The sun began to rise. A blanket of morning dew rolled over the town but even through the hail and mist, people still found their way towards the Townsquare. Their feet were jittery. Their hearts pumped ice.

Parents made sure to hold onto their young children so that they don’t lose themselves in the thick crowd as they looked onwards to the future generation of the town who paraded around in a straight line. But most of their attention had been caught by the young boy of Olivia’s as they were in disbelief.

The young teens had been dressed in a simple white robe, along with a crown of flowers adorned on their necks -- a traditional look that those performing the Awakening had to wear -- something that only made Willow’s cerulean blue eyes pop, making him appear as if some sort of divine gift from the Gods and reminded them why he had been called the flower of the town. And right beside him was the town’s young lion, or lioness.

Elm still had that impassive look on her face, something that made her appear as if she wasn’t anything special but the residents of the town knew that was far from the truth. Her father had been the captain of the town's guard, a jolly, old braggart who had the strength to repel a Were-bear and from his announcement yesterday, his daughter seemed to have accomplished the same level of strength as well.

It was a given that the town was looking forward to these two’s Awakening the most and some of them had already begun speculating over the Emblems they would awaken.

Willow looked to the side and saw his mother waving at him with a smile while his father stood guard along with the other men of this town. He held Elm’s hands tightly, a nervous smile on his face as he knew that today was finally the day.

“Are you okay?” Elm asked.

Willow looked up to meet her eyes. “Yeah. I’ll be fine. Just a little nervous, is all.”

“You’ll be alright,” Elm said. “I’ll protect you.”

Willow just gave her a wry smile as the guilt in his stomach started to roll around even more. He reminded himself that he needed to do what he was about to do, both for his sake and hers. And also, the world.

The parade of young teens marched on before stopping right in front of a great marble statue of Tetis - the Goddess of Harvest And Fertility, a minor deity that had supposedly helped their great ancestor found this town. But of course, the main religion was still the Humlic Church.

Each of them closed their eyes and bowed, thanking Tetis for the bountiful harvest this year and hoped for the coming years to be just as blessed. Eventually, they moved on past the tribute and found themselves stopping before a marble-white church that’d weathered with time but still functioned as well as it did in the past.

In front of the church, a man stood. He was of average height for a human male and had short, combed hair that was beginning to turn grey. His face also showed signs of aging with wrinkles on his dotted cheeks and forehead. He dressed himself in the clothing of a priest of the Humlic Faith - robes of black and a golden cross that hung low in front of his chest. Willow almost laughed. In the game, the humans had been the only race to which the devs had been too lazy to create an epic myth and faith, so they simply copy-pasted Christiantity with a couple of minor tweaks.

The man greeted the young adults with a warm smile as if he understood why the bunch looked like a nervous wreck. In front of the audience, he formally introduced himself as Father John before he went on to explain the process of the Awakening. The townsquare quieted down as Willow saw, from the corner of his eyes, his father being dragged off somewhere with a look of urgency on his face.

‘Oh shit.’ Willow thought, knowing that the event had truly started. He turned to look at his sister and she, along with the rest of the town, had been patiently and attentively listening to Father John’s explanation, unaware of the incident that was about to transpire.

His legs were beginning to shake as he tried to calm down. He tried to listen to the old priest’s explanation and saw that the Awakening had the same description as it did in the game -- with a couple more important facts taken out for safety reasons.

Here, Father John explained that the Awakening was a divine gift of sorts from Hum himself and that it was only through his blessing that they were allowed to awaken their Emblems or supernatural abilities, so to speak. And that since they were of the human race, Emblems would be the only ability they get but it was all they needed since the other racial blessings were considered beneath Emblems.

Willow sighed as he saw that religious supremacists who liked to tweak certain facts for continued faith from the people existed here as well. He knew that Father John was somewhat right in his explanation. . . .if he didn’t let his fanatical views of his faith cloud his judgement.

One of the few tweaks he’d made in his explanation was that Emblems were a gift from the Human God but that was only half-right. It was actually that Emblems were something that was born from a human’s soul, the crystallisation of his/her desire and the Human God simply helped alleviate the process of bringing it out. But of course, if Father John had simply said that, the continued support and devotion towards the Humlic Faith would decrease and that was something religious people feared.

Elm seemed to not care too much about the racist words coming out of the old priest’s mouth which tickled Willow’s stomach, knowing that this girl would later grow to unite the many races living in the world.

In the game, the protagonist Elm would go through her Awakening, coming out as the prophesied Child Of Light, or the Celestial Hero who would then pave her path to eventually slay the Demon God and unite the world. But that was all so far in the future.

No, what worried Willow right now was the closer future, the tragedy that was about to fall right into their laps and the tragedy that he was going to abuse so as to escape this town and the predetermined plot of the world.

He remembered how the town would soon fall into chaos and anarchy when the demons attacked, with homes set ablaze as the morning sky was covered with soot and dark hail. The moment Elm came out of her Awakening, the demons would immediately launch an attack and go on to raze the entire town to the ground. Elm would fight, kill, fight and kill some more as a river of blood would be all that’s left of the town when morning rose.

Chapter X: Reincarnated Into A Lewd Game?! (10)

Previously 

In the game, the protagonist Elm would go through her Awakening, coming out as the prophesied Child Of Light, or the Celestial Hero who would then pave her path to eventually slay the Demon God and unite the world. But that was all so far in the future. 

No, what worried Willow right now was the closer future, the tragedy that was about to fall right into their laps and the tragedy that he was going to abuse so as to escape this town and the predetermined plot of the world. 

He remembered how the town would soon fall into chaos and anarchy when the demons attacked, with homes set ablaze as the morning sky was covered with soot and dark hail. The moment Elm came out of her Awakening, the demons would immediately launch an attack and go on to raze the entire town to the ground. Elm would fight, kill, fight and kill some more as a river of blood would be all that’s left of the town when morning rose.

