After the Tournament Opening, the White Demon seemed to lay low after his victory celebration by releasing the 'Fraction of Souls' from his 'Gourd of Souls' and mentioning something about the 'Awakening'.
Due to the conditions, the Tournament was put on hold while chaos and riot arose after the people gave many attack reports by the people who appeared in public and called themselves.
' Awakeners'.
People who somehow appear out of the ordinary, unable to overpower many Gifted Humans even those in the highest tier. As many fought, these 'Awakeners', were described as inhuman, beings with power so unnatural, and unpredictable in many aspects.
With the sudden emergence of the 'Awakeners', the gods began to act, and finally, after some time, they decided to not stay put and go full action alongside their mortals.
Such as me...
...
...
[ In an unspecific Location. ]
" You slaves! " said an Awakener as he wreaked havoc, turning his body into a tusk as well as having his mouth chanting something as it summons some spectral around him.
* Awakener chants. *
" YOU FOOL! " said the Awakener as he created havoc.
" YOU ARE FOOLS TO RECEIVE THE 'POWER' FROM THE GODS...! "
" BORROWED POWER THAT ISN'T YOURS! " said the Tusked Awakener as he killed some people who unleashed their Gift Abilities onto him, while his spectral creatures mauled the others.
" YOU SHOULD'VE NOT ACCEPTED THE 'POWER'..., FOR THE 'POWER' YOU HAVE IS JUST A MERE RESIDUE OF IT'S OWNER'S FULL STRENGTH... "
" A MERE EXPIRED ABILITIES, AS THE DIVINE WHO GAVE YOU HAVE ATTAINED MORE THAN THE ONES YOU HAVE! THE ONE YOU FOOLS TAKEN BY GIVING YOURSELVES TO BE ENSLAVED BY THOSE FROM THE DIVINE! " the Tusked Awakener began to unleash more spectral as he chanted.
" What is he muttering? " said some Gifted Humans who fought back as the Tusked Awakener charged something from his mouth and blew it to them, blowing them a huge gas attack that slowly melted those who fought him.
" 'Curses'... " said the Awakener.
" The power you have..., if you just didn't give your souls and bind it to the gods' leash as you take their power..., "
" You would all, be granted this power, power that could only be obtained if you idiots train in the ways of... "
" Magic... " said the Tusked Awakener for suddenly, he was attacked by Blue Flames...
" Grahhh, what hit me!? " the Tusked Awakener is surprised, for to his expectations, the caster of the flames immediately approached him and unleashed a powerful attack that burned him and his body.
" [ Blue Burst ] " the attack's name was said as the blue flames burst and engulfed the Awakener, burning him alongside the summons to a crisp.
" Geez..., everything's destroyed. " Aidan says after unleashing his Blue Burst over the Awakener.
As an S-Rank, after the rise of these 'Awakeners', he was given a task, alongside those who could still fight, to terminate any Awakeners they could find, and they will do this alongside those with the gods. Due to his duties, Aidan Adler, being an S-Rank, does the duty meticulously, as efficiently as possible alongside Lord Agni within him. Everything is fine at first, but as time passed.
" These 'Awakeners', Lord Agni... " Aidan calls Lord Agni within him.
" After I fought them, I began to wonder... "
" These people..., are 'human', right? " Aidan asks as Agni is still silent after Aidan asks him that.
Aidan looks around, seeing the building destroyed around him. The destruction, the blaze, the corpses...
" To think I would ever use this blaze to burn a human instead of a demon... " Aidan speaks, he mourns for those he killed, his heart can't take much of it as a former Medic.
" For the Blaze of Agni should only mean to 'Purify' and 'Heal'..., even if it's used to defeat any mortal, the Purifying Flames should not harm the Mortal that much for that is 'Way of Agni'. "
" Or perhaps... " Aidan clenched his fist.
" The 'Way' had been 'changed'... " Aidan speaks as Agni begins to reply to his words.
" Nothing has been changed, my Divine Avatar... " Agni assures him.
" To 'Purify', one must 'cleanse'..., cleaning every dirt that would taint anything Divine..., even if the 'dirt' itself is that from the mortal realm... " Agni says again but this time, Aidan, who can't take it anymore, begins to ask the question he wanted to ask, that is...
" Just what is an 'Awakener'..., Lord Agni? " Aidan asks. The question straight comes out of his desire after he was denied an answer sometime before now.
" Please tell me the truth, are these 'Awakeners', these 'awakening humans' still humans but possessed, or those who made a contract with the Demons... "
" Tell me! " Aidan requests with a loud tone, this should be forbidden to him, especially when talking to a divine.
" If that's your desire..., my Avatar... " Agni replied, he calmly responded to the request with no anger in his reply whatsoever.
" You deserved this truth, there shouldn't be any division or even secrets between us as we shared one vessel of flesh. " Agni tells Aidan, he calmly explains to him everything he should know about these Awakeners.
