Part 0

 

"Lord Second, I have appeared in your presence." A male voice spoke out.

It was a large room, with the moon shining through the windows. Inside the room, there was a man kneeling on the marble floor. The man had tan skin and short black hair that came down to his shoulders; covering his body was a dark blue cloak.

There was a man sitting on a chair in front of the kneeling man. He was wearing a baggy white robe that covered most of his body. His face was that of a weary old man, with his black hair reaching his waist. His hand was on the armrest of the white chair he was sitting on.

"That you have my child."

The man sitting in the chair was the first Crystal Guardian, ruler of all elements. He was the one who held the universe in his palm.

A revered figure in the world.

He stood up from his chair and began walking toward the kneeling man.

"What is your name?"

"Nilan, my name is Nilan Lord Second," he said as he kept his head facing the ground.

"Oh, sapphire, it seems that fate has lined up in your favor."

As the man stood over the kneeling man, he held out his right fist, causing Nilan to look up.

The man opened his fist, letting a blue crystal drop from a piece of string that was wrapped around his hand.

The crystal reflected the light that came from outside as the man got a look at it.

"That is…." the man said as he was entranced by the small object.

"Yes, this is the same small amount of power I possess. I had managed to split the original power I have into six parts, each with their own element, all equal to each other."

"That is amazing, Lord Second," Nilan said.

"Yes, and now you will have that power."

Nilan stared at him with shock on his face.

"Surely you don’t mean..."

"I do. You have been chosen by the head of your race to be the foundation stones to lead us to the new world."

Nilan placed his palm under the crystal and stared at it. He was amazed that he could see stars within the small crystal."

"After everything I have done with this power to make this world a better place, it is still not enough; there is still work to be done. I am afraid that my time in this world may be short."

The man let the thin string drop from his hand, thus giving the crystal and its power to Nilan.

"You will be one that controls water; there are four others with the same power over the elements as I once did. I will leave the final crystal to my family; it is my hope that you six, with your powers, will make this world, our home, a much better place."

Nilan closed his fist over the crystal.

"I will, Lord second."

"I know you will, The Water Crystal Guardian, Nilan.

_____________________________________________________________________

 

In a quiet room

"It has been a while since anyone has called me, and I almost forgot what it felt like to be honest, but soon after all this time, I will have the pleasure to be all that and more again. Fate has truly fallen in my favor."

"Oh, that's right. I hear that you are going by a new name now. My apologies: I tend not to keep up with things if they no longer interest me."

Nereus smirked.

"A flaw, perhaps?" Nereus said.

"Like a human?" Raziel replied.

"Maybe," Nereus said, smirking.

Raziel smirked and held out his hand to his side.

"If you are going to use an old-fashioned method, then the least I can do is meet you halfway, right?"

Small particles of white light began gathering in his outward hand.

Nereus raised his sword.

The light in his hand began to harden and thin itself into the shape of a pole that was taller than he was.

Raziel closed his hand, and the light peeled away, revealing a silver staff-

If it could be called that,.

The object the founder was holding looked like a staff that had branch-like veins emerging from around the tip and interwinding down to the grip handle, which made it look like a large lance.

Raziel lifted the staff horizontally to block an overhead attack from Nereus, causing both men to fall to the floor below.

It was a large room that they had fallen into.

There was a sound as both men separated from each other at opposite ends of the room, their feet sliding across the floor.

Nereus glanced at the staff that was in the founder's hand.

"That's an interesting weapon."

Raziel lightly raised the staff to look at it.

"Thank you; it is the end result of my research." Raziel said as he admired the staff. "It's not yet complete, but it should be enough for someone like you."

"We’ll see."

The cloak began to open up and sway around him. The outline of his body began to glow. Suddenly, his sword became engulfed in a dark blue flame-like light that surrounded it.

Raziel watched on.

"You’re going to attack with energy?’

"Of course, anything else would be disappointing."

The energy around the sword made it appear larger than it was.

Nereus rushed towards Raziel as he raised the staff. There was a loud shockwave as both weapons clashed.

