“Streams of black fog..”

A woman in the audience verbalized her thoughts on accident. This women was none other than Mary’s friend, Ariel. Upon hearing this, Jensen opened his eyes.

The fog began to come out in thicker streams, and soon the air around his body was dark as night. The only thing showing in the darkness was the faint outline of a person and the color of his eyes. Starlight removed her hand from his head and the fog surrounding him slowly dispersed. What revealed itself was a dark-haired teen with red eyes and black markings covering his face and body. These markings gave off an aura of intimidation, as they were more aggressive looking than the ones on Starlight’s face. Jensen also noticed that Starlight was a few inches shorter than before. ‘That’s probably not right… I suppose I’ve grown a couple of inches?’

“I’m done. You are now awakened. Your attribute is Dark. This attribute has incredibly mysterious and ominous attack power. The amount of people who awaken to the Dark attribute are pretty rare.. I suppose you at least have some potential.”

‘What the hell’s with her condescending attitude? I’m ranked number one, so why is she talking down to me?” No one had ever talked down to Jensen in his life, and he had no idea why the feeling made him feel a slight bit of joy. ‘Ah. It’s because that means that I’m not the best anymore. For the first time in my life, I have somewhere to go, and something to prove.’

The people were shocked beyond belief. This teenager who was already somewhat intimidating had turned into another existence entirely. Not only was he the ranked first among them, Starlight had praised him as someone with rare potential. The people in the audience began to understand that this person was dangerous, and is a threat to be plotted against in the games.

“Next up is..”

Starlight started awakening people one after the other. Eventually, Mary was awakened as well. Fittingly, her attribute was Light. Skylight said that this was somewhat rare as well, but not as much as Dark. After a long list of people got their abilities, Ariel awakened to the Enhancement attribute. The people all had some markings on their body, but most were simply a line the size of a pencil on their forearm. Very few developed more than that, and none had anywhere near the extravagant and enchanting markings like Skylight- except for Jensen. Jensen had two lines drifting from the bottom of his eyes all the way to his fingertips. The markings split and traveled through different areas along his body.

Seeing as everyone had been awakened, Starlight began to speak.

“Finally, we get to the really fun part… I hope you aren’t feeling tired, because this might kill you if you’re not up to the task.”

“All of you have been Awakened, meaning that your Cosmic Power is flowing through your veins. This, however, is similar to a luxury car with a used engine- you might look nice, and technically have all the necessary components to go- but are lacking in the key component that will define your presence. That is the Cosmic Ability.”

The people, who were either proud or jealous of their Awakenings, listened with a strong desire to gain power. They all knew that this power would determine their life or death. Jensen, on the other hand, was genuinely interested in what she was saying.

“Fortunately for me, I won’t have to go through the process of individually helping you like I did with the Awakening. You will all gain your Cosmic Ability at the same time.”

“Another important thing to know about the Cosmic Ability is that it is influenced by your nature. For example, if a psychopath were to walk the path of Cosmic, he would get some ability that allows him to murder with more ease. If someone is a naturally caring and loving person, their ability will be more aligned to healing or protection. Of course, your ability will also be influenced by your attribute.”

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The people began to grow excited and nervous- after all, their fate was about to be decided. They didn’t really know how they would get the ability, but still looked forward to it.

“Shall we begin?”

Skylight began to summon her Cosmic Power. The streams of purple flowed out of her hands and encircled the mass of people. Jensen felt the streams flow into his soul, and his mind drifted away.

Jensen’s consciousness had entered the Cosmos. This sensation of floating through space with no destination left him feeling uneasy. Looking towards the mix of stars and planets in the distance, an image began to imprint itself into his mind.

Jensen saw a group of people with markings similar to his own. They appeared to be similar to humans other than the fact that their skin was red and their hair was like snow. These beings charged forward into a group of armored people. A name crept into Jensen’s head as he saw these people- Shadetribe. These Shadetribe fought barehanded against the armored group. Relying on their Dark Cosmic Power, the Shadetribe slaughtered the knights with their overwhelming speed and use of shadows. The shadow of the beings came off of their body like a flexible blade, capable of weaving through defenses to pierce their enemy. Jensen instinctively knew that these were the originators of the Dark element, and were the first to gain power and strike fear into the hearts of their enemies in such a way. ‘Their incredible… I guess they are my predecessors. Something tells me they all died long ago, but I feel a sense of kinship to them.’

As Jensen felt an understanding of the Dark Cosmic Origins, he felt his consciousness draw more clear until he was back inside his body.

“You are the first to awake. Did you find your Cosmic?”

Jensen brought his hand up and pointed it towards Skylight. The markings on his body began to stir, and a shadow pierced towards her. With a wave of her hand, Skylight shattered the tactless attack.

“I see. So you’ve gained the power of Shadows, huh? The Shadows are one of the most versatile abilities in the Cosmos. You must practice a lot, and be creative in its uses.”

“Why are you lecturing me? You can’t be that much older than me. Just tell me anything else that I need to know so I can be on my way.”

Skylight flashed forward in a tornado of violet, and grasped Jensen’s throat while lifting him off the ground. He had no time to react.

“I have no idea who you think you are. I don’t care about this game’s rules- but you should know that life in the Cosmos isn’t as comfy as where you’re from. If you speak out of turn again, I’ll kill you.”

A shiver ran through Jensen’s body. He instantly realized the difference between the two, and could read on her cold face that she would give no thought to killing him. It was the first time in his life that he felt fear. His pride, however, would not allow him to apologize.

Starlight slammed him into the ground and spoke as if nothing had happened.

“I would normally address the group as a whole, but since you awoke so early, I will tell you now. The survivor of the Galactic Survival Games will be allowed to live. This is a guaranteed fact among the universe. You should train hard in the next week to increase your chances of winning. You are free to act as you want throughout the grounds until 6 days from now- upon which, you will be transferred to the destination of the games. You are dismissed.”

As Jensen got up from the ground and brushed himself off, he peeked at the purple haired girl one last time before walking back to his room. ‘Just as I thought, she’s really an interesting person.’ As he cleared his mind of those thoughts, only one remained…

‘I will win the games, learn more about this interesting universe.’

Jensen drifted back to sleep after eating the food in his room.

-6 days later-

“Attention all participants. We will now move you to the destination of the games.”

Jensen, who was ecstatic after finally being able to begin after waiting for a week, looked towards the ceiling of his training room. A vortex opened, and sucked him into it.

Feeling the same rip of space that he did when first coming to the Destined Planet, he felt much more excitement this time around. As the light approached him, he hit the ground and felt the grass with his hands. Looking around, he realized that this place was entirely different from the other planets he had been on before. The trees were so large that they scraped the sky, with large fields of grass and hills between them. The sky, however, was the color of blood. The clouds drifted through the sky where stars could be seen even though it was still bright outside. The most surprising thing of all, however, was the girl that had landed beside him. Mary.

“One more thing. This death match will be done in teams of two. The two survivors will be allowed to live, and will even be rewarded for their success. I bid for you all, one last time, to please kill and die for the Entertainment of the Galaxy.”