---

As Father John finally finished his explanation and opened the doors to the church, he couldn’t stop his heart from trying to beat out his chest. Knowing the future seems to be both a blessing and a curse.

The interiors of the Humlic Church was, as expected, basically the same as the Christian churches he’d attended in his ex-life. A holy building that had an unhealthy fascination with white and gold with rows of seats aligned on left and right that was beginning to be filled by the townspeople. A small platform had been erected just like in an ordinary church as the priest hopped up the stairs and stood in front of a giant crucifix plastered onto the wall behind him.

The priest then directed Willow and the rest to sit on the mattress that had been laid before him, telling them that the ritual was about to begin. The church was silent.

Willow looked over his shoulders and as he’d expected, more of the town's guards were hurrying around as if they had been preparing for something. He saw that his mother and the other parents were unaware however, fully focused on their children’s coming of age ritual. 

After a short prayer, Father John began the Awakening. “Rose. Rose of Marisa’s, please walk upon the podium so I may bless you.”

“Y-Yes, Father!” A teenage girl with fiery hair and eyes quickly sauntered over to the priest. She had been whispered something by the priest, nodding as her answer before she knelt, facing the priest and had her hands in a praying gesture. Father John laid his right hand above her head and started to chant.

Willow watched with great interest at the scenery that was unfolding before him. In the game, all that was shown was the dialogue between Father John and the young teens -- never the actual scene of awakening their emblems. 

As he watched, Willow saw a glow emit from Father John’s hand before it travelled down to the girl’s head, moving down her hair before eventually dimming down as it approached her right hand. He was surprised to see the mystical sight, reminding himself that he was in a world of magic and swords albeit a little more complicated.

The girl soon opened her eyes to find a flame-like insignia tattooed on top of her right hand -- her emblem, the crystallization of her soul. Father John nodded and smiled warmly before saying, “She’s a lucky one, she is.” 

“The Emblem Of Fire,” He announced. It was met with a number of approving and excited chattering before the girl rushed down happily to her proud parents. Willow watched the scenery with mirth. The emblem may be something ordinary, if one took it at face value but it all depended on the skills she would soon develop and how she would use them.

If she survived. Willow’s smile died down as another kid had been called onto the stage. 

It hurt. It really hurt him to know that once the invasion happened -- which it most likely already has -- he would have to be one of the first ones to hide and run away. All thoughts of saving people and the like would have to be thrown away but not the hope that his sister would somehow defy fate and save them. 

He couldn’t allow any burden if he wanted his future to be clean and as far away from that horrible end he would meet. The priest soon called onto another person - a familiar boy who had a look of confident pride in his face. Willow remembered him as the douche, rich kid of the town mayor or otherwise known as Galland, an ironic name for him.

He appeared to attend the Awakening with his mother. She stood a couple metres away from the common class of the people with a big smile on her fat face, under a parasol that looked a size too small for her large, unshapely behind.

The priest went on to go through the process, only this time, he had been more formal and less homely than he was with the previous girl. But it was understandable since it only took the smug looking boy’s mood to go stale to sicc the town mayor on your ass. 

A bright, yellow light shone this time as the boy then proudly held his emblem before the crowd. “The Emblem Of Pure Lightning,” Father John announced with surprise in his old eyes.

The crowd applauded and praised the young boy even though they didn’t technically know what Pure Lightning meant. 

Willow nodded and admitted that, despite how much he hated the boy, he did get a good emblem. With the emblem of Pure Lightning, he would be a menace to demons or anything unholy in nature and honestly, just a great addition to the ranks of holy knights in the kingdom. If, you ignored his massive attitude problem.

Galland seemed to look over Willow, meeting eyes with the beautiful boy before he winked at Willow - reminding him why on the gods’ name he hated the douchey kid so much. As Willow the beautiful femboy, he had always been the head turner since he was young, always attracting unwanted attention from people wherever he went. 

Sometimes he attracted the wrong people’s attention which was one of the reasons that caused his family, especially his mother, to grow extra-protective of him. One of said people was this rich snob who thought money bought everything and thought he was the perfect maiden to buy dinner with.

Willow didn’t say anything however since he let her take care of the job.

Galland’s eyes laid on the warrior girl that kicked his ass multiple times since young, sitting just right beside of his long-time crush - glaring at him while still on her impassive expression. His back immediately broke into cold sweat as he turned the other cheek and cursed at the fear he still felt for the girl. If only she wasn’t there, her sister would have been his already.

Willow watched as Galland jumped off the stairs and walked away, grumbling to himself. He grasped his little sister’s hands. “Thanks, Elm.”

“Mm.” She nodded. 

The rest of the kids went by and awakened their emblems as the sun started to peek from the eastern mountains - more and more guards looked hectic, their armor clanking around as it was starting to grow hard for Willow and the rest to ignore them. Most of the nobles - both the parents and their children who had already received their Emblems had been escorted somewhere to their bewilderment. The other common people on the other hand, had been directed to the Safe-House or at least that was what Willow thought since they were headed North.

Only the Safe-House and thick forestry lay North of the town. Willow bit his lips as he knew that today would be the day that the Safe-House. . .wasn’t so safe anymore.

There had only been a small group of townsmen left by the time it was his sister’s turn but enough people started murmuring in excitement at the symbol of talent and pride of their town. Willow’s mother had already started crying even though Elm hadn’t received her Emblem yet. 

Elm conversed with the old priest before she knelt and prayed. The old man placed his left hand above her golden hair and chanted. Willow watched with excitement at the birth of a Hero - no, he looked onwards to witness the birth of a star.