"It's nice to meet you three. My name is Terrence." Terrence introduced himself, still refusing to reveal his ranking.
"I'm Treasure! I'm an A-Ranked Awakener!" Treasure beamed proudly.
"I'm Eiselle, and as for the other part.." Eiselle smiled softly. "I'll tell you when I find out."
"That's cool agh, we're extremely interested to see how this fight will agh go." Crank chuckled, twitching between words. "I can count how many times on my agh fingers I've seen a human agh challenge an S-Ranked monster and usually it doesn't go well."
"Yeah, you've got a really nice face, Terrence, but do your fighting skills match it?! Can't wait to see!" Happy said, bubbly as ever. Terrence couldn't help but laugh.
Nyashara stepped forward with a slow, seductive sway, her four black-flame-like tails curling behind her.
"Personally, I think they do.." she murmured, running a tender hand down Terrence's chest and abs. "Because I don't think Eiselle or Treasure would be standing side-by-side a weak man."
"You've got that right!" Treasure hopped onto Terrence's back with a giggle. He caught her effortlessly, like she weighed nothing.
"Why don't you three tell us about yourselves?" Eiselle asked, curious but polite.
"Well-" Nyashara stepped back. "We are just coming back from a Tier 1 Ruin-Type Rend. We completed the quest for our guild, the Rendbound Order."
"The Rendbound Order?" Terrence raised a brow. "How many guilds in Xyani are there?" If he remembered right, there were five. Xyani was a fully guild-based kingdom.
"There's five," Nyashara confirmed. "Some complete quests solo, others—like us—take teams. Guilds compete for strength, prestige, who closes the most dangerous Rends, and who holds the highest ranking overall."
Happy hopped in. "Right now our guild's in third. Not bad, right?! We're behind the Rendseekers and number one, Shadow Renders!"
"Which is agh unfair because both of their guilds have Prime Avatars in them aghh!" Crank groaned. "Behind us are the Rend Weavers..and in last place, the Rendbreakers."
Terrence's eyes widened slightly.
'That's right. Equinox and Continuum Prime Avatars are in Xyani.'
Continuum, part of the Shadow Renders.
Equinox, part of the Rendseekers.
His mind flicked to the lore of Rising of the Primordial Mage.
There were seven Primes-
Genesis Prime [Life & Creation]
Ruin Prime [Destruction & Death]
Order Prime [Fate & Order]
Chaos Prime [Freedom & Chaos]
Continuum Prime [Space & Time]
Equinox Prime [Balance & Harmony]
Void Prime [Nothingness & Infinity]
These Primes fought in the reality breaking War of Eternity to determine who deserved dominion over everything, but no one knows who won as all of the Primes just vanished or so it was believed.
The only evidence that the Primes existed were tears called Rends and the coming of Awakeners, but some Awakeners were lucky to obtain essence and fragments of power from the Primes.
Prime Avatars.
Prime Avatars were believed to be extremely fortunate and chosen by the Primes. They were revered and well received to the point they were put on the highest ladder and top of the power chain. Regular Awakeners couldn't hope to ever achieve the same power a Prime Avatar would have.
Terrence's blood hummed with excitement.
He couldn't wait to meet them.
He stepped forward, his turn finally arriving. Treasure slid off his back, landing gracefully beside him.
The gate guard was a dragon hybrid with blue slit eyes. He looked him up and down skeptically.
"Don't know if you're either oblivious or secretly the strongest human around, but I hope your fight doesn't disappoint us. When you enter the portal, you will instantly be teleported into the arena, so I hope you're ready-"
"Terrence Danbrose."
"Terrence..the magical detector shows you're awakened, so you're set. And good luck. Against someone like Surtur, you'll definitely need it."
"We'll see about that." Terrence chuckled lightly. "But I appreciate it."
He felt hands on his arms. It was Eiselle and Treasure standing beside him, giving him warm, heart-stealing smiles.
Crank gave him a shaky thumbs-up.
Happy formed a heart with both skeletal hands.
Nyashara winked with a slow, sultry smile.
Terrence smirked back.
Then stepped into the portal.
The moment Terrence's foot crossed the shimmering threshold—
The world snatched him forward.
Light spiraled.
Colors warped.
Gravity flipped like reality had just been slapped upside down.
For a split second, he felt weightless and then-
BOOM.
He slammed onto solid stone.
A monstrous roar answered him instantly.
Terrence rose slowly, his eyes reflected the blazing surroundings.
The arena was gigantic.
A stadium carved from obsidian, runes pulsing molten-red across every wall. Thousands of spectators from beastfolk, demons, elves, ogres, hybrids, fairies, etc. and Awakeners from every guild—packed the stands.
The air trembled with anticipation.
[Guess this will be a good time to tell you that your Stats finished distributing..]
Before Terrence could answer-
FWOOOOSH!!
He erupted in bright golden light, lighting up the entire arena.
And every spectator froze.