《Balanced》 Chapter 0: Prologue Chapter 0: Prologue Centuries have passed , and a legend long forgotten; "When the sky ruptures , blood will rain. At this worlds'' most trying time , Three brothers will rise. Only one will reign , Only he survives." In the age of old, on the planet of Luna , this is the message that prophets all around the world got at the same time. This is the message that is long forgotten. This is the message that never came true. It has been 256 years since Luna started going through a transformation. While the best scientists of different nations were all focused on a meteor that had crashed inside the border of Arxia, A massacre occured. It started with a farmhouse cow near the crash site getting aggressive and attacking its owner, Soon , the other cows joined in... At an orphanage near the center of the nation , One of the new residents fainted in the middle of lunch; He was a boy whos'' parents had been killed when the meteor stuck. He was luckily one of the survivors, as he was at school at the time.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Similar events took place , spreading from the center of the meteor crater. Animals became aggressive and attacked the residents , feasting on their bodies to sate their hunger only before looking for their next victims. Above the crater , a crack in space became visible. The crack spewed a visible blue fluid which mixed in with the air and made it look clearer , as though it was purifying it.A guard near the crater , still conscious for reasons unknown to him reached out curiously to touch the blue fluid. To the horror of those watching the guard bloated up and exploded before he could even come near the visible fluid falling from the hole in the sky, acting as a warning for the other curious ones. Soon parts of the guards'' body dissapeared , as the ground got tainted red. From the red ground , stalks emerged growing and covering the barren crater with a lush green; Growing outward from the crater , the grass started grabbing unconscious guards who did not have the ability to back away and they got dragged into the thick grass , never to be seen again. Within 24 hours of the crack appearing , 100 Kilometers around it had become a dead zone for residents. Although the first "Crack" appeared in Arxia , Many more appeared throughout the world in the following months, All leading to tragedies. This event which started the transformation of Luna is called "The Release Of Mana" by historians. Chapter 1: Orphanage Chapter 1: Orphanage It has been 256 years since "The Release Of Mana"; After the appearence of what the Mages have now termed as "Mana Bursts" , Society has regressed. With the introduction of mana into the planet, Luna and its residents have changed. "When Arxia was attacked , Human residents began to realize their communication systems were either overlayed by static increasing at the moment or did not work at all; This prevented the communication of the attacks to different nations , and the first countries to be attacked soon had mass casualties as the local community was not prepared for such a disruption to occur in their daily lives. Many leaders emerged from these nations, Gun Owners ,Martial Artists or just plain roadside heroes... Some tried their best to help those unreasonably unconscious while others took advantage of the situation to loot and plunder. Some nations panicked and tried to enforce martial law , adding to the casualties , Others focused on the iminent threat of the mutated creatures and ordered the execution of all animals while trying to warn citizens to be wary of their household pets. Government employees could be heard screaming instructions at the top of their lungs , sometimes ordering evacuation at the areas that had yet to be affected. Yet, All nations suffered nonetheless. Arxia was the first nation to fall , and many followed . Many countries formed an alliance and performed a nuclear bombing on the already dying Arxia... Hoping to get rid of the meteor which seemed to be the root of the problem , but to no avail. Many lives were lost, many great minds extinguished at their prime , And yet that is all history." Without much sound , The head matron closed the book resting on her hands and then took off her reading glasses. As she cleaned her reading glasses with the underside of her shirt , she continued "Alright , thats it for story time children. Now go enjoy your free time in the playground"This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. As she got up and headed to her office , the shuffling of small shoes was heard along with giggling and muttering in the crowd of teenagers and toddlers that were just intently listening to her speak. In the not so distant nursery , the crying and babbling of babies could be heard along with the tired groans and sighs of the matrons and wet nurses taking care of the naive and innocent. As the head matron reached her office, she asked her friend and assistant Mary "How are the results?" "They Seem to be perfectly healthy , Its such a shame what happened" "Yes, what a shame;They just entered this wretched world a few weeks ago and have already lost the two people that would have loved them the most" Deep in the night , at the orphanage , in the nursery. Save for the snores of the wet nurse responsible for this segment of night watch , the nursery was filled with the sound of light breaths, The babies had fallen asleep , atleast for now. A corner of the room was suddenly lit up with a small glow as a tiny wisp of detached light floated atop the childrens'' cribs.A baby giggled as he twirled his hand and the wisp of light rubbed his chubby nose; With another twirl a few more wisps appeared around the crib and started floating around the room. As one of the wisps went over the crib right across its'' neighbour , a slight whirling sound was heard as the wisp was seemingly absorbed into the shadows that were present in the nursery, The newborn in the crib smiled , with his eyes now open and slightly squinted due to his big toothless smile. With the dissapearance of the wisp , the first baby started crying loudly as if he just had a toy taken from him and the other wisps promptly disappeared. With a single baby crying , multiple other infants promptly began to wail and the groan of the wet nurse was heard as she got to her feet filled with regret and headed towards the light switch. On the turning on of the light , the light whirling sound promptly disappeared as if it had never been there to begin with and the baby in the crib where the sound originated from also began to cry. As the wet nurse began to sooth all the crying children she noticed one baby was still soundly asleep , having a light smile on his face as he slept next to the infant that had been crying the loudest at the corner of the room. After an hour and a half of pacifying by the wetnurse and the other matrons on call , the light was once again turned off. The once asleep timid infant opened his eyes as he lay in the crib next to the first baby that started crying; And within his eyes , one could see the projection of the night sky, which if matched to the one currently over the orphanage, would be identical. Chapter 2: Eliodoro Chapter 2: Eliodoro Days passed as they normally would in the Orphanage. After the first night of the day that the triplets were registered into the orphanage, there was no such phenomenon like the odd light again, And the only witness to the incident were the naive infants that were still in the nursery. The orphanage was filled with the laughter of children as usual and every other day or so , children would be adopted . The toddlers were the most common ones to be picked, they were old enough to not cry at unholy times in the night and were young enough to still idolize their new would be parents. Then came the infants with their adorable non sensical babbling , the only issue being the high maintenance they required, They were usually adopted by couples that seemed to be well off. And lastly the teenagers, they were usually adopted by rough looking members of the local community who they had built up a rapport with on their adventures outside the orphanage. The teenagers had a high degree of freedom and after they passed the age of 16 , they could help out with the orphanage or leave whenever they want. Many adults who had "passed out" of the orphanage often came by to help the matrons and talk to them about the goings on outside ,with some even adopting some children of their own. About a month after the accident that took the lives of the parents of the triplets, A married couple came to the orphanage during the afternoon. The couple were well dressed , with both of their uppers having an orange coloured crest on the back. Bags could be seen under their eyes , as though they had been through many sleepless night;And the husband could be seen wearing a sad smile on his face, as though trying to cover up all the sadness and fatigue that his eyes betrayed. