Chapter 47: Becoming Awakened
Finally, Nyx reached the third peak of the Holy Mountains. It had been a horrendous climb, but all the stamina training with her mother had paid off. Panting heavily, her forehead glistened with sweat despite the relentless snowstorm.
She looked around. She was currently standing at the peak of the mountain, a wide stone surface with snow on the ground unfolded before her eyes. At all corners of the surface, there were statues of the most powerful class patron gods and goddesses.
Though these statues looked like something crafted by humans, they were not. They were statues that had existed for thousands of years, and no one knew who made them. All they knew was that they could awaken their class if they prayed to the statue.
Because the statues were few and scattered around the world, many had tried to replicate them, but when people prayed to those replicas, there were no answers from the gods… hence, they were deemed useless and discarded.
Therefore, the various countries in Eos tried to monopolize the statues anytime they came across one and gathered them in a secure place where they would not be stolen or destroyed.
'From what I heard, it seems the Holy Mountain is one of the most secure places in the entire Vermilion Kingdom,' Nyx thought. 'The priest is one of the peak powerhouses, after all.'
"Hmmm, it seems I'm the only one who made it her—" Nyx stopped abruptly when she saw the figure of a familiar girl climbing to the top as well.
"Serena?" Nyx's eyes widened when she saw the petite, beautiful black girl who was gasping for air as she collapsed to the ground.
"Huff, huff, I made it! I thought I'd die!" she said, looking at the setting sun in the sky.
Nyx was at a loss for words. Out of everyone, she hadn't expected Serena to reach the peak, being the youngest and the weakest in their group.
'It had been stressful even for me, so how—how did Serena? How did she climb this far?' Nyx knew about her special circumstances and why she seemed to have an edge over everyone else.
However, Serena was just like any ordinary human.
Yet, yet…
"My body hurts, I just want to take a nap, ugh!"
"Hey, why did you do that?" Nyx said with a tight frown on her beautiful face as she helped her friend up. Although there was a frown, she was deeply worried that Serena might have exhausted and pushed herself to the limit.
"Maybe because I don't want to be left behind," Serena said, looking to the side. "I also want to protect others like you and Nox, not be the one who always needs protection."
"I…" Nyx paused. She felt the anger in the latter part of Serena's words and was at a loss for words. She had been paying attention only to herself and had never once asked her friends how they felt.
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?" Serena tilted her head in confusion.
"Sorry for not considering your feelings. I have been so focused on paying that bastard back that I have become selfish. If I'd known your feelings, I'd have trained more with you." Nyx said as she stretched her hand toward Serena.
"It's okay. It's not like you can look into my head and see what I'm thinking." Serena smiled and grabbed the hand, helping herself up.
The two friends then proceeded to look for the statues of the gods they wanted to pray to. The statues were scattered around the third peak, so the two had a difficult time searching. In the end, they had no choice but to split ways.
It proved to be the best decision because Serena soon saw the statue she was looking for. It was a statue of a valiant-looking elven man who held a bow and arrow pointed eastward. The man was donned in red armor with a helmet, and the tip of the arrow drawn on the bow glinted with a sharp light under the glare of the sun.
This was Eltharion, the god of Archery.
'I thought long and hard before making this decision,' Serena clenched her fist as she bowed down. 'Since I can't trade blows like Nox and Nyx, then I'll watch their back from a distance… I'll be an archer!'
Similarly, Nyx had found the statue she was looking for.
"Aurora," Nyx said with admiration and reverence in her voice. Her eyes were practically glowing as she stared at the noble statue her mother had talked so much about… the goddess all her sisters worshiped.
The statue depicted a lithe yet curvy woman in golden armor that accentuated her form. Her red hair flowed down her back, and she wore a helmet with wings on both sides that did not detract from her beauty.
Aina had always told Nyx how Aurora, the goddess of Dawn, Light, and Protection, had forged a bond with their race and how she would ride across the skies in her chariot of light, heralding the arrival of each day.
"Mom had said she was a real beauty," Nyx said aloud. "Her words couldn't be more true."
If her statue was this beautiful and radiated such power, how would she look in real life? Nyx wondered in amazement.
Pushing all the thoughts to the back of her head, she kneeled to declare her fate to the patron of the legendary Paladin class, a class that was very hard to get and exclusive only to a particular race.
"Pretty bold of her to pray to a goddess as selective as Aurora," an old man with white hair and eyes that held profound wisdom commented as he watched Nyx from a towering building that was shaped like a spire. It was built further inside the third peak, very close to the edge of the mountains.
Over the past decade, this man had seen lots of people pray to Aurora's statue to awaken the legendary Paladin class, but it had ended in failure. They had no choice but to pray to the other gods. This continued for a long time before it eventually came to light that this class only favored the powerful women who lived across the oceans far away from civilization.
The old man shook his head when he saw Nyx praying seriously.
"Except it's someone from—huh." The old man stopped abruptly when he saw the statue radiating intense white light.
This was a sign, a sign that the goddess had answered the prayer!
At first, the old man had been shocked, but as he watched the girl more, a sense of realization shone in his deep, profound eyes. "Now that I look closely, she does possess similarities to those brave women and someone else…"
The man stroked his chin, and the face of a certain tall man with eyes as dark as night itself appeared in his mind.
"Is she perhaps the daughter of Arthur and Aina?"
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