"Fuck... my head..."
Zenon woke up free of any nightmares. This rarely happened, only on those days were his body would give out due to extreme exhaustion. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was an unknown concrete ceiling.
His first instinct was to touch his head and thigh. Strangely, both of them didn't hurt as much as he expected. Instead, it seemed like nothing happened to him. Perhaps a dream?
Squinting his eyes, Zenon sat up to look at his body. First of all, he was without his hoodie, T-shirt, and trousers and was only wearing shorts. Now, who the hell stripped him from his precious clothing?
"You are finally awake. Thought the concussion would leave you in a coma."
Zenon looked to his right, where he saw the same girl that saved him leaning on the wall. She was wearing black leggings and a white tank top, revealing her fit body. Strangely, her neck warmer was still up, covering her mouth and nose.
Zenon wasted no time and asked, "Where are my clothes?"
The girl looked at him for a moment and pointed behind him. Looking there, Zenon found all of his clothing inside a closet and instantly grabbed them to put them on. The girl chuckled at the situation, getting some weird looks from Zenon.
"Don't worry, no one did anything strange to you. We had to check that you were alright since… well, you didn't Awaken and were full of wounds."
"I'm supposed to Awaken today but…" Zenon looked around the room and said, "W-Wait a second, let's get to the real question. Who are you?"
The girl chuckled and replied,
"Who are we? We aren't Void Carriers. But we are anomalies that, following Fire's perfect society, aren't supposed to be alive. At least until we become Enlighteneds."
Zenon finished putting on his clothes and got up from the bed. Looking around, he noticed that the room wasn't too different from the apartment he was living in. Suddenly, the girl threw a small rock at his face, catching his attention.
"Let's go, there's someone that wants to see you."
Zenon remained still for a moment with his mouth slightly opened before nodding and walking alongside the girl. When he exited the room, his jaw dropped momentarily due to the size of… wherever he was.
It was probably as big as a soccer stadium but there weren't too many people, just some groups here and there, either chatting or eating. Now that he thought about it, this looked very similar to the meal center where he got his food from.
"H-Hey… Hey!" Zenon called the girl, who just looked backward waiting for a response, "What the hell is this place?"
"Think of it as a shelter. Don't worry, the leader will explain everything."
Zenon nodded as he quickened his pace to match the girl. They walked around the place, got greeted by some people, climbed some stairs, and finally reached a metallic door distinctive from any other they found.
Without wasting a moment, the girl opened the door with a kick and shouted, "Dan! You owe me a good one!"
Turning around the corner, they got greeted by a well-decorated bedroom with a desk and a TV set up to the wall. The desk was filled with papers, books… and sitting on a chair behind it, a young man with blond hair was seen focused on an open book.
When he heard the commotion coming from his entrance, he lifted his eyes and made a small smile.
"Owe you? If I remember correctly it was you who organized the mission… right, Aurea? Perhaps you owe me one for letting you carry it out."
"Lost your memories or what? You were the one so excited because there was an alive Void Carrier living in Ashton anyways."
"Guess we are even then."
Dan looked at the girl with amusement before closing the book and putting it back on the table. He then got up and walked towards Zenon. They both stared at each other for a second before Dan offered Zenon a handshake, which the boy quickly accepted.
"Sorry for our methods to, uhm… invite you to our facility. I'm Dan, a Wind Enlightened."
"You are an Enlightened?" Zenon asked, surprised.
"Well… let's say I'm the kind of Enlightened that receives weird looks. And since I've done nothing to gain the recognition of any Faction, I'm stuck inside here."
Zenon let go of Dan's hand as he squinted his eyes, not knowing what the hell was going on. He was supposed to be executed today based on the rules of the ruling Fire Faction but seems like that day got postponed.
Instead, he is now inside an underground facility perhaps, away from all society and Fire Faction, living with a bunch of people that are similar to him. But how were they exactly similar? They weren't Void Carriers.
Aurea leaned to Dan's ear and said something that made him frown. Dan nodded and asked,
"Tell me, Zenon, when were you born?"
"Uhm… 31 December, 2457… at around eleven in the afternoon?"
Dan's face relaxed as he said, "That means we still have some time. Follow me, both of you."
Not wasting a moment, Dan exited his office followed by the two teenagers. Zenon was extremely confused about the whole situation yet Aurea was acting like this was a daily occurrence.
