But before the caretakers could even reach the room—
They saw him.
Aaron was already walking toward them.
Calmly.
His eyes looked completely normal, and his posture was straight. He even seemed taller than before.
The weak, pale boy who had once been confined to his bed was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, Aaron walked forward steadily, bare-chested, wearing only a pair of simple trousers.
"That… that can't be."
Shock rippled through the caretakers.
Their expressions twisted between disbelief and fear as they stared at him.
But Aaron didn't even acknowledge them.
Without a word, he walked past them and continued toward the Ancestral Square.
Two figures were already standing there.
The Veyrath twins.
Aaron's step-siblings.
The boy was Jorien Veyrath, and beside him stood his twin sister, Lailah Veyrath.
Both of them were children of the Duke's fourth wife.
And neither of them had ever hidden their contempt for Aaron.
The moment they saw him approaching, their expressions twisted with shock.
Then anger.
"You… you should be awaiting certain doom!" Jorien shouted, disbelief clear in his voice. "Why—why are you here?!"
He stepped forward with long, aggressive strides.
Behind him, Lailah stood quietly, biting her nail as she watched Aaron approach.
Her expression was strange.
Not only anger.
Not only shock.
It looked almost…
Uneasy.
As if something about Aaron's appearance made her deeply uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, Aaron continued walking toward the Ancestral Ground without even sparing them a glance.
That did it.
It didn't even take two seconds.
Jorien swung his leg toward Aaron's stomach with brutal speed.
Crack.
The impact rang sharply through the air.
But the moment was short-lived.
Jorien's expression twisted when he looked at what he had actually struck.
Not flesh.
Not bone.
A stone statue of Aaron stood where the boy had been only a moment before.
Then—
The statue crumbled into fragments.
Dust scattered across the ground.
Before anyone could react, a quiet voice whispered beside Lailah's ear.
"I remember what you did…"
Her body stiffened.
Aaron's voice continued, calm and cold.
"What were those words again? Ah… I remember now."
A faint pause followed.
"Your days are numbered."
The whisper grew sharper.
"The same goes for you, dear sister."
Lailah's eyes widened.
She slowly turned her head.
A face was staring at her from inches away.
Aaron.
Before either twin could react—
A sharp sound ripped through the air.
Like a metallic whip tearing through steel.
An overwhelming pressure exploded outward across the Ancestral Square.
The Legend-tier aura of the Rogue Duke surged outward like a violent storm.
Magnus Veyrath's eyes burned completely crimson now, his pupils narrowed into predatory slits.
His voice thundered across the courtyard.
"Quiet down, brats!"
Silence fell instantly.
Then the Duke continued, his tone cold and commanding.
"Now let us begin the First Awakening."
His gaze swept across the gathered youths.
"After that, you will depart for Horizoncrest Academy."
The Duke beckoned for the three of them to step forward and stand in the center of the Ancestral Square.
Around the square stood four enormous statues of ancient creatures.
The first was a serpentine Eastern Dragon, its body coiled upward as if ready to ascend into the heavens.
The second was a distorted wyvern-like beast.But this one had no wings, and its body looked unnaturally twisted. Its claws and limbs appeared strangely humanoid, as if it were something that should not exist.
The third statue depicted a lion with three heads, each one roaring silently toward the sky.
And the last—
Was the skull of a Void Death Worm.
The massive bone constantly flickered, as if reality itself struggled to keep its form intact.
Magnus Veyrath raised one hand.
Then he began chanting.
"Bring forth… /€%j)+§=2:f… true Jf=s+§'smdn(%; @€… Veyrath!"
The words sounded ancient.
Broken.
Almost impossible for mortal tongues to pronounce.
The moment the final word left his mouth—
The ground trembled.
Dark crimson lines suddenly spread across the stone floor, threading themselves into existence like veins of living blood.
The entire square looked fractured.
Distorted.
As if reality itself had cracked open.
All three children suddenly cried out.
Pain flooded their bodies.
Their eyes began to bleed.
From Aaron's perspective, the pain was unbearable.
It felt as if a furnace had ignited inside his body.
Burning.
Twisting.
Again and again without stopping.
His vision trembled.
His eyes slowly began turning red.
The same thing happened to Jorien and Lailah—
But their transformation was much weaker.
Aaron's pain continued to intensify.
Blood flowed steadily from his eyes, staining the ground beneath him.
His irises turned blood-red.
His pupils narrowed into slits.
Then—
His legs twisted.
For a brief moment, they transformed into hooves.
Dark brown scales spread across parts of his skin, so dark they almost looked like ash.
Horns suddenly erupted from his head—
Only to disappear again a moment later.
His body flickered between different forms.
A strange hybrid.
Like a satyr mixed with countless other creatures.
Meanwhile, his step-siblings fully transformed.
Jorien's body expanded as a two-headed lion manifested were he had stood, both heads roaring fiercely.
Lailah's form twisted into the shape of a metallic Death Worm, its segmented body gleaming like living steel.
Moments later, the transformations faded.
Both twins returned to their normal forms.
When they looked toward Aaron—
He was simply standing there.
No beast form.
No clear transformation.
Just… Aaron.
Even the servants and knights exchanged confused glances.
Jorien sneered.
He stepped forward and threw the first blow of humiliation toward Aaron.
"Aww… you didn't get anything?"
His grin widened cruelly.
"For someone who looks that freakish, I wasn't expecting much anyway."
His eyes flashed with hatred.
"Well, I guess your bloodline attunement isn't exactly correct."
His voice turned even colder.
"Especially after that bitch—thank the stars she's gone—gave birth to you."
Aaron remained standing there.
Still trembling from the unbearable pain.
But then—
Something changed.
The sclera of his eyes turned completely black.
A sign of extremely high bloodline attunement.
Even Magnus Veyrath—the current head of the family—did not possess such a phenomenon.
It was the highest attunement ever recorded within the Veyrath bloodline.
Then suddenly—
Something erupted from Aaron's body and shot toward the sky.
A massive holographic projection appeared above the Ancestral Square.
A colossal serpentine Eastern Dragon.
But this one had two heads.
Both heads bore features resembling a lion.
Their glowing manes burned like living fire.
And above them floated a half halo—
Broken.
Cracked.
The projection roared silently across the sky before diving back down into Aaron's body.
The strange semi-transformation lasted only a few seconds.
Then the square fell into complete silence.