Aeric stumbled forward as Head Mistress Lysandra gave him a slight shove. When he turned around, her sharp eyes dared him to argue. "What are you waiting for?" she snapped. "Move!"
Aeric looked away from her and straightened his posture, then he inhaled sharply before walking to the round door and stepping through the threshold of the sanctum. Once he entered the dark place, the door creaked shut behind him with a dum! that made his skin prickle.
There was very little that he could see there. The stone walls were dark and they pressed in around him, making him feel like there were people standing beside him at all corners, watching him. It was also strangely colder here, and an energy thickened the air, buzzing on his skin like static.
Shadows curled in every corner, refusing to be dispelled by the poor light provided by the floating crystal orbs overhead. They glowed softly, giving just enough bluish light for him to see a staircase below although it had made everything seem slightly distorted.
"Watch your step," he heard the Divine Priest say.
'Yeah, now you say it. I could have fallen and shattered my skull if I wasn't more careful,' Aeric thought with slight annoyance. He didn't like at all to be told to do something when he had already done or was about to do it, now it felt like he was doing it only because he was told to.
The staircase was winding and it led him deeper into the chamber, with each step he took, it creaked slightly beneath his weight, causing him to worry that the whole thing might break anyway. Didn't matter how careful he was.
As he descended, he felt the air grow denser, carrying with it the undeniable scent of old magic and earth. The floor opened into a wide circular chamber where the walls seemed to sing with power, lined with special drawings of celestial bodies and ancient symbols.
The center of the chamber was bare except for a large, cracked sigil inscribed into the stone floor as it shimmered faintly with a dull light. Overhead, the ceiling was arched, disappearing into the shadows above, leaving him to feel as though he was standing beneath an endless void.
'This looks like an inner sanctum alright,' Aeric thought. 'What an ominous place.' His eyes danced around the room cautiously. He couldn't quite pinpoint what made the place so unsettling, maybe it was the disconcerting stillness, or the feeling that something was watching him from within the stone itself.
"Prepare yourself for the tests," the Divine Priest's voice echoed through the chamber, breaking the silence as he began to arrange the needed supplements. As usual, his tone was flat and emotionless.
Aeric blinked, confused at what the Priest meant. So he asked. "What do you mean, prepare? What am I supposed to do?"
The Divine Priest looked at him with a gaze that could freeze a sea of magma, and in his cold, unfeeling tone, he said, "Remove your clothes."
Aeric's heart skipped a beat, and his eyes widened as a wave of disbelief crashed over him. "You said what now?"
"Remove them," the Priest repeated, his eyes never leaving Aeric's.
"Look... " Aeric said, clearing his throat and looking around. "I don't know what kind of freaky stuff you're into, or if this is some kind of bribe... I just, I don't move... that way."
The Priest looked at him with no change in his emotion. "Take off your clothes, boy."
Aeric looked into his eyes and saw that he was not messing about. 'Wait, he's actually being serious? Why would he want me to... Ugh, whatever."
He obeyed and began to take off his expensive royal clothing.
As he did this, the Divine Priest began to place some golden magical objects on the ground, making a circle with them, while explaining the need of him removing his clothes.
"It is necessary for the test to be pure, unobstructed. Clothes, especially those woven with magical fibers, can interfere with the revelation of your Divine Body. We need to see the truth."
'The truth,' Aeric pondered, half naked. He should have felt a sting of humiliation rise in his chest, but not when he possessed the kind of body he had now. Remembering his life back in the real world, all those shredded guys who were always waiting for an opportunity to show their sick abs. He was those guys now.
After a short while, Aeric had completely peeled off his garments, and he felt the cool air bite at his skin once he was fully disrobed. Soon, he stood there, stripped bare, his chiseled body catching the faint glow of the room. His muscles were tense, his frame tall and sturdy, showing the blessing of peak physical beauty and fitness that came with being a child of Eros.
A brief flicker of pride tried to sneak into his mind — after all, he knew he looked good. But it was quickly buried under the weight of his growing dread. His thoughts raced as he tried to keep his mind still.
The Divine Priest lifted his head and his eyes stopped at Aeric's manhood. He seemed shocked, though his emotionless face barely showed any surprise, the way he stared at it was telling, and Aeric was quickly becoming uncomfortable.
The Priest's gaze finally left Aeric's crotch and found his face. "I see you have abundance," he commented.
Aeric frowned. 'Abundance? Is that his way of saying I have a large cock?'
Feeling uneasy, he watched as the Divine Priest moved to the edge of the sigil, then placed the remaining of the various magical objects on the ground. They were runes, small crystal tokens, and what looked like a bowl of some strange shimmering liquid.
He worked with silent precision, his robes gliding as he moved.
'I don't know why this feels so wrong... but something about this is off. What the hell kind of test requires this?'
In order to understand what was happening, Aeric decided his best bet was to ask questions. Although he had to be careful of how he structured them, in order not to draw suspicion from the wise Priest.
"So... uhm." He cleared his throat again. "This test is gonna like... tell you what my Class and Main Skill are?"
"No. Not that. This will reveal the truth of your Divinity," the Priest explained absently, still focusing on the ground. "The aim of the test is to find out if you have any amount of Divinity inside of you. If you have a Divine Body and if there's Divinity present. That way we can be sure that you truly performed the Coming of Age and you are actually Awakened."
"Oh. That's interesting."
A stream of relief rushed through Aeric. His Personalized Class was still safe! No one knew about the God Tyrant, and even after this, no one would have to know! This was awesome. Why has eve even been so worried in the first place?
"I am bound to my Beast Companion," he pointed out to the Priest. "Doesn't that show that I'm already Awakened?"
"It is much more nuanced than that, Son Aeric."
The Prince stayed silent after that. 'Well this gets more ominous every second.'
"Are the tests difficult?" he asked.
The Priest rose to his full height and looked at him. "No."
Everything was arranged now and the magical objects already seemed to reverberate through the stone floor. As the Divine Priest spoke, the air around them thickened, vibrating with energy. He thrust his hand into the air and shouted a strong sentence of power. "Reveal the Awakened Bridge!"
Suddenly, the room darkened, transforming into a realm of pure darkness. In the very center of this realm, a bridge appeared — dark and ethereal. It extended out into a void that hadn't been there moments before. It hovered over nothingness, a thin path of bright light and shadow suspended in midair.
'What the hell is this?' Aeric's mind raced.
"You stand before the Awakened Bridge," the Divine Priest's voice echoed from afar, some distance behind him. "Walk it, Son of Starlight. Let us see your Divinity revealed."