It was getting darker and darker, my surroundings were getting blurred out, and my body was getting heavier each second, but I didn’t lose my will to fight! As I get on my feet, I plan my attack to defeat the thief: first, I move left preparing a punch so he defends that side, then, while he’s getting ready to protect himself, I will use an acceleration spell to instantly move to the right and hit him straight in the face, knocking him out and saving the woman in distress. Now, time to put the plan into motion! I rush at him directly from the left, but then as I prepare to conjure the acceleration spell, I remember, my magic is so weak I might as well not have it, and reality can be really cruel.
Right after thinking this, in the middle of summoning the spell, it obviously failed, and I got punched in the face, getting thrusted into the wall. At that moment, I felt excruciating pain, and then I heard something coming out of his mouth, “Weak.” I just wanted to die after listening that single word that has always terrified and haunted me. Then, everything went pitch black.
It was the morning of January 23, 2302, and I had just woken up. I was getting ready for my day to day life, and then left my miniscule apartment. For some reason, I started contemplating New Earth, the name of this fairly new “world”. New Earth came to be after global warming dramatically increased in the year 2017, causing extreme devastation to bodies of water, the environment, and other geographic features. Around 2020, almost all of Old Earth’s landmass was covered in water due to icebergs melting, and 2 years later, it became a water planet, with no land masses at all. 6 months before Earth became covered in water, even though the chances of surviving seemed near to impossible, it didn’t stop the ancient humans’ will to live, so they tried every single possible way to save the human race.
Unfortunately, everything failed. When only about 300,000 humans were left, they made an outstanding discovery: magic. What used to be an element from fairy tales, became reality, and with the power of the newly formed Mages Association, they used all their might and power to levitate the remaining land masses into the sky. Once they were at a considerable altitude, they performed a ritual involving an enormous magic circle, so that the islands could maintain their altitude and not fall back down to Earth. That’s how this world came to be.After thinking about how this world was made, a memory came to me from when I was a child: I was taken to a highly elevated island, where people could contemplate the land. I remembered how I saw the High Area, where royalty and the wealthy lived. I observed with excitement the colossal castles, each one of them with little towns surrounding them.
The enormous mountains, where many resources rested peacefully. Sadly, the exploitation and mining damaged the beautiful mountains every day, making them collapse once a certain point is reached. Finally, the peaceful plains, were the King’s slaves worked till death in the big plantations of corn and rice. It felt like heaven up there, nothing like the Low Area. The Low Area was where the criminals, poor, and specifically, our family lived. There were no castles here, no flat plains, and no mountains, only towns.
Every alley was filled with people lying on the ground, waiting to die. Mob fights, robberies, and murders were also commonplace here because of the Magical Guard’s incompetence in this area. Since a very young age, I always thought they didn’t care about us at all. It was like hell down here, and every day I wondered, “Why do we have to live like this?””My name is Ivan Rendelsen, and I am a weakling,” this was the sentence that I kept repeating in my head. Since I was a kid, I was a disappointment, I couldn’t get anything done, had abysmal grades in school, and most importantly: my magic was almost powerless.
For example, if I used a spell to kill someone, it won’t do anything, and if I’m lucky, it’ll tickle them. I’m also not the most handsome, but not the ugliest either. I have dark eyes; short, black hair and a normal body. My personality as a child was disgusting. I was always complaining, having suicidal thoughts, and if anybody tried to approach or help me, I would say, “Piss off!” Now that I’m a grownup, I wish I had accepted their help, because maybe my life wouldn’t be so harsh. After turning 18, I wanted to make a livelihood for myself, so I went job-hunting.
Luckily, during my adolescence, I improved my attitude and personality, so I was pretty confident I would land a job somewhere. Since I knew nobody would want me in a normal job like working at a tavern, I immediately decided to go to the most dangerous sector of the Low Area, the so-called “Dehan Side.” Two days after my arrival, I was passing through an alley right after completing an errand, when I suddenly heard a woman scream, “Help me!” I rushed towards the noise, and then saw 2 figures: the woman and a robust man. He was hitting her, trying to steal a bag of potatoes. I started shouting, “Hey! What do you think you’re doing!” He replied with, “Nothing of your interest, punk!” Then he proceeded to kick the woman, making her fall to the ground. I approached him, going for a hit, but easily getting punched in the ribs when I tried to. Well, you know the rest of the story.
