《Ulzreg's Tower》 Prologue: A dream; A reality Hello everyone. This is my first fiction and I hope that you will like it. English is not my native language so I hope that people will correct the mistakes that I make. (Hoping that I did not make a lot of them) If you have any tips for me to improve my way of writing, please, feel free to give them. __________________________________________ Prologue: A dream; A reality Today, she woke up very early. The young girl was so excited; she was waiting impatiently for this day for more than a week already. And it was quite understandable since it was the date of her seventh anniversary. It also seemed that for the first time, she woke up even before her older brother which was a rare occurrence¡ªno, we could even say that it never happened before. The little girl in question was living in a modest house with 2 floors. The first one had a living room which was the main room of the house; it was connected to the main entrance of the house¡ªeven though there was only one entrance, the family still called it the "main entrance"¡ªand to a small but well equipped kitchen. When looking at the cooking space, someone can guess how much work the person using the kitchen put into it. There was also another room which purpose was for her parents to sleep; indeed, it was their bedroom. On the second floor, there were only two rooms, her own bedroom and her brother''s. Both of their room were bigger than their parent''s and the reason was mostly to give them a appropriate environment to grow up. That kind of detail showed how much the parents cherished their children. The small girl came out of her bedroom and, thinking that her brother was already awake, she quickly descended the stairs to greet her family without trying to wake up her older brother. If she knew that she woke up early than him, she would have barged into his room to bring him downstairs with her. "Morning!", she exclaimed herself with a beaming face when she was almost reaching the living room. "Good morning Chelsea.", replied his father who was in the kitchen, cooking, with his back facing her. Yes, the father was cooking. The man did not turned back and continued his activity when his daughter greeted him. Not because he didn''t want to, but because he was concentrating really hard; his face showed that he was focusing on the¡ªdifficult?¡ªtask in front of him. Strangely enough, the young girl was also surprised by this situation. She never saw her father in the kitchen and it was quite a bizarre sight for her. Without even having time to react on what was currently happening, a faint and sweet voice came from the opposite direction of the kitchen. It was her mother''s. "Good morning honey, happy birthday", she calmly said to her daughter. The voice of the mother was clear and harmonious. The woman was sitting in the living room when she spoke those words. She was watching her husband cooking very attentively and a trace of smile could be seen on her face. Her features were quite gorgeous and they were also starting to appear on her daughter. The woman went by the name of Lailah. She had chestnut-color hair and was surely in the end of her twenties. Her eyes was of a pure color, they were azure and reflected everything she was looking at. Her petite figure was quite alluring, she was a beautiful woman. In the opposite, the father''s features were rather normal. We could say that he was very lambda. His name was Reed. He had black short hair that were reddening¡ªso was his unshaved beard¡ªbecause he was cooking with enormous flame in front of him. He had brown eyes and a height that was pretty much average. His physics wasn''t extraordinary but he had good qualities than most of the other men didn''t have; and these qualities were what conquered Lailah. The man was born the same year as his wife which also situated his age in the end of twenties. "Yup! Thank you mom!", the girl energetically answered her mother. She then continued: "Err...Why''s dad cooking? I don''t want to become sick for my birthday!" Hearing this, the mother began to chuckle. The father, him, was sighing at the trust his daughter had in terms of his cooking ability. It was, indeed, a quite sad situation¡ªbut for the father or the daughter''s birthday? That was a good question. The smiling girl hopped on a chair near her mother. After she was well sited on the wooden chair, the girl started to gaze everywhere around her and saw that her brother was not there. She wanted to ask about him but before she could even utter one word, a calm voice resembling her mother''s, but in a different way, echoed in the whole room. "Hello mother, father. Morning Chelsea, happy seventh anniversary." Those were the words spoken by the boy. His clear voice was heard in the whole living room and the kitchen. The way he spoke was different from most of the child his age. He was only 4 years older than his sister which gave him eleven years since he was born. Chelsea often found that his manner of speaking was weird but after some time, she became used to it. Even though she was quite young and naive, she could feel some distance in the words spoken by her brother. Mostly between him and her parents when he was taking to them. But in the end, a feeling was just a feeling, she decided to not think about this anymore. Both of the parents answered the boy: "Good morning Ashul." And the answer they got was: "Uwaah! Father, are you seriously cooking? Do you want to kill us all?", the young boy said, with a face full of disgust. "Oi, you too? What are you saying! You should already know that I''m a great cook!", Reed turned around and, with a surprising high-pitch voice, he shouted these words to his son. "Yes, I know. I just wanted to see your reaction after what Chelsea said.", replied the boy with the same reposing tone as his earlier sentence. Hearing this, the father dropped his shoulder while the mother continued to chuckle seeing her son teasing her husband. The little girl also laughed in front of the interaction between her brother and her father. While the father was cooking, Ashul sat in front of his sister, rejoining her and his mother. The young girl, with a big grin on her face, then said to her brother: "Hehe, seems like I woke up before you! I beat you!", the young girl happily claimed. "Haha right, you beat me. But I won''t let you win anymore though.", her brother rapidly and serenely interjected with a smile¡ªa somehow nostalgic smile¡ªon his face. "Muu, we will see that!", Chelsea angrily stated with a pouting face. After some time, the father finally finished cooking and was serving the breakfast to his wife and children. What he cooked was scrambled egg with bread. This breakfast was quite a luxury for the family since they were not wealthy and couldn''t really afford such breakfast every morning. In fact, eggs and bread were common but using them for every breakfast was too costly for a family like them. Curiously, the cooking was well done; it was really curious because just before, the young girl could see flames in front of her father when he was cooking. The young girl was pondering about how he succeeded. In the end, she decided to not think too much about it; after all, she was only a seventh year old girl, her attention was quickly shifted toward something else. "I thought you were good at cooking. Isn''t it a quite easy thing to cook?", said the boy, grinning, when he saw the plate his father served. