Fainting isn’t the most awesome experience and neither is it peaceful as some people might tell you. When Adrian fainted, he felt his eyes losing strength, his legs going numb, and his very consciousness melting and flowing away like some thin slime. As he completely lost consciousness the last thought that passed through his mind was “I will survive.”

  And yet there was no way for him to confirm his survival or well-being. Because in the very next moment, he found himself falling through a dark place. He couldn’t feel himself breathing for there was no air, he couldn’t feel his heart beating, but he couldn’t feel pain, he couldn’t feel anything. And yet he didn’t feel peaceful. He felt neither sadness nor happiness, neither fear nor calmness. He didn’t have any sense of time or space. For all he knew, he could have been falling for hours, days, months, or even years. He was in such a state that anyone could have passed him off for dead. But he wasn’t dead. He could feel it and he was sure of it.

HE WAS NOT DEAD. 

Suddenly Adrian felt a cold sting in the tiny spot at his back where his spine ended. The cold was numbing. After not feeling anything for such a long time the cold brought all his senses to high alert, he immediately sucked in a huge amount of air as his lungs burned with the cool frost as if coming up to air from underwater after a long time. 

He could feel the cold spreading. It was a clear black liquid, as lustrous as mercury, but darker than the void. It spread from his back and covered his legs, his waist, his hands, and his body. He was being engulfed by the dark fluid which he could feel burning like acid. As it covered his neck from the front, he could feel it seeping into his hair from the back. He struggled and writhed in the pain under the cold, he couldn’t scream.

It wasn’t the kind of fear where one was afraid of dying. This was the fear that arose from helplessness. Utter helplessness. It was a fear deep-seated in his mind, the feeling that he couldn’t do anything. The thoughts of his father being insulted in front of the guild building, the sight of the innocent little girl crying as she lay in front of her dead parent, and the thought of the old man at the tavern getting eaten by the crex, all came rushing to his mind. He had been there every time, and yet he couldn’t do anything. He was useless. 

As these thoughts flooded his mind, he felt his will to fight the cold fade away. He wanted to succumb to it. He wanted to stop fighting and just let it engulf him. ‘Maybe then I’ll find peace.’, Adrian thought to himself. 

Suddenly a voice rang out. Adrian tried opening his eyes, as his eyelids resisted feeling tired and heavy, he reached out towards the voice as the liquid started creeping up faster on his body, trying its best to fully consume him. Just then he heard the voice of his father. Right before the darkness could cover his eyes, he heard Caesar shouting “ Adrian, wake up. ADRIAN!”

“ADRIAN!!!!!”

He jolted awake. The cold was gone and so was the darkness. And he found himself sweating profusely under covers with ragged breathing as Ceaser still held him by the shoulders. He was lying in a bed with white sheets, with a white blanket draped over him, wearing sterile robes. And even the walls of the room were covered in white tiles. After experiencing so much darkness, he could almost feel like the world was trying to mock him through colors. As he turned, he noticed that his father looked like he had aged several years in an instant. Caesar let go saying “Oooff! Don’t go about scaring me like that brat. Your fever shot up so high and you started breathing like you were some woman in labor.” He breathed a sigh of relief, “Well at least you are awake now.”

Adrian asked, “Wait, so….how long was I out for?”

“A good five days kid.”, a familiar voice spoke as the door to the room opened. The first person to enter was, as Adrian expected, the one who had put him back at the nursing home, Aero. He smiled as he usually did and spoke, “Well, ain’t someone quite happy to be back to the land of the living?”

Caesar stood up and straightened his back and with his hand bent in front of him, gave a courteous nod of his head to Aero. “Good to see you again, guild master of the city of Lionheart. Let’s not get too formal right now, after all, I should be the one bowing to you Sir war hero ”, said Aero as he laughed it off.

“Aero….”, Adrian stammered as he opened his lips trying to recollect his memories, “What……What exactly happened? The last thing I remember is passing out as the earth wyrm threw me at the wall.”

“Keep the talk for later, kid. Firstly, let’s get you checked up.”

