His body which felt like it was on fire with the sheer amount of pain was suddenly envoloped in the embrace of a whirlwind of crimson energy.
His body shone with brilliant light under the dark red diluted water.
Then, for the smallest of the fraction of a second, it felt like he wasn't human anymore.
He suddenly became aware of everything. He could sense the water, the dead eternals, the vail eternal, the trees, the ground, the mist, he could sense everything almost as if he was becoming everything.
He could sense what the tree was, he could sense it's very essence, as if looking at what made a tree a part of 'nature', he felt like his mind was being integrated into the entire world, the kingdom, the people, the continent, the oceans, the animals the air.
He could clearly sense the deeper world that was connected with the material, that made and became a piller to the material realm.
And yet, even though he could sense so much, he could not process any of the vast information being sent to his mind.
Not because it was too much but simply because his mind had stopped, he could not think, he could not know what was happening and his could not process anything.
Then, the fraction of the second that felt like an eternity passed, and vale's senses came back.
The whirwind of crimson energy started being absorbed inside his body, and his body began to change.
It started with all his wounds being healed, every single one of them.
The whirlwind of energy passed through his body to the wounded area and turned semi tangible, forming the wounded area instead of healing it.
Then his body, now back to its original shape, began to change again.
It wasn't like his body was being reconstructed or pushed towards a certain direction of perfection, nothing like that, really.
It was much more like his body was being nurtured, and removed of some imperfections.
His skin became slightly smoother, his muscles did not grow but simply became more pronounced and toned. The little fat he had around his body was removed and his lush black hair became sleeker.
Alongside his body changing, he felt himself become stronger. He felt his exhaustion be washed away as strength envoloped his body, almost three times more then his original strength.
He felt his heart shake and then start thumping loudly.
As strength came to his body, he pushed his body forward and sat up in the water. then, in a swift movement, he reached for the vail floating in the water and crushed it.
The mist suddenly seemed to dissipate and the water seemed to disappear inside the mist.
Soon, in a matter of seconds, the entire area was cleared of any water and mist, and he was in a hole inside the now moderatly dense forest of dry leaves and dormant trees with no leaves on them.
The smell of autumn once again tease his nose and bright ray of sun hit his body.
His clothes was in tatters yet his body shone as if nothing had ever even happened to him.
He slowly sat down, inside middle of the hole in the ground as a few leafs landed on the hole, already starting to fill it in.
As his heavy breath started to steady, he glanced at the space where the veil would've been and saw a small, blackened patch of area.
As his breath filled the quite of the moment, he organised his thoughts.
'i....am an awakened'
Awakened, people who build a connection with the spiritual realm and slowly ascend the shackles of their mortal vessals by going higher in the path of ascension.
Though his image of awakened was a Little distorted by the fact that his first interaction with awakened people when his first interaction with awakened people was him getting beaten up and robbed, and possibly killed if not for the fact that he had killed the man first.
He was, currently at the first step of ascension, grain.
He didn't know who named it grain because....it was honestly a bit wierd to call people that strong 'grain' was not only nonsensical but also pretty insulting.
He looked at his hand, then flipped it to see the back of his hand.
'hmm....'
He then closed his eyes and tried to look at what this... 'spirit' was.
As soon as he closed his eyes, he could almost vividly feel that he had changed.
It was like his own existence was different then what it used to be, in fact, he could almost feel himself, in a different way then before.
He pondered over this sensation for a while as it slowly became normal to him.
He then tried to look for his soul, he focused on the sensation of his existence, slowly drowning his mind in the sensation of something profoundly comfortable.
As his senses of the material realm were cut off, he delved deeper into what he could only describe as his own mind, or Existance, for a better word.
It was small, pitiful, untethered and felt weak, yet, it was the most comforting place in the entire world.
Then, at the heart of his existence, was a brightly shining mystical shard, it did not have a shape or size, like flowing water or a entire world consisting only of a giant peice of rock and nothing else.
It, for some reason, felt more like a....gateway, of some sort.
That, was his soul and inside it, he could feel a small trickle of energy, energy that he could almost physically feel being connected to himself.
The energy felt like it was a part of him. it felt like a plant he had grown himself, like a house he had built.
The sense of familiarity he felt from it was a little scary.
The energy was spiritual energy, energy taken from the body of the absolute being.
He focused on it, then using some unknown means, he pulled it out of his soul.
He felt a slightly warm sensation in his heart, as if something was moving in there.
Using his mind, he tried to move it....
After 30 minutes, he opened his eyes and breathed heavily in the cold air.
The small hole created by the vail was already half filled with falling leaves.
'....okay?'
He couldn't move the energy, it was like pushing a bolder, no, it was like pushing a mountain according to his will, and after a while of being out of his soul, it simply dissipated in his surroundings.
He didn't have much knowledge about awakened as he was much more interested in getting money to buy food then to have fantasy about awakened.
Though he did know the basics, like how the only thing you gain at the first step of ascension is physical strength.
From what he knew, one needed to have enough willpower or strong enough existence to move the spiritual energy, which everyone only gained at the second step of ascension, bearer.
It was also at the second step that you awakened your 'requim'
He opened his eyes, and the sighed.
Crunch
As he fell on his back and lay there in the ground staring at the sky above, he slowly realized the sheer absurdity kr the situation.
If someone had told him he would became a awakened in the past, he wouldn't have believed him, and if he had believed it, he would've been dancing around with joy.
But laying there, putting the ground through the holes and tears in his clothes, he felt nothing, just calm.
Perhaps it was because of his awakening, but he was not feeling a hint of joy.
As he lay there processing everything that happened, he suddenly remembered he had lost his bag.
A cold pain struck his hurt at the thought of all his money being lost.
His idea was to reach the capital, and then use his money to stabilize himself a while before finding a means of income.
But now,not only had he lost all his food, money and clothes, he had also lost his citizenship badge when the scavanger crushed it.
Taking a deep breath, vale sat up then got to his feet.
He was a awakened now, there definately had to be a way for him to earn money and live.