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. "You little!...Okay I give up, stop bullying your old father would you?", replied the man with a sense of defeat. Oddly, the father qualified himself as old. Was it that old? He was only in the end of his twenties. In any case, that kind of discussion continued for a while. Chelsea was happy. These interaction was now an everyday''s occurrence for her. Her family was kind and was really amazing to her. Her father was, from what she heard, some sort of adventurer. She didn''t really understand what he really was but from the informations she gathered, his occupation must be one like adventurer¡ªat least, it is what she though. It seemed like he first met Lailah in the famous town under the tower called Ketheries. Their meeting was when they were both under the training of their respective job. The mother, her, at that time, seemed to be training under some group of trader or at least, it was what she told to her daughter. That was all the informations her parents gave to her or what she could interpret from what she heard. For Chelsea, her parents were still quite mysterious because they never talked about their activity before they became parents. She tried to ask her brother one time but the answer she got was: "I don''t know either". Nevertheless, she never gave up and tried to earn as much informations as she could. She was curious; it was normal for a girl this age to become curious about that kind of stuff. Thinking about it, she thought that her parents were not saying anything about their activity because she was too young and it was, most likely, one of the reason. Besides her parents, her older brother was also mysterious. He often gave a kind of melancholic vibe. The atmosphere around him was sometimes quite heavy but most of the time, he did not show it when he was with his sister. After they ate, both of the parents prepared themselves to go out. "Where are you going?", asked innocently Chelsea. She was asking like she didn''t know but in fact she knew very well where they were going. Her mom and dad were going to buy a cake for her and at the same time, bring back her present that they were preparing. "Haha, you already know where we''re going. We''re coming back in about two hours, don''t worry", answered the father back while the mother smiled at her daughter. When the two adults went out, Chelsea, who was now in front of the "main entrance" to say goodbye to them, then turned back and saw her brother. She was quite surprised to see him, standing, just behind her. The young boy looked at his sister for a moment then his voice came out. "Here, for you. Your present.", the young boy declared with, as always, a serene tone. "Oh, thank you!" Chelsea was happy. Her brother already gave her several birthday''s present when she was younger and as always, he gave them before her two parents were able to give theirs. Chelsea took the present with her two hands. She then realized that it was a book. It was the first time that she got a book as a present¡ªor was it really the case? In any case, she took the book. When she opened the book, a few lines could be read: Year 434 of the Kralsben Empire. Slaves working as miners situated at the north of the empire found a new ore. This ore was soon established as the "God''s ore" because of its hardness and the power emanating from it. The ore was emitting a bluish light and when its power was used, the stone became colorless. This famous stone is now known as the ''Mana-ite''. Year 132 of the Ulzreg Calendar People are finally able to enter the tower. A group a knights went through the barrier. It was the first time after Ulzreg himself. It seems like Mana was an important factor to enter the vicinity of the tower. Year ¡ª f the ¡ª endar A new weapon had been created. With the power of the ''Mana-ite'', a weapon that could launch projectiles was born. The weapon in question is the base of what we now call ¡ª. It seemed that some words were not clear, there were part that were erased, surely because of water. Chelsea read some lines randomly and her expression became stiff. She knew these dated. But how? She never read any book like this. The young girl raised her head and wanted to ask explanations from her brother but then, she realized it. She was surrounded by sea of flames. In front of her was only her older brother who looked at her with a emotionless face. She wanted to yell but she couldn''t. No sound came from her mouth. Because of fire, less oxygen in the air could be found. The little girl then began to lose consciousness while still looking at her unmoving brother. Chelsea then woke up abruptly. The roof she was seeing was different from the one of her bedroom. Actually, she was reposing in some kind of tent. She moved her upper body and gaze at her surroundings. She saw some tissues, fabrics and junks on the floor alongside with her as well as 6 books. From where she was, she could read the title of two of the books: "History of Kralsben: the lost Empire" "A brief history on Ulzreg''s Tower" Ah that''s right¡ª The girl stood up after realizing where she was. She opened the tent and the sun''s light dazzled her when she tried to get out. In front of her was a desolate scenery. Debris could be found everywhere; they were detritus and all kind of stuff like this in her surroundings. It was really a slum¡ªand it was now her current home. ¡ªMom and Dad already died... __________________________________________ Book of Mana (part 1): The Mana was discovered along with the ore we called Mana-ite. This ore was emitting a faint light of power; this light was mana. After centuries of research, we found that mana was existing in the air and in a large quantity. With the help of the stone, people began some experiment to understand the Mana itself. One man then discovered that with the help of these stone, we could control the mana in the air, this man was called: Ulzreg. With this finding, more people began to create tools created from the Mana-ite to control the Mana in the air but it was not an easy task since the concerned ore was also known for its hardness. Several decades of research then showed that with modeling mana, we could recreate natural phenomenon like creating fire or water from nothingness. This leads to today. We now know how to manipulate Mana but it is still very restrictive as the Mana-ite is now rare to be found and without it, it is almost impossible to manipulate Mana. Everybody with a Mana-ite tool can use what we now call "Magic"¡ªthe phenomenon of altering the mana in the air into something else. *At the end of each chapter, I will add some informations from books of the world. These informations will help you understanding the world without having a whole chapter explaining what happened long ago or how this or that thing work. In any case, thank you for reading. Chapter 1: The Gears of Fate Hello again everyone. The story really begins now, look forward to what will happen next time. English is not my native language so I hope that people will correct the mistakes that I make. (Hoping that I did not make a lot of them) If you have any tips for me to improve my way of writing, please, feel free to give them. Enjoy. __________________________________________ Chapter 1: The Gears of Fate A torrential rain was pouring down on the whole city. A young boy was running under the rainfall; he was racing through the street alongside a little girl. The boy was holding the girl''s hand very tightly, almost as if he was afraid of losing her¡ªno, he was holding her hand because he was really scared of losing her. They were sprinting for almost five minutes already; the boy seemed to be alright but the younger girl was running out of breath. Even so, she didn''t stop, she continued to run alongside the boy. The girl was tired, her legs began to hurt; she wanted to scream her pain out but she stayed silent, gritting her teeth to suppress the sound that could come out of her mouth. But after a moment, she couldn''t bear the pain anymore. *huff huff* ...