The System Awakens: Rise of the Champion

"I've read about them…" Amaya said excitedly.

"The celestial races are supposed to have been born from the creation of the universe itself... Is that for real?"

"It's real," Damian nodded. "Avaline, as a pure-blooded Qilin, is part of the Celestial race."

"Um, can you guys explain? We don't know who Celestial beings are," Ana asked, raising her hand.

"Well, the Celestial races are beings who were born at the beginning of the universe," Damian began to explain.

As everyone knew, a normal universe, unlike the one Damian was from, which had been cast off from the cosmos, continued to grow as usual, ever-expanding, endlessly stretching into space.

But it wasn't always like this. Like everything that exists, the universe also had a beginning.

Before the universe came to be, there was nothing except the endless cosmos.

From that cosmos, Chaos manifested, an existence containing infinite cosmic energy, the power to either create or destroy a universe.

It drifted at the edge of the endless expansion of the cosmos, occupying a space where time stood still.

At one point, in that timeless expanse, the Chaos exploded.

When it did, the space it occupied rapidly expanded at an unimaginable speed, many times faster than light.

The explosion of Chaos released a myriad of radiant colors, filtered and unfiltered energies, filling the void with existence.

The space for a universe had been created.

From the myriad of energies, universal regulators came into being, entities one with the universe itself, beings who possessed infinite power within it.

The first to appear was the Universal Tree, also known as the Regulator of Life and Energy.

The Universal Tree is the most powerful regulator in the universe.

She possesses the power to create everything, every form of existence within the universe can trace its origin back to her.

She is the generator of energy itself, from which all else was born.

From the Universal Tree came the World Tree, a being with the power to create and sustain worlds.

As unfiltered energy continued to flood the universal space, the second and third regulators came into existence: the Regulator of Positivity and the Regulator of Negativity.

If the Universal Tree's purpose was to create and sustain energy, then the purpose of Positivity and Negativity was to maintain balance.

They ensured that the universe would not collapse from within due to the clashing of opposing forces and energies born from the Universal Tree.

The Regulators of Positivity and Negativity made sure that karma and providence were distributed according to the system of reality, affecting all existence within the universe.

Together, the Universal Tree, Positivity, and Negativity formed the Three Regulators of the universe, the absolute beings upon whom existence itself depended.

Without them, there would be no universe.

After the Regulators came the Primordials, who drew power from the three Regulators.

The Primordials were created by the Regulators themselves, their sole purpose being to assist the three in maintaining balance.

They were known as the End, Beginning, Judgement, Change, Life, Renewal, and Continuum, the seven Primordials of the universe.

At present, the seven Primordials exist in a state of semi-consciousness, without form.

They are formless beings who possess neither self-awareness nor awareness of anything else, and yet they still fulfill their duty as Primordials, ensuring that everything within their domain of control continues to function as it should.

The three Regulators of the universe, along with the seven Primordials, were responsible for all existence.

The Primordials answered to the Regulators, while the Regulators themselves were born from Chaos.

The Primordials, in turn, were also created by the Regulators, shaped from Chaos.

And from them, all that is the universe came to be.

In the end, everything originated from Chaos.

But the Regulators were not the only beings born of it.

Chaos itself was a vast, seething sphere of energy, so immense that, if it were to explode, it could create an entire universe from nothing.

Yet, not all of the energy released by Chaos went into forming the Regulators and, subsequently, the Primordials.

Some of that energy gave rise to something else.

Beings known as the Celestials.

Supernatural entities who possessed, from birth, the power of the greatest gods.

They roamed the vast expanses of space, bearing within them world-shaping powers and boundless energy.

They were the first sentient beings said to be born in the universe, billions of years before any mortals ever existed.

They were the first gods, preyed upon by mortals and the supernatural alike.

After a few million years, the Celestials went on to create their own kind, beings known as the Celestial Races.

Unlike other races, they were not born from a single progenitor but instead descended directly from the Celestials themselves.

