13 years old, Zai has 5 years until he can sign up for the Demon Forces recruitment. in the previous months, Zai simply was being taught basic etiquette and survival techniques. Now he has been learning, more combative, and tactical strategies.
On a cloudy day in the mountains, Vas is Demonstrating magic. Vas raises his hand out and mana collects in his hand. His hand begins to spark and releases a large bolt of lightning towards the ground.
๐๐๐๐๐ "And that's how it would work," he puts his hand down "along with lightning there are 5 elements that you can take; Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and Lightning. Obviously, you won't be able to pull this off now. It is illegal for an average citizen, especially a kid, to have a magic attribute, you know why?" Vas explains while pacing around the Zai.
"Ya, it's because people are goin' to cause more conflicts, and casualties more often right?"
"yea basically, once you enter the Demon Forces you should get an attribute stone of your choosing. Then you can get an element and from there you're just going to have to get accustomed to it."
"Wait," Zai says with a frustrated face "Demons use magic too, but it's nothing elemental like you explained? What's up with that?"
"Well, I guess you could say that Demons have their own source of power called demonic mana, which doesn't follow the constraints of simple elements like fire, water, etcetera. However, humans can use non-elemental magic too, to a certain extent. Mainly S-Rank soldiers have that ability, your average human can only handle one magic attribute, but when you become S-Rank, you might have the ability to handle two. Any normal person might explode and die the moment they try something so reckless, but if you're part of the few who can withstand it, you might get a fusion or combo of elements at your disposal."
"Then I guess I definitely have to step up my game so I can get two magic attributes or a fusion huh," Zai smirks
Vas scoffs at Zai's remark "You're going to have to do more than just step up your game, if you really want to save people you're going to be mainly fighting against Duke and King level Demons you know. King-level Demons are the main causes of a Catastrophe, when you first enter you'd mainly protect against General and Elite-Class demons."
Zai sulks "Yea, yea I know" while Zai feels somewhat discouraged, he also feels more motivated to progress in his work. Along with feeling more motivated to do better he also feels as if he's lacking some kind of excitement.
3 ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ด ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ
In the woods, Zai is training his mana strengthening, by focusing his mana throughout his body or certain parts of his body it can be enhanced. Focusing his mana on his core, glutes, quads, calves and other muscles he enhanced his running speed temporarily.
he begins to sprint at high speeds through the trees, enhancing his arms, back, chest and more, he jumps from a ridge, into the trees but manages to swing off a branch. with his enhanced legs, he lands without any serious damage, merely tripping.
"Vas was able to maintain a steady flow of mana enhancing his body, even while he's sleeping." It was times like these where Zai was able to acknowledge Vas's strength. ๐๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ'๐ด ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ญ๐บ ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข ๐ง๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ด. Mana fusion was a technique used to permanently infuse mana into people, places, and things, but it takes a lot of discipline and time to do so. Stuff like these made Zai also question how much vas truly cares about his looks to constantly do such a thing. ๐๐ฏ๐บ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฐ he thinks
"If there's one thing he knows how to do already it's mana emission," he says smirking, he walks over to his nearest tree and focuses a considerable amount of mana into his hand. He then performs a right hook on the tree but intentionally misses. Seconds later a large hole was carved into the side of the tree.
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
"๐ฉ๐ข๐ข" Zai exhales and proudly thinks to himself ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ ๐ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฃ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ ๐ต๐ณ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ. "Well it's about time I get back, who knows when the old man is gonna break dow--"
"KYAAAA~" Zai hears a women scream, and turns around in the direction from which it came from. Out of curiosity, Zai decided to check out what was happening. focusing the mana on his legs, he burst towards the direction of the scream.
๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ง
While traversing through the trees, he eventually comes across the crag, and down the crag, a woman was holding an injured man with some of his innards coming out of his body and a demon approaching them. Within that moment he was able to assess the situation in his head ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ญ๐ข๐ด๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ, ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ฉ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ต๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ง๐ญ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ง, ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ต ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ญ๐บ 5 ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ต๐ข๐ญ๐ญ. Zai thought to himself ๐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ต ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ.
