Prologue
It is now the year 5524, and the town I grew up in and cared for had changed for the worst. It is no longer the peaceful and joyful place I once knew. It was the year 5521. I was 13 years old at the time, and it only took the arrival of one little girl to tip my world upside down.
I was out playing in the fountain at the town's center when it happened. A young girl who looked to be about my age maybe a little bit younger appeared, floating atop the fountain. Her skin almost as pale as her cherry blossom, knee length dress. Her long wavy hair came down to her knees, colored a light blonde almost white with pink tips to finish it off.
In her right hand, she held a staff that was taller than her. The stem of the staff was wooden and plane, however, the top of the staff split into two and made a semi-circle. Eight small spheres made a circle in the semi-circle, and one sphere in the center. The spheres hovered in a perfect circle, and the one in the center just floated silently. The 9 silver spheres altogether were emitting a small golden glow, attracting the eyes of the townsfolk making them gather round.
To her left and to her right were two men, both dressed in white and gold plated armor. They were both about two meters tall and loomed over the town as if they owned it.
After a few minutes had passed most of the town had gathered to see the phenomenon that was happening before them. There were mumbles amongst the crowd, but all stopped when the young girl began to speak.
Her voice was soft and soothing like a melody but held firmness and confidence. She spoke in a polite manner as she introduced herself to us.
"Hello, residents of the town of Maperus. You can all address me as Lady Amelia."
The crowd stayed silent as they gazed upon the beautiful, young girl, who continued to speak calmly.
"In about an hour or so two portals will open up on the edge of town. If you go through the first portal you will find yourself in a corridor, that will have 100 further portals lined up."
People including myself looked up at her with confused expressions, to which she replied with a further explanation.
"Inside each of these portals a monster, large enemy or many small enemies will be waiting for a fight. Once you defeat the monster inside the portal you will be able to leave back to the main corridor, once you get there you can leave and go back to town or continue on to another portal. However, if you cannot defeat the monster that you are fighting before you die you will be transported into the main corridor. But you will not be able to leave. You will have to keep venturing into different portals until you can defeat a monster, so you are able to return home. If you cannot defeat any of the portals, then in the last portal you will not be transported out into the corridor. What will happen to you is unclear and it depends on what the monster inside decides on."
"Once you have completed a portal and have been transported out into the corridor, a yellow ticket will be given to you, on it will be your name and a number representing your efforts during the battle. You can exchange these for coins in the machines that will be next to the portals"
After her speech, the crowd was still silent apart from the odd murmur here and there. Then after a few seconds, there was an outbreak of chaos among the crowd. I didn't know what think. Was she telling the truth or was she just playing some sort of practical joke? If she was having a joke then what could explain the fact that she was floating above the fountain with a glowing staff in her hand. There was no explanation. If she was telling the truth then we would only know in an hour, and if it was true then things would be different.
As I was thinking to myself about what was going on, she tried to speak again but her small voice was overpowered by the crowd that had now reached about two thousand. With an annoyed expression on her face, she pushed her staff forward and then pulled it back to her body. Milliseconds later the whole crowd was pushed back about a meter, some people at the back of the crowd went tumbling over meters away. Then everybody got pulled forwards again. I felt people slam into my back, my lungs felt like nails being hammered by a mantle.
Everyone was quiet apart from some groaning spread out over the crowd. The girl smiled as if thanking us for being quiet and continued without a concern.
"Once you have completed all 100 portals they will all disappear and ninety five more portals will appear. This will continue until you get down to ten, then the number of portals will decrease only by one, for example, if u defeat 8 then another 7 will appear. I will be awaiting whoever greats me in the final portal. There is no restriction to how many people can enter a portal at once, but if you enter with a group of 3 or more you will not be transported out until every member has been brought down to a near death state. Which means that if you are about to die while your teammates are still healthy then you will die."
This time there was no uproar or commotion just blank and frightened faces. With her soft and gentle ton,e she explained about the second portal.
"Now in the second portal will be another corridor with a row of 50 portals. These portals will be home to hundreds of different leveled monsters that will respawn over a period of time. You are free to leave these portals at any time, however, if you get hurt of are dying in one if these portals it is your responsibility to leave. You will not be transported out."
