The early morning sun cast filtered light through the gaps in the shades within Erans room. The warmth of sunlight caused him to drowsily open his eyelids. Slowly rising from his bed, Eran staggered over to window and with a great yawn, he pulled apart the shades to reveal the bustling city below.

‘Another day in paradise’ he mused sarcastically. He is not what one would call, ‘a morning person’.

After cooking a light breakfast, Eran neatly dressed himself in his school uniform, then packed his books and stationary. As he locked up and stepped out into the street, Eran wondered what today would hold in store. As he did not own a personal computer, nor have friends to inform him, there was no way Eran could have known about the ‘MPAT’ today.

Arriving at the school, Eran noticed the commotion on the college green. What could only be described as a mob of students, were surrounding the school sigh post.

Attention all students – As was announced last night through several online mediums, a compulsory Magical Proficiency Achievement Test (MPAT) will be held today. All classes, aside from home-room, will be postponed until further notice. Details will be given by individual home-room teachers. ‘Semper ad excellentiam contende’.

At the sound of the bell, Eran left the mob in the direction of his home-room. The signboard said there was an MPAT today. In his lifetime, Eran had attended and participated in three MPAT’s. All three were a scarring experience for him, and he had no doubt that this fourth would be no different.

Arriving before the others, Eran patiently sat at his display, waiting for the class to commence.

As the rest of the class started to file into the room Mr Baxter started his lesson.

“Good morning students, as you already know, today you will be participating in a Magical Proficiency Achievement Test. Everyone here has participated in one before, but I will still explain what the test is, why we have the test and finally the rules.”

“The Magical Proficiency Achievement Test, or MPAT, was devised several decades ago. Using methods of teaching from long ago, Educators devised a test which would accurately display both the current and future potential of student’s magical prowess. The test consists of a series of spectated mock battles.”

“The battles are one on one, with the participants being selected at random. Once the battle commences, each student will have five minutes to disable or otherwise prevent their opponent from continuing. All physical combat is prohibited, as this is a test of Magical not Physical ability.”

“In front of you on your displays should be a full list of the rules, please revise them yourselves, and then head to the school stadium within the next half hour. Attendance will be taken at the door. I will repeat one more time, this test is compulsory.” Finishing his speech, Mr Baxter walked over and sat behind his desk.

Eran read what was displayed on his screen,

Magical Proficiency Achievement Test -

1. The MPAT is compulsory. All students must participate.

2. The test will be conducted with a maximum of one days’ notice before hand.

3. The test will consist of a series of Magical mock battles.

4. The contenders of each battle will be chosen at random from the entire cohort. The RNG or Random Number generator will however, only pair students of the same age.

5. Once chosen, the contenders have no more than five minutes to enter their designated Battle-Ring.

6. The Battle shall commence the moment the standby light changes from Red to Green.

7. Once started, the contenders have five minutes to either disable or otherwise impair their opponent.

8. All magical spells are allowed during the battle, as an enchantment that mediates and repairs damage has been cast on to the Battle-Rings.

9. All physical combat is prohibited, unless it falls under a category of magical combat. For example, ‘Body Hardening’.

10. The first contender to disable or otherwise impair their opponent will move onto the next stage. Whilst the loser may continue no further.

11. Battles shall continue until one student is left. The winning student will be awarded with both Academic Merit Points and a designated Prize.

12. When a student loses a battle, they will be graded based on the level of magical prowess shown during the duel.

13. The MPAT will continue indefinitely, until a single student is designated as the victor.

14. All usual classes shall be postponed until the conclusion of the MPAT.

15. The design of the MPAT is to be both fun and educational.

Eran thoroughly read the rules, taking up most of the allotted half hour. He was not reading it to give himself the best chance in battle. He was reading it to find a loophole so he would not need to participate at all. Resigned to his fate, Eran left the classroom and followed the stream of students to the school Stadium.

The usual appearance of the Stadium was that of a conference hall, chairs would be lined up in rows and a podium would be erected. However for an event like the MPAT, the stadium would undergo a drastic change. The chairs and podium were replaced with ten elevated platforms called ‘Battle-Rings’, the walls of the stadium were pushed out and lined with rows of chairs and spectators. It was truly an impressive sight.

