Emily stormed into the training room, slamming the door closed with so much force it threatened to shatter. Thankfully the room was empty. She didn’t need anyone seeing her like this.

Emily let out a long sigh as her temper started to calm and she relaxed into her isolation. Maxim and Amelie still thought she was with her father and sister, so she didn’t have to worry about any unexpected company. There was always the risk that Lewis Athra or Kate Lock might suddenly show up but to Emily’s knowledge they were dealing with the princess or out exploring the island. Then again, it wouldn’t be a bad thing if the two of them showed up, they were probably the best people she could talk to. However, then she remembered the conversation and all her anger and irritation returned.

Emily activated the room’s control pad and spawned armour cladded white marble training dummies across the room. She then accessed the control panels advanced settings and after a few adjustments the training room used her mana and injected the dummies with magic giving them the prowess of a highly skilled Thalassi soldier. She then set them to the most aggressive behaviour she could.

A moment later the training dummies moved becoming marble hoplites wielding swords, either kopis or xiphos, and spears and shields forged from the same white stone as their bodies. The marble warriors charged at Emily’s position, and she wasted no time.

She’d tried many methods to control her temper in the past from breathing exercises to just relaxing her body but none of that worked. What did work however, was what her father suggested. Physical activity, especially fighting.

Emily augmented her body, in an instant, and with a single punch eviscerated the closest warrior. Chunks of marble flew through the air and dissolved into the void before ever touching the ground. Without a care for their fallen stone brother the mindless warriors unleashed an onslaught upon her. Emily weaved, dodged and parried every sword slash or spear thrust the marble hoplites threw while simultaneously retaliating with her own series of close combat strikes. With her expert technique, footwork and enhanced strength she was soon only surrounded by vanishing marble rubble.

Even after all that, Emily was still pissed.

Feeling warmed up she walked back over to the room’s control panel. There was still a higher difficulty of warrior the training room could produce, and Emily quickly activated it. More marble hoplites were created around the room and the sharp sound of grinding marble could be heard as the stone warriors started to move. They all raised their weapons and advanced towards Emily in a phalanx.

Emily tapped into her arcane magic. Arcane magic was similar to elemental in the sense of that it’s common for people to produce affinities towards it, apart from that the two magic types were complete opposites. Like the rest of her siblings Emily had inherited their fathers affinity for the complete spectrum of arcane magic. The five main aspects of arcane magic are Jade, Azure, Crimson, Violet and Amber (Emily always found that aspects name funny as the magic wasn’t always amber and could be gold or even a completely different colour if the user possessed magic that effected it). There is a sixth aspect, Runes, however, it isn’t exclusive to arcane. Rune magic involves patterns of symbols being constructed on the users bodies or on an object with mana to imbue new magical augmentations or abilities.

A line of stone soldiers marched towards her, their spears raised high and shields ready. They all thrust their spears, some directly at her and some covering anywhere she could try and dodge the assault.

‘Not bad’ Emily thought, happy that the hardest difficulty wouldn’t be a complete breeze. Emily used Amber. With a sharp crackle, golden lines of mana that shone like lightning formed in the air before her. The gold mana bent, curved, intertwined and melded together with each other and in less than a second formed a large rectangular shield. The mana construct was a flat intricate drawing of golden energy and as thin the mana strands that made it.

The arcane magic Amber is capable of producing projectiles however, its main speciality is mana construction. Moreover, the Amber aspect is more unique than its fellow arcane magic types in the sense of its interactions with Rune magic. It took plenty of hard work and practice, but capable arcane mages were able to combine their Amber and Rune magic to form even greater and more powerful mana constructions and that was exactly what Emily had done.

She had created the ‘Aegis of Algiz’. A powerful arcane spell allowing the user to create a protective surface of any shape or size they wanted.

Ancient Runes and symbols could be seen across her shield, engraved from the golden lines that made it, making her construction look like a prehistoric pattern you’d find in a museum on the old age.

The marble spears struck against the ‘Aegis of Algiz’. Emily remained calm and motionless, she knew the soldiers had no chance of breaking through her spell. The surface glowed slightly where the spears pushed against it however, the shield didn’t budge. The stone hoplites retracted their spears and retreated from the unknown threat in perfect synchrony. Emily de-activated the spell and strolled towards the stone warriors, gathering Jade in her right hand. The thick bright emerald mana swirled around her hand like clouds. She curled her fingers and the green clouds coalesced into a smooth, glowing crystalline jade sphere that hovered in her palm. ‘Jade orb’.

