Chapter Text
There was an imaginary demon who took control of the entire world of sorcery, crowned with the title as ‘The Fallen’; it was a fox-spirit with eight giant fox tails who wreak havoc upon humanity and other beings alike. Rumors had it that the demon had two faces, each side had a three set of eyes that radiated pure malevolence and divinity. It was said that with a single sweep of its tail, disasters like a calamity occurred ranging from devastating genocide to earthquakes. Many people, spirits and yokai had challenged the demon and failed to survive against it. It passed away by unknown causes that no one could answer them theoretically, even with its death their corpse remains intact into the world as a reminder of the world's sins and total depravity of their inner desires. In their ancient history, there are things that are kept hidden from the public’s eyes, whether or not it’s a secret that’s very valuable or invaluable to everyone’s curiosity. Within those records lies secrets and things that are meant to be known for everyone if they want their civilization to survive and achieve peace without resulting in harmful tactics. Even if this world is meant to be an individualist or a collectivist knowing on how to survive in their society, there will be deaths necessary for their survival or benefits.
In this world, sorcery exists way too long for any of their civilization could ever recorded. Their supernatural abilities only worked if their ancestors had inherited them in the first place. A world with the hierarchy that only benefited the highest order and ranking while the rest have to suffer. Sorcerers are the most important being in their race as they are the only ones who could protect non-sorcerer like people from danger.
In their professional status and occupation, there are three types of sorcerers, the first and important status are the supreme council that are composed with godlike prowess and strong leadership to dictate the world. The second one is the guardians, ones who are associated with dealing ancient beings and incidents. The last one is what people have seen every day, an investigator who are responsible for dealing with rogue spirits and sorcerers along with making sure that they also protect the civilians who has no sorcery usage or ones with low level sorcery.
Meanwhile, at a prestigious high school in Hong Kong, there was male student with a messy black hair who was standing in the courtyard. On his side, there were three brutally beaten-up students. In the other surroundings, there were students who looked terrified and shocked to the scene they were witnessing.
“I’m your king now!” The black-haired male screamed at the top of his lungs while his crimson eyes radiated brightly. Everyone in the vicinity were stunned in place, waiting for the male’s orders.
“I am your king! And whoever dares to challenge my authority shall suffer the consequences!” He said with a tone of rage while showing his power by releasing a crimson aura all over himself.
This male is Rei Nishimura, a student of Sir Ellis Prestigious High who is a high-tier student by power scaling and the strongest student. His journey is what he will not expect the most as his life full of misery will only continue with even more harsh and brutal outcomes where anyone will never be able to handle. Everyone scattered immediately after his short speech which made everyone even more scared and terrified for their lives as soon as they felt his spiritual energy flaring up.
Despite of his announcement and showcase of his power, some still remained unfazed and wanted to challenge his authority. After all, this is a world that only works on power and hierarchy, unless there are things that they still need to discover. Even if they discovered new things, it would become irrelevant because of the convenient use of supernatural abilities that are called ‘Prowess’. Prowess is a term for an individual who inherits a supernatural ability.
Hong Kong, a city and a special region of china that used to be conquered by British people had now changed a lot by having more lands after the recent years of evolution of their lives. Because of these supernatural abilities, it had been used a lot for land construction along with medical usage for people to recover quickly. Just like our world, some still uses them in unethical ways such as using them for robbery or worse a genocide. Although almost everyone has a prowess, there are people who doesn’t possess some and are labelled as ‘blank’. The sounds of bus, cars and trucks filled the vicinity of the streets in Kowloon City, everyone mostly walking pass while chatting with their friends or swiping through their phones. What made their society different is the year age and building designs.
3018, the current year of their lives throughout generations of evolution. Despite they generation year gap between their world and our world, habits still remain the same along with people’s morality of what they see as life. Some may see life as a serious campaign of hard willed choices and sacrifices while others may see it as a pointless and invaluable experience just to receive good things or bad things in the end.
