Antla, the land of opportunity. The biggest continent in the Human domain; housing over 2 billion inhabitants.
It all began 200 years ago, the first ever human awakening. The event was preceded by a sky splitting explosion; rifts started to appear all over the planet, Earth.
From the rifts started to spew hollow like creatures; having a small vibrant black globe embedded in their faces.
These creatures had the ability to turn something into nothingness just by touching it. Humans-which were not awakened at that time - started to retaliate against these intruders.
The battle against these beings had it's ups and downs; in the start humans were mostly loosing every single encounter, and as a result lost alot of land.
Some countries were completely over run by these creatures, abandoned by the humans as a result.
The world population plummeted, the once mighty human civilization reduced to a mere continent. Humans initially had 3 continents and a population of 5 billion.
Having suffered such a loss, humans had no choice but to flee to the last remaining continent, Antla. The continent,at first,wasn't prepared to handle such an influx of migration.
There was no organisation or a government to legislate the whole process; that is until they appeared.
The Celestials, divine beings to put it bluntly. They taught the humans how to awaken and use their newly found powers.
These beings also selected a few people, based on strength, to lead the humans. This organisation was called 'The Union'.
A organisation made up of the strongest awakened, to govern and rule the human domain, to protect the humans.
The Celestials introduced a system which worked on something called 'Ather'; Ather was something already present in the air but couldn't be used by the humans who weren't awakened.
They also gave humans, Cores-potent in Ather- and weapon arts, every human had one ability when awakened to work with. That ability was a part of their existence and couldn't be changed. Albeit, as one increased their major rank, more abilities were unlocked.
These abilities lay dormant in every human, until the day of their awakening. Obviously, these were distinguished by ranks, the lowest being F-rank and the highest being SSS+ rank.
Weapon arts were a set of skills one can perform by their weapon of choice. These weapon arts also had ranks to them; starting from 1 all the way upto 9.
Not every human was equally strong, there were ranks separating them. The lowest rank was called 'Rookie' and the highest was known as 'Apex'.
As one increased their major rank, they unlocked more abilities. But there were two most notable unlockments; which were only made by a selct few people in the human domain.
Domains, and something known as 'Aura'. Aura was an energy distinct to Ather, not much was known about it. As there wasn't any human who had awakened it.
Domains on the other hand were alot more common; they were unlocked by a select few once they reached 'Cheif' rank.
There were 7 ranks: Rookie, Veteran, Elite, General, Cheif, Commander and lastly Apex. Not everyone in the Human Domain-Atla- was an awakened. And those who were, had a predetermined rank cap.
Every human who awakened possessed an Ather core, which allowed them to absorb Ather and execute abilities. As one increases their sub-rank, the strength of their abilities also increases.
Abilities were split into three types, Attack, Utility, and Defensive. On every new major rank a person unlocks a new ability.
The later unlockments are more stronger or equal to the prior unlockment. If the previous unlocked ability was a utility one then the following one would be either defensive or attack based; No same type of ability could be unlocked in continuous succession.
Abilities were more nuanced than they sounded; if someone had the ability to teleport, the distance they could teleport to and the speed would increase as one increases their sub-rank.
If someone unlocked an 'A' rank teleportation ability upon awakening, the ability will keep improving until the next major rank breakthrough. Each major rank had 3 sub ranks: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced .
Each of these sub-ranks improve the ability and only does the 'intermediate' sub-rank unlock a new aspect of an ability. For example, a teleport ability upon reaching 'Intermediate' sub-rank increase will allow the user to teleport other people or objects with him; other than increasing the speed and the distance ofcourse.
Each of these abilities reach their peak potential upon reaching the next major rank; which is then allocated for growing the newly unlocked ability of that new major rank.
Yes, this meant a human at the 'Veteran' rank could rival an 'Apex'' rank individual in terms of abilities if he had an SSS+ ability, albeit no human ever in the history of awakening started with an SSS+ ability.
But it shouldn't be forgotten that an 'Apex' ranked individual would have 6-7 fully maxed out abilities and maybe a domain(6 abilities if they have a Domain, 7 otherwise). The 'Veteran' could also just have an utility ability, rendering him useless against an 'Apex' rank individual.
