Rays from the rising sun shone through the curtains of a dimly lit room as the ring of an alarm clock was heard. Aren slowly opened his eyes, taking in the familiar ceiling of his bedroom.
As he rose to his feet and started walking in the direction of his window, something suddenly popped up in front of his face. Abruptly brought out of his drowsiness, the black-haired youth took three steps back before realizing that whatever this was, it was staying at the exact same distance from his face.
Coming back to his senses, he finally understood what was happening. What was in front of him was a glass-like semi-transparent pane with various information about him on it, a status window. He had awakened.
Twelve years prior, along with the first gate opening, the first awakening of an Earthling had happened. Thomas White, the Hero of Humanity, Founder of Aegis. Today was the day Aren would get thrust out of his ordinary life, born anew. His mind was numb with excitement.
Ecstatic, he ran out of his room and down the stairs into the living room, calling out.
"Dad!"
"I'm over here." Victor, ever the early riser, calmly answered from the kitchen.
"Dad, listen to this! I've just awakened!" Aren announced excitedly.
"Amazing! This is great news! I'll call your aunt right away, wait a sec."
Aren sat down at the table his father's breakfast was on, taking a few deep breaths, trying to regain his calm. He had always dreamed of awakening and becoming a hero who could do his father proud. Having finally calmed down, he started to pay attention to what was written on the gray status window that had been floating in front of him all this time.
[Name: Aren Young
Age: 19
Race: Human
Soul level: 1
Class:
Anima:
Title:
Perks:
Anima Skills: Gravity Field Manipulation]
As Aren carefully read through it, his heart nearly stopped when he read one word.
Child. For the last twelve years, humanity's greatest figures had mostly been of the Children. Beings chosen by the World's will, granted a wisp of the World's power. Thomas White had, for one, been the Child of Light.
Yearning for more information and curious about what would happen, he tried tapping the word with his finger, emulating what he had seen in countless movies and documentaries. As expected, a new window popped up.
[Title: Child of Mana
Title granted to beings touched by the World's power whose affinity to Mana was enhanced. Grants the Perks
As he reached out to his status once more, his father came back into the kitchen, an unexpectedly somber expression on his face.
"Your aunt is coming to meet us." Victor declared simply. The joyous mood was gone.
"What happened?" Aren asked nervously.
"That's… I don't know, to be honest, she was just oddly cold… Stressed? So unlike her usual self…" Victor hesitantly answered. "She told me not to tell anyone until we meet her." He added.
Sobered up, Aren realized he had been acting way too excited all along. That was unlike his usual self. He had to consider the whole picture calmly. His aunt, Alyssa Young, had been their city's Branch Leader of Aegis for a few years now. If she was acting like that, something was definitely wrong. But what could it be? Did it have to do with the awakened as a whole? Or was it due to his title as a Child? It couldn't be, even his father didn't know yet.
Taking out his phone, he began searching up the Children and quickly noticed a pattern.
Thomas White, the first awakened. Child of Light. Founder of Aegis, the world's shield against the invaders. First to ever reach Expert level proficiency in a skill. Died two years after he awakened, as what would come to be known as a Calamity opened in his house. The monsters that poured out of it made short work of him.
Nikolas Markov, the Paladin. Child of Steel. Nominated as the head of Aegis only a few months after awakening. Died on the front lines two years later as a million monsters poured out of a Calamity.
Leo Rossi…
The Children had two things in common. One, they were extremely talented. And two, a Calamity occurred two years into their awakening that cost them and millions of people their lives. All except one. Kim Hana, the Child of Ice, had awakened three years ago. Yet, nothing had happened in the last year until her passing two months ago. No Calamity, no official appearance, not even any sightings of her. She had apparently been staying at Stellar Academy, training, before unfortunately falling to the demons on a mission.
As he was pondering these matters, his aunt made her entrance from the hallway that led to the front door, a frown marring her face.
"Did you get a Title?" She asked without greeting them, looking Aren straight in the eyes with her black, hawk-like gaze.
"I'm the Child of Mana" Aren answered simply, having finally gotten his mind together.
"Fuck!" He heard his aunt swear for the first time. He watched as she anxiously walked back and forth in front of him, countless theories passing through his mind.
"Alyssa, what's happening? Isn't this good news?" His father, tired of waiting, prompted her.
Alyssa let out a sigh as though to mark her acceptance of the situation before turning to them.
"Listen here," she started. "What I'm about to tell you is top-secret information. The amount of people who know this doesn't exceed two digits. If you let anyone know, I'm dead, you're dead, and everyone you know is dead." She marked a pause, letting it sink in. "Got it?"
"Got it. Now, what happened?" His father calmly replied.
Instead of answering, Alyssa glared at her nephew, demanding an answer from him. He nodded slightly, causing her to speak.
