Chapter 1 - The examination

The invasion of Earth happened so quickly that it felt unreal, leaving little time to process how to react to the brand new world.

The world, in which Humans were no longer alone in space.

The world, in which Earth was part of a mysterious Federation of Light.

And on top of everything, beings with God-like powers not only existed but were the reason behind the Earth's new membership status in a federation.

Now the God-like beings, the Starwalkers, were completing the last part of their mission - ensuring that all humans with "Aether roots" are found and taken away to Federation for training. Throughout the Earth, countless checkpoints conducted research. There was no day without a new batch of recruits going aboard the spaceships with their Aether root confirmed.

Everybody wondered if they were ever going to return to their homes. To be fair, the Federation tried addressing those worries. They claimed that once Disciples reach a certain level in Aether mastery, they will be allowed to visit Earth. If they become mighty, there is even a chance for them to return to Earth as Aether masters and establish the academies here.

All of that was well known to 22 years old Veles, who was looking at his appointment card. It's been a 4th day of the examination, and approximately half of the population already got checked.

"3 billion people in 4 days, that is an amazing result." thought Veles as he played with his card out of boredom. It was a simple card, all black with a with details of appointment written in white. The only difference was that it felt cold in touch. Probably paper was not used to make this one.

"The officials say that about one in a thousand has that Aether-rooty-thing. It does not seem like a lot, but the Starwalkers seem to be very happy about that ratio." Veles continued his thought.

"Someone even heard them speaking that this ratio is amazing. Usually, in different planets, it's one in 10-thousand." The 22-year-old sighed, weighing his chances of having the Aether root.

The chances were not very high, which made him look forward to going back home and applying for a program to study the new technologies which the Federation brought.

Veles had a rather scientific mind. It meant he trusted in numbers, and he was always trying to structure things around him by putting them in "boxes." The odds of 1:1000 went straight into "unlikely box," which made him not worry too much.

Suddenly, his invitation card started glowing red, attracting the attention of around 20 men and women in the small waiting room they were all in.

"Oh, it's my turn." Veles sighted and unwillingly stood up. They all have seen this a few times already. The card glows, a person goes to one of the metal doors, and after about 10 minutes returns. There were eight doors in total, making it a relatively quick process.

As he was walking to the door, he heard his phone vibrating. He cast a glance at the screen to read the following message from his mom.

"Father and I are so worried. Please give us a call as soon as the examination ends. Love you plenty."

The warm feeling rose in Veles's heart. It is always great to know that someone is genuinely caring about you. He replied hastily to the massage and walked through the metal doors, which shut themselves with a soft "whoosh" sound.

He entered a circular, very bright room. Everything was white and looked similar to ivory. In the middle of the room was a small pool filled with some strange, glowing liquid casting a bluish shade to the place. In that pool was a huge standing crystal-ball looking device. Veles felt dizzy after looking at it for a couple of seconds.

"Greetings, Mr. Veles Perunsky." A humanoid robot said with a British accent after a quick scan of his invitation card.

"Hope you are well and excited about the prospect of joining the Federation's most elite Aether users!" The robot continued speaking fluently and walked to a nearby console.

“Hi” Veles responded. You can tell its not the first time the Federation conquers a planet. They already were able to automate with the use of robots in the examination process. Veles praised their efficiency in mind at the same time feeling a bit hopeless by having no control over the events.

"Mr. Perunsky, may I ask you to go to the Aether Orb in the middle of the pool and place your hands on it?" Robot politely asked while clicking some buttons on the console. The scene looked like it was taken straight out of sci-fi movies.

With no better alternative, Veles walked to the edge of the pool. Then he hesitantly touched the surface of the liquid with his foot, wondering if he should take off his shoes to not get them wet.

However, the liquid in the tank was nothing like water. Even though it penetrated the material of the shoe and touched the skin, once Veles rose his foot out of the pool, the foot was dry.

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"Peculiar thing," Veles thought. He wanted to continue to play around with it when the robot made the "Eh-hum" sound reminding him to follow the order.

With a sight, he started walking to the Aether Orb. With every step, he felt the liquid began to cover more of his body. He would look ridiculous and pretty stupid if not for the fact that with each step, he felt lighter and moved with more agility. As if the air resistance, gravity, and every other physical law suddenly ceased working against his movement.

Finally, he put his hands on the orb, and nothing happened. "Phew, I guess I am not the chosen one. " Veles said with relief.

He turned around to speak to the robot for the last time. However, the humanoid machine was not there.

