely does; afterall, who do you think the Hall of Akilan worship? Akilan is a powerhouse present in God's realm, there are many other god 's that people worship. Though I am unfamiliar with it, I am sure that God's realm really does exist."
When Michael heard the name Hall of Akilan, he raised brows as he had heard of this organisation before. Nicholas was appointed as an Envoy here.