*thud* The sound of someone falling could be heard but the young boy didn''t react to it. This sound was, in fact, louder on a wet floor, but for the boy, there wasn''t really a difference since the noise from the falling rain was all he could hear. Nevertheless, he turned back. Not because he heard the girl falling, but because the hand he was holding didn''t moved along with him anymore and stopped him. Looking behind him, he saw the girl on the wet floor. She was breathing heavily and seemed to be suffering a lot. "Chelsea!", he yelled. He was calling out his sister''s name, but no answer came from her. Whereas it was because she couldn''t hear him as a result of the downpour or because she was feeling unwell after running as fast as she could for several minutes¡ªthat, he didn''t know. They were dashing for more than a dozen of minutes. It was already way above the girl''s normal performance. Running at her maximum speed for more than ten minutes was definitively a prowess. The boy fell on his knees and tried to help his younger sister. He called for her name several times while grabbing her whole body to support her. "I...*huff huff* ...okay.", answered the girl. Chelsea was still conscious but could hardly speak. Still, she gathered all her strength to reassure her brother. The boy was yelling her name with an anxious voice but after hearing her, he began to calm down; he was relieved to know that she was just exhausted. After making sure that she was "alright", he raised his head and looked around. The scenery around him was desolate. The siblings were in the middle of a street¡ªa small passage inside the slums of the city. While looking around, the boy caught a few gaze from the people living in this part of the slums. When he saw them, he wanted to ask for help but he didn''t. He knew the circumstances of living in this hell; it was survival of the fittest; it was truly ''everyone for themselves''; no one was going to help two children that were running¡ªno escaping something or someone as fast as they could. *kof kof* The girl started to cough. Not only she was exhausted and her legs were hurting, but she was also becoming ill because of the unrelenting rain. Her clothes¡ªor what could be considered as her clothes¡ªwere completely soaked. She was trembling but to not worry her brother, she stayed strong; she didn''t show any sign of weakness when her brother looked at her. With her right hand, she was clenching a small colorless stone that was serving as a pendant. Chelsea closed her eyes, and then began to remember what caused this situation. She was regretting her earlier promise... ____*A few hours earlier*____ Today was a good day for Chelsea; she was humming and skipping. The reason of her good mood was the promise she made with her older brother. He was her last relative after their parent died, and represented the world for her. He promised his sister few days ago to bring her watch the parade in the main street that took place today, day of the 24th of Ether representing the summer Equinox, and they currently were in the middle of fulfilling this promise. The parade was a march of scholars showing the power of Mana. This parade acted like a graduation ceremony for the concerned scholars, but it was also to show off the kingdom''s strength in front of the citizen. Indeed, being able to use the "Mana" was nowadays rare because of the lack of Mana-ite and its use was mostly military. Furthermore, showing the miracle created by manipulating such magic in front of everyone was more of a political reason than other reasons. Even so, the day of the parade was for everyone a festive day; a day of celebration. For Chelsea, it would be the first year she would be able to watch the parade. Even when her parents were living, she couldn''t witness the parade. Essentially because her mother always said that it was too dangerous. Her father, though, tried to convince his wife to let the children see the parade but without result. In any case, this year, she could finally attend it like she always wanted to. Her brother spoiled her a lot since the death of their parents, and she knew that he would not refuse her ply. Truth is, when she asked her brother, this was the first time she saw him reluctant with her demand, and it was quite understandable. The boy was afraid for his sister; he remembered his mother''s warning, that it was dangerous. Nonetheless, he didn''t want to refuse and he did not. After their parent''s death, they became orphans. Their family wasn''t wealthy; they were just commoners. They didn''t have any relatives, so after they saw their home burning, they were left with nothing. Some people tried to send the siblings in a orphanage but, after knowing that they would be separated, the girl, not wanting to part away from her brother, escaped. In the end, the two children flee inside the slums of the city. The city where they were currently living was called ''Helen'', it was the the main town of the small kingdom of Licade, where the ruler lived. The name ''Helen'' was directly taken from the the religion the kingdom was serving: ''H¨¦lenna''. The city was the biggest one of the kingdom and one of the biggest of the whole continent. However, at least a third of the city was constituted of slums. At the beginning, the life of the two siblings in the slums was really hard. They didn''t really have a place for them and, above all, they were only children. Soon enough, the boy, Ashul, began to do odd jobs to earn money or food; he also started to steal when he couldn''t earn enough money. He was quite reluctant at first to do these jobs since he had to leave his younger sister alone, somewhere in the slums, to work, but he did not really a choice. If they wanted to survive, he had to find a way to earn money and bring food back for both of them. His sister, after witnessing all these events, changed and hardened herself. She wasn''t the little girl that loved to be spoiled anymore¡ªat least, it was what she was trying to show. In fact, she didn''t want to burden her brother. She knew and understand the importance of her brother working to bring back some food or money. She, herself, also wanted to work but her brother didn''t let her do so. The young girl turned seven only a few days ago and her birthday