"We've been hearing this since primary school."Dom sighed like every other person in the hall. Throughout the entire lesson, most of the students hadn't paid attention since this was something that has been reoccurring since middle school. On their first day of middle school, they were taught the history of their planet and at the beginning of each term, they were made to say out the history of the planet Keer and most of them had grown tired of it.
"Am I boring you?", Aziel almost whispered as the invisible aura seeping out of him intensified and the sounds coming out of the students were silenced. No one dared utter any sound as Mr. Aziel aura continued intensifying
Complete silence ensued once more and it was only after a minute had passed did Mr. Aziel lower his aura and resume the assembly.
"Time for the next event.", he said and the once silenced crowd were able to find their voice as they began getting excited once more. The students had of course not forgotten about Mr. Aziel and tried their best to speak in a very low tone.
Mr. Aziel clapped his hands and behind him, the once normal wall suddenly slid open. In the now open space, there was a large spinning black mass in a larger cubicle, it was the dust torus. The cubicle was made out of transparent iron. The dust torus resembled a huge black tornado. For the entrance of the cubicle, a metal door, that required the fingerprint of authorized individuals to open, was placed.
"I need you to go inside the cubicle. Once inside, you'll certainly feel the energy of the dust torus, just let the energy flow into you. You'll feel like your whole body is being put in boiling water then being refreshed in the ocean. Stay calm, it's part of the process.
I'll be calling you out one at a time, starting from the front row.", he looked towards the right side of the front row. "Starting with you.", he called out. The excitement of the person, called, turned into nervousness.
The person, called out, stood up slowly with a nervous smile plastered on his face and his feets moving slowly. As he gets in front of the entrance, Mr. Aziel places his thumb on the scanner and the metal doors slide open, revealing how huge the dust torus was.
The boy standing at 4'6 looked like an ant in front of the 19 ft tall and 56 inches wide dust torus. He couldn't help but shudder at the huge difference in height
"Go in.", Aziel says as he nudges the boy into the cubicle. The boy that had been lost in his thoughts stumbled on his feet.
The circulation of the dust torus intensified as the boy kept on going closer to it and once he was a meter from it, the dust torus moved towards him at lightning speed and enveloped him.
The poor boy almost screamed in shock before he was covered in the dust torus. His body started heating up to a very high temperature making him scream but no words left his mouth. He couldn't move his body and could only stand still. He wanted to call for help but he couldn't. This process went on for a long time
"What's going on in there?"Aurelia asked, ignorant about the boy's well-being. She felt rather curious. Several minutes had passed and the boy was still unable to be seen.
In the cubicle, he continued trying to ask for help but the pain continued. It was only after several minutes had passed that the pain showed signs of stopping. His body now felt cold and he felt like there was no one but him in the middle of the ocean. The feeling was refreshing and intoxicating at the same time. He just wanted to remain in that same position forever.
He finally felt at peace as the black torus slowly left his body. Once he was able to realize what was happening, He fell to his knees due to the pain and stress of trying to stay sane. He kept feeling something pulling at him, wanting to be pulled. It felt familiar and he decided to discover what that feeling was. He stood there, putting all his intention into that feeling.
"And this is where the magic happens.", Mr. Aziel blankly said towards the student's while staring at the boy in the cubicle.
Hearing Mr. Aziel, they all paid extra attention to what was about to happen and suddenly, the inside of the cubicle was set ablaze by a huge fire. Even though the fire looked huge, it was still tiny compared to the size of the dust torus and cubicle.
Looking at the fire around him, the boys didn't seem to be afraid, instead it all just felt natural to him. The fire was like an extended part of his body that could be moved freely. He was about experimenting on his new found powers when he suddenly passed out. He laid there as the floor around him opened up and slowly took him into the hole.
"That is so cool!!", Nat couldn't help but scream. She regretted sitting in the third row. 'I should have stayed at the front!', she screamed in her head. She wasn't reprimanded by the person sitting next to her, even though he almost felt his eardrums burst.
They had witnessed someone gain their ability and were all filled with excitement. No one was nervous anymore after seeing the first person gain his powers. With each person entering the cubicle they were both excited and nervous but the former far exceeded the latter. Different powers had been witnessed but none of them was something new.
The well known powers were
Fire
Earth
Water
Lighting
Invisibility
Technopathy and so on
Nat had gained the ability to control fire and her's was evidently way stronger than the first person.
Aurelia's was unknown since nothing had happened and she just fainted on the floor.
In front of Atlas, an image of a woman rocking her child in her arm, was formed. "Mom?", he called, the image looked so real to be a lie. He immediately reached out to her. His hand passed through the illusion and he fell face-flat. The illusion disappeared and the ground opened up to swallow the passed out Atlas.
It was finally Dom's turn. He got up from his seat and headed towards the cubicle brimming with confidence and hope. 'Please, give me something special, I have to be stronger than Nat.', he wished and prayed to various gods, even nonexistent gods, to make it possible.
'Now that Nat can utilize fire element, she can make her attacks faster and stronger and she would surely put me at the receiving end of her fist every day.', he thought
'When is this going to be over?', Mr. Aziel thought as he lazily placed his thumb on the scanner. The door slides open, leading Dom to his destination. Just like everyone else, when he was a meter from the torus, it spinned faster and immediately enveloped him.
Suddenly, the area around him turned pitch black. He tried moving his arms but they did not budge. After various attempts and failures, he was able to finally see something different. Small stars appeared in front of him. 'How am I in space, this should be a dream.', as more and more stars appeared, his thoughts were confirmed.
'The f*uck!!', he couldn't enjoy the scenery before he began moving at breakneck speed and passed various planets, 'I thought all planets were gone?!', Dom screamed in his head, the speed made it hard for him to speak well in his head.
He suddenly came to a halt and in front of him was a building that seemed to be made of thick metals and was shaped in a semicircle. There were so many ancient cars packed outside the large building. Coming out from the door of the large dome was a man in a suit, his hair was disheveled and his beards were poorly trimmed. In his hands was a file with the picture of a baby with various tiny black spots around the baby's body. The man seemed to have mumbled some words but Dom was unable to hear him.
"Where am I?", he wanted to say but he still couldn't hear his voice. He looked around and noticed that they were using ancient cars to drive on the road.
He looked back at the man, just to see blood spurting out from the now decapitated head. Dom opened his mouth in shock as blood spewed everywhere.
'The fuck!!', he wanted to scream and call for help, tears trickled down his face without him knowing.
The scenery changed and in front of his apartment were his friends chatting with each other. "Guys!! Help, there's a dead man here!!", he tried to shout but once again, he couldn't hear his voice.
He blinked and his friends started bleeding from all the holes in their body. "No! No! No! This isn't real. This isn't real!!", he shook his head so many times and hard that it looked like he was trying to twist it.
"They can't be dead!!", he screamed in his head as denial turned into anger and his surroundings turned pitch black once more.
[Outside Dom's head]
Mr. Aziel paid attention to the cubicle and in it, the dust torus had left the small silhouette and from him, huge amounts of dark gas poured out from his body and flickered around the cubicle.
'Another prodigy!', rather than being concerned, he looked rather excited as his lips formed a huge grin.