The auditorium at Riverdale High School buzzed with the noise of students. In the center of the hall, a large hexagram-shaped formation had been set up on the podium. The principal and various faculty members stood off to the side, leaving the counselor Ren from the Void Hall in charge of activating the formation.
The graduating seniors were lined up by their class order, as today marked the day of their talent awakening - the first step towards becoming a beast master.
Aaron stood among his peers in the third row, despite having prepared for this moment for sixteen years. As he watched the counselor activate the formation, his palms grew sweaty and he found himself lost in memories.
In reality, Aaron was a reborn individual from Earth. In his previous life, he had died during an AI chip implantation surgery due to an accident. Somehow, his soul that merged together with the AI chip had traveled to this world that was eerily similar to his former one.
The countries, history, geography, culture, and even language of this world mirrored those of Earth until 300 years ago when a sudden change occurred. Rifts in space appeared all over the world, releasing a powerful energy that caused rapid mutations and evolution in most living beings.
Animals, plants, and even insects mutated at an alarming rate and began attacking humanity - who had previously dominated the world. The attack was unexpected and caught humans off guard, resulting in countless casualties across the globe. By the time they regained their senses and fought back, they had already suffered heavy losses.
But humans are not easily defeated. Throughout history, they have proven their ability to conquer nature through intellect alone. And so it was with this crisis; humans resorted to heavy firepower to resist the attacks of mutated beasts and protect major cities. This led to a stalemate between humans and creatures across the world.
The stalemate was finally broken by the continuous evolution of beasts. One year after the appearance of space cracks, mutated creatures that were resistant to thermal weapons began to appear all over the world. This was the second step in humanity's downfall. Countries around the globe fell and population decreased rapidly. It was a time of true nightmare.
In response, top researchers from different countries gathered together under the protection of certain nations to study the sudden changes in the world. Although they did not make significant progress in combating the fierce beasts, they did uncover some secrets behind the changes. They discovered that the space cracks were portals to another world and the energy leaking out from it caused the changes. This energy was named "void energy" and those beasts swho evolved from it were called "void beasts."
Humans, however, could not directly absorb void energy for evolution. it was as if there was some sort of shackle that prevented them from doing so.
The humanities inability to evolve didn't affect the beasts in the slightest .The rapid evolution of beasts continued, with many awakening mystical powers such as fire, water, wind,earth , light, and darkness. These evolved beasts claimed vast territories of land as their own.
As time passed, most human camps were destroyed and humanity reached the brink of extinction. It was then that a warrior arose,who later came to known as ADAM. He somehow managed to tame a fierce beast and used it to fight against other fierce beasts. Under his leadership, countless others joined together to resist these creatures. Adam generously shared his method of taming beasts with others, giving humanity that was at it's dusk a glimmer of hope.
With the rise of beast masters, humans finally had a chance to fight back. Under Adam's command, they regained ground against the fierce beasts . But by that time 4 out of 7 continents were already beyond saving: Antarctica, Africa, South America, and Australia became paradise for void beasts leaving the human civilization over there in ruins . Only America, Asia, and Europe remained inhabited by humans. In response to this crisis, beast masters came together to form a global federation for humans: The Federation of Guardians, also known as FOG.
It has been 250 years since the formation of FOG. Under the protection of beast masters, humans have built cities with protective walls reaching up to 100 meters in height across the three remaining continents. Becoming a beast master is now considered an honor in society and schools hold talent awakening ceremonies for students at the age of 16 before they graduate high school. This ceremony determines whether one can rise above the nine heavens like a phoenix or fall down into the mud.
'CLANG'!..
The sound of a formation being activated snaps Aaron out of his mental journey.
He watched in awe as the hexagram formation shimmered with a dazzling light, each point glowing brightly before slowly fading to a soft, steady glow. The councilor from the void hall raised his hands, channeling the energy into the formation as intricate symbols and runes appeared within its confines.
The air crackled with anticipation as the students held their breath, waiting for the moment when they would be tested. Aaron felt a surge of nervous energy coursing through him, his heart pounding in his chest as he focused on the task at hand.
The homeroom teacher of the 1st class, Leon, called out the name "Davis Mclagen."
The boy standing in front of the first row walked up to the podium, his posture straight and confident.
"Come over, stand at the middle of the formation," the counselor said as he infused energy into the intricate array on the floor.
As Davis stepped onto the center of the formation, dazzling yellow lights sprang forth from its lines and converged around him like a swarm of fireflies. At a certain point, they seemed to break free from their constraints and eagerly swarmed onto Davis' body.
The students, including a nervous Aaron, watched intently as the lights merged with Davis. Even the teachers and faculty couldn't help but be drawn to this rare sight.
As more and more light dots entered Davis' body, all eyes turned to the orb placed beside the counselor. Slowly but surely, it started to glow brighter and brighter until it surpassed even the radiance of the formation.
"Yes, the first one has succeeded. This is a good start," remarked Principal who was standing next to Vice Dean Zhao.
"Excellent! You have the talent to be a beast master. Let's test your attribute affinity next," proclaimed Counselor Ren with a smile as he led Davis over to a half meter tall cylindrical pillar made of transparent crystal on the left side of the formation.
"Put your hand on it," instructed Counselor Ren as Davis gazed at the pillar in amazement.
As soon as Davis' hands touched the surface of the cylinder, its transparent body began to project an array of vivid colors. Red, blue, orange, gold, indigo, green - too many colors to count flashed by at lightning speed. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the light show ended with a dominant sky blue color encompassing nearly 70 percent of the cylinder and a faint icy blue occupying the remaining space.
"You possess a dominant water attribute and a weaker ice attribute. This is quite talented, as it provides you with more options when choosing a void beast to contract," explained Counselor Ren, pleased with the results. It was rare to find a student with dual attributes, making Davis a lucky find indeed.
"Now, onto the next one - Ashley Bradford," announced Teacher Leon as he gestured for Davis to leave the stage.
Aaron was taking in the whole process of awakening . the first test should be the talent test to determine whether you have the talent to be a beast master . the second one must be the attribute determining test to figure out your elemental affinity .
Countless elemental and non elemental affinities are symbolized by respective colours . just as sky blue represents water , crimson red represents flame , vibrant green representing wood , space blue with stars dotted in it represents space , molten silver representing spiritual , dark brownish red representing destruction attribute and so on .
The colours and the attributes that they represents are classified in the void hall's archive which amounts to a few hundred colours and attributes respectively .
'CLANG!…'
The sound of formation once again snapped his mind back to reality.
"It's a failure .you can go down". councilor ren said to the girl who haven't managed to light up the orb .
Aaron sighed as he saw the look of despair in the girl's face as she walked down the aisle . only less than 20 percent of the total population can awake the talent to be a beast master.having no talent means saying goodbye to the hope of reaching the upper class of the society . he can understand her despair ,but now he is more focused on his own future .
As time passed by more and more students are being valuated . now more than 150 students were tested of which only 22 passed the test . as his turn approached aaron was getting more and more nervous .
Although he lived two lives but when faced with an opportunity to achieve superpowers than can help him to transcend from mundane , it's pretty normal to be nervous .
As he was nervously fumbling his fingers around he heard his name being called out .
"Aaron Vesper "...