SWNOVELXO Chapter 6: 6. Ritual
Margaret looked towards the door of the awakening hall for the umpteenth time since she arrived.
Her face seemed as passive and cold as it usually was, but those close to her could tell that something was wrong from the slight crease of her brows.
And someone close to her was close by.
"What's wrong princess?" A black haired muscular man sitting beside Margaret asked.
Margaret turned her face from the entrance and looked at the man — her father. He had the same black hair she did, but his was cut short. His usually hardened face was set in a loving smile as he looked at her. People always said she looked like him but as far as she could tell, they looked worlds apart.
"Nothing," she said before turning her head towards the entrance one more time.
"C'mon princess, you're clearly anxious." He said, following her line of sight to the hall's entrance. "Are you waiting for someone?" He whispered in her ears, startling her.
"Oh, I hit the mark. But who?" He asked as his eyes wandered the hall searching.
A few moments later his smile set into a subtle frown.
"Your bondservant isn't here," he said condescendingly.
"His name is Abel."
"What?"
"His name is Abel, dad."
Her father Lukas Klayan one of the most powerful men in the world looked down at his daughter and sighed.
"Princess, I don't know what got into you to make you choose that weakling as your bondservant, but you finally have the opportunity to be free of that burden after all this years."
"Dad!" Margeret shouted, a scene that would have dumbfounded the members of the Klayan household, "Abel is not a burden." She said glaring at her father.
"Well, whatever you say, he isn't here now," Lukas said. "Would you still let an unawakened be your bondservant? Can you achieve our goals while protecting a weakling?" He said before turning away from Margaret.
Margaret said nothing, only fixing her eyes on the entrance.
At the last minute, three boys entered into the hall with one of them bleeding from different injuries.
"Astrid." A young man with blonde hair shouted. "What happened?"
"Nothing master... I got into a bit of a fight but it's settled now."
"Let's talk privately," The young man said, looking around at the numerous eyes on them before dragging his bondservant with him.
Margeret only idly noted this incident before turning her focus back to the entrance.
She waited, hoping that Abel would crush the threshold. But her hopes were dashed.
A loud sound rang in the hall.
"It's time." The elder officiating the event said.
"You will all awaken your dormant spirit roots today. Understand, this is a great privilege brought to you by the clan..."
Margaret tuned out the propaganda that the elder spat out for the bondservants and potentials from outside the clan, only continuing to listen when it got to the important part.
"As far as we know, every human is born with a spirit roots, but the spirit root of most is dead and unable to awaken.
"This is partially what you're tested for on the talent measuring test. Very few are lucky enough to have a true spirit root.
"But for those who are, they are qualified to go through the awakening ritual and become Spirit masters, the very pillars of our society.
"As you all know, even though we say that all who have true spirit roots are the lucky ones, not all spirit roots are the same.
"This is the second reason for the Talent measuring test. We test the spirituality of your root at the age of ten, it's time of maturity.
"Measuring the spirituality of your root, we can determine your potential. True Spirit roots are graded from the weakest F grade to the strongest A grade. The grade of your spirit root at the test determines how far you can go in your spirit cultivation.
"This is important because the resources needed for your awakening is not cheap, as a consequence, we cannot awaken everyone. The clan would only spare resources for those with talent. We know it is unfair, but it is our resources nonetheless.
"That is why you're all here, the cream of the crop of the Klayan clan, each one with a higher C rank or above true spirit root.
"And as a side dish, we have decided to awaken each of those lucky enough to be your bondservants as well.
"Today, the next generation that'll lead the clan to higher glory will Awaken, rising like the phoenix into the heavens. We hope that that your light shines even brighter than your predecessors." The elder finished, returning to his post.
The patriarch came up, looking down on all the participants, his eyes settling on a few.
"Let the Ceremony begin."
And the hall instantly went dark.
***
Margaret opened her eyes in a deep dark sea.
she was completely submerge but weirdly she had no trouble breathing. No, more like she didn't feel like breathing.
She looked around before closing her eyes and instantly diving deeper into the spirit sea. They had all been taught all they needed for the awakening ceremony, but as the heir of one of the most powerful clans, she knew even more.
This was the spirit sea. The natural habitation of yokais.
Even though yokais could manifest in the physical world, they couldn't last for too long there and their powers would be weakened as well. But they didn't have such a limitation in the spirit sea.
The spirit sea was the home and origin place of all yokais. Till now, humanity still hadn't grasped all it's secrets but they at least understood some of it's rules.
For example, they now knew that the spirit sea was separated into different layers by depth for the different grades of Yokais, From F rank to A rank. Margaret wasn't qualified to know about the rules beyond A rank but she guessed that it was the same but maybe with slightly different conditions.
Normal humans couldn't access the spirit sea, only spirit masters could. The only exception to this was the awakening ritual, which was why it was so special. It allowed normal humans to enter the spirit sea and make the choice of the Yokai to bond with. Of course, it would be useless without a true spirit root.
Depending on their strength and spirit root talent they could access different layers of the sea and the deeper they went, the more powerful the Yokai. Most knew this, but even if everyone tried, only a few could actually go really deep without getting crushed by the pressure. This was the result of the difference in spirit root talent, affecting their compatibility with the spirit sea.
Margaret dove deeper into the sea.
She already felt pressured — though not much — as soon as she appeared here, but the deeper she went, the more the pressure increased.
Still, she endured it, pushing through the waves as she swam even deeper into the sea only stopping when it finally got crushing even with her mutated S rank true spirit root.
But this was just the beginning.
Suddenly, her current form starting giving off a silver glow like the stars, illuminating the surroundings and forcing the Yokais gathering around her to scatter hastily.
As soon as the light appeared, the pressure reduced by half, giving Margaret the freedom to move again.
'Nice,' she thought before diving even deeper into the now illuminated sea.
At first, the yokais dispersed but as she went deeper, some of them started to approach her. Eventually she reached her limit even with the buff and she was surrounded.
Then she opened her eyes with a smile.