Snoid had trapped Aaron, Jenna, Luo and Isaac in a virtual world with the soul transportation machine, leaving them in the white room as a countdown appeared.
When the countdown ended, Aaron found himself in a dense mixt forest. The crisp air filled with the scent of pine and the sound of rustling leaves. Aaron's shoes crunched on the forest floor as he scanned his surroundings, noticing the wide square walls that enclosed him within a kilometre.
Suddenly, a woman with dark hair and grey eyes emerged from a nearby bush. The person appearing in her mid-twenties quickly brushed the green leaves and dirt off her vest as she regretted her entrance, "Dammit! My clothes are dirty. I shouldn't have gone in there!"
Confused, Aaron took a few steps back and asked, "Hi, who are you?"
The short woman then looked at Aaron as she raised her hand, waiting for his permission to speak. After analyzing the situation, Aaron asked, slightly aggravated, "What? Are you an AI? Did Snoid program you?"
The youthful stranger proudly pointed at herself. "Yes, I'm the artificial intelligence my creator sent to train you. He hopes my training will allow you to play a role in Isaac's destiny."
Aaron crossed his arm and narrowed his eyes. "What destiny? Does that stuff actually exist?"
"It is the one my creator, Snoid, set for him," the NPC responded quietly. She wasn't allowed to elaborate further on this subject.
Aaron looked at the sky as he rolled his eyes. "What's this nonsense... Did Snoid make you worship him as a god or something?"
The woman bore a slight frown as she bowed, trying to look apologetic. "Snoid is not a god. He is one of the Five Seats, the rulers of the Obscure Guild. I am sorry if I misled you.
"However, now is not the time for questions. My creator wants me to teach you something. Your friend, Isaac, possesses red magic, a type of magic made and weaponized by the Dark Faction."
"So what he has really is red magic." Aaron lowered his head.
Without offering time to prepare, the woman threw a crimson sphere out of her hand while aiming at Aaron. It cut through the wind and flew toward him. Therefore, not having enough time to evade, Aaron had to protect his vital organs. As a result, his left arm had gotten struck by it.
He abruptly fell to the ground as he realized the orb had latched onto him.
"What- what is this?!"
"I will begin the training," the nameless NPC said, satisfied, "Red magic has many different functions, many of which I do not know. But I do know the most basic ones. With this training, you will learn to face and counter red magic."
A crimson glow illuminated the AI's dull eyes as a grin rose up her face.
Without warning, the red magic sphere on Aaron's arm erupted in a violent explosion, sending his disintegrating body parts flying and staining the greenery with blood. The pain was quick, an unbearable agony, a feeling of getting dismembered and burnt by thousands of hot, sharp fragments.
However, the player respawned shortly after with his two guns and clothes still on. But Aaron was too terrified to realize this. The particularity of STMs is that these virtual reality machines inflict pain directly onto the soul, making death a realistic and traumatizing experience.
Aaron fell to his knees as he screamed his lungs out. He'd have to bear this pain over and over again.
…
Luo was in the same forest, across the western wall. He was also enclosed inside the walls. The trainer that had come to meet him was an elegant middle-aged man in a black and white suit.
Luo was eager to finally get the answers he desired. The 33-year-old advanced mage walked to a rock and sat down.
The NPC shook his hand. He knew what Luo wanted to know. "We call them apostles. The one you met who decimated the battlefield is one of them. They possess a power that no other type of being in this world can have."
"So, is it some sort of demon?" Luo and Jenna had told the army about the 'demon,' yet none had believed them.
The AI responded, making eye contact for an uncomfortably long time, "Not exactly. I prefer the term 'demigods' since they belong in the Dark Faction."
Luo titled his head, "Well anyways, what can you tell me about these apostles' powers?"
"The power they use the most is red magic, which you no doubt saw Isaac Tremblay utilize."
Luo remembered Isaac using strange magic to defeat Rico. "You mean when he attacked that kid with a red beam?"
"Yes. Just like Isaac, apostles use the energy of souls and convert it into a magic that can both be the most powerful and the weakest depending on the number of souls they have absorbed. There was a war when you encountered that apostle, hence why his powers were incredible."
"Let's start your training." The AI did not waste any time. He gave Luo some distance and immediately spit black flames out of his mouth.
The flames spread quickly in the air as they rushed toward Luo. The young man pushed himself up and rolled backwards, hiding behind the rock and barely escaping.
The flames were so hot that he felt his skin burning just by being near them, even though he had a high tolerance for fire as a fire mage himself.
Luo flanked to the side, skating on the melting dirt, and threw a fireball out of his hands. The red fire moved swiftly in the air but only lasted a few seconds as a wall of black flames absorbed it.
The AI in human form shouted as veins popped out on his forehead, "I am here to train you. If you want to beat me, you'll have to evolve your red, weak flames into black flames!"
The black fire spread out toward Luo, who reacted by running off into the trees. Looking back, he couldn't help but feel something ominous about the scorching black blazes. "These flames, I sense so much hatred from them. What are they?!"
…
In the southern walls, Jenna found herself on a gravel path. As she walked to the other end, she met the third NPC, a bald man in an old white robe.