Contemplating whether or not to save them or not he stares at the man and women, the man was barely able to open his eyes the woman was crying, tears uncontrollably running down their cheeks and her eyes uncontrollably shaking in fear.
With that look in their eyes, Zai felt an urge to step in, an uncontrollable feeling to eating away at his chest to move. A large amount of mana began to encompassing and enhancing his body, his golden eyes began to glow. Lunging off the crag towards the man and woman, just as the demon was about to finish them both off, the flying Zai kicks the head off the demon. Landing in front of the man and woman, and stabs his hand through the demon's heart killing it with a swift blow.
The feeling in his chest dies down, as well as his eyes. he turns back to the man and woman still in shock but their fear was beginning to subside.
"t-thank you, you saved us," she says still crying.
"urgh," the man groans in pain but.
"Don't worry about it, more importantly, the guy?"
"Oh! don't worry, I'm a medic ill be able to handle this, thank you for just saving us!" The lady exclaims.
"Good because I gotta head out anyway" Before leaving he left some bandages, that he'd usually bring with him during training, with them just in case, and begins to sprints away. ๐๐ข๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ช๐ต ๐ช ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ.
Zai makes it back to the cabin a bit too late as he walks into Vas stuffing his face with food.
"You snooze you lose kiddo"
"Oh C'mon, I was starving too" Zai complains
"Not my problem," Vas says continuing to eat Zai's portion of the food
Zai went to his room frustrated but thought back to what he said, he wasn't really starving, it was a squeezing feeling, not in his stomach, but his chest, more of a desire to do something. Though he passed it off and wouldn't think back to it until much later.
2 ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ด ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ
It was finally the time, Zai was 18 years old, and prepared to set off, with all of his stuff prepared. He learned many things over the years, he meets Vas, his now father figure, outside to set him off.
"Well, well, well, It's finally that day, you look nothing like the twerp I met all those years ago" Vas Jokes around, but he was being genuine. From the crybaby kid, he was babysitting and now, a less crybaby kid that he was babysitting.
Zai came out; with his glowing golden skin, and, eyes, long free-form dreads that he'd developed after not brushing his hair for all those years, and now a tall, slim-built, adult.
"Man, I finally get to eat all my food~" he daydreams about a buffet in front of him once he gets to Voua capital
"Yea you better enjoy it while you can, being in the Demon Forces isn't easy."
"Yea don't worry, I still plan on training frequently, I won't forget my goal."
"Well then get the hell out of here then, it's time I get my peace," Vas says heading back inside.
"THIS, is how you see me off?"
"What you want me to cry about it?" Vas scoffs
"Jeez..." he notices a slight glum look on Vas's face and thinks ๐ ๐จ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฆ'๐ด ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ข ๐ด๐ฐ๐ง๐ต๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ
"Good luck kid, it's not like your company was unappreciated ok, you made things interesting," Vas smirks
"Alright old man, you take care too" and with that, the new and improved Zai sets off in a flash, to the capital of Voua, Gleeland.
Inside the cabin, Vas wears a gloomy look on his face and mumbles to himself "I really hope you can take care, and forgive me, kid..."
While Zai was heading off to Gleeland, he was reminiscing about the times he spent training and with Vas, and one memory stepped in. The day he saved the man and the woman, he never really forgot about it, it was always in the back of his head. Did he swoop in to save them? Or did he swoop in out of anger at what happened back in his childhood, with the pure intention to kill rather than protect as he swore?
"Do I want to be someone like the platinum bolt?" The platinum Bolt, a story of a silver-haired hero who stepped in against all demons to protect the people. Based on the story of the first Demon Forces soldier, and the hero against the first catastrophe. Who randomly disappeared, abandoning the same people he swore to protect.
Zai contemplated whether he really wanted to be a hero or not, he would have this question answered, but the real question was if he would like it or not.