January 13th, 2008/Thirteen years Ago.

The day had been just another typical one in winter and the night would have been just as quiet and peaceful if it wasn't that the orphanage on fire.

A Fire Rescue team was yet to arrive and a few brave persons had already helped in getting some of the kids out of the building. Not all of them though. While most kids had been rescued from other areas of the building, other kids like fifteen year old, Carl Winston were trapped in certain areas of the four storey building. Carl was trapped in the library on the second floor. Many burning bookshelves had toppled and as a result, they blocked the entrance of the library. The fire didn't make them fall and there had been no earthquake either.

A demon put them there.

Of course, the other kids believed him now, that is, before they were killed; burnt to ash by the demon. She finally decided to reveal her true self. Usually, everyone else saw a happy, old caregiver named Mrs. Pierce but tonight, they had seen what Carl always saw during the two months she was a caregiver at the orphanage; a half rotten woman with a burning skull instead of a head. She was the one who set the orphanage on fire.

She did it by snapping her fingers.

“Oh Carl...” the dark haired boy heard Mrs. Pierce call him a melodious tone. Despite the loudness of the raging fire, he could hear her voice clearly, almost like she was right beside him. “Come out dear, it's getting tiring looking for you.”

Come out and get burnt like the rest of my friends? No thanks.

Carl nearly blurted out the words but quickly restrained himself. Talking right now was a bad idea. Why? Because Mrs. Pierce had proven to be much more than an average seventy year old in so many ways. He'd seen her snap a man's neck like a twig and throw his six foot body like he was an empty cardboard box. Also, Mrs. Pierce had broken out of prison tonight just to get to Carl, definitely hurting (and probably killing) a handful of guards and police officers in the process. She could do a number of things with fire too. After seeing her do all that, It wasn't difficult for the boy to believe that tracing a voice to it's source could be one of her gifts.

Getting no reply, she said something in the same melodic tone about punishing Carl when she found him and continued humming. That's what scared him the most about her; how humane she could make you think she was just by talking. Knowing what she was made Carl distrust everyone he knew. Even though she was the only one he saw as a monster, it made him believe everyone was one deep down. Closing his eyes, he rested on the not-yet-burning bookshelf he was hiding behind. There, Carl prayed silently, hoping she wouldn't find him and someone would come to his rescue. Despite all that had happened, he still believed it wasn't impossible for that to occur.

Almost as if she knew it would crush him (psychologically) if she did, Mrs. Pierce appeared from the opposite side of the bookshelf he had been hiding behind. She was wearing a ragged dress that didn't seem to be affected by her burning skull or the growing ball of fire in her rotting left hand. Scared, Carl moved backwards. He knew it was pointless, he knew Mrs. Pierce could kill him just as easily as she killed the rest of the people in the library and distancing himself from her wasn't going to change that, but he continued moving until his back met a wall. On his left was one out of the very few bookshelves nearest to the entrance of the library that had amazingly not yet caught on fire (maybe it was one of her powers?), and on his right, was the first of the last three bookshelves in the library. His back on the wall, and the demon with the intent of burning him alive standing in front of him, Carl could see the writing on the wall clearly now.

He was done for.

Dragging herself towards him, she spoke, her voice harsh and quite unlike her kindly tone earlier. “You told your friends my secret and as if that wasn't enough, you and the other caregivers got Mrs. Pierce arrested and sentenced to prison. I liked living as Mrs. Pierce and because of you I don't get to play that role anymore. I'd have to leave Austin after this and go somewhere else... live a completely different life. You ended that role and now... I'm going to end you, just like the others.”

And she let go of the fireball. Carl recognized the bright fireball and what it would do. It was how she killed Danny, Claire and every other person who was in the library earlier that night. It was the same way she killed Nancy after the seven year old girl caught her snapping the neck of the man she owed money. She would have killed Carl then if she knew he saw her as well. She'd killed everyone else who helped in getting her imprisoned and Carl was the last. He too was about to be burned alive. As it moved towards him, he raised his hands to shield his eyes from the blinding light of the fireball about to turn him into ash.

And then it happened.

“Isurmeh Ovana Athelon!” a voice said loudly and instead of the fireball to hit and incinerate Carl, it dropped at his feet, a frozen ball.

Looking up, Carl saw another figure between him and Mrs. Pierce. This one was more human. It was a blond girl about his height. She was wearing a gold metal armour with a short red cape. She also had a glowing blue symbol Carl had never seen before on her right shoulder and in the same hand, was a sword that was either made of blue crystals or magic ice. After seeing the cool air the sword released take out the fire on the burning bookshelves, Carl was nearly positive it was the latter.