She paused for several seconds almost as if she was making sure that we were taking in all the information, before she started to speak again.
"You should all know that there are about 30 thousand people living in this town, only about 5 thousand or so will be able to enter my portals."
She eased her hand that held her staff forward, holding it at arms length. And spoke again.
"To know if you are eligible to enter you will find one of nine markings somewhere on your body."
When she said that everybody was searching their bodies for markings, not that any of us knew what we were looking for.
"There are nine types of magic that are available. First Ice and Water."
Still, with the staff held forward in her hand, two spheres that were next to one another in the circle shot forward and hovered over us. One had three glowing water droplets, and the other one had two translucent ice cubes balancing on each other like dice. In the next instant, both spheres burst open and formed two jade dragons, one made purely from ice and the other of water. The two were swirling and dancing around one another for a little while, forming a dance that looked like it was created by gods. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and it wasn't just me the whole audience seemed to mesmerized by the two dancing dragons. After about a minute the two dragons disappeared returning back to the two floating spheres, and shot back to form the circle above the staff.
"The next two are Earth and Healing."
Once again the next two spheres in the sequence shot forward and hovered over us for several seconds. This time one with a small leaf emitting a emerald green light, the second had a golden cross with spiked edges. The two spheres burst open again, but this time something totally different happened. A dead tree appeared surrounded by floating rocks, then a golden cross appeared shining it's light down upon the tree surrounding it in a golden aura. The tree suddenly started transforming and soon it was completely covered in lush green leaves.
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Now covered in bright green leaves and maroon bark, the tree grew long branches and started to shake. Leaves landed all around and grew into marvelous healthy trees. The trees surroundings turned into a lively forest that looked like it was created from a fairytale. Animals pounced and flew around the forest creating a magical show in front of me. After a few minutes, the forest disappeared and the spheres returned back to the circle just like before.
Lady Amelia now had a smile spread across her face as if he was enjoying the show just as much as we were. Speaking in a excited manner she spoke again.
"Speed and Agility."
Two more spheres came out just like the others before it. The first one just had lines engraved in it, they seemed to be moving but that might just have been my eyes. The second was a small zig zaggy line made up of sharp turns. They started their show not allowing to be any poorer than that of the ones before. First thing that happened, a small course was made that was full of twists, turns, jumps and holes. A small figure no bigger than a pea was summoned, moving at lightning speed and darting across the course. Skidding round corners, running and jumping up and over walls and then slipped straight under a half wall. The course continued to change each time the little figure restarted it, getting faster and faster every second.
Once the two spheres had returned back to the staff, there were only three powers left. We had no idea what they would be or what magical show they would perform for us.
"Wind and Electricity."
The spheres followed instructions, moved forward and hovered above us. The first had a small grey and white tornado, the second had what looked like a yellow lightning bolt. The spheres burst open not wasting a second. First, a small tornado just big enough to lift a plate, started swirling at rapid speed getting bigger every ten seconds. Circling the growing tornado was rows of electricity that would form pictures from clouds and the sea to flowers and kids playing. When the tornado was big enough that it was starting to pull us towards it, is started to shrink back down to its original size. Then disappeared with a poof back into its sphere and returned to its place within the staff.
The electricity was still making pictures as it continued to go around in a circle, it then took the form of a man in a top hat and suit bowed deeply then disappeared.
"Finally Fire." Lady Amelia was glowing with joy as she spoke, it was almost scary.
"Fire is dangerous and more powerful than the others even if just by a little. Fire has a mind of its own, and will spread under its own will if it finds the right time and place. Very few will have the power and control to wield this."
Saying that the final sphere came out from the center of the circle and hovered above us. It had a ruby red flame engraved in it, the ball was fidgeting around like a hyper child waiting to be let outside. When the sphere burst open there was an explosion so hot I had to shield my face with my hands, to stop it from burning and I could still feel the heat on my face. Four fire spirals appeared making a square, and were spiraling up and creating flames at the top. The spirals slowly getting smaller like a candle burning away. Fireworks obliterated into pieces in the sky. In the center of the square created by the candles a person appeared, no face no clothes just made completely of fire. Doing flips and kicks making trails of golden fire as it did.
