The boy who walked in was taller than Gray by two inches, 4'9 and had short and straight chestnut brown hair with natural green tips he had healthy pale skin, an expressionless face and a weak jawline.
'Laine Wyatt, in 24 years, he'd be known by the moniker of 'The Son of Gaia', he was an icon of hope to those trying to survive. He was an icon of destruction to those who oppose him. He is... was, an ally... a friend.'
Laine was the first to have spoken. "I'm sorry."
Gray tilted his head and wondered. 'This didn't happen in the previous timeline, did this one change somehow?'
Laine, seeing his confused face said. "For breaking the Legos."
While he actually thought. 'He doesn't remember.'
A lightbulb lit up and with the realisation Gray smiled brightly and said. "Oh, that! Nah, it's fine Laine, water under the bridge."
While he actually thought. 'He still remembered that? From two years ago? Bloody helheim.'
Then, an unexpected sight revealed itself, Laine, of all people, smiled. Gray immediately caught the quick sight and said teasingly. "You look better when you smile, maybe actually you'll get a girlfriend like that, although unlikely."
Laine's miniscule smile immediately curved into a frown before it scrunched up, followed by a sigh and he looked at the clock. The clock was a simple grey digital one which read: 50/05 273 of the Ke'erdith Era. [H: 47, M: 22, S: 25]
"It's the 6th month tomorrow, you think you'll make it for school?"
Gray scoffed. "Please. As if Lightning of all things could do anything to me."
Remembering something, Gray's face changed a bit before saying. "I might be late though, save me a seat."
Laine revealed a smirk and said. "I'll try."
At that moment, a chill went down Gray's spine and he instantly regretted his choice of words.
Laine soon left. After him, no-one else but doctors came. The day passed quickly for Gray, who only organised his thoughts.
'So, the world is the same. Albeit a few things have changed, the Roots seem to be the same, going from the 24th to the 0th levels of understanding. 24 being, 'Fire is fire'. 0 being the ability to understand the origin and everything about the element your root is associated with. If I'm right, the elements should be the same too.
Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, Lightning, Wood, Metal, Mind, Poison, Shadow, Dark, Light, Holy, Unholy, Healing, Bestial, Physical, Demonic, Angelic, Yin, Yang, Space, Time, Chaos, Order, Creation... and Void.
The 27 elements should be the same. Are two or more still possible? I should check when I meet Alex again. If I remember correctly, she... he, had the Demonic and Metal elemental roots even before he got genderbent.
If it is a thing and the world is the same, I should go 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 to get 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 as well. It'll help a lot, especially because of my Tier 5 Affinity. I didn't get the chance last time because of Jack, this time though...
I'll get it.'
Gray, while alone, then muttered. "I guess I should try to breakthrough. My understanding won't lower from the increase in purity since I've achieved the origin of lightning."
In the world Gray lived in, there were realms for understanding, for strength, for elements, for energy and finally, for existence.
The realms for understanding were: 24th to the 0th Class Root. The 18th, 12th and 6th were limits where you needed a single moment of enhanced comprehension to breakthrough. Gray is at the 0th root of Lightning, in other words, the Origin of Lightning.
For strength, or physique, there were 14 realms: Fist, Bone, Wood, Stone, Iron, Steel, Silver, Crystal, Diamond, Titanium, Obsidian, Air, Sky and finally, World. The lesser stages, the ones in between, are: Feather, Light, Normal, Heavy, Mountain. Gray is currently at the Feather Bone stage.
For elemental affinities, the 11 realms are: Harmless, Inferior, Lesser, Normal, Greater, Superior, Higher, Natural, Perfect, Synchronised and finally, Co-existence. The lesser stages, the ones in between, are: Wild, Known, Tamed, Understood. Gray is at the Known Normal stage.
For energy, or rather, purity, they are: Muddled, Muddy, Dark, Blemished, Normal, Unblemished, Light, Clear, Pure, Divine. The lesser stages, the ones in between, are: White, Light Grey, Grey, Dark Grey, Black. Gray is at the Black Muddled stage.
And lastly, for existences. These realms are essentially the Race Ranking. They are:
Rank 14: Spirits,
Rank 13: Wild Beasts,
Rank 12: Humans / Beastmen,
Rank 11: Nagas / Guardians / Dwarves / Elves,
Rank 10: Intelligent Beasts,
Rank 9: Demonic / Angelic Beasts,
Rank 8: Slimes,
Rank 7: Armadillo Class,
Rank 6: Fierlieses,
Rank 5: Celestians / Demons / Angels,
Rank 4: Celestial / Demon (Lords/Ladies) / Angel Warriors,
Rank 3: Celestial God(desse)s / Dragons / Demon God(desse)s / Archangels / Celestine,
Rank 2 and above are but legends.