“Oh,” Mrs. Pierce said facing Carl, “you have M'gen friends too.” She had not quite finished speaking when she was hit by a blast of frost formed by a lazy swing of the girl's sword. The blast, for some reason unknown to Carl, didn't turn her into an ice statue but sent her flying through several bookshelves.

As she flew, the girl in golden armour turned to face him.

“Uh, hi,” the girl said, “I know what you're thinking; don't it. Running will make the whole rescuing you thing a lot harder. I bet you've got a thousand reasons not to, but trust me. I'm one of the good guys. We— I'm here to help.”

“Okay,” Carl said nodding.

After a pause, she spoke again. “Ommus Jiwen.”

Giving her a confused look, he replied, “I'm guessing you're a magician and what you just said is a spell. What's it supposed to do, get me out of here while you stay back to battle Mrs. Pierce? I'd say that's a good idea.”

The girl didn't reply, instead, she stared at him dumbfounded.

“What?” Carl asked.

It seemed like she wanted to reply but didn't, as she had to turn around to defend herself and Carl from four basketball-sized fireballs.

Speaking the first spell again, the fireballs stopped in their tracks, as if held by an invisible force. Immediately, they turned into balls of ice and dropped to the ground. Afterwards, she made the same lazy motion with her sword like she did earlier and released another frost blast at the fire-demon.

In response, Mrs. Pierce flew.

Scary looking wings made out of bone and fire appeared on her back and with it, she flew upwards. Dodging the girl's attack, Mrs. Pierce released one of hers: a fire blast in the shape of a large spear more than sixteen feet long. The blast seemed dangerous enough to destroy Carl, the armoured girl and the entire building if it struck home but fortunately, the girl reacted quickly. Stretching out her left arm, she spoke a one worded spell and a purple portal appeared behind her open palm and began to absorb the blast. She strained herself to keep the portal open in order to completely absorb the blast and when it was over, her armour seemed to loose it's luster, the symbol on her arm dimmed, her sword disappeared and she dropped to her knees.

“Hey, you okay?” Carl asked, as he helped her get back up.

“Yeah,” she replied, “just a little drained. Using that incantation for an attack that powerful tops my list on the dumbest things I've done today.”

“You really thought you could redirect my lance of fire?” The demon asked, sounding amused as she landed. “I admit, it would have been a trump card but you're obviously not powerful enough to keep the portal open long enough to redirect such attack. It was the wrong move my dear, because now, you're too weak to use your powers.”

“I wouldn't be so sure about that,” the girl said and stretched out her hand. The symbol on her arm glowed slightly and her sword appeared. And immediately after, it disappeared. She tried again and got the same outcome. “Oh damn,” the girl said, sounding scared now.

“Indeed.” As Mrs. Pierce said that, fireballs appeared on both of her hands. She released the fireballs and they flew towards them.

Maybe it was because he now knew a spell that could save him or because it was a natural impulse for a person to defend himself the best way he knew how, Carl couldn't tell but as the fireballs flew towards them, Carl felt a shock throughout his body and almost instinctively, he said a spell. It was one of the spells the girl had used when she fought Mrs. Pierce. The one that opened the purple portal.

“Iguma!” He shouted, arms outstretched.

A much smaller purple portal appeared again behind his palm, in front of the duo. It absorbed the fireballs and almost immediately, it released two purple-black fireballs of the same size as the ones it absorbed. The demon tried evading them but the fireballs followed her every move until it struck her and when it did, it didn't send her flying. Instead, after a loud scream and a small explosion, Mrs. Pierce turned into ash.

She was gone.

“You just killed a Fire Boneraus!” the girl exclaimed.

“A fire what?”

“Killing it isn't impossible for a M'gen,” the girl continued ignoring his question, “but it should be for a human. How did you...” then she paused realising, “Holy shit! that's reason the mind-warp spell didn't work on you earlier.”

“Did you just say Mind-warp spell? I thought it was a—” Carl couldn't finish as another person appeared in the library not too far from where they stood. It was a teenaged boy this time and from the blonde hair, blue eyes and sharp facial features, Carl could tell he was related to the girl standing beside him. He was remarkably tall and dressed in the same way as the girl except his armour was navy blue and quite top-heavy and he wasn't wearing a cape. With the same arm that had the same symbol as the armoured girl (silver colored), he held a large hammer with a large silver face and a similarly coloured handle half as long as he was tall.

