(Cyrus Pov)
As I sit on the edge of this cliff staring down at the people walking around in the city center. I am reminded that I never liked people growing up. I especially don't like the ones that walk around this continent like everything is fine. I don't like the ones that act like they didn't play a role in the demise of my clan. I hate having to look down from the mountains in the outskirts and watch these people live the life I want. I don't trust them, and I despise them. I don't understand why my father still insists to have faith in these people. He says in time the wrongs will be righted, and they will see the error of their ways. How can he be so koi about it all, we have been living the past couple of years in hiding. We are being hunted by the very people who destroyed our clan. The very people who killed my mother. My father doesn't want revenge, but I do. Today is the day where that all starts to change. Today is the day I awaken my power. Today is the day I begin to write those wrongs.
"Cyrus it's time," my father's call snaps me out of my daze, and I get up from the edge of the cliff and turn my back to the city and begin to ready myself for what is to come.
"Is the perimeter secure." my father said as he took off his coat revealing his brown skin underneath his tank top.
"Yes, just like it always is," I responded.
"Good, it's time we start the process. We only have a finite amount of time, otherwise we will have to wait several years to try again. I need you to steel your mind and focus Cyrus." I nodded and took my seat inside our camp. Today was the solar eclipse. For others it was just a run of the mill celestial phenomenon, but for my clan and I it is something much more. This is the only time my clan can take the star birth trial. The trial that allows us to enter the astral realm to connect with our destined fate constellation.
"I am proud of you son, you have developed your celestial core faster than most, honestly you developed it several years before I did," he said to me as he gently placed one of his large hands on my shoulder. "But this next part of your journey I can't help you, this is something you must do on your own. Are you ready to awaken your birth rite of the Solaris fate constellation."
"I am ready,"
"You may begin," as my father was finishing his words. I saw his dark brown eyes change their color to a yellowish orange, while his left hand started to glow with radiance from his celestial tattoo given to him from the Solaris fate constellation. He was casting a barrier around me so that I wouldn't be bothered while I started my trial.
As the barrier was finishing the last parts of solidifying its structure, I couldn't help but feel pressure. The pressure was not from my father expelling cosmic energy. It was the pressure of his expectations. I was the last remaining heir to the Solaris clan. I was the last to inherit the great power of the strongest fate constellation. I was the last to uphold the duty of the clan to maintain the peace, order, and balance of the world. A duty given to us from the ancient Celestial Pantheon.
But I pushed that aside and I began to start my breathing practices. I closed my eyes, and I slowed my breath. I began to fall into the rhythmic pattern of an ebb and flow like the ocean outside the eastern continent. The deeper and slower my breath got the more I felt the cosmic energy inside the core start to brim with life. The feeling of absorbing cosmic energy is a euphoric feeling I don't think I will ever get used to. Feeling this sensation is one of the few things I looked forward to while being in hiding the past few years. It is part of the reason why I developed my core faster than normal.
Now that my core is filled, I begin to expand my conscience and search for the astral rift where the barrier of the physical and astral realm is thin. Now I understand why my father prefers to make camp in the mountains compared to other areas. It's much easier to feel and find the rift. The rift was ominous and yet welcoming. I could feel the call of the astral realm. I could feel myself gravitating to it. I remembered my father's teachings; I didn't fight the pull. I allowed myself to be absorbed into the rift. I felt accepted.
The pull felt gentle at first. Next there was a jolt as if there was a fishing line attached to my celestial core sling shotting me forward. I saw nothing but dark space and faint streams of light all around me. It reminded me of something from a sci-fi movie I watched as a kid when spaceships would enter hyper drive. Before i knew it, i was spit out of something akin to a wormhole and was sent tumbling. It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the new setting. When they finally did, I was in utter shock. I was told stories of what this place would look like. All of those stories that I was told did not do it justice. I was staring at an endless field… no ocean of stars and other cosmic bodies. There were stars of every color, shape and size filling up the empty black space that was trying to show face. "I made it… I finally made it," I muttered to myself.
The astral realm was beautiful, I could have spent an eternity here but sadly I didn't have enough time to do that now. My father's teachings were replaying in my head now as I recentered my mind and my astral body. "This trial is all about resonance," I said to myself as I took gentle steps across the cosmic floor. "I need to find the cluster of stars that is emitting the same frequency as my core," I said thinking out loud once again. This was easier said than done. I was in a space where there were millions if not billions of stars around me. After some thinking I decided to try the same technique I used to find the astral rift in the physical realm. When I tried the same concept in the astral realm my body released an impulse of energy into the sea of stars. I watched as the energy collided and bounced off the masses of celestial bodies until I noticed something. Some of the energy impulses died out and the others were starting to bounce back to me almost like echolocation.
