On the outskirts of the Red Moon Empire, within the West Brook Province, lies a quaint city of Shale City. It is a quiet city that offers little to no excitement apart from the lush forest that the city borders on one side, and a river that leads to the open ocean that sustains the life of its inhabitants on its adjacent side. The crude, concrete streets, once bustling with cars and vehicles, are now cracked and dilapidated, which adds a certain aesthetic to the rustic city.

  Enveloping the city is a wall large and tall enough to protect the city from nature and beast attacks. A bridge between the city side and Gomore Forest was created in order to connect the two areas together. A platoon of guards can often be seen atop the cracked, yet recently repaired city walls, signifying the occasional beast raids that happen outside. Beside each guard are creatures of varying looks and species. One looked like a cat with a bushy tail, the other looked like a dog with flaming fur, another creature that looked like a plant that snaked its vines along the arm of the guard, and many more.

  These guards, along with the residents of the city, can create contracts with these creatures called spirit beasts. A spirit beast is any creature that gains sentience through the absorption of spiritual energy by its spirit. It is believed that anything under the sun possesses innate spirituality, but oftentimes, these spiritualities are locked, or for a better representation of the word: unawakened. Once these spirits awaken within a creature’s body, they transform into a spirit beast. The spirit beasts can then harness the power within their spirits to call forth supernatural abilities that the unawakened ones cannot possess: a breath made of flames, a speed so fast it cannot be seen by the naked eye, a shot full of icicles that can pierce through rocks, and so on. These can be seen as a miracle in the eyes of the untrained but it is quite normal now in the world.

  Humans have naturally innate spiritual gifts, and thus humanity has learned to harness these miracles for their own usage. While spirit beasts can harness miraculous abilities, the heavens have given humanity the ability to partner with spirit beasts and harness their miracles for their own. They can also enhance the beast’s spirituality and elevate them to the next level using their own spirit power.

  As soon as humanity learned how to contract with spirit beasts, their civilization skyrocketed to new heights. Inventions upon inventions, tests after tests, they have created a world where humans, unable to harness miraculous powers, are the ruling authority of the world. OF course, there will be internal and external disputes within humanity, and so, after centuries and millennia, resulting in the world as we know it today: a digitized world with a lot of countries and empires.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Watching the guards with their contracted beasts beside them, is a young adolescent man, around 12 or 13 years of age. His pale green eyes hidden behind his unruly beige hair held an ever-curious gleam in them as he walked by the streets. After looking for some time, he continued walking to an old, dilapidated house he called his own.

  Aston is a boy with no parents to call his own. His parents had died when he was just a baby, long before he had any memory of their faces. The only thing he had of them were vague stories whispered by the older folk, fragments of a life he could never touch. The only memento he has of them was this house, which came to disrepair, and cuboid pendant which currently hangs by his neck.

  It was Aunt Teresa who was taking care of Aston after his parents passed away due to a tragic accident, but not even time was merciful to the young Aston, as two years ago, she had also passed due to a health complication. As both his parents and aunt were outsiders of this place, Aston had no knowledge of any relatives within and outside of the city. No one took care of him during this time, thus, his current situation.

  He had no choice but to grow up so fast. Money was tight and every coin counted. Although he had let the house run down, it still remained clean. He had sold the majority of the furniture and things in the house and only kept the necessary ones. On top of that, he had apprenticed himself to a nearby shop to earn his daily bread, albeit small. It was after his shift in the shop that he saw the guards atop the walls.

  “Tomorrow will be the mass awakening ceremony. I can’t wait to determine my potential!” mused Aston. The Spirit Awakening Ceremony, as its name suggests, is a ceremony where people as young as twelve participate in order to determine their potential as a spirit professional.

  Aston started to prepare for tomorrow’s ceremony. He has already washed the clothes he is going to wear tomorrow and needs only ironing. He prepared a polo shirt and jeans while also polished his shoes. All of these are hand-me-downs from the welfare center and are quite big for his lanky stature. But nevertheless, these are all that he has that would be considered formal clothing for tomorrow’s setting.

  After his preparation, he went to bed. As he drifted off to sleep, the cuboid pendant on his neck started to glow for a bit and faded after a while.