Both men darted around the room in an effort to hit each other. Raziel pointed the staff at Nereus. Nereus instinctually swiped the staff upward with his sword, causing sparks to fly in the air.

Nereus took a loud step, his boot slamming on the floor. With a grin, he pulled his arm back and thrust the sword forward to impale the man. As the sword got closer, Raziel dodged by jumping several feet into the air.

Nereus looked up to see him floating in the air.

As the staff began to glow in his hand, he threw it at Nereus.

"Humph!" Nereus smirked.

He swatted the staff away with his sword, causing it to twirl in the air several times before burying itself in the ground.

The founder was defenseless.

Nereus placed his right palm on the ground and exhaled.

Suddenly, his body began to glow.

"Now then, let's try this, shall we?"

The floor began to light up in a dark blue color, illuminating the ground. Nereus gripped the hilt of his sword tightly and launched himself towards the founder as he floated in the air.

Raziel blitzed past Nereus toward the direction of his spear. Nereus landed on a broken ledge on the wall. As Raziel landed on the floor, he pulled the staff out of the ground.

Nereus turned around on the ledge, dragging the tip of the sword on the ground as he did.

He looked down at the man on the ground.

Raziel moved to take a step but found that he could not.

"What is this?" Raziel calmly asked as he looked at the ground.

He noticed that the ground and his bare feet were glowing a dark blue.

"So, you finally noticed!" Nereus shouted out as he raised his sword into the air. "Before I jumped, I poured some of my energy into the ground, immobilizing those who stepped within its boundaries. It was an old hunting technique that my people used a long time ago."

As Nereus held the sword, it began to light up with dark blue energy. Soon, Nereus let out a loud yell, causing energy to surround his body in a violent vortex that spread out in the room.

Raziel stood there, not moving. The look on his face was that of someone who was unbothered by the current events before him. He gripped the hilt of the staff as several shockwaves hit him. As the shockwaves and vortex began to die down, Nereus dashed from the ledge to the founder on the ground below.

Raziel raised the staff horizontally in front of him with one arm.

(His staff again; he seems very fond of that thing; no problem; with the energy I've accumulated, I’ll smash both that weapon and him to pieces.)

With all his might and a sadistic grin on his face, he brought his sword down to clash with the staff.

Boom!!!!

There was a huge shockwave in the room as the two weapons hit.

He was expecting that his weapon, with the energy he poured into it, would split the man and his weapon in two, but-

Nothing had happened.

The energy that surrounded the sword was gone, causing just the blade of the sword to hit the staff.

(How….)

His energy had disappeared, appearing as small particles of light scattered in the air.

As he pondered that thought, Raziel lifted his left arm to the staff. Suddenly, the staff began to light up with a dark blue color.

(That is my….)

As Raziel held the staff in his hands, a blast of dark blue energy hit Nereus, which caused a small explosion in the large room.

Dark, black smoke filled the room.

Raziel's eyes darted around the smoke-filled room, searching for Nereus.

It was quiet.

"I am quite fond of this building, so I did not blast you with all the energy I acquired from you.

He was waiting for a response.

Black smoke started to fade out of the room.

A large hand started swatting the black smoke away.

"No, no, you did not," a pained voice spoke out.

As the smoke started to clear out, the damage to his body was revealed. The left side of his body and clothes were singed. The left sleeve of his uniform was completely burned off, revealing his damaged muscular arm with smoke coming off it. The part of the cloak hat that covered that side of his body was ripped away.

Nereus looked at his damaged arm.

Raziel looked at the man.

"Interesting, it seems at the moment you came in contact with the blast, you instinctively released your own energy to offset the first. It seems I have to make several minor adjustments to the staff release and speed.

Nereus lowered his smoking arm to his side.

Raziel lightly tapped the spear on the ground, causing the bright energy on the ground to begin peeling away into the air and disappearing.

(He is disrupting the energy I poured into the ground; no, that's not it; he is…….)

Nereus closely watched the staff.

"What is with that staff of yours?"

