Aeric stumbled forward as Head Mistress Lysandra gave him a slight shove. When he turned around, her sharp eyes dared him to argue. "What are you waiting for?" she snapped. "Move!"
Aeric looked away from her and straightened his posture, then he inhaled sharply before walking to the round door and stepping through the threshold of the sanctum. Once he entered the dark place, the door creaked shut behind him with a dum! that made his skin prickle.
There was very little that he could see there. The stone walls were dark and they pressed in around him, making him feel like there were people standing beside him at all corners, watching him. It was also strangely colder here, and an energy thickened the air, buzzing on his skin like static.
Shadows curled in every corner, refusing to be dispelled by the poor light provided by the floating crystal orbs overhead. They glowed softly, giving just enough bluish light for him to see a staircase below although it had made everything seem slightly distorted.
"Watch your step," he heard the Divine Priest say.
'Yeah, now you say it. I could have fallen and shattered my skull if I wasn't more careful,' Aeric thought with slight annoyance. He didn't like at all to be told to do something when he had already done or was about to do it, now it felt like he was doing it only because he was told to.
The staircase was winding and it led him deeper into the chamber, with each step he took, it creaked slightly beneath his weight, causing him to worry that the whole thing might break anyway. Didn't matter how careful he was.
As he descended, he felt the air grow denser, carrying with it the undeniable scent of old magic and earth. The floor opened into a wide circular chamber where the walls seemed to sing with power, lined with special drawings of celestial bodies and ancient symbols.
The center of the chamber was bare except for a large, cracked sigil inscribed into the stone floor as it shimmered faintly with a dull light. Overhead, the ceiling was arched, disappearing into the shadows above, leaving him to feel as though he was standing beneath an endless void.
'This looks like an inner sanctum alright,' Aeric thought. 'What an ominous place.' His eyes danced around the room cautiously. He couldn't quite pinpoint what made the place so unsettling, maybe it was the disconcerting stillness, or the feeling that something was watching him from within the stone itself.
"Prepare yourself for the tests," the Divine Priest's voice echoed through the chamber, breaking the silence as he began to arrange the needed supplements. As usual, his tone was flat and emotionless.
Aeric blinked, confused at what the Priest meant. So he asked. "What do you mean, prepare? What am I supposed to do?"
The Divine Priest looked at him with a gaze that could freeze a sea of magma, and in his cold, unfeeling tone, he said, "Remove your clothes."
Aeric's heart skipped a beat, and his eyes widened as a wave of disbelief crashed over him. "You said what now?"
'I don't know why this feels so wrong... but something about this is off. What the hell kind of test requires this?'
In order to understand what was happening, Aeric decided his best bet was to ask questions. Although he had to be careful of how he structured them, in order not to draw suspicion from the wise Priest.
"So... uhm." He cleared his throat again. "This test is gonna like... tell you what my Class and Main Skill are?"
"No. Not that. This will reveal the truth of your Divinity," the Priest explained absently, still focusing on the ground. "The aim of the test is to find out if you have any amount of Divinity inside of you. If you have a Divine Body and if there's Divinity present. That way we can be sure that you truly performed the Coming of Age and you are actually Awakened."
"Oh. That's interesting."
A stream of relief rushed through Aeric. His Personalized Class was still safe! No one knew about the God Tyrant, and even after this, no one would have to know! This was awesome. Why has eve even been so worried in the first place?
"I am bound to my Beast Companion," he pointed out to the Priest. "Doesn't that show that I'm already Awakened?"
"It is much more nuanced than that, Son Aeric."
The Prince stayed silent after that. 'Well this gets more ominous every second.'
"Are the tests difficult?" he asked.
The Priest rose to his full height and looked at him. "No."
Everything was arranged now and the magical objects already seemed to reverberate through the stone floor. As the Divine Priest spoke, the air around them thickened, vibrating with energy. He thrust his hand into the air and shouted a strong sentence of power. "Reveal the Awakened Bridge!"
Suddenly, the room darkened, transforming into a realm of pure darkness. In the very center of this realm, a bridge appeared — dark and ethereal. It extended out into a void that hadn't been there moments before. It hovered over nothingness, a thin path of bright light and shadow suspended in midair.
'What the hell is this?' Aeric's mind raced.
"You stand before the Awakened Bridge," the Divine Priest's voice echoed from afar, some distance behind him. "Walk it, Son of Starlight. Let us see your Divinity revealed."