Azrael looked directly at the patriarch, ignoring all the people who surrounded him. They locked gazes for a while before Azrael walked in with a calm, smug smile.
There was no pressure, just a calm entrance. He was used to such gazes, especially when he had to fight in an open cage with numerous eyes watching him.
In the center of the room was a crimson pillar. It emitted chaotic waves of energy, calm and volatile at the same time. It soothed him while crushing him. The heat threatened to cook him alive, while the chill was enough to freeze him in place.
But Azrael approached the pillar calmly.
From the memory in his mind, the pillar was only meant to push the body to the extreme until it felt threatened enough to awaken their core.
'I can't believe angels have it easy, though,' Azrael mused as he got closer to the pillar.
But he did not dwell too much on the thought.
Each step he took drew gasps from the audience, as well as scorn from some others.
As he got within 5 meters, the feeling intensified. Azrael's face shrank into horror. He felt too weak to even take the next step.
But he held on. Azrael took another step forward, closer to the pillar.
[Ding! Detected that the host is under a curse.]
[The curse has made it impossible for the host to tap into their dormant powers]
Azrael's step halted. He looked at the system message. He stood rooted in place, as he scanned through the memory in his head, looking for anyone that he could have offended.
None. Nothing popped up. He had always been in the Malvorin estate. Nothing could ever escape the sight of the patriarch or the elders.
Murmurs spread across the hall.
"What happened?" One of the audience members asked another person beside him.
"He can't even handle the power of the awakening pillar," another muttered in disgust.
But they all avoided saying something disrespectful.
[The system has broken the curse placed on the host]
As the words flashed in his vision, an explosion burst from where Azrael stood. Waves of energy spread out in a massive torrent, filling the entire hall in an instant.
But none of the spectators were affected. A casual wave from one of the elders stopped the energy.
Everyone exclaimed in disbelief as Azrael's form began to clear from the haze. His crimson hair flowed regally, and his horn shone brighter.
A scoff escaped his lips as he dipped his hands into his pockets. 'To think that this body was under a curse,' he mused.
"Congratulations to the tenth heir of the Malvorin clan on awakening his core." Just then, the words came from the patriarch's personal butler, resonating through the entire hall like a drum.
That was when the daze in everyone's eyes vanished.
"He finally awakened on his third try," people whispered among themselves.
In a streak of silver light, everyone in the hall vanished, reappearing outside the clan's main building.
The only people remaining were the Patriarch, the great elders, the elders, Azrael's siblings, the patriarch's butler, and Azrael himself.
The patriarch only looked at Azrael with calm eyes before looking to his side again, to his personal butler.
No words were needed, the butler knew what to do.
In a flicker of silver, much more precise and calm compared to the one that teleported everyone away, the Patriarch and his butler vanished.
The same happened to the rest; they all vanished, not even bothering to congratulate Azrael on his successful awakening.
"Hey, yo," the voice suddenly came from the stands.
It was none other than Dante, the fifth child of the Patriarch.
His hair was a mix of green and red. His eyes were pink.
He was not normal compared to the Malvorin clan's members. His red eyes were diluted, and his supposed crimson hair was mixed with another color.
Only his crimson horns were untouched, protruding from each side of his head in an elegant style.
According to the rumors that were spreading in the estate, his mutation was due to one of his skills.
He floated calmly in the air, descending with an undisputed air of authority.
Beside him was Sylas, the ninth child, and Azrael's immediate elder brother.
They landed softly before Azrael.
"You finally awakened, I thought you would end up becoming a vegetable in the clan estate," Dante joked, patting him on the shoulder while laughing.
Azrael gave him a smug look. "It seems you don't know the weight of my potential, the awakening pillar only failed to pull it out of me since it was too much," Azrael boasted, raising his head high with pride.
Sylas's head snapped to meet him. "Or you meant your potential was too bleak; it was barely found after continued pressure."
Azrael's shoulders shrank as the words hit him. "I never thought of that," he muttered.
"Obviously," Sylas scoffed.
"Stop the bickering. Instead of stressing him, we should let him go for the assessment. I can't wait to join him in battle, especially against those crazy angels."
Hesitantly, Sylas nodded. But Azrael did not stop; he was about to talk again when he felt something on his lips, clenching them tightly against each other.
At this, Dante only smiled calmly.
"Sylas, why don't we give him a ride before we go back?" Dante said.
Sylas only nodded gently.
Before Azrael's eyes, the entire space changed, appearing before his door.
It did not feel like teleportation or fast movement; it was as if they simply stepped out of the place they were into a new place.
'What the hell just happened?" He wondered.
"Bye-bye," Dante said, kicking him lightly in the back.
Azrael's body crashed against the door, opening it from the force.
He flew inside, falling face-first on the floor.
Sylas just shut the door like what had happened was nothing.
Both of them vanished from that spot again, not even wasting time there.