Eleven-year-old Leccamaradel Emma Arish brushed her hands against the tall golden wheat fields. This was as close to the ground, to life; the tickling sensation of each strand of wheat made her giggle as it touched her angel soft hands. A gush of wind flew over the large field she stood in, her long brown hair blew in the wind, the small white dress she wore did much the same.

It was early in the evening and the sun had begun to set over the vast green-golden fields stretching to the limit of what her eyes could see, each strand of grass and wheat shimmered in the setting orange glow of the sun. It was absolutely beautiful; nothing could be compared to the gorgeous scene she was staring at now with wide eyes and a bright smile.

“Father… what is this place?” The young girl asked.

Behind, her father spoke in a gentle voice as he pointed out the far fields. “These are your people, Lecca. Everyone, even the lowliest of criminals, are your people.”

“I will be looking over these people as queen…” She said to herself in an unsure voice.

“This is not the only reason why I brought you here, Lecca.” Her father said as he walked in front of her. Keeping his back towards her, he raised his hands. “You-like me, have the ability to use nullification magic, ancient magic.” He explained as he began to mentally cast as spell in his hands. “Though such an art is limited to people like us, it is the ultimate weapon for protecting someone.”

Not another word was said as her father released a controlled beam of pure mana into the sky. The Psion waves flew into the sky, the young girl watched becoming acutely aware of the hidden meaning behind the words her father spoke. Almost as if it collided into one of the millions of stars high above, the Psion waves quickly dispersed and exploded into hundreds of thousands of particles as they fell to the earth slowly.

Staring with a serious expression, Lecca watched as her father’s silhouette turned around and faced her, the sun blocking her eyes from seeing the man clearly. “Compared to other traditional magic, the ancient arts are truly beautiful, your people will look for such beauty when you defend them. Use your knife to cast a disruption spell.”

“Father…?” Lecca said hesitantly as she snuck her hand onto the hidden knife attached to the inside of the belt around her waist.

“Ignore my warning from earlier, go ahead and cast it.” He said chipper while turning around towards the grand fields.

“Yes father…” She said withdrawing her knife allowing the blade to shimmer in the last rays of the orange sun.

Along with the knife held firmly in her right hand, Lecca outstretched her left arm and materialized seven more blades. Letting go the blades began to hover around her entire body glowing in a fiery blue haze. “Control your emotions!” Her father said loudly gaining the attention of nearby farmers. “Focus only on protecting those that you serve!”

The metal blade in her hand began to hover into place. Every move she took, the blades shifted with her, slowly waiting for the moment to be used. Two circular casting marks emerged above her hands, and she outstretched her right palm while holding her left by her hip.

“Focus your energy! Let the magic work for you! Do not fear it!” Her father shouted making her face tighten as she proceeded.

A large azure haze began to form circular patterns around her body, around her knives. Streaks of the rainbow-colored Psion waves tightened as it began to flow down her hands, her left coming up to her right. In a moment, her knives stopped moving and faced her direction with the tip of each blade glowing a bright blue due to an immense amount of heat being released from the man a. Sweat ran down the side of her head as she focused all her energy on the release point of her hands.

“Fire!”

--

“Fire!”

Shaking everything within ten city blocks, a large blue pulse let out an ear bleeding screech as a shockwave flew down the city roads sending shards of wood, glass, and gravel pellets everywhere. A trail of fire had permanently burnt the ground where Lecca directed her disruption field causing all hostile magicians to suddenly loose the ability to cast magic. Those unlucky to be close to the path of the pulse were either vaporized or burnt to a crips by the blue flames.

The sudden pulse had lit the surrounding area on fire causing an inferno. Buildings collapsed as their support beams burnt away, ash and embers once more filled and blocked out the sky. Mike stood just behind Lecca; he was acting as her immediate guard while the others had token positions of hard cover to make sure they weren’t caught in the blast.

Beads of sweat ran down the side of both his own and the Princess’s face. The intense heat almost made him fall back onto his ass, yet he held onto a nearby piece of stone wall while he nursed the pain his chest had. The pressure from the blast would’ve been enough to knock him out, yet due to his position behind the silver-haired woman he was safe.

Lecca’s silver hair slowly settled on her body as she kept her arms in the upright position towards the enemy, her materialized blades slowly burnt away into nothingness. Slowly the gravel around her shifted as her soldiers, her Reclaimers, moved into a v-formation behind her, Captain Thompson by her side. They all stood with their weapons pointed downrange, a trail of fire lighting themselves and a new foe.

