"Why is your boss interested in my soul engine?" Aron demanded of the shadow that sat itself in the chair opposite to himself.
The Shadow chuckled, "you and I both know what souls are worth and my master is interested in what you'll do with all of this…spiritual energy."
Aron smiled more to himself than at the Shadow, "that's for me to know and you and your master to be amazed by it."
"I'm sure we will be." The Shadow chuckled rose from the chair and disappaited.
Aron was left alone now.
He leaned back in his chair, he entered a code into his computer which brought a halo of a blue man who stood with his hands clasped behind his back. The blue skin and the interconnected designs of silver indicated the man was Cravian, Aron spoke his name as greeting, "Ecthor. I can tell by your demeanor that experiments are not going well."
"Sir" Ecthor began, "the spiritual energy is bonding with the magicite. However, they are forming a new metaphysical element. Experiments on creatures are going well however the animals are showing increased aggressive behavior. This suggests frightening results with human experimentation."
Aron leaned forward and stared at no particular thing.
"Sometimes" he said, cutting Ecthor off from whatever he was droning on about, "We must do terrible things in the name of discovery to truly know anything."
In the months after the mission to the station the group had been enlisted in several groups.
Mia, Asander, Rip, Malreki, and Neira had been sent to the mystic tower. Where they would be taught how to harness their frankly frightening raw power in magic.
They'd each been tasked to master one spell of their choosing. This would give the mystic council an idea of their personality and overall skill level.
Asander was first to show the council what he had learned.
A smile came to his face as he held out his hand palm up.
White light formed in his hand at the center of his palm. It seemed to chase away all Shadow magic from the area. Asander grasped the light and it formed into a sword
The master mystics murmured among themselves. Asander knew he had impressed them and maybe frightened them a little and that meant he was winning, maybe the others didn't think of this like a contest like Asander did but that's why they're losing.
"Sword of light, one of the most powerful form of light magic there is. Upon being casted it banishes all dark magic. It can easily cut through normal and magical bonds.
The downside is that it uses and extraordinary amount of energy. How will you remedy this?" The master mystics asked with the tilt of his head.
Asander met the question with a smile.
With a gust of wind Asander moved to the other side of the room. Due to his speed the mystics did not realize this until several practice dummies fell to the floor in pieces.
Murmurs began again as Asander stepped to the side and smiled at his team. It was a smile that challenged them to do better.
Rip decided to step forward, He drew a deep breath and after a moment announced he was ready.
Four pillars rose from the floor and produced blue balls of energy. Rip outstretched his hand and nodded.
At once all four energy spheres raced toward him.
"Devour."
Red and black flames shot from Rips hand and per the spells name devoured the blue spheres. Murmurs began at once but were silenced with Rips next words, "I'm not done yet"
With a clenched fist he spoke softly, "learn. Now adapt."
A soft blue light escaped from his hand than an ominous red light.
"Now, electric ball!"
A red and black ball of energy shot out of his hand and flew toward the tower. The towers energy absorbed the energy but the intention was clear.
Mystic masters made sounds of approval around the room.
Rip left the center of the room and stood next to Asander. They exchanged looks. Rip saw Asander as friendly, brotherly competition. Asander saw Rip as an obstacle to overcome
Neira stepped forward and drew her sword. the legendary blade, The Aki.
Once she was standing in the middle of the room she nodded. The pillars shot the same blue ball of energy at her that it shot at Rip.
She brought her blade up to meet the ball upon contact the ball shattered like glass.
This particular skill was known as break. The mystics nodded and ushered her away while Mia stepped onto the demonstration circle.
As soon as she did the orbs that sat on pillars in a circle around her began to glow brighter.
Many shielded their eyes as the light became blinding and all at once the orbs exploded with such force that only one elderly Tiberian mystic was still standing when the light subsided.
A master mystic broke the silence, "impossible!" He spat but the elderly mystic turned to him and met his eyes. Noone spoke for the grand mystic, master of all mystics and originator of their ancient order was about to speak.
"My dear Crail, obviously it is not impossible because…?" The grand mystic corrected and prompted a response.
Crail bowed his head and answered, "if it happened it is not impossible." As if reciting a lesson. Crail then matched the ancient master's eyes, "master it takes one hundred master mystics to overload just one of the orbs. She overloaded eight of them!"
"Yes, it suggests that her passive aura is more powerful than eight hundred mystics." The grand mystic responded. He stroked his long beard seeming lost in thought, "it is rare to see such power"
The grand mystic studied Mia for a long time before he continued, "if my suspicions are correct this means her potential is near limitless. This means she will require special training."
