Nero appeared inside a dark room. When he opened his eyes he saw that he was seated on a fancy-looking wooden chair and that besides himself and the chair, the room was absolutely empty.
'What is happening? Wasn't I supposed to be facing a natural disaster right now?'
He looked around a little more and saw a door on the wall in front of him.
'Guess Clare was wrong, I don´t see how I can face a natural disaster from the inside of a building. The clan's people always act like they know everything anyway.'
He headed to the door and opened it up, behind it was a long corridor whit a blinding white light at the end.
'Maybe my trial is a haunter corridor? That's not that bad, I'm not scared easily!'
Whit shaky legs Nero started walking toward the light, but strangely it didn´t matter how close he got to it, he couldn´t seem to make out what was emitting such a blinding light. After a short while, he got to the end of the corridor but it was like there was a white wall blocking his vision.
'This place is as weird as it gets. Should I touch the wall?'
He reached his hand and touch it. As soon as his finger made contact, a suction force pulled his whole body through it, and what he saw on the other side made his brain freeze.
'What. The. Fuck'
On the other side of the white wall was a completely white room. It had a couch, a small table in front of the said couch, some chairs, and even a tv on the wall, but none of this was what made Nero so shocked. On the couch was a replica of him, perfect to the most minute detail, dressed in an expensive-looking suit and being served by three of the most beautiful women Nero had ever seen.
One of the women was massaging his shoulders from behind the couch, and the other two were massaging his feet.
"Excuse me, but who are you? And why do you look like me?"
The copy and the three women took their eyes from the tv and looked at him, a huge grin appeared on the copy's face.
"Come in, come in. I was waiting for you, ever since you got the calling I have been waiting for the moment you would show up"
'He's was waiting for me? But who is this guy?'
"I'm sorry, but who are you? Do I know you?"
"No, you don't know me, but you've heard of me. I'm the administrator, come sit and I will explain everything."
Nero started walking to one of the chairs and seated himself on it, the three women who were serving the administrator bowed down in his direction and left through the same door he had come in.
"Cute aren't they? Just like you see me as a copy of yourself, they always assume the most beautiful form to the people who look at them."
"So you don´t look like me?"
"No, you just couldn't handle looking at my true form."
Nero paused, just looking at the administrator true form was deadly, that was a scary notion.
'He must be really strong…'
"As you already know, you are here to pass through the assessment, but your case is a bit special."
"Special?"
"Yes, normally you will pass through a natural calamity and try to comprehend the essence movements behind it to form your own codex, only the blessed can do it this way."
Nero nodded, this was what Claire had said.
"But you have more than one affinity, you have three, and one of those is a hereditary one"
"What!?"
'Hereditary one? Only the great clans can pass their affinity to their descendants. I'm the son of a slums prostitute, how can I have that!?'
"Guess you didn't know. All this time you thought you had no surname, but in reality, you are Nero silver, a possible heir to the sword clan."
"What!? How can I be an heir? And to a fucking God clan? You must be wrong."
A cold pressure descended on Nero, he felt like a mountain had suddenly been dropped on his shoulders. The smile on the administrator's face had disappeared.
"I never make such stupid mistakes boy. I don't care about how impossible you think this is, it's the cold hard truth. Don't forget that even the God clan people are just stupid, careless people. Your father especially is pretty stupid and careless."
"You know who he is?"
Hope appeared in Nero's heart. If the administrator was saying the truth, didn't that mean that Bianca's life could be saved? And that their life could be much better than just being mere slum dwellers?
The administrator clapped his hands and the pressure disappeared, the smile had returned to his face.
"Don't ask stupid questions, and don't deviate from the topic. If you manage to survive the assessment, the sword clan will find you either way."
He extended his palm and three balls of light appeared floating above it.
"The silver one represents the sword essence affinity, the red one represents your blood affinity, and the purple one represents your poison affinity. You are not the first ascended to have three affinities, but you sure are the first one to have them so rare and dislocated from one another."
"Rare? Are they all rare?"
"The poison one is at most an uncommon one, but the blood and sword affinities are as rare as they come. You can only get the sword affinity if you are a descendant of the sword god or if it's bestowed to you by the god himself, it's his domain after all. Blood affinity is another story, while you can get it naturally the chances are abysmal that it will happen, blood is the vessel to life's essence and the universe doesn't like when someone has the ability to mess whit it."
"I think I get it, but what do you mean by dislocated from one another?"
"That's not a problem for you to worry about now, just know that it affects your assessment in a bad way."
Nero paused.
"How bad?"
"There is nothing we can naturally put you through that will teach you the three codexes at the same time, so, you have two options. Option one is that we will put you through one of the normal affinity trials, you will learn two of your codexes but the third will always remain incomplete and will damage you in the long run."
He paused and looked deep into Nero's eyes
"Option two is that I create an artificial calamity. I will use my power to forcefully mix the three essence types together, creating something much more dangerous than any other Listener has ever experienced. Of course, I will also use my power to protect your body a little bit, but it will still be hard to grasp the codexes, and if you are not fast enough you will die."
A huge grin appeared on the administrator's face, an insane look clouded his face.
"So, what will it be?"