Will Made Manifest

Fi watched in horror as several garbled blue screens flashed in front of her eyes, this wasn’t supposed to be possible, or so she had been led to think. After a length of time that was impossible for her tortured mind to interpret a new screen appeared in front of her and her eyes widened even further as she read it even as she writhed in pain on the ground.

System Notice

Due to the unexpected activation of a Skill the User shouldn’t have been able to access the Skill has been forcibly unlocked to prevent further damage to the User. As the User did not have enough Skill Points to activate the Skill on his own the status of his Skill Points are as follows.

Skill Points- -11

“What?” Fi breathed. Negative Skill Points? This was even more unheard of than something, which she now knew was the System itself, taking over her connection to Kyle’s Skills.

Ripping her eyes away from the screen he slowly turned her head to stare upwards at the cause of all this mess.

Fi wasn’t the only one who was staring at Kyle, everyone nearby could feel whatever Skill he had activated bearing down upon them, so it was no surprise that they were staring at him but everyone else was staring at him for a different reason.

Kyle stood staring at Ben with a look of complete rage on his face his normally faintly glowing blue eyes blazing like two azure suns, blue lines covering his skin like they did when he used magic only this time instead of simply being lines they had taken on the form of glowing blue chains that slowly flowed over his skin.

Emma stared in horror at her son’s intimidating appearance, she knew more than most of the people present that what he was doing was not only unusual but nearly impossible, there was no way he should have been able to access the only Skill that could provide both effects. The Skill was known as Suppression Aura, a Skill that dealt damage to foes in an area and had a chance to prevent the activation of enemy Skills and Spells.

Suppression Aura was a Sub-Skill of the Racial Skill Will Made Manifest that was unique to Aethereal Humans, it increased Mana Regeneration and unlocked a series of Skills that had made Aethereal Humans some of the most feared of the intelligent races. The Empire used Aethereal Humans who had unlocked these Skills to devastate their enemies their larger than normal Mana Pools and the Skills unlocked by Will Made Manifest combined with the expert soldiers that accompanied them had made the Imperial Army almost invincible in the last war.

Emma herself hadn’t unlocked this Skill despite the advantages of doing so because of the stigma that went along with it, she already stood out enough being one of the few Aethereal Humans that had managed to escape the Empire and she had no desire to stand out more by using the Skills that had allowed the Empire to kill so many people.

Denzel was also staring at Kyle with a look of terror on his face he had been a soldier in the last war between the Empire and the countries that surrounded it and knew first hand how dangerous an Aethereal Human was when they used these Skills. This was the reason that he disliked Emma and Kyle so much, he had seen many of his comrades slaughtered by grinning Imperial soldiers when their Skill and magic suddenly stopped working.

Anna halted in her tracks a few meters from Denzel’s trembling back, she, like most of the other villagers of Farholt had never experienced a Skill like this before and watched in amazement as the glowing young man slowly walked towards her son who stumbled and fell to the ground as Kyle approached.

Blood running from his nose due to his forceful activation of the Skill Kyle glared downwards at Ben who lay on his back cowering Kyle shook his head as though he was suddenly realising what was happening, when he had activated the Skill he had done so subconsciously and the aftereffects of doing so were just starting to hit him, raising his hand to his face he wiped away some of the blood and stared blankly at it before his eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed.

Sonia had been woken when Kyle had activated his Suppression Aura and had sat silently watching with Jess and Hal as their friend had changed from the strong and gentle young man that they knew so well into something that resembled an avenging god. Hal and Jess still hadn’t even noticed that she had woken up and turned towards her when she gasped in surprise as Kyle collapsed.

“Well you picked a hell of a time to wake up, didn’t you?” Hal said causing Sonia to flinch at how blunt he was being.

Hal smiled apologetically as Jess turned to glare at him he hadn’t meant to seem like he was blaming Sonia for what was happening but knew it had probably come across that way.

“Sorry, it’s been a rough day,” he sighed rubbing his head self-consciously, his blunt nature often led to things like this especially when he was stressed, not that anyone could blame him, not only had Sonia and Ryan been badly wounded by the same person but his friend had gone berserk and then fallen unconscious.

Sonia smiled weakly at the large boy, “It’s fine,” she replied quietly.

Jess continued to glare at Hal for a few seconds, unimpressed with his awkward apology before sighing and pulling Sonia to her feet.

“Well, we’d better go and see if we can help,” she muttered, wrapping her arm around the still unsteady Sonia before walking away from Hal.

“Oi! Wait up,” he shouted as he hurried after them.

