“Keep it up. Do not lower that shield by an inch. You need to endure, for the pride of the Ruby-Fiend family you have to endure.”

Gnash “uggh… father I cannot keep it up, my muscles are failing, and my arms are noodles.”

“Endure my child, every moment you endure past your current limits allows you to break through to reach a new level of strength. You must not shame our family’s occupation of being the number one defensive knights in the surrounding area.”

“Milord, the local magi schools have sent their ambassadors to test the young master, they are waiting in the parlor.”

“Bloody conceded fellows those mages are, making us test our kids to see if they can become mages and they snatch them away. Do they not understand that we are the mighty Ruby-Fiend knights and we can stand as equals with any one of those mage towers. Judith drop the shield, follow me, we are going to see those squishy mages, don’t forget you have to be mindful of those mages. Not only are they smart, cunning and sly but they are slippery foes whom we should always be wary of, all that power goes to their heads and you never know what they are thinking or scheming.”

The father and son duo left the training hall and began to move to the parlor to greet the varying mages who have come to test the young master Judith. “Father, why do I have to be tested by those mages?” said Judith.

“Well son, the past rulers of our country Pilrim relied heavily on the different mage towers to secure our current lands. All for the price that all children from the age of 11 but before they turn 12 have to be tested to see if they have any potential to become mages. If any child is found to have potential to become a mage they then offer different rewards to the family and the best deal wins the child, who then goes to the corresponding faction. ” said Judith’s father.

“Wow father, what would we do if I had the potential to become a mage?”

“Get that nonsense out of your head, we are the Ruby-fiend family, we have had generations of knights for the last 200 years my boy. We produce the strongest defensive knights around; us becoming mages what a disgrace to our ancestor. Do you not recall what our ancestor said when that wandering mage offered to take him in as an apprentice mage, he said no way. The mage understood and still felt grateful to him and helped him come up with our family’s sacred knight art, Flaming Empresses Imperial Will. Which has given birth to our family's absolute defense, which is unbreakable against all the knight families around us. If only Great grandfather was still alive and wasn’t plotted against and pushed under the rug. We would be even more powerful hadn't he passed, that is why you must put all your effort into training my son. Once you can block all attacks, you can then slowly kill your enemies and we can truly rise to the top of Pilrim.”

“Yes, father I understand, I will train hard and help the family rise to the top.” Said Judith.

The two of them reached a grand arch and proceeded to open the reinforced doors to the parlor to speak with the mage testers. As the two massive iron doors swung open “Hello there mage testers, which schools do you hail from and can we hurry this up for we all know the Ruby-fiend family are made up of knights. We are only doing this, for this is a tradition and to also honor our emperor, come on out Judith.”

“Whoa, milord Ruby-fiend look at this lad his muscles they are so well defined, the physical labor you knights undergo is tremendous, much better than what they teach at our towers, maybe you could come out and teach some of our students.” Said a man in a brown robe in humorist manner while rubbing his aged hands together as if envisioning the students conducting manually labor.

“Randell, you need to leave the lord alone, you should know they are one of the best warrior families within Pilrim, after us mages they are the next top dogs.” Said a youthful male in a dark green leather gear; mocking the elder man in brown, shaking his head in dismay.

“Well if it isn’t Slashing Wind, I haven’t seen you since the last time we fought in the Arena. I hope you realize after my defeat from you, I went and reevaluated myself and I have gained further enlightenment with my Frozen Sea spell, I should like to think I should be able to stop you for a moment.” Said a shy bashful male while staring at Slashing Wind; his eyes were burning for a fight to regain his lost pride.

“How about we quickly finish testing this brute of a child and have a second round. No offense milord, your son looks as strong as our junior guards and he is only what 11 or 12 right now, what a beast.” Said Slashing Wind.

“I will conduct the first test, come here Judith, there is nothing to worry about. I am just going to show this box and all you have to do is look into it and tell us what you see inside.” Said Randell.

From inside his pocket he withdrew a small one foot by one-foot black onyx box with no marking as if the box was made from one stone. The longer that Judith stared at the box; he began to sense a powerful aura emitting from the small box which was slowly swallowing him up as if he was a rabbit and the box was a snake. “Child it seems as if you can feel the power of this box, come on up and have a look inside.” Said Rendell.