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.The woman on the other hand did not try at all to hide her sadness and as soon as she glanced at the children playing about , she burst into tears as her husband tried to console her with a sad look on his face. The couple was soon welcomed by the head matron at the door as she took them to her office, they seemed to be of some importance. They soon emerged with Mary who led them to the nursery and stood by the door as the couple walked around , led by the wife who looked around at the chubby little infants , it was apparent they were being well taken care of at the orphanage. As she tried to pick up one of the infants, it started to cry loudly and one of the wet nurses came quickly to quiet it down , looking apologetically at the married woman who had quickly retracted her hands and was now looking glumly at the floor. As she was about to delegate the role of choosing their would be child to her husband, She heard a distinguishably bright laughter amid all the other noises present in the nursery from the corner of the room. As she walked to the corner of the room ,Although she was cautious to not touch any of the cribs or to disturb any of the wet nurses at work,She accidentally hit one of the cribs which she had not noticed at all when she had almost reached her destination ;As expected the baby inside started bawling as another wet nurse ran over to quiet him down. After calming herself and moving on ,the woman finally reached the crib where the laughter originated. Inside the crib, a smiling baby boy could be seen , trying to reach out towards the now still woman with his chubby fat arms , flailing them in an awkward yet cute manner. As the woman slowly reached out her hands and lifted the baby who was now looking curiously at her with the pupils of his tiny green coloured eyes dilated, She started smiling as tears fell from her eyes. Her smile was like a field of blossoming sunflowers and was filled with love as she stared at the now quiet infant in her embrace , "This is the one" She said, to her husband who had been following her all this while , not speaking a word. As he watched his wife embrace the chubby little infant who would soon be their son , tears welled in his eyes as a gentle looking smile crept onto his fatigued face. "What should we name him?" He asked while watching his wife playing happily with the child. "Eliodoro" Chapter 3: A Night In Vandara Chapter 3: A Night in Vandara Around 2 months after the first of the triplets was adopted. As the sun was setting in the city of Vandara, and the lamps in all the buildings and in the middle of busy streets were being lit up, Some buildings remained dark. These were the buildings with nocturnal residents or those who were out about the town. In one of these buildings without any light, four figures in cloaks sat on the floor mats, which when looked at from above, looked like a pentagon with the top most corner missing. "Are the other squads in position?" Spoke the figure with the huge build that could not be hidden completely by the cloak. "Except for Alpha-3, All other squads have made it to their stations " Replied the figure in the top right corner, as he flicked the coat off his arm to reveal a watch like object and used it to project a blue map with green and red dots on it to the center of the pentagon, Right beside the watch, a scar in the shape of a "V" could be seen. As the four figures sat in silence, the last red dot moved to the green dot closest to it, the red dots now forming a circle like structure. As the figure with the scar closed the projection, The sun outside had completely set and most residents were indoors..., as time slowly trickled by, the lights inside the city turned off one by one until there was no more change and only a few buildings were still left fully lit. Inside the building with the four fingers, there was a slight distortion at the location where the top of the pentagon would have been, and a voice spoke out "Lets Go". ...You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Inside the local orphanage of Vandara,All seemed normal. The orphanage was silent, save for the slight rustling and low frequent giggling coming from the teenager ward as some teenagers exchanged ghost stories while staying wary of the matrons. Inside the nursery, The sound of light breathing could be heard and a calm filled the air, but in a crib near the corner of the room, a baby looked about 4 months old was lying silently on the bed with its eyes wide open. In the pupils of his green eyes, one could see the reflection of four people in cloaks and one green blur slowly taking the shape of a man; These five individuals seemed to be on top of a roof. Just next to the crib that held this baby, a normal looking baby that looked thin in comparison to the other ones in the orphanage, slowly opened his black eyes as the blanket on top of him was lifted from off of him. As the baby was about to cry on being woken up without a blanket, the levitating blanket fell back onto it, covering its face in the process. The infant squirmed its head out of the blanket and looked towards his left, looking teary eyed and with his cheeks puffed up in displeasure. The green-eyed infant that was lying to the left of the infant, raised his tiny left hand and pointed towards the roof of the room. As this interaction was going on, atop the roof of the orphanage,right over the nursery, the 4 cloaked figures could be seen. As the burliest looking figure conversed with the others via some hand gestures, he pulled out two metal gloves from a pouch tied around his waist, which seemed too small to hold these gloves. The burly man then wore the gloves promptly and waited while looking at seemingly nowhere. After a little while of the burly man standing motionlessly, a distortion appeared where he was looking and a voice came from that direction. "It has begun, Kill all the infants" As soon as the order was heard the burly man raised his left hand up high and smashed it hard into the roof of the orphanage before jumping off the piece of falling debris he was standing on to land on a more stable part of the roof. Meanwhile, the other three cloaked figures also jumped back and started performing some vague incantations. Soon as the three robed figures simultaneously finished their incantations, a large ball of a lava like substance formed above the hole in the roof previously created by the burly man and suddenly gained speed as it hurled towards the nursery below. The burly man soon looked down, and the nursery could be seen covered in a thick layer of smoke, and orange light that seemed to be coming from the lava like substance could be seen coming from inside the smoke. Chapter 4: A Night In Vandara Part Two Chapter 4: A Night In Vandara Part Two As the nursery was covered in a thick layer of smoke and a light orange glow, both caused by the burning of the lava like substance on the debris from the roof, A thin translucent hemispherical layer could be seen separating the crying infants from the chaos happening outside. The barrier, that had various cracks all around it and looked very fragile, was being held up by one of the wet nurses who had been assigned the night shift and was woken up in the middle of her slumber in the nursery, as one of the stuffed animals on a shelf above her bed for the night had mysteriously fallen on her face. Luckily, she was quick enough to react when the roof of the building collapsed, and was able to save the defenseless infants. Outside the barrier,the wailing of the now awoken infants could not be heard; What could be heard was the rolling and crashing of little parts of the roof that were still falling off bit by bit, the screaming of the toddlers, infants and matrons as they were shocked by the crash, and the rushing of footsteps in the hallways of the orphanage. As the dusty smoke settled, the four cloaked figures standing atop the remaining part of the roof all gathered to look inside the hole which was still increasing, careful to not step onto any part that looked too fragile. When the barrier underneath the smoke became visible, they could see various matrons grabbing babies left and right and rushing out of the nursery, while some more prominent looking matrons could be seen looking right back at them with aggressive expressions on their faces. The roof of the nursery, was plenty high, which was why the wet nurse on night shift was able to react in time to save the children and was also the reason the cloaked figures were not jumping in through the hole to begin with. As though wanting to save as many infants as fast as possible, the six prominent looking nurses were not moving and just giving glares filled with contempt to the four cloaked figures. Behind the cloaked figures, on the roof, the air slightly distorted as a voice spoke out: "Go after the infants, none of them should be left alive, to ensure the prophecy does not come true" The four cloaked figures promptly took out ropes with hooks attached to the end and found suitable spots to fix the hooks in; They then threw the ropes down the hole and began quickly climbing down them.