"And her friends" Crail prodded after the grand master continued to stare at Mia.
"Assign Hasakami to Mia and Crucipher to the others."
Mia had never encountered this kind of response before, usually she was above average but not the best. Could it be possible magic is where her true talents were? A small smirk started to light up her face at the thought. Finally, something she was exceptional at. Her smirk widened into a grin when the full realization of her potential hit her. "Near limitless" she repeated breathlessly.
Kaja Dume, emperor of the Tiberian empire strolled the palace library. It is said that in order to read the entire combined knowledge contained in the palace library you'd have to read for one billion years.
If there was one thing that was certain and known by everyone it was that Kaja loved to read. He loved to learn, to know something that he previously did not know or to expand upon a subject, to know all facets of a subject.
You could say Kaja didn't love to learn but that learning was an obsession of his.
A period he kept returning to was the time of the event, where all known volcanoes erupted on Tiberia at once. This forced the young imperium underground. When this happened the great Solomon was an infant but when the Tiberian imperium arose it arose new and with Solomon as their emperor.
Besides vague descriptions no records exist of that time period underground. He was grabbing a hand written account of the Shogun of Solomons era, Olga Mirmandum, the red mistress, his hand brushed against what he at first thought was a shelf needing repair until his hand grasped it and pushed down.
Next to the shelf the wall became transparent.
Kaja immediately pushed whatever it was back into place. The wall became solid again.
Kaja sighed, "Oh good I didn't break reality."
He quickly came to the conclusion that what he had moved was a lever that activated a spell to make the wall transparent. Switching the lever down again, Kaja moved through the wall which upon his entry became solid behind him.
In the room were many scrolls in handwriting Kaja quickly recognized as Solomon, the second emperor's In his excitement he grabbed as many notes and books as he could until he heard a clatter which caused him to turn his head toward the noise. There, buried under books that had fallen on it was a memoriom. Kaja sat the books and scrolls down and collected the memoriom from its place. Turning it over in his hands he chuckled in disbelief.
"A memory immortalized in stone of Solomon." He spoke aloud at the mention of Solomons name the stone came to life and broadcasted a confusing scene before Kajas eyes.
Solomon sat upon his throne much younger than in most of his paintings and holograms.
He simply stared at Kaja and put his index finger to his lips and whispered, "Listen."
The scene ended and it left Kaja confused.
He left the secret room and the library and decided to sit on a balcony where he turned the stone over in his hands again and again, repeating Solomons one word message.
"Solomon the wise." He began in frustration, "you are maddeningly unhelpful."
It was then that he heard a voice speaking, he rose from his seat and went to the railing and looked down. Below him children were seated in a circle around one of the children Tiberia was charged with the care of, Mia.
Mia sat with the children telling them a tale of the event, one of the darkest times in Tiberian history.
In her story there was apparently a Saint that saved and preserved the Tiberian imperium by leading the people underground and even raised Solomon.
Kaja smiled, "a fairytale." He interrupted.
The children and Mia looked up at the emperor who vaulted over the rail and landed gracefully.
"The historical society teaches us that the event was an eruption of every volcano on Tiberia and that the people were led underground by the hero, Bollock Bruhan. The only other Saint in history died several millennia before the event. Who told you this fanciful tale of a new Saint leading the Tiberian people underground?"
Mia turned her gaze to the emperor and curtsied before answering.
"I noticed some murals that seemed to depict the story on my year of wander, I assumed they were legends or lost history and I thought it would do good for children to hear the ancient legends of Tiberia."
Kaja crossed his arms, she knew what was coming. Kaja loved debates and deep conversations.
"Legends are often exaggerations, misinterpretations, and misconceptions of the past. It is better to teach children facts than lies covered in glamor, no?"
Kaja had a point, teaching kids lies was never good for development of their moral or critical thinking skills. Although Mia knew that legends still stood as a great way to demonstrate great truths, she knew Kaja would simply counter her with facts doing the same thing. So she simply smiled and excused herself to take the children back to the academy.
Kaja watched her go. He slowly made his way back inside the palace. He stopped at the doorway as he heard the wind repeat Solomons message, "listen."
Ace found Darec on the balcony overlooking the shooting range with a rifle. He let the gun rest on his arm as he looked out upon the shooting range and its visitors.
