Author"s Note: This is a chapter that isn"t really crucial to the story. You can skip it altogether, or read it all the same. Anyways, take it as a gift from me to you this Christmas, as well as an apology from me to you.
________
After finis.h.i.+ng the inheritance, Aurus was greatly ecstatic with what he had received, especially the Gold Key as well as the Trascending grade Comprehension Leaf. He was greatly sure that he would use the Comprehension Leaf in an instant, while he would grind the heck out of his skills and other systems to become eligible for the Ruler position.
Whoos.h.!.+
In an instant, Aurus was transported out of the inheritance, bringing him back to the front of the gray magic circle. With this sight covering his surroundings, Aurus knew that he had successfully finished the inheritance, leaving the inheritance multiple degrees stronger than before.
Just as he was about to hover off back to the alliance base, Aurus could not help but notice a magic circle that seemed to scream out "Aurus, come and check me out" at him. Aurus thought about the reason as to why a magic circle was here other than the gray magic circle. It took him a few seconds to conclude that Herellia had left the inheritance before him, heading back to the alliance first. It was understandable as she was the leader.
Since that was the conclusion he came to, Aurus did not hesitate onto infusing a bit of his SP into the magic circle. He had a hunch that it was a magic circle that had Herellia"s message stored in it. Once he felt an influx of information entering his mind, he knew for sure that he was right.
"Hey Aurus, congratulations on exiting the inheritance!" Herellia"s voice could be heard resounding throughout his mind. "I wonder what rewards you"ve gotten from the inheritance? Did you get a Comprehension Leaf? If so, is it the Soaring or the Unshrouding grade?"
After hearing Herellia"s question in his mind, he could not help but chuckle. If she knew that he had received a Transcending grade Comprehension Leaf, she would definitely be extremely envious of Aurus.
"Anyways, I decided to leave you alone here as you know very well that I"m the leader of the alliance. I"m sure you"ll understand that, right?"
"Of course I do," Aurus muttered to himself with a slightly cheerful aura about him.
"Make sure to greet me once you get back, I got something in store for you! Have a safe trip back!"
With these last few statements, Herellia"s message was over, allowing Aurus to finally leave the abandoned mineshaft as he morphed into a small and inconspicuous pebble, which allowed him to exit the town. Not long after, he morphed back into his wooden sculpture self, using all of his movement buffs and skill in order to get back to the alliance as fast as possible.
Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+
As he zoomed his way back to the alliance, he noticed small motes of white particles slowly falling down from the sky. It was not much of a hindrance, but looking at the white particles awakened a memory in Aurus" mind.
"Snow?" Aurus could not help but ask himself. To him, what else could it be? Snow was something he was very familiar with, especially in his previous life. As he looked at the white particles fall down, Aurus could not help but reminisce the good memories he had in his previous life.
Memories of him opening gifts as he and his family listened to festive music and ate food together, similar types of memories started to gush out, filling him with a special feeling. A feeling of emptiness.
"Now that I think about it, I haven"t really celebrated Christmas with them these past few years, huh..." As this thought surfaced his mind, he could not help but sigh.
For 9 years of his life, Aurus had a mother and a father that loved him oh so much. The reason as to why they got a divorce on his 10th birthday was vague to him, but that meant that his Christmas was no longer happy like before. He lived with his mother, who was always at work, barely having enough time to even show concern for him. As for his father, he married another woman, rarely sending greetings or gifts to him.
As he continued to reminisce, this feeling of emptiness turned into a stronger feeling. A feeling...
Of longing.
He longed for the warmth and happiness of his previous life in his early years, a happiness he could no longer seek for he had already reincarnated into another life.
With this thought, he had a great urge to cry, but no tears flowed down his face as he was after all, a wooden sculpture. Nonetheless, intense feelings of sadness consumed his mind as he made it back to the alliance an hour after he left the inheritance.
Celestial Plane, Kurohana"s plane.
"Ain"t this a bad thing? If he"s always glum, then won"t he become a worse catalyst than any other material I could have used for my weapon?"
Within the big a.s.s cube of white, Kurohana looked through the orb and noticed Aurus" emotions, making her slightly frown. Of course, as a Greater G.o.ddess, how could she not have the ability to perceive a being"s emotions? Although she had split most of her power off to help Nix fight against the demons, she could still do a basic thing like this.
"Let me see the reason for his depression, hum hum hum~" Deciding to remove Aurus" depression, Kurohana shot out a thread of divine energy from her finger towards Aurus, retrieving it an instant later. She easily looked through the information imbued in the divine energy she shot, making her lightly smile.
"Oh~ So that"s what it was. No problem~" Kurohana could not help but lightly chuckle after seeing that it was a simple problem to solve. Nonetheless, her power was lacking to fully solve the problem Aurus had, hence she called for s.h.i.+rohana through her mind.
"Hey s.h.i.+rohana."
"Yes, Master? Why did you call me? I"m currently traversing through the Celestial Plane, heading to where Hinari and Hodazuka are."
"Could you let me borrow around 15% of my power? I"m going to need for a bit."
"I don"t mind, Master, but...where are you going to use it?"
With a smile planted on her face, she replied, "You"re me. You know what I"m doing."
Tempest Cliff, Tempest Branch Alliance.
Whoos.h.!.+
Aurus landed in the center of the large hall that served as the entrance to the alliance base. What he expected was the hall being devoid of other members due to them doing their own stuff, well...some snow as well because the mouth of the entrance is large. Contrary to his expectations, what greeted him was all of the alliance members inside the large hall, conversing and having fun with one another.