While smiling at the young Judith as he approached the onyx box. Unknown powers were drawing in the young Judith, as if possessed from an otherworld demon; all he knew was that he had to see what was inside that box. Everything around Judith slowly disappeared, his father and the three mages disappeared from his senses, and the only thing that mattered was the box. As he approached the onyx box, the power grew stronger, anticipation was built instantly. “Look at the child, already caught in the formation of the box, his body is sweating, to think he would be captivated so soon, he hasn’t even opened and looked inside yet. We may even get a surprise today. ”

“You old foggy, what nonsense are you speaking, you know we are in the home of the Ruby-fiend family, what great mage has ever come out of this relatively new family?” said Slashing Wind.

“Slashing Wind is correct; this family has only been around what, 200 years or so. Their founding father was pretty outstanding but in the end he was slaughtered by a couple of allied mage powers. From what my master has told me it took 4 of the headmasters from the Scared Seven Triangles, with one of the four leading him to the ambush and stabbing him in the back, completely catching him off guard, he killed two of them and seriously injured one and the other got off with only minor injuries.” Said the lad in blue.

“Child, now go ahead and open the box and take a look inside and tells us what you see inside.” Said Randell.

Judith had reached the black box; his arms began to reach out and grasp the box for the first time. With the first contact with the box his body was chilled, and then a mysterious power began to build inside the box as if a volcano ready to explode. The power accumulated zapping the young Judith, the box almost alive called Judith to open and bear witness to the insides of the box. Judith’s eyes began to dilate with the pluses of the power rumbling from the insides of the box; Judith rushed to release the seal holding the black box. A rainbow of colors burst forth from the inside the box bringing Judith’s mind into the box. Being brought into the box Judith scanned his surrounding and realized he was an insignificant ant in front of thousands of volcano mountain chains all spewing lava from their mouths. It reminded Judith of when all of his family would get together and how they all consumed food during the festivals or whenever one of them achieves some form of merits, and their mouths were just opening and spewing whatever was inside. Judith continued to observe the volcanic mountain chains, waiting to see if anything else shows up or changes.

The lava began to slowly form into lines and circles, linking all the volcanoes together almost as if it was making a symbol. As the lava continued to form molten lines, a symbol was beginning to take shape. Judith rationally waiting to watch as the lava creates the symbol, he wanted to know what it was creating. Soon all the volcanoes were buried in molten lava, the shape of the symbol was finally able to be seen. There above the lava, Judith was able to see a four-pointed star in the center of an overlapping five-pointed and six-pointed stars. The heat was beginning to overwhelm Judith; within the center of the four-pointed star an object was beginning to emerge, a black orb similar in coloring as the box. This orb was no more than 3ft in diameter and was slowly beginning to rotate. As the orb picked up speed as it spun, it got smaller and then it started to turn white. Then an intense amount of heat was emitting from the small white orb, until suddenly the birth of a flame appeared.

Everything turned dark the only thing that existed now was this lone flame, as it slowly started to grow. The flame grew into a large white flame expanding until it reached the limits of this realm giving birth to a flame nation. Within moments of the flame nation being made, young newborn flames were growing up and having lives meeting new flames thus creating even more new flames. Judith never thought that flames could be people or live lives like how he currently does, he was struck by how curious the events were playing before him.

As if the flames could hear his thoughts they all stopped what they were doing and turn to the direction of where Judith was floating in the sky and then they all began to bow before Judith. “Why are all of you flames bowing before me?” asked Judith to the old white flame that created the fire nation.

The white flame was growing weak as if overcame with old age, “Child you can give birth to a new fire god.”

“Judith….Judith wake up…. There, there it is okay we are in the parlor, tell the three impatient mages what you saw inside that box.” Said Lord Ruby-fiend.

Judith began to retell his tale to his father and the three mages, first starting with the volcanoes and then how the lava made the symbol to then about how the white flame was born and then how it created a nation, giving birth to living and breathing flame people. Up until the point when the White flame grew old and told him that he can give birth to a new fire god. The three mages stood there with mouths a gape actively listening to the young Judith. “Here is some pen and paper, draw the symbol you saw in the lava.” Said Randell.

