The sudden, profound silence that descended upon the vast, echoing Colosseum was more deafening than any cheer. Every person, from the highest noble in the sky-boxes to the commoner packed into the standing tiers, was frozen, their collective breath stolen by the words of Beatrice, the Emperor Dominatrix.
Her pronouncement was simple, yet world-shattering: that the young, unremarkable Jai had awakened a power previously thought lost—a power only she possessed. The weight of this revelation was physical; a cold sweat broke out on every forehead, and a communal shiver ran through the massive crowd. For the first time in their lives, they were witnessing the dawn of a new era, embodied in a single, stunned boy.
Then, the shock fractured into pure, cacophonous joy. The audience erupted, not with organized cheers, but with a tidal wave of awe and exhilaration.
In the midst of this glorious chaos, Jai's parents reacted with a raw, private intensity. Mable, his mother, was immediately overcome. Her face, usually etched with subtle worry, was now streaming with tears—not of sorrow, but of blinding, uncontrollable happiness and relief. Her son was safe; her son was powerful. Edward, his father, couldn't wipe the look of fierce, arrogant pride from his face, a natural attitude finally justified by his son's divine inheritance.
But for Jai, the world outside dissolved. In the ethereal bubble of his own consciousness, the overwhelming presence of the Emperor Dominatrix stood before him. She was not the distant ruler but a solemn mentor.
"Son, just because you have my powers, that doesn't mean you can defeat the people you will face in the future," her voice resonated, not in his ears, but in the deepest part of his mind. "The people you are facing are not like the people around you here. So, once again, be careful."
As she spoke the final caution, she radiated a terrifyingly pure yellow light, so brilliant and encompassing that it affirmed every legend and rumor. She was a god in human form, exactly as the people assumed. With a flash, the light receded, and she vanished, leaving Jai alone in a swirling void.
Immediately, a chilling, petrifying vision seized his mind, shaking him to the very core of his spine.
He saw a bleak, desolate landscape under a sky dyed a sinister, bloody red. Around a figure clad in a black robe stood a crowd of desperate, wretched individuals. They clawed at the air and cried out to the dark figure: "Please save me!"
The man in the black robe, whose hair was an incongruous shock of golden silk, drew a blue sword that hummed with a cold light. Without a word, he began to execute them all. The blue blade flashed, and the screams cut short, replaced by the sickening sound of flesh and bone yielding.
Jai watched, paralyzed, as the golden-haired man's body and face became completely covered in the viscera and blood of the fallen. He looked up, and the bloody red light of the sky seemed to thicken, mirroring the carnage on the ground.
As the slaughter ended, a single, broken person crawled toward Jai through the muck. The person, mangled beyond recognition, with one eye torn out and both legs brutally severed, placed a trembling, bloody hand upon Jai's leg.
"Sir, please help me," the ruin of a person pleaded.
Jai recoiled in sheer terror. His mind, struggling to cope with the horror, grasped at a strange detail: "How did I understand this language?" The people in the vision had been speaking in an unknown tongue, yet he comprehended every word.
As he pondered this anomaly, the golden-haired man turned, his blood-splattered face locking onto Jai.
"Are you going to save him, or are you going to abandon him?" the blond guy asked, his voice flat and accusing.
Then, the man rotated his head fully, and the golden light of the sword reflected off his face, bringing instant, devastating shock to Jai.
It was his own face.
The vision snapped, and Jai was instantly back in the warmth of the Colosseum's reality. He felt a soft, blue fabric against his cheek and realized his head was resting on his mother, Mable's, lap. The familiar scent of her blue-colored dress and the overwhelming sense of security made him instinctively burrow deeper.
He heard the sound of weeping and looked up. Mable's face was tear-streaked, but his father, Edward, was also visibly shedding tears—a rare and profound sight.
"What happened? Why are all of you crying?" Jai asked, his voice weak.
Mable hugged him tight. "Your heart… your heart stopped, Jai. We thought you were dead. It's God's grace you're still alive."
Relief flooded his mother's body, and she began to sob happily.
Jai, still shaken by the cold reality of the vision and the unexpected wave of familial love, responded with a request that broke his mother's heart in the best way possible.
