Venland: A Dominion Beyond Worlds

Chapter 2: The Golden Festival Denouement

Apparently, Awakened Ones were different from Reincarnated Ones.

Reincarnated Ones were those souls of Otherworlders that were reborn in Venland, and thus starting a new life from their birth like a total physical reset; another chance to live a life and make up for regrets they had in the past. I was not given such an opportunity, my case was different. Although I did die on Earth, I did not awake in a mother's womb. I was still me, the same age and body, same voice and personality, and nothing did really change at all.

Other Otherworlders were the Summoned Ones. Summoned Ones were those humans from another world who were forcibly transported to Venland by magical rituals, the Hero Summoning. They did not die like the Reincarnated Ones, they were alive and strong, but brought here to be heroes. Strangely, along the process of universal transport, Summoned Ones were given above average magical attributes to fight to keep up with the current state of the new world. Hero Summoning is a process where high priests collaboratively perform high level magic to summon Otherworlders. Typically, Hero Summoning is as a last resort when the kingdom could no longer stand the evil force ravaging their lands.

Awakened Ones were a special case. It happens when a single soul is born from two bodies in two different worlds. Although separate and identical bodies, inside, their soul is only half. Awakened Ones will only be awakened when one of their bodies dies. The soul from one of their two bodies in two different worlds that has just died will be spirited away to the world where their other body that's still alive resides and be finally one. Think of it like a magnet cut in half, one is south and the other is north. When one of the halves dies, the magnetic force will pull the dead half and become one– this is called a unification. The unification is consequently strange to the body, and thus results in overwhelming one another. Only one of the halves souls, upon unification, will be dominant, hence memories and experiences from the dominated half will be temporarily forgotten. In my case, my Earth memories and experiences were what I remembered, signifying that the half of my soul that's from Earth overwhelmed the other from this world.

So I have already lived in this world?

"The Royalties are coming!" a man from the crowd yelled in excitement and yanked me from my thoughts.

A moment ago, between the nonsense and never-ending bickering of Lady Aztera, The Great Witch of Black Forest, and the Guildmaster Paris inside the Appraisal Chamber, a familiar sound cracked in the quiet sky. I went outside to see and I remembered it was the Blue Moonfall Festival in the Kingdom of Argus, thus fireworks flashed like neon fireflies in the celestial sphere. Celebrations must have been called to honour what they had been honouring since ancient times.

To my surprise, the witch and the Guildmaster followed my trails and walked languidly behind me, still in endless bickering. The faint moon was already out and time flew by as fast as lightning birds. Night fell on the city walls and the dark curved nearer to Venland. Although the way to the plaza was jet black, approaching the lively crowd metres away from the Adventurer's Guild did not give me a hard time. Lantern lights were hung above the festival pavement like clothes after laundry, and warm lights brimmed in every corner of the street, dancing in the ooze of the crowd and the cold breeze of evening.

Soon as we reached the swarm of people where the stage in the festival circle was crowded, I coughed to clear my throat and was about to demand to give us a way forward, but strangely, all heads turned to our direction and panic painted their once-vigorous faces. The crowd parted into two by themselves and a clear aisle emerged before I could even mouth a word.

I knitted my brows and paused my walk.

"What's going on?" I whispered on the side of my lips, not turning my head back to not get more attention from the sea of figures.