"Wh-what..." As he looked at his surroundings, Aurus became speechless as he did not experience such an event like this before other than his induction as an Executive level member.
"Oh! Aurus is here!" While Aurus was still dumbfounded as to what was happening, a member of the alliance could not help but him and shout out, alerting the others of Aurus" presence.
"Eh? Aurus is actually here? I thought he wouldn"t be back until after the event!"
"Aurus is here! Alright, the event is gonna be more fun this way!"
Not long after the first one shouted, the hall started to become filled with clamor as a large branch covered in red engravings gradually make its way towards Aurus, saying in a cheerful voice, "Aurus! You"re back!"
"Huh?" Hearing this voice, Aurus turned his field of vision to look at the direction of the origin of the sound, finding Herellia who had an extremely cheerful aura around her.
"Herellia, can you tell me what"s happening?" After finding Herellia, he urged her to head towards a more quiet corner, asking the question not long after.
"Oh this? It"s normal that a newcomer like you wouldn"t know of it," Herellia chuckled as she replied. "Every time frozen water particles fall in the Tempest Cliff, our alliance holds something called the Frost Reunion."
"We set aside all of the things we were doing and gather around, catching up with others as we bond and have fun!"
"Speaking of which..." As Herellia said this, she extended a blood red tendril upwards and then smacked it onto Aurus, making him fly.
"I signed you on the Great Magic event! Don"t let me down!"
"Waaahhh!" Flying through the large hall, Aurus tried to control his descent, hastily activating his hover skill as a large gray branch shouted his name.
"Hey Aurus! Come down here! You"re up next on the Great Magic event!"
"Eh?" Perplexed as to what the event was, Aurus nonetheless headed to where the large gray branch was.
"What do I do in this event?" Aurus asked as it was his first time.
"You just have to show your flas.h.i.+est magic spell in front of everyone! The flas.h.i.+est magic spell out of all the partic.i.p.ants will win something special!" The large white branch laughed.
"Flas.h.i.+est as possible huh..." Aurus could not help but chuckle as he willed his soul to come out of his body, creating a soul vessel in the shape of an orb not long after.
The orb elicited multiple oohs and aahs from the audience, but Aurus knew that he was not done. He did not care whether he would be bombarded by Herellia with questions after this as he had already acclimated to the atmosphere of the event the alliance had. His previous feeling of longing had disappeared, being replaced instead with joy!
Whoos.h.!.+
In an instant, the orb transformed into flowers, which turned into multiple blades that shot up towards the ceiling, only to explode like fireworks in front of everyone. Of course, this sight made everyone cheer and awe in wonder as to what Aurus had done.
As for Aurus, after showing his soul vessel trick, he could not help but shout, "Let"s have fun with the event!"
As if it was a reflex action, the other Inanimates looked at him and replied, "Yeah!!!"
The Frost Reunion continued from when Aurus arrived till the moon that hovered over the world of Erudinia arose. Only then did the Inanimates stop and continue on with their lives. If they did not have this sort of rule set, they would definitely have fun for multiple days, or heck, even weeks.
As for Aurus, he went to the Life and Will Fountain, wanting to stay there for a bit as to calm his mind down from the excitement he had all day.
"It was fun," Aurus muttered to himself as his aura radiated happiness. Unfortunately, this aura was gradually replaced with sadness, then depression. "Haah...if only I could relive that moment, then everything would be great."
Whoos.h.!.+
As if his wishes were heard, his field of vision went full black as his consciousness was transported to another place without him knowing. To him, he felt that only an instant had pa.s.sed, but in actuality...
Only an instant had pa.s.sed.
Once he was transported to another place, his field of vision was still black, but gradually gained light as he looked around his new surroundings.
"Where...am I?" Aurus could not help but ask himself as more light entered his eyes. At the very moment every possible mote of light entered his eyes, he could not help but gasp as he took in a deep breath, making sure that the sight surrounding him was not false.
"Is this...my old home?" Aurus could not believe what he was seeing. He turned his head to look down, and was shocked to see that his body was that of his previous life, not his wooden sculpture form.
"Am I..." Realizing what he was in, Aurus could not help but cover his mouth with his hands as tears gradually flowed from his eyes.
"Am I...dreaming?"
"Hey Aurus, come over here!" As tears flowed from his eyes, a thick yet amicable voice resounded throughout the room he was at, calling from him.
Hearing this voice, Aurus hastily wiped his tears away as he ran to where the voice was, replying with, "Coming, Dad!"
Tap! Tap! Tap!
It only took a while for Aurus to run towards where his dad was, being greeted with a table filled to the brim with food, as well as his dad and his mom sitting near the table, smiling.
"What took you so long, dear?" Seeing Aurus run towards the table, his mom smiled and asked him.
"I just had something going on," Aurus replied with a smile as he took a seat beside his mother and father.
"Anyways, let"s eat!"
And so, Aurus and his parents ate with great gusto as they chatted the time away, singing their hearts out, as well as opening gifts they received from Aurus" relatives.
In the end, Aurus could not help but become sleepy, telling his parents that he was going to sleep. From this, the two looked at each other and smiled before looking at Aurus.
"Have a good sleep, son," his dad said.
"Merry Christmas!" his mom said afterwards.
After hearing these words come out of his parents" mouths, tears started to flow out of his eyes once more as he walked towards his room.
"Un."
"Merry Christmas."