Mathis was back inside the city and was looking around while eating his weird grapes. He was heading home to ask his parents what happened. He could see smoke raising to the sky from the middle of the city.
'So, when does school start?' Hector asked.
'In about two weeks.' Mathis answered.
'You talked about a mixed school, what exactly is it about?' Hector continued.
'It's a school split in two, magic students and non-magical students. At armonicia academy, you need to pick something to specialize yourself in and most subjects are related to the warrior job. Magic students have special classes only they can pick and additional classes in general, they get taught magic. Normal students get taught other things, like crafting weapons or such. Magic students have a red uniform and normal students have a brown uniform. The campus is also split In two. That's pretty much about it.' He explained.
'Hmm… those didn't exist when I was alive. It's going to be interesting.' He said.
Back in Mathis' house.
"I'm back." Mathis said aloud.
As soon as he said that, he heard precipitated steps hurry to him.
"Mathis! I was so worried!" his mom exclaimed while rushing to him in a big hug.
"What?" Mathis said in confusion while patting her back.
"That terrorist bombing! we thought you might have been caught in it!" She said.
Mathis frowned. Terrorist bombing?
"I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about." He said honestly.
"It's the Ancestra group again." she let go of him and walked to the living room with Mathis following behind."This time, they found a part of the headquarters of the other group, Mystera, and they decided to bomb it. Though, they went way overboard and more than just their headquarters. And in the middle of the city too... there was many casualties." She said sadly as she sat down.
"Oh.." he was speechless.
"Anyway, you didn't tell us were you went and we were worried since it was getting late. Where were you?" She asked inquisitive.
"I uh.. went to visit the academy." he said.
"Oh! What a good initiative. Talking about the academy.... did you think about what specializations you are going to pick?" She asked.
Since they discovered he had absolutely no affinity with any elements, he had to change his specialization because he originally had picked elemental conjuration and magic shield mastery.
"I was thinking about concoctioneer and weapon mastery on the side?" he said.
"The ones that makes potions? That seems nice and weapon mastery is nice too." she approved.
Mathis had called the academy to notify them of his choice. Now, he was laying on his bed, lazily savouring his weird grapes.
'Mathis, can you feel all the energy in your body?' Hector asked.
'Yeah, there's so much I'm getting kinda dizzy.' He constated.
'Perfect. You need to concentrate on your core and try to make it active.' Hector said.
Mathis concentrated on his core. It was easy to do so because he could feel it radiate with magic. But activating it was another story all together. It was like moving a muscle you never used before, like moving your ears. Mathis took a deep breath and relaxed. Maybe it would come naturally?
After a while, he somehow got the hang of it. Activating his core felt like having a second heart. The core was vigorously vacuuming the magic energy and transforming it into something else.
'Very good. You understood how to do it surprisingly quickly.' Hector said.
Mathis grinned. He continued transforming the energy while eating more grapes until none were left.
'What now?' he asked.
'Well, you need to rest for now. Tomorrow we'll continue and go back to the forest and stock on fruits. But right now, I need to talk to you about a couple things. Bad news, mostly.' Hector announced.
'Great, just what I was hoping for.' he thought sarcastically.
'First is a bit of a delicate subject... it's related to those "episodes" you had when you were younger. Actually, you're not done with them.' he said solemnly.
'This must be a joke of very bad taste?' Mathis didn't accept what he just learnt.
'Well, it's complicated. Normally, Athanatos don't have this problem, because it only occurs in the one with a exaggerated affinity with the core and those usually die before awakening. But somehow, you survived. Anyway, the problem is overdeveloped instincts. Since you've matured, they won't cause any episodes, but they'll "try" to take over. I'm scared it might hinder you greatly.' Hector explained.
'Thats it? Man, you got me worried for nothing. What else you need to talk about?' Mathis said.
'Sigh... Be wary of the instincts, young man. The other thing is related to what happened today. Humanity right now is fractured, and that's very bad. Sooner than later, something big is going to happen. I need you to unite humanity, get strong and prepare for it.' Hector said seriously.
'U-unite humanity??!? You're asking the impossible! Get stronger, ok, prepare for something? fine. Unite humanity? No freaking way. You've picked the wrong guy for that.' Mathis strictly refused.
' You might think that it's impossible, but I'll guide you so don't worry. But only an Athanatos can do this, so I really need you to cooperate. You're the only one that can save earth.' Hector tried convincing him.
'Hector, I don't even know what you're talking about. And that's some very big responsibility you're trying to impose here. We'll talk about it when the time comes, alright? And you'll need to explain what's that big threat.' Mathis retorted.
'Ok, will do. But mentally prepare for what's to come, and I'm not even talking about the threat. As a newly awakened Athanatos, you will go through severe changes. Evolutions are only a small part.' Hector said.
'Evolutions are only a small part? Then what are the other changes?' He asked worriedly.
'Mental changes, Mathis. They're the most taxing. You'll start seeing the world from an Athanatos point of view, and that can be very hard.' He answered with a strange mix of anger and regret.
Mathis frowned. That did sound bad. He hoped it wouldn't be as bad as Hector made it sound like.
A week had passed and Mathis had repeated the whole process everyday. Again, Mathis was on his bed.
'Whats going on? Why does my body feel so weird?' Mathis asked Hector.
'You need to go through your first evolution.' he answered.
'What!? Already? But it's only been a week! I thought it'd take months!' he protested.
