Tommy Sigmainn − The Awakenings (of a Monster)

As Tommy stepped out of the carriage that he, Rio, Jun rode up the mountains, he felt a strange sense of calm. It was certainly preferable to the earful Rio had given him and Jun the previous night after they had both been a part of the majority vote to work with the kingdom of Deusarium. They argued almost the entire night long about the subject, with Tommy mostly reiterating the point he had made during the vote and Jun standing behind his choice to follow Shirou no matter what he decides. Eventually, they all became too tired to continue arguing and went to bed, hoping it would them cool down. It didn't; in fact, Rio and Jun seemed to argue more the entire duration of their trip up the Ceidalen Mountains, the mountain range right next the Luceidus.
There was also the glaring issue that Shirou never come back to their room during the night, or the morning before they left. They asked some guards to keep an eyes out for him and to bring him where they were all headed, but it was no guarantee that they would find him.

Still, Tommy was surprised by the view he had been greeted with while exploring the edge of the monastery's platforms. He walked towards the edge of a large stone balcony and saw the city of Luceidus in the distance. It was the best view of the whole thing that any of them had gotten since they had first arrived. From this vantage point, it was much more obvious how the city rose ever so slightly as one moved closer towards the central districts and the royal palace. For a moment, he just stared at the city. The choice made yesterday sort of implied that this would be his home from now on. Training with a bunch of fantasy knights; the idea seemed silly until Tommy looked around and saw all the soldiers in armor at the monastery, a pretty constant reminder of the reality of his situation.

Turning away from Luceidus, Tommy watched as everyone seemed to slowly arrive as well. The students who had agreed to work with the kingdom, as well as the students who were forced to come along because they had no other option, all walking around to explore the monastery's fascinating stone architecture as well as the beautiful mountain scape besides them. As he walked around the monastery, he came across what appeared, to him, the reason why they were there.
In the center of a large, open clearing in the monastery, was what appeared to be a gemstone the size of a large bowling ball, with swirls of blue, yellow, and purple within, hoisted up by a stone pedestal. As he approached the gemstone, he heard someone say something to him, "Turn away and don't look back. The voice had been rather reedy and gravelly, but he could not spot where it had originated from. He eventually chalked it up to his nerves before he was joined in the clearing by Hoshi and Morviden.
"Oooh, that's pretty," Hoshi said as she walked in to the clearing,
"Hey, Mr. Morviden," she asked, "what's all stuff that's moving around in there?"
Morviden smiled at Hoshi as he slowly moved closer to the gemstone, "those, my curious hero-to-be, are the very forces of Destiny. They are the what shall granting you, and your companions, your new Gifts"

Eventually, they gathered the rest of the students, as well as Miss Fujiwara, the king, and Captain Valeria around the gemstone. They left the soldiers just outside the entrance to the clearing. After he thought the last of them had arrived, Morviden walked towards the gemstone until he stood right next to it. Tommy, however, couldn't find Shirou among the crowd of students that had gathered. He thought it was strange, but didn't say anything. He assumed that someone else would bring it up eventually or if the situation became drastic.
"Now that we're all here, we may begin the final steps of your Awakenings and finally complete the prophecy." He extended his hand out to the gemstone and began to monologue, 
"Long ago, during the birth of the kingdom of Deusarium, a shooting star fell down and crashed into the very mountains we now stand beside.
With the help of a now, extinct group of divine creatures known as the Godfolk, we were able to build this monastery around the crash site and preserve the fallen star upon this pedestal.
Now, the last step of the prophecy that detailed your arrival here involves this very star stone. According to our texts, a chosen must simply place their hand upon it, and they will imbued with the power to seize their destinies. Now, who would like to go first?"

No one raised their hand to be the first to touch the stone. That was, until Miss Fujiwara raised her hand and stepped forward.
"Ah, Miss Fujiwara," said Morviden, "please, come this way and open yourself up to your destiny."
"Say destiny one more time and I'll change my mind about this whole thing," she said as she begrudgingly walked up to the gemstone. She felt a responsibility to test what this fallen star would do before any of her students interacted with it. If it went horribly wrong and hurt someone instead of giving them powers, she felt that it was her duty as an adult to protect the students from such a situation. 
Slowly, she extended her hand out to the gemstone before ever so carefully placing her palm upon it. The second she did, the gemstone switched from its swirling shades of colors to a bright golden light as it quickly spread from her hand to cover the rest of her body before bursting out in a flash of golden light. 
She quickly removed her hand from the gemstone, which returned to its normal colors as soon as she stopped touching it. She held up her arms before looking around herself for any change.
"I don't think it work−" Miss Fujiwara tried to finish saying before she suddenly found herself levitating slightly off the ground as her eyes began to glow with a golden light. She started to speak, but her voice sounded like there was another voice layered on top of hers,
"Another retainer has received the gift of the divine. Welcome to our fold, Sister Fujiwara." As she finished speaking, she slowly returned to the ground and her eyes stopped glowing. She looked around confused before she looked down to see a little light flash, as a necklace with a holy symbol materialized around her neck.
"Incredible, a god has chosen to join their priesthood. It is a great honor to be chosen by a god, Sister Fujiwara," said Morviden as he sent her back into the crowd of students.
"Now, who would like to go next."
As soon as Miss Fujiwara walked away from the gemstone, he heard another voice. 
"It will only bring pain. You must leave," her heard from a much more nasally and raspy voice than the previous. He quickly looked around his settings to see if there were any soldiers or anything nearby. But there was no one. Just him and his classmates standing on a mountain temple and waiting to get their magic powers.

