Book One - The Young Lord of Thunderblack Castle

Chapter One - Beginning

A dark stormy night, the cries of a newborn can be heard within a pitch black castle nestled at the back of a large valley. An ancient looking man is walking towards those cries, a look of anticipation in his old, sunken eyes.

“My lord, do you think this child will be the one?” A noble dressed man accompanying him asks.

This man is Mord Black, the leader of the Thunderblack clan, which has been in existence for thousands of years. The Thunderblack clan has been the reigning power of the Western human province in the human realm since its founding thousands of years ago.

The reason? Power.

Every member of this clan has the ability to control lightning using spiritual pressure, from birth. This ability is a high level form of heat magic, which only the Thunderblack clan is talented in. So naturally they enjoy exalted status in the human realm.

Even babies can release static electricity, although only when agitated.

As members of the clan grow, they are taught to cultivate spiritual pressure, thus increasing their power and status within the clan. This spiritual pressure is something which is hereditary and an infant’s soul will be evaluated immediately, in hope of discovering a once-in-a-generation type talent.

Mord turns to face the noble, “My son is an above average talent, and even his wife can be considered talented in her own right. I have great hope for this grandchild of mine, but I doubt he is the one.”

“But my lord, even just yesterday you looked so positive, a child of our clan hasn’t been born to such talents in hundreds of years!” the noble argues. “We’ll know when we get there Petree, let’s go, we’re almost there.”

The two men walk down a lantern lit hallway towards a pair of large oak doors. Guarding the doors are two ironclad men at least two meters tall holding dark, vicious looking spears. When the guards see the men, they immediately part and open the doors, letting the cries of the infant grow in volume.

Mord enters the room to see a small group of maids surrounding a large bed with a handsome looking young man holding a newborn baby among them.

“Han!” Mord beams at the young man, “How is Celes?”

Lying on the bed is a breathtaking beauty covered in sweat.

“I’m fine father.” she responds on her own, forcing an exhausted smile.

“Father, this is Kiso, your newest grandson.” Han smiles and holds out the newborn for his father to hold. Mord takes Kiso into his arms and looks down at the newborn.

A light flashes in Mord’s eyes as he appears to search into the soul of the crying newborn in his arms. “Petree, give me that thing.” Mord holds out his free hand without looking away from Kiso. Petree takes out a small metallic vial and hands it over.

Mord opens the vial revealing a glowing liquid. He rests the vial on Kiso’s forehead and observes the liquid inside.

After watching the liquid for several tens of seconds, Mord lets out a sigh and turns to Han. “Han, Kiso is a normal child, congratulations.”

There is a hint of disappointment in Mord’s eyes as he thinks to himself. “Not the one huh.. I really had high hopes for Han’s first-born son, but I suppose it’s not so strange, that liquid hasn’t changed color for hundreds of years now.”

Mord closes the bottle and looks back at Han, “Kiso didn’t manage to change the liquid to black, but he might still be an asset to our clan, raise him well.”

“Yes father!” Han wasn’t expecting much, but he is still disappointed as he also had high hopes for his son.

Little did they know that the liquid only changes color several minutes after coming into contact with a newborn child.

– – – – –

10 years later.

A youth is sitting cross-legged on the ground surrounded by a luscious garden in a grand courtyard. His eyes are closed and his brows are furrowed, as he appears to be deep in thought.

“I can’t seem to do it!” The youth is none other than the now 10-year-old Kiso. He’s been practicing according to his clan’s scroll for raising spiritual pressure for over 3 hours now.

“Father gave me this scroll and told me to begin training my spiritual pressure, but this scroll makes no sense.” Kiso looks down at the scroll laying in front of him.

There is a drawing of a man sitting cross-legged with arrows running from the middle of his body to the rest of his body. A text is written next to the drawing:

In order to cultivate spiritual pressure, one must enter a state of zen. Empty the mind completely and feel the flow of blood throughout the body. Feel the body’s cells and the energy they contain. Feel the world around, its air, the ground, everything has a purpose. To raise spiritual pressure, allow the surrounding energy to enter the body, that is the first step.

Next, harness the energy, pulling it through the skin into the veins. Push it to the core of the body, allowing it to gather and condense. Only then can nature’s energy supplement the soul and increase spiritual pressure.

“It sounds simple enough, but I just can’t feel the energy around me!” Kiso is frustrated, but he was raised to be hard-working.

His father made him train his body since the day he turned 5 years old. He would run around the perimeter of the castle in the morning to train endurance, lift heavy stones after breakfast to increase the quality of his muscles, before finally training in basic swordsmanship in the evening. This everyday training has resulted in an extremely sturdy body, especially for a 10-year-old.

