I stifled a yawn as I lifted up the garage door of the rundown warehouse that had become the base of operations for Rosefire. Inside, under the harsh white of the low-hanging light bulbs, around thirty men continually drilled into brand-new punching bags. With the ridiculous amount of money that I had, investing in the training of our men was one of the first things I had done. The only reason our base was so drab was because I wanted to keep Rosefire lowkey until we made a proper debut.

In recompense, I made sure not to skimp out on meals, clothing, and housing when it came to my men.

Ren had offered to take charge of the basic training of the men, while I would take five at a time and help them with their Cleanse. The first batch I took included Edgar and Leo, obviously, and three of the best fighters after them.

While the main reason I had asked Ren to join Rosefire was because he seemed like a fun person to have tagging along, I also had the tiniest hunch that he was no stranger to fighting. And thankfully, that hunch turned out to be right. Although he wouldn’t give up exactly who trained him, he had informed me that he’d had proper training. He’d even had his Cleanse already, but I hadn’t had the time to see how strong he was, exactly.

I took a moment and studied the men as they planted punch after punch on the cloth in front of them. Only a week had passed since their recruitment, but they would already demolish their past selves in a fight. They were still far from professional, of course, but they had most certainly improved.

Quelling the pride in me, I made my way over to where Leo and the others stood, practicing their punches as well.

“Alright boys. You ready?” I asked as I walked up to them.

“We’ve been ready. You’re the one who’s late,” one of the men, Brian, responded immediately. I chuckled at his response. I had quickly learnt that Brian had a very quick mouth that seemed to act all on its own. But I knew that Brian had meant no disrespect, and I took none. On top of that, Brian’s limbs were as quick as his mouth, which was what had earned him a spot in the first five.

“I’ll have you know, Brian, that I was doing some very important Leader business, which took longer than I expected.”

“Really?” Brian asked, his skepticism clear as day. “And what was this very important business of yours?”

“Sleeping, obviously,” I responded with a smile that dared to him to complain. “Now, let’s get this party started.”

With that, Nick and Ian immediately lined up, their backs facing me. “We’re ready, Miss,” they said in unison. The two were twins and it showed in every aspect. From looks to words to actions, the two were practically identical.

I smiled and placed my palms on their backs, right in between the shoulder blades. I closed my eyes and channelled the Flux around me into my body, through my arms and into my palms. Black vapor began to rise from my arms as the power flowed through my veins. When I felt that the power gathered in my palms was enough, I suddenly shoved it all out, right into the bodies of the two.

There were two known ways of going through a Cleanse. One was to simply meditate for hours on end and attempt to sense the Flux in the air. That itself could take up to years. After that, one would have to absorb enough of the Flux around them to trigger a Cleanse. Although that method could take very long, it was by far the most common method when it came to mages that you could meet in second and third rate gangs.

The second method was much more painful, and required much more skill. First-rate gangs and anything more powerful would only accept people who became mages through this method, since they were practically guaranteed to be better than mages that used the first method. Their Flux veins were simply cleaner and more powerful, which meant that the same amount of Flux would be much more refined in the hands of a mage who went through the pain of the second method.

Both Ren and I had our Cleanse triggered through the second method, so the decision for the rest of the gang was a no-brainer.

The second method required a Flux mage to inject Flux directly into the spine of the mage-to-be. Once the Flux was in them, they would have to control and direct it to the center of their body, to form their Flux Core. Since Flux could only be injected once a day – lest the nerves be damaged, which could kill or paralyze the person – it usually took around a week for enough Flux to gather in a person to fully form the Flux Core. Only after the Flux Core formed would the Cleanse begin, marking them as a true mage.

Today marked a week since I had begun this training with the five, and I was hoping that I would get to see at least one trigger a Cleanse. Of course, it was still early, so I didn’t have very high hopes.

However, the moment the Flux entered their bodies, Nick and Ian fell to their knees, groaning in pain. They clutched their chests as they hunched over, the commotion immediately attracting the attention of everyone in the room.

“Alright, guys. We’ve been through this. Spread the Flux in your cores around your body,” I instructed immediately, feeling a pang of excitement bubbling in me. But I kept my happiness in check and made sure to guide them through the process properly. As someone who’d had a Cleanse through this method, I understood the pain they were currently feeling, and how disorienting it could be. “The pain is just the Flux cleaning your body’s impurities. Get through this and you will have taken the first step to achieving the strength of your dreams.”

As the two began to move the Flux through their bodies, a reddish-brown vapor began to rise off them. The vapor carried with it a foul, but strangely, nostalgic smell. Leo and Edgar, as well as the rest of the men, gagged at the horrendous smell, and I couldn’t help but smile at the memories their reactions brought.

After a solid five minutes of steaming, Nick and Ian finally started feeling the pain subside. By now, we had carried the pair out of our warehouse to keep it usable. The pair had been dutifully revolving the Flux in their bodies throughout the pain, and were finally nearing the end of the ordeal.

A minute more passed before they were able to move their bodies again, and another minute before they were completely back to normal. Half a minute more and the true effects of the Cleanse finally kicked in.

Ren and I chuckled as we watched the two run around in circles, jumping and waving their arms like madmen.

“I feel so light!” Nick yelled in happiness. “I feel like I’d fly away if someone sneezed on me.”

“That’s not all you get,” I told them. “Ian, try punching Edgar’s palm.”

