Legosia was born a healthy young Elneshi, in the fields that surrounded his King’s land. Strong of body and keen of mind, the young Legosia differentiated himself from his peers.

-From the 1st Chapter of “The Remont of Elneshe”

Five Years Ago.

Rozu Katar wheeled a cart behind him. There were people on that cart, and they needed to be taken back. He wheeled it with all of his enhanced strength.

His commanding officers had told him that power of his was useful, in ways that Rozu didn’t yet understand. But they offered food, a place to stay and more if he could fulfil their requests. What more could he ask for?

At least they talked to him now. Sometimes he thought he was a ghost. But not when they found out he had powers. They never ignored him after that. He liked not being ignored.

So, now he wheeled the cart behind him, because that’s what the officer had told him to do. He just wished that the people he was carting weren’t so loud. They screamed and wailed, and Rozu heard someone vomit over the side of the carriage.

He lifted a foot up in his trek, hoping none of the bile lapped up onto his new shoes. He didn’t know when he’d be getting new ones. Or new clothes, like the ones that he wore now. A uniform, they called it.

They arrived back at the camp, where the actual soldiers stayed. They looked at him with confused expressions as Rozu carted the men past them. Feeling empty in his stomach, Rozu thought he needed food.

Wait, no. Not food…

This was something they’d taught him. He ruffled around in his new uniform, searching for the little pouch he kept on himself at all times. Before, it used to contain all of his belongings, what little he had. But now it was filled with glowing crystals that looked like candy.

Rozu tried biting into one once, which had gotten him laughed at. When he shouted back at them, they stopped though. It was another perk he was glad for.

Now, instead of biting, he just held the crystal in his hand. They’d told him to drink from it, something Rozu hadn’t understood for a while. How could you drink from something that wasn’t liquid?

But he learned with time. It wasn’t drinking with your mouth, but drinking with your soul. The colour drained out of the crystal and Rozu felt refreshed. The well in his stomach felt more full, and he continued on his trek.

“Here, boy!” someone shouted from far away. Rozu nodded at the sight of his commanding officer. The man was everything Rozu wasn’t. Where Rozu was lanky, frail and meek, he was filled out, strong and confident. He listened to the older man’s orders, moving the cart towards him and dropping it.

He spared a glance back at the people on there, before turning to his officer.

“Am I done?” he asked.

“For now, yes. Get yourself back into your room. We have training at night,” The man said, adding a slight smirk. He patted Rozu on the back, sending him on his way.

His room was something new as well. No more sleeping near the softest earth he could find. Instead, he had a bed in a room that he shared with the rest of the fresh recruits. Bladeborn, he knew, got such special treatment.

A part of him huffed at all this new luxury. If he’d just discovered it earlier, he could’ve been living a comfortable life much sooner. Instead, he was only now realizing what kind of power he held.

They called him a Devourer, yet that hadn’t turned out well for him. Apparently, he was supposed to be eating dirt and rocks to get stronger. A part of him hated that thought. He’d eaten dirt before, and he didn’t want to have to do it again, no matter how strong it made him.

But orders were orders, and Rozu couldn’t deny them if he wanted to keep his new life. So, he slept in until the middle of the night, when a ringing bell sounded out throughout their entire room.

Most of the Devourers there stood up immediately, rising from their beds and standing in formation. Rozu took a while to stand, and heard a sigh from beside him.

“Street urchin. Just let it go this time,” he heard whispers.

Rozu stood up and rubbed his eyes, trying to mimic the poses the other recruits had about them.

“Tonight’s a special night, Devourers. You’ll be learning just what makes you special. Line yourselves up and get to the field, now!” a colonel shouted at them. They all saluted in reply, and Rozu followed along lazily.

A line was quickly formed and Rozu shuffled into it just as fast. They were led out in the cold, which made Rozu yearn for his bed once again. But he wouldn’t be given such luxuries. Instead, he was forced to stand and given materials in his hand.