I repeated this process several times trying to navigate through the astral realm. After what felt like hours, I finally found some breadcrumbs. The energy impulse that came back to me no longer came from all angles. They started to feel as if they were only coming from one linear source from straight ahead. I am honestly glad no one was here because I had a sinister look on my face with my grin spreading from cheek to cheek. I knew I was closer to my fate; I was closer to my power and my eagerness started to take over. Overjoyed I sprinted to the source of resonance forgetting about everything else. The more I sprinted the more a fog or some sort of astral mist started to become thicker and more present in the area. I realized after running for what felt like a couple 100 meters that I was no longer able to see the energy bounce back to me. Soon after that I could barely see the stars and celestial bodies anymore. They were hidden from me by the astral mist. No longer having any sense of direction I realized something. I was lost in the astral realm.
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(Ezra's POV)
Watching my son steel himself in the barrier brought out emotions I haven't experienced in a long time. During these years spent in hidding all I have been focusing on is keeping him safe and preparing him for this moment. I may have failed at times to realize that he is more than just a pupil of mine. But until we are able to escape this continent, that is how it is going to be. It needs to be that way for him to survive.
Now that he is situated in the barrier I can focus on the real task at hand. The astral behemoths that are approaching. Setting up camp in the mountains is a double edge sword. It is easier to get into the astral realm up here, but it is also lurking with astral behemoths as well. Since the barrier to the realm gets weaker the higher you go up in altitude. I only sensed a few earlier before I casted my barrier but now I sense a full-on hoard.
I heard rustling in the bushes that were near our camp. So I tied my braids behind my head, and I immediately activated my fate constellation and formed a sword made out of solar energy and prepared for the worst. Five void serpents measuring about two meters long launched themselves at me from the bushes. I side stepped one of the serpents and threw a downward slash of my sword severing the serpent's head. Even though these serpents are not the strongest behemoths I have faced being of the Void born rank, they do have special venom that can decay one's celestial core. After dealing with the first serpent, I channeled my cosmic energy into my legs and dashed towards the second and third behemoths. One of the serpents spat at me with its venom. I manifested a solar shield into my free hand and blocked the decaying venom while dodging the other serpent trying to take a bite at my ankles.
Normally a situation like this I would just use a solar wave attack to get rid of these pesky lizards. That would sadly bring more attention to the area which isn't the best idea while being on the run. I also don't want it affecting Cyrus's trial. After landing from evading another attack from the remaining serpents, I let my shield fade away. I manifested a second sword instead and went on the offensive. I exploded towards the serpents and sliced both of their heads forming solar crescents in the air. I sensed one of the two remaining monsters lunge at me from behind. I focused my cosmic energy into my legs once again and exploded vertically in the air. While in the air I changed the form of the sword in my right hand into a dagger and I launched the weapon right at the serpent's head. The dagger pierced it clean through, and the solar energy burned the serpent to a crisp. When I landed on the ground there was only one lowly void serpent left. I changed the form of my remaining solar weapon into a war hammer, and I took one step launching me forward towards the last serpent. I appeared in front of the behemoth in an instant catching it off guard. I dug my rear foot into the ground and rotated my hips with enough force to stop a semi-truck in its tracks and slammed my hammer into the side of the snake. The next thing I saw was blood splattering everywhere as the last astral behemoth ceased to exist.
I shook the remnants of the blood off my hammer and let my weapon fade away. I took a glance at Cyrus to make sure that he was unharmed. He was still deep in his trance seeming unfazed by the current actions that just happened in the outside world around him. After checking on the status of the barrier, I began to feel a stronger cosmic energy presence compared to that of the void serpents. As I felt the presence get closer, I felt a dull thud as well. Then the thud became thuds, and presence became stronger, and the cosmic energy felt denser. "Can the universe just give me one break," I said to myself as I prepared for another encounter. When I saw what came out of the woods, I knew I had my work cut out for me. Especially if I was going to do this discreetly. A Stellar Fiend Chimera standing six meters tall stepped out of the woods baring its fangs at me. Its serpent tail swayed behind it and a large set of wings flowed as if preparing to fly towards me. All I could do was shake my head and materialize another sword in my hand waiting for the astral behemoth to make its move.