In a white room with a table in the middle, sits two figures.
The room’s design is plain, the walls are painted white and clear windows litter the walls. This room would be empty if not for the table and two seats.
Their are two figures sitting near the table. The one sitting in front of the desk is a very handsome man and the one on the main seat is an androgynous person.
The handsome man’s well-made suit, branded accessories and immaculate appearance clearly indicates that he is from a great background.
Despite his obviously great disposition, the handsome man’s face is nervously taut while he waits for the acknowledgement of the person across him.
Sitting across the table is an androgynous person, his/her face is beautifully sculpted to be both masculine and feminine.
The long hair might say she’s female but his straight suit and the way she acts can go either way.
An undiscernible but undeniable powerful voice spills throughout the room, which makes the man tremble.
“I heard that the nuclear plant Cold Life’s subjects have escaped.” Every word goes high pitch like a female but has a very rough undertone signifying a male.
Despite the nervous look of the man, he answers smoothly, safe in the knowledge that nothing will happen to him, as long as he performs well.
“Yes sir, the nuclear plant, Cold life, has been compromised. The appearance of the anomaly has destroyed the whole facility. It’s been feeding on nuclear energy and its targets are always our test labs.” As the man continuous his mandatory report, he reaches through an empty space and pulls out a small blue folder. He stands up and hands it of the androgynous person.
Glancing at the reports, the Androgynous person finds some details that require attention.
“Shortly after the escape of the test subjects, all the cameras have been shut down and every video is deleted along with all the backups, what happened?” The cold voice lowers the temperature of the whole room.
The man immediately responds, ignoring the sudden drop in temperature.
“Sir nobody knows but we've already sent agent Lakes to investigate.” The man’s report earned a half-hearted nod. “We also lost 2 agents trying to capture the anomaly. The first loss was a Beast-rank Meta human, which can be ignored, but the second loss was a Lord-rank Meta human which, unfortunately, is a big loss.” The face of the man turns pale, the moment he reports the loss of a powerful agent.
Silence takes the room, as the androgynous person mulls over the loss of a Lord rank agent.
Heroes or to be more specific, Meta humans, are ranked depending on their physical ability or mental power.
A Beast rank Meta human, on the starter level, can easily lift 5000 kg, release a punch as strong as 4000 kg and their running speed can reach up to 150 kph. Beast Rank meta humans that focus on mental abilities can at least use psychic barriers, psychic cannon, and telekinesis with good proficiency.
Despite all the abilities Beast Ranks can boast, all of it pales in comparison to a Lord rank Meta human.
A Lord rank Meta human can easily lift 100,000 kg, release a punch as strong as 80,000 kg and their running speed can reach a, ridiculous, 1000 kph. Lord Rank meta humans that hone their mental abilities can use powerful psychic barriers, manifest psychic weapons albeit temporarily, manipulate the elements, use telekinesis with near flawless precision and most of all, they can fly.
Super powers are a weird factor in Meta humans and even the weakest Meta human can reach Lord Rank or higher because of an obscenely powerful superpower.
Nevertheless, the loss of a Lord rank is a big impact on any organization.
“Inform Agent lakes that his job is to only gather information and not engage the anomaly. We cannot afford to lose another Lord rank.” The man bows and leaves to do his order.
“What is that anomaly?” the androgynous person’s muttering is barely audible but her weird tone cannot hide the curiosity hidden beneath.
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“What Condition?” I calmly answer, confident that no harm will come to me until the Lightning bolt stops speaking.
“I have two conditions in mind.” The lightning bolt speaks proudly but also with some measure of respect.
“What’s the first?” I ask while studying the surroundings. It seems time has stopped but only in a small radius. I can still see the clouds outside moving.
“In a few months, I will come back to find you and at that time I want you to help me?”
I frown, what could I possibly do to assist a living lightning bolt.
“How could I possibly help you?” I gesture around. "You can even stop time!"
"I merely projected my aura around me and used it to control the surroundings. In time, you will eventually learn to do something similar."
What is he talking about?
“I will take on a human form and I want you to give me lodging”
That's easy enough... but how will a lightning become a human?
“Your second condition?”
“Once you awaken your immortal soul, I want you to guide and teach me on how to properly cultivate.” The powerful voice of the lightning bolt is heavy and oppressive but in front of me it seemed to humble itself.
What?
My face widens in surprise as I take in what Spark said.
What immortal soul! Ascension? Isn’t that only in fairy tales?