Opposite to them at the far end of the street that led to the town exit, four masked men and their leader, maskless stood in the middle of the street. The leader walked to the center of the other four; the two behind kept their weapons raised to the sides as they scanned the upper floors of the destroyed buildings, the two in front kept their bolt-action rifles in the low ready, staring down Lecca and her Reclaimers. The man’s golden-brown hair shifted in the wind as he stepped forward to the front of his group, instantly the other four moved beside him, mimicking the very same v-formation Lecca was in with their weapons raised.

Princess Lecca looked at her captain wordlessly. The man was just as confused on what was happening, yet he forewent giving any directions in favor of seeing how the sudden turn of events would play out. Turning her head back, the princess raised her left hand in a cupped manner, the men around her waited for the order keeping themselves steeled for an immediate firefight.

The fact that one had not broke out yet even with both parties’ hostile intentions was a mystery, the leader on the other side looked at Lecca and her men tiredly. His and his men’s brown uniforms strongly resembled the English battle dress uniform during the first world war, yet each had a slew of pouches more commonly found during the Vietnam war. Looking upon the soldiers from Yondel, the man’s eyes narrowed as the black sludge within Lecca’s belt pouch slowly slithered up her left arm, much to the dismay and confusion of the troops around her. The man held a conflicted gaze as he blinked several times attempting to make sense of what he was seeing. He too lifted his left arm, his left hand.

Both tilted their appendage at the same time, towards each other. Each of their soldiers moved at the same time, towards each other.

Each footstep was silent under the burning flames of the town around them. No one said a word as the gap between them closed from one-hundred-seventy meters to one-hundred meters. Getting closer Mike immediately saw that the men surrounding the unknown leader were masked in a tight-fitting black cloth. Their facial features could be seen, yet they had no eyes, no mouth, no skin. In the exact same manner, anywhere there should’ve been skin showing, only a black fabric was shown.

Now at sixty-five meters apart the two leaders held a clenched fist up stopping both groups of soldiers. Silently the two stared at each other, Lecca looked at the man’s facial features; his dirtied skin, tired brown eyes, golden-brown hair, and his shaved but visible facial hair.

The man gazed upon her own brown eyes, dirtied silver hair, and her clothing. He breathed slowly as his mind came to a conclusion. Much like Lecca’s nullification magic, the man materialized a white bolt-action rifle in his hands, forged of a red fire instead of blue. He sharpened his gaze as he held the rifle in his left hand by the top and her raised his right hand to the sky.

Staring with wide eyes, the silver-haired Princess remained stunned that the man before her had just cast magic in order to materialize his own rifle. She was unsure what would happen if she came across someone with nullification magic, and she feared what would happen next as the man looked up as he placed his thumb and middle fingers together.

Looking down with his eyes, the man held a contempt look as he pressed the fingers together making them snap.

Mike felt his whole-body freeze. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t see, he couldn’t think. Time had seemingly stopped, and then suddenly it resumed as a flood of light entered his eyes. Blues, cyan, purples, whites, flashes of red, and green suddenly forced their way into his head only to stop.

He stared at himself.

It was himself at his once former home; white button-down shirt, black slacks, accompanying black dress shoes. This was him from another time. As he blinked, more images of his past flashed over his eyes; high school – post graduation, boot camp, Ranger School, RASP, the War for Africa, Haiti, Pakistan.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Snaping his head to the voice that came to his right, Mike blinked several times as he recognized the person next to him. It was the same man that led the opposing group of soldiers, why he and him were here alone, puzzled him.

Looking down at the ground Mike’s face contorted in confusion as he ran his hand against the tall strands of wheat that he was now standing in. Gone were the desolate streets of the town he had been in just a blink ago, now he stood in a seemingly endless set of fields covered in green-brown grass and golden wheat that had yet to be harvested.

“I’ve visited the others except the woman, but you out of all of them interest me the most.” The man calmly said as he swallowed the invisible hesitation that settled his mind. “You have a past, one that I did not think of, that alone truly has my attention.”

Not knowing what to say, Mike stayed quiet.

“Ah, forgive me for being vague…” The man said. “I tend to bore people with my random bursts of speech. I just wanted to speak to you before we began.”

The sergeant tensed as the man materialized the same rifle, he had equipped not moments ago in the abandoned city. “I would like to ask how you fell deeply for this world, more specifically the enchanting light we Nullification magicians give off. Each spell we cast could be classified as its own melody, yet humanity has deemed such an art so disastrous that even the art of darkness was seen to be humane.”

