The journey was smoother than Paul expected.
The bald-haired Divine Emissary was clearly a professional. Alongside his assistants numbering 4, all awakened warriors, they were able to lead the awakened seeds to Tak Town safely intact.
Despite the dangers of the wild that Paul already learned about so much from his mom, following this group, Paul never met the horrors.
This was because of the Divine Emissary. Unlike the other members of his cohort, the bald-haired emissary belonged to the faction of the Divine, Heimdall.
And he was not any low-tier awakened either, he was an elite.
With his acute senses and his powers of extra-sensitivity, he was able to detect all the dangerous Demonic Beasts far before they could encounter the awakened seeds, avoiding them before any battle could break out.
This way, they arrived at Tak Town without fighting a single battle.
Tak Town…, it was different and at the same time just like Paul expected it to be. Compared to the local Turuk Village, Tak Town looked more modern.
There was a paved road leading into the town and its entrance was surrounded by tall Palm Trees on both sides, making Paul feel like he was stepping into a paradise.
Tak Town felt like a transition into the past before the emergence of the Demonic Beasts. The town itself was filled with life.
The population was the first distinct thing that caught Paul's attention. There were people everywhere. Even the buildings here were different.
Paul rarely saw a mud house, most houses being stone buildings.
'Wow…,' he thought, filled with awe.
His mom already told him long ago that Tak Town had a big market, a luxury that Turuk Village could never have and though he badly wanted to see the big market, unfortunately, their journey didn't lead through that route.
From the main road leading into the town, there was a junction leading into 3 different roads, and the middle straight road led to the temple.
The temple of the Gods was the most significant attraction in Tak Town.
Once they started walking through the straight road, Paul saw even more things that fascinated him. He saw different awakened, the most eye-catching ones being those that road on Demonic Beasts.
These were not wild Demonic Beasts though; they were tamed beasts and all the awakened who rode them were women.
Paul's eyes widened in wonder. 'The awakened of the Divine, Hera!'
The only other factioned awakened with powers similar to beast taming were those of the Divine, Dionysus but it was far more limited.
Paul knew this because his mom was a devoted Dionysus.
The main powers of the awakened of Dionysus were intoxication through wine, immunity to alcohol, and they were natural wine brewers, best of the best.
Through their intoxication, even a Demonic Beast could be intoxicated, tamed for use but unlike with the disciples of the Divine, Hera, the Dionysus beast taming was limited, lasting only until the intoxicating effects of the wine is depleted.
Paul saw a lot of things in Tak Town that he never saw before in his home village, but one of these encounters eclipsed all the others.
His horizons were truly broadened when he saw the metal monster that rode on 4 wheels. 'A motor...! A motor car!' He almost screamed out loud in excitement.
Having spent the past 18 years of his life stuck in Tak Town, his mom was his best teacher and she did her best in teaching him and his sister about a lot of things, including information about life before the Beast Emergence.
'Mom says cars were common before the Beast Emergence'.
'Today is definitely the best day of my life!' He thought.
'I just hope to cap it off by getting my dream awakening and faction'.
Even as he stayed in the company of his friends, he also paid attention to his twin sister, he always did.
This was how he noticed some of the townsmen throwing dubious looks his sister's way. Having lived his whole life alongside his twin sister, Paul knew exactly how attractive she was and he was used to this.
Just as he was used to it, he was also vigilant towards it.
Outwardly, he looked calm but inside, he was spiteful. 'Just wait, imma carve those eyes out for you lecherous bastards soon enough'.
'No one lay eyes on my sister!'
Since none of the men made any move, mostly due to the presence of the Divine Emissary, Paul was also calm.
15 minutes of walking later, they arrived.
The temple of the Gods was a 9-storied metal pagoda, each level of the pagoda belonging to one of the 9 Divine Gods of humanity.
Staring up at the temple, Paul's eyes were filled with longing. 'This is it'.
They were led into the temple where they met teenagers from multiple other villages. They numbered almost 200 in total.
And finally, the temple master came out.
The temple master was an old man with long white hair and long beard. He was infamously a eunuch.
At this moment, this old man had an expectant look on his face. "It's the 9th month of the year and like tradition, it's the time of the awakening".
"All of you here are 18 or above, you are all adults".
"I believe that your parents or guardians already told you about the procedure, all you have to do is enter the lowest floor of the pagoda and submerge in the pool".
"The Gods will do the rest".
"Since we have more than 100 applicants this year, 10 will go in at a time. Be orderly, the emissaries will now divide all of you into groups of 10".
Paul watched as the grouping was made and unfortunately, though he badly wanted it, he and his sister were placed in different groups.
Paul's group was group 6, his sister's was group 5.