wasn''t like she dreamt of last night. She was even crying for several hours after that dream¡ªno, maybe it was more of a nightmare for her. Her brother tried to console her but he couldn''t do much. They were living in the slums for a little more than 3 months of the H¨¦lenna calendar, that means almost half a year; and his sister was still quite affected by the turn of events. One day, she heard about the parade. She was quite excited for the first time since long ago. She asked her big brother to bring her see the parade. Ashul was reluctant but he didn''t refuse and it was mostly because it was one of the unique time that her sister asked for something since the death of their parent. His ever-smiling and joyous sister was nowhere to be seen after the incident and seeing her smile like she once was influenced his decision; he accepted to bring her see the parade of the summer Equinox. ____*Ashul''s Point of view*____ Today was the day I was bringing my little sister watch the parade. I was not really fond of it and as mother said, it could quickly turned into a dangerous place. Yet, here I was, taking this girl along to watch the event. Frankly speaking, I didn''t want to bring her but when her once lost smile came anew, I couldn''t refuse her. In any case, now that we were here, I needed to do everything I could to protect her since I couldn''t do anything for her parents... I won''t let any more tragedy fell upon this small girl. While thinking about today''s event and waiting Chelsea, I found myself in front of a broken mirror dumped into the slums. I stopped my movement and looked in the mirror. What I saw was a young man with dark hair and darkish red eyes. His build was quite sturdy; his ears was not round like most of the people but was rather pointy; his eyebrows were arched and were of black color like his hair. What I saw was a normal young boy¡ªat least, from the appearance. What I couldn''t see was the injuries under his ragged clothes. The scars that represented his struggles from when he was born. "Brother? What are you doing? Your eyes...", a voice came from behind me and spoke these words. "Oh...Ah, sorry nothing. Anyway, let''s get going." I turned back and answered my sister that gave me an anxious look. Seemed like I was looking at myself with these ''eyes'' again. Of course, when seeing myself, I could only have a look full of hatred and disgust. I was staring at this boy who let his benefactors die. I though that he didn''t deserved to live anymore... And yet he was living. He was still living because of that girl, she was the last remnant, the last piece his will to live was still tied to. The young girl began to resemble her parents. She had pure azure eyes like her mother''s and deep black short hair like her father''s. She seemed to have inherit both her mother''s and father''s quality, physically and, hopefully, mentally. Chelsea was wearing shabby clothes but it was better than the clothes that I was wearing. Unfortunately, with the low quantity of money I earned, I couldn''t buy better clothes that could suit her. She was also wearing a necklace with a colorless stone that she got from mother. It was, for her, a memento of her parents. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Even though she was only seven, she was already trying to become independent and she also tried to not show her emotions like she used to. The innocent young girl was now becoming more and more like I used to be¡ªno, I''m still like this... I was saved by her parents, it''s now my turn to save her from this miserable life. On our way to the main street, we realized that many people living in there were also going to watch the parade. It looked like even with an indecent life condition, these people still had hope; indeed, they were going to see the hope representing the future of their kingdom and perhaps, have more faith in a possible good future for them. I was walking alongside Chelsea. We were holding hands; she was on my left so her right hand was holding my left one. We walked some minutes without really saying anything and then, Chelsea began to say: "Hey Brother Ashul, what''s the parade like?" "Hm... I never went once myself so I can''t really describe it but...", I paused and I started to think. After some moment, I continued: "I heard that they were all kind of miracle created by mana during the parade. Last year, I think, there was a battle of huge wolves of flames in the air." "Wolves of flames? Eeeh, is that so..." It seemed that she was quite dubious from the look on her eyes and her tone when she said those words. It was quite understandable, for someone who never saw magic, it was rather hard to believe. After another few minutes, we finally arrived in the main street. We saw quite a lot of people. Children and many adults came to see the parade. Because of the height of the adults, Chelsea couldn''t see the scholars¡ªthe magicians. I reassured her saying that the ''show'' was mainly in the sky like I told earlier with the wolves of flames in the air but she seemed to still doubting my words. However, after the appearance of people jumping high in the air¡ªand I don''t why they''re doing so¡ªand the creation of a dragon¡ªor more like a flying snake?¡ªof fire from nothingness, the small girl was no longer hesitant and became excited. I, too, was quite surprised by the size of this dragon-like thing of fire. It seems like quite a lot of scholars were using magic together to create it; but its purpose was only to show something incredible since it wasn''t quite viable in battle because of the huge amount of mana it needed. The parade was continuing for about two more hours until the first drop of rain fell. People first thought that the rain was due to the scholars ability, but it seemed that it was not the case. The few guards that were regulating the joyous event began to scatter. Confusion appeared on the face of the citizen. They were discussing among each other, wondering what was happening. The magicians, that were exhibiting their power, created a temporary barrier to protect people under the rain waiting for the guard to find the cause of this unnatural rain¡ªindeed, it was neither a natural rain or some mana manipulation created by the scholars. The rain was quite heavy. Like everybody, I ran toward the barrier to not be completely soaked. Chelsea was also running to protect herself from the rain and, in the midst of the confusion, we were separated. I started to panic. After looking at my surrounding trying to spot her, I shouted several times her name: "Chelsea! Chelsea! Where are you?" "I''m here!" The sound coming from my sister''s reply indicated me that she was not too far from me. It seemed like she began to run toward my direction when she heard my voice. Still looking around me, I finally noticed where she was. Before she could reach my position, she bumped into someone and because she had a frail body, she fell on her bottom. The person she collided with was also in his way to go under the barrier. Even though this man was soaked, he didn''t hesitate to bump several people to go under the barrier. Ignoring what just happened, Chelsea got up like nothing happened and continued to make her way through me. Since I located her, I was also coming