Jerald, who had rushed out onto the field with the rest of Ryan’s friends and family ran over to his son’s unconscious body with a worried look on his face, ignoring the still quivering Ben he picked up his son and Fi before carrying them back towards Thomas and Yuliah who waited for their new patients with pale faces, both of them had some idea of what had happened. Skill activations like this were very rare and put a lot of strain on the body of the person who activated them as well as their Soul Companion who usually controlled these sorts of thing if they had one.

“We need to get them somewhere quiet where they can sleep it off,” Thomas said.

Jerald nodded and started running in the direction of Al’s inn, everyone else followed behind him Thomas casting a quick spell that caused Ryan’s body to float into the air suspended on a shimmering platform of blue energy that followed him.

Yuliah stopped briefly to announce that the competition would be cancelled for now due to the circumstances she would announce who would be coming with her later and hurried off after the rest.

When Jerald burst into the inn carrying the unconscious bodies of Kyle and Fi in his arms, Sammy, who had been grudgingly left behind by Al to watch the inn flew into a panic.

“Jerald!? Oh, my gods what happened to them!?” he shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Kyle activated a Skill he shouldn’t have been able to and they both lost consciousness,” Jerald said explaining the situation in as simple terms as he possibly could as he rushed up the stairs to the guest rooms.

“Huh!?” Sammy shouted once more, his eyes nearly bulging out of his sockets before jumping in shock as the rest of Kyle’s worried family and friends crashed through the front doors with wild looks on their faces.

“Sammy, we don’t have time to explain,” Al said as Ryan’s floating body followed them in. “We have to get these three to a bed so that they can rest first.

Sammy continued to stare at them bug-eyed, just what in the hells had happened while they had been out there?

When everyone had calmed down after assuring that the two boys and Fi were in no further danger they explained what had happened to Sammy who had been pacing the entire time causing a burst of curses to spew form his lips.

Everyone stared at Al’s high-strung Companion with shocked looks on their faces, even Al himself hadn’t expected Sammy’s reaction to be like this. Sammy hated swearing with a passion so him suddenly spouting abuse at Ben and Denzel’s expense came as quite a shock.

“Alright mate calm down, we’re all upset,” Al said.

Sammy grabbed him by the shoulders and started shaking him with a mad look in his eyes.

“I will not calm down! You were there! Why didn’t you do something!?” Sammy shouted.

Faces turned from worry to anger and back to worry again as they realised that Sammy was right, they should have done something. His words hit Yuliah particularly hard as they echoed her own thoughts on the matter. She had been responsible for the competition starting in the first place and she knew that the old man would be tearing her a new one when he found out that she didn’t stop the fights when people started getting injured, even the injury that Jess had dealt to Raina could be considered borderline of what was acceptable but if Ben’s attack on Sonia had been even a few inches to the left even Yuliah and Thomas working together would have had difficulties healing her without complications.

“You’re right,” Yuliah murmured causing everyone in the room to turn and stare at her. “I should have stopped, this is my fault.”

Her voice was almost too quiet to hear but everyone in the room knew what she had said, and they disagreed.

“No, it’s not, you can’t be responsible for the things that Ben did,” Sonia said quietly. “If anyone other than Ben can be held responsible for his actions it would be Denzel, not you.”

As one of the people Ben had injured the small girls’ words of reassurance carried more weight than if anyone else had said them. The others smiled, Sonia was always the one who knew exactly what to say in any situation. Despite how hard her life had been prior to coming to Farholt or perhaps because of it she valued kindness and friendship very highly.

Tears ran down Yuliah’s face as she looked at the girl, she knew how worried Sonia must be about her friends and yet she had still taken the time to comfort Yuliah. Yuliah now understood that Sonia would probably never become an adventurer, she was just too kind-hearted, but she was glad that Kyle had a friend like her.

“Thank you,” Yuliah said bowing her head.

Sonia blushed, she had just said what she had been thinking and hadn’t expected her simple words to have had this effect on the older woman, she wriggled slightly as everyone looked at her with gratitude Thomas laid a hand on his adoptive daughters’ shoulder.

“Well done,” he murmured, he had known Yuliah a long time and knew that if someone hadn’t said anything she would have let what happened eat away at her.

Upstairs Kyle groaned slightly as he started to regain consciousness, his head was pounding harder than the time that Hal had gotten a lucky hit with the wooden hammer he had used when they were training.

“Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

Kyle cracked an eyelid at the sound of Fi’s voice and saw her glaring at him angrily, his eyes shot open as he remembered what had happened.

“Oh shit!” He cried as his body shot upright.

Emma who was also in the room cleared her throat meaningfully causing Kyle to hastily apologise.

