/AN. This was originally written for the Wizards in Wonderland contest. It is simply and introduction that is just to provide a glimpse into some of the things that will be explained in the first couple of volumes(If all goes well).

Light or Dark Prologue

The world is under the control of two warring beings, the spirit of light, and the spirit of darkness. In the vicinity of where their two territories clash is the small village of Yenlo, under the jurisdiction of the spirit of light. Early one morning, the village was beginning its daily routines , as one by one, all of the residents, young and old, paid their respects and offered prayers towards the temple of light, located in the middle of the village.

Despite the hundred people milling around the temple, there was only one person actually inside the temple. A boy in his early to mid-teens was sitting on the floor next to a bed with his eyes closed, oblivious to the people outside. As the first rays of sunlight shone through the window on him, his eyes fluttered open.

“Another failure, huh.” He muttered to himself.

With a somber look, the boy rose and left the bedroom. He walked into the connected room, in which every wall was a bookshelf, and the central table was covered in opened books. The boy closed one of the books and threw it onto a large pile that had formed over the years in the corner of the room.

“I guess attack magic really is impossible for me.” He muttered as he walked into the next room.

This room was far larger, and took up the same amount of space as the other two combined, plus a little extra. It was filled with nothing but training equipment, and the floor was soft and springy to the touch. The boy walked passed a set of weights and stood before a horizontal metallic tube for some time before adjusting a dial on the side and sliding a rock from a nearby pile down the tube.

The boy then walked away from the tube and stood by a lever several paces away. He raised his right hand and pointed his palm at the tube, and deftly pulled the lever with his left hand. As a series of clicks sounded, first from the base of the lever, then from the tube, a faint shimmer appeared in the air between the boy and the tube.

The rock piece flew out from the tube at high speeds and shot towards the boy. It flew until it encountered the shimmering air, then quickly slowed and fell to the ground.

“Now that the warm up is done, and I have officially reached the required barrier level for my age, time to start some real practice.” The boy said as he returned to the tube.

When he reached the tube, he quickly adjusted the dial and placed a slightly larger stone in the tube, then sprinted back to the lever. He repeated the same procedure as earlier, but this time, instead of a faint shimmer appearing in the air, a flat square of light appeared in the air between him and the tube. He pulled the lever with his left hand, and the rock shot out towards him, only this time, it was moving much faster than before. The faster and larger stone, struck the square and shattered, showering the surrounding area in dust and pieces of stone.

“Not too bad, this is the so called true barrier that one of the books spoke of.” He muttered to himself again. “Laughable.” He added as he walked back towards the tube.

He repeated this process many times. Each time the stones became larger and heavier, and at the same time they became faster and faster. As the rocks power increased, so did that of the barrier. First the barrier became thicker, and then another barrier was added behind it. When the sun had reached its highest point in the sky, the boy’s forehead was covered in sweat and his clothes were all soaked through.

“I have finally arrived at the full power level of our nations great mobile earth cannon.” He stated proudly as he raised his right hand.

A series of thick barriers appeared in front of him. This time none of them were placed evenly between him and the tube. They were all at varying levels of diagonal degrees and were all toughing each other making a complex pattern, stretching all of the way between him and the tube. The only thing more impressive than the complexity was the fact that he created it all simultaneously.

He winced slightly as he pulled the lever, all of his concentration on the barriers in front of him. A powerful bang erupted as the rock shot out of the tube, a faint ripple in the air emanated from the end of the tube. Before the boom ended, the room was filled with a shattering sound as the barriers between him broke one by one. Even more sweat appeared on his forehead, only this time it was definitely a cold sweat.

His concentration increased, and a number of the barriers began to glow brightly, and the rock began to slow down noticeably. A smile appeared on his face as he quickly raised his left hand. His smiled flickered slightly as the final barrier broke, but returned as he was able to grab the rock with his left hand. The smile faded completely as the rock came to a stop, but an audible crack resounded from his hand, and several of his knuckles visibly shifted.

“I am so glad I have also been practicing my healing abilities.” The boy stated through grit teeth.

He let the rock fall to the ground, as he held is left hand with his right. A bright glow appeared between the two, and a minute later, his left hand was back to normal.

The boy sighed, then proclaimed. “I have finally surpassed all of the recorded accomplishments of my ancestors in the defensive aspects of light magic.” He shouted towards the ceiling with a smile on his face.

As he finished shouting, he quickly collapsed. He pulled a small bell out from his pocket and rang it. Within moments a kind looking woman entered the room from the far door with a plate of food. She left the plate next to his collapsed form, bowed, and left the room. He waited for her to leave, then rolled over, and quickly began devouring the food before him.

Once the plate was empty, he fell asleep and did not wake up until the sun was approaching the horizon. He quickly jumped up and ran back through the library to his bedroom. He stripped off his dirty clothes and dove into the tub full of lukewarm water in the corner. Fully recovered from his training, he returned to the library.

He approached the table covered with books and reached out to grab one. Just before his hand reached the books, he froze. As he stood frozen, his eyes darted around the room in front of him, but he did not see anything that would make him feel this strange.