Now, back to the present. When I was finally regaining consciousness, I saw a white light, and heard muffled sounds, “He’s finally awake! Bring Rindhert here!” About 5 minutes later, once I was fully awake, a tall man approached me and he said, “My name is Rindhert, and it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He said this in a very serious tone, but then it suddenly changed to a goofy tone and he said, “Man, so glad you made it. You were found in an alley by me and my squad after we completed a mission. You were covered in so much blood, we were pretty sure you were dead, but then we felt a pulse and rushed you here. By the way, we found a dead woman near you, an acquaintance, friend, family, anything?” I replied immediately by saying, “No.” He kept babbling about stuff, but I didn’t listen to him, I was looking at my surroundings, men and women were covered in white dresses, holding strange devices which looked like a small mirror and just stuff I didn’t recognize until something came back to me.
I read once in a book about places called “labs.” In Ancient Earth, those places were where humans developed technology and other stuff. It also said that labs couldn’t be saved by the mages who brought salvation to our race. Finally, I asked what I was thinking out loud, “I-is this a lab?” Rindhert replied with, “Yes, it is a top-secret lab for researching and testing magic enhancements.” I was surprised such things existed; after all, in school they taught us that around 80% of technology was lost, and that the rest was classified and hidden in islands. Then Rindhert said, “So, you remember me saying that you were bleeding out quickly? Well once we brought you here you were on the brink of death, and to save you we had to implant a newly developed drug into your body.
” I screamed, “What!”So apparently the name of this drug was “Hection,” and its purpose is to give a massive boost to a user’s magical potential to unknown levels. Rindhert also explained to me that I was the first it was used on, so the scientists and mages would observe the results and possibilities of the drug. He also said, “We still don’t know why it healed you at such a rapid pace, it should have taken nearly 6 months for Hection to fully heal you.” I just kept silent and didn’t say a word. Soon after, I was to be escorted to the Mages Association Headquarters for some reason they didn’t tell me about. Since I was never in the High Area, once we arrived at the Headquarters I was surprised at how big it was.
The infrastructure resembled a church, but 100 times bigger. It stood next to the Supreme Ruler’s Palace, on the island with the highest altitude. There, a person I’ve heard about a lot, especially at school, the Captain of the Magical Guard, Heinsel Grandir was waiting inside.
Without hesitation, he told me, “You will become a Magical Knight, and join Rindhert’s squad, so that we can observe the effects and result of the drug.” I was stoked about joining the Magical Guard, I would finally do something with my life. After getting my license and going through boring processes, I was taken to Rindhert’s house, where he and his squad lived. Man, once we arrived my jaw dropped. It was a mansion! It had 4 floors, a gigantic backyard, and most importantly it was located on the third island with the highest altitude. I would finally be able to see how the rich people lived.
I opened the front door, and 3 persons were waiting there. I could see that one of them was a butler, with the typical white and black suit, while the others next to him were a female, and a male. The inside was a palace, with everything made out of porcelain. The man introduced himself first, “Hello, my name is Alzin Oyder, pleasure to meet you.
” Then the woman introduced herself, and I could see that she was nervous, “H-hello, my name is Nala Asni, pleasure to meet you.” I was expecting for the butler to introduce himself, but then Rindhert said, “The butler doesn’t talk, he took a vow of silence a few years ago. Well, either way it doesn’t really matter, after all, he’s just here to serve the drinks.
” It was weird, especially his stare. It terrified me. A few moments later I introduced myself by saying, “My name is Ivan Rendelsen, I hope we’ll be able to work together!” Being a Magical Knight was hard at the start. I was never sent to any mission, and I had to train my magical powers and physical fortitude from dawn to dusk.
I was also personally trained by Rindhert whenever he had time, and man, not even 5 seconds would pass and I would be on the ground gasping for air. After various months of rigorous training and meditation, I was finally able to endure 20 seconds of sparring with him. When I was laying on the ground with a bleeding lip and nose, he said, “Hmph, good enough, you’re coming with us on the next mission!” I replied with, “Finally! Oh, sorry, I mean, thank you so much master!” My first mission was to stop a magical artifact trade. This artifact had the power to control anyone’s mind, and the mission had such importance that I felt really nervous. I thought, “Why couldn’t it have been an easier mission.” Finally, we arrived at the location of the trade exchange, a Low Area district where most of the mob families are. It was a half-destroyed house, and we were supposed to attack from the rooftop. A few hours passed and we were still waiting, when we hear noises.