The range itself was a full ten miles although few have ever made that shot it still serves as a challenge for any sniper in the Tiberian army. Ace approached, tapping Darec on the shoulder. "I'm told you've been out here every day for a week making impossible shots. The last I'm told was five and a half miles. I've got something to ask-"
Ace was cut off by Darec shushing him and holding up his finger. He then lifted his rifle and began aiming. Once he had it apparently adjusted to his liking Darec did something that terrified Ace, he closed his eyes. Ace then noticed something even more terrifying, Darec could somehow see! He was still adjusting his aim with his eyes closed.
Ace started to ask what he was doing but stopped short when Darec smiled and pulled the trigger. The whole range was silenced as they stopped firing and turned to look at Darec.
The range director grabbed his binoculars and zoomed in on the ten mile target. He then turned toward Darec and held up a green flag.
"We have a new range record set by private Darec with ten point one miles!" The director shouted excitedly.
Darec disassembled his weapon and put it in his case. "You wanted to talk about a mission?" He enquired.
"Yes, I did if you're not too busy shooting leaves off of trees." Darec smiled at Ace's joke.
"Where are we going?" Darec was quick to skip to the heart of the matter.
"You and I are going to the outer rim to one of the unnamed planets." Ace answered.
"Why don't we know the name of the planet?" Darec asked in a confused tone.
"Because the original inhabitants of the planet were killed in one of the many wars that happen in the outer rim galaxies." Ace responded in a strangely cheery tone.
Ace and Darec passed the courtyard where Malreki, Rip, and Asander had met up with their assigned instructor who went by the name Crucipher.
Crucipher stood at an intimidating eight feet and wore black robes instead of the normal blue robes. A scar that gave off a faint green glow mark his face, an old wound that left him blind in his left eye. His black hair fell to his broad shoulders with one braid in the back.
"Master Zerka has asked me to train you." He began in a deep stern voice, "I must warn you I do not know support magic or any of the tedious nonsense that some people may teach you. I know battle magic, offensive and defensive. The reason for this is that I have been tasked with the assignment of hunting and destroying abominations."
Asander was puzzled, he'd never heard of such a creature.
"Abominations?" He questioned.
"Abominations are people corrupted and possessed by creatures of pure magic. They have never had a body and wish to gain one to bring more of their kind here." Rip answered, sounding like a very boring encyclopedia.
Crucipher held up his arm as if he was holding a shield. A blue field surrounded him, "this is a shield created by my magic."
"What's it called?" The twins asked together.
"Its called…shield." Crucipher replied dryly.
The twins shared a look then returned to looking at Crucipher. Mareki already was mimicking Crucipher with a cruder version of the shield. Crucipher gestured for them to stand and they did.
They both held up their arms exactly like Crucipher and Malreki. Fields of energy encased them, Asander was encased in teal energy and Rip in red.
"What do the different colors mean?" Rip asked after looking at all of them.
"It is a subject of debate. Some say it's a difference in strength. Others believe that it is just a manifestation of your personality, faith and overall will in your magic." Crucipher answered slowly and carefully.
It was almost as if someone or something spoke to Rip. He moved his arm forward and pointed at a target, willing his shield to reach out and ram it like an aurox in the planes of Tiberia. The target shattered causing Crucipher to turn to Rip. There was no surprise or even judgment, just simple regard.
"That ability should not be possible for someone just learning to manifest their shield. However, I suppose there is a difference between 'should not be possible and is not possible.'" Crucipher stated, "although, your shield bash is strong." He then brought his hand in a flash which destroyed several targets, reducing them to splinters. "It is not as strong as it could be."
Asander scoffed, his brother was pulling ahead of him in terms of power. No, he would be the most powerful of the group. In fact, he was the most powerful.
He willed his shield forward but it drew back and collided with his face which dropped him to the ground. Crucipher stood over him.
"You are much too inexperienced to try something as precise as body tight shields."
Asander knew this wasn't criticism, and it wasn't mockery. Crucipher was simply making a statement. It hurt nonetheless so when Crucipher offered his hand to help him up, Asander raised his legs and performed a kick up.
Malreki tried both abilities but his shield would not budge from its position. After a few minutes of great effort and energy spent he collapsed to his knees in exhaustion.
Crucipher nodded at Malrekis effort and continued his teaching of the twins.
Malreki rose to his feet and walked away from the group.
"You must establish in your repertoire trusted spells, moves, techniques that you trust to neutralize opponents." Crucipher explained, "within the week I would like you to come up with a move set you trust."
The boys nodded and took that as a dismissal. Asander headed towards the museums, Rip headed towards the library.