Chapter 1: Hell

Ever heard of hell? It’s a given that you must know about it by now; So basically that’s where I am right this moment, or at least the first floor of hell. That damned Granville doesn’t understand what “training” is supposed to be.

“Honestly, does he think I’m enjoying this?”

A lower rank devil runs towards me with great speed holding onto an iron sword. Even though I have the upper hand in this situation, I simply evade his strike by bending away my body. The blade swoops over me as wind pulls my hair across my face and just as the strike ended, the devil somehow manages to regain his control. It continues to launch a flurry of attacks and my interest starts to peak again as this time, its speed has suddenly increased threefold. Normally in a situation like this, I would absolutely be decimated with pieces of my body remaining, But I have other plan’s. Since this kinda is hell, a place with high mana density, for a Mana Manipulator like me, This is,

“Absolute Paradise!”

A huge cluster of mana swarms my body, and a shock-wave emanates from the center of my soul.

The devil which had regained its balance pulls back just barely avoiding the shockwave alongside all the other creatures around us. Now, there is one thing to consider when dealing with devil’s and monster’s alike in high mana density environments, they’re known for their extremely high rate of creature generation. Monster’s formed in these types of environments and formed by the clustering of mana which form mana core’s which then create a vessel with the mana. These vessels have no soul, no will. The case is same for the devil’s here, they have to active consciousness, no will, and no reason for me to give a damn when it comes to empathy. As of now,

“You will be my playthings”

My left eye bleeds as highly concentrated mana materializes, putting pressure on my eye. Bright white glowing marks following the lining of my veins in my arm appear. My soul remains intact but the constitution which makes up my body shifts, and at present, I might as well have at it. This little session might as well be a massacre now.

I catch a glimpse of a few devils grouping up and charging towards me. Well that’s new. Not even a second later, I feel a presence behind me and Thought Perception activates. Time slows to my view and I activate Analysis. A set of black claws slowly fly towards me, judging from the essence of it, I can tell that it’s a Skarnill: A monster that possesses the ability to mimic anything, including objects, with perfect accuracy. But it’s main strength lies in it’s immense pierce strength. Those claws are the source of that power, and unluckily enough their embedded directly into the mana core within it. That’s basically the same as having a pair of physically manifested claws embedded into your very soul.

I move myself into a position where I can grab onto it’s claws while maintaining a safe distance away from the other lower ranked devils. Thought Perception dissipates and time returns. I grab onto the thing’s claws, covering my hand in a layer mana, and throw it to a rock edge. Purple-ish blood splatters with a sound of bone’s cracking and it’s mana core disintegrates.

A devil in the charging group launch’s a spear towards me encompassed in fire. The rest of the group continues the charge with swords materializing out of the mana within them and one devil uses a concealment spell and goes under my radar. So in total there are 6 devils I have to deal with 1 more invisible to me. I have to admit their all powerful, but when look at their individual weakness and find commonalities within them that you can exploit, this shouldn’t be that difficult.

In this enhanced form, I have a near 20% damage reduction to all types of attacks. Knowing that, I already have a way to deal with the spear devil.

The spear comes flying towards me and I return it in which it fucking came by grabbing the flaming spear in just the right time and redirecting it back with double the force. The spear flies back and as a finishing touch I give it nudge by casting “Field Enhance!” which sends the spear speeding towards the spear devil taking out two other devils in it’s trajectory.

“3 gone, 3 left to go.”

I think I’ve had enough of this now, besides I have other matter’s to attend to.

“So let’s fucking end this shall we”

I halt my movement and concentrate my mana into a singular point and compress it as much as I can. The concentrated point of mana glows white and a swirl of wind wants to pull my body into the sphere. Booms erupt out as I contemplate using this skill; My ears ring, the orb slowly falls, time is slows to match its fall, and finally, just as soon as the execution of the skill began, the highly dense mana hits the ground.

There is a certain material that forms everything from the composition of atoms to the biggest star known as “Aethar”, this type of matter was created at the very start of the universe leading to the creation of all that exists. The purest form of Aethar was the most prominent at the birth of the universe and for a fragment of a second, the space under my hand had access to that, or more accurately the space was in the birth of the universe for that fragment of a second.

