Chapter 1: The Road to Discoverance

To properly tell this story, I must first go back to the beginning, where everything first began. This is not my story, but the story of a planet, of a race. This is the story of the long forgotten world known as Neptar.

It felt like an ordinary day, I expected it to go how it always went, thinking back I honestly wished it would’ve. As I woke up that day I felt a sudden uneasiness before I got up, at the time I didn’t know for sure why that had happened so I didn’t pay much attention to it, though I have a pretty good feeling why I had that feeling now. As I got up out of my bed that morning I went through my normal everyday routine, I change clothes, freshen up and begin to practice my abilities, us Neptarians have various abilities which make us stand out from humans. For starters, we have the ability to project and control flames and the ability to hover in mid-air for short periods of time. I lived in a small room in a place that’s somewhat of a cellar for the royal castle. I had my bed neatly organized to the far left of the room, off to the right I had a small shelf with a collection of various combat and instructional manuals which I always used when training as well, in front of that was the door which led to the servants quarters, there were around five of them living in the castle at my grandfather’s request. There are also some stairs which lead up to the throne room. As I left my room that day, everything seemed normal there was nothing particularly unusual about it, a few servants greeted me as usual, they were having their usual breakfast at the canteen which was within the cellar, and they were tending to their own rooms. I then went on to greet my grandfather like always. I headed up the stairs of the dusty cellar, the floors were made out of a nicely polished stone and there were various dark wooden pillars which supported the roof. I then went straight to the throne. The throne itself was made out of a silver metal which was nicely polished and it was positioned on a balcony just in front of the main entrance. When entering, visitors are greeted with historic paintings, portraits, and statues while also being given complimentary snacks and drinks. To get to the throne one must walk up the stairs positioned around the balcony. Once at the throne you could see a large table with smaller chairs around it, this was for my grandfather’s weekly meetings. He had always traveled a lot and met up with high ranking Neptarians to discuss various subjects.

As I arrived at the throne my grandfather greeted me,

“Good morning Mistery, how are you this morning? You’re looking a bit pale.” he had asked me

“Oh, I’m fine just feeling a bit drowsy is all” I responded still feeling tired

“Well, that’s good to hear. Although, I did hear a loud crash in the cellar, is everything alright?” he had asked me with a grin on his face as if he knew what I had done. Just a few minutes before greeting him I was practicing on my fire projection and in the process, I had accidentally blown a hole in the wall.

“Y-yeah, everything is fine” I responded with a nervous expression.

“Well anyways, class is starting soon I think you better start heading out,” he said to me. I was enrolled in Torn’s training academy which is the reason I always practice my abilities every morning after I wake up, I have never been good at controlling my power, however, I have always wanted to become a royal knight and serve under my grandfather. A few years back I took the entrance exam but only managed to qualify for a rank D class. Despite my humiliating display I decided to keep on training on my own as well as during class. I believed that constantly training would help me improve my skills and to my surprise it did. A few months after my first exam I was given the opportunity to take the rank C exam and I managed to pass it with flying colors. I like to think it was because I had a friend watching and cheering me on. I never had many friends. I had always preferred being alone and I didn’t like to speak too often, but when I met this person my views on other people changed and I thought my life had changed for the better. However, shortly after I passed the exam she was taken back home to the northwestern part of Xaar, which was the continent I lived on. I had only known her for a few days but already, I felt like we had become best friends, but I guess things don’t always go the way you expect them to, do they? I wasn’t born an abnormal my firepower was lacking and I could hardly hover in mid-air for a mere five seconds. I wasn’t a prodigy by any means. There was, however, someone who was. Enrolled at the same academy I was in, there was a boy named Blade. He was always at the top of all his classes and he even managed to qualify for rank A during the entrance exams I had always thought it was mainly due to the fact that he has an incredible abnormality. Somehow, he has the ability to create a sword out of nothing. Not only that but he is also proficient with it. What bothers me most however, is the fact that he is only a year older than me,

“how could someone so young already be that powerful?” I had always thought to myself. People with natural talent like that had always made me upset. It’s not fair that some people are just born with extreme talent and skill, while others including myself are born with nothing. However, that’s the reality of it all and sometimes you just have to learn to accept it.