They climbed down the stairs, greeted some people again, and walked inside yet another room. This one, however, was completely empty except for a chair in the middle with some belts attached to the side. Dan took his sweater off and said,
"Sit down Zenon… we have an hour before you Awaken and I still need to explain some things so you won't die from a heart attack."
Zenon blinked twice before saying, "Alright…" and moving towards the chair in the middle. Sitting down, Aurea quickly began working and strapped two belts around Zenon's body. At the chest and the legs.
Dan then took two chairs from outside and put them in front of Zenon, where Aurea and he sat down.
"I'll now overload you with some necessary information about this place. Are you ready?"
"Yeah, sure." Zenon quickly nodded.
"First of all, how much do you know about the Seven Angels?"
Zenon frowned his forehead, wondering what Dan meant by Seven Angels. Dan, of course, noticed how he made Zenon's brain short circuit and began explaining.
"Oh, right. Since you didn't Awaken yet, no one has told you this. Anyways…
The Seven Angels represent the seven most powerful Elements. These Angels are known as Fire, Poison, Fog, Lighting, Rock, Sound, and Void. Of course, you can gain another Element outside of these seven, but in terms of raw strength, these are the strongest… or that's what we believe.
Now, there's something from these seven Elements that Fire wants to contain no matter what… their Lineage, you can also call it direct blood. This is something that a very small percent of the global population carries such as anyone living inside this underground bunker.
Luckily I carry a Wind Lineage so I'm not an important target. However, Aurea carries a Sound Lineage, and you Zenon, - from the information we received - carry a Void Lineage. While Fire may go easier on any other Element, any Lineage involving the Seven Angels including him are enough to infuriate him and send the Fire Keepers or sometimes the leader.
That's also the reason why the Six Factions exist… except for Void, since Fire has the worst relationship with him, enough to practically exterminate his people.
This place is a safe zone for any carrier of a Lineage, so that they may live in peace without having an entire army of Fire Keepers on their asses. Either this or conquer the First Layer and become an Enlightened, that way Fire won't put a hand on you."
Zenon tried to digest all the information sent to him in less than five minutes. Lineages? Seven Angels? He knew about the Elements and the Factions but he had no idea of those Seven Angels or whatever the hell he was talking about.
He also knew about the Layers, the only way to become an Enlightened and subsequently stronger… but this took an unexpected turn.
"That's the reason why this place exists. We also train these people to send them to the First Layer, but that's a matter for the future. Now we need to focus on your Awakening."
Dan leaned forward and looked at the boy straight in the eyes,
"Listen closely Zenon, I think you know most of this already, but in less than an hour, you are going to be sent inside your Soul. Inside there, you will experience a hellish mental pain, enough for you to prefer tearing your nerves apart. What you need to do is keep moving forward.
And I mean it literally. Get up, and start walking forward without stopping. You can run, crawl, walk - even do the fucking worm - but you can't stop.
You will go through different environments, each of them threatening to stop your running, but endure the pain and don't stop.
An Angel will be surveying your Awakening, and the more he is impressed by your endurance the better your result will be. The better your result, the better your Elemental Ability and Familiar will be.
For example, I got an Enlightened Elemental Soul, which is the Second-Tier. Nothing too shiny, but most people barely make it to First-Tier, the Unseen Elemental Soul."
"Are you implying I can die there?! I thought you couldn't!" He said, receiving a serious nod.
Zenon looked at Dan with squinted eyes, just wondering what shit-hole he just got. He knew what the Awakening was all about, and now he was regretting not being inside the car with those Fire Keepers.
After some seconds of silence, Dan clapped and said, "We'll be leaving you alone. Prepare yourself, and remember that no matter how painful the experience is, the longer you withstand it, the better future you'll have."
Both Dan and Aurea got up from the chairs and walked outside the room without looking back. It wasn't once they closed the door that Zenon could sigh in relief. The information was surely overloading his brain and he had less than an hour to understand it.
He knew about the procedure of the Awakening, and that the longer he withstands it the better his Soul will become. But when he heard he could actually die...
Now he was seriously questioning every decision he made up to this point.
'Just where did I get myself into.'
Time went by, and Zenon's chest was slowly becoming hotter and hotter. Out of nowhere, a wave of drowsiness hit Zenon, making his head wiggle a little bit before his eyes gave up and slowly closed.
'Hope it doesn't hurt that much…'