The phalanx advanced towards her with their shields raised.

The aspect of Jade’s main speciality was encasing mana in crystalline structures capable of unleashing deadly blasts of power.

Emily shot the Jade orb from her hand, and it rocketed straight into the centre soldiers shield. The Jade orb shattered on impact. Instantly there was a green flash and a huge eruption of mana. The centre solider was completely decimated. The phalanx formation was destroyed in moments as the force of the explosion sent soldiers flying, with the unfortunate warriors closest to the centre becoming shattered along with the centre soldier.

Not being able to feel pain the mindless soldiers quickly began climbing back to their feet and charging towards Emily in whatever formation they could make. Jade mana swirled around Emily once again however, she formed no projectiles or weapons. Instead she infused the mana into her fists and soon a bright green glow shone within in them.

Four soldiers charged from the right, two with spears and shields in front and two wielding swords behind. Emily dashed at them. Weaving in between their spears, she threw a rapid punch between the two shields straight into the right soldier’s marble chest plate. The Jade in her fist erupted and then a chain of green explosions tore the marble soldiers apart. Emily spun to see the rest of the hoplites approaching weapons ready and prepared to impale her. Crimson began coating her hands, thick mana flowed like a viscous liquid. Crimson could be used in a variety of ways however, its main feature never changed, to create big ass explosions and devastating attacks to eviscerate anything in your path.

Emily clapped her hands together then slowly spread her palms. The crimson aura started to flow from her hands into the space between them. The glowing liquid-like mana merged together and shaped itself into a ball. The ball grew in size and power as Emilys hands spread further apart and more mana flowed into it. In moments she held a ball of a crimson magma the size of her own head. Emily pulled her hands to behind the ball and started progressing the spell. The ball of magma’s glow started to shine brighter and soon engulfed the entire creation and the air around it trembled. It now looked as if Emily held a glowing ball of crimson energy. ‘Roar of Iram’.

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The marble soldiers were almost upon her. Emily took a small step back and then with her whole body thrust her palm against the spell. The crimson ball transformed into a beam of mana. The beam tunnelled its way through any poor soldier that got in its way, melting their stone skin like it was nothing. The centre of the hoplites formation was completely ruined however, the spell still wasn’t finished. The marble warriors hit by ‘Roar of Iram’ still hadn’t dissolved into the void and their desecrated bodies had a thick slime-like substance where the beam had torn through them. Suddenly the substance began to glow as it reacted with the mana in the air and a moment later, it all erupted producing a series of red explosions that sent all the soldiers flying.

With her augmented physicality and utilisation of Rune, Amber, Jade and Crimson magic it didn’t take long for Emily to dash around the training room and finish off the remaining scattered soldiers.

Emily let out another long sigh. She still didn’t feel calm. In fact she was still very much pissed off. Pissed off with the world, her dad, her brother, everything.

Emily spawned in as many soldiers as the room could produce and ripped them all apart. She then done another wave and then another and another.

Then after eleven waves she finally felt herself calming down.

Despite the training room’s air conditioning, sweat glistened from her skin, from her toned abs to her conditioned and strong arms to her face and it even drenched the roots of her long black hair.

Emily slumped against the training room wall and sank to the ground with deep and heavy breaths.

‘Aww damn. I’ve got the Atlas games opening celebration in a few hours’ Emily realised. ‘That should be fun’ she joked.

She relaxed her head back against the wall’s cool surface and tried to calm her mind along with her body. But it didn’t work. As soon as she was no longer distracted all she could think about was earlier. About the conversation with her father and sister.

“Nothing? Nothing?!” Emily started to yell without realising, “How is that possible?”. She stood in her father’s room.

“Emily” her father said calmly, “I’m just telling you exactly what I’ve been told” he continued to explain but Emily could tell he wasn’t happy with the news either. However, he hid it well, her father was General Jager and couldn’t act with emotion.

“But he couldn’t. He can’t have. Not him” Emily stated.

“I know” her father said solemnly, “But I’m already using far too many resources to try and find him than I ever should be for one soldier no matter who they are. It’s spreading the Elysian military thin and disrupting the system me and the others have worked so hard to build. If we continue to find nothing I’ll be forced to pull back on the investigation ... Even if it is my own son” he said grimly.