'You're special, Mathis. Your affinity is too high. But getting past the first evolution is important and it needs to be done as fast as possible.' Hector said.
'Ok, but how do I evolve?' he asked.
'First, have you figured what you're going to change?'
'Yeah, I figured I could just upgrade my muscles.' he said honestly.
'Good, it's a change that's easy to hide. Now, listen attentively and do everything I say. Imagine the energy in your body concentrating at your core.... and then, picture clearly the change, in detail. Finally, let the energy explode.' Hector explained.
Not longer after, Mathis yelped in surprise. Although it felt like he wasn't actually doing anything, the energy actually exploded throughout his body. Very quickly, he felt himself falling asleep.
Mathis woke up at 4pm the next day. His body ached all over and his mind was groggy.
"Urgh.." He groaned as he clumsily got off his bed.
He was in the bathroom and removing his clothes to take a shower when he noticed the change.
"Holy ...." he muttered while looking at his legs.
His body used to be slim at best, now it was an athlete's. It seemed the evolution had worked wonders. This officially confirmed he was an Athanatos. That, or he was really, really deep in delusion.
So, he dressed in baggy clothes that hid his muscles to avoid weirding out his mother. After all, people don't just sprout muscles. Not over night, at least. He'd just tell that he was exercising when he went to the wild lands. Today, Hector had told him to bring a knife with him, which wasn't very reassuring. While he was taking the train and going to the gates, he felt stressed, like he was doing something illegal. But he had the right to go around with a blade as long as he kept it away from the eyes of others. He also had the right to out to the wild lands and back in the city with his weapon as long as he had his card. And as expected, he got through the gates without any problems.
'So, What'd we bring the knife for?' he asked.
'Hunting, of course. Today I'll teach you a bit about aura magic, so let's get deeper into the forest.' Hector answered.
Mathis did as told and soon he was in a more dangerous part of the forest than usual. He could feel the magic here was stronger in general. He could see magic plants here and there, but he already had stocked on fruits.
'First of all, test out your new body's limits and get used to it.' Hector said.
Mathis nodded and started racing at full speed. Stopping was harder than usual because of how fast he had gotten. After that, he punched, jumped and did a few other tests.
'All done.' Mathis declared.
'Good. Now, let's track down your first target. It doesn't need to be anything too impressive, just enough to be a challenge.' Hector said.
Relying on his ability to sense magic, it wasn't too hard to find a beast. It was big like a husky but was more feline like and had scaly skin. It had the looks of a reptilian sphinx that had been bathing in ink. It also had two pairs of long ears that were so thin, light filtered through them.
'Is that good?' Mathis asked.
'Its perfect.' Hector replied.
But Mathis hesitated. Although it was kinda ugly, it's big green eyes were very cute. But there wasn't place for any discrimination, it didn't matter if it was cute or ugly because it was a beast nonetheless.
'ok Mathis, now, take the New energy in your body, aura energy, and try to make it swirl around.' Hector instructed.
And so he made his aura swirl. Immediately, he could feel something going on. Following his instincts, he made the energy swirl faster and faster. Then, his body surged with energy.
'Perfect. Now, take all the energy and compress it to your core.' he said.
Mathis followed the instructions. As he compressed the energy, he felt an ache in his chest and a shiver rolled down his back. Suddenly, the energy exploded from the core and coursed through his entire body. He felt every cell in his body vibrate with energy, his senses were working thrice as good as usual. It was as if he had eyes behind his head.
'Woah..' Mathis exclaimed interiorly.
'This is... I haven't named it yet. But I guess overload would be a good name. It boost your senses and physical prowess, though it also boosts your instincts. Anyways, this won't last long and you'll feel that tired afterwards, so hurry up.' Hector pressed.
Mathis didn't need Hector to tell him to hurry up. For some reason, he felt different. He felt right, his true self. And his true self was obsessed with hunting down that cat thingy. His muscles tensed up as he slowly and silently creeped up on the beast. As he was getting a bit too close to the beast for comfort, he suddenly sprang out, throwing himself on the thing. The beast barely had the time to notice something was wrong before it's neck was slashed open. It tried running away, but since the blood could barely make its way to his brain anyone, it slumped to the ground, the world growing numb. On the other hand, Mathis had been careless and had let his instincts completely take over. It just felt so natural, so right. All the annoying human feelings had been replaced by this cool yet burning sensation. It's like he knew exactly what to do without having to think. Sadly for him, a part of the instincts was the feeding instincts. So, he started drooling while watching the dead body full of fresh magic energy.
'Mathis...' Hector tried calling out to him.
He sat down next to the corpse.
'This is just training. Don't let the instincts manipulate you, you're not mentally ready for this.' He warned.
But Mathis was far from receptive to his advising.
"----------" Mathis let out a small wave of aura magic, modulated "annoyed".
Hector was very surprised. Mathis had just now communicated via aura magic, although it wasn't the"official dialect", it was still a near impossible feat to pull off from a newbie Athanatos.
Mathis, still deep in his trans, unceremoniously picked the body up and teared up it's abdomen with his teeth and digged in.
"Crunch munch slurp munch" he made noise as he ate.
Hector couldn't do anything, he was too far gone.
At the very moment the body became absolutely unrecognizable and magic emptied, Mathis, who was full, heard a weird high pitched meowing. Soon after, he heard rustling as the meowing came closer. Out from the tall wild grass, a smaller and cuter version of the beast wobbled out into sight. The realization he had just killed a mother slapped Mathis back to reality.
Shit.