One by one all the students touched the gemstone before they were either consumed by a different colored light or covered by some other strange mystical substance. However, as more and more of them interreacted with the stone to receive their special powers, Tommy slowly felt more and more lightheaded as more and more students received their gifts. In fact, he would have fallen over onto the ground, if not for Hiro catching him and helping him back up.
"So you feel it too," observed Lia as she walked over to Tommy and Hiro.
"Yeah, well... the fall certainly made it a bit obvious, eh?" he responded.
"It's strange though," continued Hiro, "It seems to be affecting you much more than me and Lia. I just feel a bit of wariness around it, but it seems to be affecting you quite drastically."
"I'll be okay," lied Tommy. He had already begun to sit down on the ground with Lia's help>
"It's just," he continued, "I don't know why, but I have my suspicions about that rock."

As the last couple students finished receiving their gifts, they turned to face the three seniors who had huddled to gather opposite them against one of the monastery walls. At this point, Tommy felt such repulsion at the gemstone, that he tried not to look at it. Hiro looked at it as if were a particularly suspicious looking stranger, while Lia stared at it like it was beneath her.
"Are you three alright?" asked Morviden, "Is it the air, sometimes when the wind stop blowing, the air can get a bit thin."
"Nah, we're all good mate," Tommy yelled back. He wanted to stand up and try to walk towards the gemstone, but at this point it felt his subconscious voice had begun to give him warnings of the stone.
"Well, is there anyone else who has yet to receive their gift?" Morviden asked as he turned towards the students. It seemed like all of them there had received their gifts. But of course, they were not all there. As Miss Fujiwara counted up the student's she pointed out, "Wait. Shirou isn't here."
Tommy noticed that both Kazuya and Mayumi seemed top perk up when Miss Fujiwara brought up his name. An interesting observation, but something Tommy would have to forget for now given how terrible the gemstone was making him feel. He hoped that by some miracle, something would allow them more time to recover before it was their turn to touch the damn thing.

Almost as if his prayers had been answered, everyone towards the entrance to the monastery as a carriage pulled and opened it's doors. Shirou stepped out followed by Princess Katarina as he ran towards the rest of the students.
"Sorry I'm late," he said "I accidentally went into the city last night and got lost. But I'm here now." Tommy noticed that Kazuya and Mayumi turned to each before they stared back at Shirou, following his intently as he walked towards the gemstone.
After listening to Morviden's quick explanation, he placed his hand on the gem as it started to change color into a bluish, silver. Eventually, the bluish, silver light consumed Shirou's body before dissipating in a visible shockwave, which caused Tommy to shiver as it passed through him.
For a moment, it seemed that absolutely nothing had changed about him. That was, until he seemingly instinctively held out his toward the horizon. As he did, his eyes began to glow a similar blue hue as the light that had covered him before a blue light in the distance flew into his hand. As he grabbed hold of the shining object, he brought it closer to him, it's light dimming as the light from his eyes slowly disappeared as well.
Now, they could all see what had flown in his hand. It size made it seem like a short sword, but it's design was to specific to overlook. The blade itself looked like a feather while the handle was adorned with gold metals and a blue gemstone at the base of the hilt. As Morviden approached Shirou, his face turned to genuine surprise as he recognized the weapon.
"Oh my, its a Spell Blade's Sword," he excalimed to Shirou, "but... that would make you a... a Spell Blade." 
For a second, Tommy stared at the sword for a second. Spell Blade? Why did that feel so familiar to him?"
Shirou looked back at Morviden with curiosity before looking back at the sword and asking, "What a Spell Blade?"
"Well, young master Shirou," Morviden continued, "long ago, before they were called Spell Blades, they were a group of well established and highly regarded thieves and assassins. However, fearing the sudden rise of magics during their time, they requested the aid of a mythical being known as the Envoy of Nowhere. They pleaded with him to craft weapons that would allow them to survive in a world that was becoming every so full of magic. The Envoy agreed, but in exchange, demanded their loyalty for the creation of their weapons. According to stories shared from lands far east, the leader of these roguish characters challenged the Envoy to a one-on-one duel. Believing him to be nothing more than a trickster and not much of a warrior, their leader entered combat with the Envoy expecting an easy victory. However, the Envoy was much more than a trickster. He bested their leader in combat, and from that day on, they became his secret army and information network. The weapons the Envoy of Nowhere crafted for them were blades like the one hold, capable of not only absorbing and cutting the carious magics, but held a special bond with their wielders. If ever disarmed, a Spell Blade could summon his weapon to him. And if they were ever separated across long distance, they could make their blades fly at incredible speed back their wielders. It's one of the most storied weapons in our world's history. And you are the first Spell Blade that I heard of in quite some time."
Shirou seemed to absorb the information quite well as he cracked a smile while observing his new blade. He then turned away from the gemstone to return to his classmates.

