Prologue
It is now the year 5524, and the town I grew up in and cared for had changed for the worst. It is no longer thepeacefuland joyful place I once knew. It was the year 5521. I was 13years old at the time, and it only took thearrivalof one little girl to tip my world upside down.
I was out playing in thefountainat the town''s center when ithappened. A young girl who looked to be about my age maybe a little bit youngerappeared,floatingatop thefountain. Her skinalmostas pale as her cherry blossom, knee length dress. Her long wavy hair came down to her knees,coloreda lightblondealmost white with pink tips tofinishitoff.
In her right hand, she held a staff that was taller than her. The stem of the staff was wooden and plane, however, the top of the staff split into two and made a semi-circle. Eight small spheres made a circle in the semi-circle, and one sphere in the center. The spheres hovered in a perfect circle, and the one in the center just floated silently. The 9 silver spheres altogether wereemitting a small golden glow, attracting the eyes of thetownsfolkmaking them gather round.
To her left and to her right were two men, both dressed in white and gold platedarmor.Theywereboth about two meters tall and loomed over the town as if they owned it.
After a fewminuteshad passed most of the town had gathered to see thephenomenonthat was happening before them. There weremumblesamongstthe crowd, but all stopped when the young girl began to speak.
Her voice was soft and soothing like a melody but held firmness and confidence. She spoke in apolitemanner as she introduced herself to us.
"Hello,residentsof the town ofMaperus. You can alladdressme as Lady Amelia."
The crowd stayed silent as they gazed upon thebeautiful, young girl, who continued to speak calmly.
"In about an hour or so two portals will open up on the edge of town. If you go through the first portal you will find yourself in a corridor, that will have 100 further portals lined up."
People including myself looked up at her with confusedexpressions, to which sherepliedwith a further explanation.
"Inside each of these portals a monster, largeenemyor many smallenemieswill be waiting for a fight. Once you defeat the monster inside the portal you will be able to leave back to the maincorridor, onceyou get there you can leave and go back to town or continue on to another portal. However, if you cannot defeat the monster that you are fighting before you die you will be transported into the main corridor. But you will not be able to leave. You will have to keep venturing intodifferentportals until you can defeat a monster, so you are able to return home. If you cannotdefeatany of the portals, then in the last portal you will not be transported out into the corridor. What will happen to you is unclear and it depends on what the monster inside decides on."
"Once you have completed a portal and have been transported out into the corridor, a yellow ticket will be given to you, on it will be your name and a number representing your efforts during the battle. You can exchange these for coins in the machines that will be next to the portals"
After her speech, the crowd was still silentapartfrom the oddmurmurhere and there. Then after a few seconds, there was an outbreak ofchaosamongthe crowd. Ididn''tknow what think. Was she telling the truth or was she just playing some sort ofpracticaljoke? If she was having a joke then what couldexplainthe fact that she was floating above thefountainwith a glowing staff in her hand. There was no explanation. If she was telling the truth then we would only know in an hour, and if it was true then things would be different.
As I was thinking to myself about what was going on, she tried to speak again but her small voice was overpowered by the crowd that had now reached about two thousand. With an annoyedexpressionon her face, she pushed her staffforwardand thenpulledit back to her body.Millisecondslater thewholecrowdwas pushed back about a meter, some people at the back of thecrowdwenttumblingover meters away. Then everybody got pulled forwards again. I felt people slam into my back, my lungs felt like nails being hammered by a mantle.
Everyone was quiet apart from some groaning spread out over the crowd. The girlsmiledas if thanking us for being quiet and continued without a concern.
"Once you have completed all 100 portals they will alldisappearandninetyfivemore portals will appear. This will continue until you get down to ten, thenthe number ofportalswilldecreaseonlybyone, for example, ifu defeat8 then another 7will appear.I will be awaiting whoever greats me in the final portal. There is no restriction to how many people can enter a portal at once, but if you enter with a group of 3 or more you will not be transported out until every member has been brought down to a near death state. Which means that if you are about to die while yourteammatesare still healthy then you will die."
This time there was no uproar orcommotionjust blank and frightened faces. With her soft andgentleton,e sheexplainedabout the second portal.
"Now in the second portal will be another corridor with a row of 50 portals. Theseportalswill be home to hundreds of different leveled monsters that willrespawnover aperiodof time. You are free to leave these portals at any time, however,if you get hurt of are dying in oneifthese portals it is yourresponsibilityto leave. You will not be transported out."