Also to be noted, not everyone could reach the 'Apex' rank; humans were born with a predetermined rank cap. Meaning a rank they can't surpass; essentially, a rank limit.
As previously stated, every following ability is stronger than or equal to the previously unlocked one. So, if a human awakens with an 'A' ranked ability, their next ability would be an 'A' or a 'S' rank. Also would be of a different type; and no, there is an gradual increase in ability rank.
So an 'A' rank ability awakener would unlock a new ability-if stronger than the previous one- of 'S' rank in their next major rank breakthrough; It can't be a 'SS' rank ability.
Now moving on, after the Celestials introduced the Ather system to humans, humans started fighting back.
They managed to fend off all the Hollows that posed a threat to the last remaining continent-Antla.
The Union decided it was better not to initiate the conquest of the other 2 continents; they had no idea what type of Hollows awaited their arrival.
Nor were the humans that familiar with their abilities. It was better to recollect themselves and start as a stronger civilization.
The Union ruled over the entire continent, which was split into 4 parts: North, South, East and West. On each of the borders of these respective areas was set up a defence army.
The purpose of this army was to chase away or kill any stray Hollows trying to cross the ocean,which sperated them from the neighbouring continent.
The Celestials had long left once the situation subsided; they said there will be a time in the future when they will return to liberate humans from the Hollows.
Humans just had to hold on. This was alarming to the 'The Union', as this implied whatever they were facing was not something they could solve.
This must be noted, The Union had 10 main members, the strongest humans in Antla. None of them had an ability lower than 'C' grade.
Yes, some were awakened with an 'B' grade abilities but most with a 'C' grade. Most humans were awakened with 'F' grade abilities; rarely anyone awakened with a 'D' grade ability, if they did, they were considered a prodigy.
Nonetheless, humans kept flourishing under the rulership of 'The Union'; to make things easier to manage, The Union appointed four great families to manage each side of the continent.
The Astra family, The Belmouth family, The Asborn family and lastly The Zerith Family.
They governed North,South, East and West respectively.
These families were very evenly matched in terms of strength; their highest member,the family head, was of 'Commander' rank, and possessed an 'SSS' rank ability.
All 4 of these family heads also possessed Domains, something not that many people can form.
....
P.s- sorry for the info dump, just wanted to get the power system out of the way.
In a vast empty space stood two figures; One was kneeling, whilist the other was sitting on a throne made up of black bones.
The room was nothing but complete darkness; no windows, no doors, just complete endless darkness.
The figure sitting on the ominous looking throne said in a hoarse voice "Valour, it is time to proceed with our plan; the humans have gotten quite comfortable since 'they' intervened"
Valour, a teenager, clad in a simple black robe. "As you wish, your majesty." He said with a youthful voice.
The figure showed signs of displeasure, albeit they were not visible through the darkness shrouding it's face.
"What have I told you about calling me that?" Said the entity.
Valour, a being devoid of emotions, suddenly had traces of fear all over his handsome face. He responded, his voice shaking" I apologise, mother."
Then proceeded it with a ninety degree bow; sweat forming on his face.
"Good, remember this; I will not be lenient next time." Said the figure in a pleased tone, her hoarse voice had turned into nothing but calm and sweet.
"It is time for you to be sent out; don't disappoint your mother, Valour Armsborn." Heard Valour as a black flame encapsulated his existence.
"I will try not to...mother" he replied before disappearing from the scene like a wisp blowing out.
The figure, who now stood up, red horns protruding out of her forehead, looked into the distance.
"It has begun, time to release hell." She said to no one particular; then she too disappeared in a similar manner to the boy.
...
Hopefully you all liked the first chapter, I will be uploading once everyday and twice on the weekends. I'll increase the release schedule to two chapters when I have holidays from school.
Join the discord, I would love to make a supportive community for this novel; I will try my hardest to not make it cliche or boring.
I promise to finish it, unlike my 2 other failed projects.
The power system could be confusing, join the discord and I will go into it's intricate details. Trust me, it's different to any other systems out there; and cuz of it, characters will scale really well. They won't be power crept or obsolete even in the final arc.
-The Author