Two months ago her older brother, who was also the eldest Jager sibling was deployed on a classified operation. All her family told her, which they probably still shouldn’t have, was that the operation was on Elysian soil. Emily didn’t know the ins and outs of the operation but knew it was supposed to last around a month. Originally the operation was going well. Her brother and his team were relaying back to HQ at every deadline and had encountered minimal or no issues.

However, twenty-two days ago they missed four deadlines. It was complete silence, then out of the blue her brother contacted their father. The message stated there was complications and there had been casualties. He informed the HQ that they’d have to go silent in order to complete the operation but would contact them in a week and then would return back to Elysi. However, after a week they never received any communication from her brother. A day later the HQ suddenly received the mutilated bodies of the soldiers her brother had told them had died. And from the method they’d been sent it was obvious no one the Elysian military had sent them.

Then a week past and the day her older brother’s operation was meant to end and the day they were meant to report back to Elysi no one showed. Instantly an investigation was launched to search for the missing military personnel, but they found nothing but dead ends. There was no sign of the missing soldiers. It was like they’d vanished off the face of the world. Then two days after the operation was meant to end a tip was delivered to the HQ. Through it they found the missing members of her brothers squad unconscious in a cabin outside Elysi. Everyone but her brother. However, they soon discovered that all the newly found soldiers hadn’t just been knocked out they’d been placed in some sort of unexplainable coma. They now lay in the hospital and all the military can do is wait for them to hopefully wake.

Emily turned to her sister, Serena, who stood in the rooms far corner “You’re leading the search for him. What are your thoughts?”.

Serana sighed “I’ve been told exactly the same as our father and I can only repeat the things I’ve told you before. When I reached the sites the operation took place there was nothing. No sign of a fight, no sign of a struggle, there wasn’t even a single sign an operation had been taking place there except for the equipment set up at base camp. There is not a single lead anywhere the operation took place. If there was trust me I’d know. Even our mother has come back, and even she couldn’t find anything. All we can do is hope that the soldiers we were able to recover at that cabin awaken and pray they can give us even the smallest idea of what occurred” Serena explained to Emily, for what was probably the thirteenth time.

“But … what could’ve stood up to Aren” Emily asked defeated, her voice trembling with anger, worry, sadness and fear. Serena’s face became grim and their father’s stark.

“That’s the other issue we face. If there is an enemy out there we’re unaware of who is capable of taking on and supposedly defeating Aren then that isn’t just a threat to Elysia it’s a threat to the entire world” their father told them, in a tone that made Emily’s bones shiver.

Not knowing what else to say, Emily stood and headed for the door “He’s not dead” she said abruptly and as calmly as she could, “I know that for a fact”.

“I agree” her father said then a small smile cracked on his stark face, “I pray every day that Aren will appear from nowhere like he always does just in time for dinner. He’ll tell me that he’s handled the threat and there’s nothing to worry about with that annoying cocky grin that he got from Athra” then her fathers small vanished as he returned to reality, “However, until then I must act with what I know, no matter my personal feelings towards the matter as that is what I must do as General” her father stated.

‘And what I will have to as well in time’ Emily thought. The thought just put her in a worse mood. Choosing between family and duty for the sake of the innocent.

Emily nodded to her father and older sister and then left the room. She made it around the first corridor before sinking to the wall.

“Where are you Aren” she mumbled.

She remembered their conversation before he left for the operation, like it was yesterday. He knocked on her door before instantly barging into her room without a care in the world. Like always his messy black hair had been pushed to the right with hand in a poor attempt of military formality after constant pestering from their parents. Highlighting his strong jaw, his beard lay light and short on his face as he couldn’t be bothered shaving every couple days to remain clean shaven and he of course still possessed their family’s blue eyes. People always asked him why he didn’t grow his beard out and he’d always joked that he didn’t want to look old and grumpy like their father. Everyone would always laugh along but Emily knew the truth, he didn’t want to look like the man as he knew he couldn’t fill his place. Not yet.

She then remembered the joy she felt when her brother told her he’d be back for the Atlas games and had booked the event off so he could come see her compete. They’d even made a bet that if Emily fought and won without using her sword or any weapons and only her martial arts and magic that he’d take the family out to a place of her choosing. Anywhere she wanted. She joked that she was practically stealing his money and then he left. That was the last time she’d seen him. The sound of his laughter in hallway, as he stated he hoped she does, echoed around her mind.

Her body now felt cool, and all the sweat had dried to her skin. Her breathing was once again normal however, her mood was worse than ever.

“I’ve still got some time before the celebration” Emily said to herself. She then proceeded to fight another five waves of marble soldiers.