So Mathis was back at the hospital, stuck in a bed.
"I'm going to apply healing magic, okay?" the nurse told him.
They had taken of the socks of his feet, and his skin along with it, including the nails.
It was a gory sight. They had concluded using light magic to heal him was unavoidable.
'Mathis, I'd ready myself if was you.' Hector warned.
'What?' Mathis didn't get it at first.
Then, the nurse started healing him. At first, it only tingled a bit but then it started getting worse and worse. Mathis bit the interior of his cheek to keep his reaction to himself.
'Why am I reacting like that?!' Mathis exclaimed.
'Elemental magic is being directly infused in your body Wich is already changing to be in tune with aura magic. And so, your body is trying to reject it. But worry not, it's still going to heal, and it will only be a minor setback. Just play along for now. I need to warn you though, after your first evolution, healing magic will stop working on you and might even hurt you. Just like earlier, the diagram seems to have tried reading you, but your body isn't made the same way as other humans anymore and it seems to have hurt you.' Hector said seriously.
'Damn it...' Mathis thought.
But he was feeling slight relief. This wasn't normal, and it pointed to Hector actually being real. Meaning he wasn't completely bonkers. But at the same time, he didn't like being an Athanatos or whatever it was called.
'Can you tell me more about magic energy and stuff? I'm kinda confused.' He said, hoping to be distracted from the weird feeling in his feet.
'Magic is energy produced naturally by earth itself. You can find it pretty much everywhere. Magic energy can be transformed into three other kinds of energy. Elemental, aura and spiritual. Living beings that awaken to elements, can change the magical energy around them into a certain element they have an affinity with and control it. Living beings that awaken to the core will be able to absorb magic energy and feed it to their core, change its aura and use it on their body to be stronger and such. As for spiritual energy... it's a mystery even to me. But I do know it's related to "souls" and such.' He explained.
'Spirit energy? I've never heard of it.' Mathis said.
'Of course, you didn't. Only a handful of humans are aware of its existence.' Hector said.
'Say, Hector, who are you? How can you be in my head and why do you know so many things? And why are you in my head?' Mathis asked.
'That's not an easy question. Well, I was an Athanatos before I died and I worked with high-placed humans, to put it briefly. But I can't tell you much about why I'm here, only that I will ask you a favour in the future.' Hector tried to explain.
' That's not very reassuring...Wait, you're dead?'He repeated in surprise.
' Indeed I am. Now I'm just a spirit. And that's why I came to you, because your the only one that can save the future.' Hector said dramatically.
'Very not reassuring.' Mathis thought.
Later, they had finished healing him and he was now free to go. Though what happened to his feet was still a mystery to them, they didn't keep him. They decided to satisfy themselves with a blood and flesh sample.
So he got up and was now leaving to go back home. The hospital had given him a new pair of socks and shoes and kept the old ones for investigation. Now, his dad was waiting for him in the waiting room.
As he went down the alley, he looked into the rooms absentmindedly. Then, he saw Cheryl Cole and stopped in his tracks.
She quickly noticed him and signed him to come over. His dad could wait a little.
"Hey." Mathis said casually.
"Hey. What are you doing here? I thought you were gone." she asked casually.
"Urgh, the skin on my feet was coming off and it was all bloody, so I had to come back. They used light magic on me and now I'm as good as new." He told her.
"That doesn't sound very comfortable.. and that's quite weird too." She said while looking at his shoes with curiosity.
"Why are you here?" he asked back.
" I have a very weak immune system, so I spend a lot of time here. But don't worry, I'm not always stuck in here. Sometimes I feel better and try to continue my normal life." She said in a casual tone.
"Oh... sorry." he said awkwardly.
"So, how did the awakening ceremony go?" she asked innocently.
"Well, turns out I don't have an affinity with any of the elements." He said awkwardly again.
"You must be saddened by it, are you okay?" she asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I kinda already knew it was gonna be like that." Mathis told her.
"Really?" she asked surprised.
"Really, I had this intuition. The affinity with elements has been dwindling in my family these past generations, to the point my parents put me in a mixed school just in case." he said.
"Oh, a mixed school? Do you mind telling me which one?" she asked curiously.
" The Armonicia one." he said.
"Really? Then we might come across each other if I get better! Though, I am in the magic grade." she constated.