As I headed off to class that day, I noticed something strange. The class which I was enrolled in had never started that early in the morning. I wondered if classes had gotten changed, and I just wasn’t notified. I contemplated going back to the castle and asking my grandfather, however, I decided to head to class since at this point I would be late either way. Once I had arrived I heard Captain Strek yell out “Mistery you’re late get in line, now!” once I heard that, my only reaction was to quickly do as he said. Captain Strek is a powerful and frightening man. I ran closer to the academy which was a huge open field with various targets and weapons. I was so caught up at the moment that I didn’t bother to look around me beforehand.

“Welcome” Captain Strek yelled out

“You’re all here because you were recommended to me by King Zant”

“I was notified that everyone standing before me is qualified for this level of combat. This class will be the equivalent to that of an S ranked class” he announced. At that moment I began to panic. I had only ever managed to qualify for C rank classes and now I’m enrolled in an S ranked course, it was insane. As Captain Strek continued to explain the course to everyone I took a quick glance around. I didn’t see many people there, and I hardly even knew half of them. The only face I recognized was Blade, “of course he would be in this class.” I thought to myself. Seeing Blade there made the situation much more worrisome for me about the skill required for this course.

“While I do respect King Zant’s decision and wisdom I would like to personally gauge your abilities and potential. To do so, we will be having various exams today so I hope you all are prepared for that” he said with a smirk on his face, at that moment I breathed a sigh of relief. He would hopefully see my skill and send me home after seeing my lack of ability. However, I still had to partake in the exams so that was a pain.

“The first exam is simple, I will be taking a look at your sword skills. I want you to turn to the person beside you and engage them in a duel. The rules are simple, fight until one of you is disarmed and no fire will be allowed for these duels. Is that clear?” he announced. As I turned my heart had dropped and I felt like my life as I once knew it had been over. The person I had to fight was Blade.

At this point, I had just about had it with life. For starters I was being forced to fight against Blade and secondly, it was in a sword fight, there was no way I was going to win. I’ve seen Blade fight many times before and it’s nothing to scoff at, his reactions are insanely quick, it’s like he can predict the future. He always knows where the opponent will strike next and always manages to block the attack. During the entrance exam, he was never hit, not even once. As the duels were about to begin we were given real swords which just made me more worried than ever. I knew that he wouldn’t go as far as to kill me but I knew it would be much more painful than I had originally prepared for. Once we were ready we locked eyes and began the duel. We began to circle each other, Blade never took his eyes off of me for even a second. I was hoping that I could catch him off guard so I started randomly stabbing at him, he managed to block the first attack, but before dodging the second strike the sword managed to graze his right cheek, leaving a small cut. After realizing that I managed to hit him I began to swing my sword randomly at him, at this point I thought I would be able to hit him once more, my attack had made him lose his balance and he began to look flustered. He couldn’t seem to keep up with my attacks. I was so bad a using a sword it actually threw him off. After some time had passed, Blade began to gain his footing and started to learn my attacks. It wasn’t long before he began to counterattack every strike I threw at him, he even managed to return the favor by cutting me in the same place I had first struck him. We then locked swords and began to push each other hoping that one of us would give out and drop the sword. Blade then pulled back his own sword, jumped back and struck the hilt of my sword, sending it flying away. At that moment I had lost the match however, I was so caught up at the moment and seeing that his body was wide open I charged him and before I knew my fist was on fire and I had struck his chest. At that moment Blade looked frightened, he had no time to react, it’s as if I suddenly appeared next to him. Luckily, before I could do any serious harm I managed to I hear Captain Strek yell out

“Mistery! That’s enough, you’ve lost the duel,” I then pulled my fist back and apologized

“I’m sorry about that, I guess I just got too excited and went overboard” Blade took a look at his armor, which had a small crack on it. He looked back and me and smirked before getting in line to prepare for the next exam.

“Very well, it seems like most of you are indeed qualified, it’s not a surprise though. King Zant is possibly the strongest Neptarian out there, only being rivaled by one other person. If he chose you I have no doubt in my mind it was for a good reason” he had said. Before he could announce the second exam Blade had taken a step forward and asked him

“If you trust the king all that much then why do you have us taking these exams”

“Great question” Strek had said

“In order to properly teach you, I must first learn your weaknesses, the best way to do so is to watch your skills in action” Strek had responded. The next exam was a simple target practice, we were tasked with hitting five targets from a distance of around 30 yards away. First up, no doubt was Blade. He managed to hit the first four targets pretty dead on but after the fourth shot he seemed winded and only managed to graze the fifth target.

