Ascension of the last Celestial

Fire.

To be precise, a burning building sat in front of Valerian. It was burning in purple-black flames, casting a violet glow on the surrounding trees.

Valerian was kneeling in front of the burning building. He was younger, smaller, weaker, unable to do anything against the raging inferno devouring the orphanage.

The screams of children burning alive could be heard from inside the building.

Valerian, in his 5-year-old body, just knelt there crying. "Please, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please forgive me."

But the fire didn’t stop, it never does. It kept burning, turning the children into unrecognizable, charred corpses. But someone walked out of the building.

It was Aurelia. Her body was beaten and broken. Her arm bending in a direction that made his stomach turn, her leg was clearly broken, but she didn’t seem to care, walking on it, twisting it and making it even more disturbing. Her entire left side had been burned away, leaving the skin still warm and popping.

She walked over to the crying Valerian and stopped in front of him. She bent down and, with speed that made it impossible to see her hand, or perhaps her hand was always there, she closed her hand around Valerian’s throat.

Valerian tried to make a sound, but the air in his lungs was completely gone. Not a sound escaped him as Aurelia continued to choke the life out of his eyes with her one good hand.

The last thing Valerian saw was her gaze burning with hate and anger. "All your fault! All your fault! All your fault!"

Aurelia began to scream into his face. Somewhere from the burning building, the screaming of the children stopped and was replaced by the same chant. "All your fault! All your fault! All your fault! All your fault!"

As the light left Valerian’s eyes, he was left with only one thought. ’I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.’

Valerian opened his purple eyes with a panicked look. He threw away his blanket and crawled against the backboard of his bed. Only then did the panic go away enough for him to realize where he was.

He wasn’t a small child anymore. He wasn’t kneeling in the dirt in front of the burning orphanage anymore. He was in his room in the royal palace.

Even though he slept without a shirt, his entire body was covered in sweat. Normally, his lean yet muscular physique would leave anyone envious. Now, it just looked like a child who had a horrible nightmare... again.

’Again this nightmare...’

Finally calming down his raging heart, Valerian leaned his head against the backboard. It had been two days since Freya allowed him to go into the Voidwoods, the place where Valerian lost everything, and both nights now, he had the same nightmare.

A nightmare he didn’t need to be a psychologist to interpret, the meaning of it was clear.

Even though Valerian acted a lot like the untouchable genius boy the king adopted, he never forgot. He never forgot the night of his awakening, the screams of the children as they were being ripped apart by the beasts that were attracted by his awakening.

He also never forgot Aurelia. How could he? She was the person that took care of him and all the other children since they got to the orphanage, and since Valerian couldn’t remember the time before, she was all he had.

He vividly remembers the last look she gave him before she got killed by the giant serpentine monster. Her look said that SHE’S sorry she couldn’t protect them. But Valerian knew the truth, the only reason the monsters were there in the first place was because of his awakening.

So, every now and then, nightmares similar to the one he had the past nights would appear when he slept. The message would always be the same: it’s his fault.

That’s why he wanted to go into the Voidwoods. Sure, testing out his void lightning is also part of the reason, but the real reason is that maybe if he kills the large monster, the nightmares and all the guilt he carries will stop.

Standing up from his now completely wet bed, Valerian went into the shower to wash away the fear and guilt that still stuck to him like the sweat.

After a long shower, he put on just some loose-fitting pants, not bothering to dress fully. He sat down on the chair at the table and looked at the clock.

It was barely past midnight. Valerian sighed. ’Haaa, I don’t think I can sleep again, and in the late morning, we will leave for the princess’s birthday.’

Even though the real party would only start in the evening, because they were royalty visiting another nation, they would already arrive in the morning to have a long day of political discussions and half-hearted compliments.

’I don’t wanna go.’

Before, Valerian didn’t really have a problem with going, but the nightmare completely took away any motivation he had.

’Now, what do I do for the rest of the night?’

After racking his brain for something to do, something came to his mind. ’Can I bind my sword with my mana itself?’

It had been an idea that had been loosely floating in his brain since yesterday. Because yesterday, when he imbued his mana into the sword to make it recognize him as the owner, he felt a connection that was more like his affinities than anything else.

So maybe, with the help of his unique skill [Law Breaker] and the insane mana conductivity of the sword, he can turn the sword into some kind of affinity.

Valerian reached into his space pocket and pulled out the beautiful longsword given to him by his parents. It still had the midnight black blade with purple accents and silver ornaments around the hilt. The handle was long enough to fit both hands while also not being so long that it comes in the way when one-handing.

After marveling at the wonderful craftsmanship, he went to the middle of the room and sat down, crossing his legs. He laid the sword on his lap, tracing along the blade with his fingers.

"Okay, let’s try this."

Valerian began to channel his mana into the sword. Without a delay, the mana got absorbed by the sword and the purple accents around the blade began to glow, showing that the mana was flowing.

Valerian went on to the next step and activated his unique skill. At first, the skill wasn’t given a command, just staying active and waiting for Valerian to tell it what to do.

After seeing if the skill would react with the sword on its own and being disappointed at the result, Valerian began to weave the mana that was flowing in the sword with [Law Breaker], and then he felt that the sword began to feel lighter. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the sword started to turn into pure purple and blue particles of mana. These mana embers slowly flowed into his sternum where his core was located.

Paired with the slow disappearance of the sword, a warmth started to spread across his chest. Soon, the whole sword disappeared in a shower of mana and the room returned to darkness.

’Huuu.’

Letting out a slow breath, Valerian deactivated [Law Breaker]. ’Now, let’s see.’

He began to feel his core and there it was. Similar to how there was a part of his core for each of his now three affinities, there was something new.

He called upon this new "affinity", and the same sword that just disappeared formed in his hand. "Since it kinda works like an affinity, I wonder..."

Focusing on summoning the sword again, Valerian sent his mana to the "affinity" and, to his surprise, a second identical sword appeared in his other hand. His eyes lit up with joy at that.

’I can create as many swords as I want!’

All the different ways to use this new ability came to his mind. Valerian almost forgot another ability of the sword, the ability to change its shape.

"Can I..."

Focusing on the weapon, a new shape appeared in his hand. It was a long black spear with a black blade, with the same purple accents and silver ornaments where the shaft met the blade.

"Woah."

’So I can summon any weapon I can think of as many times as I have mana? No, wait, why only weapons? Dad said it can change its shape, so why should it only be confined to weapons?’

Valerian began to push his mana again, and now in his head appeared a black spoon. "It works!"

’The possibilities are endless!’

’Status’

The rest of the status didn’t change, but there was one thing that was different.

[Affinities: Space, Cosmic Fire, Void Lightning]

[Bound Weapon: -]

Instead of gaining a new affinity like it happened with the void lightning, the weapon appeared as a "Bound Weapon".

"So, I have to give it a name?"

"Hmmm, what about Twilight."

[Bound Weapon: Twilight]

While thinking about the ways to use his newly acquired weapon, the room got illuminated by the merciless glow of sunlight.

Holding a hand before his eyes, Valerian’s eyes squinted and he let out a hiss like a vampire. "It’s already morning? I’m sure the process of binding didn’t take that long."

Looking at the clock at his nightstand, the ugly truth came to light. It was already 7 o’clock, and before Valerian could accept the truth that he spent the entire night binding his weapon, the door burst open and his mother walked into the room, a group of maids following closely behind her.

"It’s time to get ready, Val!"

Standing up, Valerian begrudgingly went into the shower and got ready to depart to the elven princess’s birthday.