“Flykra… The absolute zero… I’ve never heard of you.” Ragnel said to the beautiful woman sitting next to him.

“That’s probably because I’ve-”

“Wait! You have a divine title!?”

“Took you long enough to realise that.”

The divine title. A title that is given by The Benefactor. It signifies the Gods’ interest in a person. Once given a title the Gods will lend some of their power, based on the acquired title. But nothing is ever free.

Ragnel had a thought time processing his thoughts.

“Uh? Huh… wait? Why did you choose me?”

“Oh! I just trusted my instinct… and you’re a bit cute.”

“What was that last part?”

“Nothing, nothing. So do you want to train under me?”

“Of course, why would I refuse?”

“Good, I’ll come back here tomorrow. You better be here.”

“I thought we would start training immediately.”

“No, we’ll start tomorrow.”

“Oh, ok.”

Flykra got up and left Sheil’s Tavern. Ragnel kept looking at her while she left. Such a once in a lifetime opportunity couldn’t be missed.

***

“Right foot forward and stab! How hard can it be!”

Kelric was training under the commands of the witch. Already 2 days had passed, and he made seemingly no progress. The sword technique the witch wanted him to learn was too difficult for him. The witch was ready to give up.

“You know what. Stop. Let’s stop with this sword technique.”

Kelric didn’t say anything while trying to control his breath.

“Instead, let’s have you learn how to control an elemental weapon. Hopefully, that will be easier for you. Otherwise, I’m actually just going to give up”

Kelric nodded and sat down. While taking a sip of his water he asked the witch something.

“Is learning to control an elemental weapon easy?”

“No, definitely not. But I’ve lost hope in you learning a decent sword technique, So having you learn to control an elemental weapon is my only choice left.”

Kelric kept quietly taking sips of his water.

“Also, why are you resting! You haven’t done anything yet! Get you’re ass back up!”

Kelric hurriedly jumped up and grabbed his new sword.

“Grab the other sword, kid.”

He wanted to ask why but kept his mouth shut. He grabbed the old sword off a table he set up and threw the new one on there.

“Alright, so how do I do the ‘control an elemental weapon’ thing?”

“Hmmm let me see… I thought I had a book on that, one moment, please…

It seems I don't have a book for that. I’ll have to get one then. Well, that’s for later. I’ll learn you the old way for now.”

Kelric gripped his sword tighter in his left hand, since his right still wasn’t healed fully, and listened to the witch’s words.

“Close your eyes and then… then you should feel the elemental power in the weapon. I can’t really explain it all that well, it’s been too long. Well, I trust you, just feel the elemental power.”

Just as Kelric thought, The witch wasn’t always useful. Maybe he should just stop listening to her. But to the opposition of his thoughts, he still listened to the witch and closed his eyes.

An uncomfortable darkness filled his surroundings in an instant. He ignored the darkness and only focused on his sword. The darkness crept closer and closer, and Kelric focused more and more. But it didn’t stop the approaching darkness. The witch yelled something but Kelric couldn’t hear it.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“W-Where am I?” He asked a question but no one answered. A large silence lingered.

A void. Darkness, nothing else, just darkness. He suddenly floated around in such a place. In such an empty void, Kelric couldn’t do anything. Except…

Faint lights appeared all over the empty void. They filled the void like stars in a night sky. It was a great sight.

Many more appeared. It felt as if they were holding out a hand and saying ‘I'll help you.’

The once scary void was quickly filled with many sparkling lights willing to help Kelric. It was an indescribable feeling, the warmth, and comfort of the lights. He reached forward to touch the stars but hit something else. Something warm. Really warm. He quickly pulled away his hand.

Lights began flickering and disappearing, while others appeared. It seemed like a war began between light and darkness. A war Kelric couldn’t touch, only watch.

No, Kelric was in reality the one controlling the war. His subconscious mind determined the war. Whatever the warm thing he touched was, caused his emotions to tilt. Be it, fear or anxiety, negative emotions strengthened the void. The darkness quickly swallowed the lights until only one remained. The final light held on tightly as if it was the pole star. Sadly nothing ever lasts forever. The final light got absorbed by the darkness.

The void won the war, and as its price, it swallowed Kelric. From his toes to his head Kelric started losing his senses. All his strength was pried out of his body, and not enough remained to say even one final word.