A middle-aged lady wearing professional clothing came in. She had a fair complexion and scarlet-colored, well-braided hair. Her calm and friendly demeanor along with the noble way she held herself, simply added to her charm. She dragged a stool at the far corner of the room and brought it up to Adrian’s bed as she sat down. 

“Well well, my handsome young patient has finally awoken huh? I’m Catherine, an authorized doctor from the paladin HQ. Nice to meet you, Adrian, well for the first time you are awake at least”, she said with a slight sweet smile which made it hard to read her actual moods or intentions. But Adrian returned the greeting and thanked her nevertheless as she proceeded to check his pulse and checked his condition using her light healing mana. 

“Thanks for this Cathy. But with the situation as it is, I just couldn’t trust any other person to do this.”, Aero said with a slightly apologetic smile.

“Oh, you of all people shouldn’t be thanking me. I owe you much more than what could be paid off with this small act.”, Catherine answered him in an earnest voice.

“Serious situation? Aero what is sh……..”, but before Adrian could complete his sentence, Caesar smacked him on the back of his head. “Keep quiet you incompetent idiot. Haven’t I taught you not to interrupt others while they are talking?”

Aero and Catherine had a short laugh at this and Catherine stood up. 

“Adrian’s completely fine now. Just another day of rest and he’ll be fighting crexes in no time. A newly awakened core usually does put quite a bit of strain on the user, but luckily you have Aero here to help stabilize your wind nature.”

“Ok then. Could you give us a bit of time Cathy? I need to have a talk with the kid.”,  Aero said with a grave look.

“Of course. Well then, I should get going. I have a feeling I’ll see you again soon Adrian. Let’s talk some other day.” And with that last sentence, she left the room. 

As soon as she left the room, Aero made a sphere of wind around the three of them. The barrier appeared to be completely transparent except for the green hue surrounding it, as the mana rotated around the entire sphere.

“Well, this should keep eavesdroppers out. Now Adrian, ” Aero’s smile turned into a serious frown as he unfolded a piece of cloth. On it was an imprint of what looked like to be a goat's skull, the only peculiar thing about it being its horns which seemed way too long as they twisted in on themselves creating a mesmerizing spiraling shape. “Do you recognize this symbol?”

“Uh….I don’t think I’ve seen this before. Nope, sorry but I don’t recognize this. What is it about though?”

“Well you see, this is the symbol of a cult called the Kin of the Blood.”

“The Kin?!” The glass of water Ceaser had just filled to take a drink, fell to the floor as the shattering of the glass was the only noise heard in the silence.

“Yes Guildmaster, the same cult wanted for terrorism, illegal experimentation, and heresy against the church. We haven’t been able to finish them off yet so they still continue their acts in secrecy. Their intelligence network is too sharp and they escape every time we home in on their location.” Aero explained letting out a sigh.

“But what’s with the sudden interest in the topic?”Adrian asked, confused.

“Well because of this” Aero replied as he held up his hand. A set of greenish markings were tattooed across his wrist giving it the appearance of that of a bracelet. The tattoo started glowing as it shattered away like dust, leaving his wrist unmarked and clean.

Suddenly Adrian felt a large pressure build up inside of him, as he felt something expand in his chest. A moment later he felt the sensation of wind bursting out from each pore of his skin, yet he felt relieved as if some chains binding him had suddenly been dropped.

Just then a warm aura covered the entire room, as Adrian turned around to face his father. A warm orange glow was enveloping Ceaser as his face turned into a scowl, his eyes felt like they were burning a hole into Adrian’s chest as he stared right at it.

“What is the meaning of this paladin? it better not be a sick joke.” Ceaser called out to Aero as he shifted his glare from Adrian to him. “Why does my son have one of those accursed things in him?”

“We’ll come to that in a bit. first of all lemme tell you what happened after your son went…….unconscious”

And just like that, Aero recapped all the events. When he came to the part where Adrian slashed the sand wyrm in two, Caesar shouted “He killed a sand wyrm??!! Like a REAL sand wyrm? A grade 4 crex???? All by himself?”

