Tournaments for entry into New Iden are sporadic. There's no sure way to know when a tournament will show up. All that we got going for us is the rumors of one possible emerging in a year's time. Today was December 2nd, 2107, weeks had passed since I last saw grandma. I missed her a lot. Almasi, also an NCG, taught us a lot about the applications of what NCG could really do. She was a caring, soft-spoken woman who really cared and wanted to see us grow! The complete opposite of Adrik as a guide. She was the one we could turn to when we needed help. We learned that understanding how a gift worked was just the first step into mastery.
In order to use an element, we needed to know its whole makeup. It was all very 'sciency'! For example, if I wanted to use water abilities, I needed to know what water was made out of. That is I needed to know that Water was made out of three atoms, two hydrogens, and one oxygen. Basically, what makes them thick and exists on our planet. Once I gained that knowledge, I could use it.
Water seems to be the first element that many NCG users start out with to get the grasp of it. Once that has been established, they are told to seek out one of the 7 elements Earth, Water, Light, Fire, Air, Shadow, and Aether to master.
"OK, so today you'll be choosing the first nature to master! This will be your primary nature and the one that defines you as a whole. You're going to be spending a lot of time learning and mastering that nature, so choose it well," instructed Almasi.
I ended up choosing Fire first because in my games, I'd always pick the character with the fire abilities. I don't know why but I've always admired that element. Plus, Fire is a pretty cool and destructive elemental power to have so why not!
Subira, on the other hand, chose Air for some reason. She never quite explained why, but she said it made her feel 'free'! Now that I think about it, ever since this whole thing started, Subira has been pretty happy. She rarely talks about missing her Dad, and actually I've never heard her mention her mom even once. I've asked her once about it but she usually shrugs it off so I left it alone.
"Fire huh? That's a tough one to master Negusa, I hope you're ready?" comments Almasi.
"I'll be fine! It shouldn't be that hard" I said confidently.
"They always say that until it's time to practice, however, you've made your choice. There's no going back now. Now then, to first master your nature, you'll need to study it and understand every aspect that binds it to our reality! Depending on the complexity of your creations, more understanding will be needed!"
Mastering the Fire elemental was tougher than I thought. Not only do I need to know the make-up of Fire, which consists primarily of carbon dioxide, water vapor, oxygen, and nitrogen, I needed to know the right amount of each compound. How this works is that as I conjure up the Fire elements, I have to "feel" the components for Fire come together. I gotta get the balance right, only then can I manifest it. Total concentration is needed and even the slightest mistakes would mess it up. I don't know how you'd even engage in a fight like this. You'd need an extreme level of dexterity to pull it off. After a few hours at it I was exhausted.
"Maaaan, this is tough" I groaned!
"Well, no one ever said it would be easy," Almasi responded. As she said that, we both turned to see Subira already getting the grasp of her Air creation.
"Well, there are exceptions to the rules I suppose" Almasi remarked as she watches on!
"Beginners luck" I muttered in envy as I went back to training. The last thing I'm gonna do is give up now!
Our daily routine consists of physical training: push-up, laps, and whatnot, mental training: long hours of meditation, studying and whatnot, and spiritual training which consist of increasing and maintaining a certain Aura Percental, or AP for short. The more we can increase our AP's the more we could pull off sophisticated techniques. It's also a way to gauge how strong someone is compared to yourself. Right now, according to Almasi, I'm at around 5% AP and Subira is at around 2.5% AP. I'm higher than Subira because of my days of playing outside and tending to the livestock.
Almasi herself was around 28% AP while Adrik was a solid 32% AP! Almasi told us that AP fluctuated so if one slacked on their training, their AP would go down. Essentially, you can mask or hide your Aura but once you let go and your true aura comes out, the AP will be revealed. AP's can't be manipulated during the use of the gift. So at least you have an idea of what you're dealing with. She told us the importance of learning someone's AP before engaging in battle, as that will keep you alive out here. All that information made my head spin at first but I gradually came to understand it.
"All right, that's enough for today! I made lunch" Almasi called out!
"Finally, I'm starving!" I proclaimed, "What are we having?"
"Spicy Lentil Stew"
"Awesome!"
"That sounds nice! Oh, should I call Adrik over" asked Subira.
"No need! Once that man starts training, he won't stop until he's finished."
"What's his deal anyway? Why is he so grumpy all the time?" as I'm looking over in the direction where he went off!
Adrik would train on his own, and rarely interacted with us. In fact, he rarely talks to us at all unless it's necessary. If it wasn't for Almasi, we'd be worse off! Placing the plates at the table, she begins to tell us about their past and how they got into this business.