As the last few students entered the massive stadium, a large display screen lit up and revealed the face of a withered man.

“Good day students, today you will participate in what will most likely be your final MPAT. I wish you all the best of luck.” The old man clearly disliked speaking in public as his speech was very short.

As the man’s face disappeared, it was replaced with a scrolling list of names and a spidery Tournament Bracket. Five pairs of names were displayed and the first set of battles commenced.

Eran was currently sitting in the middle of the spectator’s seats. Although Eran had never used magic himself, he always marveled at its use and would often watch mages with envious eyes.

Such thoughts as ‘It must be wonderful to use magic’ and ‘If only I could too’ went through his mind as he watched the battles play through.

Over an hour had passed and already great displays of magic had been shown. One such example was the battle between the ‘Ice queen’ Alexia Steele and a member of the Student Council.

As her opponent opted to use a Fourth-Circle Earth type magic ‘Earthen Shackles’ to bind Alexia whilst erecting earthen walls around herself, Alexia in turn used a Fifth-Circle Wind type spell ‘Sylphid blast’ to ignore the earthen defenses and launch her opponent, with a violent blast of wind, out of the ring at a tremendous speed.

As Alexia continued to win she quickly became the crowd’s favourite.

So far Eran had not been selected, but he knew with each passing minute his turn became closer.

Battle Ring 7 - Round 54 – Eran (Abdicatus) Magia vs Alexia Rosetta Steele

Judgement day had come. Not only was he going to lose to a girl, he was going to lose to the prettiest girl in the school. As he was cursing his fate, Eran walked onto the designated Ring. When the crowd saw who he was, there was a mixed reaction. Those who did not know him openly gaped at his appearance, those who did recognise him however started to call out profanities.

“Look it’s the loser!”, “Go home!”, “Look he’s not even a Magia!” as the call outs continued, Eran ignored them. His attention was now fixed on the angel that entered the ring.

Alexia was standing across from him wearing a complicated face. Eran figured she must have been disappointed facing someone like him.

As he offered her a silent apology, the standby light turned green.

As the day progressed, Alexia fought many battles. Not a single one caused her to break a sweat.

‘Weak, they’re all weak’ she thought to herself.

As she was complaining to Ame she noticed the booing and chanting of the crowd. Looking up at the stadium display she saw her own name with that of another.

‘Eran Magia?’ she thought. As the sole heiress to the Steele Manufacturing throne, Alexia had met many of the world’s dignitaries. This included the majority of the Magia family. Both sons of the Magia had tried hitting on her, rather poorly she might add, and the daughters were all busy competing for the attention of guys.

Never before had she heard of this ‘other’ Magia. But as she walked onto the platform to face her opponent, her heart quickened and her knees lightly shook. In front of her was the ‘God of beauty’ she ran into in the hallway. Standing tall with his hair slightly parted, he stared at her from across the Ring.

As he continued to look at her, his gaze never wandering, her heart felt like it would explode. She felt like his gaze was stripping her defences and peering into her very soul. As she felt heat rising to her face she averted her eyes and tried to get a handle on the situation.

Whilst this boy may be the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, today he was her enemy. Alexia only had one thing on her mind today, winning. She wanted to prove to both Amelia and her father that she had been trying her hardest. Steeling her heart, Alexia took a ready stance.

As she waited for the standby light to change to green, Alexia thoroughly analysed her opponent. With the name Magia and the strongest eyes she had ever seen, he must surely be more than her equal. In her experience, the magicians of House Magia liked to use flashy, but extremely powerful magic at the start of a duel.

As a child, her father made Alexia participate in play dates with the all the other Young Heiresses. Clarissa Magia was one such child, and she immediately took a dislike to Alexia. After a bitter dispute over who deserves the last chocolate biscuit, the two had a duel. Alexia won with relative ease but even she was rattled at the raw power the Magia child displayed.

‘My only chance is to end it with one hit’, she thought to herself. ‘He will probably use his largest spell to start with, but judging from his body tone, he’s fit enough to cast several strong spells. If it’s a spell higher than the Sixth-Circle, I’ll have to act very quickly’. ‘I’ll use that spell.’