“And you really expect me to believe that?” Ceaser scoffed.

Even Adrian could hardly believe it. 

“Now, here comes the important part. The good news is, you have formed your mana core. And the bad news….well, I’m not sure if it’s good or bad but it sure is the most intriguing event of all. The core you awakened is not of any generally found elements in people. It’s the void element.”

“So wait, you are telling me that my son trained with you, and awakened his mana core that he couldn’t do for years. But when it did form, it was a void core?”Caesar asked as he processed all the news being passed to him still unable to find an appropriate emotion for the moment. Was he supposed to be happy? Sad? Angry? Frustrated? It had all happened too fast. 

But before giving Caesar a chance to speak again, Aero continued, “Ok kid. I’m gonna give you two choices. And I am usually not this inflexible but this is an either-or situation. There’s no third option. Am I clear?”

Adrian nodded.

“The first choice, I take you under custody and put you under 24/7 monitoring and confinement. You would be suspected of working for the void cultists and will be tried for the same since you have a void core.” Aero explained calmly, “At best, you will be granted a painless execution”.

Adrian’s face turned ashen on hearing this.

“Don’t look so down kid. I did say there are two choices. Now normally I should have reported this entire matter to my fellow paladins and this would be taken to the Arch-Bishop for direct hearing. But I haven’t, and you’re pretty damn lucky I haven’t, kid. The second choice is, that you will accept my official offer of taking you in as my apprentice. You will of course enjoy all that comes with the position of becoming an apprentice of a Paladin, but the training you’ll go through will be a hundred times ah hellish as what you faced when taking on that sand wyrm”.  Aero exclaimed, in a tone to lighten up the mood.

“And then there’s the fact that I can’t have anyone talking about how the only person I trained turned out to get a void core. So yeah, there you go kid, you can either become a lazy-ass prisoner of the church, or you can become my disciple and I promise to train you into a man who holds power as much, If not more, than the paladins themselves.”

As Aero finished these lines, Adrian stopped for a moment and thought back to all that had happened. He had thought of telling Aero what he had seen in his dream. But when he saw his father’s crest-fallen face on receiving too many shocking pieces of news, he knew he shouldn’t discuss it right there. He didn’t want to give Caesar a heart attack after all. Looking at his father, all the memories of how he had taken care of Adrian throughout his childhood, taught him the way of the sword, and helped him through tough times came rushing in, he couldn’t help but tear up a bit.

Seeing Adrian look at him, Caesar immediately understood that he was asking for permission, and with a lonely hint of sadness hidden behind a warm fatherly smile, he gave him a thumbs up. Adrian decided to speak his mind before he started crying.

“I’ll do it”, Adrian looked at Aero and said.

“Uh, you’ll do your trial and go to confinement?”Aero asked, raising one of his eyebrows.

“NO NO! Goddamnit. I will become your student, is what I meant to say.”

Aero chuckled, “Ok then kid. Rest up for today and finish all your pending work in town. Also get in touch with anyone you might wanna visit before tomorrow evening. You might not be seeing them for months now”. As his face turned to Ceaser however, his expression darkened as his usual smile faded away, “I will also be placing the Lionheart guild under personal investigation”

“And what is that supposed to mean Paladin” Ceaser replied in a serious tone, Adrian sat speechless as he observed his father’s eyes turn amber and more feline, as he released his bestia aura. Aero responded with an equally palpable aura of his own, as the wooden floorboards started cracking beneath them.

“Just leaving no stones unturned sir” Aero replied, “In a case like this, there’s no such thing as being too cautious. Hearing this Ceaser let out a sigh as both of them let go of the aura they were releasing.

At this,  Aero released the sphere of mana that had been there since the beginning of their conversation. He went up to the guard who had been silently waiting outside the door and handed him a key. 

With barely audible whispers he ordered him “Deliver this to Ignis and tell him that the key was used by someone who wasn’t supposed to use it. And one more thing. 

Tell him………..The Kin of the Blood are on the rise again. Something major is coming.”