August 11, 2065

Magus Development Center, Soneria

I awoke to the sound of my alarm beeping.  I silenced the alarm by blasting the clock across the room.  I climbed out of bed, grabbed some clothes and walked towards the shower, located in the middle of the townhouse.

“Whoever thought that having a communal shower was a good idea was an idiot.”  I grumbled under my breath.  I pushed open the door and got an eyeful of a shapely blue-tinged body.  Realizing that I just pulled the most obvious mistake possible, I close the door and wait for the retaliation.  The door opens, and Alexia walks out, a towel covering her up.  She walks past me, like nothing happened.

“That was an accident, right?”  She says, heading for her room.

“Yeah.”  I said, glad that my morning didn’t play out like some cheesy harem anime.  Two hours later, I was finally ready for classes.  And it seems that at MDC, “ready for classes”  meant loaded out with full combat gear.  I walked out of my room, dressed in my uniform: A long- sleeved collared shirt with pants, the armguard my father gave me, the katana my father gave me, and a handgun strapped to my leg.  I walked out of my room and saw Alexia, wearing an armor-plated dress that was blood red and lacked sleeves, and she had a rather flashy blue and gold sword with runes running along the middle of the blade strapped to her waist.

“Nice outfit.”  She says, walking towards the door.

“Yeah, you look pretty good too.”  I say, walking out the door.  “Uh, do you know where the classroom is?”  I say, turning back to her.  She scoffs.

“Of course you didn’t look that up.  Oh well, it can’t be helped.  Follow me.”  She turns around and starts off towards the classroom.

I arrive at the “Classroom” about five minutes before the class is due to start.  As I look around the room, I notice that the room is massive, easily two to three times the size of a university lecture hall.  I see ten desks sitting off to one side of the room, with a large whiteboard sitting in front of it.  Directly across the room from the desks is what looks to be a simulated combat field.  Even more curious is the fact that the room has its own restrooms and even a mini cafeteria on the far end.  I look over towards the desks and see that Isendal is sitting at a desk, with a crystalline lance leaning against her chair, and a massive book on top of the desk.  Also sitting at the desks are two strangers, a Keredith woman with two gunblades on her back and a Human guy with a rune-inscribed rifle on his back.  I take a seat in between Alexia and Isendal and wait for the instructor to arrive.  As I waited, a trio of Seycron men walked in, quickly followed by a girl, and took up various chairs.  After a few minutes passed, the instructor walked in.  Much to my surprise, it was a familiar face.  The instructor was a Six-foot tall Seycron, with blonde hair and was wearing a rather ostentatious uniform with tons of gold embroidery and a ridiculous red cape.  Our instructor was my father’s eternal rival, and my mother’s ex, Zigrus.  He faced us nine.

“Hello class A.  Your last class member ran into transportation trouble in getting here from Umbra, so he’ll be arriving later.  For today I’m going to help all of you learn to use your given artifacts.  But first, let’s do introductions.  I’m High-commander Zigrus, and I got stuck with being your instructor thanks to my ex.”  The class laughs.  “Alright, how about you first, Patrick?”  He says, looking at what is likely a class roster.  I nod and walk up in front of the class.

“Hello.  I’m Patrick Faalzar.  I’m not that interesting.”  I say, before walking back to my seat.

“Ok, next, Alexia?”  Zigrus says.  Alexia stands up and walks in front of the class.

“Hello, I am Alexia Teran.  I’m a blood mage.”  Alexia sat down.  Zigrus motioned to the Keredith girl.

“Hello, I am Miri.  I’m immortal.”  She said.  The Human guy stood up.

“Hello, I am Edward Lemnar.  I’m an Ascendant.”  He sat back down.  Zigrus ran down the line until he came to Isendal.

“I’m Isendal.”  She said, coldly, before sitting back down.

“Well...... That was interesting.  So, I’m going to help each of you guys in private with your artifacts.  If I’m not helping you at the moment, feel free to use the arena for sparring matches”  I raise my hand.

“So, are you assuming that we all have combat training?  I mean, I’m proficient enough but are we all?”  I say.  Zigrus chuckles.

“Patrick.  Combat training is part of how you place into A class.  Why else would we send a reminder to all of the students in the class to come in full combat gear?”