The colonel spread out the materials and stood at the helm of the group. He cleared his throat before speaking, silencing the mutters among the soldiers.

“Now, I want all of you, one by one, to start trying to Devour those materials. This is your power; fear won’t let you master it. You own it, and it is made for you specifically. Get to it, recruits!”

Slowly, the first of the Devourers swallowed the rock. He began to cough on it, and the colonel rushed over to him. he pressed against the boy’s stomach with his hands until he heaved up the rock, trembling on the ground.

“Bad first attempt. Don’t try to swallow it before you start Devouring. Go to the back of line, we’ll start over then,” he ordered the boy, who complied and walked away shamefully.

The line continued down, and no one had been able to use their powers so far. Rozu felt a bit of apprehension when his turn came, and all eyes focused on him.

“Come on, soldier. It’s your turn,” the colonel said expectantly.

Rozu swallowed the lump in his throat, then raised the rock towards it. He just needed to remember what it had been like. His mouth had lit up purple, and he’d felt… different.

The same glow started to extend from the back of his throat. The shine glowed even from his skin, doubly bright in the night, and he swallowed the lump of stone whole. He felt it dissipate in his system, as if it didn’t exist anymore.

And then, his skin tightened. It felt like it was being stretched, and the texture grew rougher and rougher, until it took on the appearance of rock itself.

“Impressive. We’ve got our first success of the night. This, recruits, is what you’re all capable of. What’s your name, boy?” the colonel asked him.

“R-Rozu…” his given title for all his life.

“No Form? I’m sure you’ll find one that suits you. For the rest of you,” he turned to face the crowd, “What Rozu has done here is take the material unto himself. He will now hit harder,” the colonel snapped a finger.

A soldier came up to Rozu, holding a piece of wood towards him. The colonel glanced between him and the bark, and Rozu raised a fist. He plunged it through the wood, cracking it so easily it felt like straw.

“Be slower,” the colonel added, urging Rozu to move closer. The boy tried, and he felt heavier than he had before. His footfalls were also stronger, sending a small cloud of dust up with each step.

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“And be tougher,” the colonel finished, bringing out a knife. He stabbed Rozu with the blade, and the young Devourer was too stunned to react. The blade, however, didn’t even break his skin. He felt a slight sting, but otherwise the knife bounced right off of his body.

“These are the properties of the stone we supply to our Devourers. I hope that by tonight, most of you will have familiarized yourselves with it. Now, onto the next soldier!”

The colonel finished, and they moved away from Rozu. He was told to practice with his powers, so he took the opportunity. His body felt different in so many ways, it was almost alien. He felt… invincible. Rozu practiced a few moves, growing tired with all the running and jumping he was doing.

Worry then began to take over. He tried rubbing the stone off of his skin, but it wouldn’t budge. Was he going to stay this way forever? Fear began to mount further and further, until finally, he felt something empty. He looked down to see his stony skin softening, and in a few moments Rozu was back to normal.

He pinched his hands to make sure, and they were just as soft as normal. A sigh of relief went through Rozu’s body, and he only then examined his bewl. It was still there, so why had the powers dissipated?

“You out of stone, soldier?” one of the troops that were handing out materials asked him. Rozu nodded.

“Happens. Rock only lasts for so long,” he said, handing another small sphere to Rozu.

For the rest of the night, that was his routine. Rozu would dry up his bewl pool, or the stone in his system, and repeat until he had mastered the transformation. It tired him out, and by the looks of the other soldiers there, he wasn’t alone in that feeling.

Still, that momentary invincibility. It had felt so good. Like Rozu was safe from all threats around him, in his own little bubble. He wanted that feeling to last forever.

****

Weeks passed and so did Rozu’s training. Practice had him out in the fields at all times, and when he wasn’t practicing, there were tasks to be carried out. He would have to carry pails of water, move carts, help with construction wherever he could. He was building muscle that way, he knew, and it kept him happy that he was being fed.