That’s what is in Rei’s perspective of life, after living as a late bloomer throughout his whole life, it made his perspective in both sides a living hell as being a low tier or a powerless mediocre individual only made him suffer through constant bullying and abuse by everyone around him due to their power level. Although as a high-tier after unlocking his prowess late made him see life as only the strongest can survive and be respected, like a tyrant who only wanted to benefit himself from the situation and what he only desires. Rei was walking around the school premises, at the hallways in exact until he was approached by someone, the individual had a height that was near his height, a hair that was curly and blonde, blue cerulean eyes and formal school outfit of Sir Ellis Prestigious High.
“The throne belongs to you now, Rei. So, what are you going to do about it?” He asked as their eyes meet, Rei’s grey eyes staring into the male’s cerulean eyes.
“Nothing. Why? You got a problem with it?” Rei said with a tone of hate as his eyes glowed in crimson hue which made the male shiver in fear.
A sudden reminiscence of the past made Rei shake in anger as he pushed the individual in front of him and decided to keep on walking to his next class. He had his hands curled up in a fist, his expression filled with immense anger. His mind was torn up in between the reality he was dealing with and the memories of his past visiting him. The memories were people from his past that was gossiping about him, their brutal words that he always hated which caused him to snap which startled others to run away immediately and not wanting to deal with someone powerful as him.
“Monster”
He punched the wall beside him, his prowess activating instinctively.
“Tyrant”
He punched the wall again which broke the wall in the process.
“Late bloomer”
Rei was about to punch the wall again until he felt warmth and wetness behind.
He looked back and saw a magenta-colored hair girl, it was Sylvie, his best friend or former best friend to be exact. His thought process was why is she crying? Why is she hugging him after everything he had done? Even with those thoughts running in his mind, it stopped him from punching the wall and injuring himself furthermore as his breathing became calm and steady. Rei’s crimson eyes started to dim itself back to his original grey hue. The two stayed for a few minutes before splitting from each other, the two looked afraid to start a conversation until the girl broke the silence.
“A-Are you alright?”
The sudden express of caring by her caught him by surprise. After all, he had ended their friendship a week ago when they had an argument regarding of him keeping his prowess a secret. He suddenly remembered that days where he hid his prowess from the entire school which resulted him to get bullied by others. Even with the amount of bullying, he kept on going until he snapped when Sylvie’s prowess was stripped away by a rogue spirit on the loose that was released by the blonde who he was talking to a while ago.
“Y-Yeah…” Rei muttered out in defeat as he looked exhausted from battling his inner demons.
It was a quiet moment for them until a teacher had spotted them. By the teacher’s assumption, they were excused for the day as the injuries on Rei’s hand and mental exhaustion was very visible. The knuckles being visible but slowly healing from the passive effect of the prowess but the look of his face in utter defeat and empty cold look was enough for the teacher to excuse them. If it was any other teacher, it would’ve screamed trouble as Rei was very upset and ready to lash out despite his current calm but depressed demeanor because of Sylvie’s presence.
Unknown to Rei and Sylvie’s view, the teacher didn’t excuse them from an assumption but rather the vile and malevolent aura that Rei was leaking when the teacher arrived way earlier and was about to confront him until that aura emerged from him. As the two students left the premises; especially after going to the infirmary first before leaving for the dorms or going somewhere else, the teacher immediately ran to the headmaster’s office as if their life was on the line.
“Headmaster Leung!!!” the teacher said upon arriving.
The headmaster and another individual looked at the staff with a look of authority as if they were having an important conversation.
“What is it? Mr. Yang?” the headmaster replied in seriousness.
The male immediately replied with visible fear in his eyes as the headmaster and the individual noticed it. “I-It’s about Rei…”
The headmaster and the individual’s eyes widened, and expression changed into a worried state. “Did Rei start a fight again?” The headmaster asked sincerely upon gathering his collected thoughts from the events that had happened in their campus.