toward her way after I saw her falling. But, after seeing my sister''s clothes, the people that she was touching or bumping into, because she was running in the middle of the sea of people, began to push her. Then, an unsightly man nudged my sister. She then fell once again on the humid floor. "People from the slums should stay in the slums!" The voice of the man that hurt my sister was echoing loudly. Even under the heavy rain, the people near him could hear what he just said. Folks near the man were now glaring at Chelsea. Indeed, although there was still a third of the population that lived in the slums, they were a clear discrimination between those who lived in the common area and those who lived in the slums. This distinction was even more clear with the nobles. In fact, because the nobles were considering the commoner as low-lives, the commoner had to find a scapegoat, people in which they could direct their anger since they couldn''t show it the the nobles; and the victims were the people of the slums. The strange thing is, most of the people living the slums were old commoners of the same city but they were not remorseful at all. After hearing this, Chelsea didn''t try to get up... She was looking down. She didn''t want to raise her head; she was afraid. I dashed to her as fast as can to help her. I kneeled and try to see if she was okay. When I raised my head, I saw the disgusting look of the people living in the commoner''s area gazing at us. "Yuha! Wait!" Seeing what just occurred, a young female scholar ran to where we were. At first, I didn''t realized that she was coming toward us but the voice calling out her name¡ªat least I think it was her name¡ªmade me turn my head into her direction. "What are you doing?" The woman yelled seeing our conditions after she arrived near my sister and I. Not waiting for a reply from the commoners that were now afraid of her¡ªor more afraid of her rank in the hierarchy¡ª, the woman tried to help Chelsea to get up. When the young scholar was trying to help my sister, a bluish light began to emanate from Chelsea¡ªno, not from her but from the pendant she was wearing and currently clenching. The stone she was wearing was, normally, a colorless stone but right now, a blue light was flashing and was blinding everyone near us. The light was so bright that it could be seen from everybody on the main street. For a moment, I was surprised but when I regained my calm, I realized the significance of the light. I remembered mother giving the pendant to Chelsea; it was an old Mana-ite that lost all its power. The stone in question was kept by mother because it represented something special for her and father. Knowing that the ore should have lost all its power and seeing the Mana-ite emitting bluish light once again could only mean one thing. "What...? It''s..." The voice of the female scholar could be heard after the potency of the blue light diminished. Now, only faint blue light around the stone itself could be seen. The woman also seemed to understand what this sudden flash of light meant. ''We need to run away from here as fast as we can...!'' I grabbed Chelsea hands started to shout at her: "Run Chelsea! We need to run! Quick!" Without understanding what just happened nor why I shouted this, Chelsea didn''t ask anything and followed my orders. She got up and we both began to run under the rain. The direction we were taking was where we were coming from, the slums. Luckily enough, the people around us were stunned about what just happened and didn''t followed us¡ªat least, they didn''t followed immediately. So did the female scholars; she seemed to not have moved from where she was. But after what just happened, it was only a question a time before someone will be send to pursue us. ___ We were now in the middle of the slums. People living in there that did not come see the parade were looking at us as I was trying to help Chelsea who was exhausted. I saw my younger sister holding tightly the stone of her necklace. When I was looking at her, she seemed to be okay, but after what happened, she couldn''t be alright. Even though she was catching her breath, we ran and stayed under the heavy rain for too long. She had a fragile constitution, so she definitely caught a fever. As I was trying to help her, I began to hear voices. Like I thought, some pursuers were sent after us and they were catching up. Realizing our current situation, I put both of my arm under my sister and stood up while holding her. After making sure that I was gripping her tightly to not let her fall, I started to race. Because I was holding her, my speed was diminished and I couldn''t run as fast as I wanted. The voices behind me were drawing closer and soon enough, I also became exhausted. But I couldn''t stop here. Then¡ª *BANG* __________________________________________ Book of Mana (part 2): During the last decades, rumors saying that people that could manipulate mana without any tools has been spread. After several years of research, these rumors have been proven to be true. It seems that people with the power to manipulate and emitting mana from their body itself were real. Today, these people are called: "Deviant". The Deviant were rare and almost nonexistent but it is said that their strength could change the state of the world. The recent research tried to explain the phenomenon of magic. Magic consisted in modeling the mana particle into whatever the person holding the Mana-ite tool wanted. With different affinity, mana particle could be transformed into fire, water, wind or earth. Basic manipulation showed that people could transform the mana into two different elements. A more precise knowledge in mana manipulation led to a possible transformation of it into three elements. As for manipulating all of them, only people called "Deviant" could handle the four of them at the same time. Ulzreg''s journal (part 1): It''s been already 26 years since I entered the tower. My body seemed to not have aged a lot. It seems like 10 years inside represented 1 year of aging. My body started to change; I can now manipulate the mana without the help of the tool I brought with me. As I climbed higher in the tower, I discovered many treasures. Books about old alchemy could be found. I tried to learn this lost art and now, I succeeded in creating a small sword from metals that could be found in the tower. After reaching a certain floor of the tower, I could sense a different aura surrounding the area. Was it because of the floor or because my body began to change again?