Nero began limping towards the beaming crystal shard. Once he got within about 5 meters of the shard, he stopped, feeling something burning in his chest. Limping backwards, he felt the burning sensation lessen. Is it trying to awaken me? Nero didn't know much about the process of awakening. But he knew that it wasn't custom for unawakened people to interact with shards of bestowment. Looking towards the shard once again, he pondered: Would it awaken me if I drew closer, or would it just kill me? Nero was far from fond of dying. He had been being toasted around by death for days now. But the possibility of being able to use magic and possibly being granted a personal ability was too great a boon. Especially in this situation, I need power…without it, I'd die. That's just a fact. Letting out a sigh, Nero closed his eyes and steeled his will, and stood once more and slowly began limping towards the light shining in the middle of the great hall. The burning sensation grew the closer he drew towards the shard. After many breaks, Nero, standing in front of the shard, now felt the burning sensation in every inch of his body. Not knowing what else to do, he reached up and grabbed the floating shard. The moment his hand clasped the shard, a ripple of blazing heat and freezing cold spread through his whole body, knocking him unconscious. And at the same time, the world grew 100 times and then, at the same moment, it grew darker than night itself. Waking up, or at least what Nero thought was waking up. He heard the quiet rustle flowing of water surrounding him. Lifting himself out of the water, he opened his eyes to complete darkness. Where… where am I? This wasn't the cathedral anymore. In every direction there was only darkness and quiet waves of the shallow water. Suddenly, he realized that the pain in his body was gone. Looking down at himself, he jumped back in fear. Because his body… was gone. He had no physical appearance; he merely appeared as a vaguely human-shaped cloud of colorless smoke. And at the same moment as his dismay, the world brightened above him, turning from complete darkness. To pure radiant white. Then the world shifted and the darkness and the shallow water still under him rotated to the right side of him. And the radiant white above him rotated to his left side. And then the world seemed to propel him forward. The surrounding scenery changed as the world moved, as though he was flowing through time itself. Structures that were foreign to him rose from the light and darkness and fell just as quickly. And before he could even process what was happening and what he saw. The world rotated back to its form when he first woke here…except now his formless body was falling down onto a castle. One that was split in half. One side possessing the ethereal darkness and thee other possessing the pure radiant white. Before his smokey silhouette hit the ground, his descent slowed completely. And he was in control of his motion once again.