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. As the guarding matrons saw them climb down the ropes, two of them started chanting and balls of fire quickly formed behind them, as their chanting ended, and they flung their hands in the direction of the roof, the two fireballs quickly sped towards two different ropes near the roof. Just as they were about to reach the ropes however, two blue hands could be seen extending out of one of the cloaked figures hanging from one of the ropes as the hands took the hit from the fireballs; As the charred blue hands were retracted back into the cloaked figure, his rate of descent slowed to a snails pace, and he wiped inside the hood with one of his sleeves while holding on with his legs and the other arm. On the sleeve, blood tainted black could be seen. By this time, the other three figures in cloaks had reached a low enough height and jumped off of the ropes, landing squarely on the ground, with the burly figure making a small crater beneath his feet. Two of the figures were attacked by one matron each, while the burly man was attacked by two. As the fight was ongoing, one of the normal looking cloaked figures raised his hand and a watch with a scar under it was revealed under the sleeve ;As soon as his hand was raised, the matron in front of him came to a standstill, She then began to bleed out of her eyes, ears, mouth and nose as her face dried up... She was already dead. Without warning, A loud slam was heard and the cloaked figure raising his hand got thrown into the nursery wall exactly opposite the direction of the entrance, with no cribs being there in his paths, a man shaped hole was created in the wall as he went through it and continued crashing through a few more rooms. "How dare you kill one of my matrons." The matron said, her voice dripping with killing intent as she stood in the place where the scarred figure was standing, rubbing her fist as she stared at the hole in the wall the figure had created. She had been hiding previously as she had felt five presences for a moment right before the ropes were swung down, but the strength of the scarred figure, who was now running back through the holes in the walls created as he had passed through them, was too much for the defense team to handle. Unfortunately, He had been suppressing his aura to the bronze first level before and the head matron was unable to detect it in time to prevent the first casualty. As the scarred figure reached the wall of the nursery, the head matron burst into a sprint and started moving fast enough to seem like a blur to the weakest matrons as she punched at the figure. The figure reacted in time and punched back, his fist meeting the matrons''. The figure was obviously weaker in the exchange of strength as he was thrown back like a punching bag, with his fist profusely bleeding and misshapen, obviously broken. As the clash happened, the matrons and cloaked figures including the one with charred blue hands extending out of his back who had jumped off of one of the ropes recently to join the fight, stopped to watch the exchange. As the sound of the clash extended through the orphanage, unknown to those who were fighting, a small thud occurred at the corner of the nursery under the hole in the roof, and two sets of footprints were made on the dusty floor. Chapter 5: The Team Leader Is Revealed Chapter 5: The Team Leader Is Revealed As the sound of the clash between the head matron and the cloaked figure spread through the orphanage, a small thud at one corner remained unheard, and a set of footprints could be seen on the dusty ground at the location of that thud. These footprints had formed in the corner of the area where cribs had already been cleared by the other matrons and was in the adjacent corner to where the head matron and the scarred figure was fighting. As the head matron entered the now gaping hole in the wall, seemingly wanting to complete her battle as far away from the infants as possible, A red glow could be seen in the eye not covered by the disheveled blue hair of the figure lying on the other side of the wall as he sat upright, small pieces of debris rolling off of his cloak ,his blue hair covered in a white powdery substance. The clash with the head matron just now had managed to finally break the array that had been aiding his hood to stay on his head;The array had been set up by his team leader for the mission and had barely managed to hold on after the first hit. As the scarred man whose face could now be seen stood up, dusting the debris off of him using his right hand, The veins in his left arm that was hanging limp on the side of his body started glowing red under his skin. The same red glow could be seen in both his eyes and in the veins in his right arm, and he had an eerie smile on his face. In the blink of an eye, the blood that was dripping off of his broken fist stopped; This was followed by his hand twisting unnaturally to return to its original shape. As his left arm healed, his right hand began twisting and became limp as blood was flowing from under his cloak to his now broken right fist; Yet he did not make a single sound and just stood there, his eyes glowing and with the smile on his face. In the entire orphanage,only the head matron would be able to notice this strange and occult looking process as it was too fast for the other fighters.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. The head matron had already began rushing to him when she saw him getting up, however she was not able to stop him from doing whatever it was that he had been doing; As she neared him she raised her fist to punch him in the head, getting ready to punch his head him. But as soon as she was within punching distance of the scarred man, something that sent shivers down her spine happened. As though she was moving in slow motion, she saw his head raise up, the smile still plastered across his face and his eyes and arms still glowing red;His eyes made contact with hers, and he moved his head slightly to the right. This small tilt of his head made the head matrons'' punch pass right next to his face and nick the top his left ear. "Guess I wasn''t fast enough" The scarred man said, still grinning as his body weight shifted to his left foot, and he twisted his body and threw a left uppercut with his arm which now looked slightly bigger than before. The uppercut connected perfectly to the head matrons'' chin, and she was thrown upward, and a loud noise that sounded like a dull slap could be heard in the room. This dull slapping noise could be heard in the nursery over all the fighting, and with the sound, the dusty corner without anybody visible, could be seen developing fresh footprints, heading towards the closest matron holding an infant; However, these footsteps stopped appearing as suddenly as they had started doing so. In the room where the rescued infants were being kept temporarily, a green-eyed infant was sitting on the carpeted floor as he stared at a wall;In his eyes, the projection of the dusty corner of the nursery could be seen with a slim figure with a green glow around him taking out a dagger tied to his waist as he looked into the crib in front of him. Inside the crib, a baby with darkness surrounding him that extended beyond the crib and reached just beyond the slim figure that he was looking at with a mischievous look on his face. In the green-eyed infants pupils, The darkness extending from the child in the crib soon enveloped and devoured the green glow and then promptly flowed back into the child and disappeared. The slim man noticing something strange,quickly stabbed towards the baby ;This stab wasn''t as fast as the head matron, it wasn''t even faster than the average participant of the fight in the nursery. As the dagger reached the edge of the crib,a piece of debris flew from a pile of rubble nearby and hit the slim figure in the back of the head, off-setting his balance and making him hit the inside of the crib; This was followed by the baby just inches away from the blade giggling, as though laughing at the slim man. The noise of the dagger cutting through the cribs'' side and the giggling baby in it, brought the attention of those fighting in the nursery, the slim figure, who had long-lost the cover of stealth he had before. Chapter 6: Who Are You? Chapter 6: Who are you? In the room where the infants rescued from the nursery, which was now the site of the battle between the invaders and the matrons, were kept, an infant that had been previously sitting upright was now sprawled on his back, unconscious. Just seconds before he fainted, his green eyes showed a peculiar scene; A scene where a slim man was about to stab a baby in a crib but just as he was about to do so, a part of the roof lying in a pile of rubble on the floor next to him was covered with a white glow in the green-eyed infants eyes which were now beginning to water. The piece of debris suddenly flew out in the projection, heading for the back of the slim mans'' head, as the white glow around it disappeared and the green-eyed infant shut his nor red eyes, as he fell onto his back, no longer conscious. ... Meanwhile, in the nursery; As the sound of steel cutting through wood and a giggling baby was heard from a previously empty corner of the nursery, the fighters diverted a part of their attention to look for the source of the sound, only to find a slim man getting up from a crib, a dagger in his right hand, as he rubbed the back of his head with the other, Seemingly ignorant of the fact that the fighters could see him. He looked towards the direction of the entrance of the nursery, expecting a nurse to come running to take the giggling child out of the nursery, but the nurses at the entrance just stared at him,which he found odd since he had not deactivated his stealth artifact. Just as he was about to turn around and look behind him to see what they were looking at, He heard a whistling sound coming from his right, the location where the hole in the wall was. As he turned towards the direction the sound that was constantly getting louder was coming from, he came face to face with the head matrons'' corpse, missing her eyes, having a hole in her chest and missing the necklace she had around her neck.