She paused forseveralseconds almost as if she was making sure that we were taking in all the information, before she started to speak again.
"You should all know that there are about30thousand people living in this town, only about5thousand or so will be able to enter my portals."
She eased her hand that held her staffforward, holding it at arms length. Andspokeagain.
"To know if you areeligibleto enter you will find one of nine markingssomewhereon your body."
When she said that everybody was searching their bodies for markings, not that any of us knew what wewerelooking for.
"There are nine types of magic that areavailable. First Ice and Water."
Still, with the staff heldforwardin her hand, two spheres that werenext to one another in the circle shot forward and hovered over us. One had three glowing waterdroplets, and the other one had two translucent ice cubes balancing on each other like dice. In the next instant, both spheres burst open and formed two jade dragons, one madepurelyfrom ice and the other of water. The two wereswirling and dancing around one another for a little while, forming a dance that looked like it was created by gods. It was the mostbeautifulthing I had ever seen, and itwasn''tjust me the wholeaudienceseemed tomesmerizedby the two dancing dragons. After about aminutethe two dragonsdisappearedreturning back to the twofloatingspheres, and shot back to form the circle above the staff.
"The next two are Earth and Healing."
Once again the next two spheres in the sequence shot forward and hovered over us for several seconds. This time one with a small leaf emitting a emerald green light, the second had a golden cross with spiked edges. The two spheres burst open again,but this time something totally different happened. A dead tree appeared surrounded by floating rocks, then a golden cross appearedshining it''s light down upon the tree surrounding it in a golden aura. The tree suddenly started transforming and soon it was completelycoveredin lush green leaves. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Now covered in bright green leaves and maroon bark, the tree grew long branches and started to shake. Leaves landed all around and grew into marvelous healthy trees. The trees surroundings turned into a lively forest that looked like it was created from a fairytale. Animals pounced and flew around the forest creating a magical show infront of me. After a few minutes, the forest disappeared and the spheres returned back to the circle just like before.
Lady Amelia now had a smile spread across her face as if he was enjoying the show just as much as wewere. Speaking in aexcitedmanner she spoke again.
"Speed and Agility."
Two more spheres came out just like the others before it. The first one just had lines engraved in it, they seemed to be moving but that might just have been my eyes. The second was a small zigzaggyline made up of sharp turns. They startedtheirshow not allowing to be any poorer than that of the ones before. First thing thathappened, a small course was made that was full of twists, turns, jumps and holes. A small figure no bigger than a pea wassummoned, moving atlightningspeed and darting across the course. Skidding round corners, running and jumping up and over walls and then slippedstraightunder a half wall. The course continued to change each time the little figure restarted it, getting faster and faster every second.
Once the two spheres had returned back to the staff, therewereonly three powers left. We had no idea what they would be or what magical show they wouldperformfor us.
"Wind andElectricity."
The spheres followed instructions, moved forward and hovered above us. The first had a small grey and white tornado, the second had what looked like a yellow lightning bolt. The spheres burst open not wasting a second. First, a small tornado just big enough to lift a plate, started swirling at rapid speed getting bigger every ten seconds. Circling the growing tornado was rows of electricity that would form pictures from clouds and the sea to flowers and kids playing. When the tornado was big enough that it was starting to pull us towards it, is started to shrink back down to its original size. Thendisappearedwith a poof back into itssphereand returned to its place within the staff.
Theelectricity was still making pictures as it continued to goaroundin a circle, it then took the form of a man in a top hat and suit bowed deeply then disappeared.
"FinallyFire." Lady Amelia was glowing with joy as she spoke, it wasalmostscary.
"Fire isdangerousand more powerful than the others even if just by a little. Fire has a mind of its own, and will spread under its own will if it finds the right time and place. Very few will have the power andcontroltowieldthis."
Saying that the final sphere came out from the center of the circle and hovered above us. It had a ruby red flame engraved in it, the ball wasfidgetingaround like a hyper child waiting to be let outside. When the sphere burst open there was anexplosionso hot I had toshieldmy face with my hands, to stop it from burning and I could still feel the heat on my face. Four fire spirals appeared making a square, and werespiraling up and creating flames at the top. The spirals slowly getting smaller like a candle burning away. Fireworksobliteratedintopiecesin the sky. In the center of the square created by the candles a person appeared, no face no clothes just madecompletelyof fire. Doing flips and kicks making trails of golden fire as it did.