“Impressive.” A deep voice behind him stated, and the room was filled with thundering noises, and the boy felt his body was being assaulted by numerous shockwaves. He quickly spun around and summoned a single barrier to confront whoever it was that attacking him. What confronted him was, an average looking man standing in the corner next to the door he had just walked through, but what shocked the boy was that the man was not actually attacking, but was simply clapping his hands.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Most impressive, I have not seen barrier techniques at that level for a very long time.” The man stated with a smile on his face as his eyes seemed to dig into the boy’s very soul. “Hm. Tell me, why is it that a boy at your age, with your accomplishments, has not even been named yet?” The man asked.

The boy stood there looking at him for some time before finally responding to the man. “What?” Was all that he could manage to say.

“It was a simple question, why haven’t you been named yet? Most of your kind are named by the time they are ten, and have proven some sign that they might be useful to the light spirit.” The man replied.

“Why would I need a name?” Is all the boy could think of asking. Too many things were going through his mind for it to work properly at this moment.

“Ah, yes, this is how he does things after all.” The strange man stated, but the boy could tell that he was not talking to him. “Regardless, you have become too powerful for your own good. You must now die for the sake of those you seek to protect.” The man stated as he suddenly appeared directly in front of the boy, passing completely through the barrier as if it were not even there.

“Wha…” The boy started to speak before he found a hand clasped around his throat.

“Ah, yes. I suppose I should introduce myself before I kill you.” The man stated. “Well, maybe not a full introduction. How about I just say what people like you call me.” The man sneered. “I am the spirit of darkness.” The man stated as the boys vision faded and he lost consciousness.

***

The boy awoke with a cold sweat, in an unfamiliar place. The room had no window, and no source of light, so the boy was very curious why he could see most of what was in the room, without any light source. He was in a small room that barely had enough room for the bed he was laying on. The only other feature in the room was the metal door without any visible handle.

He was still wondering what exactly was going on when the door suddenly opened inwards, only to strike the bed before opening all of the way because the room was so small.

A figure leaned around the door and the boy heard a voice saying. “Good, Gray, you’re up. The general wants to see you.” A female voice stated before the figure disappeared back around the door.

Still not knowing what was going on, the boy clambered across the bed and around the door. He found himself standing in a hallway, once again he did not see any light sources, but he could still see enough to get around. He saw the retreating figure and hurried after it.

The figure quickly ducked into a nearby doorway and the boy followed after. He found himself in a room that appeared to be an office. Other than his guide the only other person in the room was someone sitting at a desk who the boy felt looked strangely familiar.

The person sitting at the desk looked up from what he was working on and said. “Oh, hello Gray, I am glad to see that you are awake. There are some things that I need to discuss with you.” As the person said this, the boy immediately realized where he recognized him from. It was the man who had called himself the spirit of darkness, then strangled him. “By the way, I have decided that your name shall be Gray, and I shall get to the reason for that momentarily.” The man told him.

Before the boy, Gray, could say anything the man continued. “I have had many names, but you can just call me General for now. I came to this plain hunting a group of rebels that escaped the defeat of the rebel army. One of those rebels decided to proclaim himself as a spirit of light and set up a network of villages with gifted people in them to protect himself. The gifted people in those villages serve one purpose, to prevent anyone from reaching this criminal. The residents of these villages are nothing more than power supplies for these gifted people. The more power the gifted ones use, the shorter the life span of the villagers.” The man stated bluntly.

Gray was so confused. He had no idea what was actually going on or even what the man, or the General in front of him was saying. “Traditionally, the gifted ones possess the ability to control light, or as you would say, they can use light based magic. The only reason for this is because light based attacks are the only way to injure myself, and most of my followers. The gifted people would focus all of their powers into attacks, often a single attack, just to attempt to kill either myself, or one of my followers. In doing this they would sacrifice all of the villagers, and often themselves if they did not realize what was actually happening.” The man paused while watching Gray for a reaction.

“Your barriers held as much, or even more power than most others attacks, so if you had deployed them repeatedly in defense of your village, you would have killed off all of the villagers you were trying to protect in under a minute.” He stated bluntly.

Gray’s mind was thrown even further into chaos by this announcement. He was using the villagers as a power supply, it didn’t make any sense.

“Now, I was surprised by something earlier as I was about to kill you.” The general told him. “But this only bought you the chance to say one thing in your defense.” He paused, as if for dramatic effect. “Why did you spend so much time focusing on defense, enough to create barriers of that caliber, and yet I did not see any sign of light based attacks in your training room?” He asked.

“Well, I don’t know why, I just can’t figure out how to attack with light magic.” Gray choked out suddenly.

“Can’t figure out how to attack, you say.” The General repeated Gray’s statement. “Interesting. All right I think I know what is going on now.” The man stated, a smile spreading across his face. “Gray, how clearly can you see the area around you?” He asked.

Gray glanced around, then looked back at the General. “What do you mean? Everything is a little dim, but I can still see the whole office. Why?” He asked. The figure behind him let out a startled gasp, causing Gray to glance back over his shoulder. Despite the rest of the room being mostly clear, he could still only see the vague outline of the person behind him.

“Most excellent, Grey.” The General stated. “This proves it, you have a very strong darkness attribute inside of you. I thought so, that is why I decided to call you Gray. You have both dark and light inside of you. It is as if both black and white are coexisting inside of you.” The man stated. “I feel that you are going to be very useful to us in the coming months.” The man added with a smile. “You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow. Blake will show you back to your room, so get some rest. And don’t even try to use any of your magic. You won’t be able to, until I say otherwise.”