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. As he jumped out of the way of the corpse that went through the wall behind him, and a few after that, the blue haired scarred man appeared in front of him, staring in the direction of the corpse and muttering in a low voice, as though to himself, "That''s what you get for surprising me just when I was starting to have fun" The blue haired man now had blood around his mouth and dripping from his chin, his eyes still glowing red, and his right arm now no longer looking injured and holding the necklace that had once hung around the head matrons'' neck; The necklace was covered in blood. "Who.. Who are you? Where is Rudy?" The slim man managed to stutter out as he walked backward until his hips touched the crib he had just broken, He could clearly sense that the man in front of him was more powerful than him, especially since he was just a team leader of the outer circle of the Black Crow based on his talent in array creation. "I dont think that''s'' your biggest concern right now" The blue haired man said, while rubbing the scar on his right arm with his left hand, his left palm giving off a faint gray colored glow, the watch that had been on the scar was no longer there , probably broken in his fight with the head matron. As he continued rubbing his right arm, the scar slowly faded away, as though it had never been there to begin with; The slim man stared at this process, brandishing his dagger, on full alert. Suddenly, The blue haired man stepped to the side, as a charred blue hand grabbed air right next to him, The blue haired man then cut off the blue coloured hand using his right hand like a knife; As soon as the blue hand was cut off, a scream could be heard from a cloaked figure as the blue arms emerging from his back retracted into it, and he fell to the ground. The blue haired man opened his mouth, as if he was about to comment on the attempt to attack him, but he then looked towards the hole in the roof with a frown on his face. He then took out a round gray ball from somewhere inside his cloak and threw it at the ground. The ball gave rise to a dense smoke as soon as it touched the ground; The smoke then quickly spread and covered the entire nursery, even leaking out to the hallways and through the hole in the roof. Inside the smoke, No one could see more than two meters in front of them. As the smoke was still spreading, in the Vandara city line, multiple figures could be seen jumping roof to roof as they approached the orphanage. Chapter 7: The Smoke Settles Chapter 7:The Smoke Settles As a full moon shone over Vandara, twenty or so figures could be seen jumping from roof to roof as they headed for a building that had smoke coming out from the top, as though from a chimney. What was strange was that it was currently the warmest season of Vandara, where residents could be seen roaming around in half sleeved shirts and kakhi shorts with sweat covering every inch of their exposed skin. In such hot and humid weather, smoke was anything but good; Because of this fact, when a night-owl saw smoke rising from the local orphanage, he ran to the Adventurers'' Guild to report this. The twenty or so figures rushing toward the orphanage were some of the strongest adventurers in Vandara, with the weakest of them being Silver rank 3;They had been given the night-watch duty today and were quickly informed by the guild receptionist handling the night shift about the foreboding event. As the first of the adventurers reached the roof of the orphanage, he peered inside the hole in the roof, to see silhouettes right under the hole becoming slowly visible as the smoke began to settle. By the time the last of the adventurers arrived, the smoke had almost settled, and right under the smoke, 3 cloaked figures and 5 matrons could be seen, alert of each other, yet not attacking, as if worried about some unseen threat; Some adventurers began climbing down the ropes still attached from the roof, while two or three of them just jumped into the hole and some of them still stayed on the roof, wanting to wait for the smoke to settle completely. As the first adventurers reached the ground, the smoke completely settled and the three cloaked figures raised their hands, signifying their unwillingness to continue the fight, and the matrons, still suspicious of deception, slowly grouped together. The adventurers on the scene first noticed the dried up corpse of the matron on the ground, their attention then went to the hole in the wall that was close to where they had just descended, then, following the pointing of the matrons, they noticed a body on the floor, in a corner not so far from where they were, in the middle of some cribs; Behind the cribs, a hole in the wall could be seen.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The body was that of a slim man wearing a black full sleeve shirt and black pants, He had a steel dagger sticking out of his neck, and a small pool of blood could be seen under his head coming out from his mouth and the injury in his neck. As the adventurers were about to head to the body, one of the matrons stepped forward and began explaining the situation to them, warning them about the still wandering blue haired man. This put the adventurers on high alert, as 10 of them secured the perimeter of the orphanage, 2 of them used mana-restricting cuffs to prevent the invaders from running away or causing any chaos, three of them began examining the body and the rest spread out through the orphanage to look for the blue haired man in packs of 3. One of the matrons realized that the baby that had been giggling in the crib next to the now dead invader was no longer there, not even as a body. As this matron reminded the others of the missing child, they all tried to recall its features but found that they were unable to, they then just informed one of the adventurers about the disappearance of the infant. Although they were matrons, they did not interact much with the infants as they usually handled security; They were also not that affected as they had been through a few battles in the past and had seen death occur in front of them quite a couple of times. They did however feel pity, pity for the infant who had first lost its parents, and was now taken by the cruel man that had killed their head matron and his own comrade. The adventurers searched the entire orphanage and expanded their search to the houses nearby, wondering how the residents had not been awoken by the fighting. When a team of adventurers received no response on knocking at the front door of a house, they tried the door only to find it unlocked; But what they found inside sent shivers down their spine, All the residents inside the house were dead, with their bodies having pools of blood under them as they lay on the floor lifelessly; The same happened to the teams that went to different houses. When the sun finally began rising over the city of Vandara, the adventurers finally gave up their search for the blue haired man and the missing infant. That was the day the city of Vandara, and many other Tier-one cities in the surrounding area went into lock down. If marked on a map, One would see that these cities would create a figure that represented a circle around the Tier-2 city of Aries. Chapter 8: Ill Take Him Chapter 8: I''ll take him As the sun hung in the middle of the sky on top of the Teir-2 city of Aries, inside the conference room of the three-story tall Adventurers'' Guild Building, Four men and Three Women sat at one side of the table in the middle of the room. At the head of the table,a gray haired man with a scar that passed over his shut right eyelid and his misshapen nose was sitting with one of his hands twisting the end of his mustache. All the other participants in the meeting were obviously waiting for him to speak. The gray haired man stopped twirling his mustache and looked at the people sitting around him as he began speaking, "I guess you all must know about the attacks in the Tier-one cities that fell under our jurisdiction, The attacks were all premeditated and all targeted orphanages, in particular the nursery was the prime objective of the invaders. Those at this table will be responsible for handling the response for this incident, any questions?" "Do we know which organization is behind these attacks yet?", A man wearing a black tank top with black trousers asked, to which, the man wearing glasses and a white robe, looking like a generic mage out of a fantasy themed novel while sitting to the right of the old man, replied "My scours in some of the cities have reported to me that the invaders that were captured claim to be from the Black Crow." "The Black crow? But dont all their members commit suicide as soon as they are captured? I''ve been trying to get one of my spies into the inner circle for years." Said a dark skinned woman wearing brown clothing with a golden lining as she slammed the palm of her hands down onto the conference table, which shook gently. It was clear to the others at the table that she had barely used any strength and had slammed the table for show rather than out of frustration. "That''s just it, apparently when they were questioned about the same, they claimed they were from the outer circle and this was one of their first missions, except for the team leaders, who all either escaped or ended up dying fighting against the defenders, there were no survivors amongst them." The knock off mage replied. "Oh that''s boring." Said the dark skinned woman as she settled down, seemingly losing interest.