Into The Illius Hiatus - Chapter 2 A Black Sheep

William turned his head from his book towards the door as he heard a light knocking behind him.

“Young Master, there isn’t much time until the Awakening Ceremony. You should make your way to the Grand hall soon if you don’t want to be late.” Mateo, the servant with the goatee who had been with him when William woke up a couple days ago, was now standing in the doorway.

“Sounds good Mateo, thanks for letting me know” William turned his head back to the book, clearly interested in it’s content. “I’ll make my way over after finishing this book”

Mateo nodded and silently left the room, unbothered by the lack of urgency William was displaying. In fact, when William woke up the first thing that he did was ask for the library and while he was engrossed in the books he had never missed anything important so there wasn’t anything to worry about.

‘There just really isn’t enough time’ William thought to himself as he began to close the book. ‘While I’ve been reading and learning as much as I can over the past couple days, luckily I’ve gotten most of the basic knowledge of this world down”

William then got up and made his way to the door, it was finally time to go through his Awakening Ceremony. Walking through the corridors of the Manor William thought back to the conversation that he had with Master Provus and Elder Nero.

Provus and Nero had entered the room while William was still eating, and William could still vividly remember the face that Nero showed when they locked eyes. Distaste and disgust.

“He looked at me like I was just some bug not worth his time” William muttered unconsciously thinking back to their talk. “But at least they did explain exactly what to expect during the Ceremony and the fact that after the ceremony there’ll be an in clan tournament to decide resource distribution.”

William began to go over the steps of the ceremony in his head he suddenly felt a force push him from the back causing him to fall onto his face.

“Look at what we have here” James’ voice could be heard followed by a light chuckle from some of his friends before continuing. “Spending more time in that library huh? Must be tough being weak and dumb, your parents would be embarrassed if they saw you now!”

William clenched his fist by his sides as he got up from the ground to look up to James. Having above average height and a freckled face, James had been known to be strong for his age and constantly tormenting other people his age, and seemed to have a strange vendetta against William.

“What? Oh wait, I forgot! You don’t remember anything about those parents of yours” James sneered as he looked down at William. Noticing the fists at Williams side James continued “What are you gonna do, fight me? I’d end you just as fast as I beat you up when you lost your memories”.

William could feel the anger boiling inside him, but what could he do? James was right: he was weak and knew nothing about fighting since he lost his memories. William took a deep breath trying to calm himself down as he began to turn and walk away. ‘There is no benefit fighting him here. Better to fight him during the tournament after the Ceremony, at least I’ll have a chance with an umbra.’

But before William could get to far James’ voice could be heard once again, “Did anyone ever tell you the stories of your whore mother and disgrace of a father?”

While William didn’t remember any of his old memories, something seemed to snap inside of his mind. Without thinking he followed his intuition and rushed towards James before throwing a punch which connected with his face, causing James’ nose to bleed.

“Oh you’ve done it now you little sh-” but before James could finish his sentence William sent a kick to his stomach, causing the freckled boy to stumble back a couple of feet while holding his stomach.

William gave a quick smile looking at James’ face twisted with pain, but before he could enjoy this sense of accomplishment a bit more one of James’ lackies sped towards him.

‘He’s fast!’ William thought as he covered his face with his hands, barely blocking the punch and stunning him. William stumbled back a bit and before he could regain his bearings James sparta kicked him in the chest sending him flying back close to a meter.

Coughing while holding his chest, William could see stars floating around him as he laid on the floor.

“Have to admit, you seem to have gotten better since you lost your memories. That kick of yours kind of tickled.” James spoke as he made his way towards the coughing William. “But no matter what happens, you’ll still be a little piece of garbage”

James and his lackeys began laughing as they sent a series of kicks towards William as hey lay on the ground.

They continued for around a minute before a dangerous aura engulfed the hallway. As some of James’ lackeys began to back off the temperature around them began to rise. Looking up, William was able to see Master Provus followed by a monster.

The monster that followed Provus was a two meter tall, burning red skeleton donned in black armor. The armor, which covered it’s entire body except for the head, had small, spider web like cracks which released a red glow. The weapon it carried was a one handed sword accompanied by a simple shield.

William was able to recognize the monster: It was an Undead Ash Knight, a somewhat rare and strong fire type beast found in some of the hottest places in Illia. While it didn’t provide the user with fire magic it does provide fire resistance and increased physical ability along with some other abilities.

“Let’s get out of here before we get into more trouble” James whispered as turned and ran down the hallway followed by his friends.

As the boys ran around the corner towards the Grand Hall, Provus made his way towards the young boy lying on the ground. As he got closer he waved one of his arms and the Undead Ash Knight gave an eerie screech before being engulfed in flame and disappearing, causing the temperature in the room to return to normal.

Looking down Master Provus frowned as he finally noticed the state that William. Shaking his head he kneeled down and fished out a bottle handing it to William.

William grabbed the bottle and examined it a bit closer. The bottle was a transparent glass which contained a light blue solution that seemed to glow. Looking back up hesitantly he locked eyes with Provus, unsure of what to do.