He had barely learned how to heal himself, when his entire group’s training was interrupted. The colonel, who Rozu had come to know as Delsin, turned to a soldier who was breathing deeply. The man had come running from the edges of the camp, and the entire group had paused to observe him.

“Colonel Delsin… We’ve received urgent news… need more Bladeborn on the field…” the man said with a cough. How far had he run to deliver the message?

Colonel Delsin glanced back at Rozu’s group, and the young Devourer felt his gaze pass over him.

“These recruits aren’t ready yet. They need a few more weeks of training at least,” Delsin told the soldier, who shook his head.

“They know. But they’re outnumbered! But the Brigadier says they’ll barely have to fight! Just scare off the Gejsans as best as they can!” the soldier told him. Rozu could see the colonel toiling with the decision, and he looked away from the awaiting faced of his soldiers.

“If they face an enemy, you let them run away, okay?” Colonel Delsin told him. the soldier nodded.

They were carted off soon after that. Rozu had seen Afterburners flying through the sky, but this was the first time that he could ride in the skies like them. Colonel Delsin had said they could learn someday. Starting early wouldn’t be so much of an issue, would it?

Rozu’s hands reached for the nearest Afterburner, but he took it back. He wasn’t street trash any more. A Bladeborn like him should be acting more dignified. The Afterburner he had reached out towards glanced in his direction warily, glaring at Rozu.

When they arrived near the Brigadier’s army, Rozu found soldiers standing in formation. He and his group were put under the command of a special squadron leader, who led them forward into battle.

They hadn’t needed to march for long until they reached the opposing army. Rozu could see their soldiers from afar, and the sight scared him a little. They were tall, with curly hair and knots running along them. They wore armour that Rozu couldn’t recognize, and were poised to charge at them.

Something in the air felt off to him, and his breath thinned a bit. But Rozu bolstered himself with his bewl, reinforcing his body and easing his mind. He was a Bladeborn, he didn’t need to fear them. And besides, it wasn’t as though they were truly here for a fight. Though the enemy had Bladeborn of their own, they looked paltry compared to the brigadier’s forces.

That thought kept him secure only till the first order came.

“Devourer Divisions, charge!” their squadron leader shouted. Rozu and his group of Devourers stood still for a confused moment, until more shouting knocked them into formation.

“Where are we going!?”

“We weren’t supposed to fight!”

And other shouts came from him group. Yet, Rozu didn’t raise any objections of his own. He simply listened to orders, holding up the small blade he had been given ahead of him. It was a Katar, one of the more eccentric weapons used mostly by Bladeborn.

He kept that Katar close to himself as they collided with the enemy group. Chaos erupted from all sides of the battlefield, and Rozu lost himself in the war.

All around him bodies were falling and people were dying. The only thing he could do to keep himself safe was swipe at anyone who came close. Rozu slashed at the enemy forces, those soldiers that tried to reach for him or his group. He couldn’t protect them all, but he tried his best to fend off the attackers.

A Devourer crashed into him and took him off his feet. Rozu tried to stab down with his Katar, but the man’s skin was too strong to pierce. Stone! He shouted in his mind. That’s what they were using!

But Rozu knew the weakness of stone. He leveraged his flailing legs and tripped up the Devourer, who crashed into the dirt. Rozu crashed alongside him, and felt his foot twist awkwardly. Pain shot up his leg and Rozu grunted, before looking back at the Devourer.

The rough texture of the man’s body was fading, and he looked to be regaining focus. Before he could attack Rozu, however, the young man grabbed his Katar and plunged it into the enemy’s neck.

The Devourer looked at him in shock, but spluttered and fell over grabbing his throat. Bladeborn don’t die so easily, reminded his Colonel.

So, Rozu plunged the blade over and over into the man’s neck, until he stopped moving.