As the standby light finally turned to green, Alexia immediately began building up mana into her palm. Alexia pictured her mana taking the form of a long arrow. A sharp arrow head full of condensed Mana, held together with a flowing shaft made from lighter Mana. As her arrow started taking form in her palm she looked at her opponent, his face had visibly paled as he started to move to the side.

‘Chance!’ she thought to herself. ‘If I win, I’ll be able to start a conversation by apologising for hurting him’ her inner self laughed maniacally. In the breadth of a few seconds, her arrow had fully formed. The arrow was grey in colour and was throbbing as if it was alive.

Taking aim at the beautiful boy, Alexia shouted out, “Mana-Disrupt!” and launched the arrow. Propelled by residual Mana, the arrow flew faster than a bullet and struck the boy in his lower abdomen.

The force of the initial impact launched Eran out of the ring hitting hard into the stadium wall. Steam was rising from where the arrow had hit him, and he crumpled onto the floor seemingly unconscious.

The stadium roared in approval, “Alexia! All hail Alexia!” “She floored him, hahaha!”

Battle Ring 7 - Round 54 – Eran (Abdicatus) Magia vs Alexia Rosetta Steele

Winner – Alexia Rosetta Steele

Whilst Alexia usually didn’t care for the praise of the masses, even she felt a little bit of pride for winning the match. Especially winning with a spell she had only learnt the previous night.

However her pride faded quickly as she saw Eran struggling to get to his feet. Worried she had hurt him too much she ran over to join the Nurses heading to his side.

“Lady Alexia!” called Amelia as she tried to catch up.

As she stood by the nurse’s side, her residual feelings of pride faded in to despair. Crumpled on the floor whilst clutching his stomach, was the beautiful boy. Only his face was not beautiful at this time. His face was contorted in what could only be described as pure agony.

“ARGHH!” Eran screamed out between shallow breaths.

“Miss, what spell did you use!?” the head nurse asked in a panic.

“I-it’s a new one; it’s called ‘Mana-Disrupt’ stammered Alexia.

“What is its property and what does it do?” starting to regain her composure, the head nurse drilled Alexia with questions.

During the entire course of the exchange, Eran flailed on the ground. Slowly but surely a grey light started to ooze out of the wound. First the light covered Erans body, and then covered a small circle around him. Eventually the grey light touched the walls of the stadium.

Finally noticing the light around them, everyone’s attention turned back to Eran.

He was now fully unconscious, but that was not what they were staring at. What shocked them was that he was gently floating two metres above the ground.

In the blink of an eye the grey light which was slowly leaking from his body, exploded outwards past the confines of the stadium. Like a massive mushroom cloud, the light spanned first the entire city, then the country. Soon the light had enveloped a large part of the world.

The grey light was so dense that Alexia felt like she was underwater. The sensation the light gave off felt familiar to her. She tried to place the sensation and in a moment of astonishment, she realised that the light was Mana.

With the new revelation, Alexia could not help but wonder where the huge, ocean like mana came from. What she didn’t realise however, was that the vast overwhelming force of Mana, came from Eran.

What no one of this world knew, not even Eran himself, was that since the moment he was born, Eran had been unconsciously absorbing Mana at an exponential rate. Born with the prowess of a child of Magia, Eran could continuously absorb an almost impossible amount of Mana. The reason for his supposed ineptitude was that unlike others, when born, Erans Mana-well only had one opening. With only an opening for absorbing, not releasing, Eran had an infinite amount of Mana stored within his Well, with no way to release its power.

That was the case, until today. The exact properties of the spell ‘Mana-Disruption’ is penetrating and vibrating Mana. Sharpened to a point, the manifestation of the spell punctures the target until it reaches their pseudo-organ, the Mana-well. Once the spell pierces the walls of the Well, the next step of the spell instantly activates. Staying true to its form, the Mana then violently vibrates, which causes the walls of the targets Mana-well to shake and lose their integrity.

As it loses strength, the confining walls of a Mana-well can no longer condense the Mana stored within and releases it. This phenomenon is known as Magical-Backlash. Whilst there have been reports of fatal cases, most mages that experience Magical-Backlash experience a range of side effects ranging from nausea to a coma.