“Sure!” Ian said as Edgar stepped up, his palm held out in front of him. Ian stood in front of him, fists up. With a twist of his hip, Ian let loose the strongest punch he could muster. At first glance, everyone present could tell that the punch was different from every other punch that Ian had thrown before. Everyone here, with the expectation of Leo, Ren, and I, felt a sense of mortal danger from the punch. I instantly knew Edgar would not fare well after taking the punch, and its speed was far too much for Edgar to dodge.

Suddenly, a gust of wind hit me from the side as Ren lunged forward. In the blink of an eye, Ren appeared in between Edgar and Ian, his palm intercepting Ian’s fist. A loud clap sounded out, with another gust of wind buffeting our clothes.

Only now did Edgar hastily remove his hand and step back, the fear clear on his face. All the other men stared at Ren and Ian, wide-eyed and slack-jawed. They had all sensed they would not have stood a chance against the force behind Ian’s punch.

With a smug smile, I spoke to the shocked men. “That is the power of Flux, in its weakest, least refined form. Within three months, I expect all of you to have this power. In the fourth month, we will move on the Hellwalkers and assume control of their territory. I’ll tell you more once you’ve all gotten a little stronger.” I stopped for a moment to let the information sink in. Now that they were fired up, it was the perfect moment to inform them of our goal. A goal none of them would have dared to believe possible a week ago.

“On another note, congratulations to Nick and Ian for becoming Rosefire’s first mages. To celebrate, tonight will be on me.” I paused as the men hooted and cheered. Since our group was made of two originally separate gangs, I had decided to foster as many relaxing situations as I could, to reduce friction and problems. Thankfully, there had been no disagreements among the men yet, and I’d even spotted a few friendships blooming, surprisingly including Leo and Edgar, which was great news for me. Rosefire was aiming for greatness; it had no time for petty squabbles.

“Now, off you are. We’ve all got training to do,” I said as the lively talking subsided.

“Alright gentlemen, the boss has spoken,” Ren took over, rallying up the men he was training. “Let’s get to it, shall we?”

As his group walked back, chatting and laughing, I quickly glanced at Ren, who was currently wrapped up with a lively conversation with some men. With his laid-back personality, he'd had no trouble getting along with all the members, and everyone had taken a liking to him. However, that was not why I was watching him with curiosity. Although none of the others had noticed, I most certainly had. When he stopped Ian’s punch, Ren had used no Flux at all. Which meant that he had simply taken Ian’s punch with nothing but his own body, which was a feat I would’ve most certainly would've had trouble achieving. I didn’t show it, but I was completely at a loss at how he had managed to take it absolutely unfazed. After all, Ren couldn’t possibly have had the raw physical power it would take to do that.

But as the men disappeared back into the warehouse, I shook my head and focused myself back on the matter at hand, motioning for the Brian and Edgar to line up in front of me. We all had secrets, and I would respect Ren’s. If it was important for me to know, I trusted that he would tell me.

With that settled, I placed my palms on Edgar and Brian’s backs, going through the process again.

After the two had fully absorbed the Flux, I repeated the process with Leo, except that both my palms were on his back. Although Leo was already a mage, he had done it through the first method. In order for him to not fall behind his comrades in the future, I decided to inject Flux into Leo to help him clean out his Flux veins. That way, the remaining impurities would be flushed out and not become a hindrance down the road. Every time I injected Flux into him, he would go through a mini version of the actual Cleanse, and every time, it would get weaker; which meant that he was getting cleaner.

After that was done, I would train the men and often have them spar. Now that Nick and Ian were mages, Leo and I could finally spar against someone else. Over the week that we’d had, Leo had lost every single fight. Although he had improved by leaps and bounds, I could tell he was excited to finally be fighting someone who he could actually win against.

-

Like sand through my fingers, a whole month had slipped away before I knew it. Rosefire produced a total of seventeen mages in that time, which was far more than I had been expecting, and as a whole, the fighting ability of the group had grown wildly.

I was finally settling into the role of running a gang, which was far more complicated than I had imagined. I was expecting that capturing the loyalty of the men was the only hurdle I would face, but I was sorely mistaken. The territory of the combined gangs was small, relatively, encompassing no more than a few streets. But even then, there were a good number of businesses that relied on us for protection from bigger, more predatory gangs.

Since I was in no need of extra money, I had decided to simply buy all the businesses, twenty-three in total, and add them as sources of revenue for Rosefire. Of course, I paid a reasonable price for them, and I let them run just as they had before. The only changes were that the salaries of all the employees were all footed by Rosefire, and all the profit would also find itself in Rosefire’s funds.

Aside from that, I also bought out the largest apartment building in my territory, Millcrest Apartments, and fixed it up as much as I reasonably could. I got each room cleaned out professionally, patched up the leaky piping, and installed proper heating and cooling. I reserved the top two floors for Rosefire’s members, and rented out the bottom eight for a much cheaper price than the surrounding housing options. Although I still ate a loss, it ensured that all the rooms were filled up with the people who needed it the most. There were still homeless in my territory, of course, but I had done all that I could for now. I resolved to find ways to help them out as soon as I could.

By the time I was done with all that, my bank account had plummeted to three hundred thousand and some, which was still far higher than it had ever been before. But I was sure that it wouldn’t be long before that number soared to heights I didn’t know were possible.

Ren had been incredibly helpful throughout the process, from price negotiations to getting information around to picking up valuable information off the street. Although he was as clueless as me in the beginning, he had thrown himself into every challenge that popped up with his customary amused smile. As far as I was concerned, he had cemented his position as my First Lieutenant.

With all my responsibilities to my people dealt with, I threw myself back into training, and another two months passed in what felt like mere minutes.