These thoughts run rampant in my mind but I try to keep a calm face. I stare at the tip of the lightning bolt, as to look for answers.
The lightning bolt picks up on my confusion and immediately speaks.
“You haven’t cultivated yet, have you?”
“No, cultivation is impossible. Isn’t that the stuff of legends?”
“All of them are true; if not how do you explain me?”
“You could be an experiment of the government science branch that somehow escaped” I've heard of impossible creatures that once roamed the world when Meta Humans haven't come out yet.
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“I am a hundred years old. I have gained sentience a hundred years ago. In the chaotic lightning storm of the sea Natal, I was a lightning bolt that continuously struck the same place for 500 years."
Spark seems to reminisce the past.
"The place I struck was an island filled with the dense energies of the earth and heavens. After continuously being exposed to the natural energies of the earth and heavens, I eventually gained sentience."
Is that possible? What are these energies? I've never heard of them.
"Thirsting for knowledge, I left and travelled the world only to find out that almost every place in the world is devoid of any natural energies."
Spark seems to frown, even though it's impossible to read a lightning bolt
"To sate my thirst and increase my power, I kept absorbing the energy of these places ,you humans call power plants. The energy here is impure and weak but the amount is near infinite but even with the amount of power I intake, I am still unable to take human form."
Spark goes quiet but suddenly speaks with ferocious anger.
"Especially a month ago! I clashed with this being you call a Meta human. He was abnormally strong for someone who has no cultivation but I managed to defeat him at the expense of using months’ worth of energy."
Spark sighs quietly.
"So I need to absorb energy to recuperate my power.”
After carefully listening to Spark, an idea pops up in my head and I might have finally found the solution to my problem!
“You mean that cultivators are like Meta humans?” Despite my excitement, I ask a question.
“Cultivators are the original and truest form of Meta humans”
Does that mean...
“Can I become a cultivator?”
“Yes anyone can become a cultivator”
Yes!!!
“HOW?” I failed to control myself for a moment and blurted out my true thoughts.
Spark suddenly becomes surprised but calms down and answers.
“First, you must agree to my conditions and I will teach you the most basic technique of cultivating but you must immediately correct yourself once you awaken your immortal soul, since my technique is the crudest version of cultivating.” The lightning bolt’s tip droops in sadness.
“I agree!” I immediately agree, not caring about the consequences as long as I can finally make a difference.
“Good!”
Spark immediately splits into countless pieces of smaller lightning bolts.
The countless lightning bolts immediately moves, with unparalleled speed, and pierces all the monsters, destroying their whole bodies in an instant. The crackling sound of lightning piercing the monster's bodies fills the whole room and accompanying it, is the undeniable smell of charred meat.
The moment the last of the monsters died, the psuedo timestop disappears.
I turn to see what happened but immediately notice that the location changed.
"Where am I?"
After a quick look around, I notice that I'm standing outside of the factory and Spark is nowhere to be seen.
Without any second thought, I start to run away from the factory while using my camouflage gear.
After 2 hours and 30 minutes of continuous running, I finally reach my home.
I make a quick check of my items and I notice my camouflage suit has already been drained.
Getting inside, the first thing I do is sit down on my sofa and remove my mask.
I stare at the ceiling and before I could do anything else, I pick up the nearest pillow and stuff it on my face.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" The muffled sound of my scream reverebrates through the living room.
I remove the pillow and lie down satisfied.
“A cultivator” I'm sure that I'm smiling like an idiot.
After a few minutes of resting, I stand up and go to the bathroom. Once inside the bathroom, I undress. My clothes easily slide down despite the large obstacles they have to overcome. Once I'm undressed, I go to enjoy a relaxing shower.
After taking a long and relaxing bath, I wear some comfortable clothes and go to pick up my equipment and start charging the ones I drained.
I take my laptop and bring it to bed.
Now, time for some good old fashion research!
I find a comfortable position and get to work. I start by looking up my old contacts and ask them any information about cultivators.
After a few hours, I'm almost ready to rip my hair out. I'm sure Narissa would kill me, if she found out I would waste my beautiful long hair. I continuously looked for stories but I only saw folklore about how cultivators could blow up mountains with a breath or how cultivators keep their virginity for a thousand years.
Eventually, I got tired of reading folklores and I decided to sleep.
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“Wake up” I hear a calm and gentle voice pulling me from my sleep.
“Wake up Elizabeth” Opening my eyes, stare at the female teenager in front of me.
