Eleanor's POV
When we stepped outside, the streets were teeming with people, all frozen in place, their faces painted with expressions of sheer terror and disbelief. Their collective gaze was fixed skyward, and as I followed their line of sight, an icy chill gripped my heart. A massive shadow lood over the entire city, blanketing it in an oppressive darkness.
I craned my neck to see its source, and my breath caught in my throat. Hanging in the sky, grinning maliciously, was the very sa demon face etched onto Ethan's back. It was gargantuan, easily spanning a hundred ters in width, its malevolent features seemingly alive with dark energy. The pressure it exerted was suffocating, an overwhelming force that felt as though a supre devil had cast its gaze upon the city, ready to obliterate it in an instant.
The face cackled, its laughter reverberating like thunder, sending waves of terror rippling through the crowd. It radiated an aura of pure evil, celebrating sothing unfathomable while inducing panic and despair in every soul who beheld it. My heart sank as I realized the implications that any hope of concealing Ethan's awakening ceremony had now been utterly dashed.
Still, a small flicker of optimism surfaced in my mind. The authorities in Dark North City and Ice Emperor City might struggle to link this epic phenonon to the awakening of a re human boy. It was far more plausible that they would attribute it to sothing else surely a resurgence of the demon clans, the birth of a sinister artifact, or the unsealing of an ancient, otherworldly horror. These possibilities, though grim, were less likely to lead them to Ethan.
I drew a steadying breath, trying to calm my nerves, but the demon face shifted. Its gaze seed to lock onto us directly, a wicked glint in its glowing eyes. It let out one final, bone-chilling laugh before dissolving into tendrils of smoke and dissipating into the air, leaving behind an oppressive silence.
The weight in my chest refused to lift. Though the apparition had vanished, the sense of foreboding remained, a grim reminder that our lives had been irrevocably altered. I, father, Duke Aelric and Aurelia moved to our castle to suppress the news of Ethan's disappearance as everyone in the castle knew about Ethan's awakening ceremony and the magic association could relate the two incidents even if the possibilities were low.
Ethan's POV
Am I dead? Have I been reincarnated again? What will happen to Mama and Aurelia now that I'm gone? These fragnted thoughts flitted through my mind as I drifted between semiconsciousness and the engulfing void of darkness. My mories were hazy, my awareness slipping in and out like waves against a battered shoreline.
When I finally regained consciousness, an unbearable pain racked through my body, so intense it felt as if every bone had been shattered into pieces. Yet, amidst the agony, one thing beca clear that I wasn't dead. But I was no longer with my family. The realization made a little sad but I recovered quickly as I was not a small boy with little emotional maturity.
I struggled to open my eyes, forcing my lids apart, but all I was greeted with was an oppressive darkness. My body refused to obey ; every attempt to move was t with searing pain. It was then I beca aware of the injuries that riddled . Nurous gashes and tears marred my skin, the dried remnants of blood forming a crusty barrier over my wounds. I noticed the heavy, tallic scent of blood lingering in the air and realized with a start that I was lying in a pool of my own blood. It was a miracle that I was still alive.
The environnt around was suffocating and eerie. The faint, damp echoes hinted that I was in a dark, desolate cave. The still air carried a faint tallic tang, mingling with the heavy silence that pressed down on . My body refused to move, the pain anchoring to the cold, hard ground. Left with no other choice, I resolved to remain where I was until my body healed enough to allow to stand and walk.
As I lay there, enveloped in darkness, my thoughts turned to the events surrounding my awakening. The mory was fragnted, but I carefully sifted through the pieces, trying to make sense of what had happened. My awakening had been extraordinary and it was sothing that seed to defy the norm. I had not only awakened the ice elent with an affinity of the legendary grade, but also, to my shock, the dark elent.
The dark elent was infamous and feared in the four regions beyond the Southern Shadowlands. Those who awakened it outside the Shadowlands were seen as aberrations and cursed beings who brought calamity wherever they went. Exile to the Shadowlands was often their only fate. But the grade of my dark elent affinity wasn't ordinary, it too seed to be legendary, perhaps even higher.
My brows furrowed as I dug deeper into the last monts before my consciousness gave way. I recalled a surreal and uncontrollable transformation. My body had begun to grow, expanding unnaturally, and an overwhelming surge of power had coursed through , nearly tearing apart. My mind raced as I pieced together the clues, and a conclusion ford in my head.
My affinity with the dark elent didn't seem to be random but it could be attributed to my lineage, to my demon father and the bloodline of the noble demon clan I carried. It explained the unnatural growth I experienced as the dormant demon half of had awakened, marking as more than human. This revelation should have filled with clarity, but instead, it left grappling with the enormity of what I had beco.
As I wrestled with my thoughts, a sudden shrill ghost like voice shattered the silence, reverberating through the cavern,
"Have you thought enough, boy?"
The evil contained behind the tone sent shivers down my spine.
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