Rank 2: Higher God(desse)s / Elemental Dragons / Demonic Spirits / Angelic Spirits / Celestial Spirit,
Rank 1: Supreme God(desse)s /True Dragons / (Demonic / Angelic / Celestial / Elemental) Spirit Gods.
And the last, is nothing more than a myth.
Rank 0: 𝔘𝔫𝔦𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔰𝔞𝔩 𝔇𝔯𝔞𝔤𝔬𝔫.
In between each of these ranks are the hierarchy between races.
Normal,
Pawn,
Knight/Bishop/Sentinel,
King/Queen,
Emperor/Empress,
Half-Ascended.
Gray, of course, was at the normal stage.
As Gray sat and began meditation, he circulated his energy throughout the innards of the Origin root. Soon after all of it was collected, Gray was drenched in sweat. He started the compression. Turning the energy into the shape of a whirlpool, he directed the bottom to the center, where the energy began to condense into a clearer version. Slowly but surely, Gray completed the task 8 hours later, entering the White Muddy stage with all energy spent. Sure enough, afterwards he collapsed and fell asleep.
When he woke up, his parents took him home and he changed into his uniform. He now wore a yellow jacket and green t-shirt with yellow cargo pants with green and yellow shoes. He scarfed down his breakfast(?) before he hurried to school. Since the clock only read 10:30am, he believed he'd make it. The time system in his world was that every year, was made of 600 days. It was split into 12 months, 10 weeks each with 5 days in them. Each day was 60 hours, each hour was 60 minutes and each minute was 60 seconds. From there on it's 100 milliseconds for a second and so on.
After an hour of running, Gray made it to the school, Lorevid School, early. It's ranked 70 of all schools on the continent and it's larger than 10 acres. The compound has the Lower/Middle/Higher Year buildings, the Middle/Higher Year Dorms, a field of 4000 meters squared. The warehouse is an exquisite one, consisting of nine floors, which each has a storage for that year group. Overall, it's a beautiful modern compound with a black, white and green color scheme.
Anyone who has a 20th root understanding in their element at the age of 8 was allowed in. Of course, there are exceptions. For example, if someone had the Normal Stone Physique, or if they had the Purity of Black Dark, or if they had the Tamed Normal Affinity and lastly, if they were naturally born as a Pawn-stage existence.
Existence realms. They are one of, if not THE most difficult realms to traverse. In order to 'ascend', so to speak, to the next realm one must achieve an Understood Higher Affinity, a Mountain Crystal Physique, a Black Light Purity and a 6th Root Understanding.
To put it in context, the top school requires one of the following to enter: 5th Root Understanding, or a Feather Obsidian Physique, or a Wild Perfect Affinity, or a Light Grey Unblemished Purity. Or, of course, they are born as a King Tier Human/Beastmen.
Yes, you read right, beastman. Those who are tied on racial rankings often congregate to repel the attacks of higher ranks. In the world of Estiria, discrimination only exists in Rank differences. Of course, there are hierarchical structures with the Pawn to the Emperor/Empress stages, however, they don't degrade your worth. A truly weird but spectacular world it is.
Gray barely thought anything of it. 'After all, in eight years the nightmares will come and this school won't be standing for long.'
Gray thought back to when he first entered this school, remembering exactly how he entered and gave a wry smile. He sat down at the closed gates and waited for school to open the gates. After a few hours of waiting, the gates automatically opened at 20:15 allowing them in.
Gray stood up and walked in, only to be greeted by the nostalgic scent of honey and lavender, causing his future memories to go wild.
Gray simply stood as his mind strained, stiffened and suffered under the stress of the scenes.
They flashed in his mind repetitively.
A giant towering over him in a forge, on his knees over white-hot coals.
A demon hovering with thousands if not hundreds of thousands of rocks and objects floating around them.
A golem 400 meters tall, gazing longingly at the stars.
A gold nine-tailed fox with purple runes.
A dragon bearing a rustic and ancient aura.
A ruin with a gray werewolf chained between pillars.
An indigo ocean in the underground.
Gray's eyes then flashed sadly at the next scene.
A woman. Hair that seemed to be made of flames themselves with orange burning eyes complementing it. Luscious red lips that seemed to draw you in, rosy cheeks and a smile as bright as the sun.
An intense will suddenly solidified, soothed and strengthened Gray's mind before completely suppressing the memories.
"I see..." He muttered.
Gray's eyes seemed to glow, ever so slightly before he kept walking towards his jail.
"Hah. Hahaha. Hahahahahaha!"
With a self-deprecating laugh where no-one would hear, he gazed forward as he walked and only said one thing before going silent.
"This time maybe, I'll repay you.
Master of the Origin Flame, Seraphina Cyrus."