"It's a long story kids, and it involves tragic events I'm sure you've likely heard, the Red Rapture" she begins.
"We're all ears, since we got time" I responded, "and I've heard about it but not much." "I haven't," Subira chimes in. Almasi then proceeds to tell us about their past and a bit about the Red Rapture.
We learned from her that he was born in Russia in the year 2045 on August 6th to two Igbo parents and had spent most of his life there, which explained the accent. Adrik's 55 years old while she was 54! She was born on December 1st, 2046. Both of them were young when they experienced the Red Rapture of 2050, and how horrific that event was back then.
In that one year, nearly 200 million people had lost their lives across the world as NCG users waged war with regular humans. It was a war embedded in xenophobia, malice, hatred and liberation. No one can truly recall how this all really started. Rumor has it that it began when two asteroids on December 15th, 2049 struck a place in America called Silicon Valley, located in San Francisco Bay Area and Kazan in Russia, killing thousands in an instant. The higher-ups in both America and Russia concluded that two asteroids of that size should have been detected by their defense system, and assumed that this attack came from the newly formed sovereign state of New Iden.
As a response, the Russians launched an attack in collaboration with the US, both dropping the Tsar Bomba and the MOAB bomb respectively to wipe out the new country and its residence from the face of the world. It is said that Ntọhapụ and many high-level AP, NCG users gathered together and split up into groups to stop the incoming attacks. Somehow, Ntọhapụ and her group managed to destroy the TSAR bomba before it had a chance on hitting the country, however, the other group wasn't so lucky. The bomb hit off the edge of the country, in a city, called Enugu, killing thousands of its inhabitants. This was the spark of the one year war, where both humans and NCG users slaughtered each other.
"Wait, the founder of New Iden was still alive?" I interrupted her.
"Well, that's part of her mystery! Nobody knows if the gift affected her differently, or if it's now a name given to the leader of the time to carry on her will! It's all rather confusing to be fair"
"Oh maybe she was just really young when she founded the country" Subira suggested.
"Nah, they say she was a mother by the time she created the country so that can't be the case" I reminded her.
"Well, whatever the case, her involvement was well documented", she states as she continues on with the story.
The Idialites did much more damage and had the most blood on their hands. They killed humans in such a horrific and bloodthirsty way, that it pales in comparison to King Leopold II's Congo massacre, the Nanjing Massacre, and the Holocaust combined. The world was drenched in blood that year and it was soon referred to as Red Rapture of 2050.
Soon after that war, the superpowers of the world surrendered and finally recognized New Iden as a sovereign state. It was a bitter defeat for humanity and even more so, a bitter victory for NCG users as from that moment on, their very existence is loathed. That's why many outside seek asylum in New Iden after the war. They're a walking target for discrimination. It doesn't matter if you had a part in the war or not, so long as you bore the gift, you were humanity's enemy.
Adrik had lost his parents during the war and loathed the idea of an NCG until a few years later he too became one. He was conflicted for years after, to the point where he almost took his life. It was during that time that he met her and she saved him.
"I see, so that's why he refers to himself and anyone of the gift as a freak! I hadn't known that you both went through something like. It must have been horrible" I mumbled.
"Yeah, it's been tough for him. A nightmare he can't seem to escape from but now he's getting better, even though he doesn't show it," she reassured us.
I had heard of this war but I just never realized just how brutal it was to the world. They never covered it much in school, only telling us that the war was started by an attack from New Iden. After that, we'd move on to another world history. That made me wonder, if NCG users and the Idialites specifically were so loathed, why do we still let them broadcast on our televisions? Why broadcast their Idialites Combat Championship or ICC for short in the first place? It was all a mystery to me.
"Be patient with him, I know he's hard to deal with but he truly means well. And, I think you guys are starting to grow on him. Though he will never admit it," she gushed.
Later on that day, I thought about wars in general and why people fight. It never made sense to me, every war is started over the most trivial things. That's when Adrik came over.
"You still up boy?"
"Yes, sir! I was just pondering on wars and why people fight." I didn't want to bring up the Rapture as I wasn't sure if he wanted to even discuss it. That's when Adrik sat down beside me. We both looked up into the night sky for a while. In silence.
"We are truly insignificant, yet carry ourselves like we're the center of the universe" states Adrik, "we fight because we're scared of the unknown, afraid to lose something, yet walk the Earth like we know everything! We humans are nothing but foolish, fickle creatures placed here to entertain whatever created us. We say that lives are valuable, yet are ready to take it at a moment's notice. We're walking hypocrites!" He then looks at me, "I wouldn't put too much thought on wars, for no matter how anyone tries to justify it, in the end there's never a reason to take the life of a person trying to figure out why they were born in the first place! No matter how civilized we claim to be, war is always just around the corner. We are War!" he got up and left!
