“Ow, fuck, that hurts!” The pain wasn’t as bad as the cigarette burns he got on his back a few years ago, but it still horribly stung. Currently he was using the third skill of his ability, which he called Billow. Basically speaking, it was able to turn him into a cloud of smoke-like mist, allowing him to float off into the heavens. However, it had three downsides, the consumption of Natural and Universal Energy was atrocious, meaning it couldn’t be sustained for too long. The second downside was that, although it was pretty fast to travel in, it was too hard to maneuver in this state, so he relied on the wind. Finally, the final downside was that any damage in this state wouldn’t affect his actual body, but it sure as hell still hurt, making it even harder to maintain this state.

To keep things short, skills are basically different pieces of an ability, where you obtain a new one with each minor stage you move up in the Foundational Stage. Every major stage, such as the Foundational Stage, was made up of nine minor stages. So if an ability had less than nine skills, a person could never advance past the Foundational Stage. For example, if a person’s ability only had six skills, they could never advance past the 6th Foundational Stage, however these conditions were rare, even most Rank-F abilities had nine skills. If we took Kezner as an example, he was currently in the 3rd Foundational Stage, so he had three skills, the first being what seemed to be a gray flame, the second was Billow, and the third was Inversion. The first skill was always the most basic form of an ability.

Abilities ran on a set of rules etched into the very essence of the universe called Natural Laws. Natural Laws were the chains that wrapped around everything in the universe and held them together, but even still, these chains had limits to how much they could hold. Above Natural Laws were Universal Laws, laws that were made up of multiple Natural Laws but melded into a single series of new laws. If a person used the Natural Law of Lightning, they would be able to wield lightning, but if a person used the Universal Law of Elements, they would be able to wield all five of the core elements. A person being able to wield Universal Laws would outcompete a person wielding Natural Laws anyday. However, at the end of the day, it also came down to how much comprehension both parties had attained, as Universal Laws were a lot more sophisticated, so Rank-Z ability users were prone to bottlenecks, leading to weaker attacks.

Rank-Z abilities required Universal Energy, as they were more advanced than any other rank of abilities. The user could harness Natural Energy to power their ability but it would require a lot more Natural Energy and the power output would be a lot weaker, since it forces their ability to forcibly meld the Natural Laws into Universal Laws.

You may be asking how humans came to obtain this monstrous and destructive power, but that’s a whole different conversation that would take about a thousand words of backstory, but long story short, humans did what humans did best, plunder from other races, claim it was their own, then continue to plunder some more.

Though it was not that simple, humanity forcefully adapted itself through unknown means into creating sets of Energy Routes and an Energy Aperture in their bodies. Humans could have one of two sets of Energy Routes, one for Body Cultivation and another for Soul Cultivation. Body Cultivation consisted of nine Energy Routes spanning around the major organs of the torso, one for each minor stage.Soul Cultivation focused on Energy Routes around the center of the body, where the soul existed in an incorporeal state.

Body and Soul Cultivation were complete opposites when they came to their pros and cons. Body Cultivation had less overall energy to use but it was usually denser, making it great at burst battles. Soul Cultivation had more overall energy to use but it was usually spread thin, making it great in battles of attrition. When you were trying to blitz through a group of people, Body Cultivation would be the wiser choice, but if you were planning on dragging out a fight, Soul Cultivation would be the way to go. Since the set of Energy Routes were determined before birth, you were pretty much stuck with that form of cultivation for the rest of your life, no matter how discontent you were.

Advancing in minor stages basically meant upgrading in energy capacity in your Energy Aperture and Energy Routes, while advancing in major stages was not only an upgrade in your energy capacity but your comprehension of Natural and Universal Energy.

Floating around in the sky, Kezner truly envied the clouds he was flying with, he wished they could forever hold and hide him, never having to face the mortal lands once again. If only they could hear his pleas, sadly the gods despised him with an undying passion for some unknown reason. Deciding that it was time to stop feeling the harsh stings of the gods, he floated down to land. He was only a light jog away from home anyways, the exercise would be good for him anyways.