The time came to show my worthiness! The job that was given to me was: seize the artifact while the others battled the gangsters. Rindhert entered first, then Nala, and finally Alzin. I entered last and I went immediately for the artifact. I grabbed it and then used a protective spell to put a shield around me. The spell almost failed when I was summoning it up due to how nervous I was, but at the end, everything went fine. Everybody except Rindhert said, “Nice job!” Then Rindhert said, “Not too bad.” I was really glad that he said those words.Six months had passed since I started going on missions.
Those times were the most enjoyable. The training also seemed easier for whatever reason, and I could hold up a fight with Rindhert for about 7 minutes now. During one mission we got information about a certain person trying to summon an ancient god, Alztentu, the God of Calamity. I have never heard of this, so I asked Rindhert about it, and he said, “Wish we could have kept this from you, but this certain person he talks about is currently our top priority back at the Magical Guard, and his name is Aile.” The information we got during this raid was that Aile has successfully gathered seven out of nine relics required to summon Alztentu. Ever since I discovered about the God of Calamity, the only mission that we were given was: track Aile and eliminate him. Everything became really boring.
After tracking him for a while, we got lucky and found out where the ninth relic was. We were extremely sure that Aile would come for it so we established a defensive force with other squads on the site. We were on site ready for his arrival when he finally appears. We all shoot him with projectile spells, and it seemed he just turned to dust. We all celebrated, but then something seemed odd. The air felt heavy and still kind of evil.
Then, out of nowhere, the real Aile comes out of the dust and proceeds to kill the Magical Knights. When he first appeared Rindhert shouted, “It’s a decoy!” I didn’t know what to do, I was just frozen there. My mind was blank, and all I was hearing was muffled screams and saw bodies flying everywhere.
I wished at that moment I had never even attempted to fight that thief. Then, reality came back to me, and I fought with all my will.Even though the fight seemed to last an eternity, only 5 minutes have passed, and that’s the point where I saw Rindhert get blown by explosive magic. Again, my mind went blank, but my body moved on its own. It felt like I had completely lost control of my body. I could only see what was happening. I saw how I started just summoning spells with no signs of stopping.
Usually you could only manage to use 50 spells before running out of fuel, or mana, but my body had already used around 400. Everything was covered in smoke, but then Aile came in front of me and my body, I immediately grabbed him and used creation magic to make a sword made out of pure magical power. It went right through him, but he just stood there and laughed. I regained control of my body and didn’t know what I was doing. I said, “Wh-What’s happening!” Aile just screamed out, “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.” Then he pulled the sword out, took the handle from my hand, and cut off my two legs.
I thought, “Well, this is the end for me,” and just fainted.I woke up in the same lab, as that day, but instead of Rindhert speaking to me, it was the Captain, Heinsel Grandir. I had no clue what was going on at the time, but then he said, “Rindhert with all of his force managed to carry you back here.
He perished shortly after.” I couldn’t believe it. I finally became something in life, why did it have to be this way. Then, he said, “Aile was found on the Dehan Side with a giant wound on his abdomen. We managed to capture him. Right now, he is being tortured and interrogated.” Everything that happened last night came back to me, the fight with Aile, losing control of my body, Rindhert getting blown. Heinsel continued, “I’m extremely sorry for what I’m about to say.
The Supreme Ruler, Lander, the one who created Hection, declared this experiment a failure. You probably haven’t noticed, but in the fight with Aile you went into what we recently named “overdrive mode” and obliterated the island in which the fight was happening. You killed your squad, comrades, innocent citizens, and who knows what else, so because of this turn of events, and to prevent this from ever happening again you will be executed at dawn.”After all that talk, suddenly, I screamed, “WHY, WHY DO I HAVE TO DIE! WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY! LOOK, I DON’T EVEN HAVE LEGS ANYMORE, I’M NOT A THREAT!”. He just had looked at me with a blank stare, not replying to anything. I calmed down after a minute, and said, “What will happen with the relics and Alztentu?” He said, “We stopped the summoning and gathered 4 relics.
I was glad to hear that. At least, I managed to defeat Aile, and most likely save New Earth. Having this thought on my mind, I finally gave up on life and said, “I have one request: Can I be eliminated on a place of my choosing.” Heinsel said, “That’s the least we could do.”I was taken to the island where my mom took me so many years ago. I again saw the colossal castles, gigantic mountains, and peaceful plains. The time finally came, I closed my eyes waiting for the projectile to hit me in the head, and then I thought, reality is cruel.