I twist my hand in a quick spinning motion before chanting,

“Arc of Null”

Air pulsates around me as the frequency increases, and with a flash of light, a slash disguised as a ripple spreads outwards from my hand and passes right through me but targets the devils as their bodies rip apart. Their mana cores disintegrate and the hidden one finally shows as its mana cores splits into two. Job complete, heh, I think I did pretty well. My body returns to normal and my eyes heal and turns my iris into it’s normal grey. This damn long hair finally stops flying and I can finally breath.

“Gran, I’m done here! Can I get back now?!” I yelled.

In response, what I get from Granville is,

“Do it yourself, you should’ve learnt to rift by now”

What in the fuck do you mean I should’ve learnt to rift by now.

“The hell do you mean ‘Do it yourself’ ?”

“If your going to be such a child about it, then I’ll do it for you now. But you better have learned it or else your just going to have to figure a different way out.”

Bitch I am a fucking child, I’m 15 you asshole. How the living hell do you expect me to rift when I have never seen the proper precautions for creating a link for god’s sake.

A rift forms in front of me and I quickly disperse my mana throughout my body so I don’t drain my allocate when I cross the rift. The marks dissolve into my skin as slight burns leave a mark and I cross the rift.

Drenched in sweat, as soon as I return in to the sports gym in our school, a man visually in his 30′s with silky white hair and pure white attire scrolls through his phone turns to me, and the first fucking thing this man asks is’

“So for tonight’s dinner, I though we should ha-”

“Oh MY FUCKING GOD! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY NOT GONNA FUCKING ASK IF I’M OK FOR GODS SAKE!? A LITTLE FUCKING EMPATHY WOULD BE NICE FOR SENDING ME TO HELL YOU SICK FUCK”

“Stop overreacting Aarius, that wasn’t actual hell, that was just a replica plane that accidentally branched off of hell and had to be investigated. That wasn’t difficult for you. We both know that.”

The fact that this white haired douchebag whom I desire to punch a whole through takes this way too lightly just fuels my anger even more. I slow my breathing and reply,

“Yeah sure it wasn’t that bad, but THERE WERE FUCKING DEVILS IN THERE AND RARE TYPE MONSTER’S WHICH COULD’VE KILLED ME INSTANTLY. THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A SECOND. DO YOU KNOW HOW FUCKING HARD IT IS TO MAINTAIN THOUGHT PERCEPTION AND THE FACT THAT I HAD TO USEARC OF NULLBECAUSE I KNEW I WAS DEFINITELY GONNA LOOSE MY GRIP?”

“Ok Aarius calm down, I’m sorry that I sent you to a replica of hell..”

“..”

“Anyways for di-”

“OH MY FUCKING GOD”

He’s hopeless. I’ve lost even the tinniest bit respect I had for him as a guardian.

As this man rattles on about ’tonight’s dinner’, I catch a clock face at the corner of my eye which has the time 10:50, well damn, AH DAMN I’M LATE.

“Gran, pick whatever you want for dinner, I’ve gotta go, I seriously have some stuff to deal with. See you at home”

Without wasting anytime I dash out of the door and run in the direction of my class. The burns hurt like shit, but It’s bearable. My muscles tense as I start to run and the gym door shuts behind me.

“That kid really is something isn’t he”

A reassuring smile curves the usually bland faced man. He puts his phone away and open’s a book with the author,

“Lord Xarion”

Sprinting through the corridors and the hallways, I finally start to feel the fatigue. My body’s becoming more and more sluggish, my legs feel like I’m running through water. I take a left, and in front of me there’s a right turn. I force myself to run with the remaining of my dwindling strength but my vision starts to blur. Shit, I’m feeling dizzy. Black spots appear in my vision and I can feel my heart racing. As the class is right next to me my strength gives out and I pass out on the floor head first.

(A few minutes later)

God damn my head hurts. I feel a wrapping around it so I’m probably in the infirmary. Yeah I’m pretty sure someone carried me here after seeing me passed out on the floor. I can feel my body again and, god do I have a headache. I open my eyes and my eyes take time to adjust to the lighting. The room looks like what I would see underwater and my damn ears keep ringing. I feel lightheaded for a second but my vision returns along with the ringing.