"A new Child is always chosen at least a year after the previous one dies. See where I'm going? Kim Hana died, not two months ago, but last year."
"How do you know that?" Victor couldn't help but question. Both his son and he knew Alyssa's position didn't really amount to anything in the grand scheme of things.
"How or why I know doesn't matter. All that does is that the higher-ups are getting rid of the Children. Why?" She asked the question on their minds before they could cut her off "I don't have the details but it has something to do with the Calamities. And don't think it's just speculation. Everything I'm saying is confirmed." She let it sink in before instructing. "Do not, under any circumstances, let anyone know that you're a Child" She seemed to see the reluctance in his gaze as she added. "Besides your mother that is. And no, not your sister."
The father-son pair looked each other in the eyes and nodded. Both knew how dependable Alyssa was and didn't doubt she would lie to them.
"Thank you, Alyssa, I don't know what would've happened to Aren had we not known this." Victor took the lead in thanking her.
"Thank you, Aunt Alyssa." Aren followed "But what now?"
"For now don't think too much about it, just get stronger. I don't know what your Anima is but it's gotta be pretty good for you to be a Child, right?" A smile showed on her face for the first time that day.
"You bet it's good!" Aren confidently declared while actually having no clue. Anima names were mysterious and sometimes could be pretty far-fetched. What if it was actually not about gravity but some conceptual philosophy of love or something?
"Alright, for now, focus on training battle skills, I'll find a way to get you into an academy in Valor. I'll come to pick you up later."
And just like that, she was gone.
Aren looked at the door that had just automatically closed after his aunt went through it with a wry smile on his face. His aunt had always been such a no-nonsense type of person but he could tell she really cared about them.
"Alright well, guess you could show me these powers now." His father said, defusing some of the tension.
"Ah well," Aren chuckled awkwardly "I actually haven't tested them yet. Let me try it."
He turned his attention to his status which seemed like it would stay in front of him for all of his life. It was still composed of two windows, the main one that had been there since the beginning and the one that had popped up giving information about the
Noticing that on both windows his Perks were shining in a faint golden light as the Title had been, he tried clicking one of them. As expected, a new window replaced the popup.
[Perk: Fate of a World
The strings of Fate gather around you.]
'So abstract' he complained. 'Probably has to do with the Calamities… Anyway, let's think about these when I can actually do something about it.'
Putting any anxious thoughts away, he clicked the second Perk.
[Perk: One with Mana
The ways of Mana come to you naturally.]
An excited smile spread on the young man's healthily tanned face. 'That sounds so powerful!'
His father just looked at him without saying anything, pouring himself a cup of tea. He had to admit it was entertaining seeing his eldest waving his hands in the air, interacting with invisible objects or whatnot. He felt like he was back fifteen years into the past.
Paying no attention to Victor, Aren went on to tap the last two highlighted parts of his status.
[Class: Mage
Magic answers the call of your Mana]
[Anima: Gravitation
You can control gravitation through Anima Skills]
Letting out a relieved sigh, Aren tried tapping his Anima Skill but realized it was not highlighted. Wondering what to do, he recalled hearing in one had to sense Mana before being able to do anything supernatural. As such, he sat down on the floor, in a cliche lotus position, and took a deep breath.
As he had read about, he closed his eyes and brought his attention inwards. Somewhere in his psyche, he could feel an itch of some sort. As he tried to mentally scratch it, like a dam bursting, a new sensation filled him, and then spread to the world around him.
Opening his eyes abruptly, Aren looked left and right, expecting to be surrounded by a liquid of some kind, but everything was the same. His father looking at him with a kind smile holding a tea cup near his face, an assorted teapot resting on the kitchen table next to some fruits… Everything was the same, but different.
'This must be Mana, right?' He thought, concentrating on this feeling he had gotten for the first time in his life and would eventually grow accustomed to. He felt a strange sense of familiarity, like meeting a long-lost parent.
As he thought of that, he looked apologetically at his father, like he had somehow betrayed him.
In response, Victor tilted his head a little, asking "So, are you going to show me?"
'Right, what now?' As Aren looked back at his status, he saw his Innate skill shine in a faint golden hue. Hurriedly, he tapped on it.
[Innate Skill: Gravity Field Manipulation
You can control the properties of gravity fields.]
Two windows popped up. One small over a large one. The small one contained information on the skill that may as well be called a paraphrase of its name. However, as Aren closed it and brought his attention to the larger one, he keeled over as another dam burst from deep within him. It was as though memories from a previous life had been recalled all of a sudden.
He was, of course, no reincarnator but the feeling was so vivid, the knowledge so certain, he could not help but feel like he had always known, deep down, how to execute the skill.
By instinct, Aren raised his hand toward the colorful pot on the table. Suddenly, it was flying toward the ceiling. With a loud crash, it exploded into pieces, its contents spilling on the table and his father below.