Chapter 19: True Awakening
Asher stood silently in his room, removing his clothes with deliberate motions. A flurry of thoughts raced through his mind, uncertainty gripped him, and he had no idea what to expect or what might come next.
From the fragmented memories he possessed, the original Asher had never once stepped foot on the training grounds. They were reserved solely for those who had recently awakened, serving as a place of preparation and training until the age of eighteen.
Upon reaching the age of eighteen, every trainee was expected to confront real combat, undertaking missions assigned by the Wargrave family.
Though Asher was only seventeen, he doubted he would remain in the First Training Ground for the entirety of the year, especially in light of the true awakening the Primarch had spoken of.
The true awakening was a sacred rite of the Wargrave family, a ritual that stood apart from the conventional awakening. While the standard awakening involved the use of an orb to activate one’s Astra veins, the Wargrave family’s tradition was far more brutal and unforgiving.
Six months after the initial awakening of their Astra veins, the family’s Suns and Moons were cast into a wild, untamed forest with no guidance or aid. From that point on, survival became the only teacher.
They either returned having seen the world for what it truly was, cruel, vast, and indifferent, or perished, swallowed whole by its merciless depths.
From the tender age of fifteen, the moment their Astra veins first stirred, the Wargrave family exposed their direct descendants to the raw, unfiltered horrors of the world. It was their way of forging strength through suffering, of shaping heirs through hardship.
But Asher’s awakening had come late, at seventeen. His own trial, the true awakening, would begin in six months.