Nine years easily passed, and now Alex was ten, but in those ten years, he could count the number of times he was let outside the house.
And he understood the reason why his parents did so. They didn't want people to find out about Alex's darkness; if they did, they would surely report them.
During this time, Alex had consistently used circulation every day, bringing his total darkness to 140,000.
Name: Alex Parker
Race: Human
Darkness: 140,000
Light: 10,000
Status: Equilibrium State (50% Light / 50% Darkness)
Level: 1
Exp: 0/100
Strength: 10
Defense: 9
Speed: 10
Agility: 20
Abilities:
Circulation
Darkness Manipulation
Corrosion
During that time, his light had also grown naturally, as had his physical strength, but that wasn't important to him. After gaining manipulation, he didn't gain any darkness abilities for years until he reached 110,000 darkness.
He gained Corrosion, an ability that allowed him to make his darkness corrosive. It was so strong it could melt metal in seconds.
But that was not all, his darkness manipulation had improved so much that he could form complex shapes with it. With the help of his father, he kept training it.
Though his father didn't know all the truth about Alex, he at least knew about the manipulation, so he helped Alex develop it.
But training wasn't the only thing Alex did during these years; he also learned about this world from his mother and father.
Their world, Tera, was infested with darkness, but humans had a way to fight it: the Saints and the Marines.
The Saints were humans whose inner light had grown to a level that enabled them to fight against the darkness.
The Saints were humanity's first leaders because they were the ones who rose in the beginning to fight the darkness.
They were led by the First Emperor of Light, whose light was said to have given humanity its first hope.
He alone took on hundreds of thousands of crawlers during the First Great War. For a thousand years, the Saints became humanity's leaders.
But years later, the Saints alone couldn't stop the war, so a scientist and his team created the first Marine.
A merge between human and darkness, before the Marines, anyone touched by darkness was corrupted, turning them into monsters who lived to kill humans.
Then the Marines were made, a group of humans carefully merged with darkness so their darkness and light were balanced.
This allowed them to use the powers of darkness to fight, while their light acted as a limiter to prevent corruption.
Alex's father was one of the current age scientists who worked with the Marines, seeking to improve them for the sake of humanity.
The city they currently lived in was one of the main walled cities under human control, known for its research and security.
It was considered safe and almost impenetrable by the crawlers, or so Alex was told.
On that night, as Alex sat on his bed reading a book his father had gotten him, a blaring alarm filled the air.
He was confused about what was happening, but then he remembered reading in a book about the crawler alarm set in all cities in case of an attack.
And just as he recalled, his father burst into his room and picked him up from the bed.
"We have to go now, Alex," his father said as they left the room. Alex could already tell what was going on, but he decided to be curious to confirm.
"Dad, what's happening?" he asked.
"It's nothing, son. There was just a small crawler breach close by. We just have to get to the city bunker, and we'll be safe there. The Marines will come and take care of the crawlers in no time," his father said, trying to convince him that it was a small issue.
But Alex could tell from the way his father's hands were trembling and the urgency in his voice that this was no small breach.
His father ran into the living room, where Alex's mother was, handed Alex to her, and ran into one of the rooms.
He came out with what looked like a rifle, though it wasn't exactly like those from Earth—it resembled some sort of mythical weapon, with white pulsing lights.
"Let's go," he said and took the lead. He opened the door and went out, and Alex's mom followed behind.
As soon as they stepped out, Alex could see crowds of people running as fast as they could, trying to get to the city center where the bunker was.
Boom! A very loud explosion filled the air, and a bright light flared. Alex looked back as his mother carried him, and for the first time, he saw what a dark crawler was.
The images from books didn't do these creatures justice. They were black, lizard-like creatures, about fifteen feet long and two meters tall.
Their mouths had double rows of teeth, and a very long tongue that could extend to catch prey.
They had four red eyes on their heads, each looking in a different direction.
Alex watched as a crawler picked up a young girl with its tongue, retracting it so fast that she was at its mouth before Alex could blink.
With a snap of its jaw, her body was cut in half, her blood splashing in all directions as her lower body fell to the ground.
Without even pausing, the crawler continued chasing after more people, its feet crushing the girl's body into paste.
The light from the explosion faded, but Alex's eyes were still fixed in that direction, using the streetlight and moonlight to look at the spot where the girl had died.
His chest tightened, and he vomited as his mother carried him.
He knew that this world was a dangerous place, but facing reality now, he understood that reality was worse than imagination.
The dread from seeing that girl get mutilated made his body tremble uncontrollably.