"Oh, that's cool. I hope we get to meet again, Cheryl Cole right?" Mathis said.
"yep." she answered with a smile as they waved each other goodbye.
Mathis' mother didn't want him to go back in the forest. "You don't know if the thing that hurt you still roams there" she told him. Anyway, the place was off limits because the local police were leading their small investigation. So he was now heading for the city gates. Why? To go in the wild lands. Mathis lived in one of the major cities, there was about two hundred of them. They were very very big and surrounded by tall walls made of enchanted alloy. It was to keep the magical beasts out of the city. The forest Mathis had been in was situated inside the city, Auldrum, and didn't have any beast in it. There were other small forest inside the city he could have gone to but they were just as far as the gates and Hector insisted he went to the wild lands. Hector had talked about getting him past phase one as fast as possible though he wasn't sure what he meant. Mathis didn't live too far from the city gates and he could get there in only an hour by train.
Today was a Sunday and there was barely anyone at the gates, which meant it wouldn't be long for Mathis to get out.
Soon he was the next to get out.
Next to the door there were guard that made sure that everyone who exited was at least 18. The wild lands were dangerous and people dying out there was a common occurrence. They needed to at least make sure that the people that went out there were aware of the risks.
The guard looked Mathis up and down.
"Identity card?" he asked him.
Mathis took out his identity card, a card everyone that lived in the city had, and handed it to him. The guard checked his birthday date and gave it back.
"You don't look ready to go in there yet, you just reached your 18. Surely you have yet to learn how to use magic? You don't even have a weapon or armor. Do you mind telling me what brings you to the wild lands?" The guard asked worriedly.
"I'm uh... taking a walk." he said.
The guard looked at him before sighing.
"Ok. You can go." He told him.
Mathis nodded and finally passed the gates.
There was a paved road leading straight ahead, probably to a haven. A safe place for travelers. But Mathis didn't stay on the road. He immediately strayed of into the forest. Mathis had a very good sense of orientation so he wasn't scared to get lost.
The moment he got deeper into the forest, he felt a weight being lifted off his shoulders.
'Feels great, no?' Hector said.
'Yeah... sure does.' Mathis agreed.
He could feel the air vibrate with magic energy. The sun light filtered gently through the green tree leaves. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Mathis felt the magic energy invade him from his lungs like a tingling feeling. Everything was very relaxing. Even the chirping birds and the cool breeze.
'So, what did we come here for?' Mathis asked.
'To get you your first meal as a Athanatos, of course.' he said enthusiastically.
Suddenly, Mathis wasn't relaxed at all.
'Come on, I'm just talking about magic plants.' Hector added exasperated.
'Ok, but where do we find them?' he asked.
'We need to navigate where the magical energy concentration is higher. This'll be a good exercise to sense magical energy for you.' Hector remarked.
Mathis thus was roaming about, looking for a place with higher concentration of magical energy. It wasn't all that hard to sense the energy, but most of the time the energy dissipated leaving him at lost.
After a while, Mathis found a quiet place with a small waterfall. The concentration of magic here was twice higher. He spotted a bunch of blue mushrooms on a small patch of earth at the top of the waterfall.
'Those one?' Mathis asked.
'Of course not, unless you want to get hallucinations. Look around plants that seem to irradiate magic.' Hector recommended.
Mathis did as told. Soon, he found it, though it didn't look as expected. It looked like grapes, but orange. It didn't look safe to eat.
'You sure?' He asked.
'If you're talking about the fruit, then yes I am, young man.' Hector answered.
So Mathis started picking a handful of them. He looked at them hesitantly before eating one. He could somehow taste the magic in the weird grapes, it tasted funny but good. In fact, it tasted extremely good, ten times better than his current favourite fruit, the pomegranate.
"Mmmmmm!" He exclaimed with his eyes wide open.
'Hahaha! I reacted the same way as you did when I ate my first magical fruit.' Hector said happily.
Immediately, Mathis took out the pouch he brought with him and started filling it with fruits.
After completely filling it, Mathis ate the fruits directly from the vines. He could feel magic fill his stomach, it was a good feeling.
As Mathis was enjoying himself, something weird happened.
"Kraabooom!" the sound of an explosion came from the city.
'What was that?' Mathis thought.
'An explosion, you should go back and see what's happening.' Hector said.