"Hello?" Jenna called out to him, but the elder continued gazing upon the sky in silence, his back turned to her.
Uneasy, Jenna slowly approached the unresponsive male, her eyes fixed on him. As she got closer, the beast suddenly spun around and let out a loud roar.
Startled, Jenna nearly fell to the ground but regained her balance and drew her knives.
They looked at each other in silence.
"Gotcha!" Suddenly, the humble trainer burst into loud contagious laughter, and Jenna couldn't help but smile and laugh along with him.
Catching his breath, the AI spoke with a degree of seriousness, "So, Jenna. You can't use magic, can you?"
Jenna tensed up. "H-how did you know?"
He sighed. "The creator told me everything about you. More than you yourself know. You have a rare condition. Usually, those who aren't born with elemental magic get to possess dark magic when or not long after they are born. However, both elemental and dark magic have rejected your body. "
Jenna looked away, avoiding eye contact.
The trainer's eyes glimmered, "You belong to an ancient race of humans, of which only a few still remain in a secluded village. Very far away, in the Eastern Continent."
Jenna wasn't convinced. She had grown up with her parents before they died on mission when she was 8. They had worked for the West DA just like her. And she had never heard any stories of them being born overseas. Regardless, the 31-year-old fighter started doubting her past as she realized she had no other family. 'Maybe I should look into my family tree…'
She sighed, "That's shocking... Why are these people secluded, and how am I here then?"
"That is up to you to find out," the sentient AI said. "Now, you may not possess magic, but your lineage has something far greater. Some ancient writings claim that if harnessed properly, your power can transcend our world."
Jenna lifted her head. "What is that power?"
"Oh! I can't tell you precisely lest I interfere with your destiny. Though, I will teach you how to use it." The character sat in the shadow of a bush, touching the cold grass with his hands and feeling the gentle breeze.
Then, he took a lotus position. "This power is not attached to the body but directly etched into the soul. Here, I will show you."
A white glow echoed around the NPC's figure as the shadow beneath him disappeared. Suddenly, the bush started to wilt, and the grass started to brown. A hot breeze seemed to come from within the earth as it almost pushed Jenna off her feet. Once she looked at the man before him, she realized he had lifted off, floating above ground. Consequently, the bush, a portion of the grass and the few flowers around Jenna had withered.
The NPC only floated for a few seconds and slowly declined until his feet met the ground. "Now, give it a try. Reach deep within your soul."
"Okay." Jenna wasn't sure whether to be surprised or worried, but she figured any power was better than nothing. She had no idea at the time about the potential of this mysterious power which the AI had only shown her the surface of.
…
As for Isaac, he had met a young woman with red hair and smooth, pale skin. He had appeared on a wooden bench next to her, to the northeastern walls.
She smiled and spoke softly, "Don't worry, Isaac. I shall take care of you."
Isaac was momentarily stunned by her beauty but quickly regained his senses.
"Uhm-"
Before he could speak, the artificial character followed with a slight grin, "Your training will be to spar with me until you manage to kill me in cold blood."
Isaac looked at his feet, his arms crossed. 'I know she isn't a real person, but is it really okay if I kill her?'
As the woman slowly crept towards him with a strange gaze, irritated and uncomfortable, he decided, "Alright then, let's fight."
The woman got up without a word. They took their stances after going into a large clearing. The woman let Isaac have the first move, which Isaac accepted as he didn't know how powerful the AI could be.
The 16-year-old mage pushed forward with his spear and jumped above ground when he was confident enough, throwing his spear slightly upwards to get a boost from the gravity.
As planned, the woman was compelled to dodge, giving Isaac an opening. Now five metres from her, Isaac extended his hand as he fired a crimson beam of light.
Unexpectedly, the opponent didn't try to block or evade. She had instead copied Isaac's stance, extending her arm forward, and as quickly as the red beam hit the palm of her hand, made it disappear into nothingness.
What followed made Isaac question everything he had learned about red magic.
"This is how you conjure things the right way." The women's palm released a gigantic, five-metre red magic javelin.
In the meantime, Isaac had conjured a blue circular shield as he braced for impact.
"You know as well as I do that this shield won't do much." The pitiless opponent closed her palm, causing the weapon to cut through the wind with no mercy.
Isaac wanted to move, but his legs had frozen in place. He released all the magic he could channel into his shield, causing it to become electrified and hot with a red glow, then threw it as hard as he could right into the javelin's tip.
Yet the red javelin pierced through fearlessly as the power of souls grew strong within it and penetrated Isaac's chest.
His vision grew blurry, and his heart stopped pumping. Isaac could barely see the red-haired woman talking to him from afar, hearing a distorted womanly voice in the back of his mind.
"To beat me, you need to understand your magic, but you haven't yet noticed the countless uses red magic has. Red magic is the name given to the Dark Faction's forbidden magic that can imitate every single type of dark magic in existence. You're only using a fraction of its potential."
Isaac died and respawned on the bench. However, he hadn't screamed at all. His red magic had kept his emotions in check, and after a few minutes, he managed to get back up for another round.