"I believe I told you that it was the end result of my research."

Nereus smirked

"In the short instant I have seen that staff in action, it seems to have the ability to absorb energy and release said energy back."

Raziel slightly smiled.

"Not quite, I’m afraid. While that would be a correct estimation given the circumstances, you couldn’t be more off the mark."

"What?" Nereus angrily replied.

"Those are two sub-abilities that the staff has, but its main ability is that it can analyze and disrupt energy at a core level."

"There is no way that is possible."

"But it is."

Raziel held up his index finger.

"Hypothetically, let's say, for instance, that the first man that was able to manipulate energy was born with a small fragment; as more people are born with that same ability, they also have that small fragment, and so on. As evolution takes place and several new subspecies begin to emerge, evolving from existing species, that process continues."

Raziel paused.

"This staff can attack that energy that exists."

There was silence in the large room, soon followed by a deep chuckle coming from Nereus.

"You said that your staff's main ability was to analyze energy that it had come into contact with, including me; do you really expect me to believe you spent the last 5000 years analyzing everyone who has energy?"

Nereus placed his left hand on his hip.

"My old world was the only one where the population was able to integrate the use of energy. The portal between this world and my old world has been closed for over 300 years; even with that staff and all the resources within this city, you would not be able to open it, effectively closing you out."

Raziel glanced at the staff.

"That was true for a while."

He turned his attention to the man.

"You are right; it would be tedious to analyze the individual energy of all those who arrived before the portal between both worlds closed; that was the first hurdle I came across and what almost doomed the project. Others like you and your group arrived here but spread out across the world, and I couldn’t physically gather them without risking an international incident, but I could not abandon the project, so I went about it another way."

"What are you talking about?"

"Patient zero is usually referred to as the first person to contract an illness or an outbreak. If we were to keep that same concept I said earlier, then it would be safe to assume that the first person in your world to manipulate energy would be hypothetical patient zero, but in reality that would not be the case."

Nereus listened closely.

"Before the project was to be scrapped, after the portal was closed, I noticed something. I had initially overlooked it due to the fact that several groups of people got their ability to evolve and manipulate energy from the same source, so I chalked that up to evolution taking its natural course, but..."

He paused.

"What did surprise me was how similar that energy was across various species from your old world—a common theme, if you will—something so small that if you weren’t looking for it, you wouldn’t have guessed it existed. As I am sure you know, no two energies are alike; it's sort of like a spiritual fingerprint that everyone has as their own."

"I’m very well aware of that fact," Nereus cut him off.

"Did you also know that at the very core level of an individual's energy lies a small, particular fragment that exists in the deepest part? That fragment is the same across the various species of your world and among those who came here."

Nereus eyes widen.

"Nothing in this universe can be created or exist entirely on its own, not even the powers of the Crystal Guardians powers. As one individual learns to master and control their energy, that fragment seeps deeper into the core of their energy and is able to be shaped by the user's own willpower, thus becoming its own individual entity. Regardless of how small it is, that fragment still exists."

Nereus started to become annoyed.

"That does not explain how you were able to cancel out the energy of my last attack."

"The reason why I was able to cancel it out was due to the fact that I did not cancel your energy; it merely collapsed onto itself when the staff came into contact with that small fragment within your energy. You remember what I said about the first person to be able to manipulate energy, which would normally be called patient zero, but in this case it would not be possible. Now then, I ask you, if that person was not patient zero, then what would be?"

Nereus began thinking.

"The logical answer would be the energy itself."

"Yes, and pray, tell me what the source of that energy was again." Raziel said, smiling at him.

Nereus' eyes widen as several realizations hit him all at once.

"The First Heart"

"Correct, you don’t fully have to understand, but from this point on, the very energy that you possess will be of any use to you as long as I have this staff."

"That is impossible; the only way to study that fragment completely would be to have the original source. The first heart disappeared after the creation of the first generation, only showing up to be used to create the second generation before disappearing entirely again, and you are telling me that it is within this city."

"Yes, for the last 13 years, The First’s Heart has been in this city."