¡ªThat, I didn''t know. Thank you for reading. Chapter 2: The meaning of Ones swordsmanship Hello again everyone. Here''s the second chapter. There is some gore? content. If you thought that I put the mature tag for fun, well, it was not. Edit: Essentially for those who already read the chapter. I apologize for the huge amount of mistakes I made. The tense I used for Chelsea''s POV were completely messed up. Strangely, I tried to edit a maximum before posting but each time I was rereading my chapter on this site, I could find another error. I''m still editing the chapter and I will continue to edit it in the next few days. Once again, I am sorry. Also, I realized that I used a lot "to be" verbs...If someone could help me and tell me how to not use it too much, I would be eternally grateful. Before reading this chapter, I''d like to add more informations. I wanted to do a special page for that kind of informations but I wasn''t sure if I was going to do it right now or after several chapters. Furthermore, releasing an interlude to give more informations just after the first chapter was kind of...Not good in my opinion haha. Anyway, here, just wanted to share the H¨¦lenna calendar that I talked about in the first chapter: Calendar of H¨¦lenna (Kingdom of Licade, etc(to be revealed).): 7 months of 48 days, 336 days a year: The months are: Malekus Isor Vinne Ether Chorus Gevur Hodus The summer Equinox takes place the 24th of Ether. It represented the middle; the half of the year. It is some kind of religious celebration as well as the day of graduation of all "magic" academy. By the way, Chelsea was born the 14th of Ether. Now, the chapter. English is not my native language so I hope that people will correct the mistakes that I make. (Hoping that I did not make a lot of them) If you have any tips for me to improve my way of writing, please, feel free to give them. Enjoy. __________________________________________ Chapter 2: The meaning of One''s swordsmanship ____*Chelsea''s Point of view*____ (Author''s note: Frankly speaking, it was hard writing her POV when she is ''that'' young. A naive and innocent girl trying to be mature is what she is in the first chapters. Hoping that I succeeded more or less in trying to write her POV) I lost sight of my brother. Where was he? I started to panic. I looked at my surroundings trying to find him, then I heard his voice. "Chelsea! Chelsea! Where are you?" Ah, this was his voice. I needed to reply. I needed to quickly go back to where he was. We''ve been separated for only a few seconds, maybe minutes but knowing him, I was sure that he was already quite worry. "I''m here!" ¡ªIs what I said. While I spoke those words, I began to ran toward where the the sound of his voice came from. After lightly pushing some people that were blocking the path, I finally spotted him. I dashed as fast as I could and bumped into several people in the way. Continuing to run, I saw another man racing trying to go under the barrier. Without even having the time to realize that he was already near me, he bumped into me, and, because of his stature¡ªa quite large build, I fell on my bottom. Ah, the pants that brother bought me are now soaked and dirty. I started wonder if he was going to be angry at me? Mom was always angry when I dirtied my clothes. Not wanting to pay attention to the man who pushed me, I got up and continued to run toward where my brother was. It appeared that he was also dashing in my direction. While running, it looked like I was bumping into many people. It was weird though, I tried to not run near them as much as I could. It was almost as if they were closing the distance between them and me themselves. Suddenly, I saw an elbow coming toward me. The nudge hurt me and once again I fell on the wet floor. "People in the slums should stay in the slums!" Not having the time to do anything, I heard the loud voice of the man, who just hurt me with his elbow, echoing. Ah, I knew it. I knew the consequences of living in the slums. That''s why people wanted to send us to an orphanage but, being separated from my brother... I did not want that. I thought that it would not be that terrible to be in the slums. Mom and Dad didn''t have any prejudice, they were even helping when they could these people. Maybe I thought that their action was the norm. And I was hoping that some people would help us... But it was not the case. I did not moved. I was afraid, my eyes were looking at the floor. I wanted to disappear, I wanted to hide but I couldn''t move, my legs were trembling, I couldn''t stand up at all. After a moment, I realized that my brother was near me. He was kneeling on the humid floor, trying to help me. Afterwards, I heard a voice from a certain distance. "Yuha! Wait!" Not understanding what was happening, I tried to raise a little my head to access the situation. A woman wearing luxurious weird clothes was now standing near me. She bend herself to see if I was alright. Then she looked in the direction the man who pushed me was. "What are you doing?" She was shouting. But, even though it was a shout, her voice was quite beautiful, it resembles a little like mother''s. It had a nostalgic feeling. Reminiscing mother, I started to hold my pendant very tightly. At this moment, a dazzling blue light emanated from the necklace. For a moment, I could only see white but when my eyes started to readapt themselves, I noticed that the stone from the pendant was now emitting a faint blue light. I was surprised and what just happened was a mystery for me. "What? It''s..." The young woman trying to help us came out with these words. It seems like she was as stunned as I was. "Run Chelsea! We need to run! Quick!" Suddenly, Ashul started to yell. He was already standing. I did not understand what happened nor why he was saying this but he was the only person that I was trusting. Besides, he promised me to protect me after our parent''s death so I had to follow his words. In any case, I got up with his help and we started to run in the direction of the slums. Not stopping, we already ran for more than a dozen of minutes; we were currently in the middle of the slums. I was already exhausted, my head was spinning, my legs hunted so much, I was started to lose consciousness when, finally, I fell. I was having trouble to breath, my heart was pounding so hard, I thought I was going to die. I wanted to throw up but I didn''t ate anything since yesterday, there was nothing to throw up. I sense my brothers arms that were now supporting me. He cried several times my name, he seemed to be anxious, he had this worry look on his face. No, I didn''t want him to have that kind of look. I wanted to become stronger, strong enough to help and not worry my brother anymore. I gathered all my strength and tried to tell him that I was alright. "I...*huff huff* ...okay." I said to him. After saying this, it seems like he was relieved to see I was okay. Afterwards, we stayed almost a minute like this without moving. He was waiting for me to catch my breath. But as more time passed, he became more anxious. Because he feared that some people were going after us? Or maybe because he saw that I caught a fever while staying so long under the heavy rain?