732 years after:

Elijah looked up into the artificial rain of his family home, with tired eyes. He had always been fascinated by the phenomena, he had even asked his mother about it when he was about 5 years old. She had answered in a knowing voice "they are our family secret Eli, the reason we can go toe to toe with golden inner and outer shell practitioners, while still being silvers ourselves" she had knelt next to him then, her voice but a playful whisper in his ear "the secret is actually something that any Axian could figure out if they thought about it" she had proceeded to wink at him "tell me when you figure it out Eli!" he had wondered about it 11 years now and he still had no clue about how it was possible. If it was only outside he might have a few somewhat plausible ideas. But the rain was bloody everywhere! in his sleeping quarters, the dining hall, the study, even the shitty place they call the training hall, "tch" 'more like beating your kid's hall' he thought.

He groaned, just thinking about that cursed place made him want to curse by the Thirteen Raxian high emperors. Though that thought gave him chills, there were rumors about the Thirteen. Allegedly they were all on par with diamond outer and inner shell practitioners, which in and of itself was a scary thought that coursed the public to worry a lot about the war effort, but he had also heard his father talk about the Thirteen once and what he heard coursed many sleepless nights just like this one. The Thirteen had something his father called a Mana crown it absorbed the mana in the air at an alarming rate the mana was then used to power their cyborg bodies. But in Elijahs eyes, that was not the worrying part about the mana crown.

No.

What worried him was the fact that due to the ridiculously high absorption of the surrounding mana they made it much harder for inner shell practitioners to gather enough mana to draw their mana circles, even the mana circuits of spaceships and other forms of transportation would malfunction in the presence of the Thirteen.

"Well, if it is up to father I won't have to worry about the problems of the inner shell practitioners" he turned around in his waterbed letting the rain hit his back and slowly but surely falling asleep.

Fjord Gray

Fjord Gray stood in front of Elijah's sleeping quarters wondering what in the name of Axia would become of his son, he was so caught up becoming an inner shell practitioner or mage as the younger generations like to call it nowadays, that he is failing marvelously at his other studies. He had even stopped coming to the battlefields to train him personally, and he is still showing subpar close combat skills. "sigh" if only he was as capable as his big brother, Thor took to the family arts like a serpent thrown into the sea for the first time. That boy might just reach the Emporer ranks and surpass me.

He looked at the door again and knocked hard, a groan was heard on the other side of the door. Fjord took a deep breath to calm the anger that was beginning to simmer in his stomach, "get out here son! it is time for training!" he said in a voice heavy with an accent. What answered him was another groan followed by the door unlocking and opening. Fjord sighed as his eyes ran over his son, Elijah had short black hair which he somehow always managed to get messy, he had heavy gray eyes which was something of a hand-me-down in the family, he was a boy of medium build, he had a good amount of muscle on him due to the years of training.

"well come on boy!" fjord turned around and began walking towards the training fields which he had to admit that he was pretty damn proud of. His good mood was interrupted by Eli's leisurely footstep who was following after him, "straighten up son! you look worse than a piss-drunk poor man without legs!" Elijah snapped to attention looking rather confused, he straightened his back and looked straight ahead 'Ha! that's more like it' thought Fjord. maybe I will make something out of you yet, if only he stopped trying to emulate his mother and took to the family teachings like a proper gray.

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Elijah

five minutes later they arrived at an underground basement. The basement had a rather heavy rain coming down from the ceiling. Apart from the rain, water was steadily collecting on the floor, Fjord had designed it so that it would make movement during combat harder. Magical combat constructs were also floating around the water, fjord had always placed importance on being able to battle both in deep waters and shallow ones. He used to say "if you have the Lastname Gray then you should be just as comfortable as sea-serpent in waters" Elijah had always thought it was a load of crap to limit the family's versatility by only making water practitioners of every bloody son and daughter. Elijah's musings were cut off by his father's stern voice.

"Son today you face me Fjord tooth of the leviathan!". Elijah sighed and thought to himself 'why is it he has to make everything so damn dramatic' he did not have any more time to think, Fjord was already jogging toward him, he was a tall man of a muscular build with black hair that was laid back in a rather stylish manner, he never wore a shirt and his body was full of leviathan tattoos, but that was not what he was known for, no it was his terrifying physical power that only got stronger the more water that was in his immediate surroundings.

Elijah knew that he could not act passively as it would only make his family's martial art, which focussed on building more power through movement stronger, so he sprinted towards his father, and when there were only a couple meters left he turned his body 360 degrees to gain a rotational force in the backhand fist that was shooting towards Fjord's face, fjord simply shoved the hand away with his wrist and gave him a push kick straight to the chest.

Elijah tumbled through the water his chest aching, he knew that his father had only used a fraction of his strength but it was still like being kicked by a mad minotaur he tried to get up quickly so that he could counter what he knew was coming next but he was not faster enough, a kick to his chest sent him sailing through the air.

Elijah hit the ground hard, his father's disapproving tone was like another kick to the chest "boy what the hell was that! when Thor was your age he would have used the momentum of both my kicks to hit back even harder! and you act like a circus trapeze user without arms!"

And there it was always bringing up the wonder kid Thor, 'splendid just what I needed' Elijah thought. He gritted his teeth and got to his feet, 'time to try things my way'.

Fjord

Fjord was frustrated, it was such simple maneuvers! it had been drilled into the boy since he could walk! borrow the force of the kick with a push, proceed to sweep the legs, the stomp hard on the body. match end. Fjord could simply not fathom what was so difficult about it, but somehow the kid fucked it up anyway. Fjord could not help but tell the boy how stupid he was being with some colored words that hopefully got through to the boy.

Suddenly Fjord's jaw fell open and his eyes widened, his son had actually turned his back on him and was running away! Fjord observed his boy sprinting through the water when he suddenly stopped close to the wall and took a fighting stance close to the ground which was normally only used when grappling.

Fjords eyes widened yet again when Elijah spoke "come then! you piss poor excuse of a father!". The burning anger in Fjords chest started heating again, and he answered his boy in an angry tone "boy be careful what you wish for, and remember these words don't belittle your betters!" fjord then ran towards his son, he was not mad enough as to not remember to control his strength so that the piss poor excuse of a son would not be too badly hurt. When he was about a meter away he had intended to kick the boy yet again but was stopped by something being thrown at him, he caught a glimpse of the object being thrown as he quickly dodged to the side, it was one of his combat construct! suddenly he felt something push on his leg, he looked down only to be met by a shirt in his face, he swiped the shirt away only to find a knee traveling towards his nose! Fjord blocked the knee with one hand while saying "Tch boy these silly tricks don't work on me! and neither will they on those damned Raxi..!". He was cut off mid-sentence by a shin to his temple, Fjord suddenly had a light in his eyes 'He must have used the force of my block to twist his body mid-air!'. "that's more like it boy!".

Elijah

Elijah groaned as he walked towards the dining hall, apart from the one kick that landed he had his ass kicked like never before, he had two black eyes and a lot of sore ribs. As he arrived in front of the massive double doors which had a massive leviathan carving on it he heard a voice he had not heard in many many years, his mother.. he hurried to open the door to the dining hall and saw that not only was his mother there but also Thor.. 'ancients dammit! good things never come alone do they?' he thought.