"So did you find out anything interesting while we were there?"
"Cells deep below, there were probably more people in them than in the stands watching me fight." Alex said as the left the city.
"They recently did a purge, even the offenders of the lowest degree were locked up. It's been praised as the most effective way to reduce crime." Michael said as he looked around.
"Is it?" Alex asked.
"It is. It works just fine fine locking everyone up."
"The problems show up when they refuse to resolve issues. No one wakes up and decides to do what they do. Although you will have a hard time explaining that to most people." Daniel answered.
"By most people you mean those who constantly commit even worse actions, but slip by just because what they do is legal."
Daniel smiled as a gust of wind was felt as Ger landed near them. "The very people who make their lives difficult, who seek to maximize profits, to keep them below them, or to simply feel superior. Remember Alex, resentment builds even when there seems to be no aggressor. Most people live out there lives knowing that they are being held back, but who should they lash out at? They are constantly told that it is their own fault they are in their situation." Daniel spoke while he climbed onto the back of the bird.
"They take it out on themselves, people feel worthless when they are constantly put down, that's why they turn to alternatives, try to find their sense of self worth and end up getting lost… we can talk more about this later, it's hard to hold a conversation when riding Ger."
Alex thought about it all as he held onto Ger, looking down below as he heard a terrible screeching noise.
"Seems to be the warning, let's land Ger." Daniel said while petting the big bird.
"When we get down there Alex, don't worry if we get split up, these people are very territorial and it's normal for them to be up in arms over intruders. They don't look for violence though, so as long as you don't do anything that calls for retaliation you will be fine." Michael said as he looked at the dense forest below.
All of a sudden Ger disappeared from below them. Alex panicked for a moment as he felt himself falling with the same forward momentum. He looked around but Michael and Daniel were gone as well.
Alex quickly created several portals as he fell down. As he entered the first he felt the rush of wind die down dramatically. He felt himself slowing down until he was still, and then he felt himself falling down again.
'Up, down, up, down.' Alex thought as he "flew" through the air. After nearly half a minute Alex appeared on the floor of the forest, he skidded forward for a few moments before stopping himself.
He froze as he sensed some things all around, and for the first time since he had left home, he pulled out his chain blades.
All around him Alex could sense hundreds of invisible creatures.
He looked up to a branch where he should have seen a small bird but could only feel it's presence with his spacial sense.
A smirk filled appeared on his face for a moment before he completely disappeared.
Most of the creatures immediately lost sight of him, however there were a few who had better sight in the dim light. They were able to just barely make out the slightest blur on the grass below.
Until it disappeared that is.
Alex scanned his compass and continued hovering on as he bent the light and shade around himself.
'I know we were headed west, the only thing is, how far were we from arriving?'
He shifted to the right as feline creature leapt towards him. It's arms stretched out as if it were going to grapple him, only to completely miss and slide as it landed.
Alex stared at the seemingly empty patch of grass and landed becoming fully visible as a look of disbelief filled his face.
'It's made from some type of mana. Some type of conjured up animal.'
Alex looked over as he sensed a human enter his scanning range, but looked back at the creature ignoring whoever was coming his way.
The world around him warped as he focused on the where the cat should be. A faint outline was soon visible.
'A cougar of some type.'
He was about to turn away but noticed a faint blue orb within the cougar. He moved closer ignoring the growls of warning and hisses the big cat was giving.
Alex's eyes widened as he saw an image of a woman appear within his mind.
"You have met Scallee. You should move away, she will bite." A female voice said from behind him.
He turned around only to find a spear pointed directly in his face.
"It's you." Alex muttered. 'I saw her soul within the animal.'
"Hmm?"
"Nothing."
"Your weapons put them away. You are lucky that I found you, the others were not briefed of your coming visit or identity by the seer." She said before looking down to Scallee and smirking. "Their spirit animals don't have any restraint, so I doubt you would have made it very far after presenting your neck to them."
"A seer? As in a person who can tell the future? They might be tricking you my instructors should have let someone know about our arrival." 'So it does have something to do with her soul. Did they create them by separating a part of themselves?'
Alex focused his eyes for the first time in a long time and studied the strange woman before him. Her tanned skin seemed to tell him that even if the forest was vast and mostly dark, that there is a clearing somewhere and that is most likely where she resides near.
'Her hair is tied like a rope, braided I think.' He thought while looking at her dark hair.
Her body not to dissimilar in fitness to his own, the light armor that she was wearing hiding everything but also revealing everything. It seemed to say that there was little rest and a lot of training. He had to admit that she could definitely defeat him in combat. If he didn't use magic.
"We have no way of communicating with the outside world, your instructors came knowing this if they have been here before." The woman said a stern look filling her face as she felt Alex's eyes scanning her for a moment.
"Their, spirit animals have already spotted me. Why are there so many?" Alex asked as he looked around.
"So you can see them all?" She said, her brow raised as she watched him look around.
"Those aren't their spirit animals. When a native dies their spirit animals tend to stick around. They serve as protectors, allowing the rest of us, who are sensitive to their presence, to know when an intruder arrives."
"The only reason I didn't attack you is because they said you were not hostile."
"So this forest is alive with remnants of the dead." Alex chuckled. "The temple would throw a fit at the thought of such an idea."
"Death is not the end, it's simply the moment our spirit leaves our body." She said.
"So… why are you allowing me to know all of this?" Alex asked noticing he was being a lot of I formation.
"The seer likes you, she says that you are the one who will free us. She says a lot about you, she is obsessed."
"Too obsessed."
The woman tossed a cloak to him. "Let's go."
Alex put the cloak on and followed her, his questions put on a hold as they walked in silence.
