Chapter 4 — The Awakening Ceremony
The floating island of Nexus Arcanum shimmered beneath the midday sun, its towers laced with silver veins and glowing crystal runes. Students bustled through the wide marble plaza, each one dressed in ceremonial robes of their region. Some stood proud in golden trims from Valeria, others in dark, whispering fabrics from Nocterris.
Rael Ashborne, hands in pockets, walked silently among them.
He had been summoned with the others. Today was the Awakening Ceremony—the moment where every fifteen-year-old child across the continent learned their fate. Their clan. Their deck. Their path.
They stood inside the Celestial Spire, a vast circular hall with a dome open to the sky. Dozens of students stepped up to the floating crystal monolith in the center, and as their names were called, the sky responded.
A symbol would appear above—Knight, Hero, Chaos, Magician—and a shimmering card would descend into their hands.
Cheers. Applause. Pride.
Until...
"Rael Ashborne. Valeria."
The crystal pulsed once. Then again.
Silence spread through the chamber.
The sky above darkened—not with clouds, but with a shift in feeling. A golden scale blazed into existence in the heavens, its center eye etched with fire and shadow. A great Justice symbol no one had ever seen before hovered in the air.
Then came the pressure.
Every student, every instructor—even the headmasters—suddenly gripped their chests. Some cried out. Others fell to their knees. Not from fear of the symbol… but from something deeper.
Guilt.
Flashes of sin—betrayal, lies, cruelty—seared across their minds. For some, it passed quickly. But for others, it brought unbearable shame.
And then it happened.
The sky turned to fire.
The symbol ignited.
From the flames, a figure emerged.
Not a man. Not a monster.
A burning skeleton, cloaked in chains, its skull wreathed in hellfire.
He walked across the air itself toward Rael.
Gasps and screams filled the spire.
Rael stood frozen as the specter stopped in front of him—unseen by all but felt by everyone.
The skeleton raised one burning hand…
…and pressed it into Rael's chest.
In an explosion of flame and divine light, the spirit dissolved—
—and a glowing card appeared in Rael's hand.
The frame shimmered black and gold.
The name burned into the surface:
Justice Clan — Bound Rider of Wrath.
Silence returned. Except now, everyone was staring at him.
Whispers surged.
"Justice Clan? That's not possible..."
"That clan doesn't exist!"
"What was that thing?!"
"Who is he…?"
And in the center of the chaos, Rael simply looked at his new card…
And smiled.
"So this is my start."
End of chapter 4