In that moment, it was one of the greatest struggles of my life to force my eyes open. Even then I could only manage to hold little more than a squint, and through my blurry vision I could only make out the bright light above me and the shapes of people around me. My hearing was greatly impaired too, leaving me unable to discern what the people around me were saying. There were several sounds that were louder than their voices, however. They sounded like they were coming from machines. As my vision became clearer I could tell that the people around me were doctors, and were dressed as though they were performing surgery.
Wait...does that mean I'm....
Before I finished my thought I looked down to where my body should be and saw only the deep red color of blood. As I looked back up I noticed that the doctors' hands were covered in that same color. Suddenly one of the doctors looked down at me and started shouting to the others. He also seemed to be trying to tell me something, but I still couldn't make out any words from my muffled hearing. I tried to speak, but I couldn't manage to make any sound escape my mouth. Instead, I soon found myself slipping back into the deep sleep that I was in before.
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I was drenched in sweat when I jolted awake from the nightmare, and breathed a sigh of relief when I verified that my abdomen was scar-free. Still, that was the most realistic nightmare I had ever experienced and I didn't expect to be able to stop thinking about it for the rest of the day at least. Once I got out of bed, I looked at the clock and realized that I only had 15 minutes left until my 10 o'clock class started.
"Damn! I'm going to be late! Why didn't my alarm wake me up?!"
I threw on the first pair of jeans and T-shirt I found in my drawer, grabbed a jacket and my backpack from the closet and ran out of my apartment as fast as I could. I noticed a couple of things that were strange as I was running, such as the fact that I wasn't hungry at all even though I always would be around this time, or that I seemed to be running a lot faster than usual even though I wasn't even breaking a sweat. I pushed these thoughts into the back of my mind as I focused on getting to class.
Soon enough I arrived at the arts and humanities building, and was surprised when I saw that the classical history lecture hall was empty. I thought that maybe the time on my clock had been wrong, so I asked a passing student for the time but he confirmed that it was almost 1000. Unless...
"Hey! What day is it?"
The passerby turned back around with a smirk on his face. "Uh..Wednesday. Are you alright man?"
Wednesday? I didn't even remember waking up on Tuesday or doing anything for that matter.
"Yeah I'm alright, I just thought it was yesterday is all. Sorry about that!" I laughed it off and started walking back to my apartment.
I guessed I had just made the mistake of thinking it's the wrong day of the week. It's not like that hasn't happened before after all, but I'm normally able to at least remember something about the day before. Anyway, since it's Wednesday that means my first class isn't until 1 so I can-
I thought as I was opening the door to my apartment, until I had the wind knocked out of me and I fell to the floor. All of a sudden the door slammed shut and I heard the lock click in place, and as I looked up I saw a disheveled man wearing a leather jacket. He had some kind of intricate red tattoo over his right eye, although I didn't care to figure out what it was before trying to figure out the situation I was in.
"Oh man, kid. You have no idea what you've been dragged into huh?" the man spoke in a deep, sinister voice as he approached me.
I tried raising my body and getting up but it was futile. I felt like the gravity of the earth had just been amplified by 10 but I was the only one affected by it.
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"Who...are...you? What...have you done..." Just talking was making me have to gasp for air.
He stopped in front of me and squatted down to look me in the eyes. His eyes were darker than any I've seen before, almost as if they were molded from coal.
He formed a sinister smile. "Here's the deal Allen. You're going to come with me, and you're going to tell me all about how you came to possess this." He poked my chest right over my heart.
I had no idea what he was talking about, but I saw my chance to get away.
"Okay...just...release me."
He chuckled and grabbed my hand, pulled out an ornately-decorated knife from his waist and stabbed the palm of my hand.
"AAAAGHHHHH!!!" I screamed from the agonizing pain that came from having a knife thrust through my hand. The man then hovered three fingers over the wound, which was now oozing blood, and began mumbling some kind of chant.
"Sumis bundirium granti. Kivera vae fortiru nocturnum."
He then pulled out the knife and what looked like the illusion of a purple key formed inside the wound right before my hand seemed to heal instantaneously. I completely forgot about the pain I was experiencing as I watched the bone, muscle, and skin in my hand grow back.
"What the hell..."
The man looked at me with an expression that almost looked like envy.
"What the hell is right kid. Now you're going to come with me and do whatever I tell you to, because if you try to run away or do anything stupid that curse I just put on you is going to put you in a lot of pain. And I mean A LOT of damn pain. Now get up and let's go."
Before I could even try to get up, an intense pain shot through my entire body. This pain was even more intense than when my hand was stabbed, and it was coming from everywhere at once.
"AAAAAAAAGHHHHH FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU AAAAAGHH"
My screams were uncontrollable and my heart felt like it was trying to beat out of my chest.
The man backed away from me as I was writhing in pain and clicked his tongue.
"Damn. Looks like I was too late."
Through my screams I could hear what sounded like a voice in the back of my head.
Embrace me.
The voice was deep and ominous. It would've sent a shiver down my spine in any other situation.
Embrace me and take my power as your own or you will die.
"Channel your energy kid!" The man shouted at me from the other side of the room. "Right now you're probably sending mana through every point in your body and your body is going to burst from the exertion if you don't use it somehow!"
Mana? I had no clue what the man was talking about, but I had no other explanation for the pain I was experiencing so I had no choice but to try what he said. But I also had no idea how to 'expel my energy' in the first place. It was in that moment when I felt like I was definitely going to die, when the voice spoke to me again.
Ignisio.
Something told me that my only hope would be to repeat what the voice just said.
"Ig...nis...i...o."
Suddenly my whole body became hot and I felt heat gathering in my mouth. With a sensation that I could only describe as being akin to yawning I opened my mouth and released a huge plume of blue fire. Not knowing what else to do, I looked upward and directed the plume into the ceiling.
The man started shouting from my bedroom this time. "Shit! Why'd you have to use fire of all things?!" He ran out of the room and quickly shouted a new incantation.
"Aegis castori!"
Following his words an almost translucent but radiant light seemed to develop and form a bubble around me, and the fire I was breathing seemed to be absorbed when it made contact with the wall of the bubble. After what felt like an eternity of expelling fire into the bubble, it finally seemed to be finished. And as I closed my jaws to award them a much needed rest, my eyes became too heavy to keep open and I felt my body plummet to the floor.
When I woke up I realized that I was no longer in my apartment, but in a king-sized bed in some kind of luxury suite. I quickly jumped out of the bed and ran to the door, putting my ear against it to listen to any conversation my kidnapper might be having. However, within a second the door flew open and I fell face first into someone's boots.
"You finally awake kid?"
Before I even looked at his face I could tell by his voice that it was the same man who visited me earlier, except now his shaggy hair was slicked back and he was wearing a suit and tie. If I hadn't seen him earlier I would've mistaken him for a classy gentleman.
Even more confused than I already was, I stood up and spoke in a heated tone.
"Alright man first of all can you stop calling me kid? And would you mind explaining to me what the hell is happening to me, who you are and where the hell you've brought me?!"
Instead of the man in front of me, I heard someone behind him speak. He had a thick British accent, just like the kind you hear from butlers in movies.
"No need to worry Master Allen. Everything will be explained here shortly."
Sure enough, when I walked into the room I saw that he was a tall elderly man wearing a butler suit. He bowed to me and with a smile said, "Welcome to the Black Mages. You can count on our full support in regaining control of the city."