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. *Ahem*, the old man who had just watched the topic at hand go out the proverbial window, tried to use his authority to bring the conversation back around. "Oh come on Gramps, we all know what''s gonna happen; We''re gonna accuse the Black Crow, they''re gonna claim plausible deniability or claim they are being framed until eventually we come to a compromise, and they provide us some resources as compensation at the threat of us taking this to the Union Association." Said a short girl that seemed to be the youngest one at the table, looking like a teenager with a pair of ponytails and boyish fingerless gloves on her hands. There was an awkward silence in the room as everyone except the old man stared at the girl, the old man meanwhile seemed to be quite interested in the floral patterns on the wall. ... Meanwhile, in Vandara; Construction work was ongoing in the nursery to fix the roof with the giant hole in the wall; Many middle-aged uncles could be seen roaming without a shirt as they did labor work to earn some money to survive another day and feed their families. Although most infants were fine thanks to the quick response of the matrons, some infants had fainted after the first clash between the now deceased head matron and the disappeared blue haired man due to the loud noise and pressure created by the collision of their fists. These injured infants were kept under constant surveillance and as their tiny little eyes opened one by one smiles could be seen on the faces of the matrons, even though the orphanage had lost so much in yesterdays'' tragedy. Soon every infant except one had opened their eyes, except one. It was the green-eyed one that barely cried or laughed, he had been found unconscious and on his back after the sun had risen and his eyes had been swollen for no apparent cause. Soon, a few days had passed since the incident, the roof had almost been completely repaired and the middle-aged uncles that were done with their responsibilities had started to leave. As the manual workers began to leave, one of them approached three matrons that were all sitting next to a crib near the entrance of the orphanage and asked, "Is everything alright? I''ve seen you three here since the past few days and it seems that you aren''t getting much rest, especially after what y''all went through a few days ago" He looked at the three matrons that were now looking at him and continued "If there''s anything I can do that will help you with your problems, do let me know, after all my father himself was raised in this orphanage." One of the matrons seemed to recognize the mans'' father by resemblance and began chatting with him, now having a self loathing smile on her face; She explained the situation of the infant and how his brother had most likely been killed by the blue haired man. "What a pitiful child, If he does wake up, he deserves some happiness after all that''s happened to him." The old man said, he then paused for a second and continued with a determined look on his face, "I''ll come by in three days time, if he has wakened up by then I''ll take him as my own." The old man then nodded to himself as though reaffirming his determination, and then turned around and left the orphanage without a word. Chapter 9: Seperation Chapter 9: Separation It was a rainy day in the city of Vandara. At the reception of the local orphanage, a single crib with a weak looking infant could be seen. The infant was wearing yellow colored overalls with cartoon faces of bears making various expressions on it, he had a pipe going into his mouth and the pipe could be seen connected to a bag suspended in the air with a light brown substance in it. There was a single matron in the reception, responsible for redirecting visitors and for watching over the weak looking unconscious baby; Currently the matron had her head on the side of the crib as she was playing with the mobile on the crib while letting out a bored sigh now and then. As the pitter patter of rain could be heard on the windows of the unusually quiet reception and the jingle of the mobile over the crib sounded out now and then, The infant lying in the crib slowly opened his eyes. The child did not start crying, he just stared curiously at the back of the head in front of him as he heard the ambient sounds in the room.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Soon the matron sighed and got up from her half sitting half lying position. As she inevitably looked into the crib, expecting to see the still unconscious infant, she was startled and shocked to see a pair of bright green eyes looking right back at her with curiosity. She began to stutter while looking around her for anyone who could tell her what to do before she ran out of the reception leaving the curious baby alone with a pipe still going down his throat and into his stomach. Soon the matron returned with a few older looking matrons and a couple of wet nurses, these wet nurses were the ones who had previously taken care of the infant in the nursery. As the baby lay immobile, its eyes darted from one face to the next, and he seemed to be looking for something. Within a few hours of the baby getting up, the orphanage staff confirmed he no longer had any significant issues and removed the nasogastric tube that went into his mouth. As soon as the tube was removed, the baby raised its hands, and tried to get up but did not seem to have the energy to. One of the wet nurses who could be seen to have tears in her eyes lifted up the baby gently as she cradled him while looking at him with relief all over her face. The infant seemed to ignore everyone in the room and turned his neck to seemingly look around the room as if looking for something or someone. In his eyes, the going ons in adjacent rooms and the ones beyond them could be seen one by one as if he was selectively choosing to look through specific walls. After a few minutes of this, the baby looked at the matron that was embracing him, and began crying. Chapter 10: Barrett Chapter 10: Barrett As the sound of thunder could be heard ringing through the city of Vandara. The sound of children talking and giggling could be heard in the local orphanage as a couple of teenagers and toddlers surrounded a crib in the nursery. They had all been watching the injured infant from a distance as the matrons had told them not to come near the crib as the baby was in critical condition and could get hurt easily. Now that the baby had woken up and it had been moved back into the nursery, the kids could come and look at him; They still were not allowed to touch him though. The green-eyed baby looked at the immature faces that were surrounding his cribs for merely a moment as he lay in the crib with his little tiny green eyes having a red discoloration to them. He closed his eyes and just lay there in crib, as though he was back to the unconscious state. After he had taken a look around the nursery a little while after he had woken up a few hours ago, he had realized his brother that had the habit of hiding from people was no longer in the nursery. As the baby did not know how to speak or understand the words that the members of the orphanage said save for a few keywords like "hungry" and "diaper", he did not know what he was feeling. He just knew he felt like crying but his eyes hurt too much to cry anymore. Although the baby did not know what a brother was, he had felt a strong sense of attachment to the infants that had been in the cribs to his left and right cribs, they gave him a feeling of happiness. And now, both of them were gone, and he was left alone. The infant that could not even speak, the infant that did not know what was right or wrong, the infant that had been living relying on his natural inborn instincts; This was the infant that felt lonely, surrounded by people that looked at him filled with happiness.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Just as he was about to doze off to sleep, the infant felt a weird feeling and his pupils dilated. In his vision, a thin blue thread could be seen extending from him, the baby had never seen such a thread before. The baby followed the blue line with his eyes and looked towards a wall which was a little ways off from the entrance of the nursery;a few rooms behind this wall was the reception area of the orphanage. ... Meanwhile, at the reception of the orphanage; The doors of the orphanage were pushed open by a man in a black cloak;The bored looking matron almost screamt out, fearing the invaders had come back to kill the infants, but luckily she noticed the figure take off the hood of the cloak to reveal a familiar face. It was the middle-aged uncle that had promised to adopt the unconscious child if it woke up by when he returned, the same man whose father had been raised up in the same orphanage. The middle-aged man folded his coat neatly and put it under arm as he walked to the receptionist. He noticed she was one of the matrons that had been looking over the baby when he had made the promise and was slightly relieved that he did not have to explain the situation. He just said: "Is he up?" ... The door to the nursery was pushed open as the matron that had been sitting in the reception led a middle-aged man who was now completely dry somehow to a crib in the corner of the room. In the crib, a green-eyed infant was staring at the pair approaching him, completely looking through a teen that had thought he was looking at her who was making funny faces to try to make him laugh. As the middle-aged man reached the crib, the baby inside raised his arms, indicating he wanted to be picked up. In the babys'' eyes, there was a very small light blue thread connecting the middle-aged man to him. The middle age man picked up the baby, as the teens stepped away from the crib and looked at him with a little awe in their face; After all he had managed to get a response from the baby that had been dull ever since he had woken up. The baby closed his eyes and put his head on the middle-aged mans shoulder with both of his tiny hands tightly grabbing the shirt on the same shoulder. The middle-aged man