After what felt like a few seconds his vision faded.
And without having time to process any information, he lost consciousness.
The next thing he knew, Arkan battered his eyelids as he woke up.
Feeling the hard ground and strain in his body he took in his surroundings.
Hard grey rock walls, the same barren rock floor, and a tiny pathway at the edge of the opening.
'A cave?'
'He sent me to a cave…'
Feeling a tiny surge of irritation, he analysed his surroundings more carefully and found some distinctions.
A strange text covered the entire rocky walls, not with ink, but carved through the grey walls.
He stiffly stood up and approached the wall closest to him.
"With a finger!?"
He could see the marks of fingerprints through the carved text and though carving through rocks with their bare fingers were not unheard of.
The smoothness and simplicity startled him.
"Oh, child of pride."
"I understand your confusion but hang in there."
"First, check the mirror."
Before he could even be confused, the wall crumbled, and a simple mirror appeared next to the text.
'What could have changed?'
A flicker of anticipation stirred beneath the fear tightening his chest.
Had he transformed? Had he become something monstrous?
'No way. I can still see my hands and all.'
Quickly calming down, he stared into the mirror.
The first thing that stood out to him was his face.
Reflected faintly in the polished mirror were seven horns, each one jutting straight upward from his head like sharpened spires of bone and shadow.
They didn't curve or twist, they rose tall and unbending, forming a jagged vertical crown, like a grim coronet forged from sin itself.
The largest stood at the center of his forehead, thicker and darker than the rest.
A regal monument to Pride.
Following that was his hair and face.
Flowing pristine white hair down to his shoulders and piercing violet eyes.
'This is nothing like the Pride clan!?'
His surprise erupted as he looked nothing like the known family of pride he was used to.
Their characteristic black hair and red eyes, gone.
As he stared dumbfounded through the mirror, he noticed more changes.
His face sharper, his body leaner and quiet a bit taller.
'What's with these horns though?'
Reaching out slightly to touch the biggest one on his forehead, he felt its jagged texture and sharp tip.
'I though we didn't have any horns?'
He glanced over to the text on the other side of the mirror and continued reading.
"You are probably surprised."
"Which is understandable but know one thing."
"What you are now, is the pinnacle of Pride."
"You have inherited the purest bloodline of Pride."
"This is what you are supposed to be."
Arkan glanced at the mirror again, before feeling a surge of excitement.
"Enough about that."
"I have wiped everything about you."
"Your talent. Your Aptitude. Your appearance. And your magic."
The words hit him as hard as a mountain.
A surge of happiness and pride.
'I won't be the weakling anymore!?'
'Hah, they though we demons of pride would take it laying down!'
"Though, that means you will have to start over."
Little did he know, there was nothing to erase, he was at the bottom of bottom before.
"The feeling might be overwhelming for now but bear with it."
"I have no idea about your magic attribute, but it should surprise you."
"We weren't really known for being weak."
He could feel the glee and pride in the sentence.
Arkan could just imagine the smile plastered on the face of the face of the person who wrote this.
"One important thing."
'How important?'
He could feel tension bubbling in his being at those words, though that was dispelled just as quickly.
"Don't you dare become an aura user."
"We are mages through and through."
'Heh.'
A tiny laugh escaped Arkan as he smiled the words.
"Anyways you have to form your core before leaving here for your mission."
"Without a core you can never leave."
He put the words about the mission to the back of his mind and glanced at the tiny pathway leading what he guessed to be out.
Feeling his pride a bit hurt, he approached the pathway.
Just as he was about to enter, he was flung back into the parallel rocky wall with a loud crash.
His internal organs were screaming at him, and he could guess some bones were on the verge of breaking.
"Cough, Cough."
He coughed out a tiny amount of blood as he unsteadily stood up again, approaching the text.
"Hahaha, serves you right."
"It's good to know our tendencies aren't lost."
"And if you don't understand this, you are a failure to our legacy."
Arkan quickly understood what it meant, he had felt it though his entire body.
The creaking of his bones reminded him about it.
"Then, to the most important part."
