Pain. An undeniable pain. I felt like every bone in my body had been crushed and then reassembled and then crushed once again. My very mind felt like someone had removed the top of my skull, pulled out my brain, and tossed it into a blender before pouring a brain smoothie back into it. Fortunately, this was for only but a brief moment before the darkness took hold of me once again.
#
I opened my eyes. Stretched out before me was an enormous mountain range. It might have been beautiful in another setting, but there was no life in sight. I no longer felt any pain. In fact, I felt a power coursing through my veins unlike never before. When I looked down at my body, I came across an unfamiliar sight. I no longer had a tanned caramel colored skin tone. Instead, my skin was a pale grey color. Instead of fingernails, I actually had sharp, black claws that extended for an inch on each finger. Every muscle on my body was incredibly defined and my hair reached down to my waist. It was no longer an irradiated green color, but instead, pitch black.
I stood completely naked on the tallest peak of the mountain range. What surprised me a bit was the fact that my change in appearance seemed completely natural. I felt more at home in this body than my original one. I even felt as one with everything around me.
"You're getting closer…"
I heard the same voice as before, echo around me. This time, the voice didn't arise any negative feelings in me at all. In fact, it felt almost like the warm embrace of my mother. Chills started from the bottom of my spine and worked upwards before they seemed to hit a wall. A horrifying pain erupted from there.
#
I opened my eyes to the sight of a dark, windowless room as I screamed in pain. My body arched upwards as I tried to sit up, but I was still bound. Every inch of my mind and body was still in pain but now it was bearable. I stopped struggling as my labored breathing slowed down, no longer causing pain to wreak havoc with every breath.
Suddenly, the room started to get a bit brighter. Bit by bit, the room got brighter until it felt like I was under the sun. The odd thing was that there was still no light source. As I was lying there and contemplating how it was so bright, I heard a door slide open. Immediately the room got intensely bright and I had to hurriedly close my eyes.
"Private Whiles, it's good to see that you're finally awake. Had you taken any longer, we would have gone on with the final test without you."
After the woman in the door spoke, I heard footsteps coming towards me. I felt her place a pair of glasses over my eyes.
"You can open your eyes now. Everything should be fine."
"What happened to me? Why is it so bright outside and where was the light coming from in here?"
I finally opened my eyes tentatively while expecting to be blinded once again. I could now see as clearly as I did before the door was opened.
"I'm Sergeant Rheese, but I'm also a doctor. You survived the administration of the Omni-Drug. Everyone reacts to it differently and gains different traits. Some are more affected than others. You're in fact a bit of a more extreme case. A few different changes happened to you, one of which I'll explain now, and the rest are better left to a mirror to describe.
"The type of awakening you went through was a bit special. They're separated into different types, namely, elemental, physical, and spiritual. Most who have the Omni-Drug typically experience one of these types of awakenings, while in rare cases, some experience two. You on the other hand experienced all three. From our initial tests, you've been determined to have awakened to the elements of darkness. Even among elemental awakenings, this is quite rare. If you have any questions, you can ask them on the way. We'll take you to your room where you'll have one day to rest before we run some more physical tests. After that, you'll be sent on your first mission."
As Sergeant Reese was speaking to me, she was undoing my binding. I followed her out into a hallway and then towards an elevator. As I was walking, I decided to gently try and remove my glasses. Blinding light immediately attacked my vision before I hurriedly put them back down.
"Why do I need these glasses to be able to see normally?"
I received my answer without pause and without surprise.
"Due to your triple awakening and the fact that it was the darkness element, your vision has undergone a fundamental change. You'll now be able to see in the darkness with perfect clarity, even to the point of being far beyond your original sight during the day time. The trade off to that is you'll now require those special sunglasses that absorb light completely in order to not be blinded around light or during the day. Eventually, you may be able to handle small amounts of light, but for now you need time to adjust."
It finally seemed to click with me just how much my word had been turned upside down. Three months ago and I was just like everyone else. I believed that our underground society was it and that the sun above ground was completely dark. Now I'm already barely similar to a normal human and my horizons had been broadened to an enormous degree.
Just as I started to get a bit dizzy at the thought of all the implications this realization had, we had arrived at my room. Sergeant Reese let me know that someone would be here to alert me tomorrow when it was time for the physical tests and then left. I walked inside and took a look at my room.
The first thing I noticed was a bed that actually didn't have restraints on it. I almost laughed out loud thinking about how funny it was that I needed to look for that. There was a small dresser that contained my military uniform in it and a door off to the side. After opening the door, I almost jumped out of my skin.
'What the?!'
In front of me was a full body mirror. I did a double take to make sure that what I was seeing was actually me and when I was sure of it, my body went cold. I looked eerily similar to the body I had in my most recent nightmare… or was it a nightmare? My skin went from the caramel color I had just gotten used to having to a pale white. My body was more defined than before, but not as defined in my dream and instead of claws, I still had fingernails. Regardless of dream or reality though, my nails were black. My hair had also turned to a light shade of grey. Probably the most shocking change though, were my eyes. My irises used to be a light blue color, but now they were black like the abyss. When I had finally adjusted to my new look, only one thought passed through my mind.