After assessing the environment and staring at what was left of Mrs. Pierce for a moment, he faced the girl and started walking toward her. “Cynthia, I told you to rescue the other kids from the fire and stay away from the library. Until you get a partner, you're—”

“Not supposed to fight demons without assistance from a superior M'gen,” she completed for him. “I know and that was exactly what I did, until I saw him in the library about to be killed. If I waited for you any longer than I did, another kid would be dead. One I could've and did save.”

“I'm not a kid,” Carl said frowning obviously annoyed by the fact that the girl referred to him that way because of his height. “I'll be sixteen in June. Oh, and in case you forgot, I killed the demon. Kids don't do that.”

Giving an overly dramatic gasp, she replied, facing him, “You're fifteen? I gotta admit, you're full of surprises, short stack.”

“Uh, Cynthia, I'm gonna try to look past the mistake you made not using the Mind-warp spell,” the armoured boy said. Looking directly at Carl, he added, “But what does he mean by he killed the demon?”

“Okay, first,” Cynthia replied, “I used the spell on short stack, it just didn't work. The second part should be obvious by now.

“He's a M'gen.”

■

January 27th, 2008/Two weeks later.

“You wanna try again?” Cynthia asked baffled, “You've been at it the whole day, I think you should rest.”

“I'm fine,” Carl or as the M'gen Lords had renamed him, Duncan, replied, “I'm just having a feeling I'm not doing it right so I called you to correct me as I do it.”

Despite saying he was fine, Cynthia knew he wasn't being honest. Like most M'gens living here, she was born in Cenik. From watching others train for long hours (and doing it herself once in a while), She could tell when a M'gen overexerted himself and Duncan was doing just that.

They were in one of the many training rooms in the academy Cynthia (and from tomorrow, Duncan) attended. It was slightly large with glowing protection symbols decorated the walls made out of gold. If they were on earth, Duncan would've thought it was a king's court given how majestic it was decorated. But it was Cenik, one of the M'gen's military realms, and after living there for the past two weeks, Duncan had come to expect the unusual from the place. It had been a few days since he chose to remain in Cenik and become a M'gen. Now that it had been permitted by the Lords of the realm, he'd been allowed to school and train. Knowing he would be allowed (and for protection from demons just in case he wasn't), Cynthia had him memorise four books of basic M'gen incantations in preparation of the tests necessary for his admission. Good memory was one of the abilities of a M'gen so it wasn't that difficult to memorise them. Yet, knowing that many incantations and having almost perfected all, he was still having trouble summoning his Soul Armour. Summoning his first Aelko (M'gen for, 'Chaytan-powered weapon') after receiving it was easy but for some reason, summoning the armour wasn't.

Duncan had done it once though, he'd seen what it looked like. It was what earned him the name he was given. Thing was, he'd only been able to summon the armour then because the M'gen Lords aided him as it was mandatory in the whole renaming process. And tomorrow, without assistance, Duncan needed to do it before the committee in charge of the M'gen academy in order to be allowed admission. He'd been practicing the whole day and the night before, yet, there had only been a glimpse of the black armour materialising.

The committee wanted at least thirty seconds.

After Duncan explained how he'd been speaking the incantation and performing the ritual, Cynthia replied, “I'm no expert but I think you've got everything right.” With a thoughtful look on her face, she continued, “Unless your thoughts are scrambled. Your soul armour is connected to every part of you so a bothered mind usually affects it's integrity and sometimes it's summoning. Think only about the armour, clear any other thoughts, imagine it and it would materialise.”

Demonstrating, Cynthia closed her eyes, spoke the incantation and the gold armour she had on that night (except the Aelko cape), appeared immediately, covering the black pants, white sleeved shirt and black tie of a uniform she'd been wearing earlier. When it finished materialising, she opened her eyes, “Like that.”

“Okay” Duncan replied, taking a deep breath. “I'm ready.” Walking away from her, he moved towards the center of the room. Closing his eyes, Duncan concentrated his thoughts on the Soul Armour and spoke the summoning incantation. The symbol he now recognised as every M'gen's individual gateway to their pocket dimension glowed faintly on his right arm and the plain black armour appeared for a moment before disappearing.

“Nine seconds,” Cynthia said giving a smile as Duncan opened his eyes, “It stayed for nine seconds. I mean, the committee would want to see it for at least thirty seconds, but hey, it's an improvement since the last time you tried. Not the best but still, it's something.”