For the finally the flames created two armies one made up of purely of crimson flames, the other a brilliant blue. The two armies charged forward running into battle and being slayed down by the enemy. Horses reared up and breathed glamorous golden flames, eliminating many fire men at once. The candles were nearing the bottom now. When the flames sitting atop the candles hit the floor the armies disappeared into thin air. The candle flames joined together becoming one burning flame, then disappeared back to the staff.
Lady Amelia was silent for a little while and so was the crowd. Even with the horrific news that we had just been told, we were all amazed and fantasized about the series of performances that just occurred. Lady Amelia brought her staff back to her side and spoke in her soft and gentle voice, but this time it had more excitement in it.
" I will now give out powers to those who I deem worthy of receiving them."
She lifted her staff above her head and said a little spell under her breath, not loud enough for anyone to hear. The ice sphere started to spin in place. Blue blobs of light started spilling out at people, landing randomly on their bodies. It was beautiful to watch beams of colored light tracing the sky and landing all around.
The same thing happened with all of the types of magic, shooting colors from gold to green all around. Until she got to fire. Lady Amelia stopped chanting and spoke loud and clear so that everyone would listen.
"Fire is dangerous and powerful, it will find ways to show itself in your life even if you are not letting it."
At the time no one really knew what she meant by that, but as time passed many people came to understand it. Me all too well.
When the other spheres were spitting out their elements, there were hundreds of lights filling the sky. However, when the time came for the sphere of fire to do the same thing only about twenty glowing bits of red light came out towards the crowd. They were scattered evenly amongst the people, then when everybody was about to comment on the amount of fire that got let out. One more bit came out and it came flying towards me at high speed, before I could do anything I felt a great impact on the right side of my stomach. When I looked down at my shirt to see what it was I saw that my shirt had began to burn, dropping black ashes onto the floor. I lifted up my shirt to see what it was, I saw a red flame marked onto my body. It was sore to the slightest of touch and gave a slight burn to my fingertips when I touched it.
Lady Amelia carried on speaking after the last flame had came out.
"It will take time but you will learn how to wield your magic type in battle. Over time you will be able to learn another skill. Although this will be very hard it will be easiest to learn a new type of magic that is close to or similar to your original power."
The people were still watching her with strong eyes, some were filled with fear others excitement and some looked around with jealousy. But the most common look in amongst the crowd was confusion.
"Your magic will run of the mercel that is in your bodies. When you run out of marcel from over using your magic your body will show signs of dizziness, fatigue and sometimes you might fall unconscious. If you train you will gain more marcel. The monsters you fight will all have different amounts of marcel and you can gain marcel with every monster that you kill. Monster will also have weapons that you are free to have if you kill them."
To that last part, some people let out a roar of excitement and cheered, others just stood in a gaze.
"Well, that is all I have to say at the moment. I wish you all good luck and I will see only the strongest in my last portal. Till then I bid you all farewell."
She created a door behind her and turned to leave, she made eye contact with me. She was smiling brightly but all I could see were her eyes, they felt dark and cold yet they seemed happy at the same time. Beads of sweat trickled down my neck and a shiver crawled up my spine, yet i couldn’t break eye contact.
After a few seconds, she looked away, walked through the door, her guards following. The door disappeared straight away leaving everybody standing there. Over time everybody cleared off back into their homes or back to work.
Later that day two portals appeared just like Lady Amelia said they would, except above the two portals was a huge screen that could be seen for about twenty or thirty meters. We didn't know what it was for.
Several people went into the portals to investigate, to find out what was really in there. When they entered the screen outside lit up and flashed on in an instant, what was being played was live footage of inside the portals. What we saw that day was horrible. Ten people went into one of the portals and tried to fight the monster that was before them. Ten people went in and after a long long fight, only two returned alive. After everybody witnessed that fight nobody dared to enter the portals again.
A year had passed and accidents occurred with the magic but were overlooked, and time kept going on. People's lives went back to how they were before, until an incident happened. Lady Amelia returned with an army, and a threat.
That was mid way through 5522, after that people slowly started training and entering the portals. Some came out alive and some didn't.
I Started trying to use my power but it was harder than it looked, and now in 5524 I am still trying to learn how to use it.