'I look really d*mn cool!'
After trying out a few cool poses in the mirror and admiring myself for who knows how long, I finally noticed a shower and nearly cried in relief. Without further ado, I cranked the heat all the way up and proceeded to wash away all of the sweat that covered my body for the past couple of days. When I finally stepped out of the shower and climbed into bed, I realized that I was no longer in as much pain as before. Not long after that, I slipped into a peaceful sleep.
#
I woke up to the sound of a knock on my door feeling completely refreshed. I actually felt better than I ever had before. I quickly hopped out of bed and put on my military uniform and my glasses before I opened the door. The person on the other side was actually Alex.
"Holy..! Dude, you look insane! So awesome!"
I spent a few seconds reveling in his compliments before I got a good look at Alex. He actually didn't look much different except that his hair was now a fiery red. When I noticed the color of his hair, there was a bit of surprise in my eyes. As if Alex already knew what I was thinking, he resumed speaking.
"I had an elemental awakening with the fire element! I can't do much now, but I can make my hands heat up to around 300 degrees. It's not very useful yet but they said that once I train, I'll even be able to create fire! What about you?"
While thinking about how much cooler my ability was, I replied to him.
"I went through a triple awakening to the darkness element. I don't know much about my physical abilities except now I have night vision. Unfortunately, I have to wear these glasses at the moment to see during the day."
We talked back and forth, reminiscing about the pain we experienced and how great it is to be alive, as we approached the testing lab. We both entered and found a doctor waiting in the lab. There were a few interesting stations set up assumably for testing. The doctor waisted no time in getting started.
"The first test we're going to do is a simple strength test. Depending on your performance in these tests, we'll give you a rating from 1-10 on each station and an accumulative rating at the end. For now, I was you to punch this bag as hard as you can."
I walked up to the punching bag in front of me. At the bottom, there was a a screen that would show a number depending on how hard I hit it. I got into the simple fighting stance that we learned in basic as I prepared myself to punch. Using all of my power, I threw a left hook into the machine and looked to the screen at the bottom. When the number appeared, I looked a bit depressed as I saw a 2.
"Not bad for a newly awakened. Next is a speed test. For this one, you must run from here to the end as fast as you can. When you cross the line at the end, your speed rating will appear."
This time, I was in front of what looked like a short race track. The distance was only around 50 meters. I got in position and focused my breathing before I took off running faster than I ever had in my life. When I crossed the finish line, another screen in front of me showed a number one. Even though I ran so fast, my speed turned out to be lesser than my strength.
"The next test is a test of defense. This one might be a bit painful. We have a number of blades of different material and sharpness. We will attempt to make a small cut on your palm with each until we hit the mark."
I walked up to a table holding multiple blades. The doctor told me the first blade was made of steel. I attempted to cut myself but no mark was left behind. I used a bit more strength and still nothing. Finally I used all of my strength and the only thing that happened was that the blade was now dull. I had no ideal that skin could be so tough.
The next blade I picked up was made of titanium. I went through the same process and in the end, the blade under up being filled again. The only difference was the small white mark where I tried to make the cut.
The third blade I picked up, the doctor told me was a special alloy called dark steel. Apparently it was created from smelting the blood of demons with iron. This blade easily cut through my skin with the slightest of force.
"Level two defense is also good for a newly awakened. Alex over there is only at level one. The final test is a test of your elemental affinity. We've created a special orb that will react depending on the density of your affinity. The darker the color, the more pure it is, and the faster it fills up, the greater the current power."
I walked over to an orb in the center of the room. It levitated above a pedestal using some kind of technology. I placed my hand on the orb after the doctors instructions.
Immediately, from the center of the orb, came a pure black color. Within seconds, the orb was completely pitch black. The doctor looked at me with quite a bit of shock.
"I've never seen such a dense affinity before! And the power is already great! You've actually got a level 10 affinity and a level 7 power!"
I felt quite good about myself hearing the doctors praises. I looked over towards Alex who had an interesting expression like he was constipated, and smirked at him. He crossed his arms and huffed before turning around and ignoring me.
"With your elemental testing taken into consideration, you're just barely a level four. With the proper training, you could actually take on a level four demon. Alex, could you show Alicard back to his room please? I have to send this information to the General."
As we left the lab, Alex laughed at me.
"What a freak! Do you know how my elemental test went?! I only had 4 purity and 1 power! Who knew the kid who could barely run a lap on the first day of basic was actually this talented?!"
"Well, I might be talented, but that doesn't mean much. I don't even have the slightest clue how to use this power or my element."
Alex threw his arm around my shoulder.
"Don't worry, Alicard. They gave me a training manual for my body with some kind of special breathing methods and even a special technique to learn how to control my fire power. That's how I am able to heat up my hands. I'm sure they'll give you something similar."
Alex left me at the door to my room as he took off to his own. When I opened the door, I noticed two books lying on my bed. I curiously walked over to take a look at them. The first book I picked up seemed old and decaying. The pages almost fell out of the binding. There were no words on the cover, so I picked up the other book to take a look at it first. This book had a title on the cover. The title read, 'Claws of Darkness'.