What no one but Tommy felt during that moment, due to his oversensity from the gemstone, was a slight change in wind pressure, before everyone standing in the clearing were blown back by a powerful gust, either slamming into the mountain side or one of the monastery's walls. Tommy, Hiro, and Lia were in the fortunate position of already having been sitting down against the mountainside, meaning they weren't sent back flying like some of their junior classmates who were just standing in the clearing. 
As Tommy looked up to see what could have caused a powerful gust, his eyes widened as a large creature descended upon them. It looked to be made of rock and other earthy components, but was shape like a dragon used it's massive arms to climb onto the mountain as it continued to flap it massive wings.

As the creature let a load roar at the students who had fallen over, the soldiers that had accompanied them to the monastery charged the creature, hoping to cover the escape of the students. For a short while, it appeared to work as some of the soldiers helped the students up and escorted them away from the dragon while most of the army ran in for the attack.
However, they could never have expected the rocks that made up the dragon to pop off and land in front of the soldiers as they became like miniature version of larger, rock dragon. Suddenly, the soldier's found themselves overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies they faced.
And that was before it let out another terrifying roar, as it slammed it's earthen wings into the sides of the mountain. Tommy looked all around him before looking up as the creature seemed to absorb the rocks from the mountain, growing bigger and bigger and spawning bigger and bigger clones. As the its now enormous claws took hold of the top of the mountain, it caused a great deal more rocks to crash down onto both the its smaller spawn as well as the soldiers trying to hold them off to let the students escape.

Then, another claw of equal size rose from under the the balcony of the clearing and dug into another mountain next to the monastery. As the creature seemed to pull itself up more and more for the purpose adding more rock to itself, the tremors and amount of rocks crashing down onto the battlefield, grew more numerous, killing more soldiers why the rock dragon spawn simply put themselves back together if they were crushed. Eventually, the creature brought down its head . Tommy watched as its gigantic, rocky head slammed won on to the clearing, leaving cracks and destruction it's wake while absorbing the stone form the balcony to get even bigger. As it looked to down to watch the soldiers, valiant attempting to hold off its kin , it opened its mouth and exhaled a green gas. The second a soldier breathed in some of the gas, they fell the ground. Tommy barely had the time to jump backwards to avoid the gas as if fell upon where had been standing just a couple seconds ago..

Tommy turned his head towards the students, most of whom seemed stuck next to the monastery's exit, blocked off by a large pile of boulders that had fallen in front of. Worse, it appeared that one of the student's legs had been caught under one of the rocks. 
As Tommy turned back to the gigantic dragon, he heard Lia next to him as she yelled, 
"We have to do something. That thing will kill them if we don't intervene."
"What the hell are we supposed to do?" Tommy yelled back, "In case you haven't noticed that thing is massive."
"Look!" Hiro yelled while point towards the ground. Tommy and Lia both looked where he was pointing. It was the gemstone, on the ground after having been knocked down by the first massive gust of wind.
Tommy grit his teeth before yelling out, "Goddamnit!" as he made a mad dash for the gemstone, Hiro and Lia followed suit after him. The dragon, upon seeing them run towards the gemstone, turned its's attention to the three seniors as it opened its mouth again to exhale its green gas on them. As the gas got closer and closer to them, Tommy made it to the gemstone and picked it up. The second he made contact with it, the voices he heard early ran all throughout his mind, causing him great pain. As Hiro and Mayumi caught up to him, they both also took a hold the orb and immediately tried to ignore the pain they were in. Unlike the others, a different part of their bodies started glow as the gas finally fell upon them, as lights from Tommy's forehead, Hiro's chest, and Lia's back grew brighter and brighter. Even as they were completely obscured by the gas, the dragon glared as the still appeared to be standing, the light from all three of them getting brighter and brighter. As the creature grew angry a the three humans still standing while surrounded by its toxic fumes, it raised one of it's massive arms to bring down upon the humans.

As it was about to, it noticed that glow was becoming impossible to ignore. Looking down, the dragon Could barely even see the actual outlines of the three humans behind the light. Before it could react, the light exploded out like a flashbang, temporarily blinding the creature. When it regained its sight, it saw the the three humans were no covered in the gas and that the gemstone, still being held by one of them, had lost it's glow. However, the dragon was confused when one of the humans started to float high enough to match its gaze.