Alice woke up early in the morning to complete her morning training. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. Her body had barely any flaws and her figure was stunning. She had large breasts that accentuated her curvaceous figure and flawless skin.
She left her dorm room in her training gear and went for a fifty kilometer run. After which she entered one of the many academy gyms for some training.
Every student she walked past had a look of veneration as they saw her. Today was an incredibly important day for her and for the academy. Many of her friends and school mates stopped to congratulate her and she replied in kind.
She looked stern and serious, but inward she was thrilled beyond compare. Because today was the day she had been working her whole life toward. Today was the day she would receive a dantian. Today was the day she would become a Ranger!
...
The Quantus Core had many planets under its control. One type of such planets was an academy planet. The sole purpose of such a planet was to train future members of the Core.
To become a Ranger was the highest of honours in the universe. Thus anyone with the talent would have becoming a Ranger as their objective. However achieving this objective was as difficult as trying to ascend to the heavens themselves.
To become a Ranger one only need one thing and one thing only. A dantian! This was a weapon powered by ambient energy and was the most powerful weapon known to man. It is thanks to the existence of dantians that mankind has been able to deal with the threat of occlusives.
There are many legends as to how the dantians came to be, but the most commonly accepted legend was of the 12 Saints. The 12 Saints were 12 incredibly powerful occlusives that came down to our dimension eons ago. Legend has it that there were many other occlusives that came down with them, however these 12 were the most powerful.
The 12 Saints had a fierce battle with other occlusives, resulting in multiple solar systems being destroyed. After countless days of battle the Saints won. After they won the Saints decided to leave humanity with a means to defend themselves. Thus each Saint left a piece of themselves. They taught humanity a secret technique that allowed them to create weapons to protect themselves and how to manipulate ambient energy. These were the first dantians.
Afterwards mankind started creating new dantians. Each new one possessed traces of energy from the 12 Saints and were made from the energy cores of deceased occlusives.
Dantians were very picky when it came to choosing their masters. They only chose the best of the best and sometimes they only chose humans with certain bloodline. A certain ritual was held every cycle to induct new Rangers into the Core.
There was a value called the compatibility index. This value revealed one's chances of being chosen by a dantian. The Core was divided into 12 Divisions, each named after a Saint. Every dantian contained the trace of a Saint's spirit thus the user of a Ranger was essentially chosen by the remnant of the Saint within the dantian.
Thus a cadet had to test their compatibility index with each of the Saint's energy fingerprint. Of course you could only take such a test after a lot of vigorous training and multiple examinations. Only the most intelligent and the most skilled were chosen from a pool of millions of cadets per planet.
Alice was a cadet on one of the cadet planets under the control of the Magnus Division, Lavaria. Her compatibility index was highest for Magnus. The values went from 0 to 10. The higher your value the more compatible you are. Only those over a value of 3.0 and above had a chance of becoming a Ranger. The training the cadets went through was designed to help improve their compatibility with all 12 Saints.
Alice had a compatibility index of 5.2 with Magnus, and a minimum of 4.8 with others, which was unheard of in the history of that planet. She was labelled as a once in a century prodigy. Which such a compatibility index there was no doubt that she would be chosen by a dantian. It was only a matter of which one.
Once a Ranger died their dantian still lived on, and would choose the next master. The older a dantian was the stronger it was, thus the first generation of dantians was the most valuable. At each ritual there would be at least one first generation dantian. And at this ritual it would be a Magnus dantian. With Alice's incredible compatibility index there was no doubt it would be hers.
She had even intentionally delayed her graduation just for the right dantian to appear. And her plan was almost coming into fruition. Once the dantian was in front of her it would float to her body and initiate the binding ritual. Such was what everyone who was coming to the ceremony that day was expecting.
Of course there was another possibility, one that could prevent her from being chosen, but such an event hadn't occurred for a first generation dantian for over a thousand cycles. So no one believed that it would chose anyone besides her. Little did they know...
...
The day of the ritual.
It was being held on top of a large mountain with a flat top. Thousands of spectators observed the ritual from a distance as it was occurring on a stage high above the masses. Footage of the ceremony was being projected on virtually every screen on the planet. It was an academy planet but students only made up a tenth of its population. The majority was a standard population. Most of population of Lavaria were relatives of either members of the core or students. Thus they were really excited.
Like most planets it had its own government. Which was essentially controlled by the academy governing body. The Academy Head only dealt with school matters thus a royal family was instated as the sovereign. Albeit in name only. They were the ones who dealt with the day to day runnings of the planet. Alice just so happened to be a princess within the royal family.
"Congratulations your Majesty." A group of golden robed men bowed down to the King, Adam Lavarius. Adam was seated on the stage were the ritual would take place, along with other nobles, Core members and Academy representatives. The chairs were set up in a semi circular manner and there were only a few dozen thus only the top brass of Lavaria were present.
