CHAPTER 1: Training Begins

Dark clouds rolled over a black and ashed land. Eli crawled over jagged stones that ripped his skin. The blood from his palms mixed with the life blood of Alice Syn.

“Alice?” His voice was as ragged as the land he crawled on. “Alice!”

Her eyes were glass.

The ash came to life around him, it rippled like a black sheet dragged across a rough surface. Eli turned and saw inhumanity itself. A monster with of a thousand faces, a thousand creatures, mashed together in a perversion of life. And its summit was a dark face. Red eyes, like glowing beads, burned deep in sunken holes meant to be eyes.

“Weak,” the monster gurgled. “She is dead because you are weak!”

“No!” Eli cried. “I won! We won!”

A blue light pierced the dark clouds. Water rushed around him. A swirling ball of it glowed. It was blue but, deep within, a darkness pulsed. It made every hair on Eli’s body stand on end.

YOU HAVE WON A BATTLE.

The words came like a turret ready to scrub Eli from from the world.

BUT THE WAR HAS YET TO BEGIN.

“Yet to begin,” Alice said behind him. She rose like a puppet tugged by a single string. Blood, leaked from her eyes and mouth.

“Yet to begin.”

Eli turned at the new voice. “Mom?” Her eyes were dead and hollow.

“Yet to begin.”

“Yet to begin.”

“Yet to begin.”

“Yet to begin.”

The world twisted around him as the puppets approached. Ajax, Corin, Victor, Penitulus, Alice. Their eyes rolled back to reveal black rather than white.

THEIR FATES ARE SEALED.

“No.”

YOU WILL BE THEIR DEATHS.

“No.”

YOU ARE TOO WEAK TO PREVENT IT. BUT WITH ME, FATE CAN BE YOUR TOY.

“No!”

***

Eli Wisp woke moments before his alarm. His skin was soaked with sweat, and his mouth dry. The last remnants of his dream faded away, leaving only a sensation. Dread. A nightmare. He thought and shook his head.

It was six thirty in the morning and he had only managed to fall asleep a few hours before. Despite this he was full of energy. This energy came from one place, excitement.

He got ready and stormed down the stairs, and made for the front door.

“Whoa, hold it there kitten,” The familiar voice of Jenna Wisp, his mother, called. Eli fidgeted with his palm already on the door knob.

“I gotta go.”

“Not before breakfast you don’t.”

“I gotta be at the beach at eight, remember!”

“Yeah, yeah, My son’s getting mentored by the almighty Penitulus Ren,yada-yada.”

Yada-yada?

“A few days ago you were in a coma, remember? Now I don’t care what Ren has to say, my son is getting a healthy breakfast and if he has a problem with that he can take it up with me.”

“Ren?”

“Never mind that, now come and eat your eggs.”

“But—”

“Now.”

Eli wolfed down his eggs, choking once or twice. He washed his plate and made for the door. His mother grabbed his arm. “Yeah?” He asked her.

She gazed at him as she chewed at her lower lip. She pulled him in a hug and stroked his hair. “Be safe, kitten.”

“I’m going to be with Penitulus, what could possibly happen?”

“I see your point.”’

It seemed as though she had something else to say but chose not to say it. Eli didn’t have time to think on it as he dashed through the door.

He jogged through the city. A pensiveness grew in the shadow of his excitement.

About a month had passed since Draven’s attack and the city was still healing. Despite the sheer number of construction projects, the blackened skeletons of burned buildings still stood. And around every corner was a floral arrangement or shrine to the deceased.

Eli stopped at one that had the images of a young girl and Batsman, the maestro that died to protect her. So many had died.

Alice nearly died. He thought. The image of her lifeless body on a hard and black ground flashed through his mind. It was luck that they survived that encounter. Not that Alice cared.

***

“They should be worshipping you!” Alice roared on the other end of the cellphone.

It was late and Eli was on his bed with his knees pulled up to his chest. He gazed out the window into the night.

“I mean, you defeated Draven! Well, we defeated him but I’ll admit that you put a little more work in than me.”

Eli chuckled. “That was luck. If I didn’t have the Exacore—”

“About that—I’ve been asking around here and I can’t seem to find any bit of information that seconds what Penitulus said about the Exacore using residual magic.”

“Well, he did say it was a theory, I don’t think anyone considered it was even a possibility before it happened with me. I mean, is there any other explanation?”

“I don’t know, maybe you have a hidden power.”

Eli snickered. “This isn’t some kinda fantasy story Al, I have what I have…Alice?”

“Hm? Yeah? Right, I was thinking of something, sorry. Any ways Mr. Unsung-Hero-That-Saved-Icarus-City, I have a practical in the morning. Talk to you tomorrow night?”

“Yeah, night.”

***

Just as Eli’s foot touched the sand of the beach his wrist-watch beeped. Right on time. He walked out further and scanned the area but there was no one to be seen. Well, no Penitulus atleast.

Just then, a shiver ran from the tip of his tail and up his spine. He turned in time to see a giant hand grab his face. He would have fallen but the grip kept him firmly in place.

“It seems you have a sensitivity to magic.”

The grip released and he fell to the ground. Penitulus Ren towered before him.

“You have anything else notable?”

“I-I have a light step?” Eli said with his tail curling between his legs.

“I see.” A moment passed before a wide grin split Penitulus’s face. “Why so petrified my boy!” he boomed as he pulled Eli back to his feet. “I thought we’ve made it past the awkward stage, what having been through hell together.”

Eli laughed again.

“S-sorry, sir.”

“Call my Ren—”

“Ah-Ren,” I’mactuallytalkingsocasuallywithhim… sort of. “Where do we start?”

“Basic Assessment, I need to see where you’re at before I can decide how to proceed.” He reached in the pocket of his cargo shorts and pulled out a small device. Eli recognized it as a BPU indicator. bpu was the abbreviation for Basic Power Unit. Eli already knew his but there was no reason not to check.

He held his index finger out and Penitulus clamped one end to it. After a moment the device beeped three timed and he looked at the screen. A drawn out whistle came after. He showed the screen to Eli.

1.2bpu

Eli gaped at the number. “What?”

“I knew it wasn’t much but—”

“It went up!”

“Excuse me?”

“It went up! It was at point eight the last time I checked!”

“Point eight?”

“It went up a whole four tenths of a point!”

“How are you alive kid?”

“My mom’s a healer.” Eli answered as though that explained everything in the world.

Penitulus rubbed his face.

His expression made Eli’s heart sink a bit. “I-is getting into Corin Academy too much of a stretch?”

“We’ll see. My work is cut out for me but the truth is what’s important here is heart. And from what I’ve seen you have a lot of that.” Penitulus looked down at him and smiled. “Now back to assessments. See the end of the beach? Waaay over there?” He pointed.

“Yeah?”

“I need you to run all the way there and back.”

“What?”

Penitulus already had out a stop-watch. “And…go!”

Eli panicked and stumbled as he ran. All the while Penitulus rumbled with laughter.

***

The journey home was slower than the journey to the beach on account of the soreness. Penitulus made him do all sorts of basic training. Push-ups until failure. Vertical jumps. A one-hundred meter dash after the marathon he had to run. His mother wouldn’t be happy but he’d have to ask her for a go with her healing hands.

Despite the exhaustion he couldn’t help but smile. This is real. This is actually real.

He stopped at his front door where a small white cat stared at him.

“Hey there,” he cooed as he pet it “What’s a cute think like you doing—” he paused when he noticed just above the ears. “…No way.”