---- Chapter One -----

“Hm? What is this?” Sensing a presence in the waters a massive shadow suddenly stopped to face Mako Islands, a speck on the horizon. “There shouldn’t be any people in the water during this hour, and surely not in this storm.”

The shadow made its way to the source of the disturbance, using the quickly draining life force of what it now knew was a human child as a guide.

Moving swiftly through the crashing waves and torrential currents, the shadow arrived to the scene in mere seconds, a testament its power.

The scene before the entity makes it sigh with pity.

A small human, a newborn by the looks of it was slowly sinking to the depths. Its life force drained from its body by the unforgiving sea.

“Why would humans do this? From my knowledge they are quite fond of their young. Especially when just born.” The shadow wonders to itself confused.

Normally the shadow would have left at this point. Many humans die in the ocean, be it by monsters or storm, there was no reason to stick around. Death was just another part of nature after all.

However something about the human caught its attention.

This young one’s soul… so pure, so powerful. Let me examine further.” Intrigued, the entity moves to the sinking body of a newly deceased baby human.

In one swift movement the large shadow consumes the child within itself, making its way back towards the open ocean where it can examine the child further.

Bringing the child’s soul close to its core, the shadow could glimpse at the last few moments of its life.

The scene from before with the two men played in its mind like it was watching from the sky. It could clearly hear the reason the child was taken and why he was to die.

Needless to say the shadow was furious.

“I can see now why this child was abandoned. Detestable humans do you know no end to your ambition?!” anger flared up within the entity, and in that moment the storms over the islands growing that much more intense and powerful. The wind and waves shaking the very earth.

The shadow harbored a love for all living things, and the reason this child was killed was wasteful. Fear, greed, and power all cloud a persons mind, allowing them to raise their blades to even children.

This was not something that it could forgive so easily.

“You need not worry child, for I will grant you new life. Such is the power I, Undine, command as goddess of the seas. Your soul is strong, one of strongest I’ve seen amongst your kind. You are worthy of my blessing. With it you will gain a bit of my power, which you will come to know as you grow.”

A bright light could be seen emerging from Undine’s core and from that light, Undine began to change form. The form she took was known by many islanders as the apex predator of the seas, the great dire-shark. Dire-sharks were massive in size equipped with teeth that could rend steel. With unmatched speed and stamina, and along with their incredibly rough skin that no spear could penetrate, the dire-shark was a true terror of the deep. Normally about 15m long on average, the form that Undine took was the size of a small mountain, both beautiful and dreadful to behold. Floating just in front of the massive god was the child’s soul, a much smaller light, carefully floating still.

Instilling a small amount of her power to the boy’s soul, the sea god’s resurrection would succeed. All she needed was a vessal to carry the soul. There would be no way to know that his soul was tampered with aside from the small triangular mark that would be on the child’s left arm when he was born.

The appearance of the now sleeping soul brought great joy to the god, and the storms eased up, if only a bit.

Looking at the child’s soul sleeping there, the god knew where to take him.

Deep in the Ruby Desert, there was a couple whose faith was unwavering despite being so far from the sea. Undine watched over all her faithful followers and knew the couple was having difficulty bearing a child.

“Perfect, that’s where I will take him” Undine decided looking at the soul fondly.

“There you will be born to a home, and you will be loved.” Raising its massive head the light and child slowly rose up, soaring tens of feet above the tumultuous sea.

-CRACK-

The massive bolt of lightning struck the orb of light and it disappeared without a trace.

“Farewell child. I will meet you again when the time comes.”

————————————————

Deep in the Ruby Desert in the oasis city of Roland, an immense storm was underway. The biggest the city had ever seen. More rain had fallen in one minute than in over a decade of rainfall. The raindrops were the size of pebbles and the clouds darkening the midday sky gave an ominous feel to the city. People were rushing to their homes to escape the harsh storm that seemed to arrive from nowhere. Luckily, because the massive aquifer that the city was built upon would flood the streets from time to time, the city could handle major flooding. Once in their homes the people were safe.

Thats not to say there wasn’t any property damage.

Many of the streets could not handle this kind of downpour and potholes were quickly forming on the cobblestone streets. The whipping wind was harsh enough to tear off the shingles from many of the roofs and trees were being rooted out from the grounds they rested.

Despite all the chaos happening outside there was one place where the storm took a back seat.

In a manor located near the inner ring of the city, nestled amongst the rest of the middle-class noble houses, there was a large man with a nervous look on his face that sat in front of a hearth with a large shark motif carved into the front of its stone rim. He was a rugged, handsome man with walnut colored air and nice bronze skin. One could tell, despite the shadows and dark circles under his emerald eyes, he was quite intelligent too.

The man’s name was Brom.

Brom was a member of a very old family in the Ruby Desert called Stonewall. A clan that controlled trade between the Ruby Desert and the Greenwood Kingdom to the east, they were quite powerful. Even as a branch member he held quite a bit of status, though It was much less than the main family, It still granted him a nice home and he didn’t have to worry about how to make a living.

He and his wife Natalie have been together for five years now and finally at the age of 20 years old, they were with child. The couple was extremely nervous at first. After years of trying to have a child they feared the worst. That they were unable to produce children. One day however their prayers were answered and Natalie began to show the symptoms of pregnancy. They were overjoyed. Luckily the pregnancy was fairly easy and they had no complications throughout, and today was the day their son would be born.