And so, they waited…
1 hour passed, another hour passed and in no time, 4 hours already passed. It was now time for group 5.
Most of the students who entered already came out. Some of them had excited looks on their faces while more looked forlorn as the emissary assigned to their group led them to their various factions.
And then, there were the rare factionless, adults who refused to be acknowledged by any of the 9 Divine Gods.
Every single one of them broke down in tears after emerging from the pool.
Watching these unfortunate adults, Paul could understand their pain. This was because putting himself in their position, he felt like he would rather die than live life as a factionless.
What was life without the blessing of the Gods?
What was life without superpowers?
It was hell on earth; Paul would rather die than live such a life.
This was why once group 5 was called into the temple, his heart started beating faster. Just like he prayed for himself, he also prayed for his sister.
'Please Gods, let my sister get a good faction, preferably Dionysus'.
Even as he hated his mother's wishes, Paul also wanted a soft and peaceful life for his younger twin sister. This was why he wished this for her.
He was the older brother and the only son of his father; he was willing to take on the responsibility of protecting her and their mom.
35 minutes later, the 10 people in group 5 were led out by their emissary.
6 of them had forlorn looks on their faces, 2 of them broke down crying entirely. Group 5 produced 2 factionless, the most factionless in a group so far.
Paul felt for them but his heart beat even faster, where was she?
And finally, his twin sister, Sophia stepped out. She had a big smile on her face as she stepped out. "Brother, I did it!" She shouted in his direction.
Hearing that alone, Paul ignored all the annoying looks that the boys among the awakened seeds threw at his sister and smiled, and then she said it.
"I'm Dionysus!"
Paul heaved a sigh of relief.
"Group 6, enter the temple and submerge yourselves in the pool".
All 10 members of group 6 moved. Coincidentally, the emissary in charge of group 6 was the bald-haired emissary who led Paul and his friends from Turuk Village.
Badump! Badump!
Paul took a step and he could feel his heart beating faster than ever before as he walked.
Entering inside the temple, Paul paid attention to the interior. The room where they entered was a simple and empty square-shaped room. More than 2 quarters of it was covered by the strangely black pool.
There were candles lit up around the wall, illuminating the darkness with an eerie pale-yellow light even as incense was burnt.
The pool had a solemn atmosphere to it.
"Submerge". The bald-haired emissary ordered.
"Once you emerge, if you are acknowledged by the Gods, the color of the pool around you will change and begin to glow".
"Your color will determine which God and the faction that you belong to".
"Goodluck".
With different expressions on their faces, some tense, some confident, others hopeful while some were stoic, they entered the pool and submerged.
Holding his breath, Paul also submerged in the pool.
Immediately after he submerged, from his navel, Paul felt a tingling sensation that soon progressed to painful like a cord connected his body and soul to somewhere far away.
It was an ethereal feeling.
Through that connection, something was established in his mind and he felt like he could see something, an image.
But the baffling thing about it was that it was not just one image that he saw, he saw multiple images overlap in his head.
'W-what is this?' Paul thought in shock and slight horror. 'Mom never told me anything about this, am I hallucinating?'
'It's just supposed to be one image corresponding to one Divine, right?'
In his head, Paul saw the image of what seemed like a Jotunheim Giant bigger than the world walking. He had full plate armor clad with a helmet.
His steps tore the world asunder, creating earthquakes and tsunamis.
In another image in his head, he saw a blonde-haired God engulfed in lightning and storms as he fought against a mighty world-destroying Wolf with a hammer on his hand.
In another image, he saw an illuminating image as bright as the sun, almost blinding his eyes. And from within the light, he saw 2 glowing eyes.
And in another image, he saw a beautiful goddess beholding a vast field of crops filled with life and vitality. She wore a light white tunic that made her seem like an angel from ancient times.
In another image, he saw…, was it a god or a goddess with the tail of a fish playing a trumpet in an endless ocean?
Paul felt a splitting headache suddenly assault him, too much information was overloading in his head.
'W-what is this?!' He thought in horror, and then the pain came.
"Arghhh!"
Paul finally emerged out of the water!
He emerged to the stunned gazes of the emissary and the other adults staring at him. Group 6 was lucky, every one of them awakened.
Every single one of them at this moment had different colors glowing in the water below their waist, either orange, gold, red, indigo and every unique color identified them to the faction of a God.
That was the problem though, that was where Paul was different.
At first, he feared that he didn't awaken because of all the attention that was suddenly on him but it was not that.
Paul awakened but instead of just one distinct color shining from the pool of water below his waist, multiple colors were shining.
It was supposed to be beautiful, if it was not so unprecedented.
"…"
"…"
"…..!"
They stared with widened eyes.
The bald-haired emissary was stunned. "W-w-what are you?!"