Len walked into the marketplace, everywhere had been deserted and the moon was out lighting his way. The only thing remaining was the statue of Lord Ritcher Degor which had been covered in dirt and remains of rotting food.
Everyone in the Sameria district hated the way the Ritcher had gone about his business. This was his hometown and he treated the entire place like another dump.
Ritcher was the Mayor of the entire city of Esnon but he didn't care what happened to it, all he cared about was filling up his pockets and his stomach.
The roads of the city were dirty, the waters were unclean leading to the people continuously dying from a mysterious illness for the past seven years and the cost of living had blown up recently leading to people like Len taking up multiple jobs to make ends meet and even with that the pay is so little that it wouldn't last a single week.
And that is why the money lenders are in full swing, the rich nobles in the city lend out money to the poor and needy which they would pay back with an extremely high interest fee as well coming in at an absurd one hundred percent on interest.
Len kicked a something as he walked leisurely, it was a placard, he picked it up and it read "Ritcher out now" every letter in uppercase. Len sighed and then threw it away seeing no need for it.
"What I need to learn about is what I did in there," Len said as he stood there stroking his chin, "I was able to seemingly stop time and turn my pain into a powerful attack."
'But what could have caused all this?' he thought to himself and then remembered the glowing ball of light and the wall that separated him from it, he remembered how he woke up in that building immediately after he touched that wall.
'What is that wall? And I do remember them saying that I've become similar to their boss, no wonder I always had a feeling that Damon was stronger than the both of them, so he's been able to do things like this eh.' Len paced around with his arms folded as he was lost in thought.
He walked up to a table and lay on top of it his head rested in his hands as he gazed at the stars. 'I'll deal with it in the morning.'
"Hey! Wake up and get out of here!" A gruff voice started screaming. Len's eyes flickered open as he stared into the eyes of the owner of said voice. It was man likely in his mid thirties, Len bowed and was walking away but then turned.
"Um sir, what happened after the protests yesterday?" He asked.
The man frowned. "Have you been living under a rock?" The man asked clearly surprised, "Well, Mayor Ritcher will be holding a public address today for the first time since the protests started last month."
Len smiled, "Will you be attending?" He asked.
"He's going to be doing all that over there," the man pointed in the direction of his statue, Len turned to look at it and saw people working to clean it already, "so I won't need to go anywhere, I would be able to hear and see everything from over here."
"Alright then, stay safe sir." Len waved and walked away. He stood in front of the statue which had each and every visible physical feature of the Mayor which made Len chuckle a little.
He walked to a food stall and stared round, he then smiled. "A stick of cheese please."
"That will be two Zun." The seller replied with an outstretched palm.
Len sighed and then dropped two gold coins in the palm of the seller's hand, she then put the stick of cheese on a disposable plate and handed it over to him.
Len devoured the cheese like a wild animal with some of it sticking to his face and even in between his fingers. 'I need water.'
Len walked back to the food stall and she nodded as if knowing what he wanted she handed him a cup of water, he rummaged through his pocket to take out one of his pouches but she stretched her palm forward telling him to stop.
"First customer gets a free glass of water." She smiled at him.
He just stared at her, utterly shocked, he took the glass of water from her and drank everything in two huge gulps.
At that moment a carriage ride past him, Len recognised the symbol that was upon it and knew who it was.
Mayor Ritcher Degor jumped out of the carriage and walked towards the statue that was made in his honour, smiled at it and then turned around to face the people in the market.
He looked around seeing the amount of refuse on the ground and even some human faeces littered around as well.
'How do humans live here?' Ritcher asked himself as his eyes searched every nook and cranny of the market for anything of note but he instead covered his nose with his hand. "It smells all over." He whispered as he walked atop the podium that had been set up for him.
Len walked up to where the people had already started gathering, he stood behind someone. Len was a tall man but he never took pride in his height even till now as most of the time he sees it as a burden.
"People of the Great City Of Esnon, I greet you all today. I want to let you all know that I have heard all of your pleas and will probably see to them in the near future." Ritcher began.
"Probably? Near future!?" Someone from the crowd screamed which agitated the crowd even further.
Seeing as the crowd were out for his head Ritcher trembled. "Wait! Wait! The city doesn't have enough funds to carry out most of the things you ask for currently, even we as Mayors hold protests against the King sometimes to give us better budgets each year."