“N-No..” the answer made the two individuals in the room stared at him very confused until he continued.
“H-his p-prowess...I-It felt like a malevolent spirit t-that was awakened from its deep slumber…”
The sudden statement made the headmaster looked shocked upon the information while the latter looked to be highly suspicious. After all, it was Rei who was just lashing out and using their prowess recent after the recent events when he stopped holding his anger back. The trio in the room were interrupted when a young lady with strawberry blonde hair had entered the room.
“Excuse me but I’m here for the headmaster’s request.”
The teacher and the other staff were about to excuse her out of the room until they notice her clothing, a sorcerer’s uniform to be exact. The two staff members were about to leave when the headmaster had told them to stay.
“Welcome to Sir Ellis Prestigious High. May I know your name, young lady.” The headmaster greeted with a warm-hearted tone.
“Eunji. Eunji Jeong, headmaster Leung.” she answered as she scanned the room with her sky-blue eyes.
Meanwhile, a young male with white hair was walking around the school premises. His unusual indigo eyes scanned the premises as he could see people playing sports, chatting with each other and some were walking in fear due to the hierarchy they follow. In his thoughts, he was focusing to find an artifact that was rumored to be found in the school premises. The young male was walking around until he bumped into Rei and Sylvie, he was about to apologize when he felt a malevolent and twisted aura around Rei. Before the young male could even ask them to stay, they were gone without a trace although tiny amounts of the aura were leaking in the air.
The young male held an expression of pure fear on his eyes as he was searching for Rei and Sylvie furiously. All the while he was searching for the two, he didn’t notice a certain blonde male who was holding a marble as it glowed a golden yellow hue in their hands. Meanwhile, Rei and Sylvie were walking around the park. The silence being loud as neither of them didn’t know how to start their conversation. Sylvie didn’t want the silence to continue as she led the two of them to a bench area near a vending machine and with no hesitation from their situation. Sylvie bought a lemon tea from the vending machine while also buying a chocolate milk drink for Rei as she handed it to him.
“So, Rei… Why did you hide it?” Sylvie asked sincerely as she drank her cup of lemon tea when sitting next to him.
Rei didn’t hesitate to reply back as he thought that hiding it would make the situation worst. “It’s because I’m a late bloomer. You know what happens if a blank has somehow gained a prowess.”
Sylvie immediately understood what he said as she looked down with a face of sadness. “Yeah, I guess…” she said while stopping for a while before continuing. “Even if you are a late bloomer, I don’t think you deserve the worst…”
Her words made Rei confused as he stared at her for a solid minute. He has about to ask her when she talked first.
“You were a blank at first… Then you were bullied often in the past because of it… and when you gained a prowess, you gave them an experience for it… After that, you hid your prowess so that you wouldn’t hurt anyone… pretended until you snapped and retorted back to your aggressive lifestyle…” Sylvie said as her tone became depressed.
Rei understood what Sylvie was implying but couldn’t help but feel disappointment at himself. He clenched his fist tightly which made his skin turn red from the tightnesss until Sylvie added her opinions more of him.
“And that’s what I’m proud of.”
Her sudden statement caught Rei off guard as she proceeds to say more things.
“Your will to hold on is something that I lacked with. You are able to hold yourself back for two years and a half which is amazing because if I were you, I would’ve snapped within the first few weeks…”
Tears started to swell up on his eyes as he continued to listen to Sylvie.
“That’s why you are my role-model… Rei Nishimura.” Sylvie said as she turned to Rei and hugged him as Rei started to cry into her arms.
“You deserve better…. Rei…” she said in the end as Rei’s crying became loud.
The two went out to enjoy with each other's company whether they were sparring or playing games on their phone together. Their brief happiness was halted when a strawberry blonde appeared in front of them. Her menacing aura made the duo stranded in fear as they recognize her outfit as a sorcerer with a higher rank.