"Your mission."
His strained muscles tensed at the words, he knew it was going to come up sooner or later, but he had no idea about what.
Steadying himself, he read the next words.
"Actually, it's very simple."
'Yeah right. Like I would believe that.'
"Approach the clan with the name Crimson."
"You should have arrived somewhere somewhat close to them, though, I have no idea where or when."
"I don't know if they are a small family, a giant royal family, or a beggar,"
"Whatever the case."
"In whatever way possible."
"You must serve them wholeheartedly."
His mind recoiled at those words.
'Serve.'
'Since when had the clan of pride ever served someone?'
"I know what you think, we demons of Pride, serving someone."
"Though, for your information."
"That was a part of our original Pride."
Arkan couldn't understand what was being said, so he just continued reading.
"We were the second arm of the Crimsons, a pride so huge, everyone was green with envy."
"We stood alongside them for tens of thousands of years."
"And we were damn good at it."
'Still, serving someone?'
Arkan questioned himself as he tried to imagine the concept.
'My family would laugh at me, that is, if they still were alive.'
His eye lost a part of their glow as his thoughts turned towards his family.
"Anyway, that is your mission."
"If you do succeed in that, our pride will once again be restored."
"And we will soar so high into the sky with them."
"You wouldn't believe it."
"And for your information, if you don't, you will die."
The text stopped after those words, and his insides churned.
He wasn't sure if it was from the internal injuries or his emotions.
"Haaah. Guess that is the path I will walk then."
"It's not like I have a choice."
With a loud sigh, he resolved himself.
'Right, my mana core.'
'Well, I've read almost all books in our library, so I know how to do that.'
He slowly sat down in a lotus position and tried feeling his body.
For the first hour, the only things he could feel was the catastrophic injuries recovering at an alarming speed.
By the second hour, he sensed particles drifting through the cave — faint, but undeniably there.
By the third, he understood their nature.
Ever-present and endless, devouring and nonexistent all at once, a paradox woven into the world.
In the fourth hour, he could faintly influence them.
And in the fifth hour, he started gathering them towards his chest.
He kept gather until the eight hour.
And in the ninth hour, he could sense a tiny ball of energy right next to his heart.
Focusing on what he had learned from the books, this was when he needed to compress it all to form a core.
'Though, a 50% chance to fail and die…'
The information recorded didn't really excite him.
But it's not like he has got a choice.
He kept compressing the mana, over and over until the eleventh hour.
When he could finally feel a change.
'Almost there!'
With a final push, the mana formed a ball the size of a fist.
A euphoric feeling washed over him as he felt the mana in the surroundings frantically flowing into his body.
His core kept devouring mana for an hour before finally stopping.
Arkan slowly stood up and his body creaked with every movement.
The strain of sitting down for so long was felt in his body, but he tried to manipulate the mana gathered in his core and it all vanished in a split second.
Pure mana surged from his core through his entire body, healing all the injuries and energizing him.
First it felt like ants were crawling all over him, but he dismissed it as a first-time thing, and he was correct.
After a while the feeling disappeared.
'Let's see what I can do.'
Before his excitement got the better of him, a couple of words appeared, floating in the air.
Condensed of pure mana it formed a couple of sentences.
There was no way to see them, he had to feel them.
"Congratulations on forming a core and becoming a mage."
"Though, don't be too happy yet."
"You are officially a mage, but as you probably know, you are only an unranked mage."
"Barely classifying as a mage."
"You have passed this hurdle, and the next part is up to you."
"Form your circles and advance."
"Advance along with crimson and we shall see the time of day once again."
His mind racing quickly calmed down as he remembered the information about mages.
They form circles around their core to advance.
Each circled meant an increase in rank and power.
"With only a core and no circle, I barely pass as a mage."
"Heh, just wait and see!"
A smirk played on his handsome face before he took a confident step towards the exit.
He could sense the massive amount of mana forming some sort of wall when he passed the are he was flung last time.
He didn't bow.
He didn't pause in gratitude.
He simply walked forward.
Just as a demon of Pride should.