The merger of his Reflection with Andar was seamless, he was still Rowan but his mannerisms and goals had been replaced by Andar’s. It was a con Rowan was familiar with, he would play the role of someone else so well, that he would become that person. He did it once inside the Nexus, he was doing it again now.

The collapsing stones began to be sucked into the void at the other side of the gate. This was the first step to awakening a Spirit Matrix.

Your gate was devoured as fuel for your Spirit Matrix to be born. The commotion was great, almost as if a thousand earthquakes were simultaneously happening.

Andar watched the last of his gate get sucked into the void and he waited for the next step. Even after it seemed like an eternity.

He knew that time was malleable during the awakening, and also he understood that his gate was beyond comparison. For something of that size to ignite, it would mean…

A bright flash of light, like the dawn of creation appeared inside the void and Andar flinched, his perception had no physical eyes or that bright light would have turned it to ash.

Rowan had seen a similar scene before and it was the moment of creation of a universe. It was eerily similar to the light he saw in the memories he snatched from his father.

Except the light of his awakening was silver.

The sound of the gate inside him igniting reached him a moment later and his perception was pressed flat like a board, as pieces of it began to shatter and fly off, each piece breaking off was agonizing. He would have screamed in pain, but such a level of uneasiness had no meaning for him anymore when his pain had exceeded a certain threshold.

He kept his perception open for as long as he could, for watching this scene was important.

It was different from all the visions of such scale that he had ever witnessed. Those had been filtered from the perception of someone else, and what he had experienced was diluted.

This was different, the things he was seeing were raw and untouched and he knew instinctively that memorizing as much of this scene would have undeterminable benefits in the future because he was memorizing so much that he could not currently interpret at this time, but it would not be the case in the future.

Whatever the Primogenitor of the Mages did to create the Spirit Matrix was a heaven-shaking endeavor, as he made the process of awakening to present the scene of a universe being created, mimicking that special moment that was hardly seen in countless Eras.

Andar perception began to collapse and yet he would not let go of this sight. It was like a drug that he did not want to stop taking even if it was killing him. No, it might end up killing him if he did not stop.

It was then that he saw it. It came like a wave of silver, like that last light of the evening that hits falling snow.

It was the Awakening.

As this light swept past his perception and began to fill his body, he understood it was all a side effect of creating his Spirit Matrix. The light exploded past his body, invisible, and escaped into the universe.

The feeling of a million ants chewing through every inch of his body was welcomed because it kept his perception awake just a bit longer so he could see that glorious sight.

Then it was over.

His Spirit Matrix was revealed and it was a lake filled with boundless silver water. At the center of the lake was a mountain made from silver, and it gleamed with a supernatural light.

The pain of keeping his perception active reached its limit and he was forced to escape his mind.

Andar immediately felt a new pain, one from his head and body. He felt like two small imps were stabbing his eyes with electrified forks, and the endless wave of numbing headache he was feeling was no better either.

He heard a loud bang above him as if the ceiling had collapsed and he struggled to open his eyes, it was not easy and he gasped as tears rolled down his closed eyes, the tiny bit of light entering through his lashes was like whips to his brain.

It was then that he felt a warm hand support his head off the floor, and a bottle slipped between his clenched teeth, a sweet syrupy liquid touched his tongue, and a wave of energy and sweet pain relief spread from his tongue to all his head and down his spine till it reached all his extremities.

He grabbed the hand feeding him the liquid, pressed it more firmly against his mouth, and took long deep gulps.

The familiar laughter of his master entered his ears, “Slow down boy, you don’t want to be drowning in this stuff.”

Andar did not care as he drowned every drop and then he collapsed in a dreamy haze, his body gave tiny shivers as it suppressed the damage that had been done to it and was rapidly healing.

Andar opened his eyes and the world was different.

The face above him was of his Mentor and Master, Jonathan Melbrooks, his kind eyes and long beard that reached his stomach would fool anyone that this was a kind old man. The funny thing however was that he was just that–A kind man.

He was distracted from the sight of his master holding his head by the sights his eyes were showing him. Was this the way every awakened person saw the world?

The world Andar used to know was filled with colors, red, green, yellow, orange, whatever color he could imagine he could see, but now it was different, for he could now see more colors than before, a different kind of color.

Andar smiled, “Master.” He tried to stand up, but the gentle but forceful hand of his master held him down.

“Stay still, let me check your body. You had a very tumultuous awakening, and you may have hidden injuries we need to do away with as quickly as possible before any troubling complications take root.”