***Hyperion Empire***

***Soltain Province***

More than a year had passed since Max had last seen his two best friends, and at home he found himself undergoing rigorous training led by his father, grandfather, and mother. Originally, he was supposed to learn everything he could about Soltain magic but his unexpected awakening of the ‘Mind's Eyes’ effectively doubled his instruction schedule.

Light magic training in the mornings, afternoons spent with his Master Silvia in the art of enchanting, and long nights under the tutelage of his own mother for eye practice.

His father and grandfather would alternate the mornings, as both men were usually busy in their own duties.

Jacob would instruct him on the properties of light magic used for healing. All healing magic stemmed from the blessing of the gods, and Soltain’s had it rather easy being the only humanoids in the world with an affinity to the light element. Through the patronage of the God of the Sun, one could call for the power to heal injuries and even prevent death. That’s what most healers did anyway, but healing magic wasn’t so restricted to only one god or goddess. There were also spells mages with the water affinity could use, healing minor injuries purely from their own abilities.

The Soltain’s always called for the power of Sol, but hardly lost any mana in channeling his blessings. The bloodline had long been blessed with extraordinary abilities in light manipulation, and old House texts claimed that the family were descendants of the god himself.

As such, morning practices were easiest for Max, so he was fortunate he hardly had to spend any effort in effectively replicating his father and grandfathers techniques. Mornings were hardly his most efficient time, and Max didn’t fully hone his mental faculties until the walk towards his Master’s shop.

As time passed, his apprenticeship with his Master gradually moved from full blown instruction and replication to a more creative zone. Max wasn’t quite a master enchanter, but he could easily be considered an expert. As such, Silvia had him working on his own repertoire. So, after finishing his chores, Max was left to work on his own enchantments. If his work was good enough to be sold in the shop, he would be treated with a new sigil technique. The carrot and the stick method proved to be continually effective, and Max was well on his way to learning the tattooed enchantment she promised to teach him if he did well.

‘Mind’s Eye’ practice with Sophia proved to be the most difficult for him. He certainly wasn’t as good as his cousin Arthur in the manipulation of minds. Like his mother, his eyes functioned in uncontrollable bursts that hurt everyone in the area. He could relatively identify friend from foe, but his mental output was hardly perfect.

To amend the issue, Sophia and Max would ride outside of the city into the lush pine forests that spanned east of the walls. Here, Max wouldn’t have to worry about hurting others and could dedicate all his attention on damage control.

Direct observations by Sophia presented that his mind powers were rather abrupt. Instead of flooding minds with information they could hardly comprehend and understand, like herself, Max’s eye abilities seemed to work on a more physical level. He simply overloaded the targets physical processing abilities, and the senses one came to rely on turned out to be the reason why they were dying.

They never had a chance to fully test and record the reaches of Max’s eye abilities, but Sophia knew enough to focus her son on control over power. If he didn’t, there would come a time where Max would no doubt hurt someone he didn’t intend too.

Max’s time in training was spent in redundancy, until the day his father told him he would be making a pilgrimage deep into the Elotl Mountains. Only months away from the inevitable departure to the Academy, Max had a pretty good idea what this pilgrimage meant.

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It wasn’t unheard of for people to move to Soltain City just for the atmosphere. The people were hardy yet generally friendly, and the province was one of the most secure in the Empire. The city was also in a very aesthetically pleasing location, built between a vast mountain range and numerous tranquil pine forests, the atmosphere was generally calming and peaceful.

The citizens of the city were relatively happy, and poverty was extremely low due to the influence of the military. If one could not find work, the military would always be willing to teach and recruit. One could find all sorts of different work funded by the provincial army, and still would never have to actually learn to fight. Talents were often identified and capitalized for new recruits, leaving a surplus of workers to be eventually sent out to the smaller cities and villages.

A lone boy just shy of five feet in height stood outside the western city gates, watching unreservedly as a dozen or so travelers moved by and entered the city. Every now and then he would fidget back in forth, sometimes checking the straps of his backpack or sword and other times kicking the rocks under him.

He was clearly nervous and seemed to be waiting for something or someone.

Max looked back down at his favorite long dark blue coat that covered most of his body. Same as all the other times he checked, his belongings were secure and he was ready for his departure. That didn’t seem to help though, as he held the sinking feeling he was forgetting something.

As time passed, the sun reached it’s height in the sky signifying it was midday. His father was late, as Max was supposed to begin his climb up the Steps of the Sun before noon.

