Re: My Spirit System: From Spirit Novice to Ghost Emperor

Abel woke up with a gasp.

He looked around hastily, searching for his assailants but the rooftop was completely empty.

Only when he confirmed that there was truly no one around did he breath a sigh of relief. He fell back to the floor, his face facing the sky.

'Damn it,' he thought as he covered his eyes with his hands.

He normally didn't care much about a lot. After finding out about his talent, he gave up on becoming anything special or accomplishing the goal he initially had.

Life had kicked him hard and he didn't see a way back up.

He still remembered the day bondservants were assigned — just a few days after the ceremony, the day Margaret picked him up, his life already lost all meaning. His eyes were hollow and his face blank with hopelessness. He struggled to do anything, everything felt worthless to him — including himself.

But suddenly, a ray of light found itself into his life. A beautiful young lady asked him to be her mistress. At first he accepted cause, why not? Life was already meaningless anyways and though the orphanage taught him that service to a clan heir was a great privilege he wasn't moved by that.

But as he started his duties and got to know her, he found a new meaning in life. He thought he had forgotten everything else, that nothing else was important to him but her.

But this loss... This loss broke the dam that kept all the unwillingness in his heart bottled.

He really damn hated to lose.

***

In the ancestral hall.

Lukas watched closely as the young members of the clan began to wake up one after the other.

,There was a rumor that the later a person woke up from the Awakeners trance, the more powerful they would have come out.

This newbies didn't understand the mechanics of the ceremony but he knew that the ceremony was basically a way to establish a connection with the spirit realm and allow people to interact with it.

Now normally, it wasn't hard to connect to the spirit realm, all ghost masters could do it.

But that was after they were already awakened and it was also personal as well.

Establishing a connection that all unawakened could use, for a large number of them and one that didn't kill them — now that was hard... And expensive.

But it even though every clan knew how expensive it was, they were willing to burn the resources because there was no other way...

But that was for another time...

Why this was important was that... Since it was simply a gateway, those who stayed longer in the realm might have more opportunities and time to go deeper into the spirit sea.

He looked down at the center of his hall, where his daughter was purposely set at the center of the formation, at the exact point where the spirit lines connected with the physical world, so she could have the best chance.

Most of the new intakes were already waking up but only her and a few more cadets we're still unconscious.

A few minutes later, everyone was already up but Margaret still sat unconscious.

The elders were starting to get fidgety. It was well known that the time in the spirit realm went much slower than the real world — At least for the levels where the weak cadets could reach. For their princess to take so long, they were worried that something might have gone wrong — or worse, she would cross the threshold time.

A few minutes passed and Margaret crossed the threshold while still unconscious. Even Lukas got anxious at this point, with his eyes fixed on Margaret, monitoring her every twitch. Then suddenly, his tense muscles relaxed.

"Calm down, stop being so nervous," Lukas said to the anxious elders. "She's about to wake up."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Margaret's eyes opened wide. White light radiated from her eyes, illuminating the dark hall and blinding the weak novice spirit masters.

Her body began to levitate, moving upward with a deep elegance and poise. Her black hair shone a blinding silver gray, adding to the light from her eyes and if one looked closer, past the light, they'd notice a silver glow in her irises as well.

But the lightshow lasted for a few moments before everything went back to normal and Margaret's feet touched the ground.

She squeezed her fists. Her body now felt like it had never felt before. It felt Anew. Alive.

And inside of her, she felt two new consciousnesses blooming, communicating with her.

'I did it,' she thought with a small smile.

"Margaret, welcome back," Lukas said with a grin of his own.

Margaret smile widened, but she turned to look around, searching one last time for one person.

But it was futile. He didn't come. Margaret looked down, gritting her teeth.

'Would I really have to abandon him?' the thought crossed her mind for the first time as she understood the weight waiting for her.

Te elders began rounding up the new cadets, aiming to dismiss them from the hall and end the ritual when a loud bang came from the entrance of the door causing all heads to turn.

Walking in from the door, a young teenager stepped in. His body was bruised in different areas, his clothes were torn and blood was all over his face, coating his black hair.

Still, he limped over, his eyes blazing with determination as he looked on ahead, unwavering before the crowd.

He finally stepped up the middle of the hall where a pin drop silence was held.

"Am I late?" He asked with a small chuckle.

Everyone in the hall was flabbergasted by the question.

Whispers began to echo around the hall questioning the identity of this person.

"Enough," one of the elders said. "Who are you?"

"My name is Abel Lionheart sir," Abel said, immediately kneeling.

"I am the bondservant of Lady Margaret," The whispers immediately came back up. "I was meant to attend the ceremony today, but I was dragged away from my classes, bullied and beaten unconscious, almost disqualifying me from participating today." Abel said.

The elder squinted his eyes. If it was another bondservant, he would have dismissed them and closed with the ceremony. But this was the heir, lady Margaret's bondservant, and everyone knew how she favoured him. He didn't dare to act rashly.

He could only humor him.

"Are you sure of your claims, do you have any evidence?"

"Yes sir, I do." Abel said, pulling out the badge of one of Astrid's goons.

His reason for his move to escspe the rooftop had been twofold. The first was to try his luck. But he knew his chances were minimal, so when he was caught by Astrid's goons, he stealthily snatched of their badges.

"Zannik Claire." The elder read out loud. But no one answered. The elder looked down, glaring at the crowd menacingly.

The people on the left side of the hall panicked and everyone pushed out a plump young man.

"Is this your badge?" The elder asked.

"Yes. Yes sir... But it doesn't prove anything—" he started but the elder cut him off.

"Leave the hall. Meet the guards outside. Your punishment will be decided later."

Abel, as well as everyone else there weren't fools. They could tell that it wasn't just Zannik taking action. But since the elder wanted to wrap it up like this, no one voiced any complaint.

Abel just glanced at Astrid before looking back up.

"As for the Ceremony," the elder continued, "You're too late, we're already done. And we can't keep up the ceremony any longer, the resources would not be worth it, particularly since it's for one more person. We understand that it's not your fault, but there nothing we can do about it."

The elder finished, his eyes glancing towards the patriarch. What he said was Indeed the truth, but even if it wasn't, he would have found a way to make Abel miss the ceremony still.

He knew of the internal conflicts between the patriarch and the heir and it was because of this useless bondservant. He normally couldn't do anything but since such an opportunity had come by the rules how could he miss an opportunity to curry favour with the patriarch.

Abel understood what was going on through the mind of the elder but there was nothing he could do.

He clenched his fists hard as he looked down. Just when he chose to kick back at life, he was stumped before he even started.

He grit his teeth hard in unwillingness as various thoughts swarm through his mind.

But then he heard an all too familiar voice ring in the hall.

"The ceremony isn't over yet."