They were ecstatic. They both wanted their first child to be a boy, mainly because it would keep the main family from getting on them about having a son. It seemed childish but Brom didn’t want to be forced to keep making children till he produced a son.

With the help of two skilled 5 star healing mages, provided by the main branch, she shouldn’t have many issues delivering the child. However that didn’t stop Brom from being scared out of his mind.

Brom loved his wife more than anything in the world, and even if they couldn’t have children, he would never leave her. If it turned out Natalie couldn’t bear children however the main family would force him to remarry, pushing Natalie down to just being a mistress and not his principal wife.

Such was the life of a noble in an old family.

Brom could hear Natalie’s screams in the other room. He wanted to be there for the birth but Natalie strictly forbid it, saying he would make her nervous. Natalie wanted to birth the child without the help of Brom. She was strong, and Brom let her do as she pleased.

In the delivery room lay a single woman and two nurses beside her, comforting her with healing magic and words, helping her give birth.

Natalie was an outstanding beauty with jet black hair with slight curls draping down to the middle of her back. Her beautiful white skin and sky blue eyes along with her almost criminal figure led to many jealous eyes be cast on Brom, who had her all to himself. However, you could hardly say she looked in top shape right now. The pounding thunder and tapping of the rain did little to muffle her screams and pain of giving birth.

All except one sound.

-CRACK-

The sound of lightning striking awfully close startled them both.

The first to respond was Brom, “That was too close. It sounded like It came from in front of the door. I’d better check for damage.”

Brom stood up to walk to the door. He was quite tall. About 1.9m tall and well built, more lean than bulky. He swiftly made his way to the front door and as he reached for the knob the sound he heard through the door stopped him in his tracks.

It was a baby's cries.

Brom stopped dead in his tracks. He immediately disregarded the lightning that struck close to his home and immediately ran to the room Natalie was in.

He wouldn’t have to be worried about damage anyways.

Being a Stonewall, Brom was assigned an elite troop from the main families personal guard. The guards enlisted to his service were at least 6th Star weapon experts. No one could get by without their notice, and any damage to the property would be taken care of by them quickly.

Brom took a quick glance at the motif on his fireplace and remembered their patron god Undine. Thanking her from the bottom of his heart. He prayed this whole time that she would watch over them this night and give Natalie the strength to complete the birth.

He and his wife were very faithful to Undine, an unpopular god when compared to Gaia or Aero, whom had the most followers among the 4 great gods. But he and Natalie quite liked the sea and even had a beachside marriage ceremony.

By the time Brom opened the door the baby was already wrapped up and suckling from Natalies breast.

He swallowed hard when he saw the child in his wife’s arms, it was a strange feeling, knowing that that was his child. Brom slowly made his way to the bed his wife was laying in, careful not to disturb the child.

Seeing her husband making his way over, Natalie produced a tired smile and said in a weak voice,

"Look at him, he's beautiful."

The boy had fair skin with black hair like his mother as well as her sky blue eyes. His dark hair and fair skin along with his cute rose colored lips gave a sort of angelic feeling about the child. Although he had fair skin and many noticeable features of Natalie, it was undoubtedly Broms child. He also had fair skin as a boy. That is, before he got some sun in him.

Brom couldn’t stop smiling at the child in his wife's arms, love emanating from his very soul for this child. Finally when the baby was done eating Brom was allowed to carry him. He looked so small in his large muscular arms. Yet in his heart this child held a great weight.

Brom knew immediately that he would be willing to give his life for this child.

Then he noticed something strange about the child.

”Whats the matter honey?” Natalie asks, slowly gaining her strength back with the help of the two healing mages that assisted with her birth.

"I can sense a strange energy from our son. How curious." Brom answered.

What Brom didn't know was that he was sensing some of the power granted to the boy by Undine. In fact it was only because his father was a 9 star warrior that he could sense something strange about the boy, even if he didn't know what it was.

"Is he okay? Is something wrong with our son?" Natalie of course was worried that something was wrong because Brom hadn't explained anything to her.

"It's nothing really, In fact I'm happy! I can sense great potential in our son. Maybe he can even grow to learn magic?"

In this world magic existed but only to a select few. Only about 1 in 1000 were born with a knack for it. Even less became successful in it.

"That would be great honey! But aren't you saying things too soon?" Natalie grumbled, just about fully recovered physically, she reached out for the boy taking him from Brom.

She was right of course, and Brom felt silly for it. One could only tell if they had an aptitude for magic after their eighth birthday. Not just hours after they were born.

-WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!-

"Shh, shh" Natalie soothed the child. Feeding him again.

"What shall we name him dear?" Brom inquired. "We agreed you would decide once you met the child."

“I knew his name the moment i saw him"

“Mano… that will be his name.” Natalie’s voice is filled with deep love as she looked at her new son.

“Mano Stonewall. It is fitting for our son. It will be so” Brom’s smile was ear to ear as he pulled Natalie’s face in for a kiss.

And sitting down on a chair next to his wife's bed, thats how they spent their first night as a family together.

Coincidentally the storm above the city had begun to die down. Almost as if it never happened.

Mano was a surprisingly easy child to deal with. He rarely ever cried and didn't make a fuss in the night. Nothing like the nightmares Natalies family said would happen. His development was also extremely quick, being able to walk and carry small objects at just 5 months old. It was also clear he was going to be an incredibly handsome boy in the future. His skin also started to tint to more of a brown shade, like his father.

"Our boys a genius!! Nothing can stop him!!" Brom would often say about his quickly developing son.

And like that, five years passed in the blink of an eye...