Max got increasingly restless, yet his relief quickly came at the sight of his father alongside two knights riding through the city towards the gate. The soldiers at the gate gave Jacob a quick salute, and then continued their duties.

Jacob nodded to the city guards and turned towards his son.

Dismounting from his horse, he put both his hands on Max's shoulders.

"I'm sorry I'm a bit late, our prefects have recently arrived at the capital for the annual review." He then took a breath and removed a small House seal in the shape of a shield.

Handing it to Max, Jacob continued, "I'm sure dad has already told you but let me say it again, do not stray from the path, just keep moving forward."

Max nodded and took the small seal from his father. "Don't diverge from the path. Anything else?"

Jacob scratched his chin in contemplation. "The journey up the mountain is different for everyone. You already know it gets colder as you go higher and it is also possible to meet hostile creatures during the ascension." Max nodded again. "I would say don't forget to continue to drink water, and use the light to keep you warm. Other than that, you should be fine."

Jacob bent down and gave one last hug to his only son. "Keep your wits about you, they will be watching."

Ruffling the boy's hair, the older man mounted his horse and trotted back into the city, followed by his personal guards.

Max looked towards the mountains, inhaling and exhaling, he marched into the narrow valley that led to the beginning of the Steps to the Sun.

Reaching the stone marker that was engraved with writing, Max took a moment to read the text aloud.

“One who passes the threshold of the earth shall ascend from the radiance of the great golden flame.”

Max shook his head. His ancestors were the first to claim to climb the 10,000 steps, but he had no idea who wrote on the stone that marked the beginning.

Max began the climb and observed the wildlife in the area. It was the height of spring, and the trees and bushes were quite thick on both sides of the stone path.

He even noticed a fox scurry by as it heard him approach. Distractedly watching it depart, Max almost tripped over one of the cracked steps that jutted out of the ground.

Quickly extending his other foot and catching himself, Max took another deep breath.

I need to calm down.

Standing in silence and listening to the wind move past the trees, Max gradually regained his composure.

Taking another step forward, he pressed further up the side of the largest mountain in sight.

Time passed and the sun eventually disappeared behind the mountains to the west. Night quickly followed, and Max found himself activating three ‘Light Flares’ to see. The three lights moved harmoniously around the boy, and gave him ample range to see his surroundings.

Max considered using his eyes to see in the dark, but as he continued to gain altitude the temperature was getting noticeably colder. The lights worked three fold, providing him with light to see in the dark, warding off creatures who use the night to hunt, and working to keep him warmer.

The wailing of the wind only grew louder as he continued, and Max was forced to lift his fur-lined hood over his head to cover his ears. There were almost no trees left at this point, and the area around him was covered in snow.

Max heard the howling of wolves nearby, and gently placed his backpack on the ground beside him. With his back facing the edge of the cliff next to the steps, he activated his ‘Mind's Eyes’.

Glowing snake-like orbs peered out from under his hood, staring directly at the eyes of the biggest wolf approaching from the distance. Max directed his three ‘light flares’ towards the direction of the incoming enemy, each spreading out and exposing the would-be hidden predators.

The wolves were gray and appeared to be rather small in number. Max gave a sigh of relief in the face of his first real challenge. Wolves were rather simple to predict and even easier to kill, he was glad he didn’t have to fight something truly powerful yet.

Still, Max wasn’t really comfortable with having a cliff to his back. Seeing the wolves were coming from the lower part of the hill, Max picked up his bag quickly and moved to where the wolves were now climbing the steps below him to attack. He used the large boulder on his left to remove the opportunity to surround him, and examined his options.

His sword wasn’t really necessary for this fight, especially considering how tedious it was for his smaller body to remove it from it’s sheathe.

One of the wolves attempted to lunge at the light floating above it, but quickly found it was a fruitless endeavor. The lights remained unfazed, so the pack turned all its attention back to Max.

The now eight wolves in sight were all coming from the same direction. Standing tall in the face of his foes, Max came up with a rather ingenious idea.

Three of the wolves in front gave up on their steady trotting and lunged towards himself. Using the already powerful winds that swept passed them, Max channeled air magic originating from their right and fired off a strong blast.

The blast of wind easily took the three in front off their feet, pushing them up and over the cliff that stood on the side of the stone path.

Pained yelps could be heard as they fell down the side of the cliff, eventually being overtaken by the howling of the wind moving over the rocky mountain.