Somehow she looks familiar.
Her name is Felicia, a friend of Elizabeth.
Wait what? A friend of mine?
Looking around, I notice that I'm inside a shabby room made out of wood. On my right side is an open window showing the untouched beauty of nature which captured my attention for quite some time before remembering that my friend is waiting for me.
Looking down, the bed is just as shabby as the room, a simple wooden frame, a mattress made out of cheap materials, and a thin as air blanket.
“Felicia, why are you waking me up so early?” Somehow even though this is the first time seeing her, I feels as if I've known her for as long as I remember.
“Come on! Wake up already it’s the talent testing day”
Right! Talent testing day, the test to see if one has good innate talent when it comes to cultivating.
“What are we waiting for then! Let’s go” I rush out of bed and start dressing up. Once I'm done, I run out of the room, holding Felicia's hand.
Once I exit the house with Felicia, I start to wonder. Do I have what it takes to be a good cultivator?
Outside the house is hundreds upon hundreds of children, with their parents, going towards the center of their village.
I take my time studying the village, it seems they live in a beautiful and fertile valley.
I start to run with Felicia towards the village center, as if I already know the village like the back of my palm.
When we reach the center, we see 3 robed men sitting cross legged at the middle.
Another group of robed men are asking the children to form a line, so they could be assessed one by one.
I stand with Felicia in a line and we watch the children do the test.
Time seems to fly by as we watch the other children pass by. We notice that most of the children who get tested cry, some laugh, and some of them even starts bullying others.
Eventually, it’s Felicia’s turn.
The talent assessment requires the person to hold a crystal ball, the size of a soccer ball and a figure appears.
The more profound and more clear the figure is, the better the talents is.
Come one Felicia, I'm rooting for you.
I cross my fingers as I watch Felicia go towards the crystal ball thingy.
When Felicia holds the crystal ball, a small figure starts to appear in the transparent ball of glass.
Slowly, the figure becomes clearer as a beautiful platinum Roc, wreathed with lightning, appears and flies inside the crystal ball.
One of the three robed men immediately stands up and appears next Felicia. The robed man congratulates Felicia telling her that her talent is only seen in a few hundred years.
Felicia runs towards me with the biggest smile she can give and shouts.
“ELIZABETH!!!! The nice man said my talent the, Platinum Lightning Roc, is a once in a hundred years talent and If I work hard, I can easily reach the higher realms of cultivation.”
Felicia’s face is so bright but before I could congratulate her, I need to go and check my talent so I quickly congratulate her and run towards the crystal ball.
When I reach the crystal ball, the man supervising it nods towards me.
I see Felicia at the corner of my eye, cheering me on.
I'm not nervous! You're nervous!.
I reach out and touch the crystal ball.
At first, no figure appears indicating a lack of talent but then a woman whose face couldn’t be described with simply beautiful, and a body that every female and male would kill for, appears.
The goddess-like female starts walking and every six steps, a beautiful golden wing appears behind her, a total of six 36 steps resulting in 6 wings.
The crystal ball starts to shine golden and starts floating.
Wings appear and surround the crystal ball, as if a lover holding his partner.
The golden energy explodes outward, affecting every living being in the whole valley. Trees that were long dead start to rejuvenate, flowers bloom, grass grows and even the people were affected.
Everyone ill and injured in the village is suddenly healed, the blind can see, the lame can walk and the sick are cured but this was not the end of it, all the children that came to take a test were affected.
The children’s talents suddenly appeared above them. Each and one them were the same but something was different, all of them evolved to become stronger. Even Felicia’s, once in a hundred years, talent evolved, instead of a Platinum Lightning Roc, it became a beautiful golden phoenix wreathed by golden lightning.
All of the children in the valley had their talents evolved by Elizabeth’s. Eventually the crystal ball starts floating down and everyone looks in extreme reverence towards Elizabeth.
Then what happens next was expected, everyone kneels to show their extreme gratitude and reverence towards the divine appearance of such talent. Even the people who came to test the children's talents kneeled. Then the world turns to black.
I quickly open my eyes and stare at the familiar ceiling of my home.
I remember the knowledge Spark imparted on me, it's the most basic knowledge of cultivation.
I can't help but smile, as tears comes out of my eyes.
"Hahahahaha" I start laughing while crying at the same time.
“I can change the world now mom” Smiling, I wipe my tears away and stare at the ceiling but unlike earlier, my stare seems to see beyond the four walls of my home.