Aries sat alone on a bench just outside the school building, the sun bathing the world in its orange glow. His gaze was on Roanna, who happily jumped into the arms of her parents. They seemed quite affluent by how they dressed, which made sense.

  While he didn't know much about the workings of the world, having a successful mage as they appear to have would mostlikely bring in quite a bit of money, especially with the limitation of the barrier.

  He watched as they boarded their personal carriage and rode away.

  As they left, and he was left alone, as most children had been picked up, his smile fell for the first time since the day began, turning into an indifferent expression. He rubbed the corners of his mouth as it pained him from smiling so much.

  Utilizing the time he had alone, he began to fulfill the last step of awakening for himself. A step unique to him and anyothers of his constitution.

  He had not done this before because he had to wait a week after becoming Null for his body to stabilize to attempt this, or else his body would become too unstable, and he would directly become rampaged, and that was a fate all mystics strive to avoid.

  While he didn't explain it fully, as he didn't think he needed to, he had informed Alice of the dangers in their time together.

  "Hoooo…"

  He let out a long sigh and activated his source manifestation at the lowest level he could. This was the power he used to transform into his serpentine form, and it was a power all mystics beyond the Null level could utilize and practice. Although they could use the power, they would not be able to use it at the level that Aries and other mythical creatures can. They would need to train to use more and more of it until they are capable of fully manifesting it, a stage most reach only at the 3–4 levels of awakening.

  As he didn't activate his manifestation to a high degree, there was no noticeable change in his form; the only thing that had changed was his eyes, which had become more serpentine.

  He activated his soul vision and directed it towards himself.

  Everything was the same as before, the chi in his body flowed as before— no, even better than before, now that he was a Null. His senses scanned his entire body, eventually landing on his heart, not his heart made of flesh that pumped blood, but the second heart, made entirely of chi, one that should be empty.

  But, defying his expectations, the heart was filled with a bright golden liquid that held many stars within it.

  'Is this a clue to this body's source?'

  A source, or source element, is a power that all mystics have uniquely from birth.

  Most people, aside from those with the Merlin's constitution, like Alice, who could wield the power of their source from the moment they awaken, most mystics don't learn their source element until they reach the true first step of awakening and become awakened.

  While mythical creatures like Aries could utilize the full might of their source manifestation the moment they awaken, and use the skills that came with it—usually pertaining to their source, among other things—once they complete the extra step unique to them, they could not actually use the power of their source.

  Due to this, if he could learn or gain some insight into what his source was, he could fully utilize any abilities his source manifestation had derived from his source to their maximum or at least close to it.

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  He pushed his senses to their maximum and focused on the liquid inside the heart. His consciousness moved and reappeared within the heart.

  Inside, it was like a separate realm, only the blue sky of chi and the golden ocean that reached endlessly with no end in sight, no matter where he looked. He looked down to see the golden liquid that held many stars.

  Unlike before, Aries realised that the stars weren't stationary; in fact, they were moving—falling to be more accurate. What the liquid held wasn't just stars, but shooting stars.

  Thinking back, he realized something.

  'The dust'

  The golden dust he had been using to train Alice. The dust he could use the moment he transformed. He had originally thought that he could do this because, as a premanifestation of a future skill, his body could produce gold dust and line his feathers with it.

  'I was wrong.'

  What he could produce and had been coating his feathers with was not gold dust, but star dust. The revelation brought him past the beginning line in figuring out his source element. He would need to know his skills to progress any further.

  As if sensing that he had figured out something, the starry liquid boiled and bubbled violently, forming a vortex in the liquid. As the vortex reached an unimaginably deep point, it began to flatten out. After it became completely flat, the vortex began rising into a tendril that shot toward Aries.

  He braced for an impact, but nothing happened. Instead, the tendrill stopped in the space before him.

  The liquid began to drain away, revealing a pristine, white, feathered serpent that had two pairs of wings and a starry pattern on its forehead. It was his manifestation, even so, Aries could tell that it was different from him when he transformed.

  The one before him was bigger, its feathers longer and more defined. Its pattern was also more complete than his. Its eyes, instead of being just golden, were like suns that had been placed in its eye sockets. Pushing his senses deeper, he saw that its blood was completely made of the golden, starry liquid.

  Aries brought his senses back to consciousness and stared at the massive form of the feathered serpent. As a mythical creature, he knew what to do, and so he did.

  He reached out to the serpent, and as its forehead touched his palm, the serpent's body transformed into golden light that washed over his body.

  Immediately, Aries felt a shift in his body. His pupils became slits, and his nails lengthened and sharpened into claws. His ears sharpened, his canines became fangs, and his tongue extended and became forked, like a snake's.

  Heat started to build up in his back, quickly becoming hot, as flames burst from it and faded to reveal white wings. Feathers formed and protruded from the back of his hand, then his ankles, and the back of his ears, making them seem longer and sharper.

  His consciousness had collapsed to his knees on the surface of the liquid as the transformation of his body progressed. Eventually, the transformation progressed to the inside of his body, as the golden liquid invaded his heart, bringing with it horrible pain.

  Aries ignored the pain and allowed it to continue. The golden liquid merged with the blood in his heart, turning it into a crimson sea of golden stars and causing it to boil at the same time. At the same time, Aries' consciousness spasmed with the every movement of the new blood within him.

  The starry, crimson blood eventually coursed through his entire body, replacing any remnant of normal blood, completing the transformation.

  Aries pushed his consciousness off the surface of the liquid and checked his body, seeing all the changes. He also saw that his skin formed imperceptible scales, toughening his body.

  Along with the transformation, Aries had also felt his strength increase, though it was mostly his physical abilities, everything else being slight.

  Seeing that he had done everything, and now shouldn't be limited by anything in progressing to advance to the next rank, he pulled his consciousness out of the heart, then brought his senses out of himself and deactivated his soul vision.

  He checked his body again; the changes happening out here as well.

  Now that he was no longer human, and visibly so, he needed a way to hidehimself. Luckily, Mythical creatures have an ability in which they limit their abilities…

  Aries placed his hand on his chest, and a glowing golden film covered him, turning his features back to a human state, leaving his invisible scales and having his pupils and canines sharper than usual. At the same time, he felt his strength return to the way it was before, and a seal locking away some of his chi.

  …They could turn their form back to their human form, allowing them to blend in.

  'Luckily, the limits of using this ability won't be as apparent until I get stronger.'

  Now that his most urgent matters had been taken care of, Aries focused on his most immediate problem.

  "My shirt is ruined…"

  With a quiet sigh, Aries took off his shirt to see the back of it, where his wings had emerged completely destroyed.

  At the same time. He turned to face his parents, who had come to pick him up.

  'What horrible timing.'