“I see your point.  Sorry for holding us up with a stupid question.”

“Alright.  Well, I guess I’ll help you first Patrick.”  Zigrus replied, waving off the rest of the class.  I walk over to him.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Uh, is there any reason you picked me first?”  I ask.

“Well, it was either going to be you or Alexia because I know what you guys have without needing to consult a database.”

“So, what exactly do I have?”  I ask, raising my arm.

“The PARAGON system.  It’s the predecessor to all biocomputers and Affinity-assisted equipment.  What it exactly does varies from person to person.  However, at least according to both previous wielders, you can summon a set of armor from it by channeling affinity into it.  Go ahead, give it a try.”  He explains, pointing to the armguard.  I place my sword on the table, close my eyes and focus, moving an imaginary mass into my forearm.  I open my eyes and see that my head is inside of a helmet, a visor reading:

“Wow.  That is an interesting look.”  Zigrus says, before dragging over a massive mirror so I can see myself.  I see myself in a set of light yellow armor, with armor plating covering all of my vitals.  On my back, I see two massive binders sticking over my shoulders.  Another interesting thing is that my armguard now has three switches on them, labeled: Ascension, Overdrive, and Rebound.  I go to flip the first switch when Zigrus stops me.

“What?”  I say, irritated.

“One of those is probably going to activate those verniers.  Trust me, you don’t want that to happen in here.”

“Verniers?  You mean that this thing will let me fly?”  I reply, now very interested.

“That is what it did for both Ganashi and Karen.”

“Were my parents the previous users of this thing?”  I ask.

“They were.  This device is ridiculously powerful.”  Zigrus replies.  “That’s about all I can tell you about that.  Your sword on the other hand...”  He points to my sword.  “I’m amazed Ganashi was willing to part with that.”

“He said it belonged to an old friend of his.”  Zigrus nods.

“While it is a bit more complicated than that, that blade is all we found of Mark Jefferson after the battle of Citadel thirty years ago.”

“You mean that Mark, the Hero of Citadel?”

“Yep.”

“So, what does this blade do, exactly.”

“Well, the whole thing is laced with Void Essence, it is basically one big, sharp affinity focus.  Mark used it to create temporary rips in time-space and basically teleport.”

“Could I do that?”  I say, looking at my sword.

“I wouldn’t recommend it.  the intermediary that Mark used isn’t exactly around anymore.”  Zigrus replied.  “Alright, go and rejoin the others, I’ve told you what I can.”  I leave Zigrus, and walk over to the sparring arena, where I see Miri and Edward having a duel.  The duel was a fight to be seen.  Miri’s fighting style was like a ballet of gunfire and slashed from her gunblade, and Edward was launching an unrelenting barrage of spells while firing wildly with his rifle.  The walls around the arena were nominally clear, so people could see into the arena, but my view was severely obscured due to the fact that they had their weapons loaded with paint rounds, and the glass looked like an abstract art piece.  After another five minutes of furious gunfire, they agreed to a draw, and they both left the arena, completely clean.  I spot Isendal by herself, reading her book.  I carefully approach her.

“So, what are you reading?”  I ask, standing next to her.  She ignores me.  I try to look at the pages when I feel something sharp against my throat.

“I’d advise against looking at my book, unless you want to breathe a bit easier.”  She says, not looking up from her book.

“You seem pretty confident.  You wanna have a match?”  I ask.

“As if I’d be dumb enough to have a match against the wielder of the PARAGON system.”

“You know about this thing?”  I ask, now, pretty curious.

“Enough to know that you probably match me in terms of raw power in it.”  I suddenly feel a slap on the shoulder.

“Getting all buddy buddy with the ice queen, eh?”  Alexia says, standing next to me.

“I take offense to that.”  Isendal says, still not looking up from her book.

“You going to do something about it?”  Alexia says, itching for a fight.  Isendal looks at her,

“You interest me.  Sure.  How about we have a duel?”  Isendal replies, closing her book.  Isendal walks up to Alexia and looks her over.  “You’ll be an interesting opponent.  You have a legacy much like your friend, Patrick, I’m curious to see how that manifests in battle.”

“Well then, If you are done being cryptic, let’s go.”  Alexia says, walking towards the arena.