" People who had their 'Past Memories' returned..., you say? " Aidan asks.
" Yes, the people who wreak havoc here are the people who had their memories 'Returned', by the White Demon... "
" Just as the Demon announces, the memories are stored in a fraction of their absorbed Souls inside the 'Gourd'. "
" Thus, as he unleashes it, as the 'Fraction of Souls' returned to its owners, combining again with the owner and making it whole... "
" Their 'Past Memories' will appear, emerging to them like waves of flashback, awakening them to something they must've achieved or mastered and thus... "
" Awaken their potential, a possible one as they were given back the knowledge on how to do it. "
" For like any mortals..., as they can do something great and interesting once..., there's a great chance they could do it again if they remembered it. "
" And also, not to mention..., these Awakeners, awakened themselves by doing many things to rip their Gift Cores out of them, to attain their... "
" True Strength..., from their previous times. " Agni explains to Aidan, finally giving some answers while he processes it.
" The awakened earlier mentions something about 'curse' and 'magic'... " Aidan says while mentioning something he heard.
" Magic... " Agni replied, with some pause.
" And here I hope you will miss the word when it's uttered from his mouth. "
" But, I already expected you would catch on to this sooner..., especially since you're part of the Blue Bloods yourself... " Agni sighs.
" So..., will you tell me? " Aidan asks, asking the god if he could get the permission to know more.
" If you were merely a human as most are..., I would immediately silence you here and now... "
" But, you are the Son of the Adler Family, Part of the 'Blue Blood Clan', a group of families patronized by the heavens. "
" Not to mention..., you're also my Avatar..., my dearest vessel... "
" There shouldn't be any division between us..., both between our thoughts and secrets. " Agni immediately explains, almost everything, but not entirely, still...
It is more than enough to let Aidan understand some of the things. Especially as Agni had no choice but to spill the greatest secret of all to Aidan in words he could understand.
" Time...lines..., and you say that it's plural. " Aidan says the word after Agni explains the secret, a secret that Aidan never expected before to be told.
" Yes..., all of you are here because of the conclusions of the Previous Timelines. " Agni replied.
" You..., and the ones before you of the Blue Bloods..., are always exalted due to your service to the Divine Rule. Securing your place as the highest of society on earth, every time the Timeline resets. "
" In..., the 'Universal Reboot'... " Agni mentions the thing, to Aidan for the first time without any hesitation.
" 'Universal Reboot'? " Aidan hears this, and as he analyzes, his mind begins to connect it with some game he used to play and that is.
" You mean like in 'M*rtal K*mbat 11'...? " Aidan asks while Agni could be felt having a confusion within him.
" Check my memories, Lord, I made a full gameplay about it, so you should've seen what I meant. " Aidan tells him as Agni searches and witnesses the reference in Aidan's mind, watching what he should know from it.
" Wait, wait, wait! "
" There's a game about the 'Reboot'!? " Agni was surprised as he looked at the memory.
" This shouldn't be possible..., we gods already made sure that the knowledge can only be known by certain people in the mortal realm and make sure that no media would publish anything that has something to do with the 'concept'. "
" But you're telling me here, that the reboot concept has been used in a 'game'..., and played by 'many'!? " Agni was surprised as he saw this.
" Umm... yeah, we even had a Tournament with the game. " Aidan replied but Agni rants as he knew about it.
" Besides, back to the game's story, even the game had some 'Universal Reboot Device' called the 'H*ourglass', does it work the same? " Aidan asks.
" How is this possible? We already made sure that things like this won't be teased to overall mortals in any way..., Who allowed this!? " Agni wonders but as he thinks more.
" Oh..., I know. " Agni says as he grunts.
" Loki... " Agni says it with a great grunt, he knew it was him, for there's no other god who would even bother to control the media after their constant glory in every Timeline.
" Urgh, it must be him, it must be him, that annoying rascal... "
" What's going on with that horned brain of his!? Is he nuts!? " Agni rants as he suddenly stops after Aidan quickly dodges a sneak attack.
* Agni inside. *
" You okay? " Agni asks as Aidan who fought outside immediately sees the Tusked Awakener rise again, with mouth muttering again that makes him surrounded by energies around him as he rises.
* Tusked Awaker chants. *
" You should've made sure... " the Tusk Awakener grins as he prepares to battle after surviving Aidan's blaze.
" This time, it would be different. " Tusk Awakener says muttering even more as he unleashes many creatures made from his power.
" You sure about that? " Aidan says as he unleashes both of his Red and Blue blazes.
" Just because you survived once..., doesn't you'll survive again... " Aidan tells the Awakener as the two unleash their might at that very moment.
____________
Extra:
From now on, the 'Cauldron Orb of Souls' will be revised as the 'Gourd of Souls'.
Due to my error, I wrote the item as an 'Orb' because of my wrong translations of the object. Please understand. Not to forget, after this Chapter, due to my schedule, I will publish the chapters per month, not per week, but the time could be at any time, so please understand.