Len shook his head showing his disappointment. 'I'm pretty sure he doesn't even leave his home so how does he go out for those protests, he decides to lie to their faces so he can quell their anger for now.' Len's thoughts ran on and on.
'He might also give them something to distract them for a little while so he would be free to scheme up something for the future.'
"So I'll leave you all with this for now." Ritcher smiled and then walked down from the podium and into his carriage.
"What did he leave us with?" People asked themselves.
"I don't see anything at all."
Then at that moment in the midst of the crowd a giant tornado of flames erupted killing numerous people instantly.
Len's eyes opened in shock. "So this is what he planned eh?" He said as he ran out of the market and then he stared up and saw that standing atop Ritcher's statue was someone covered from top to bottom so as to hide his or her identity.
Len tried concentrating once again, trying to stop time for that one person but it didn't work. He saw someone on the floor screaming in agony.
It was the lady who sold food, the left side of her body burnt to a crisp. He tried to absorb her pain and use it to attack but it didn't work as well, she continued screaming.
Len looked up at the person who continued moving their arms about as if they were in an orchestra and the more they moved their hands the more the flames erupted. He gritted his teeth but he had to run, he took to his heels running as fast as he could. The arsonist continued, reducing the entire marketplace to ash.
"Seems like someone escaped from you." Ritcher came out from underneath the statue.
"Oh! I thought you left." Said the arsonist as they took of the cloak from their body, revealing their appearance.
A beautiful lady in her mid twenties with brown coloured skin, green eyes and a beautiful smile. Ritcher was smitten by her beauty and he stretched his hand forward to help her down.
She reeled her hands backwards with a look of disgust on her face. "I can get down just fine."
"So what do we do about Len?" Ritcher asked.
"Len?"
"Yes that's his name, Len Norman."
"Search for him, I'll do so as well. I've never had anyone run from me before so this one won't be what spoils my reputation." She smiled.
Len ran as fast as his legs could carry him, he felt an extreme burning sensation in his muscles with every stride but he kept on going. He then stopped as he heard the sounds of rushing water.
'Finally, I've gotten to the end of the Samerian district which means the Drolza district is on the other side of this river,' he thought as he knelt down, joining both of his hands together so he could drink water.
He stared at the river and could still see the debris and dirt inside it but he didn't care, all he wanted was water and nothing more.
He scooped and drank as if he wanted to drink up the entire river, he slumped back and laid down near the river, it wasn't deep so crossing over to the other side would be easy.
He thought about what had happened to him in the past few hours, him awakening to some sort of strange power, stopping time, and pain conversion.
He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice someone walking up behind him, then he noticed a shadow cover him up and then he immediately rolled out of the way and took an agitated stance.
The person in front of him was a man in his late sixties but he didn't seem to be that old as his physique rivaled that of Robert and Dale.
Len moved cautiously, watching the man whose silver eyes followed his movements, and then Len attacked as he lunged forward, swinging his fist to attack.
The man dodged easily then bent to the side and swung his foot, kicking Len directly in the stomach causing him to cough blood.
Len's emotions flared up once again, he swung forward once again with a punch, all his pain focused on it, the man dodged but the shockwave from the punch split the river in half.
The man's face showed surprise before calming himself and then palming Len directly on his chest sending him flying backwards.
"So you're like me eh?" The man smiled as he walked to where Len laid on the ground, his chest heaving.
"What… do… you… mean?" Len asked, his breath becoming shallow.
"Calm down kid," the man replied and then stretched his hand forward to help Len up, "my name is Laird Firman."
Len took Laird's hand, dragging himself up but his next movement took Laird by surprise as he kicked the old man directly on the head but he was completely unfazed.
"Was that supposed to hurt?" Laird asked. "You're still weak, you don't even understand what you're doing."
Len dropped his foot and then sat back down. "Explain what you mean."
"Did you see anything like a ball of light and not being able to touch it?" Laird asked.
'How did he know that? He did say that I'm like him so maybe…' Len thought to himself.
"Yes," he replied earnestly.
"Then you've interacted with what we call the Veil," Laird began, "the Veil is basically what separates us from what we call godhood, to us that ball of light is a part of God."
"God exists?" Len asked.
