Benjamin felt a familiar tingle in his chest. His soul energy was beginning to spread through his body.
Eventually, small black particles began to rise from Benjamin.
Though they were visible here, they were invisible to anyone on the outside.
This was because Benjamin's soul was relatively weak compared to other students. Corey's soul was strong enough to the point that you could see the energy coming off of his body.
Benjamin remembered a time back in the fifth grade when he had gone on a field trip into monster territory.
Corey had to save him from a group of possessed knights.
Though Benjamin was quite fond of the memory, it only shined a light on how weak he truly was.
It has been like that for a while now. Benjamin had met Corey in the 3rd grade. Back then, they were on even footing. However, as the years passed by, Corey quickly gained power, leaving Benjamin behind.
It was like that for all of his friends. Jackie was currently sitting at the top of Benjamin's class. Miles was in twelfth place while Lennox was in fifth.
Even some of Benjamin's lower ranked friends were ranked higher than him. Isaiah, Charles, and Xavier were ranked 20th, 21st, and 22nd respectively.
All higher than Benjamin himself. As Benjamin was thinking, he failed to notice the darkness of the void slowly climbing up his body and enveloping it.
Benjamin continued thinking about his weakness. The Institute held yearly tournaments between people of the same grade level.
Benjamin was always one of the first people eliminated. Sometimes, he didn't even qualify to participate.
How am I supposed to protect the world if I can't even protect myself, Benjamin thought.
The darkness continued to climb up Benjamin's body, reaching his upper torso. Benjamin's family was also stronger than him.
His dad was ranked 5.5 and was a monster hunter while his mom ranked 4.6 and was a part of the military.
His youngest brother was ranked 2.0, 0.1 points more than Benjamin. Maybe I should give up on being a paladin, Benjamin thought as the shadows finally enclosed his head. He opened his eyes, finding that he was back in the real world.
I wonder if anything changed, he thought. Benjamin suddenly turned to one of the suits of armor in the room.
A steady trail of black energy was rising from it. Did it catch fire or something, Benjamin thought.
As Benjamin approached the suit, he found that he couldn't feel any heat coming from the suit.
He placed a hand on the suit of armor and found that it was ice cold.
He could feel the energy radiating from the suit. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on it. Benjamin opened his eyes.
Nothing had changed. Feeling a familiar wave of frustration pass over him, Benjamin closed his eyes again.
He focused on the energy radiating from the suit and… nothing. He had no idea what he was supposed to do with the energy.
Benjamin opened his eyes. Maybe I should just try to absorb it, Benjamin suggested to himself. He closed his eyes again and focused on the energy.
This time, rather than trying to find some non-existent purpose for the energy, he tried to merge it with his own soul.
To Benjamin's surprise, the energy immediately meshed with his soul, merging with it completely.
Benjamin felt his soul burn intensely before returning back to normal. He opened his eyes and found that the suit of armor no longer had any black energy rising from it.
I guess that worked, Benjamin thought. He turned around, only to find that the other suits of armor had black energy rising from them too.
Benjamin repeated the same process he used on the other suit. By the time he was finished, his soul had begun to burn permanently.
It was only a slight burn, but it was progress nonetheless. Benjamin walked out of the back room, letting the heat of the furnace wash over him.
His father looked up from his phone and smiled.
"I'll be done here in a little bit," he said. "Sounds cool," Benjamin replied, walking through the door.
He took a breath and savored the crisp, cool air. Somehow he felt mor relaxed than he had when he entered the building.
Benjamin drew his sword. Though getting into fights outside of school was against the rules, training was not.
He focused his soul energy into his sword. Black energy climbed up the blade until it was completely covered.
The energy was loose around the blade, showing Benjamin that he needed to gain better control over his soul.
At least it's a little darker, Benjamin thought. He swung the sword around a few times to test it.
It wasn't any different from swinging around a regular sword. Benjamin spotted a dead tree across the parking lot.
He walked up to it and slashed it. The sword left a deep cut in the tree. The sliced wood began to emit black smoke as though it were burning.
Benjamin looked closely. The tree was actually slowly decaying. Benjamin slashed the tree a few more times.
Each slash had the same effect. The tree eventually collapsed because of the numerous attacks.
"If only I could apply that when fighting," Benjamin sighed.
"Time to go Ben," Benjamin heard his dad call out behind him. Benjamin put his sword away and walked over to his dad.
"I saw you hacking away at that tree over there," his dad said as they got in the car, "Did you make a breakthrough or something?" "You could say that," Benjamin replied.