“It seems everyone has their own struggles I guess,” I thought to myself. I was the fourth person to go up however, I only managed to graze one of the targets. Everyone else saw my failure and began to laugh at me. I was disappointed in myself. For the last few months I had only been practicing my fire projection skills and even with all of that I still couldn’t even hit one target. I was angry, not only at the people who were laughing at me but at myself, for being so incompetent. As the laughter continued my body began to feel warmer, much more than normal. Something inside me began to swell up. Then, for what seemed like only a second, I lost consciousness. One fireball was blasted at the targets, the fireball split into five separate pieces. Each piece hit one of the targets, perfectly. It was a “Scattershot.” I don’t ever remember blasting that fireball but after it had hit every voice went silent. Even Captain Strek was left looking at me in awe. I had no idea what had just happened, all I knew was that I had somehow managed to hit every target simultaneously. Throughout the day only a few people managed to hit every target, but not after being left exhausted. Using fire takes a toll on our bodies only a few high-ranking Neptarians are able to use this power for long periods of time.

After the first two exams, we began to take shorter tests. These tests included stamina and endurance, physical strength, mental strength, and strategy. The tests were rough, they ranged from timed hovering to solving complex puzzles. I did, however, notice that throughout the whole class there was a strange girl wearing a black sweater, like what I always wear sitting near Captain Strek just watching everyone, she did not participate in any of the exams she just watched us all with the same cold expression on her face, not reacting to anything. Class that day felt like it had gone on forever, once we were let out I headed straight for the castle in hopes of going into my room and simply collapsing on my bed. I was exhausted, and all I could think of at the moment was sleeping through the rest of the afternoon. As I arrived at the front of the castle, I was completely awakened by what looked to be a strange creature with what seemed to be a sword in place of its right arm, its skin was gray, and he had bone-like spikes throughout its face, it had no eyes or mouth, however, I could hear it breathing aggressively. Its sword was covered in blood next to him were two of the castle guards they each had a hole through their chests and blood was splattered on the ground next to them, their bodies piled atop one another lying limp. The creature was standing still, staring at me. I tried to not make any sudden movements, I was still shocked at what was going on, I had found two dead guards and a strange creature who was probably thinking of killing me just as he had done so to the guards. Just when I thought I had lost all hope the creature was struck from behind. Who I saw was Blade. However, the attack was ineffective at damaging it, all the attack managed to do was anger the creature. The creature then turned around and stared at Blade. At that moment Blade’s face changed from serious to frightened, he dropped his sword. The monster then let out a frightening screech, it raised its sword and charged straight towards Blade. The only thing Blade did was look at the creature, he was paralyzed with fear. Just as the creature was about to pierce his chest my body began to move on its own, I ran up to the creature and struck him, the creature lost his composure and fell to the ground.

“What are you doing pick up your sword and let’s take this thing out!” I said to Blade as he looked at me with a shocked expression. Blade said nothing he just continued to look at the creature in fear, he even seemed to have backed up slightly as if he was thinking about running away, this was a whole new side of Blade which I had never seen. Could this creature be that powerful? As the creature changed targets his sword became like a razor, spikes began to emerge from the blade. Before I knew it I was struck across the face with the creature’s sword, my face started to bleed and I was in pain, all Blade did was stand there and watch. The creature and I continued to exchange blows. I, however, was severely outmatched. Eventually, I was cornered, I was about to die. At that moment, the only thing I could think about were my regrets in life. I couldn’t become a royal knight, for as long as I could remember that had always been my dream, my only true goal in life, but here I was about to die by the hand of a savage creature. Once again I had the same feeling as I did during the second exam that day. However, instead of losing consciousness I felt a warm red aura around me. All the pain was gone and I felt as if I had been reborn. My inner power was swelling, before the creature could kill me I struck him in the chest, not hesitating for even a moment. I then began to let out a barrage of attacks which seemed to finally damage the creature. Once again the creature began to screech, his sword became blood red and he swung it straight at my head, I had no time to react, however, after finally fighting through the fear Blade managed to quickly block the sword and push the creature away giving me an opening to deliver the final attack, I engulfed my fist in a large flame and punched the creature through the chest, killing it on the spot. The creature had fallen and began to slowly crumble away. After that incident, the mysterious aura around me had vanished and as it did I fell to the ground exhausted.