looked at the yellow onesie of the baby and the cute little bears on it. "I will keep my word and adopt this child, please help me with the registration process" He said while looking at the matron that was looking at the baby in his arms with surprise on her face. "O-Okay we''ll get right to it, have you decided on a name yet?" The matron asked. "Barrett, I think it suits him" On the shoulder of the man that had just spoken, an infant could be seen smiling as he slowly began drifting off to sleep. Chapter 11: A Twelve Year Old Chapter 11: A Twelve Year Old As the sun rose over Aries, from the cottage at the corner of the city, a slim looking boy could be seen leaving with a messenger bang slung over his right shoulder. It had been a little over 9 years since the Black Crow had publicly apologized for attacking the orphanages in the tier-1 cities nearby; They had also provided ample resources for the development of new talent in the Hunters'' academy in Aries City. As the slim boy ran across the sidewalk and headed toward the center of the city, he could be seen greeting a few elderly people who had been out for a morning walk along the way. A couple of old ladies would give him candy along the way and a couple of food stalls that were still setting up would call him over and give him some snacks;A couple of adventurers patrol groups would stop him now and then and talk to him, rustling his hair in the middle of their talks.0---- The slim boy would smile and nod his head while listening to these people and would tuck away the eatables in his sling bag as he excused himself and continued hurrying towards the center of the city. At a certain point the surrounding cottages were replaced by two story buildings. After reaching a gray colored two story building, the slim boy stopped running and walked inside. He greeted the receptionist before climbing the stairs and walking to a corner office on second floor of the building. As he pushed open the opaque glass door of the office and walked in, a gentle old man looked up from his desk and stopped writing with his quill pen and put it in the corner of his desk. "Barrett, are you here to say hello before you go out on your daily deliveries?" The old man said as he clasped his hands under his chin and looked at the slim twelve year old boy, the boy could be said to be fit as the slim figures of the firm muscles underneath could be seen on his arms and forearms, the only visible part of his body save his face. As Barrett smiled at the old man he shook his head and said "I will never understand why you keep using a quill to write your notes when there are ball point pens available" He then started walking out and stopped at the door to say "Oh yeah, Dad told me to remind you that you are coming to our house for Dinner tonight"Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. The old man had a cheery smile on his face and said "How could I forget, your dad is making his stew that''s famous among the adventurers after all" The slim boy then left the room, collected the newspapers from the room and his agency issued bicycle from the storage room, and began his daily paper route. ... Soon, It was afternoon and Barrett had long since finished his paper route delivery and was now at his backyard holding a wooden sword, swinging it in the same form over and over again as sweat gleamed all over his body, his white shirt sticking to his packed abdominal muscles. After he was going through a few forms of swinging his sword, he went to the tree nearby and picked up a book lying under it as he sat down on the warm grass and began reading the book with quite some focus. A bow could be seen peeking over the wall behind the backyard as a little girl that looked slightly taller than Barrett could be seen struggling to climb up the wall that was 2 times her height. As the little girl managed to climb over the wall, she hung on the side of the backyard and soon jumped down and landed on the grass. Barrett looked over at her and waved, putting the book down with his other hand. On the bronze colored cover of the book, the title, "Chess-masters'' Slash" could be seen written in big bold letters. "Are you practicing your sword skills? Do you want me to leave?" The girl said as she put her hands behind her back and looked at the book that was lying on the grass next to the boy. "No, I was just reviewing my form using the illustrations in the guide book; Thanks for getting me the book by the way, it completely suits me" The boy said while rubbing his head and smiling while looking at the girl in front of him who was now smiling so much that her dimples could be seen and her eyes were now almost completely closed, looking like two crescent shaped lines on her face. "No problem, Dad has a lot of bronze level guide book and he doesn''t mind me lending them to you since he knows Uncle Sean since they were like 10 or something, he keeps changing the number every time, so I dont know for sure." As the duo chatted animatedly, the sun slowly began setting and the sky was now orangish with red at the edge of the hemisphere. The boy bought up the topic of dinner and said "Are you and Uncle Tao coming for the dinner today? Dad did say Uncle might be busy with the guild, so its fine if he doesn''t come, but you have no excuse since you obviously have nothing else to do" He said while looking at the girl that had her mouth hung open from what he just said. She punched him in the shoulder, a slight blue glow around her fist, and he flew out toward another tree in the backyard. "Idiot" she said under her breath and went over to where he fell and began berating him on his lack of manners or ability to speak to a lady. As the sound of an angry little lady could be heard from behind the cottage, the sky soon turned dark and a Slightly aged man with gray hair interleaving with black colored ones entered the cottage, smiling as he heard the children behind the cottage. The shouting voice of the little girl soon stopped and a delicious smell wafted through the neighborhood. Inside the cottage, the duo that were previously outside were now sitting on the sofa in the living room as they talked about todays'' news, the aged man was cooking in the kitchen and had a pink colored apron tied around his waist. Soon knocking could be heard on the door of the house. Chapter 12: A Nice Dinner Chapter 12: A Nice Dinner Inside a cottage at the corner of the city of Aries on a cool summer night, Four people sat around the small dining table in one of the rooms. On the table there was a assortment of dishes, and the little girl and the old man sitting at the table were drooling a little and the smell of the food was wafting throughout the neighborhood "Aah Mr. Grimes must be making his adventurers'' stew" A young man who was patrolling nearby could be heard saying to his squad as a bit of drool leaked out of the side of his mouth. Outside the house, a well natured gentleman pulled at his collar and readjusted his tie before knocking on the door. Although the gentleman looked to be around 25 years old by his stature and clothing, there were wrinkles forming on his that gave out his true age. Soon the two children that were sitting at the table opened the door and the young lady jumped at the man while shouting "Daddy!, I knew you''d come!" "Well how could I miss the dinner hosted by my daughters'' father-in-law?" The gentleman said while patting the young girls head who was now completely red from neck to ear and had her head down as they both moved back towards the table. The boy meanwhile, had a kind smile on his face, obviously being used to such teasing by his neighbor. He greeted the gentleman "Good Evening uncle, thanks for coming to the dinner" "Ah Good evening Barrett, how''s'' your sword training going? Did you manage to grasp the foundation of the skill yet?" The gentleman replied while sitting down at the table, looking at the young boy who had just closed the door and was now heading to his own seat.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. "Yes, I feel like I finally understand the flow of each particular movement, I''m still far from applying the technique practically though." Barrett admitted while rolling up some noodles on a chopstick like utensil and moved it to dip it into the bowl of stew on his plate. Soon after the gentleman and Barrett finished exchanging information about his status on the sword skill, The others joined in on the conversation and began eating the delicious food on the table. Soon, the little girl that had been eating her food quietly so far also chimed in "Oh yeah, Grandpa Grover, is there any news of when the Adventurers Examination begins?" The old man who had been chatting with the gentlemanly looking man and the host of the dinner, looked at the little girl with a smile on his face and said "Why, do you plan on participating Miss Elaine?" "Yeah, I''ll be participating in the bronze level recruitment exam with Barrett" The host, Mr. Grimes put down his utensils and looked at the young boy at the table who was now averting his eyes. "I was going to ask you when the dates for the examination came out" The boy said while scratching the side of his face and smiling uncomfortably. Mr. Grimes replied "It''s okay, but you do know you risk your life even in the initial stages of any recruitment test? Are you sure your''re ready?" "I''m ready, I''m sure" the boy said as a strong determination could be seen in his eyes. The conversations returned to local gossip and compliments about the meal from that point on. This dinner among a small group of people had a very comfortable atmosphere and smiles