“Yeah, I was right”

This is definitely the infirmary. Lucky someone found me unconscious.

As I look around, I hear a voice near the door.

“Aarius? Oh finally your awake!”

And that is, Kida?

“Well hello there”

As she walks over to my side with me lying in the bed, I see a familiar face peeking through the door.

“Hikaru, that you?”

The door fully opens, and yes, that is him.

“Broooo, you missed it”

Well fuck.

“Did he leave already?”

“Unfortunately, yeah he kinda did”

“Fuuuuck”

Well there go my grades. We were sort of leeching off of that to help us get to a better school, but its fine I guess.

Cold air brushes past me from the open window next to me, and I hold my sneeze in as my nose tickles to relieve itself- Why does that sound oddly wrong.

“We were looking for you nearly everywhere around the school, where in the hell were you”

“I was pulled away by the sectional head for some reason; Something about ‘attendance’ issues”

Yeah I don’t what to say.

Hikaru’s face looks unamused,

“Not completely unrealistic I guess...”

“You think I’m lying?”

I saw without flinching whilst maintaining a natural expression.

“Not really, It’s just you kinda fucked up a good opportunity for us”

He’s pissed isn’t he, damned Granville.

“Ehe he...”

I shrug off his pissy-ness, and spot Kida in deep thought from the corner of the door frame as she leans back on it and stares at me. I don’t know whether she’s aware of the fact that she’s staring right into my soul, but I think I need some rest.

I move my head up and stretch to see if anything hurts and touch my forehead. A sting of pain runs around me and a shiver vibrates down my body as I suddenly get a weird sensation in my eyes.

“D-Don’t touch it. It’s pretty bad, you scraped your head on the floor you dumbass”

Her face looks concerned as she comes back to her senses now covering her mouth as she tilts her face to rest on her hand.

“You could’ve at least come here right after you started feeling something weird or at least rested for a bit.”

Yeah well the situation wa- I mean- She’s right huh.

“Yeah sorry, I’ll ke-”

“Sorry doesn’t excuse how worried I was you know” She says hurriedly.

Well.. Damn. I let out a sigh and lay my head down.

“It wont happen next time, trust me”

Her expression calms down as she starts taking deep breaths but I see her face slowly.. blushing? She pushes herself upright and makes moves over to me as she leans in closer to my ear. Her sudden movement makes me catch my breath for a second.

“S-So in return I want something from you”

Uh what. Wait is what I’m thinking going to happen? No that’s unlikely.

I see Hikaru in the room move closer so he can see between us. I release the knot in my throat and brace myself for what she has to say. A bead of sweat runs down her cheek and she whispers,

“Are you free on Saturda-”

Oh my fucking it’s actually happening. I jolt my head at her, interrupting what she was saying.

“Yes”

Oh I’ve been waiting for another chance like this again for so long. My face flushes peach red as my face is directly in her face. I can feel my heart thump so loud. Unknowingly to me, her face is right in front of me and now it feels like time’s frozen over. All of a sudden the only sound I can hear are our breaths and they’re starting to get a bit overwhelming. I-I don’t know what to do, I don’t want to move either. My ears feel like their burning. From the corner of my eye I can see Hikaru slowly inching closer for a better view like some fucking wild life photographer,

“So can we make it a threesome?”

Kida and I both in unison,

“Fuck off”

Kida suddenly backs away and drifts out of the infirmary as dust scrapes off of the ceramic tilling and I just stare in amazement.

“So Ryo, how about a threesome”

I let out a laugh and reply,

“Yeah no I’m not into that.”

He holds his laugh back as he replies,

“Uh huh, sure bro. Whatever you say”

Does he think I’m joking... Anyways, I haven’t been on a real ’Date’ with Kida in forever. Other than when we first met, we never just got around to a whole separate day for a date. And Saturday is just perf- Wait don’t I have that thing planned on Saturday? I mean It would be an issue, but after fucking it up so much I don’t have any faith the circle will even work anymore. I’ll end that early and start my preparations.

“Hey small question..”

Hikaru’s face goes blank.

“Yeah bro?”

“Don’t we have the English assessment tomorrow?”

My soul leaves my body as the realization hits harder than the time I got kicked in the balls,

Oh fuck

“Oh fuck”