"If it were not for the great Sage's sacrifice, all would have been lost long ago."

- Allen Everett,

Fallen Protector of Humanity.

The Glowing orb loomed in front of us all. The Runic script shifted and glowed intermittently. 

"Pass"

The grizzled voice broke my awe of the Sage's Will. The scarred and world-weary man looked like there were a dozen other things he would rather be doing.

His scarred hand waved in front of my face once again.

"Pass"

This time in a more urgent tone.

There were hundreds of hopefuls behind me, waiting their turn. Not best pleased about any hold-up.

I handed the man my pass. A metal token I had received close to five years ago.

The man was more mollified once he saw the color of my token.

A purple token bearing humanity's crest. A token only earned through the sacrifice of a Soul Warrior.

"Good Luck, Boy. Be careful, no matter what path you take. It won't be easy."

He returned the pass to me with that message.

I was thankful for the first heartfelt message from an older person I had gotten in a while.

Thanks to my parent's sacrifice, I didn't have to undergo further testing. 

I wasn't sure if foregoing the mental and physical testing was the best idea. But either way, I didn't have to worry about taking those tests.

Unfortunately, that meant that I was standing in front of the giant orb far sooner than I would have liked.

The Sages Sacrifice. Their final Will to the world.

The last use of old magic known to the world. The only reason humanity still had a fighting chance against the hordes. 

Their sacrifice had made the first known instance of Magitech.

It granted a thousand people per year a chance to fight back.

In the next few moments, I would find out if I would join those ranks.

I looked to the side. It had been a lackluster first day.

There had only been four hundred and eighteen people who had received their Soul Armour.

I wasn't sure if that was a good thing. I knew that usually, there were around eight hundred Soul bindings given out on the first day.

Also, having both my parents chosen before me made my chances far higher than the norm.

If my parents had both been alive, then it would have been far more likely for me to be in the front of the queue on the first day rather than the end.

I watched with bated breath as the line before me dwindled with only two more people to go. I got my first look at the soul binding in process. I watched as the girl in front of me went to get tested by the orb. She appeared so small in front of the giant magical machine. 

She placed her hand in the small opening within the machine.

The runic script littered all around the orb began to glow in turn.

I knew my younger sister would be able to recognize a few of those characters. The magic language of the new age had always been beyond me. 

The Sages paid no heed to my ignorance as the brightness of the Runes began to increase.

The girl could not see it from where she was, nerves still clear from her shaking.

It was clear to everyone else that the number would be going up.

A brief shrill scream only confirmed that thought.

His parents had said that soul binding would be the most painful thing you could experience in your life.

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She fell back into the waiting arms of one of the masked attendants. The attendants brought her into a nearby tent, where a B rank Commander would be waiting to inspect her.

Now, there was only one other person in front of me, a larger boy with clear signs of training. I wondered if I would have looked the same had life gone a little differently.

He strode up to the Sage's Will with a far greater purpose in his stride.

He had none of the same nerves as the girl before him.

I wasn't sure if that would change the result.

My parents hadn't told me much about the inner workings of the Sage's Will, only that they had left part of their souls within the machine.

It was them who selected if you were worthy of Soul Armour. They were also the ones that assigned which type you would receive.

I wasn't sure how I felt giving up control of my life to a hundred-year-old ghosts. But he had been told countless times that they were the greatest of humanity. It would be rare for them to make a wrong decision.

According to the boy in front of him, it was clear that they had just made one.

The orb had shown none of the same reaction it had for the girl in front.

The glowing runes stayed stagnant as the boy kept his muscled arm within the orb.

After a few moments, the attendants began to move to remove him from the testing area. They did not heed the boy's shouts as he tried to remain within the Sage's Will.

They removed him with practiced ease. It was clear that he wasn't the first to try and stay within the orb, and he certainly wouldn't be the last.

Finally, my time had come.

The next few moments would decide the course of my future.

I gave my pass to the masked attendant. I was saying goodbye to something that had been with me for the past few years.

The attendant took the pass, noting something I couldn't see.

"Right this way, Kajus Everett."

The attendant had a gentle voice. It made me feel better about the impending event.

The attendant led me in front of the Sage's Will.

The next few moments would dictate everything about my future.

I followed what the other boy had done only moments prior. Unsure If I wanted the same result.

The warring voices in my head went quiet momentarily as I stuck my hand into the giant orb.

I couldn't see any of the runic scripts from where I stood. I waited for a moment before something clamped my arm within the orb.

I didn't have enough time to react before everything went dark.

A fierce pain shot through every part of my body at once; I tried to hold on. But my willpower was far from enough. I succumbed to the darkness, giving no time to the knowledge that my life had changed forever.

***

I woke up without knowing where I was or how long it had been.

Opening my eyes was a painful experience as a shooting pain ripped through my head.

What followed was a clarity like I had never experienced.

Opening my eyes, It took a second to realize that I was not in a good situation.

I was too distracted by the vibrancy of the world around me.

I could see details and colors that had been invisible to me before.

I hadn't realized the effects of obtaining soul armor would be so profound.

"Bring up your status, Boy."

The gruff voice of the towering man in front of me broke me from enjoying the new power of my senses.

It was making me realize exactly where I was.

I was laid on an uncomfortable bed, with half a dozen people crowded around me.

Not what I expected after awakening. Even a C ranker shouldn't have that much scrutiny.

"Are you hearing me, boy? Open up your status and tell us what it says."

"Have some patience, General. The boy has only woken."

A stern-looking older woman rebuked the man before turning towards me with an attempt at a kind smile.

Even her kind smile couldn't distract me from what I had heard.

One of the people standing before me was a general—one of the most influential people in the entire Human Collective.

Only people of the S rank were qualified to sport the title of General.

It had been many years since I had met anyone of A rank, let alone S rank.

The others in the room faded to the background as I heeded their request and brought up my new status.

The first time was more awkward than I had expected. No mental command would work, so I eventually had to say the words aloud.

I forgot any embarrassment as the light began to shine from the new gauntlet around my right hand.

In the future, he could shrink the device, but for now, it was larger and stockier than he had expected.

The dark magesteel shimmered in the light. The gauntlet looked different from the typical first appearance of Soul Armour.

I had no idea which type I had received.

Fortunately, my status would reveal everything I needed to know.

The fleeting moments before my status appeared seemed to stretch for an age.

I wanted to know why there were so many people interested in my status.

He knew that they had found the single Commander of the year already.

While there had been years where there were two Commander Types, that was few and far between usually, after a great year for humanity, when they had been able to contribute far more monster cores and parts to the Sage's Will, powering it up to help the next generation.

It had been quite a few years since there had been such an offering.

Ever since the loss of the city of Almire, my old hometown, the contributions to the Will had been at a record low.

It had been five years since my parents and so many others Soul bindings had been returned to the Will.

Even after that, nothing had changed in the output of the Sage's Will. They had followed their tried and true method for the past hundred years.

Until this moment, that was.

Type: Tamer

Rank: C1

Special Attributes:

-Dominion: C1

-Control: C1

User Attributes:

-Attack: F1

-Defense: F1

I couldn't understand what my status was showing me.

"Well, don't leave us guessing Kajus. What does it say?"

I looked up at the stern older lady, still clueless about who she was. Or who anyone else was in the room, for that matter.

Before I could think otherwise, I found myself speaking.

"It says I'm a Tamer."