Yumi walked across the stage, staring out over the crowd she made her way to a the large round object with pieces of stitched together cloth covering it, she gave it a tug and the large blanket slid off falling to the onto the stage at her feet, it was a large glass ball sitting on a blue and silver metal base, with tubes and wires going in and out of it, some going and sticking into the glass ball, it had knobs and buttons reminiscent of how the standard comm crystals would look, the top of the glass ball almost reached to the top of the looming walls of the outpost, it height barely aided by the stage,
"I'm sure many of you are wondering what this is, simply put this", Bard said tapping on the ball lightly, "is a test", As the crowd fell silent his words travelled clearly across the training area,
" This contraption, so to speak, was designed to measure the amount of Divine Energy stored within your body", Bard explained, he placed his hand on the glass, and after a few seconds it began glow a soft golden color, then a gold like liquid began to fill in the bottom of the ball, rapidly it filled and in a matter of seconds it reached it's stopping point, around three quarters of the way to the top,
"This is based off of one that the artemis guild has in their guild hall, from what Yumi, and Amon have shared, all four of the pillars as well as Aluric himself would be able to completely fill this, which means that the minimum requirement for any who wants a crack at fighting them is filling this up to the top", Bard continued, the people in the crowd had mixed reactions. Some where worried while some were excited, that of course went for the four boys standing in the back, Barak and Levant seemed excited, while Aster had his hand on his chin lost in deep thought and Polaris just seemed to be spaced out and oblivious to what was going on,
"Look in know that some of you have suffered at the hand s of the four pillars directly, some of you have even faced Aluric's wrath personally, but we aren't here to waste our lives, we need the strongest people here to take of the enemies strongest, while the rest of us hold off the army of adventurers they have at their disposal, so with that being said who wants a crack at it first", Bard finished, After a brief moment of complete silence, many people in the crowd started to approach the stage, wanting to see just how strong they were compared to the others around them, though many of them also left and went to the area where the food and the drinks were,
After the first couple of tries it quickly devolved into a low brow festival of sorts, anyone who made it half way up the sphere were rewarded with erupting cheers from the crowd, many of who were now drinking and chatting with each other, a few of them had taken to instruments and began playing what could only be described as Tavern music, prompting some to break out into dance, Levant was standing with his back on the wall and his arms folded, he had had a look of impatience in his eyes for a while now, but he also nervous,
Aster took note of the look in Levant's eyes, glancing back to Levant constantly,
"got something to say aster ?", Levant asked, after aster had glanced at him again, Aster got up from crouching on the ground, and dusted off his clothes, stretching his hands into the air,
"I know that look, if you want to go up there, go ahead", Aster said pointing back to the stage area, as another round of cheers erupted, someone had managed to reach the same point as bard did earlier, the crowd chanted, 'Zack, Zack, Zack, Zack,', the person on stage lifted both arms into the air and let out a loud howl, quickly chugging a large jug of beer afterwards,
" I have a better idea how about you go before me", Levant replied to aster,
"Uggghhhh..... I've had enough waiting on one of us to go, I'll go first", Barak stated as he marched off towards the stage,
"who the hell ruffled his feathers", Levant asked,
"probably just wants to punch something", Aster said,
"why is he like that", Levant said, pushing his palm into his face,
"yup, he's been itching for a fight since he shook hands with Bard earlier, I honestly thought he was going to pick a fight right there", Aster said nodding his head in bard's direction, who was off to the side of the stage with a note pad in his hand scribbling away, Barak made his way onto the stage, he wore a grin across his face, unable to hide any more of his excitement, the way he walked towards the sphere you would think he was going to attack it, Yumi look on puzzled so did many of the other rebels, who had taken notice amidst the music and partying, he placed his hand on the ball, the golden glow seemed to almost hum, soon after the gold like liquid rapidly filled the ball, even quicker than it did when bard tested himself, the soft golden glow, grew aggressive and bright, the ball had been filled to the brim, everyone erupted in cheer, and the fast paced music intensified, he was the first person to fill the sphere completely, but none were more excited than the three boys at the back of the crowd,
"damn that filled up quick, didn't it Aster", Levant commented,
"Aster", Levant said again, but he had only managed to catch a glimpse of Asters jacket as he made his way through the rowdy crowd, towards the stage, Barak removed his hand from the ball it's bright glow dimming, he looked to his right and saw Aster making his way towards him, he took a step back a playfully bowed with the same grin on his face, he could see the roaring energy in aster's eyes, but he expected no less, Aster placed his hand on the surface of the sphere, it didn't feel as smooth as glass, and with his blessing he could tell, these were tiny interlocking crystals that made itself appear as glass, and as fast and bright as Barak's was so was Aster's, the loud roar of the crowd continued, glasses and jugs were pushed into the air in celebration, Aster and Barak walked off the stage, as they were headed through the crowd Polaris walked pass them his head down and his eyes low, he didn't even acknowledge them, as he headed for the stage,
Levant who was the only one left, stood at the back of the training area where the others had left him, holding his palm to his face,
" I swear, the he wants to fight just as much as he said Rak does", Levant commented out loud to himself, However when he brought his focus back onto the stage, he saw Polaris walking onto it,
Polaris had entered onto the stage, his mind on his thoughts, he was worried that he would have been the only out of the four of them that didn't fill the ball completely, and so he decided to rush up there before Levant, he reached the ball, and placed his hands on it, he could see the glow from the ball, but his head was still low and his eyes were pointed to the ground, as he couldn't look at the results of the reading,
Then he felt a hand on his shoulder,
"how long are you planning on standing there, it's already filled", Levant said, the roar of the crowd filling the silence of his mind as he held up his head, the sphere was full, a look of content filled his eyes, Levant was now the Last of the four on the stage, a fire had been lit inside of him seeing the others results, his excitement was at it's peak, he stood in front of the ball his hand firmly placed on it, as he watched it fill rapidly, his began to loosen the restraint he had normally shown, a sweltering heat began emitting from him and his excitement,