For thefinallythe flames created two armies one made up of purely of crimsonflames, theother abrilliant blue.Thetwo armies charged forward running into battle and being slayed down by theenemy. Horses reared up and breathedglamorousgoldenflames,eliminatingmany fire men at once. The candles werenearing the bottom now. When the flames sitting atop the candles hit the floor the armiesdisappearedinto thin air. The candle flames joined together becoming one burning flame, thendisappearedback to the staff.
LadyAmeliawas silent for a little while and so was the crowd. Even with the horrific news that we had just been told, we were all amazed andfantasizedabout the series ofperformancesthat justoccurred.Lady Ameliabroughther staff back to her side and spoke in her soft andgentlevoice,butthis time it had moreexcitementin it.
" I will now give out powers to those who I deemworthyofreceivingthem."
She lifted her staff above her head and said a little spell under her breath, not loud enough for anyone to hear. The ice sphere started to spin in place. Blue blobs of light started spilling out at people, landing randomly ontheirbodies. It wasbeautifulto watch beams ofcoloredlighttracingthe sky and landing all around.
The same thing happened with all of the types of magic, shootingcolorsfrom gold to green all around. Until she got to fire. LadyAmeliastoppedchanting and spoke loud and clear so that everyone would listen.
"Fire is dangerous and powerful, it will find ways to show itself in your life even if you are not letting it."
At the time no one really knew what shemeantby that, but as time passed many people came tounderstandit. Me all too well.
When the other spheres werespitting outtheirelements, therewerehundredsof lights filling the sky. However, when the time came for the sphere of fire to do the same thing only about twentyglowing bits of red light came out towards the crowd. Theywerescattered evenlyamongstthepeople, then when everybody was about to comment on theamountof fire that got let out. One more bit came out and it came flying towards me at high speed, before I could do anything I felt a great impact on the right side of my stomach. When I looked down at my shirt to see what it was I saw that my shirt hadbegan to burn, dropping black ashes onto the floor. I lifted up my shirt to see what it was, I saw a red flame marked onto my body. It was sore to theslightestof touch and gave a slight burn to my fingertips when Itouchedit.
Lady Amelia carriedon speaking after the last flame had came out.
"It will take time but you will learn how to wield your magic type in battle. Over time you will be able to learn another skill. Although this will be very hard it will be easiest to learn a new type of magic that is close to orsimilarto your original power."
The peoplewerestill watching her with strong eyes,some werefilled with fear othersexcitementand some looked around withjealousy. But the most common look inamongstthe crowd was confusion.
"Your magic will run of the mercel that is in your bodies. When you run out of marcel from over using your magic your body will show signs of dizziness,fatigue and sometimes you might fall unconscious. If you train you will gain more marcel. The monsters you fight will all have different amounts of marcel and you can gain marcel with every monster that you kill. Monster willalsohave weapons that you are free to have if you kill them."
To that last part, some people let out a roar ofexcitementand cheered, others just stood in a gaze.
"Well, that is all I have to say at the moment. I wish you all good luck and I will see only the strongest in my last portal. Till then I bid you allfarewell."
She created a door behind her and turned to leave, she made eye contact with me. She was smiling brightly but all I could see were her eyes, they felt dark and cold yet they seemed happy at the same time. Beads of sweattrickled down my neck and a shiver crawled up my spine, yeticouldn’t break eyecontact.
After a few seconds, she looked away, walked through the door, her guards following. The door disappeared straight away leaving everybody standing there. Over time everybody cleared off back into their homes or back to work.
Later that day two portals appeared just like Lady Amelia said they would,exceptabove the two portals was a huge screen that could be seen for about twenty or thirty meters. Wedidn''tknow what it was for.
Several people went into the portals toinvestigate, to find out what was really in there. When they entered the screen outside lit up and flashed on in an instant, what was being played was live footage of inside the portals. What we saw that day was horrible. Ten people went into one of the portals and tried to fight the monster that was before them. Ten people went in and after a longlongfight, only two returned alive.After everybodywitnessedthat fight nobody dared to enter the portals again.
A year had passed and accidentsoccurredwith the magic but wereoverlooked, and time kept going on. People''s lives went back to how theywerebefore, until anincidenthappened. Lady Amelia returned with anarmy, and a threat.
That was mid way through 5522, after that people slowly started training and entering theportals. Some came out alive and somedidn''t.
I Started trying to use my power but it was harder than it looked, and now in 5524 I am stilltryingto learn how to use it.