On his way back home, he saw how some of the surviving buildings had been scorched and some parts molten, while some of the rebuilt buildings had some damage to their bases. It was a shame, it really was a shame how they never found the culprit behind the Black Flame Incident, what kind of sicko would put thousands out of their homes while killing almost a thousand people in one go?

Though the Black Flame Incident was seen as a tragedy to those who lived in the slums and lower-middle class, the planetary elitists found this as a great boon to the economy after a few years. After putting thousands out of their homes in the city, a large portion of them moved to the rural regions of the planet, where land was cheaper. Though many jobs were lost in the capital, it was an urbanized industrial powerhouse, it could always regain its former strength after a few short years. The rural areas, on the other hand, were different, it was hard to have people living in big cities to go on a whim and move to “the middle of nowhere” as they called it, so when there was a large migration, it allowed farm production to skyrocket, adding another primary source of income for the planet.

This basically gave the government an idea, why don’t they just limit the amount of available homes in the city so not as many people here? And so the slums were never fully recovered as to limit the amount of low-income permanent residents, but under the guise of the government “not having enough money”.

When Kezner finally jogged back to his apartment building he just stared at its scorched surface. Home. He was back home. It wasn’t his first home, the home that he lived with his parents. That home had long been consumed by the flames. This home was his first true home after leaving the adoption system. It was a horrendous experience to be put through that corrupt and inhumane cycle. He was only adopted so others could gain government benefits as when a Rank-Z ability gets tested, the results come out as Rank-F, deeming the child as disabled, increasing the benefits received.

He remembered the looks they gave him as they threw him to the streets like a used rag after collecting their government money after a few months. He remembered how some of them would tie him up to the heaters during winter when he complained about sleeping in the freezing basement. He remembered how they treated him like nothing better than a house slave, when they would hit him over the head with their porcelain plates when they fucked up, but at the end of the day it was his fault, everything was his fault… right? Sometimes when he closed his eyes for a little too long, he could remember the smell of cigarettes rubbing and burning his flesh. And they all stared at him with the same look, they weren’t looks of hate or disdain, oh how he wished they were, oh how he wished that there was even a tinge of emotion in their eyes, any emotion would do, he would take anything, but every single damn time there was nothing but indifference, as if he wasn’t a person, as if he some animal at the side of the street, bleeding out and gasping for its last cries as the ever present fear of death that was etched into its bones started surfacing. With a cry, a plea, a bargain for both life and death to set them free from this unending cycle of purgatory.

It boiled his blood, it truly did, but what could he do? It. Was. His. Fault.

The government had used another method to fill up empty homes as quickly as possible which was directly why Kezner was currently in this state. The adoption system had always been overcrowded and could barely be managed as there was always an influx of unwanted children being thrown onto the government’s hands. So what they did was they lowered the age of adulthood to be 16 instead of 18, though it was only a difference of two years, the amount of orphans it kicked out were enough to make the situation manageable.

That was when the welfare programs started, where if you were kicked out of the adoption system, you could be entitled to a home and public schooling for two years as long as you were able to keep a job and not have any crimes under your name. Two years was all it took for Kezner to turn his situation around into a barely livable one. However the cost at these welfare programs came at the cost of slashing mental health institutions.

Reaching his apartment, he fell into the chair in his living room, as he blankly stared at the ceiling for a little while. His mind was telling him to get up but his body was just a stone in the center of a pond, it not only sunk, it would go deeper if it could. Finally, after considering what happened to his sneakers he decided to order a new pair and clean his old ones for work tomorrow morning, if he could use them one last time, why not?

Same-day delivery was commonplace now as the major online shopping stores usually had a massive cargo ship in orbit and would send drones down to deliver their package if they had them in storage, which usually was the case.

Tapping the gray band on his wrist, Kezner opened up a holographic interface where he could directly interact with. Other than the few basic functions and the school’s app, his holo-watch had pretty much nothing else on it, its contacts and messages were as empty as the day he got it.

