I am the Only Son of Nyx

Nobody has ever taken this long to digest the Blessed Drop of Hebe.

In the past, there were many who had the unfortunate fate of being a Lesser Angel like Kai, but none had reached this far. None has passed the Blood Rite. Hard to know whether this slow digestion is normal for a Lesser Angel when there’s no previous case.

However, the longest Angel with two Divine Locks took about twenty minutes to digest.

It has never gone past the twenty-minute mark.

"Professor Hera," Dean Lincoln turned towards her. "Is he your student?"

"Yes, Angel Kai is in my class." She nodded in confirmation.

Outside, she looked calm, but she was nervous inside.

"Did you go overboard in favouring him?" His brows dipped into a frown, and his voice was stern. A warning that this might become trouble. "You’re not supposed to show any favour to a Lesser Angel."

Considering that Kai is a Lesser Angel during the Blood Rite, he should be dead.

No Lesser Angels has ever passed the Blood Rite.

For Kai to not only win but dominate, Dean Lincoln suspected that Professor Hera was aiding him too much. In fact, giving help to a Lesser Angel is prohibited. Neither students nor professors were allowed to do that.

"I showed no favour towards him," Professor Hera gestured toward Professor Ian. "You can confirm with Professor Ian. I rarely went out of the summit and went dark. If I did, it would be for Matilda. She’s a High Angel."

"Is that true?" Dean Lincoln shifted to Professor Ian.

"Yes," Professor Ian nodded after a brief pause. "She rarely went out of our sight."

Realizing that this might go badly for Kai, Professor Hera wracked her brain.

She didn’t know what was going on inside Kai, but she had to get rid of Dean Lincoln for now.

"Dean Lincoln," She called as she remembered something. "I heard you and the other Deans have been busy regarding the situation north of Cloud Alpha. Do you have the time to handle this ceremony?"

"Hmm," Dean Lincoln looked at his watch. "I do have another meeting soon."

"In that case, allow us to oversee the ceremonies," Professor Hera offered. "We’ll see through these students’ complete digestion, and then bring them back to the academies for the next ceremony, Culling of the Nonentity."

Dean Lincoln glanced at the other professors and saw that they didn’t mind.

After all, the situation was dire, and these ceremonies were less important.

"Very well," Dean Lincoln gave the staff to Professor Hera. "I’ll leave this to the three of you."

Once he handed the responsibility over, he exited the shrine and flew away.

Emerald feathered wings magically sprouted from his back as he flew away. No need for him to use the ship when he could fly faster than the ship, way faster. The ship was simply to host the students.

"Can you look over the others?" Professor Hera asked. "Some should be finished by now."

"Sure," Professor Ian shrugged. He doesn’t mind, especially since most of the students outside came from his academy. "What about you? Are you going to keep an eye on him? If he took this long, he’ll probably end up dead once he wakes up."

"I’m his professor," She sighed. "I need to at least try to help him. I’ll come out soon."

"I’ll be waiting on the ship," Professor Richard finally said. He had been distracted, and he has no students here, so he doesn’t care much about what was going on. "I don’t want to waste my time doing this."

Not even waiting for an answer, he walked away and exited the altar.

A few minutes later.

Kai’s eyelids finally trembled a little bit, and then he finally opened his eyes.

He immediately looked down at his hand and clenched it a couple of times.

Considering that he had gotten some sort of blessing from Hebe’s statue, exactly like the other students did, it shouldn’t be a surprise for him to feel stronger. But he is surprised. Almost as if he wasn’t expecting an increase in power.

And then he opened his status window to check his physical stats.

...

[Physical Stats]

Strength: 19 → 30

Speed: 19 → 31

Dexterity: 37 → 45

Constitution: 31 → 39

Mana: 90 → 99

...

An overall increase in stats. Thank Zeus. I thought it wouldn’t do anything to me.

Kai’s curled up a little, happy with the result.

"It’s been more than thirty minutes, you know."

Startled, Kai snapped his gaze up and saw Professor Hera sitting on the edge of the raised altar. She was facing away while playing the staff in her hand, the one he recognized as the one Dean Lincoln was holding.

"Is that... bad?" Kai asked, uncertain what he should feel about that.

"Yes, it’s really bad," Professor Hera answered without turning. "You stand out too much."

"I didn’t do it deliberately," Kai rose to his feet and then looked around. It was only he and Professor Hera inside the altar. No sign of the others. "Where is everyone? Where’s the Dean? Did I get left behind?"

"All of them are outside," She finally stood up and turned to face him. "What happened, Kai? What took you so long to digest the Blessed Drop of Hebe? And why is there no light coming from you?"

Kai looked down again.

His body wasn’t emanating anything, and from Professor Hera’s reaction, it should.

