Chapter 13: ReAwakening... impossible

Chapter Thirteen

"He’s just like us, Elias." The girl with dark-brown hair spoke softly.

Her dark eyes remained fixed on Orion, and within them was an emotion that was almost impossible to conceal: respect and wistfulness.

"You’re right." Elias also looked at Orion. The young man’s gaze was equally complicated.

"We were all dealt the same trashy talent..." He paused. "And yet the difference between him and us couldn’t be any clearer."

The girl remained silent.

"Everything we lacked..." Elias’s gaze followed Orion’s sweat-covered body as he continued training without rest.

"...he possesses."

His voice carried a hint of admiration. "Courage. Skills. Willpower. And the talent to learn. He has all of it."

Elias’s eyes became wistful. "I really do believe..."

He stared at Orion for a long moment. "That he didn’t deserve to be someone with a G-grade talent."

A faint silence settled over the rooftop.

"No." Elias shook his head. "Not at all."

His gaze remained fixed on the figure training beneath the moonlight.

"He deserved a better talent."

His voice became softer.

"He deserved far more."

The two were none other than Orion’s best friends, Racheal and Elias. Just like him, they possessed low-grade talents... Racheal had an E-grade talent, while Elias had an F-grade talent. And just like Orion, the duo had also been chased out by their respective families and sent into the wilderness to die.

To their powerful and reputable families, children like them were nothing more than disgraces who deserved nothing but death. But they wouldn’t simply lay down their hands and accept their worthless lives being taken. The trio, alongside the rest of the children deemed as trash, had been sent into the wilderness to die.

Those times were truly atrocious and filled with peril. The trio had mostly been able to survive because of Orion’s intervention at most times. He was a calm and warm fellow, but when the situation called for it... then he could very well become the most cold-blooded killer anyone had ever known.

He didn’t yield. His desire to live and grow was something far beyond the norm. His willpower, and the fact that he always pushed forward no matter how difficult things became, made him someone the duo respected deeply.

Not only them, but Orion had also become the leader of all the children, leading them through the wilderness. Most of them died along the way. After all, the world... especially the forests... was filled with danger lurking around every corner.

Nowhere was safe, especially for abandoned children. As the days went by, more and more children died. And the more children that died, the more the light in Orion’s eyes seemed to dim. It was as if he had also forgotten that he was a child just like the rest.

He felt more than the norm as well, and that was why his kindness was truly beyond the norm. The fact that he was willing to protect others even when his own life was on the line showed just how overwhelming his kindness was.

It bordered on insanity, to be sincere. But when he also felt hatred and anger... those emotions went beyond normal as well. He literally became the definition of a monster whenever that happened.

He could be as bright as an angel... or as terrifying as the agent of darkness. A monster and at the same time an angel. That figure was Orion Stormblade.

Racheal turned her gaze toward Orion, who was now practicing the combat skill taught by Dad. Among the children that had been sent into the wilderness to die... the ones who had been abandoned... only the trio had survived long enough to be found by Mark Stormblade.

He had later brought them into the Stormblade Orphanage, which was now their home. It had been their home for a long while now. And in one word... they could understand how Orion must have been feeling.

The fact that Iris’s condition was getting worse and there was nothing they could do to save her was devastating, not only to him but to all of them. The duo had a higher talent grade than him, and yet Orion possessed the will and skills to fight, as well as the courage to face danger over and over again.

And those were things they lacked. With a low-grade talent like his, trying to ascend and become a true warrior was nothing but a dream. That was the harsh reality. And yet Orion didn’t waver or shake in his conviction and belief.

Even now, he continued pushing forward. And now that their Dad was gone, Orion felt all the responsibilities fall onto his shoulders. In one word... the weight of providing for the family, as well as trying to keep the Stormblade Orphanage afloat, had dropped right onto Orion’s shoulders.

That much pressure would have caused most people to buckle under the weight. But Orion didn’t. He was different from most, after all. Just as he hadn’t buckled when he was leading the abandoned children toward salvation, he wouldn’t buckle under the weight placed upon him now.

He truly was someone the duo respected a lot.

Racheal’s and Elias’s voices were quiet and somber as they spoke. "Sometimes, I wonder... if Orion had a high-grade talent, just how awesome do you think he would be?" Elias asked, his gaze locked onto Orion, who was training below.

Racheal’s gaze was firm as the images of Orion entered her mind... the young boy who had taken everything onto his shoulders and led the abandoned children through the wilderness with the hope of not dying.

And then there was the Orion who, despite his low-grade talent and weak Level Zero status, still faced danger over and over again in an attempt to support the family. Without even thinking, she gave her answer from the deepest part of her mind.

"If he had a high-level talent that deserved him..." Racheal paused, her gaze remaining fixed on Orion. "He would be the best warrior to ever exist in the history of humanity."

Elias smiled. He didn’t think Racheal’s answer was absurd or exaggerated at all. Instead, he believed the same thing. If only Orion could undergo a reawakening and obtain a high-grade talent... everything would change for the better.

Elias sighed. But alas... that wasn’t possible. Reawakening was something that only happened in myths, after all.

Meanwhile, back in the dungeon designated as Dungeon X, Michael fell to his knees, his eyes filled with dread as he looked at the stairs that seemed to stretch toward eternity above him.

"This trial is impossible..." It is impossible. How long had he been climbing? Hours? Days? Years? He had no idea, but he couldn’t do it anymore. He had given up.

Following that thought, the voice of the ancient being that Michael believed to be a god reached his ears. "You have failed the trial." "Your punishment is death."

After saying that, Michael was filled with dread as he could feel that death was before him. Perhaps he would have screamed or begged for mercy to be spared, but after witnessing so much and going through everything... death felt totally comforting.

It felt like the perfect release from this hell which looked like heaven. With that, Michael’s body started to disintegrate into little particles and floated away, dispersing into nothingness.

Michael, the last survivor among the twenty that entered Dungeon X, was now dead, meaning all twenty were gone... dead in all sorts of ways.

The ancient being that sat on the white throne looked at the last human failing the trial before he could even climb to the 30th floor, with no change in his expression. It didn’t expect much from human challengers, after all.

They were all so weak-willed and gave up easily. There was no way a human would be able to pass the trial. The trial where even various other mighty races, such as the dragons, phoenixes, demons, divine races, and many more races that could wipe off humans in the blink of an eye... all of them had failed the trial.

So a human challenging it was a stupid thing to begin with. The figure looked away from the staircase, toward the top of the trial stairs and into the distance.

Just above those stairs, on a white altar, floated a small multicolored orb. A rainbow orb, small-sized like an egg, it floated there peacefully and calmly.

"It has been countless ages already..." the being spoke, each of his words shaking the galaxy that was hanging above him. "It has been several millennia since the Origin has had no master."

"Just how many more years?"

"How many more ages would need to pass before a worthy being would emerge..."

"A being worthy of wielding the Origin."