“Sorry mum, FI are you alright?” he asked worriedly as vague memories of her screaming in pain flashed through his mind.

“Yes, yes I’m fine,” she sighed slightly embarrassed by how worriedly he was looking at her, like he wasn’t the one lying in a bed after being carried here by his father, at least she had remained conscious.

“What happened?” Kyle asked looking around the room, he knew that he was at Al’s inn he just couldn’t remember how he got there.

“I remember being very angry after what Ben did to Ryan…” Kyle blinked. “Wait Ryan! Is Ryan okay!?”

Emma and Fi glanced at each other, unsure of what to tell Kyle.

“He’s…badly hurt but his injuries can be healed, and his life is in no danger,” Emma eventually replied.

Kyle looked away, “I shouldn’t have told him to destroy Ben’s gear,” he muttered. “If her hadn’t been trying to do that things might not have ended up this way.”

Emma’s eyes flashed, “You did what?” she hissed.

“I told everyone to destroy the gear that Denzel had given his students,” Kyle said deciding to get everything off his chest. “I thought that if they did that Denzel would replace the gear that got damaged and the villagers would see that he didn’t care about sending his students to the school, that all he cared about was proving that he was better than anyone else.”

Emma stared silently at her son, she had realised that they had been acting oddly during the fights, normally none of them would have dragged out the fights for as long as they had, their stats just couldn’t keep up with prolonged combat. Various sentences flashed through her mind all of them condemning her son for trying something like this, but when she saw the way he was blaming himself for what happened she could only bring herself to say one of them.

“Then do something about it.”

Kyle looked back at her momentarily shocked at how bitter her words were, Emma usually stood by the decisions her son made, even when they involved taking care of a child that had attacked him for no reason but this time she knew that if she didn’t make him confront his mistake he would lose his faith in himself.

Just then Jerald burst into the room with a furious look on his face, without stopping to acknowledge his now conscious son he blurted out what had brought him there so suddenly.

“Denzel’s gone, and he’s taken Ben with him.”

A few minutes earlier Damian had burst in through the doors of the inn shouting something that had been lost completely when Sammy had shouted at him, his white fur standing on end from the stress he had been under.

“This is an inn, not a castle, you don’t need to break the doors down!” Sammy cried, he had had enough of people surprising him today.

“So-Sorry!” Damian panted, his face flushed from exertion. “I think we have a problem.”

The others glared at him, after all he was one of the people who had caused problems earlier.

Damian looked away in embarrassment he knew what they were all thinking, when he had flooded the field with flames during his first fight his only thoughts had been to finish it as soon as possible and while he knew the girl’s burns had been healed immediately after the fight it was likely that the emotional scars wouldn’t heal any time soon.

Anna walked in behind him with a grim look on her face, “You should listen to what we have to say,” she said calmly.

Jerald sighed, he was currently holding Kelly in his arms and was looking more than a little tired by the events of the day, but it was looking like his troubles were just beginning.

“What happened then?”

Anna quickly started to explain the circumstances that had brought her and Damian to the inn in search of help.

After Kyle had collapsed Denzel had grabbed Ben and pulled him away from the field but was accosted by his men and the mayor of Farholt a rotund man by the name of Warren. After the actions of his students during the competitions it seemed that Warren as well as several of the guards had decided that Denzel was unfit to lead them.

They had proceeded to get into a large argument which had quickly turned south when the guards that were still loyal to Denzel disagreed violently calling the guards that had sided with the mayor traitors and attacking them.

Warren had been stabbed in the confusion and quite a few of the guards on both sides had been injured. Knowing that he would no linger be welcome in the village Denzel had cleared a path through the angry villagers towards the barracks where they had taken some of the horses and fled.

After this Jerald had rushed upstairs to the room Emma and Kyle were in to explain the situation before pursuing them.

“I’m coming with you,” Kyle said immediately causing the others to look at him as he struggled out of bed.

“Oh no you’re not young m-” Emma started to say but was interrupted by Kyle.

“What did you just tell me mum?” Kyle asked in a measured tone of voice.

Emma stared at her son, “I- I understand,” she sighed placing her hand over her face. She looked exhausted by the events of the day, her shoulders were shaking as Kyle wrapped his arms around her.

“I’ll be fine mum,” he said gently, looking over her shoulders at his father who nodded back at him. Jerald understood that this was something that Kyle had to do to get closure, he had been worried that Kyle was still too weak to come with him when his son had first spoken but upon seeing the look in his son’s glowing eyes he had decided to trust him. In fact, he was starting to pity Ben despite the things he had done to Kyle’s friends.

“Alright son,” he said. “Let’s go.”