"I guess above everything else, I still only have one Divine Lock," Kai smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. His lie was blatant, and he knew it. "I swear I didn’t do it on purpose."

Professor Hera sighed and went to check on him.

Mana condensed at the tips of her index and middle fingers, and she pressed them firmly to Kai’s nape to check on him. She could feel it, the Halo was forming itself together inside him, seamless and unhurried.

No cause for concern as it seemed the digestion process went fine.

Just that, it took longer for him.

"Come on," She headed to the exit. "You still need to help your body digest it."

"Alright," Kai quickly followed her closely.

Kai was surprised that Professor Hera didn’t probe even further—even though she definitely knew that he was lying. And frankly, it made him feel bad to lie to her like this. But I still can’t trust her completely, especially when it’s regarding the Primordial Lock.

From the start, he knew Professor Hera had an agenda of her own, and it involved him.

Because of that fact, Kai still couldn’t trust her fully.

In truth, the moment the Blessed Drop of Hebe’s blessing seeped into his skin, the Primordial Lock uncharacteristically reacted quickly. It immediately latched onto the energy and molded it into something else entirely.

Initially, the blessing took the form of a radiant light.

And when the Primordial Lock finished, it became grey and brittle.

Kai didn’t know what it was, but it’s certainly not light anymore.

Everything happened under his watch, yet he barely knew anything that happened.

And that’s why it took him far longer than normal.

Considering his lightning-fast absorption speed, it’s impossible for him to digest that long.

I don’t really know much about what happened. Once I did, I could check what exactly this weird Primordial Lock did.

Kai and the other students ran laps outside to work up a sweat—and help their bodies digest the blessing even faster. Some of the students fell, not in pain, but rather a full sensation that seemed to choke their lungs.

It was a sign that their bodies couldn’t handle the full might of Hebe’s blessing.

And the professors help them push out the excess energy until the warmth is gone.

Knowing that this would be detrimental to the strength of their Halos, some students pushed their bodies past their limits. But when one of them got a nosebleed and passed out, the others weren’t keen on following his steps.

Only the High Angels managed to absorb absolutely everything.

Soon enough, some of the students could activate their Halos.

It made their bodies seethes with pale golden, almost white light, which was a sign of a normal Halo.

Matilda and Layra were the only ones with colored Halos.

As a Supernal of Athena, Matilda’s halo blazes a brilliant gold, representing Aegis, the shield of Athena, and also her protector aspect. On the other hand, as a Supernal of Apollo, Layra’s Halo burns a rich sable-gold, like the ichor-lit flesh of divine beings.

Most students marveled at them.

Both were the only ones with a colored Halo.

At least, most thought that was the case until Dorian activated his Halo.

It was bronze red. Fainter than the ones coming from the High Angels, but it’s still colored.

"Kai, quickly activate your Halo!" Layra encouraged cheerfully, which placed Kai on the spot, as he didn’t want to do that. He could activate it. At least he felt like he could—but he did not know what would come out. "Don’t be shy."

Almost instantly, Kai became the center of attention.

He wanted to try activating his Halo, but he was afraid that it would be too bizarre.

On the other side, it was hard to say no to those sparkling eyes that Layra was giving him.

"Did you not see what happened?" Matilda interjected—noting his evident struggle. "It took him over half an hour just to absorb the Blessed Drop of Hebe. His Halo is almost certainly colorless. And even if it did have a hue, do you honestly think he could manifest it right now?

"He hadn’t fully completed the digestion process." She added and crossed her arms.

"Am I talking to you?" Layra’s face contorted as she turned her head toward Matilda. "In case you can’t see it—I’m talking to him. I’m not talking to you. Who are you to answer for him? We aren’t in the Blood Rite anymore, but that doesn’t change your position here."

"Just stating the obvious," Matilda shrugged and walked away.

"She’s right," Kai decided to intervene, going along with Matilda. "I still need to run. After, I will see if I can activate it like you."

"Are you agreeing with her?" Layra asked. Her voice was dulcet—but there was venom in it that Kai could hear. "You still haven’t told me why you decided to pardon her after what she did, and now you’re siding with her."

"It’s not like th—" Kai couldn’t even finish his sentence as she already walked away.

She headed straight to the ship.

"She’s exactly like Bella," Kai sighed, recalling how Bella would adopt that very same tone whenever she was angry—the one Layra had just used. And, of course, she had the same infuriating habit of dredging up anything she could use against him. "Layra’s personality is a carbon copy of hers."

Moments later, Kai was finally able to get rid of the warm sensation on his nape.

And as expected, he was the last one to finish.

He came back to the ship, apologized to the professors and students for taking up their time, and only then did the ship sail again. Back to the academy.