The man withdrew a small stripper clip. He loaded the seven rounds contained within the metal strip into the internal magazine of his polished white rifle. Pushing the bolt forward the weapon let out a satisfying click as the first bullet was loaded into the chamber.

“Ah! I’m rambling again.” The man chuckled. “I’m sure you are confused so let me paint the scene; using a single bullet from our primary weapons, we will do an old fashion duel. Twenty paces, fire from the hip. I am only doing this due to your inability to fight properly, and must I say, I am surely surprised that you have stayed in a movable condition even with your broken ribs and God knows what else is wrong with your body.”

The man eyed the carbine strapped across Mike’s bare chest. “Must I say, that, is a true tool.” He slyly commented as he turned away from him shifting the wheat strands.

An unnerving calm wave swept across the sergeant as he too turned his back from the man. Once his feet were in place, the man began to count as they both walked twenty paces from each other, each step staying in line with their respective heartbeats.

Silence was maintained the entire time one both had stopped moving. Mike had just now started to wonder why he had gone with this… He could’ve ended the threat right there. He should’ve followed his instincts, yet here he was waiting for the command to turn around and fire a bullet to possibly nowhere.

“Turn!” The man shouted.

Snapping his weapon to his shoulder and slamming his finger on the trigger, it only took a second for the Ranger to align the red-dot-sight on the man’s chest. He felt the recoil of the bullet, yet he saw no sign of the bullet exiting the barrel.

In fact, he wasn’t even looking at the man, he was looking at Lecca.

“Now!”

A gust of wind blew away loose strands of wheat as Lecca bolted forward using her magic to increase her speed. In a matter of seconds, she closed a fifteen-meter gap as she slashed down with a materialized short-sword at the man Mike had just shot at not a second earlier. Their blades let out a resounding screech as the force the two pieces of metal clashed at caused sparks to jump from the point of contact.

Steadying her posture, Lecca pressed the attack as she slid her blade against her opponent’s. Covering his ears due to the harsh screeching of metal being rubbed against each other at high speeds, Mike watched as the two fighters were caught in a deadlock. Taking advantage of their locked eyes, the man used his leg and kicked the princess directly in her abdomen making her hunch over as she stumbled back, the man rushed forward with the point of his blade aimed at her heart.

“Lecca!” Mike cried as he broke into a sprint.

Snapping her eyes wide open, Lecca’s body let out a gust of wind. Her now blue-glowing sword scraped against the man’s blade as she parried his attack. Mike was thrown to the ground and blood came out of his mouth. The impact of the pulse had hit him directly in the chest where his broken ribs laid waiting to be healed.

“Stay back!” The princess called out as the sergeant stumbled to his feet in a hunched over position.

Focusing on her target, she rushed forward with a sudden burst of speed overtaking her entire body. She closed the gap slashed at a flat angle allowing the tip of her blade to collide directly into the man’s own blade now that he had recovered. The recoil of such an attack shook both fighters, so they each took a step back and lunged at each other.

The blue and red blades collided. Mana poured from each strip of metal creating chain reactions that almost produced the same light as a flashbang, yet neither backed down. Lecca pressed the attack as she slashed away at the man, he on the other hand stayed defensive looking for a proper opening with every move he parried. Each clash of metal produced a bright light blinding the sergeant at certain intervals.

Finding his opening the man parried the princess’s attack leaving her chest wide open. He cut horizontally, yet he was to late as the princess fell to the ground purposely now only loosing a small amount her silver hair. Sliding her boots along the ground, Lecca swept the legs of her attack making him loose balance, she pressed one final time as she cut downwards at an angle, yet this to was deflected, and now both fighters stood open, ready to be killed.

Pacing her left foot on the ground, the silver-haired woman sprung forward as she drew her blade directly to right side of the man’s chest.

Her eyes widened as she fell onto her knees. She collapsed onto the ground, the momentum she built up making her eat dirt. Raising herself onto her knees, a pool of red liquid had gathered below her, a large pain came from her right shoulder as Sergeant Randall rushed to her side looking every-which-way to see if any of his teammates were nearby.

“Rupture!”

Before he could render aid, the two on the ground looked towards the attacker. He had long sunk his blade directly into the ground, nearly half of it had disappeared with the area around him being devoid of all life. A swell of energy suddenly erupted deep underground, the ground shook violently and within five seconds of launching the shockwave, a loud explosion erupted right where he was standing.