¡ªThat, I did not know. Maybe it was both. I was clenching the bluish stone from the necklace mother gave to me very tightly. I was praying, hoping that everything was going to be alright. Then my brother got up while holding me with both of his arms. I did not understand why he suddenly got up and started to dash but after a moment I began to heard voices behind us. Seems like some people were sent after us. Was it because of me? No, I''m pretty sure it was because of the necklace. Everything happened after the blue light appeared. But why are we running? Couldn''t we just give the pendant to these men? I couldn''t understand. Was it because it was a memento of our parents that Ashul did not want to give it? Then, abruptly, a sound resonated. *BANG* Just after the sound, Ashul right arm was no longer holding me and we both fell on the humid floor. Because brother was running when such event occurred, I was ejected a few meters in front of him. What my eyes could now see was the state my brother was in. He was no longer standing but kneeling, both of his knees on the floor. I couldn''t see well because of the rain and my feverish state but strangely, the rain around his right arm was red. Red like his eyes; it was a darkish red. Soon enough, I started to lose consciousness. ____*Change of POV*____ The young boy was now kneeling in front of his sister. A projectile pierced through his right shoulder. Blood was spurting from his wound. Soon, his right arm was recovered from his blood, but it was only for a moment. Indeed, the rain was washing the blood that was flowing on him and what became red was the wet floor he was kneeling on. Ashul did not move. He was looking at his now unconscious sister. At least until he heard: "Hey, you could''ve killed the girl. We need her alive.", a man behind him said. "What about the boy?", replied another adult. "Just kill him, we don''t need him", answered the first man. It seemed that they were just two of us. Two pursuers only? That, Ashul did not believe so at first. But, in the end, why not? They were only children, they were underestimating them. Ashul stood up with his still fresh wound. He did not scream because of the pain. In fact, he stayed emotionless, as if the pain from his fresh wound was not existing. He turned around and looked at the two men. In front of him were two tall adults, they were wearing simple clothes and simple light armors. Their clothes'' quality could be pretty much found everywhere except that it was the uniform of the royal guard. The light armors were only a plate for the torso, some gauntlets and some leg protection. It was really a light equipment, without any helmet. In fact, most of the time, the guards did not wear their armor because they had absolute confidence in their attack power, because of the item they were using as weapon. Each of them had a sword but, truth is, the sword was more of a decoration than anything since they were both holding a weird shooting device¡ªa gun. This gun was mainly made of Mana-ite and was only used by the royal soldier of the kingdom. With the power of Mana, a projectile of metal could be launched at high speed. Truth is, these gun were still prototype; even so, they were still very dangerous. The amount of mana needed to launch a single bullet was enormous for the prototype version. Yet, they were using it. In fact, knowing the power of these gun, all citizen from the kingdom were afraid and they no longer dared to do anything against the King because of its royal guard''s equipment. However, the bullet was only a simple projectile launched by mana, it couldn''t do anything against a magician. That''s why the upper class, the nobles, the only one that could supply themselves with Mana-ite, and the royalty were the ones running this whole kingdom. That''s also why they treated commoners, and people in the slums, like low-lives. Ashul was standing still and was looking at both of the men. When looking into the boy''s eyes, the two guards became afraid. His eyes were deep and you could lose yourself if you looked too much time into them. Panicking, one of the two men moved his right arm and pointed his gun toward the young boy. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. At this moment, Ashul started to remember his promise with Chelsea''s parents. No, his promises, they were two of them. Firstly, that he would never use his competence to hurt people anymore and secondly, he would protect his sister as long as he lived. Reminiscing this, he began to think to himself. ''Sorry Lailah, Reed. It seems that to keep one of the promise, I need to break the other one.'' Before letting the man, who was pointing his gun in the direction of the young boy, shoot; Ashul used a technique he did not make usage since a long time, a technique that was once lost. Transforming Kite style, 3rd path: Illusion under the water, Ren Instantly, Ashul found himself near the two guards¡ªNo, in fact, he was still standing in front of them, unmoving and he was also, at the same time, near the two men. Without realizing what happened, both of the soldier didn''t move when Ashul unsheathed one of the solider''s sword from its scabbard with his left hand. When the two man finally realized what was happening, it was too late for one of them. Ashul already began a slashing motion with his left arm. His right arm did not move since the beginning because of the injury, he only moved his left arm. Furthermore, he did not make any unnecessary movement and quickly, the slicing motion cut through the flesh of the man he took the sword of. Because the guard were mainly wearing simple clothes and light armors, Ashul pinpointing his slash where there was no armor, just under the belly of the man, under his torso plate. Abruptly, the man who received such sword''s slashing motion was now in half. Blood were coming from his torso and what served as below body. Scared about what just happened, the other guard took one step behind and tried to shoot the young man that was now just in front of him. But that also means that the man was also in front of Ashul; the young boy used again the third path: Ren, and found himself just behind the remaining guard a fraction of second before he could shoot with his mana gun. And once again, with a clean slashing motion, this time, he separated the head of the guard from his body. All these action were done in a few seconds. Not even a minute passed. The now bloody scenery showed a young man holding a sword with two body cut in two near him. People in the slums that witnessed the show were now running as fast as they could. The gruesome performance wasn''t something they were used to see nor they wanted to see. In the end, under this downpour, only the siblings remained as well as what was left of the two men. Ashul started to move toward his sister that was unconscious while still holding the sword he just stole. Before even reaching where Chelsea was, he then heard: *clap clap* Clapping sounds could be heard behind him; the spacing between each clap was quite long. He turned back rather quickly to see who was this person. What he saw was a hooded figure that was slowly walking toward him. He could not see the person''s face but judging from the stature, it must have been a man. Ashul started to put himself into a stance with the sword he was holding. However, this stance had many flaws since the young boy couldn''t use his right arm. Slowly approaching, the hooded man then talked: "Young boy, you are quite interesting." At this declaration, the young boy stayed silent. From the voice, this person was, as he thought, a man. He was standing in front of his sister that was lying on the floor and did not moved at all. The man stopped walking and was standing still, looking directly at Ashul. A tense atmosphere surrounded both of the mysterious man and Ashul. The young boy was thinking: who was this man? Did he saw what just happened? If so, why didn''t he make an appearance? Why did he not help the guard? Furthermore, the hooded figure saw the bloody