The King was accepting the congratulations from a multitude of different members of the upper echelons. The could only visit the stage before the ceremony started thus they decided to take the opportunity while they still could.
Adam was a large man. He has a stocky face but his eyes were sharp. His short red hair looked like it was on fire and his black eyes where showing hints of red from time to time. He accepted the words of the visitors with a hearty smile.
To his left was his wife, the Queen. To her left were other nobles. To the King's right was the seat at the center of the semi circle. It was the seat of honour and it belonged to the Academy Head.
Her name was Hope Funta. She looked like a typical middle aged woman. She wore simple robes unlike her noble counterparts and had a cool temperament. Yet from time to time wisdom would flash in her eyes as she gazed at the crowd below. She was one of the few people that Adam truly feared. To her right were the governing body of the academy and Quantus Core representatives.
Sitting right beside her was an odd looking man. He was short but his build was stocky. He had a large round face with an unkempt beard. He was smoking a pipe and was wearing a long brown coat over his shirt and trousers. His entire being made him look like a ruffian from the streets, yet anyone who was well informed here knew that the was without a doubt the most powerful person on that stage.
"Guy, its unusual for you to look this nervous. You should relax a little." Laughed Hope. The stocky little man to her right snorted out "I'm not nervous. I have no idea what you are talking about. Hmph!"
Hope smiled with a teasing look in her eyes, causing Guy to become even more uneasy. "Damn it I can never hide anything from that witch!" Thought Guy as his puffing hastened.
As Hope was wondering why Guy was so nervous, trumpets sounded out. Announcing the start of the ceremony!
...
At the center of the stage was an alter, made out of a crystal like material. There were twelve spheres floating around the alter. Each slightly different in size and colour. Some spheres were causing odd phenomena. One in particular stood out from the rest. It was a black sphere that had flames burning around its body in a random manner. At the same time steam was rising from its body. There were red lines webbed across its surface that made it seem as if inside the sphere was pure magma waiting to come out.
Its very presence caused the other spheres to quake. Any experienced Core member knew that it was one of the original dantians. Wrath of Magnus.
Its fame was spread far and wide throughout the galaxy. It was well known for its abilities. Anyone who has had this dantian was a living legend. Alice and 11 other young cadets were standing in front of the alter. Their hearts beating in anticipation.
It was at this time that the trumpets rang out. Silencing the crowds. All the unnecessary people left the stage immediately.
Hope stood up and walked to the center of the stage. Her eyes were on Alice as she walked up to the Magnus sphere. A dotting look was in her eyes. The royal family was always prideful and difficult to deal with. But Alice was different. She was just, kind and a hard worker.
Hope had treated Alice as if she was her own daughter. Thus no one was more happy and more proud about what Alice had achieved.
After a sigh Hope arrived in front of the alter, right in front of the Magnus sphere. Its aura was intimidating even a first class Ranger like herself.
"Lord Mangus, please choose your next vassal, and protect us with your strength." She said with her hands clasped in prayer.
"Protect us with your strength!" Echoed out everyone capable of speech on the entire planet.
As if responding to the prayer, the sphere started to rotate vigorously. It slowly rose and went to hover above the 12 students.
This was the normal ritual for Ranger selection. The sphere would hover above the students chosen for selection. And it would stop in front of the one it chose. Everyone watched in anticipation as it went straight for Alice.
The sphere intentionally restricted its aura to prevent the cadets from coming to harm. Yet once it came in front of Alice, it did not stop. Rather it went back straight to the alter.
The atmosphere in the plaza instantly changed. It became so silent one could hear a pin drop.
Alice was gobsmacked. As she was trying to understand what was happening, the sphere started rotating faster, while it started revolving around the alter. Faster and faster and faster.
An energy invisible to the naked eye travelled from the alter and pierced the skies above and within moments a swirling vortex started forming in the clouds.
Everyone looked up in awe at what was happening. People started to panic. The whole planet started to enter a frenzy. Barely anyone had any idea of what was happening, except a few.
"This-this is!" Adam rose up from his throne and looked up at the sky. Hope looked up as despair showed up on her face. "It can't be." She muttered as a light started to shin in the sky.
The only person who had not moved an inch was Guy. He was as calm as ever as he smoked his pipe nonchalantly. "Finally, its time." At that instant his silhouette flashed and his body disappeared from the plaza.
At that moment, the bright light shot down and hit the spot in front of the alter, sending a shockwave all over the plaza. Objects and multiple people were displaced as the shockwave spread.
Once the dust began to settle, a figure appeared on the stage in front of the plaza. Wearing unfamiliar clothing and muttering words in an unfamiliar language. With a boom, the dust was cleared and the plaza was clear once again. Those who had sharp eyes noticed that this had been caused by the sphere itself. It stopped moving completely and floated in front of the unfamiliar young man.
Suddenly, an ancient raspy voice sounded out front the skies. "Tristan de Robillard, you have been burdened with glorious purpose. I, Magnus have chosen you to be my vassal. Do you accept?"