WOOSH*

The time was just before morning, when it dropped. The area which was supposed to be filled with the glimmering sunlight was blown off completely.

Just 15 minutes after the incident, a sound was heard, it a boy crying, holding the half dead body of her mother. He was lying down at the ground, with his legs under a huge stone pillar, holding her mom, praying for her to be okay. Just as he was trying to get his feet out the pillar, a huge piece of stone fell at his mother's face. It broke her skull and sucked the last bit of life she was holding so desperately in the cruelest way possible.

" mom....mo...moooooom!" The boy screamed at the top of his lungs as he rushed over to his mother. "aah...aaaaaah, its not moving!" he tried to lift it with all of his strength, but the stone didn't budge. On the contrary, his nails broke with blood flowing out of his fingers continuously.

This led him to lose his conscience and he collapsed near his dead mother.

(2 Years later.)

The dark Abyss, contrary to it's name, was a very cheerful place. There were numerous species of harmless animals roaming around, bright green grass which would shine when the first ray of sunlight falls upon them, mountains surrounding it all round with a big waterfall to the south of it.

Amongst one of its mountains, sat a teenager, completely dazed, with seemingly lifeless eyes. One or two animals come around him sometime but he just sat completely froze, glaring in the same direction with occasional squinting of his eyes.

There was a house at some distance to where the boy was sitting. 2 grown men, one in his 60 and other about 50, were glaring at him through a window. The older one had a helpless expression as he muttered," poor kid. That incident still haunts him. I still remember how much he was shaking when I bought him here."

The younger one didn't respond to him, Instead, he just smiled and went towards the boy.

" Kid, get up. We have to go somewhere." The man went near him and gently shrugged his shoulder as he called him.

The boy got up after sometime, he calmly dusted off his clothes in case some wet grass got stuck to him and went to his house.

After sometime, he came at the entrance where his grandpa was waiting for him. There was a huge chariot with 2 monsters tied to it. The monsters looked really ferocious at first, but upon taking a closer look, they were very calm and didn't gave any deadly looks towards anyone. They were more like a domesticated pet.

" hop in kid, we are already late thanks to you. Anymore and we will miss the exam." He called the boy out after seeing him in a daze. " What will I do with him." he muttered in a helpless tone.

WOOSH*

The sheer speed of the chariot was fascinating, to add more to its glory were the monsters which were in perfect sync and made sure that there were no movements inside the carriage. The kid was looking out of his window, seeing things completely new to him. This could be the first time in 2 years that his expression changed from that of lifeless corpse to that of a slightly curious teen.

There were some things that he knew after seeing them, like the mammoth, sabertooth tiger and even vine trap tree. But some were completely new, completely different to what he knew before. He saw some strange human like creatures but they had pitch black eyes and a shape shifting mouth. He asked his grandpa about them in a very faint curious voice.

" those? they are ghouls. They are one of the most dangerous race you could encounter in the wild. Although they now have become more and more like us, but deep down inside they still are savages.

"What about them then?" he curiously pointed out to another such creature, then looking at his grandpa for the answer.

" those are....." this went on till the end of their journey. The grandpa was enjoying it very much. after all this was the first time he talked so much with his grandchild.

" oh, we reached here already? Arthur, be ready we have reached the academy." With somewhat of a disappointed look, he calls out Arthur.

The Divine Academy, lying at the heart of the Empire was a birthplace of many hero figures. It was the academy for the nobles and the most gifted of teenagers in the Whole Empire. The gates of the monstrosity conveyed how special it was. Truly a marvel. The gates alone were like a 5 story building, build with Divine Metal, the strongest and the rarest of all metals in existence. It was said that even a quasi Emperor break it with all his power.

Arthur followed his grandpa's words and proceeded towards the Gates. He stopped midway, and turned back to look at his grandpa and gave him a slight bow as a sign of appreciation for all the things he had done for him.

"this kid!" he smiled looking at him, as he remembered all of his memories with him.

The academy was quite huge, It took Arthur about 2 hours just to walk to the examination place. Around him were multiple characters, some were nervous, thinking about the tests, some were chatting with each other while the rest were to nonchalant for it. Arthur of course didn't belong to any group, he was there by himself, completely separated from the rest.

Although he didn't care about anything, he did found one person intriguing. Although he was nothing like him, he still gave off a very distant aura, something that was very bright at first but gave off an empty feeling from the inside.

Tring*

The bell rang as soon as Arthur made a move towards him, A young looking guy came from the building near the place and screamed, " The Test begins now!"

"What is happening? AAAAAHHHHHH!"