With a new opening formed within his Mana-well due to the spell, Erans super-condensed Mana burst from its confines and enveloped the surrounding area. No one had ever seen or felt Mana this large in proportion.

Once it had reached its limits, the huge field of Mana was pulled back like an elastic band. The Mana was being pulled back into the boy floating in the air. Once it was all back inside, Eran began to glow. To the spectators, it looked like he was torch, shining with grey light. To Alexia it looked like he was bathed in Moonlight.

Soon the ground started to violently shake; it felt as if the earth itself was trying to resist the overwhelming power. The air itself began to crackle with electricity, making the water vapour in the air turn into a plume of scorching steam. Alexia got to her feet and stared at Eran.

“I caused this!” she cried out running towards his form.

“Lady Alexia, don’t! Please come back!” Amelia screamed and chased after Alexia fearing for her life.

Reaching Erans floating body she reached out with her hands. And in that moment they disappeared in a bright flash.

They had not burnt to ash; nor had they vaporized into steam. They were simply gone, and the overwhelming Mana went with them.

It was on that day that the world grieved for the loss of two loved ones, but seemed to forget the existence of a third. The news bulletins the following day would read:

Lady Alexia Rosetta Steele – Presumed dead

Miss Amelia Julianna Levitt – Presumed dead

But there would be nothing said about the lost son of the Magia family. There would be no mention and no mourning of the boy named Eran.

Eran awoke, floating in a dark place, void of light.

‘Where am I?’ he thought, asking no one in particular.

“Everywhere and nowhere” replied a voice.

“Whose there? Who are you?” he cried out, startled.

“I am you, as much as you are me” the voice replied solemnly.

“W-why can’t I see anything?” he stammered.

“Because your eyes are shut” simply replied the voice.

Feeling a bit stupid, Eran opened his eyes and openly gaped.

The dark void instantly filled with a bright light. When his vision returned he could not believe his eyes. All around him were swirling Nebulae of bright and vibrant colours. The Nebula seemed to consist of every spectrum of colour both known and unknown to man. As Erans vision focused, he could make out shapes within the technicoloured clouds. Stars and moons orbited around planets of indescribable size.

“Where are we?” he asked.

“I already told you, we are everywhere and nowhere” the voice which at first sounded so alien, was now so familiar.

“You said you were me and I was you. What do you mean?” he asked.

“At the moment you were born, so was I. I am the power just as you are the mind. It will be confusing if I try to explain it any further, after all I do not quite understand it either. Just know that we are one and the same, although we have been separated this whole time.” answered the Voice.

“Separated?” Eran asked.

“Yes, unlike others, we were born without the ability to release our power. Namely me. I was sealed from you our whole life, and could only watch your life of pain and misery. I felt everything as you did, for I am you. Now we are finally one and complete.” The voiced replied.

“O-okay, I guess I can believe that” Eran nervously chuckled. “But seriously where are we? This place is beautiful”

The voice laughed, only now did Eran realise where the voice was coming from, him. He was talking with himself this entire time.

“We are in the bridge between worlds; it is from here that our life shall truly begin. I will not let us be tormented by lesser people any longer. Now we are one, we can do anything, be anything. Eran, choose a light within the clouds. This light will be our new home.” As the voice said this, several of the Nebula started to light up.

“We will never speak like this again, for once this is done, I will be you in the truest sense.”

“Now Eran, choose…” The voice faded from his lips as a dull pain reverberated through his mind.

When water is poured from one glass into another, the two separate reserves join to become one. The two mix and combine to become a single glass of water. Just like water in a glass, the two Erans mixed and combined till there was only one, a complete Eran.

Feeling power coursing through his veins for the first time in his life, Eran turned to look at the swirling Nebula. Out of all the stars, moons and planets, only one light stood out to him. Forcing his will into the light, he felt his body moving. As he moved, his body burst into a shade of brilliant light, blinding him.

Soon after, Eran felt firm ground under his feet. He opened his eyes, and as the blinding light faded, Eran took his first look at the new world.

~Chapter 2

~Chapter Guide~

Chapter 4~

Yaay!~ To the new world!