“I don't want something, I want... Tomorrow's the most important day of my life and I still haven't perfected the one incantation the committee wants to see.”

“Look, Ca— Duncan,” Cynthia replied, “It's only been two weeks since your awakening. Two weeks. It took me about a month to master my Soul Armour Summoning. You don't have to rush it. The Committee would accept you whenever you're ready.”

“You know why I'm in a hurry, Cynthia. I know it sounds stupid when I say it, but I feel like I can find her. When I told the cops a giant bearded vulture attacked house we lived in, killed my father and took my mom, they thought I was crazy and sometimes, I did too, but after Mrs. Pierce, I know am not. You guys said Chaytan-fused lammergeiers don't kill women, that they just keep them somewhere like trophies. It means my mum could still be alive somewhere. I know it's not much to hold on to, hell, my mum could be dead, but I can't know that for sure unless I become a M'gen and look for her. It's been six months since the lammergeier took her, I can't wait longer.”

Moving toward him, she placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed slightly. With a caring look, she replied, “It doesn't sound stupid, loosing someone and trying to find them happens a lot here in Cenik.

”Duncan,“ she continued as she removed her hand from his shoulder, ”I want you to find your mum, I do. And I know that every passing day reduces your chances of finding her, but I don't think she would want the same child she ran miles to protect from the lammergeier, spending long hours every day practicing one of the most draining incantations, and never resting. She did it because she wanted you to live and trust me, this isn't living. I know you want to pass the Soul Armour test tomorrow but trust me, with the way you're going, you might not even be able to pass the other tests which are super important as well.”

Duncan sighed and Cynthia continued, “Jason and I, we've got you... We'll help where we can, find clues to where the lammergeier might be and stuff. I could bribe my dad or Jason to give you extra lessons to quicken your training and my dad could help when he's around. Don't act like you're alone in this because you're not. You got us. We are one big family now. All five of us.”

Family. That was a word Duncan could never use to describe what he had with his parents before he lost them. Family involved both parents loving you and each other and father did neither of that but the opposite. Despite that, he never believed his parents deserved what happened to them. He was going to save his mom from the lammergeier and like Cynthia said, he wasn't alone. He had a family now. One with no conflicts, and with readiness to support him.

“You're right,” Duncan replied as they walked out of the training room.

“We got each others' backs.”

■

Six months Ago/ Twelve and a half years later.

“Is this the place?” the grey haired, seventy year old woman wearing a black gown, asked the man dressed in a black fitting suit, standing beside her as they portalled into the park.

“It is.” Duncan replied his mother, his voice hoarse from shouting at the top of his voice the past few nights.

To anyone passing by that evening, Duncan and Amelia Winston were staring at a typical tree in Central Park in New York City but to them, it was more than a tree and the place was more than just a park. It was her last battle field. The place Cynthia fought, trying to escape a Dark Pillar. And at the very tree they stood next to, was where she was ripped in two, four nights ago.

“She was a great woman,” Amelia said staring at the tree.

“Yeah,” Duncan replied, “she was.”

This was how he'd been since she died; cold, angry and driven by bloodlust. She hadn't seen him this way since he killed the demon that took her years ago and then, he wasn't as powerful as he was now. He was going to kill Silas. Or at least try to.

Despite him being insanely powerful, it scared her to think of what might happen to him if he fought Cynthia's killer. It wasn't any Immortal mindman in question, it was Silas, the most violent of the seven Dark Pillars.

“I have to stop them, mum,” Duncan said as if reading her mind. Not taking his eyes from the tree, he continued, “I know you don't want me fighting The Dark Pillars without the support of The M'gen Lords but you heard them at the edict, they'd rather leave earth defenseless than fight. With what The Pillars are about to do, no one on the earth realm is safe, from the people being sacrificed to the people going to be affected by the chaos the completion of their motives would bring. Yet, the Lords of Cenik do nothing, they don't even care about Cynthia's death. They're Cowards, mum but I'm not. I'm gonna avenge Cynthia's death and fight for my home realm with or without their help.”

“So what are you going to do?” She asked. “Duncan, I know you're powerful but without the support of The M'gen Lords, how are you going to fight The Dark Pillars? It's a war, you fight a war with an army, not all by yourself.”

After a moment, Duncan replied, finally facing his mother, “You're right, I can't win this without an army.”

Turning his attention back to the tree, he added, ”That's why I'm gonna build one.“