At this time, seemingly knowing his son would be against a brick wall, Han walked up to Kiso from behind, grinning from ear to ear.

“Kiso, you shouldn’t expect to be able to harness nature’s energy so easily!” Kiso’s father offered a few words of condolence.

“I know father, however I really don’t want to disappoint you and mother in the upcoming annual Youth Trials…” A frown appeared on Kiso’s face.

Every year in the Thunderblack clan, the 10-year-old children would participate in the Youth Trials, which would determine how deep their affinity for the family ability is. Although Kiso and the other 10-year-old children were currently capable of releasing small electric shocks, their power would only grow through cultivation.

It is said that even a talented individual would only be able to release a bolt of true lightning after at least 5 years of cultivation, with even the most legendary talent in the history of the clan needing 2 years to reach said level.

“You know Kiso, father has a little advice for cultivating spiritual pressure.” Han smiles at his son, “Sometimes, especially with our clan’s heat magic, a complete state of zen may slow you down.”

Han continues, “Lightning is a very chaotic form of heat magic, and the faster the energy flows, the more powerful the outburst will be. So now tell me, will you listen to you to the scroll or your father?” Han’s already smiling face showed a hint of craftiness behind it.

Kiso ponders to himself for a moment, something seems to click and his response is simple, “I understand father, thank you for the advice.”

Indeed, as Kiso had been cultivating in his former state of zen, as mentioned in the scroll for cultivation, the energy flow seemed off, like it didn’t meld with his core. He had been completely unable to retain the energy.

Regaining confidence and motivation comes easy for Kiso, and he began to contemplate how to increase the speed in which the spiritual energy flows through his body.

After Han walks away, Kiso once more enters a meditative state while sitting on the ground of the courtyard. This time, after the nature energy starts to flow through his skin into his veins, he attempts to rush the energy to his core.

“Success?” Kiso mumbles to himself.

Indeed, the energy seemed to be pouring very quickly into his core, and with that increase, he also began to absorb spiritual energy from nature and even retain it in his core!

Han, still lingering around the corner, sensed the change in his son’s spiritual pressure, and peaked back around the corner.

“This is..?” Han couldn’t help but start, as Kiso’s hair was standing completely straight and small sparks could be seen flowing along his body before disappearing into the ground.

Han knew what the state represented, as he has seen it countless times before. “This level of meditation should be… The spark state?.. But he should only be able to achieve that state after several months of pondering…”

Han began to grow excited, as he ran off to find Celes and tell her the good news.

Although Kiso didn’t know what the state represented or that he was even in said state to begin with, he knew that currently, his spiritual pressure was growing. His core was beginning to feel full and even his body seemed to grow stronger.

He felt that this time, he had grasped the spiritual raising technique and made up his mind to devote all of his free time towards his cultivation.

When his core was full, he opened his eyes to discover it was already dusk.

“Late!” Kiso sprang to his feet and rushed towards his family’s section of the palace.

As he rushed into the dining area, his mother and father were already seated around the dinner table. Kiso was nervous as his mother had always preached the need to arrive to dinner on time.

However, this time, not only did his mother not scold him, she was wearing a bright smile on her face as her eyes showed glee with a hint of nervousness.

“Sit down Kiso.” Celes pointed at the empty spot across from herself.

“Yes mother.” Kiso replied, still unsure if he was going to be scolded or not.

“Your father informed me that you have already grasped the method of spiritual cultivation, do you know what that means?” Celes beamed at Kiso.

Puzzled, Kiso glanced at his father. “He shouldn’t have known that I already grasped the technique as I didn’t do so until he left..” Kiso thought to himself.

As if guessing what he was thinking, Han spoke, “Kiso, I lingered around a bit before returning, and I could sense that your spiritual pressure was increasing rather quickly. When I glanced back at you, you had already entered into the spark state of meditation, meaning you truly have grasped spiritual cultivation, and in one day no less!”

Celes continued, “Never in the history of the clan, has anyone been able to enter the spark state in one day. Even the legendary talents of the clan took several months to grasp the method.”

Kiso just sat there listening, slack-jawed. He hadn’t thought his day of meditation would be such a big deal.

This time, Celes turned and spoke to Han, “Do you still intend to let him participate in the Youth Trials? You know what will happen if your father discovers his cultivation, especially if he is to continue at this speed for the next 6 months before the trials…”

Han didn’t even ponder for a second before spitting back, “Of course not! I will try every method to dissuade Kiso’s participation, I do not wish for him to be stuck in this valley for the rest of his life!”

To be continued…