could be seen on all the participants faces while they chatted until the clock struck 12. "I guess I must be leaving" said the old man who was the head of the local newspaper department, as he picked his hat off the hat rack, dusted it and put it on his head covered in gray hair with no sign of receding. With this, the young girl and the gentleman got up as well and got ready to leave. Soon the group of five stood outside the cottage, saying simple goodbyes, not putting much thought into it as they thought they would meet tomorrow. Unknown to the five of them, one of them would not be seen alive again after this moment. ... In the middle of night, as Barrett lay sleeping in his bed, now dry from the bath he had taken after a round of evening practice, A small blue thread that was not visible to anyone but him in his waking state, A small blue thread among many others, faded away into the night, as if it had never been there to begin with. Chapter 13: Murders In The Night Chapter 13: Murders In The Night As the moonless night covered the sky of the city of Aries, A scream was heard from the residence of the chief of the local newspaper Ronald Grover. Inside the residence, the old man was bleeding out on his bed with a horrified look on his face as he had just woken up screaming in intense pain; He looked at the source of pain and saw a bloody dagger being drawn out of the wound in his chest, the wound was covered in golden glow overlaid with a purplish glow. As the old man looked at the wound in disbelief, he visible saw the blood flowing out turn from red to black and felt an unbearable pull in his chest; He was going into cardiac arrest. As his vision got blurry and his head fell back onto his pillow, he managed to turn it to face the one attacking him and tried to say something with his final breath. "Who aa..." Unfortunately before he could complete what he was about to say, His eyes glazed over and his tense body relaxed, with the blood flowing from his chest increasing slightly as he lay on the bed motionless, his face showing an unaccepting look as he lay there dead. Moments after his death, a blue energy floated out of his chest and went into the chest of the figure standing over his bed. The figure that was motionlessly watching him bleed out all this while, started shrinking as it turned into a black fluid like substance and melted into the shadows on the ground. Meanwhile, the lights in the neighboring houses could be seen turning on one by one as some neighbors stepped out to locate the source of the scream, there were many adventurers in this town with most of them being upper bronze rank or lower silver rank, and they could identify the source being the powerless old man that had been living in the town for so many years. As the neighbors grouped up and attempted entering the house, unaware to them in the shadows on the footpath just outside the house, an obtuse shape that was darker than the shadows surrounding it was moving towards another house.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. The death of Ronald Grover was not the first one that happened that night and it sure as hell wasn''t the last, as within 15 minutes from the time his scream had echoed in the surrounding area Mr.Grovers'' house, the shadow entered another one, merely 10 buildings away. At the towns'' adventurers'' association a sleazy eyed receptionist was sweating from his forehead as he heard the report of the various murders happening across town one by one, He reported this to the branch leader. The branch leader was a gray haired man with an eye patch over his right eye, a scar could be seen coming from under the eye patch and continued over his misshapen nose; He had a thick gray mustache that was turned upwards at the end and was wearing a red cloak that left his chest exposed. Across the exposed chest, three wide scars could be seen, looking like scratch marks from a giant wild beast. This was the same man that had led the meeting to handle the response for the massacre in the tier one towns around 9 years ago. When the peon sent by the receptionist entered the branch leaders'' room after being granted permission to do so, he saw the white haired old man standing and looking out of the window into the neighborhood below, twirling the right end of his mustache with his hand. "I know about the situation, give me the locations of the attacks known so far" the old man said without turning his head. "Y-yes Sir!" the peon said, coming out of his state of awe as he looked at the branch leader. He moved towards the hulking figure of a man who stood over 7 feet tall and handed him the report given to him by the receptionist. "The numbers are all in there" (peon) "I get it, you may leave, tell the receptionist to inform the response team 1", the old man said, and he opened the window in front of him. As the peon stood awestruck, the old man jumped out of the window as a green mist began forming under him. The green mist soon surrounded his feet as he fell downwards a little and then disappeared from view, while the old man had stopped falling and was now seemingly floating in the air. After he finished looking at the report, he threw it back into the room through the window and made eye contact with the peon as he did. "I-I''m sorry sir I''ll go inform them right away" The peon said as he stumbled clumsily out the door of the branch leaders'' office, dropping some of the documents that had been in his hand while scrambling away. The old man outside sighed and muttered something under his breath before he kicked the air beneath him and flew off into the sky at a surprising speed, The papers in the report lying inside the room flew out of the window due to the change in wind pressure and could be seen by the people entering the adventurers association branch as they scattered in the air and fell slowly to the floor. Chapter 14: I did not know what to do Chapter 14: I did not know what to do I woke up to the sound of a short and loud scream outside, The scream put me into alert, and I activated my ability. I didn''t have any particular name for this ability, I have been able to use it for as long as I remember being alive, all the way back when me and my two brothers'' were in the orphanage. Over time, it has evolved as Ellaines'' dad would say. I notice the minute differences now and then when I try using it at nighttime when Dad has gone to sleep, I would have told him about it but whenever I was about to I''d feel this weird tingling in my stomach. As I scanned the area where I thought the scream originated, I could see our neighbor from three doors down Mr. Evans, a school teacher lying dead in his bedroom with blood coming out of a long gash on his stomach. The gash though long wasn''t too wide, so it was made by a thin sharp weapon. I looked inside the rest of Mr. Evans'' house but couldn''t find the murderer. "Strange" I thought, as It had barely been 5 minutes since I woke up from the scream. As I turned my head and looked outside the house to check the surrounding houses, I saw a dark glow coming from one part of the sidewalk.The dark glow was in the form of a human like figure and it looked like a 2D man running on the surface of the sidewalk but as I looked at the side walk under the glow, a dark circular shadow was all I could see as it moved very quickly move towards the center of town. "I guess that was the killer", I thought, but still checked the inside of the house, Dad was wearing his coat and tying his shoelaces while anxiously looking towards my room. I smiled a little and then looked into Ellaines'' house, Her father was up and holding a sword that he kept by his bedside and was heading towards Ellaines'' room; She was still sleeping soundly, with a smile on her face. "Its just like her to not wake up even to a scream in the middle of the night." I thought as I slapped my head with my palm, We had had a few sleepovers and I would always wake up to her loud snoring and even if i fell out of bed while waking up, she wouldn''t even roll over from the disturbance. As I was about to turn my ability off, I noticed that one of the destiny lines that were connected to me was missing. I was confused, this was not the first time that this had happened but it was the first time it had happened without any warning.