Chapter 2: Ceremony

After standing up and stretching Edwin stuck out his hand.

"Thanks, if you hadn't woken me up, I might have slept through the ceremony! Name's Edwin by the way."

The newcomer was a little surprised he'd thought Edwin would continue to give him a cold shoulder.

He reached out and took Edwins's hand in his own for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you, my name is James."

The duo began to follow the crowd while making small talk.

Upon walking into the Graduation Hall Edwin was once again stupefied by what he was seeing. Large banners were hung along the wall. They depicted images of past students of the academy and short descriptions of how they earned their place on the wall.

Many of them awoke powerful abilities and displayed exceptional prowess allowing the human race to advance further. Some of them destroyed enemies, some made magical devices, some even started powerful organizations of their own or gained a high position in the top organizations of the human race.

"They're pretty cool huh Edwin. Alot of them did some really amazing things, I myself however am far from having aspirations like them and ending up on the wall. Many of them see it as an achievement however, I see the banners as something closer to gravestones."

After taking a glance at James and seeing him look at a banner of a young woman he read it.

[Elizabeth Mckeller, (4054-4074) Elizabeth was a valiant member of the Human race. She single handedly held off two enemy armies and saved 3 solar systems from assured destruction by the Snarlack race.]

Edwin acknowledged James train of thought, (he's not wrong, with great power comes great responsibility, many of these people died in the process of advancing the human race.).

"If you don't aspire to get your own banner, then what are your goals?"

James couldn't help but laugh.

"Hm, I guess I have hopes for only two outcomes. I either want to awaken an ability that is just good enough to give me a life where I can take care of myself and those I love, that way no one ever forces me to use myself as a sacrifice for the Human race. My only other dream would be to awaken a terrifying power, far, far stronger than the next closest power, giving me the freedom to make my own choices and to not be a pawn in the system."

Edwin nodded he completely understood, those with weak abilities only had one outcome and that was struggling to survive let alone take care of those closest to you. Alternatively, those who awoke strong abilities only had two outcomes, be strong enough to control your own fate or end up as a sacrificial pawn to improve the lives of those above you.

Only with a mediocre ability could one live a simple life of just raising a family.

James and Edwin finally found a couple of seats. Right as they sat down an intercom turned on.

"Welcome graduating class of 4127. The graduation ceremony will begin in 15 minutes, please find a seat in the graduation hall."

Although Edwin's earlier excitement seemed to have died out, he couldn't help but have it reinvigorated by his chat with James and the approaching ceremony. They continued discussing their goals. Edwin hoped to awaken a strong power, he wanted to leave human territory and explore and discover new wonderful things in the universe.

"The graduation ceremony will now begin. Please remain silent and listen to the headmaster of Guardian Academy's speech."

A large Hologram flickered at the front of the graduation hall. An old man with a short beard and a wise face appeared.

He briefly congratulated the people in the room and explained how they would have their genes awakened in the room.

He tried to inspire them and convince them that regardless of whatever ability they obtained that they were useful and to work hard to increase the power of the Human race and overcome all obstacles that stand in its way.

As a close to his speech, he encouraged anyone who awoke an ability of increased intelligence in any manner to continue to stay at Guarding Academy and work on bringing the next generation up to become as fine and excellent as them.

As the hologram finally dimmed and turned off everyone began to cheer and scream in excitement, now is when it happens, there was a gentle roar and the banners slowly fluttered as if there was a wind blowing in the room.

Edwin could sense a warmness rising in his body, the awakening ceremony was such that energy would be flooded into the room slowly activating everyone's genes.

As the warmness increased Edwin felt something like a wall that blocked the warmness from entering the area around his glabella. Slowly he felt like the warmness was pushing on it harder and harder.

After a while he thought he heard something similar to glass cracking. The warmness finally reached the center of his glabella, and he could feel more warmness rushing through his body towards his glabella as if trying to fill a void.

Over time moans began to sound out throughout the room, awakening was a very comfortable feeling. Eventually the warmness vanished and a few moments later the hologram came back on.

The headmaster congratulated everyone in the room for awakening, before dismissing them and sending them home, he reminded them to return to Guardian Academy three days later to have their abilities read while they complete the awakening process.

Everyone was quite underwhelmed most people realized no change, very few felt a miniscule increase in strength or experienced a slightly clearer train of thought.

Edwin glanced at James and noticed his eyes were still closed.

"How do you feel James, like something magical just happened?"

James smiled

"Not at all, I honestly just feel like I got a massage and that's it. maybe my strength increased a little."

As he stood up Edwin looked around and saw other begin to file out of the room to go home.

"I guess neither of us are anything special, I don't feel much different than you at all. I feel like I also got a massage, but I don't think I got any stronger or anything."

Edwin was more underwhelmed than many of those standing around him, he had heard rumors that the stronger the feeling after awakening the more powerful the ability the individual would have.

As James and Edwin got outside of the academy, they finally bade farewell to each other and wished each other good luck and wished to meet again three days later during the ability testing event.

Edwin slowly walked towards the Teleportation center. He began to daydream of all the abilities he could possibly awaken before taking out his phone and looking up at the government job listings for various abilities.

After a short while and going through the Teleportation center Edwin arrived at his residence. He realized that the day was still quite young, but he couldn't help it. The headmaster recommended they stay home unless they had to go out.

The aftereffects of awakening an ability were quite varied, many couldn't control it, some of them collapsed on the floor or even lost control of their bodies. Usually, people would awaken their abilities within a few hours of the ceremony.

Edwin decided he would just go in and relax on his bed.

After waiting a few hours Edwin was once again underwhelmed, nothing happened to him. He felt absolutely no change. Sometimes people would take a little bit longer to awaken their abilities after having their genes activated so he calmed himself down.

Eventually he convinced himself to get up and pack his belongings. He knew after the ability testing event he would be required to move by the government. He didn't know where he'd go but Edwin knew he might as well be ready so he could take the next step of his life as early as possible.

After packing everything except for his daily belonging Edwin became extremely board so he decided to make himself dinner. Before he could even finish his meal, he was hit by a wave of exhaustion.

Despite being tired he was excited, it seemed like his ability was about to awaken, he rushed to his room and lied down in his bed as he slowly drifted to sleep.

He found himself standing in a void. nothing was around him at all, just empty blackness, Edwin stood their motionless, He thought he was just having a strange dream.