13 years old, Zai has 5 years until he can sign up for the Demon Forces recruitment. in the previous months, Zai simply was being taught basic etiquette and survival techniques. Now he has been learning, more combative, and tactical strategies.

On a cloudy day in the mountains, Vas is Demonstrating magic. Vas raises his hand out and mana collects in his hand. His hand begins to spark and releases a large bolt of lightning towards the ground.

𝘊𝘙𝘈𝘚𝘏 "And that's how it would work," he puts his hand down "along with lightning there are 5 elements that you can take; Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and Lightning. Obviously, you won't be able to pull this off now. It is illegal for an average citizen, especially a kid, to have a magic attribute, you know why?" Vas explains while pacing around the Zai.

"Ya, it's because people are goin' to cause more conflicts, and casualties more often right?"

"yea basically, once you enter the Demon Forces you should get an attribute stone of your choosing. Then you can get an element and from there you're just going to have to get accustomed to it."

"Wait," Zai says with a frustrated face "Demons use magic too, but it's nothing elemental like you explained? What's up with that?"

"Well, I guess you could say that Demons have their own source of power called demonic mana, which doesn't follow the constraints of simple elements like fire, water, etcetera. However, humans can use non-elemental magic too, to a certain extent. Mainly S-Rank soldiers have that ability, your average human can only handle one magic attribute, but when you become S-Rank, you might have the ability to handle two. Any normal person might explode and die the moment they try something so reckless, but if you're part of the few who can withstand it, you might get a fusion or combo of elements at your disposal."

"Then I guess I definitely have to step up my game so I can get two magic attributes or a fusion huh," Zai smirks

Vas scoffs at Zai's remark "You're going to have to do more than just step up your game, if you really want to save people you're going to be mainly fighting against Duke and King level Demons you know. King-level Demons are the main causes of a Catastrophe, when you first enter you'd mainly protect against General and Elite-Class demons."

Zai sulks "Yea, yea I know" while Zai feels somewhat discouraged, he also feels more motivated to progress in his work. Along with feeling more motivated to do better he also feels as if he's lacking some kind of excitement.

3 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳

In the woods, Zai is training his mana strengthening, by focusing his mana throughout his body or certain parts of his body it can be enhanced. Focusing his mana on his core, glutes, quads, calves and other muscles he enhanced his running speed temporarily.

he begins to sprint at high speeds through the trees, enhancing his arms, back, chest and more, he jumps from a ridge, into the trees but manages to swing off a branch. with his enhanced legs, he lands without any serious damage, merely tripping.

"Vas was able to maintain a steady flow of mana enhancing his body, even while he's sleeping." It was times like these where Zai was able to acknowledge Vas's strength. 𝘈𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢 𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴. Mana fusion was a technique used to permanently infuse mana into people, places, and things, but it takes a lot of discipline and time to do so. Stuff like these made Zai also question how much vas truly cares about his looks to constantly do such a thing. 𝘈𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘰 he thinks

"If there's one thing he knows how to do already it's mana emission," he says smirking, he walks over to his nearest tree and focuses a considerable amount of mana into his hand. He then performs a right hook on the tree but intentionally misses. Seconds later a large hole was carved into the side of the tree.

𝘚𝘊𝘙𝘈𝘛𝘊𝘏

"𝘩𝘢𝘢" Zai exhales and proudly thinks to himself 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨. "Well it's about time I get back, who knows when the old man is gonna break dow--"

"KYAAAA~" Zai hears a women scream, and turns around in the direction from which it came from. Out of curiosity, Zai decided to check out what was happening. focusing the mana on his legs, he burst towards the direction of the scream.

𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘧

While traversing through the trees, he eventually comes across the crag, and down the crag, a woman was holding an injured man with some of his innards coming out of his body and a demon approaching them. Within that moment he was able to assess the situation in his head 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘩 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘧𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘭𝘧, 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘭𝘺 5 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭. Zai thought to himself 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳.

Contemplating whether or not to save them or not he stares at the man and women, the man was barely able to open his eyes the woman was crying, tears uncontrollably running down their cheeks and her eyes uncontrollably shaking in fear.

With that look in their eyes, Zai felt an urge to step in, an uncontrollable feeling to eating away at his chest to move. A large amount of mana began to encompassing and enhancing his body, his golden eyes began to glow. Lunging off the crag towards the man and woman, just as the demon was about to finish them both off, the flying Zai kicks the head off the demon. Landing in front of the man and woman, and stabs his hand through the demon's heart killing it with a swift blow.

The feeling in his chest dies down, as well as his eyes. he turns back to the man and woman still in shock but their fear was beginning to subside.

"t-thank you, you saved us," she says still crying.

"urgh," the man groans in pain but.

"Don't worry about it, more importantly, the guy?"

"Oh! don't worry, I'm a medic ill be able to handle this, thank you for just saving us!" The lady exclaims.

"Good because I gotta head out anyway" Before leaving he left some bandages, that he'd usually bring with him during training, with them just in case, and begins to sprints away. 𝘋𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵 𝘪 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.

Zai makes it back to the cabin a bit too late as he walks into Vas stuffing his face with food.

"You snooze you lose kiddo"

"Oh C'mon, I was starving too" Zai complains

"Not my problem," Vas says continuing to eat Zai's portion of the food

Zai went to his room frustrated but thought back to what he said, he wasn't really starving, it was a squeezing feeling, not in his stomach, but his chest, more of a desire to do something. Though he passed it off and wouldn't think back to it until much later.

2 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳

It was finally the time, Zai was 18 years old, and prepared to set off, with all of his stuff prepared. He learned many things over the years, he meets Vas, his now father figure, outside to set him off.

"Well, well, well, It's finally that day, you look nothing like the twerp I met all those years ago" Vas Jokes around, but he was being genuine. From the crybaby kid, he was babysitting and now, a less crybaby kid that he was babysitting.

Zai came out; with his glowing golden skin, and, eyes, long free-form dreads that he'd developed after not brushing his hair for all those years, and now a tall, slim-built, adult.

"Man, I finally get to eat all my food~" he daydreams about a buffet in front of him once he gets to Voua capital

"Yea you better enjoy it while you can, being in the Demon Forces isn't easy."

"Yea don't worry, I still plan on training frequently, I won't forget my goal."

"Well then get the hell out of here then, it's time I get my peace," Vas says heading back inside.

"THIS, is how you see me off?"

"What you want me to cry about it?" Vas scoffs

"Jeez..." he notices a slight glum look on Vas's face and thinks 𝘐 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦

"Good luck kid, it's not like your company was unappreciated ok, you made things interesting," Vas smirks

"Alright old man, you take care too" and with that, the new and improved Zai sets off in a flash, to the capital of Voua, Gleeland.

Inside the cabin, Vas wears a gloomy look on his face and mumbles to himself "I really hope you can take care, and forgive me, kid..."

While Zai was heading off to Gleeland, he was reminiscing about the times he spent training and with Vas, and one memory stepped in. The day he saved the man and the woman, he never really forgot about it, it was always in the back of his head. Did he swoop in to save them? Or did he swoop in out of anger at what happened back in his childhood, with the pure intention to kill rather than protect as he swore?

"Do I want to be someone like the platinum bolt?" The platinum Bolt, a story of a silver-haired hero who stepped in against all demons to protect the people. Based on the story of the first Demon Forces soldier, and the hero against the first catastrophe. Who randomly disappeared, abandoning the same people he swore to protect.

Zai contemplated whether he really wanted to be a hero or not, he would have this question answered, but the real question was if he would like it or not.