"Five years. It's been five long years and yet the progress I've made is so little." A voice rang out, its tone filled with a despair that seemed to clog up the air.

Standing in the middle of a rather barren street in City J, rain poured down upon Sonus in waves, his body soaked as he stared listlessly at something laid out before him. The sparse people that would walk through the street on rare occasion would give Sonus looks of pity before walking past.

The reason for these looks of pity being directed at him were caused by the same thing as his listless stare; placed right before him was a grave with the names of two people on it. These two graves before him were those of his parents, the only family he had.

In the Great Apocalypse of five years ago, he had lost his entire family.

Sonus continued to stand in the street for what felt like hours before he would suddenly be shocked into awareness by something appearing right in front of him. With his green eyes that were now a little more clear - though still not having the same vibrant glow they once did in the past - he scanned the object before him in interest.

Sonus' eyes roved over the words that seemed to float before him, his mind already whirring to life, coming up with possibilities for what he could be seeing. In the past, Sonus would 100 percent think he had gone insane, but the events of the past five years had ridden him of the notion of anything being impossible.

Staring ahead, Sonus slowly read the words to himself

"Hello, Humans. I am what is known as 'The System' - a non-sentient tool that is used to assist those whose world have fallen into chaos from the things you know as 'Portals'. As your world has already suffered devastating damage, with humans having lost around 70 percent of the land to the creatures from the portal, I have been sent here to assist you all in taking your world back as well as pushing back the portals."

Reading the message three more times, Sonus figured that he was either hallucinating or there truly was something sent to help the humans fight off the creatures that had so far proven nigh impossible to defeat.

Sonus could feel hope once more ignite within him, his emerald orbs gaining a sharp glint to them no less bright than they had been before the Great Apocalypse.

Even though a light of hope seemed to be lit within him, Sonus still couldn't bring himself to fully believe the words before him - he believed that in the final moments of his sanity his mind had come up with some form of hallucination to give him a strand of hope.

Yet, while there was a sharp glean to his eyes, it was nowhere near the same as it had been in the past. While in the past his emerald orbs had shone, they had been a brilliant green glow that showed the gentility of his personality; now, however, his eyes shone with a blindingly sharp light that seemed to showcase a sense of madness.

After his parents deaths, Sonus had become crazed with the desire to avenge them, slaying the being that had brought about their end. Yet, as time went on, while his desire for vengeance did not decrease, his knowledge of the being who had caused their death did increase.

This being was known as the 'Shuten-doji', otherwise known as the strongest Oni of Japanese myths.

The more that Sonus learned of this Yokai, the more he understood how little of a chance he truly had to kill it. That was why, upon learning of the possibility of gaining power, Sonus was one of the first people to react.

As he had already read the message over three times, Sonus realized that there was no listed way to gain this power that the system had described. Sonus could feel himself slowly growing despondent, feeling as if the message was some kind of trick, his mind playing some sick joke on him by giving him one last glimmer of hope in his moment of ultimate despair.

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As a last ditch effort to catch on to this glimmer of hope, Sonus called out to the message before his eyes, "System, how do I gain this power?" The statement had an almost manic hope to it, the sounds of Sonus' last ounces of sanity.

Sonus' voice was a deep, gravelly thing, sounding almost grating to the ear. This was caused by a lack of usage; Sonus had spent practically zero time with another person since the death of his parents, and even less time talking.

Baring through the pain of his throat feeling as if it were being torn apart, Sonus continued to stare ahead, his once dead eyes gaining a gleam of light as the message before him slowly changed.

"The system has heard your question and is now sending you to the space in which you gain your powers, prepare yourself. Teleportation will occur in 1:00 minute."

As Sonus watched the slowly descending number, he could feel it as the almost painfully large grin stretched across his face, his appearance becoming almost feral in nature. Yet, while the grin appeared, there were also tears slowly streaming down his face, a touch of sadness not capable of being hidden within his glowing orbs.

Sonus watched and as the timer hit one second, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, a white light slowly shrouding him directly after.

The next time his eyes opened, Sonus was in a completely different space.

As he looked around, Sonus couldn't help but marvel at the uniqueness of the space around him. He appeared to be floating in a galaxy, a number of stars of varying sizes floating around him, seemingly revolving around him as if he were their center.

After staring around in wonder for a second, Sonus snapped out of his daze, opening his mouth to ask the system a question.

"System, what are these stars?"

The reason Sonus had asked this question was that he could feel himself being drawn to these stars, as if they were a long-lost part of him that he couldn't wait to get back.

"The system will now respond to the question posed by user, Sonus. These 'stars' are all the powers that have an affinity for you, the larger ones have a higher affinity, while the ones with a closer orbit have the most room for growth."

Hearing this, Sonus now looked at these stars in a new light, his emerald eyes glittering with anticipation as he glanced at all the powers around him.

As Sonus was looking around, he spotted the largest star he had seen so far as it flew past him at a rapid rate, circling around him in a rather small orbit.

Emerald eyes glistening, Sonus reached out to grab at this power. Yet, something in him told him to look around a bit more, as if his mind was subconsciously rejecting this star.

Heeding the warning, Sonus slowly gave the world around him a 360 degree view, not finding any stars better than the one he had previously grabbed.

It was just as he was about to reach for the large star once more that he felt an incredibly strong tug from above him, causing his head to subconsciously raise.

As he looked up, Sonus' eyes couldn't help but widen in shock, coming face to face with a star that nearly blotted out the sky above him - it was so close he could nearly touch it without even needing to move.

This star was calling out to him so strongly that Sonus reached out and grabbed it long before his brain could process what was currently happening.

As soon as Sonus touched the star, a new system message appeared before him, this one seeming to contain a weight far greater than any previous message had.

"The user Sonus has chosen his power, the power of music."

Below this message was a list of values, something that subconsciously drew Sonus' eye.

"Ability: Music

Affinity: 'S+'+

Power: 'F-'+

Mana Capacity: '200/200'"

As Sonus looked over these numbers, he couldn't help but to ask the system the question that burned at his mind the moment he laid eyes on the numbers. "System, what does the plus represent?"

Sonus obviously already expected the answer, yet as he got the response he was hoping for, he couldn't help but be elated.

"Replying to user Sonus, the plus symbol represents the ability for the power to increase in rank. Each power has a natural limit to them, some go far higher than others. This limit is directly related to the users talent for a power, as previously stated, these powers are only awakened within the user by the system, the user already had the affinity for it. This means that if the user has a high talent and creativity for a power, the power has no theoretical limit."

As he listened to this explanation, Sonus couldn't help but to immediately be filled with a sense of excitement, his eyes shining a brilliant green.

'Finally!', Sonus thought, his eyes watering as he threatened to burst into tears; 'I finally have some way to avenge my parents! I no longer have to wish for my suffering to end, hoping upon hope that I can gain the power to end that foul beast.'

As Sonus thought of this, tears began to rain down his face unbidden of his desires.

As Sonus sat there on the street, his face filled with tears, he looked up and swore to the stars, 'Mom, Dad, I finally have the power to avenge you, just watch as I finally put an end to that damned demon!'

Finally, after what had been years of suffering in silence, the young man of seventeen let out all the emotions he had bottled up for the past five years.