Tapping on the “Internet” button, Kezner made his way to the online store’s website and searched for some new high-top sneakers, specifically gray sneakers. If you couldn’t tell, he liked the color gray.

When it was time to pay, Kezner reached for the pockets of his sweatpants as he took out three wallets, two from the bodyguards and one which was his own. Taking out the money from the bodyguards’ wallets, Kezner quickly tried to think about one of his many hateful memories and burned both wallets with his black flames. The flames used to be dormant and rarely ever used except for a time or two, but now it was as if the slumbering giant had been awoken, and couldn’t be as passive as it used to be.

Stuffing the bills into his wallet, Kezner pulled out a thin white card that was very opaque, translucent enough that you could see crystal structures inside of it. The entire card was a crystal that couldn’t be broken unless you ran over it with a spaceship. Engraved on the front were the initials, “G.B.C”, Galactic Banking Card, a crystal card that was run by the Galactic Bank. There was rarely any form of fraud committed when using these cards as if you were caught, you would be made an enemy in every sovereign state.

The black band quickly scanned the white card as Kezner had finalized his order. Good, now all he had to do was just clean his shoes and go off to sleep. Wetting a rag, he wiped down his shoes, dried them up, then left them by the door, only to go change into his home clothes. Today had been hectic and tomorrow would be worse as he would be chased after by one of the most powerful Families on the planet. His use of the black flames today had reminded him of the memories he kept trying to lock to the deepest and darkest corners of his mind, but they kept surging back. Anytime his mind wasn’t thinking of anything for even a second, the memories would flood and be pushed away like the crashing waves on a beach.

Though it was only about 4pm when he was done with everything, he wasn’t tired, he wasn’t sleepy, he felt energized, actually, but he didn’t want to be awake, he wanted to sleep to not stay awake, to not continue feeling the pain of keeping his consciousness. All he could do was pray, pray for a better tomorrow, pray for a better life.

He couldn’t keep thinking like this, he hoped one day it would stop, but he knew that the only way to stop living like this was if he stopped living. But not now, not today.

---Ocano Family Manor - Drawing Room---

Roge’s forehead was drowning in an ice cold sweat out of fear and nervousness while his face forced a happy and ecstatic expression. The woman in front of him had caused the deaths of so many people, most of them holding more power and influence than him than he could ever hope to achieve. You were either on her side or you were dead, there were no two ways about it.

To be honest Kathra wasn’t as scary as her reputation preceded. Her full name was Kathra Vanya, but when using a title, the person’s last name would be said, not their first, as their last name held more importance, unless two people shared the same last name. Though she had many people killed a very large majority of them had been siphoning the government’s resources and had been the cause for so much loss of life.

Governor Vanya had only brought forth evidence before the council of judges and jury against many clans within Star Cluster #37 that had been detrimental to the star cluster’s advancement. The amount of evidence that had been given made the trial last for over a month, so a new precedent was set throughout the Milky Way. In this current era, most court cases were done pragmatically rather than morally, of course there were exceptions, but most trials wouldn’t last over a day the punishment was handed out with no room for bargaining. The real reason was that the Families and Clans in question had bribed the judges who oversaw the ruling. Those judges tried to push this case for as long as possible, thinking this case would take a couple of years at least. Little did those Clans know that Governor Vanya was dead set on this and out for blood, as she requested the audience of the upper courts, with a different jury.

In the end, this had led to the execution of hundreds of clan elders, tens of clan heads, and thousands of imprisonments, all in about a month. To get this amount of evidence right after winning the elections meant that her intelligence network was so intricate that she knew almost everything that went down, even on a planetary scale. And her seat of Governor basically added wings to a tiger.

To the elite, she was their antithesis, as to keep their positions, the elite would use any means necessary, mostly shady methods. However, to the commoners who weren’t informed about the specifics, she was a sign for hope and justice in this star cluster.