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! These blue lines that connected me with other people were what I liked to call destiny lines, they first started showing up when my dad adopted me I think, although I dont understand why there weren''t any connected to my brothers. They appear even before I meet someone and would appear when I came into a certain range of the person and would disappear when I left that range, I''ve tried measuring the range a lot of times by going to the edge of the city, but its different every time and the last time I tried it which was around 2 months ago, none of the destiny lines disappeared; I think it''s because my ability is getting stronger. Anyone a destiny line was connected to would end up becoming one of the people that I was close to although that''s what I''ve noticed so far. I checked the destiny lines still connected to me which weren''t that many, just 6 and was quickly able to determine the one missing was the one for Grandpa Grover! I tried looking towards Grandpa Grovers'' house but it was just a bit out of the range of my seeing ability. As I was thinking about why the line would suddenly disappear, My dad opened the door to my room and said: "Barrett lock your door and stay here, I''m going to go check outside, dont open your door to anyone but me okay?" "Okay dad" I said while giving a faint smile, I understood that dad was just trying to protect me. AS he closed the door, I activated my ability again and watched him leave the house and head for Ellaines'' house where I could see her dad opening her room and facepalming before he went up and rolled her off the bed. As she got up and rubbed the side of her stomach, she said something along the lines of "Why did you do that Daddy?" although that was just me filling in the parts I could understand from reading her lips. Before her father could response, my dad knocked on the door and Ellaines'' dad walked down cautiously with sword in hand, but after hearing my dads voice he opened the door without much delay. They had a short conversation which I couldn''t grasp and Ellaines'' dad ran up and brought Ellaine still in her pajamas'' down; She was rubbing her right eye with her right hand while yawning. Soon I heard a voice outside my door. "Barrett its me, open the door" And I opened my room door to my dad, Ellaines'' dad and Ellaine who was still looking drowsy but had a slight redness on her face. "I hope you can take care of Ellaine while we''re going to go to check the other houses son" Ellaines'' dad said as he turned to Ellaine and said. "Stay here with Barrett for now, I''ll come get you when this whole fiasco is cleared up" Ellaine nodded, now looking less drowsy as she walked into the room and sat on my bed for a second before lying down completely, rolling my blanket onto herself and turning to face the wall. "That''s my bed though" I thought as I watched her staring at the wall. I quickly turned to my dad and Ellaines'' dad who now looked a little embarrassed and said "Okay, I''ll wait for you guys to come back, please be safe" My dad rubbed my hair and said "Good, I''ll see you in a bit son" before closing the door. As I locked the room door, I heard two pairs of footsteps go down the stairs and heard the front door shut. With my ability, I saw my father and Ellaines'' leave our house and for the one next to it, with weapons in hand. Luckily the black glow was nowhere in my view, so I felt relieved. As I sat down on the desk in my room, I heard Ellaine shuffle on my bed and turn to face me with her face filled with air like a balloon, her eyes a little red. I started laughing at this funny sight, and soon Ellaine deflated and started laughing too. As the laughter died down, I saw tears at the corner of Ellaines'' eyes, As the laughter died down, I saw her smile fade away, As the laughter died down, Ellaine began to cry... and I did not know what to do. Chapter 15: Reminiscence Chapter 15: Reminiscence I stood there as I watched Ellaines'' laughing face turn to one that was crying. It took me a moment to react as it was too sudden, and I was just standing there slack jawed as I watched my best friend cry. I ran up to my bed but I did not know what to do in this situation, Of course I had seen her cry before when she got hurt while we were playing or practicing, but in those cases I knew the reason for her crying. After an awkward pause next to the bed I managed to stutter out "Wh-Why are you crying? What happened? Did you hurt yourself when your dad pushed you out of bed?" Ellaine suddenly stopped crying and had a shocked expression on her face as she slowly turned her head to face me, her eyes slightly swollen and asked me. "How did you know?" "How did I know what?" "How did you know that my dad pushed me out of bed?" I froze for a second, realizing the blunder I had just made. I had been keeping my abilities a secret and hadn''t even told my dad and now in the heat of the moment I''d said something which I couldn''t know if i hadn''t been there. "W-Well I heard a thud from where your bedroom is, and I know how much of a heavy sleeper you are, so I thought it was obvious that your dad who was the first one to check the house, would check on you, find you asleep and push you off the bed to wake you up causing the thud."This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. I said, trying to come up with a reasonable excuse. Ellaine, still teary eyed, looked downwards as if thinking about something and then promptly shook her head before looking at me with a perplexed look while wiping the tears at the corner of her eyes with her hands. "Anyway" I said, trying to divert the topic "Why were you crying" Ellaine looked into my eyes, small tears forming at the corners of hers again even though she had just wiped the last ones away. "I-I don''t want him to get hurt again, every time he goes out with that stupid sword, he always comes back cut and bleeding from somewhere." That did make sense, Uncle Tao was on silver level rank 9 and was one of the few upper silver level people in the city, he had some patrol duties but usually he was only called for large scale expeditions or for high level suppressions. I patted Ellaines'' head like how dad had been doing it for me whenever I felt nervous, I never told him, but somehow he always knew when I was. "It''s gonna be fine, your dads with my dad and even though they may not be invincible, they''re pretty strong together you know." I said while remembering the time when me and dad had come to this town a few days after he had adopted me. On the way here we ran into a group of upper bronze rank wolves, and they chased us for quite some time, I had managed to trap a few while dad wasn''t watching but it looked pretty hopeless back then with the limit on my abilities. Then Uncle Tao who had been out on an expedition with a group of adventurers, ran towards us and killed one wolf with one hit, it took him a mere 2 minutes to clear the entire group. After that, my dad fell to his knees from exhaustion while still cradling me and holding me tight to his chest. I dont know what Uncle Tao saw in dad, but he asked him to train under him if he wanted to protect me, and my dad agreed after taking one look at me. Unfortunately, my pleasant reminiscence was interrupted by a scream from the house right next to ours. Activating my ability I saw a similar shadow from before emerging from that house but instead of running away, as if noticing the lack of people, It moved towards the house me and Elaine were in. Note From the author Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque eros justo, aliquam nec convallis nec, tincidunt id metus. Nam dignissim sodales tortor eu ultrices. Nulla porta efficitur euismod. Ut vulputate luctus varius. Phasellus feugiat metus ante, ut feugiat purus mollis ac. Vivamus a hendrerit dolor. Fusce erat nibh, ornare ac elementum eu, efficitur ut augue. Suspendisse hendrerit purus et ex aliquam, a egestas ex cursus. Suspendisse arcu risus, tempor ut fermentum a, vestibulum in ligula. Ut euismod tortor eros, vel pellentesque orci rhoncus ac. Aliquam eget commodo nisl. Ut sapien metus, mollis in est vitae, iaculis faucibus leo. Sed sem nulla, dictum eget accumsan eget, tempus ac ligula. Ut ligula tortor, elementum ut purus ut, placerat condimentum lacus. Integer eget dignissim turpis, eget elementum purus. Sed hendrerit tincidunt lorem. Donec sed nisl purus. Cras ornare elit ut lacinia cursus. Pellentesque sit amet ex eget lacus tincidunt vehicula. In pulvinar, mi sit amet cursus iaculis, dui justo hendrerit felis, a interdum tellus nunc eget metus. Nullam bibendum enim odio, et iaculis leo hendrerit at. Nullam vitae orci id est aliquet malesuada vel sed arcu. Fusce commodo mauris blandit sapien pellentesque interdum. Curabitur cursus mauris id velit mollis tempus in placerat risus. Nulla facilisis ultrices viverra. Integer nec rhoncus dui, et placerat nulla. Suspendisse congue blandit sapien, id euismod magna lacinia sit amet. Cras sollicitudin magna tellus, quis mollis diam vestibulum sit amet. Suspendisse varius hendrerit diam.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Nunc viverra est id arcu viverra tempor. Quisque vestibulum, magna id varius consequat, ex sem consectetur est, vestibulum porttitor leo metus a odio. Fusce vel sem neque. Ut malesuada dolor quis sapien iaculis, eu rutrum nisi ultrices. Vivamus volutpat quam sed dictum bibendum. Aenean aliquam neque a leo fermentum, sed commodo sapien elementum. Fusce nisl mi, rhoncus non dolor vitae, blandit viverra nisl. Ut auctor, tortor et posuere tristique, quam massa posuere dui, sed rutrum massa massa ut leo. Praesent rhoncus ipsum et ligula facilisis vehicula. Duis nisl nunc, auctor vitae ullamcorper in, gravida vitae eros. Morbi dignissim blandit malesuada. Pellentesque velit ligula, porta quis magna sed, vulputate iaculis leo. Duis nisl diam, mollis sollicitudin risus ut, tincidunt varius lorem. Donec diam sapien, aliquam et diam quis, pharetra bibendum dolor. Integer consequat nulla sit amet orci egestas, molestie sagittis erat pretium. In mauris metus, placerat ac libero non, fringilla convallis dui. Donec eget mattis nibh. Vestibulum sed dolor luctus, dignissim nisi sed, sollicitudin arcu. Morbi vel nunc ullamcorper, blandit risus vitae, tristique nisi. Fusce venenatis consectetur semper. Aenean nisi risus, fermentum sed blandit congue, placerat volutpat sem. Vestibulum porttitor mi at libero molestie aliquet. Pellentesque nec gravida nisl. Cras malesuada fermentum erat sit amet consequat. Quisque efficitur lorem libero, in varius ipsum venenatis tempus. Vivamus sagittis placerat risus eu vulputate. Proin sagittis ipsum nec est mollis, eget sollicitudin est finibus. Nullam interdum urna elit, et efficitur massa efficitur eu. Duis eu laoreet lacus. Ut a nulla congue, interdum arcu ac, ultricies elit. Nam diam mauris, posuere ac tellus vel, pretium ultrices odio. Curabitur eleifend gravida.