“Sorry to interrupt your moment but can I have a word with you?” She said as she pointed at Rei.
Rei couldn’t even mutter a word as he could only nod his head in acceptance to answer.
“Great. I’m Eunji Jeong, Associate Special Class from Kamigami Academy. I want to ask if you have any marble, and it radiates a low dimmed golden light at random occasions.”
Sylvia was flabbergasted by Eunji’s question due to how atrocious it was. Meanwhile, Rei was having a lot of questions in the back of his head since he had saw a marble that fit her description when he noticed the unusual bead on a certain blonde’s hands. The bead reminded him of an aura similar to his rage when he was angry but the aura that was very visible to him is the malevolent energy it filled.
Aura Manipulation. Is the name of Rei’s prowess as it grants him the ability to manipulate his own spiritual energy to copy one’s prowess by using his channels as a medium to activate the prowess usage and effects while also combine and amplify its power. As mentioned from the name of his prowess, it also allows him to read and sense other’s prowess within his range approximately up to 100 meters. And because of this passive effect to read other’s prowess through sensing one's spiritual energy, he could differentiate who are strong and who are weak which is the reason why he felt fear from the bead that he sensed from the blonde.
“I don’t have it, but I am certain that I saw someone with that bead that you described.” Rei said as he finally got the courage to talk.
Eunji was about to ask when their terrain suddenly changed, from the park to the school premises. The trio were confused how and why but Eunji immediately went into action by going into action by pulling the two behind her as her sky-blue eyes glowed.
“Stay behind me. This is not a drill…” she said with a tone of authority as string like energy started to form on her palms.
The two stayed quiet from Eunji’s statement as Sylvie could only feel burdened due to her lack of prowess to help at the current situation. Rei and Eunji are god-tier while Sylvie is a blank due to her not having her prowess. The trio stayed on their guard until two figures appeared on the top of the school rooftop.
“Rei! I challenge you to a rank match!”
Rei’s eyes widened as he saw the blonde male, but the male looked like as if it was possessed due to the markings all over his left side. David, the blonde who used to be king of the school until he was dethroned by Rei when he had ambushed him and lost to him twice. With the current situation at hand, it looked like David is about to win this time. As soon as the petals hit the floor, David went on to strike Rei along with a demon like figure fighting Eunji.
Rei couldn’t understand why the blonde became strong all of the sudden. From using barriers to defend himself and its reflective effects to harm others to projectile and generated barriers to fight with hand-to-hand combat effectively. The current ability that Rei held is a claw from the demon like figure and a barrier from David although he could only use the barrier only and not its effects. The fight went on until he saw Eunji, unconscious on the floor with Sylvie against the wall and a marble on her hands but his attention was focused on the demon like entity that was eyeing the marble.
His mind split into deciding whether to save help Eunji get up or secure the marble to protect it from them. With no other option, he went to secure the marble and protect it although it was futile as it only tossed him aside like a ragged doll. Rei felt exhausted from the hit and fight taken from David and the demon like entity as he noticed David falling on his knees and breathing heavily as if he was having a fever.
The marble on his hand suddenly disintegrated as if his own spiritual energy was mixed with the energy that was emitting from the marble. Eunji, who had just woken up from her injuries was surprised to see the energy of the marble mixing into Rei’s. The aura of the situation changed as Rei slammed his left hand into the entity that was rushing onto him. All of the sudden, the entity disintegrated into oblivion as if it disappeared.
“Heh…heehee…”
The chuckle from Rei made Eunji shiver as she had witnessed the aura around Rei changed.
“AGHH…. HAHAHAHAHA” The maniacal laugh made Eunji even more scared as Rei’s features changed with having a unique marking over his face along with an extra set of eyes above and below its main eyes.
Eunji watched as she saw Rei ripping his uniform shirt which revealed more markings.
“The Fallen… has incarnated.”