The remaining five wolves were left in a state of confusion, unsure of whether to attack or retreat, yet Max continued his magical assault. Channeling a ‘Minor Wind Slash’ in his left hand, he quickly dispatched of the two wolves who made contact and placed the final three in a panic.

They whined in fright and retreated from the aggressor, sprinting back in the direction from where they came. “I thought so.” Max said to himself, picking up his backpack and deactivating his eyes.

The three light flares continued their harmonious spinning around their castor, and Max reached into his jacket to pull out a flask of water. Taking a few sips and wetting his mouth, Max put the flask back and continued his journey.

As he gained even more altitude, Max noticed he was now above the clouds that covered the night sky. The wind was strong and the air felt rather thin, breathing was becoming slightly more difficult.

Thinking it a good time to take a break, Max sat atop a snowy covered rock and looked into the night sky.

The stars were bright and prominent, dotting the black and purple void which encompassed his view.

Amazing.

His mind drifted off to the images of his two best friends, quietly wishing they were here alongside him and seeing what he was seeing.

“I’ll have to show them later.”

He sat in a trance, either unaware of or ignoring the rapidly dropping temperature in his immediate vicinity. The cloud produced by his exhalation of breath was thick, and distinct enough to push him out of his stupor.

Checking his surroundings, he gasped in pain as a sharp sting of cold ran through his right arm. Hastily backpedaling and assessing the source of the attack, he caught the figures of three floating crystallized spikes of ice hovering towards him.

His right arm was completely numb, so he used his left and quickly shot off three ‘Light Arrows’ which instantly shattered the wisps pursuing him. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”

Activating his eyes again and directing his light flares towards the direction from where the wisps came, he recognized a woman. The woman-like figure was made completely of ice, her blue hair dancing in the wind and her glowing blue eyes baring directly at him. She had no feet, as she seemed to grow from the snow under her, dozens of dancing wisps surrounding her.

She was positively emitting mana, and easily forming more wisps as time passed.

Max grimaced. “Wispmother.”

He needed to fix his right arm.

Throwing his backpack and sword far to his right. Max got to work on reheating his arm, and getting feeling back in his hand.

The wispmother did not sit still waiting for him to heal, she directed about a dozen wisps towards him and fired ice shards of her own.

Max rolled out of the way and shook his head at himself for his own lack of awareness. He could have started this fight in a much better situation. As the wisps closed the distance between them, Max’s healing magic gradually put feeling back into his right arm. It wasn’t perfect, as he couldn’t even make a fist, but it was enough to channel magic to his palm.

As Max started shooting ‘Light Bolts’ at the nearing wisps, he easily found out that they now exploded in their own demise. Every time he destroyed one, it would propel ice spikes in all directions and he was pushed to creating a ‘Wall of Light’ to shield himself from the projectiles.

He was now giving a lot of ground, and needed to start pushing back.

A thought came to his mind.

How does the mother communicate with her spawn?

He made a guess that they all had minds and perhaps the one eye technique he was proficient in would aid him.

Channeling mana towards his ‘Minds Eyes’ he used his ‘Telepathic Overload’ skill in hopes of at least confusing the enemy. He knew the ability was overkill with humans, but he was really just grasping at straws on using it against wisps.

A pulse of mana originating from his eyes shot forth towards the wisps and wispmother. They paused their advance for less than a second, and seemingly grew more enraged. The enemy moved faster, and the wispmother sent all the wisps she commanded towards Max.

Max sighed to himself. “Well it was worth a shot. I guess I should stop playing around.”

Some of the wisps were now nearly on top of him, yet he began channeling one of his more powerful spells anyways. Pushing both his hands in front of him, Max cast ‘Greater Light Barrage’ and a circular beam of light with a diameter of almost ten feet shot out of his palms. Everything caught in his direction was vaporized, yet Max seemed to forget with the deaths of wisps ice explosions occurred.

Most of the shards were also destroyed inside the beam, yet a few managed to stay intact, even if being dramatically weaker. One shard tore a sleeve on his coat, further propelling Max to completely eliminate the current enemy.

After almost twenty seconds of continuous casting, Max ceased channeling mana to his palms.

The remains of his enemy were nonexistent, and the snow covered stone that originally faced him was bare.

Max looked at his now torn left sleeve and frowned. “I’m going to have to learn how to sew.”

Picking up his sword and backpack, Max extended his ascent up the Steps of the Sun.