show that Ashul took part in. But the boy did not felt any more presences that the ones of the now dead men. Indeed, this hooded man seemed to not be an ordinary man. And yet, when the male adult in question started to walk once again toward the two siblings, Ashul launched another technique of his. Mixing with the third path: Ren, Ashul used, this time, a sword technique. Transforming Kite style: 4th form, Hin''rui Like earlier, Ashul could now be seen at two places at the same time. He was in front of the mysterious man and also behind him. Knowing that he was just near the man, he started his slashing motion. But this time, even before the image of sword touched the man, a metallic sound could be heard. Ashul, hearing this, jumped backward and was now in the opposite direction from where he was at first. Now, the hooded figure that¡ªin truth not moved¡ªwas now between him and his sister. Hin''rui was also an illusion technique like Ren. The technique could be explained by altering the current image of the blade and the creation of a fake image of the sword moving behind the blade itself. Doing this made the people think that they still had a second left before the blade touched them when, in reality, they couldn''t evade it anymore. This technique was rather powerful against the people that were using their vision to evade the attack and, truth is, quite a lot of people were only using their vision to adapt themselves, evade an attack and judging the distance. But in this case, the sword collided itself with a sturdy armor and crack started to appear on the blade. The sword itself was, at first, only a decorated item for the guard, its quality was rather low. It was already quite weird to see such a poor blade cutting through human flesh so easily. Analyzing what just happened, Ashul started to panic. He underestimated his opponent¡ªno, he was being too confident after killing these two men. He should have been more careful, the man figure was hidden behind a cloak. And there was surely a reason to it. He should have guessed that the man was hiding something. After reforming his stance, the boy felt a cold shiver. A cold aura coming from the mysterious man was now expanding its domaine. Ashul then realized that the man in front of him was too powerful for him, that he didn''t stand a chance. "Oh, that''s some interesting swordsmanship.", the man said and then paused before continuing with a colder voice: "But don''t even try to fight against me, you won''t win." When the man spoke those words, he looked directly at Ashul. Even after saying this, he was still looking at Ashul and not his sister. The boy was perplexed. From the looks of it, it seemed like the man wasn''t there for Chelsea contrary to the two other man. Or was the man going to kill him before going toward his sister? Ashul did not know. But what he was completely sure of was that man''s strength. He needed to find some stratagem to run away once again with his sister but he was completely blocked. "Oi, can''t you at least say something?", said the man interrupting the thinking of the boy. After a silence between the two of them, with only the sound of the unrelenting rain, a voice pierced through the water drops. The voice was clear but was also hesitant. "...Can...You let us be?", replied Ashul, surprisingly enough. He knew that there was no escape route. He knew that whatever he might do, he might either be captured or killed so he spoke those words. He was gambling. By the looks of thing, the man wasn''t with the two guards. Ashul thought that maybe¡ªand he hoped that was the case¡ªthis man wasn''t there for Chelsea. Besides, he had nothing to lose, he was in a position in which he couldn''t do anything more. "Haha...Hahahahahaha! Hahaha...*kof kof*", loudly laughed the man before starting to cough. He then continued: "Ahem...Well, I can let both of you run away without a problem...That is if you can stay conscious." Immediately after saying these words, the man rose his right arm and pointed his hand, opened, toward Ashul. Then, a huge amount of informations came into the boy''s mind. So much that his head was hurting, almost as if someone was opening and cracking his skull. Ashul was once again on his knees and, dropping the sword he was holding, had his left hand on his head. He started to scream because of the pain. He was screaming so loudly that even under the rain, some people that were in the slums but were at least a kilometer from where this event occurred, could hear his voice. The pain was unbearable, his head was splitting apart. The pain was so intense that, he almost fell unconscious. In fact, it happened several times but each time he was reminding himself about the words the man spoke of¡ªthat he was letting both of them escape if he stayed conscious. Finally after a moment, the pain faded. Ashul that was holding his head with only his left hand since his right arm couldn''t move because of the wound tried to stand up but, not having the time to do anything nor think about anything, a fist collided into his stomach. The young boy flew a few meters before crashing into the ground. He started to lose consciousness but before losing it, he realized that while he was enduring the pain, the rain had stopped. He was now, lying on the ground, unconscious. __________________________________________ Ulzreg''s journal (part 2): I realized that the slow aging was due to the wakening of some kind of power flowing inside my body. It seems like in everyone, there is some slumbering power and the tower environment was wakening it. I tried to use this force. I realized that it was thanks to this unknown strength that I could more easily differentiate the aura surrounding me. This power could be felt as a flux inside my body. I decided to call this somewhat divine power En''ra. From the racine of the ancient language en meaning flow and ra meaning god. The discovery of this power could change once again the state of the world. Everyone would be able to use this divine flow contrary to Mana. I need to absolutely give this information to the people outside the tower. Tales of Erebia (part 1): Long ago, there was a battle of swordsmanship style. When swords were the main weapon of each kingdom, empires, and others; it existed several styles that were well known. One of them was called the Transforming Kite style. At first, people were thinking that this was some weak, unknown style because this swordsmanship could be used with every kind of sword. But, truth is, this style was made to be used with all type of sword. Soon enough, the few people that could use this style were becoming famous. They were becoming the strongest of the whole continent. Unfortunately, with the appearance of the Mana-ite, this swordsmanship started to disappear like almost every other sword styles. Even though the sword techniques were now becoming more popular in the last decade, no one knows if this legendary sword style still exists. (Author''s note: I realized that I did not introduced any continent name. The current story takes place in the Kingdom of Licade, situated in the continent of Erebia. I will put all the information into a interlude page, don''t worry. Also, I''d like to remind that Chelsea is the MC...) Thank you for reading.