Judith grabbed the pen and paper and began to trace out the symbol that he had seen inside the box. He first drew the four-pointed star in the center, and then drew the five and six-pointed stars linked together giving birth to the symbol created by the lava. The three mages looked surprised even excited as if they had just found a treasure. Their looks then turned to greed and they began to argue with each other of who has rights to have Judith. “Gentlemen, please stop bickering, is there not two additional tests for my son to take, why start fighting after the first test?” said lord Ruby-fiend.

“We are sorry your lordship.” Said the three mages.

“Okay I shall conduct the second test, come here Judith, it is okay this test is even simpler than the first. All you have to do is place your hand and a drop of blood on this orb and we shall get an estimate on your magical potential.” Said the lad in blue; he withdrew a pure white orb, about the size of a grapefruit from inside his pocket.

Judith looked upon the white orb to see if there were any differences from the black box. All he was able to discern was that the white orb seemed like a plain white pearl. Judith went up to the orb and pricked his finger on a needle to draw blood to drip it on the orb. Judith watched as the one drop of blood slowly fell to the orb, once it touched, the orb began to get warm and energy began to emit from the orb, as if pulsating to life.

The white light began to change into a light blue, until it changed to a dark blue, until it changed yet again to a purple light. The three mages looked at each other with excitement; all wondering what the final color of the orb will be. From purple, the orb began to change into a dark pink to a light pink until it transformed into dark red slowly lighting up into an orange to yellow until finally it started to teeter between yellow and green.

The final color which the orb had chosen was a mixture of yellow green. “No way has this brute almost reached the potential of green, far too unbelievable it has almost reached the highest potential of human limits.” Said Slashing Wind

“Highest potential of human limits, what does that mean?” said Judith.

“Well Judith, this orb allows us to get a rough estimate about how high of a level of mage you can become, or rather how your ability to use magic will be. We rate the different level with the changing of colors as you had seen. You have gone through every color except for the last couple which would be if your color went to a solid green and then finally to last one going back to blue from green. In the case with grading you, you reached the level of yellow-green, with a primary focus on green, so you have the potential to become a supreme magus. Your potential is higher than any of us here present. If you want to join us at Rose Undercurrent, you could become the next in line to become the head master at our organization.” Said the lad in Blue.

“Lamat, nobody with a want to become a powerful mage would want to join your Rose Undercurrent, the only thing you got going for your school is the fact that 80% of the students enrolled there are females and that is it.” Said Slashing Wind.

“Oh what, is your Galing Strong Storm, a better location for Judith?” said Lamat.

“Of course, it is, were not a bunch of sissy pants who only care about our appearances, sure you have loads of females, but what is a woman without a strong man to protect her hmm? Also, your school is primary focused on water magic where as we focus more on fire, wind, lightning or pure destruction magic, like real men.” said Slashing Wind.

“Oh... Ha … ha you youngsters these days are sure funny, I am not too sure if I can keep up with you kids, for trying to win over the young master. Now Judith the place I hail from is called Timeless Dunes, where our focus is primary on fire and earth magic, although we do have others who practice different types of magic. I am not too sure what position I really can offer you, because your potential is so high, I can only report it to my higher ups.” Said Randell.

Both Slashing Wind and Lamat yelled “NOOOO.”

"Do not report this to your higher ups, can’t the three of us come up with some kind of agreement?” Said Slashing Wind.

“I agree with Slashing Wind, I can offer you at minimum would be a core disciple spot with ability to fight for leadership, and a monthly expense allowance of at least 1000 medium grade manna stones. That is the best I can offer at this time, don’t even bother with the other two, their schools are not as wealthy as my Rose Undercurrent.” Said Lamat.

“I can also offer you a position as a core disciple, with a monthly expense of 750 medium manna stones, along with two high grade spells of your choice, once you reach the level to cast them, and you could have access to pick a lot more lower level spells.” Said Slashing Wind.

“I cannot offer such a high monthly income, but again we could work you into a position of core disciple, along with a few high level spells, and also I can gift you a weapon and armor set tied to the elements of fire.” Said Randell.

“Stop… all of you can just leave, we don’t need to continue these tests, my son is not becoming a mage do you understand, we are a family of knights, I was only going through the motions. Surprisingly my son has a high aptitude for magic but he is the only male son of mine, so he has to continue our family tradition continuing the line of the Flaming Empresses Imperial Will. Again I thank you all for visiting my home, but my patience has run dry, so please gather your things and leave. ” Said the Lord Ruby-fiend.

“Father I haven’t completed the third test.”