The whole round room disappeared replaced by a vast, black nothing.

"Sweet baby Jesus, what happened?" Veles said, trying to comprehend what is going on.

"Where am I? Am I floating?" he added in a surprisingly calm voice, as he was looking at his feet at seeing just more darkness. The only response was a profound silence.

Silence and darkness were all that was around him. However, the darkness was not threatening, and the silence did not make him feel disconnected. On the contrary, something was soothing in this embrace of the void.

Veles loosened his body and shifted his hand to the front. He felt strangely empowered as if he could lift mountains and leap up to the sun.

So he waved his hand, which caused a gust of wind. And he waved again. And then some more.

"That was awesome!" Veles yelled, waving his hands frantically and making the wind blow harder than in stormy weather. Soon space was filled with multiple tornadoes as Veles couldn't stop himself from experimenting.

"Maybe I can do more?" Veles thought and imagined a ball of fire in his right hand. Almost instantly, a flaming sphere appeared in his hand, ready for every of his command.

"That's beyond cool!" he thought merrily. A few minutes later, fireballs were flying at everyone in the space.

"If I died, and this is an afterlife, then it's not half bad." Veles thought while invoking a sword made of lighting to and chasing the flying fireballs to cut them.

"Weeeee..." he laughed while decapitating one of the fireballs. However, part of the sliced flame unluckily landed on his hand and burned him.

"Ouuuuch" Veles screamed as the pain of getting burned made him panic and drop the sword. He began falling and trying to put down the fire with his other hand.

Suddenly all of the remaining fireballs grew larger and hotter. As Veles finally put down the fire and stabilized his flight, he noticed flames surrounded him.

They no longer looked just like spheres of fire but grew into a more humanoid form. Some of them even had two red dots in place of eyes, which seemed to look at Veles the same way predators look at prey.

Fear and shock filled Veles, which seemed to make the fire-people grow even stronger. Suddenly, the closest flame-being charged at Veles with its scorching arms trying to grab him.

Veles tried to doge; however, the arms still grazed him, bringing a new wave of pain and an ugly smell of burning flesh. He looked at terror around him, and maybe it was an illusion, but the creatures seem to become even more prominent in size. He began flying break away by outrunning them, but the beings were not any slower than him.

"Calm down!" Veles yelled at himself while flying at full speed in a random direction. Dozen of monsters were pursuing him.

He was too stunned to think about a better reaction then invoked the lightning sword from before. With sword in his hand, he turned back to face the first enemy.

Veles was no fencer; however, for a crude charge of a semi-intelligent flame creature, he did not have to be one.

With a wide slash, he managed to cut the first creature that approached him. However, two more appear in its place, and Veles's posture was far from being ready to take them on.

Their attack was a simple one - similar to two charging boars who want to trample the enemy with sheer Aether.

He clumsily managed to dodge one of them and tried to parry the second one. Unfortunately, his inexperience with the sword become apparent as his guard got easily broken, and Veles was sent flying with no control.

There was a deep wound on his chest, which was not bleeding due to being burned. He also caught a mouthful of blood, which quickly evaporated with squeezing sound due to creatures' high temperatures.

However, this time he did not lose his cool and determination to fight the creatures born inside him.

"This time, they did not grow larger. Come to think about it - they started getting stronger when I panicked after being burned. At that moment, I was not in control." Veles began to find a rule which may become crucial to surviving this event. Taken, he was not already dead.

" It seems they feast on my fear. I need to calm down and to take back the control. Remember - you were a master of this space just a short while ago!" Veles was trying to build the reasoning and his courage.

It all takes a while to describe, however only a fraction of second passed. Veles waved his hand, summoning wind and stabilizing his flight at the same time.

The wind hit most of the incoming flame monsters slowing their advance. Veles took that opportunity and attacked two closest enemies that got separated from the rest by the wind.

He slashed them with a vertical cut, and the lightning sword was cutting through them with no resistance.

He did not notice, though, that the moment he spared to get rid of the two monsters was enough for the rest of flame creatures to caught up to him. His lack of experience in battles and the ability to have a broader view was becoming a huge problem in this kind of fight against many enemies.

Soon about eight of the creates charged at him from all directions.

Veles managed to push back four with the wind's gust, even tearing up the closest one to pieces due to air pressure.

He slashed the fifth one, however, the remaining three managed to avoid his attacks. Almost simultaneity three different arms made of fire pierce his lungs, stomach, and back.

For a short while, an inhuman scream full of pain filled the vast darkness, and then everything was again full of nothing.