"Mom, please make me my favorite food: Suna rice and glimmerhoof meat curry," he said. It was the first time in his life, due to a fear of being a disappointment to his non-awakened status, that he had called her Mom.
Mable burst into a fresh torrent of happy tears. "Yes! Yes, I'll make it for my precious boy right now!"
Everyone surrounding them in the colosseum area sighed a collective, profound sigh of relief. The emperor's chosen heir was safe. Soon after, Jai, his parents, and the rest of the relieved populace left the grand, silent Colosseum and returned to their homes.
As they settled in, Jai found a quiet moment to reflect. Today was a big day for Mom, too, he realized. His fear—the shame of failing to awaken any power and having to act like a cold, distant stranger—had always prevented him from calling her "Mom." That fear was gone now.
Later, his mother delivered the requested meal. Jai took the food and placed it on a table by the garden, sitting down to eat. He immediately noticed the pervasive calmness he usually associated with the garden was missing. Perhaps the garden flowers were refilled by someone other than me, he thought, disturbed by the subtle shift.
As he ate, the terrifying vision returned to his thoughts. Why am I like that? he wondered, spoon halfway to his mouth. Is that me in my future, or is someone taking my body and doing these things? He resolved to focus on the present: I just have to take care of myself and be self-conscious to think before I act.
A sharp knock interrupted his contemplation. A maid in a crisp white dress stood at the doorway.
"Madam Beatrice told me to give you this script," the maid said, holding out a note. "It has a yellow tint that looks like golden paper."
Jai took the note, his curiosity immediately piqued. The maid bowed and silently left.
He examined the strange artifact. Written faintly on the front were the words: "Pour your blood."
Following the instruction, Jai took the spoon he had been using, nicked a small finger, and let a bead of his blood drop onto the paper. Immediately, the note reacted, erupting in a blinding golden light that enveloped the room. Jai squeezed his eyes shut.
When he opened them, the light had subsided, and the note lay open, its contents clear. As he started reading the first line, he understood: this was a secret guide—the method for advancing the Emperor Dominatrix's power, detailing the progression from Tier 10 to Tier 0.
The sight of Tier 0 caused his heart to leap and his breath to catch. "What? This kind of tier exists?" he thought. I never heard this existed. I thought Tier 1 was the last power they could advance to.
After taking a moment to calm himself, Jai read the title:
"This power is known as Aureon, the Golden Scourge."
(Aureon comes from aureus, the Latin word for gold, giving it a regal, ancient, and luminous sound. The Golden Scourge emphasizes the destructive and unavoidable nature of his power. A scourge is a source of widespread devastation.)
Now I understand why Emperor Dominatrix is that strong, Jai realized.
He moved on to the advancement method for the first level:
"To advance from Tier 10 to Tier 9, you must summon the sword and master the sword's current abilities. You must also practice diligently to fill your slightly golden core to an extended golden core."
Jai understood. His core was a light gold now; as he mastered the power and practiced, its color would deepen and expand. To reach Tier 9, he needed to maximize his current potential.
He read the details of his current power:
Tier 10: Mortal Initiate
Weapon State: Simple Hilt / Golden Faint.
Power: The weapon passively emits a faint, warm light. When attacking a target with clear malevolent intent, the light flickers, providing a tiny, momentary boost to the user's speed or accuracy.
Technique: Aura Chamber. A single technique that can trap someone's mind in a yellow chamber for one second.
Caution: Using the Aura Chamber consumes all of the user's core energy, leading to immediate collapse due to energy loss.
A wave of focus came over him. I have to use this as a final trump card, he resolved.
He read the structural detail of his energy system: "The body has two cores. The main core represents the energy we use for powers, and the second core shows how much we have filled the advancing core."
Jai connected this information to his experience. The practice he had done—the golden light that had filled the area around him—was the visible manifestation of his core expanding. The core grasped the yellow light and filled itself.
He finished the reading with a final, key realization: "Only when I advance will I be able to see the attributes and advancement methods for the next tier."
I have to learn, master, and fully fill my core with yellow light, he thought, the resolve hardening in his heart. Now I am an indicator of the Aureon power.
The new path had awakened. The world waited to see which way the Golden Scourge would swing