"Maybe, we do not know for sure. All we know is that the more we ourselves understand the world then the more the layers on the Veil get thinner which leads us to believe that the moment the Veil disappears we become a god of our own world." Laird explained.
Len's eyes widened, 'I can become stronger. I can show those bastards what I can become.'
"What are you thinking about?" Laird asked.
"I wonder, how do we use the Veil? I was able to use it to a minimal extent, I stopped time for two opponents and I was also able to turn my pain into a powerful attack." Len replied.
"Then you have not fully interacted with the Veil, you have to look into yourself and also you have to know what you want as well as an anchor." Laird told him.
"Anchor?" Len asked.
"Something that would keep you same as overuse of the Veil causes pain, madness, and then finally death." Laird explained.
Laird's words struck a cord in Len's soul, 'Madness? Death?'
Seeing Len's expression Laird sighed and then put a hand on Len's shoulder, "Don't worry about it, once you're able to understand the Veil within you for the first time then you'd be able to escape all that."
"Alright, how would I do that?" Len asked.
"Follow me," Laird said as he put his foot into the river and crossed to the other side.
"You're a Drolzan?" Len asked.
"Yes," Laird replied, "now come on, leave your previous life behind and follow me."
Len sighed and dipped his foot in the water and the trudged his way through the water. He thought about the memories he had here but none of them were good ones, his mind calmed down and then he crossed over fully.
"Nice," Laird smiled, "follow me."
Laird led the way and Len followed, both of them walking for what seemed to be hundreds of kilometres.
"This is Drolza," Laird gestured showing a glorious district, it was a bigger district than Sameria and the buildings were even better than the ones over in his hometown as well.
The walked through the district, Len saw that the people were even happier than those in Sameria but they also had the same look in their eye which shows that they were also fairly unhappy.
"The people here are also unhappy with how Mayor Ritcher lords over it and how he embezzles public funds into his pocket," Laird began, "we heard about the massacre in Sameria that's why I was there, I found out that Ritcher hired an Alterator for that mission."
"Alterator? What's that?" Len asked.
"It is one of the levels of understanding when it comes to the Veil or you would say someone who understands the Veil much better than you do." Laird replied.
Len shook his head then looked at Laird again, "What other levels are there?"
"There's manifestation, abstraction, imposition, negation, and transcendence. Alterators use alteration." Laird explained. "All levels do what you think they actually do. Manifestation, brings something from the users will although it's mostly minimal like your pain conversion and your time stop so from my perspective you're a Manifestor."
Len shook his head and then asked, "So how do I understand the Veil?"
"Follow me," Laird led him to an average looking home but to Len the building looked like where a rich man lived. Len opened the door and gestured for him to come inside. Len was amazed by how well furnished the place was, he entranced by how well it looked.
Laird smiled, "Never lived in a nice place have you?" He asked.
"No, I lived in a home made out of bamboos." Len replied.
"Now let's begin." Laird said as he took off his shirt revealing his well toned body he sat down on the floor, Len followed suit, he sat down next to him crossing his legs and they both joined hands together.
"Now concentrate, look inward and picture the Veil, picture what you saw back then," Laird said, "and always remember to concentrate."
Len calmed down and concentrated, he pictured what he saw the previous day, the wall separating him from the ball of light.
He sat there concentrating with the entirety of his being until he was finally there again, within the abyss but this time he was directly in front of the ball of light.
He stretched his hand forward once again and he came into contact with the wall.
"So you're what separates me from godhood eh? It doesn't matter what you are, I'll get past this and I'll become a god no matter the consequence." Len said and then the next moment he opened his eyes he saw Laird smiling at him.
"Good going kid," Laird said.
Len looked at himself and saw a form of energy leaking out of him.
"What's this Laird?" Len asked.
"That's your essence, basically your life force. If it continues to leak out of your body you'll die." Laird explained.
"Die!? How do I stop it from leaking?"
"Well you will it to stop. Having a superior will is crucial in manipulating the Veil." Laird explained.
Len concentrated, he finally realised what he needed to do he knew what he wanted and now he had the power to do that but he wouldn't die now not even if the world wanted that.
He commanded his essence and it stopped, the flow of his life force from his body stopped and he calmed down. The moment he did it started flowing out once again.
"You'll have to train yourself to do that subconsciously." Laird smiled as he said that. "Let the training begin."