Vishirk was strolling leisurely around the village as usual in the morning, looking for idle young ladies to impress with his magic power, when he unexpectedly ca across the village square, where a large crowd had gathered. The confused murmur of the villagers made him curious, so he decided to approach and went to observe.
When he got there, he saw Riela and Dragun standing together.
He imdiately recognized both of them, but he was confused when he saw Riela sitting in a ditative position in the middle of a complex pentagonal magic formation etched into the ground.
"The Evil Repelling Formation! Senior knows the Evil Repelling Formation!" Vishirk thought to himself, quite surprised.
The Evil Repelling Formation is one of the hardest and most intricate formations in the magic world. Its primary purpose is to repel evil during awakening and ascension in magic cultivation and so other supernatural activities; nevertheless, a simple mistake in this formation could bring about the opposite effect.
There was even a catastrophic accident in the past involving the formation, which led to the destruction of several kingdoms and the deaths of millions in just one hour! It took the sudden appearance of an archmage to finally stop the disaster.
Because of that disaster, the usage of the Evil Repelling Formation reduced drastically in the magic world, as people feared its potential dangers.
"This is bad; what if Senior made a mistake in the formation!" Vishirk thought anxiously, quite worried.
Just then, Dragun started chanting the activation spell, and the circles inscribed on the ground began to light up gradually.
Vishirk was on edge as this took place, clenching his fist tightly and silently praying against any sort of mishap.
The crowd around Vishirk gasped in surprise as the glow intensified, forming several brilliant light pillars which imdiately took the form of a cage around Riela.
A white, glowing mist also began to spew out from the formation.
Sitting in the middle, Riela followed the technique she had learned from Dragun in the past few days—eyes shut and body stable, her breathing and heartbeat also followed a slow, steady rhythm, synchronizing with the magic.
Her lips were moving slowly as she quietly repeated the magic phrase Dragun had taught her.
Suddenly, a weird and heavy sensation shot through her body, causing her to twitch slightly. The sensation surged rapidly towards her brain.
Riela felt like her consciousness was being forcibly dragged away.
Her calm ditative position suddenly turned chaotic as she began to shiver uncontrollably, her body trembling while still maintaining the sitting position.
"It has started," Dragun muttered quietly to himself.
However, his reaction was the utter opposite of the crowd's growing panic.
"What is he doing to Lady Riela?" soone in the crowd exclaid.
"Look, Lady Riela is shivering; she is writhing in pain!" another villager shouted.
"Dragun is hurting Lady Riela!" a third voice cried out.
The crowd began to voice their concerns loudly.
So of them even began to move towards the light cage to try to save Riela.
Vishirk saw this and imdiately rushed to stop them.
"All of you, keep calm!" Vishirk barked urgently at them.
He knew the danger of stopping the awakening ritual; it not only affects the person awakening but also those near them, potentially causing catastrophic results.
"Why are you stopping us, foreigner? Can't you see she is going to die? We need to save her," one young man barked angrily at Vishirk.
"Yes!" the others shouted, backing him up.
Vishirk sighed deeply. If only these people knew what was happening, he thought.
He proceeded to explain the process and the grave danger of stopping it.
It made the villagers realize their mistake but also instilled a sense of fear, as well as a flicker of hope in their minds.
They began to pray fervently that Riela would survive the ordeal.
While they were praying for her safety, Riela's consciousness ceased in the real world and appeared in a strange, unfamiliar place.
It was the void—endless darkness stretching far beyond the eye's reach, seeming to have no end.
Riela panicked at the dense darkness, but suddenly the place transford into a beautiful land; it was akin to a forest but possessed an extraordinary beauty that cald the heart and soothed the soul.
"Where am I?" Riela whispered, utterly confused.
She was with Dragun just a few seconds ago, and now she was in a strange place that seed out of this world, beyond imagination?
"Am I dead? Is this paradise?" she couldn't help but ask herself.
"Why does every single human share the sa lines of thoughts? Am I dead? Is this heaven? Is this the end? Is this paradise? Can't y'all ask new and refreshing questions?" the voice lanted.
As Riela was trying to get used to the strange new environnt, an annoyed but calm-sounding voice ca from behind her, drawing her attention imdiately. The voice was deep and masculine.
She tilted her head, and her eyes fell upon the most glorious being she had ever seen in her life.
His hair was long and white as snow. His eyes were golden, like they wielded all the wealth in the world, shimring with untold secrets.
He was adorned in a robe that emitted a soft glow that almost blinded the eyes with its brilliance.
On his back were beautiful, large white wings.
The entire being of the figure in front of her emitted a divine glow and aura of majesty.
The sight was wonderful but at the sa ti slightly frightening.
"Who are you?" she asked curiously, her voice trembling.
"I am Zero, Enigma of Magic and Nature, the being who oversees worlds and whatnot," Zero introduced himself proudly.
Riela tried to understand all the gibberish he said but failed.
Zero snorted and imdiately understood that this mortal in front of him was naive about magic. He felt a little embarrassed that she didn't understand the gravity of his cool titles. Such a waste of an introduction, he thought to himself.
"Well, it's not like you are ever going to rember anything you saw or experienced here. No one does," Zero muttered loudly, ensuring Riela heard every word.
Riela beca even more confused as ti passed; at one point, she even thought she was stuck in an unrealistic dream or an illusion. She asked Zero questions, and Zero answered, but she didn't understand since she didn't actually comprehend most of the complex magical terms he used.
Zero beca bored and tired of the mortal's ignorance and decided to hasten the process.
He waved his slender hand, and a series of glowing orbs appeared in front of Riela. They were about one hundred in number, each having varying colors and symbols, shimring softly.
"You can only pick one of those, and it'll determine what elent or set of elents accompanies you in your magical journey when you get ho," Zero explained with a hint of impatience.
He then gave Riela two minutes to ponder for herself and pick any one of her choice, watching her closely.
Riela stared at the nurous orbs in front of her and was utterly confused.
One minute passed, and she still couldn't make up her mind.
Zero floated above her and snorted. Seeing how she didn't understand magic, he expected her to choose an orb that would only bring doom and misfortune in her magic journey.
Zero is a being that has existed since the very beginning of ti itself.
He has experienced the creation and destruction of worlds and watched countless mortals make the wrong decision.
Most of them end up choosing sothing that makes their cultivation life impossible or arduous. Examples are those mages who find it difficult to evolve in the magic world, those with elents they can't work with, those with elents that lack resources to cultivate, and others who face insurmountable challenges.
Sadly, none of those humans are aware that their fate had been decided with their own hands and end up cussing the heavens for their perceived bad luck.
While Zero was busy ridiculing the mortal race in his mind, Riela found a special orb that appeared to be calling to her, and she imdiately went for it.
Imdiately she touched the orb and accepted it in her heart, it turned into a wisp of light and darted straight towards her chest, perating it like foam going through water, easily and without restraint, rging with her bein.
Afterwards, a strange bang occurred in her brain, and her consciousness in this world suddenly ceased abruptly.
Her body disappeared from this strange world imdiately, vanishing without a trace.
Zero observed the whole phenonon with a straight face, although he was pretty surprised with the orb she picked unexpectedly.
"Another lucky one," he noted to himself and was about to disappear when another human suddenly appeared in the sa spot Riela had just disappeared from.
He had the sa reaction as Riela and even asked himself aloud if he was dreaming.
"Another bastard!" Zero cussed inwardly before attending to the newcor with a sigh.
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