Rozu backed off, huffing and looking around himself. There was more fighting going around, and they’d need his help. But the battle ended just as quickly as it had begun, with the enemy retreating after the first wave of losses.

Rozu stood atop a single corpse and heaved a breath. No one else would be hunting him down. He joined up with the rest of his division once again, finding them in a worse state than he was. Rozu’s clothes may have been stained, his foot still twisted and he may have needed new boots, but at least he was whole. Some of the other Devourers weren’t so lucky, having mangled fingers and feet.

They whined as they recouped themselves, and their leader was of no help.

“Pull yourselves together. You’re Bladeborn, for Form’s sake, just heal!” he shouted at them.

When they’d come back, the Colonel was angrier than Rozu had ever seen him.

“You told me they wouldn’t see combat! Look at them! You’ve brought them back half-dead!” he shouted at the same courier who had delivered the previous message.

The soldier seemed to shrink under the colonel’s gaze, stuttering as he spoke.

“T-there were so many, Colonel. The brigadier told me to bring them any way I could,” he reasoned.

“I’ll have a word with your brigadier yet. He can’t be taking our new batch of Devourers out of commission before they’ve even learned what they can do! Do you understand how much of a target they could’ve been had the enemy known?”

More shouting continued from that, while Rozu tended to his wounds. He sat on the dirt ground and looked at his twisted foot. They’d had to give an impromptu lecture on how Bladeborn healing worked, and Rozu was only now practicing it.

He flowed his bewl from his stomach throughout his body. It moved towards his leg slowly, and Rozu felt the pain recede. There was a sharp spike of it while his foot readjusted itself, but in a minute, he was right as new.

Rozu tested the weight of his foot, and grinned in satisfaction. It felt perfect. The colonel gave him an approving glance before returning to the shouting match he was having.

The other people in Rozu’s group took much longer to adjust. Some of them were even unable to do it, either because of the pain or the anguish of what they’d seen. By the end of the day, they were shuffled into the rooms to continue their healing tomorrow.

Rozu would’ve liked to get rested that night, but someone brought out bewllan crystals in the room. Slowly, the rest of the beds lit up with crystals as well, and Rozu looked over to the sight.

The recruits were hopping quietly off of their beds, pooling together their bewllan crystals and sitting around each other. Curious, Rozu joined them and took a seat right in front of the glowing crystals.

“That was… horrible. Is this what they’ve been training us for?” one of the recruits said. She was a young and spiky haired woman, but her eyes had sunken into her skull.

“I can’t get the smell out of my hands…” another muttered.

“Bastard colonel should’ve told us this is what we were training for!” another Devourer shouted, and Rozu took offence.

“Watch your mouth. The colonel didn’t do nothing wrong,” he reprimanded the boy. The boy simply gave him a mocking salute.

“Aye aye, Captain Rozu. Maybe it doesn’t matter to you, but the rest of us weren’t told this is what awaited us!” the man said.

“I thought Bladeborn were supposed to live comfortable lives…” someone else chimed in.

“Comfortable? Isn’t this comfortable enough? You’ve got food, shelter and warmth. What other comfort do you need?” Rozu asked him.

“Something more than the necessities!” someone else talked back.

“It’s not right, what they made us do out there. I didn’t know there could be so much blood…”

“Blood is bound to spill. We’re lucky that we can heal from it,” Rozu replied to the man. He stood up, having heard enough of the whining.

“You people would never understand how good you’ve got it!”

“Aren’t you disgusted, Rozu? You were in there longer than any of us,” someone asked him.

What kind of idiot focused on such things? The only things they needed to focus on was the next meal, the next fight. If they just thought about it the way he did, maybe they wouldn’t be so scared of what they’d done.

“Get to sleep. We’ve got training with the colonel early tomorrow,” Rozu told them, before moving back to his bed. The night passed quietly after that, and young Rozu kept those thoughts at the back of his mind.

Only the next day mattered. Nothing beyond that.