Damian's wife, Avaline, belonged to one such Celestial Race: the Qilins.

"I have one doubt… the Celestials don't have a progenitor like other races?" Amaya asked.

"Well, a progenitor for them has never appeared to this day," Damian replied.

"Darling, can you become their progenitor like you did for our races?" Lilith asked, holding Damian's arm.

"I don't know… probably not. The Celestial Races are vastly different from other races. I won't know until I gain their racial essence to analyze," Damian said with a shrug.

"Anyway," Damian turned his attention back to Elfie, who was looking at herself and her new wings, trying to get used to her newfound abilities.

"Are you feeling okay?" Damian asked, rubbing her head.

"Yes, I feel great," Elfie replied with a smile, clearly enjoying the patting.

"What about you, Arlen?" Damian looked at her brother.

Both of them had a high-level affinity with the Angelic race.

That was why Damian turned them into high-class angels.

Since Damian had already given them the essence of other races before their transformation, the effects of those other races strongly influenced the transitioning process.

Unlike others, the traits of those races grew out predominantly.

As a result, they might have felt overwhelmed, but Damian's presence seemed to ease the effects, allowing them to handle it better.

Maria also had a very high affinity with the Angelic race.

That's why, when Damian gave her the racial essence of the Angels, its effects showed even faster, she instantly grew wings.

The angels wouldn't ever admit it openly, but their greatest strength and greatest weakness was their wings.

"I'm okay… I just feel slightly chilled," Arlen replied. "Um… how do I make the wings disappear?"

"Just think about it deeply," Yuki said.

When she grew her own wings, she had the same problem, she couldn't make them go away.

But after asking Damian, he taught her how to control them.

It was quite easy: all she had to do was focus on her wings, and as time went on, controlling them became second nature.

They became even more controllable after she developed demonic traits in her wings.

Maria, Arlen, and Elfie did as she instructed.

They closed their eyes, thinking deeply with the single intent of making their wings disappear.

After a few seconds, the wings retracted back into their bodies, vanishing into their skin like they had never been there.

"How do we make them reappear and actually use them to fly?" Maria asked.

"The same way you make them disappear, just concentrate. The more you focus, the better your control will become. After a while, controlling your wings will feel completely natural," Yuki explained.

"Well, Yuki and Maria both have wings now, so it's our turn," Ana said, looking at Shiru.

"Not exactly…" Shiru replied.

"What do you mean?" Ana asked and in the next second, her eyes widened in shock.

From Shiru's back, three pairs of black feathered wings unfurled.

They were shaped like vampire wings, taloned and sharp-edged like demonic wings, but unlike Maria's and Elfie's, Shiru's wings resembled those of a dark angel.

"You… you grew wings?! When the fuck did that happen?" Ana demanded, stunned.

"It's been a while," Shiru shrugged her shoulders casually.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"It just never came up until now," Shiru replied nonchalantly.

"Wha… so I'm the only one who can't fly?" Ana muttered.

"Well, we can't fly either," the werewolves raised their hands.

"Come on, you can fly using magic, can't you?" Maria asked.

"Yes, I can, but it costs a lot of mana… plus, wings are cooler," Ana pouted, then looked at Damian as if trying to get his help.

"I can't do anything about it… I can't force evolution, it takes time," Damian shook his head. "There are things even I can't interfere with."

Damian rubbed Ana's head. "Don't worry, have patience. It might be because the other aspects of your racial essence are growing stronger compared to others, and that's a good thing."

"What about us? Why haven't any of us grown wings?" Veyla asked.

She and the other werewolves hadn't developed wings at all.

In fact, the influences of the other races barely showed, except for the adaptability of humans and the ability of vampires to drink blood.

"That's because you're werewolves. Your very nature doesn't have any affinity for wings. It might take a very long time for you to grow them. But in exchange, your wolf side will become stronger due to the influences of vampires and demons. And don't forget, the racial essences you'll receive from now on will be from more animalistic races, which means you'll experience an extreme boost in physical strength," Damian explained.