I didn't say much but pondered his words. I didn't get it, but this was the most he's spoken to me so I appreciated it. Training continued on for another month until January 31st, 2108 when Adrik suddenly came back from his usual training location.
"Get your things, we're leaving" ordered Adrik!
"Why, what's wrong?" asked Almasi,
"They're onto us, I spotted a couple heading this way" he shouted back.
The Cult had pinpointed our location, despite our best attempt to seclude ourselves from civilization. Could it be our use of NCG that gave away our location? We all rushed into Adrik's car after packing up and he floored it outta there. After a few minutes of driving, Almasi asks,
"Did we lose'em?"
"I think so, I doub..." as Adrik was responding to Almasi's question, we were struck by lightning coming from outta nowhere. The bolt of lightning caused the car to swirl out of control and crashed into a nearby ditch.
"DAMMIT" yelled Adrik, "Is everyone OK?"
Everyone was alive, but Subira was out cold.
"Adrik, Subira's out cold and Negusa looks hurt, I think he dislocated his shoulder. Are you OK Negusa?"
In the chaos of rushing to the car, I had neglected to put on my seatbelt. I was lucky to even be alive right now.
"I'm fine" clutching my left arm, "I'll be fine".
I had gotten a lot stronger during the past few months, as the old me prior would have started crying. Still, I could feel the tears coming so maybe I still got a long way to go.
We all forcefully got out of the car, Almasi carrying Subira. As I was checking up on her, I heard Adrik whisper to get behind him. As I looked up, I felt chills down my spine. On the road, stood four silhouette figures, all radiating menacingly strong Aura. It was nauseating. I felt like just their mere presence alone was crushing. It was them, it was the Cult.
In Ethiopia, a group of people known as the Cult recently emerged, hunting and capturing anyone that became an NCG. This isn't unusual. There are people like them all over the world, whether you wanna call them mafias, gangs or an organization, each with their own goals. And that goal involved NCG one way or another. The Cult however were different. They were more widespread and organized.
The Cult's goal wasn't clear but one thing was for sure, they were a fanatic religious-like group who believed that it was their duty to cleanse this world of sin with the gift given to them by their god. They'd assimilate anyone with NCG from the country, and all those that failed to join them met their fate at their hands. Some of these groups are even sanctioned by the government. Those groups are known as G-Hunters across the world. G-Hunters don't kill but they work for the government as nothing more than tools at their disposal. The cult was not one of them.
I wasn't great at gauging their AP level just yet, but just from their look alone, I'd guess they're around 25-27ish%, so they're experienced NCG users. They all had a certain attire on them, a cloak that hid their bodies and somewhat their faces. The cloak was navy blue with weird'' 'yellow-goldish' tribal striping all over it. No two cloaks looked the same.
Suddenly one of them stepped forward,
"Give us the child and your death wil..." he abruptly stops mid-sentence. Then his gaze suddenly shifted towards me and he continued, "Another one? Praise be to Birihani! You shall join us too."
I became paralyzed in fear. With all the chaos going on, I forgot to mask my aura. 'So much for my training'. Almasi then quickly turns to me and yells,
"Negusa, take Subira on your back and run, get away from here!"
I couldn't hear what she was saying, my fear had paralyzed me and deafened me. All I could think about was what was going to happen to me. Suddenly I felt a hand graze my face and I came to my senses.
"Listen to me boy, Adrik won't be able to fight them off on his own, I gotta support him. Mask your aura, take Subira and get as far away from here as possible and hide. I'll signal when it's safe to come out. Now GO!"
Without thinking I took Subira on my back and ran as fast as I could. As I ran, Almasi created a bright light, like a stun grenade, and threw it at the four Cult members, momentarily blinding them, giving us a chance to escape. I ran, as far as I could go, looking for a place to hide. It was still midday so finding a place to hide from someone in the middle of a desert wasn't easy. But I had no choice, I needed to hide quickly so that Almasi's effort wouldn't go to waste. I was able to find a big boulder, large enough to cast a shadow for me and Subira to hide underneath. It wasn't far enough from them, but I didn't have much choice. I was still able to peek over and see what was going on.
All I could do now was mask my aura and stay out of sight. Masking my aura doesn't hide it from detection completely but since all lifeforms on Earth share common aura traits, it makes it that much harder to distinguish a rabbit from a human. And even though a normal being's aura is plain and transparent, if you're not close to someone, they're impossible to detect. All I can do now is pray to God that they'll be fine in the fight against the Cults.