The two watches in awe as this continued and snapping into action, Lecca withdrew the handgun that she had inherited from PFC Green. She aimed the blocky sights at the now revealed-disheveled man who was creating a large crater by the second, using himself as the origin point for all the energy being released, a large red magical circle with interconnected spells within held the circumference of twenty feet.

Between the violent quaking of the ground and her bleeding right arm, the blocky white sights swayed left and right as she fought with all her might to calm herself and stabilize her aim. Lecca felt her magical ability seemingly disappear as the field the man was creating was flooding with pure Psion waves cancelling any and all spells she could ever wish to cast.

It was suffocating.

“We’ll have to fire it together!”

Suddenly feeling her hands being cusped by Mike’s, Lecca narrowed her eyes as the blocky sights slowly moved over her opponent’s chest. Her finger snaked around the trigger, her breath slowed, and she exhaled. The trigger began to decompress, her hands becoming warm from Mike’s own hands.

In the blink of an eye the .45 caliber projectile flew out of the barrel with a flood of gas following it out of the muzzle. The slide locked back and rechambered another round. The bullet fired spiraled towards its target carving its own path through the differing pressure changes at supersonic speeds. The resounding roar of the gun had finally reached her ears by the time the bullet had crossed into the magical circle, moments later the man dropped to the floor clutching his wound.

With he sudden stop of the spell a bright flashing light emerged from where the man fallen. First the cloud of dust rushed their positions, then the sudden heat from the shockwave pressed forward. The pistol in Lecca’s hand suddenly fell and her hands remained rasped in Mike’s as they both closed their eyes welcoming the darkness.

--

Opening his eyes, Mike took a deep breath. A cold sweat ran down the side of his face, everything he just went through almost felt like one of the many nightmares he had in his past. He was dazed, such a nightmare drained him of all emotion, of all feeling. The blast should’ve been more than enough to kill him and Lecca, yet here he was, laying in a field of wheat, each strand he wasn’t covering stretched high into the azure sky.

A repeated tapping noise brough him from his thoughts. His vision slowly faded in and out, as the sun breamed its golden rays unto the ground, covering the world in a golden light. The tapping wasn’t following any tempo nor was it an irregular rhythm, it faded in and out as he tried to figure out where the hell he was.

Placing his ungloved hand on the ground, Mike turned on to his left side as he pushed himself off the ground. His fatigued breaths from the sudden “firefight” he had just been through had taken its toll.

Firefight…

Snapping into action, Mike stood up and nearly stumbled over as he looked around him frantically. The sun shimmered on the endless golden-green fields, the wind was calm, and in the distance a large deep blue lake shimmered under the Godly rays.

“Get suppressive fire on those vics!”

“Who the fuck are these guys?!”

The repeating cracks of nearby rifles was muffled and correctly adjusted through the ear pros that Mike had on. The smell of iron and death suddenly reached his nostrils making it hard to breathe. Tapping his chest, the sergeant felt his rifle strapped across his bare chest, the memory that his plate carrier had been effectively ruined for any use made him cringe. The gunfire intensified, so he lowered his head as he moved to the two voices, he heard not a second ago.

Before he could call to the men, that he suspected to be his allies, several loud explosions came from above making him look up. Large clouds of grey gas descended onto the battlefield; Mike’s eyes grew wide as he realized what was about to happen. He reached for the gasmask on his back, yet it wasn’t there making him panic.

He had placed it into his pack a day earlier.

As the gas set upon him his eyes, and skin began to burn, while his mouth watered, and his nostrils spewed snot. He began to choke, and his chest heaved in pain as he collapsed onto the ground, the racket of gunfire began to dwindle as those around him were in a similar state, yet he could never see their faces.

Looking up with teared filled eyes, Mike watched as a masked men from the sky descended upon him.

He closed his eyes as his consciousness faded away.

Publicly Available Information: Humanity’s Origins:

Though since the start of recorded history, there have been no dates or locations that allow historians and scholars to trace back where humanity originated in this magical world. Many suspect that ancient humans fled to these lands to escape the wrath of the demon lord, but gathered evidence suggest that humanity may have nomadic tribes that once scoured the great mountains far to the east of the Demon Lord’s held territory.

Over two hundred nations have gathered to work towards the ultimate goal of discovering our origins. Expeditions to discover such a truth have been unsuccessful, yet there is a growing hope that we will one day truly understand our ancestors and the world they lived in.

Until then, humanity will live in the unknown, wondering, waiting for our ancestors’ successors to reveal themselves.

END OF VOLUME.