Provus sighed, “Sorry I forgot you don’t remember what this is. It’s a potion, drink it or apply it to your external wounds it’ll do the same thing. Regardless, if you want to be in good form for the Ceremony you better drink it”.

William nodded and quickly unscrewed the potion and began to drink it without a hint of hesitation.

Standing back up straight, Provus began to fix his robes. “When you’re done recovering I’m sure you can find your own way to the grand hall?”

Already feeling the effects of the potion cooling his innards and numbing his pain, William back on the ground facing the ceiling before responding “Of course, and thank you for your help Master Provus”

“Of course, of course. Now make sure you recover quickly, there isn’t much time until we begin” Provus spoke warmly before smiling and going in the same direction the boys had gone in before.

“Of course he doesn’t care to penalize those boys, he probably even gave me the lowest grade of potion as well” William muttered once Provus could no longer be seen. “I might be the black sheep in this family, but some of the white sheep are not as white as they look.”

——

After around 15 minutes of recovery he had made his way to the entrance of the Grand Hall. What stood before him was a huge wooden door with intricate carvings made up of different beast covering it. Above the door was the family mantra ‘Flammis Vincimus’

“In fire we conquer” William muttered as he read the words written above the door.

To its sides where two large banners, one of them being the Fireheart family crest, a Red Dragon coiled around a sword. The other was the banner of the Royal Family, the head of a Stag with moss covered antlers.

Opening to the doors to the grand hall William made his way to a bench in the corner as he ignored the stairs he got from the other children. Looking around he took a closer look at the other children in the Hall.

‘Other than James, who was looking quite happy with himself, and a couple of the Children from other Elders around 16 of the others here seem to be from branch families.’

Suddenly the doors to the Grand Hall burst open and Master Provus entered followed by a couple of the Elders, Nero included. The entire room quieted down as the Master Provus and the elders made their way to the front of the room before Master Provus stepped forward and began to explain:

“I’m sure most of you are aware of how important this day is. Today will decide your future. Your beast soul will determine your worth not only to the clan, but also to the kingdom we live in. Your Beast Soul, more commonly known as your First Umbra, is able to enhance your physical and magical abilities. Of course this is dependent on your Beast Soul.”

He stayed silent, observing the reactions of the crowd before continuing:

“Furthermore your First Umbra is the only Beast, until you become a Beast master, that you can fully transform into. Your other Umbras can only grant partial transformation, and of course you can still summon all of your Umbras”

As Provus continued to explain William began to blank. Over the past couple days since he had woken up all he had done was collect knowledge, and none of this was news to him.

The first levels of cultivation in this world are separated as follows:

When an individual is born, they are considered mortal and can’t really do anything special. After the Awakening Ceremony an individual enters the Greater Mortal stage, where, aside from what Master Provus had already said, an individual can also cultivate their soul weapon.

‘Of course, I haven’t studied much of what happens beyond Greater Mortal, but someone with a higher cultivation level is able to obtain more Umbras and also summon more of their monsters at once.’ William continued to think of the different cultivation levels and styles as the speech continued.

After what seemed like an hour the Elders escorted each child to individually to their own separate meditation chambers where they can partake in the awakening ceremony.

William was of course the last to be escorted to a room. As he entered he saw a simple, dimly lit stone room which held a table. On the table to was a cup filled with an awful smelling solution.

The door to the chamber closed with a slam and William made his way to the table and sat in front of it. Looking at the cup once more he picked it up and looked at it deeply.

‘Naturestia, essence of the void. As much as it smells awful it is an extremely powerful drink that lets one attempt at absorbing their first Beast Soul’

Swallowing his saliva he closed his eyes and down the drink. William shuddered as he felt the thick solution travel down his throat and into his stomach. He quickly entered a meditative pose and focused on entering the void.

After about five minutes of silence he suddenly felt a cold feeling washed over him, causing him to feel numb all over. William clenched his teeth as he tried to endure, but the more he resisted the nauseous feeling that was overtaking him the worse it got.

Eventually william just let the cold overtake him as he fell into a deep darkness. It felt as though his body was floating in water. Suddenly, his surroundings began to get warmer as he felt like he was free falling.

After around a minute of falling it felt as if he had finally stopped. Sitting for a while the warmth began to return to his body

“Is this grass?” he muttered to himself. Eventually, his eyes got used to the light and he began to look around. He had woken up in a large forest. The trees grew to heights of nearly a hundred meters and grew so close together that barely any light entered and reached the forest floor. Weirdly though, the sky wasn’t blue like it was on the outside, it was a strange purple.

He quickly climbed a tree next to him in order to get a better view of his surroundings, as well as to begin looking for his Soul Beast. Upon reaching the top of the tree William was greeted with a sea of trees that seemed to expand towards the horizon. Mountains seems to surround him as if they were waves of trees going to consume him.

While amazed with the scenery of the Void, he gave his cheeks a quick slap before focusing once more on the task at hand: finding his Soul Beast. However, as he began to expand his senses and try to sense where his first Umbra may be located, something weird happened.