Surprise filled his face as a village soon came into view. Houses everywhere looked light, not as in color but in weight. Many were made of animal hide, or leather, that was stretched over wood. Only a few houses or building looked a bit more complex, but for a majority it would be easy for them to just change the location of their village.
Alex held an empty yet present expression as more natives came into view. They watched him carefully but as they noticed who was with him they just nodded in his direction.
Alex nodded back, and followed the woman until they reached a small cabin.
Alex was stunned as he entered the building. He looked down to find a young girl hugging him.
"I think you got the wrong person." Alex said as he tried to escape the girls hug.
"Nope you are Alex, I've been waiting for you to be here."
Alex looked over to his two instructors who were watching with amused smiles.
"You are the seer?" Alex asked.
The little girl didn't answer, she only threw out a punch which Alex dodged.
"The one and only… well until you showed up. but I am way more powerful than you."
"You are different though, how do you do it? It's like you are living in constant deja vu, invisible hands guide you. Invisible hands that do not exist." The little girl asked before turning to his instructors.
"I'll have to thank your instructors, they trusted in my prophecy enough to search for an apprentice away from their safe spot."
'Safe spot?' Alex thought.
"Let's go, we can go and try to convince them."
——————
"No! 'Sigh' listen I make this decision for the good of the village and for the rest of the villages." An older man said after slamming the table where several other village leaders sat.
"The best we can do for your people is to stay out of this conflict. Our stance didn't change last time you came and it will stand firm for each other time to come, even if you come and have assurance that there is no chance of loss."
Alex sat and watched for hours as his instructors talked, even the seer tried to convince the leaders but there was no listening being done. He knew that this was going to happen, he could feel how great their greed was. They had no greed for money, but they had greed that wanted to hold onto what ever amount of peace they had.
Alex could tell that they were constantly looking towards him expecting him to speak up, but he didn't. He knew that no words could sway them, it would take them losing their peace completely before they took action.
——————
"Don't worry Alex, we expected this much. At this point we are just making our final rounds before everything happens." Michael said while drinking a soup from within one of the smaller houses.
They went to sleep as the tribes leader spoke with the seer alone in the main building.
"You aren't upset at my decision?" He asked.
"Why would I be? You were given a choice, whether or not we helped, nothing would change. The boy will rise."
"I should send my daughter with him." The tribe leader said.
"No." The seer rebutted.
"It won't work out how you want it to."
"How come those answers are always clear and everything else you say is always hard to decipher?"
The seer shrugged. "That's just how it is."
Back in the tent Alex laid quietly staring at the back of his hand as red, green, and blue spots danced around in his vision. Hallucinating in the dark was something that was common for him. Although most of the time he simply slept before they got to this point.
Alex looked around as the scenery shifted.
"If your so tired why don't you sleep?" Sam asked as he walked over to Alex.
"Because I'm not tired." Alex said before immediately returning.
'Each one of them radiates their own energy. It feels like they have to hold themselves back whenever they see me.'
Alex got up and left the makeshift tent and headed off to the training grounds he was shown a few hours ago.
After finding a good and secluded spot, he began gathering all of the spacial energy he possibly could. In a few moments a small concentrated sphere of energy was suspended in front of him. When Alex focused on it he saw ripples heading towards its location.
He expanded it slightly and opened several portals within the sphere.
——————
"So you want us to help you create a new halo?" Daniel asked.
Alex nodded. "Spacial energy does nothing to increase my power, but it should still be possible to create a halo."
After a minute of convincing and preparation, a two spheres, which pulsated out light and darkness, were in front of Alex. As the energies collided they reacted violently and if Alex hadn't been ready, would've cause quite a bit of damage to the surroundings.
Alex took the raw spacial energy and quickly created a third sphere which disappeared less than a second after it was created. He pulled out a book and opened it, stopping and reading on a paragraph which had the underlined words. 'Anomalies. The research from my peers states that the earth's and the entire solar system's course is being affected by some unknown force. When just looking towards the nearby bodies it's hard to notice, but through a sort of wide scale triangulation we are able to see that there are two enormous bodies pulling…' Alex skipped a bit forward. 'Stars which were shown to be mapped a certain way just a few hundred years ago, seem to be askew to say the least. When we focused our instruments on the celestial bodies in question, we found a common anomaly which can only be described as a black hole or void.'
The condensed spacial energy, rather than expelling more spacial energy, it was absorbing absolutely everything around it and somehow creating more spacial energy within the sphere.
'Last night I created one that was much more structured.'
'A monstrosity of time and space.' he looked up to the sunny sky. 'Are there really more of these just floating around out there?'
"Did it work? Did you find out what you wanted?" Daniel asked.
"I did, are you ready for part two?" Alex asked as his spacial energy became visible, a blue colored wall appeared in between himself and his instructors.
"You just want us to attack it?" Michael asked.
"A few test strikes first, I myself don't even know it's limits."
Flames, waves, wind, rocks and even Michael's fist collided the spacial energy. By the end of the tests Alex had already expended all of his spacial energy.
'I guess even if they hold back, their affinities are already all at the peak of the King class. Even if to the public they only have one affinity in that class, they both have three or four which would elevate their true status to that of equal regards to Emperor class mages.'
'I'm losing control of the energy and it is the reason I'm in this situation. I have to focus on controlling it.'
"Let's go again." Alex said as he gathered more spacial energy and a wall appeared.
In a few seconds the wall was assaulted and trembled as cracks appeared on its surface. The energy that was expended faded into wisps which Alex took control of and used to continue to reinforce the wall with. The cracks faded and were replaced with new ones as time continued on.