Before he knew it he was already swallowed by the void.

***

Ragnel had spent a day thinking about the training with Flykra. It was the only thing he had on his mind for a while. His first training with her was about to start.

Flykra entered Sheil’s place and Ragnel immediately sprang up to greet her.

“It seems you’re excited.” Flykra said in a laughing manner.

“So? Are we starting now?”

“After I get my drink.”

Flykra walked over to Sheil and got her drink and went back to Ragnel.

“I didn’t know it was possible to create a drink this bad.”

As soon as Flykra said that he quickly looked over at Sheil. Fortunately, she didn’t hear it.

“You really shouldn’t say things like that in here. Sheil is quite quick-tempered.”

“Ah sure, I’ll repeat myself outside then.”

“That’s not… You know what? Sure. Repeat it once you’re outside.”

Flykra had a soft smile as she went outside. Ragnel followed after her.

“I didn’t know it was possible to create a drink this bad.”

“Ok, you actually repeated yourself. Maybe I should make more jokes like that.”

“Yeah, yeah. So, where do you train usually?”

“Mostly, just not. But if had to say a place, then the ‘Military Training Area’ would be best.”

“Is it any good? If not, I’m going to take you to my training spot in Milton.”

“You have a training spot in Milton?! Well, I should’ve expected that. But if I want to go to Milton, I’ll have to talk with dad and…”

“Do you want to go or not?”

“Yeah!”

***

Kelric came back to his senses a while later. The void didn’t kill him. Instead, he was trapped inside the void. The vast darkness of the void powered his negative emotions, adding a sense of claustrophobia. There was nothing he could do in here. Many negative emotions started stacking up.

Loneliness. Confusion. Fear. Emptiness. Despair. The list went on. In the vast darkness, not even one positive emotion could form.

Filled to the brim with negative emotions, Kelric looked left, right, up, down. But there was nothing, only the void. But…

Down? Down… if there was down then it meant there was something. If there was something then what should there be? A slight sliver of hope poked through the curtain of negative emotions.

He did a weird twist of moves and miraculously stood up in the darkness. Luckily for him, his sense of balance was still intact. He closed his eyes and held his hand forward. He grasped the darkness tightly. He wanted to destroy it and escape. Cracking sounds came from his hands. He damaged the darkness. He opened his eye again, to a small light shining straight into it. The light came from a small hole in the void he created. The sliver of hope was strengthened and gave strength to the light. He walked towards it. And then ran.

Running through the vast darkness with only one goal. The sense of despair grew larger as he kept running. He never seemed to reach the light, no matter how much he ran. But his desire, his desire to reach the light was strong. It was way stronger than the despair.

So, he kept running and running indefinitely, trying to reach the light. How much time passed? Was it only a few seconds or had it already been a month? It didn’t matter. His desire was strong and never once died down.

The light grew incredibly and he held his hand forward and grabbed it. A great heat filled his hands again. This time he held it tightly without ever letting go. The heat was burning his hand to a crisp, but it also held it. The heat held his hand tightly. The heat was his only salvation in the void. He felt weirdly comfortable again.

Kelric smiled.

Suddenly many more lights appeared. The tides of a war that was already lost reversed. The light was swallowing the vast darkness. His positive emotions swallowed his negative emotions. The roles in the war were completely reversed. Before he could process what was happening, the darkness was already entirely gone. A world filled only with brilliant lights, it was amazing. This is how it felt to win. This is how it felt for a group of farmers to win against an army of demons. This is how it felt to live in a perfect world.

Kelric wanted to stay here, but couldn’t. The real world called him back. He dropped the heat in his hands. All the lights flashed simultaneously. They disappeared and brought Kelric back to the real world.

“... up! Wake Up!”

Kelric was still dazed by the lights and emotions of the void world. He looked around, he was definitely back in the cave.

“Hey! Are you alright? Where were you?”

He ignored the words and looked down at his hands. In his left hand lay a brilliantly flaming blade. He had done it. He managed to summon the element of his sword. He even managed to strengthen the element beyond its normal capabilities. He swung the sword once. It left behind a beautiful fiery trail, filled with the lights of the void world.

He shed a tear. He swung it again. Another tear. He did it again and again until he fainted. Even while fainting, only positive emotions remained.