*BANG!* A shock rang out through the back alleys of a fairly small village within the Land of Wind.
A teenage boy's head slammed against the wall of the alley, seemingly hit by some invisible blunt force.
Aside from the one who had just got knocked to the floor, there were three standing boys who couldn't have been older than 16 crowded around a much younger kid. They towered over him, being quite large for their age, with indistinct brown eyes paired with unique white pupils.
On the other side, a young boy that despite his predicament, didn't seem phased in the slightest. He looked to be about 13 years old, slightly smaller than average yet his presence was more fierce than any of the older boys in front of him.
His hair was medium length, just enough to cover the helix of his ear, a unique and beautiful shade of cream white with slight beige undertones.
He had a slender face, tanned skin and soft features with longer eyelashes than the average person. Each of his features blending beautifully together to give him quite the striking appearance.
His eyes were golden, nothing like that of the other villagers. It seemed as if every singular person born in this village had the same shade of brown eyes paired with white pupils.
The young boy also had white pupils. But that was not all, surrounding the white pupil was a ring of triangles. Similar to the design given to drawings of the sun in some depictions. However, it seemed as if the strange design of his eyes shifted and changed slightly depending on how focused he was.
Funnily enough, the eyes possessed by this boy was actually one of the main reasons for this conflict.
And said conflict itself seemed fairly one sided, against all odds.
The cream haired boy looked at one of the teens groaning and writhing on the floor after being hit by that strange invisible attack.
"Why would you initiate a conflict you are destined to lose?" He said condescendingly, a slight smirk betraying his facade of nonchalance.
One of the three standing teens clenched his teeth, "Shut it! You aren't even fighting us like a man. You are resorting to petty tricks!"
The youth tilted his head. "What makes my trick petty?"
"You're only able to do anything because you are a heretic!" Another one of the aggressors barked, pointing a finger at the younger boy.
But he barely reacted, he had been branded a "Heretic" by the other villagers, of course there was a reason for this. But he didn't seem to care all that much.
Instead of continuing the discussion, he suddenly moved forward in a blur of motion as he rushed at the tallest of the three, clenching a fist ready.
None of them could react in time before the golden eyed boy slammed his fist right up into the tallest's chin, causing his eyes to roll to the back of his head as he fell limply to the ground.
He almost thought the teen had died from a singular punch, but the fact his chest was rising and falling told him that the guy was just unconscious.
The one who had called him a heretic suddenly attempted to grab onto the youth, but his attempt failed.
Instead of getting a hold of his opponent, he swiped at air.
For the golden eyed boy wasn't in front of him, he was to his right!
He immediately tried to block any incoming attacks, but despite his efforts, the punch came flying into his blocking arm, nearly destroying the bones and slamming his head into the alley wall.
The only one left standing was the youngest of the four, his eyes were wide and he was sweating profusely.
"What? Did you seriously expect to beat me?Isn't the whole reason you call me a 'Heretic' because I possess the same eyes as the Lord?" The golden eyed boy slowly walked towards him, his stoic expression slowly twitching into a creepy grin. "So you decide to not only berate, but to attack the mortal embodiment of God? Come on, I am a whole grade below you and yet not even I am that naïve."
Before the boy could muster the courage to spit a retort, he saw a fist flying straight towards his face before… *BOOM!*
Blood was splattered all over the wall as his nose was punched flat.
The golden eyed boy shook the blood off his fist as he spat on the floor next to him.
"Vermin such as these will not learn unless punished repeatedly." His gaze was cold as he looked down at the only conscious boy left, the one he had rammed into the wall.
The boy looked up, his eyes bloodshot and nose bleeding. "B-bastard."
"What was that?" The golden eyed boy pointed a finger at the opposing teen, his eyes changing from the sun like pattern to something more reminiscent of a star with four diamond shapes in between the lines.
The youth growled and barked once again, "Bastard! What do you think you're doi—?!"
"Bang."
Before he could say anymore, a faint golden light appeared at the fingertip of his enemy.
Said golden light flew straight toward his left hand, ripping through his middle finger and tearing through any bone in its way.
The teen let out a shrill scream as he lost all feeling in his finger.
He looked up once more, biting his lip so hard it bled. "Y-you will receive punishment by… the Lord…"
The other rolled his golden eyes, "still haven't learnt your lesson?" He aimed his finger gun at the head of the blabbermouth.
"Y-you wouldn't…"
He grinned, a manic glint flickering in his eye as he taunted. "Wanna bet? Wanna bet I won't blow a hole between your eyes right here and now?"
The boy tried to reply, but nothing escaped his mouth.
Sora grinned, "Ba—!"
Before he could shoot the teen, a rough hand clenched down on his shoulder.
"Sora. What are you doing?" A deep feminine voice sounded from behind the golden eyed boy.
He turned around and saw an older, feminine woman that seriously resembled him.
She looked to be in her early twenties, she had the same cream white hair with beige undertones, same tanned skin with the same soft features. The only difference being her eyes, to which she shared the same brown eyes as the rest of the village.
This was his older sister.
Sora looked up at his sister. "Fuko, what are you doing here?" He said with an innocent expression, ignoring the writhing group of bloodied teens behind him.
She sighed, pretty much used to this scene by now. She knew that her little brother was often ridiculed due to his differences, and she also knew how often he got into these petty fights.
This one was not so petty. As she could see, there was a young boy with a serious hand wound. Sora would not get out of this without punishment.
She expected an immediate apology and maybe to see Sora freak out and start worrying about what would happen next.
But she was horribly mistaken.
Sora's innocent expression had once again changed, his eyes were devoid of emotion and he asked. "Why did you stop me?"
Fuko's eyes widened slightly, surprised at the seriousness of Sora's expression with the absurdity of the words spoken.
The boy was still screaming while clutching his mangled hand, catching the attention of many nearby pedestrians.
Sora immediately heard a familiar voice in his head. "Leave now. This is a perfect opportunity for you to escape this place."
Without thinking twice, he broke free of his sister's grasp and darted away into the adjacent street.
"Wha—huh?!" Fuko was once again left dumbfounded. Her brother's behaviour was off. VERY off. He had never acted like this before, she'd normally be able to read him like a book and yet in this moment… he was so unpredictable.
Sora left the alley and ran through the streets, none of the villagers even noticing him rushing past. A unique trait shared with his sister and parents. Unless being directly looked at or seen recently, they were often left unnoticed. As if they weren't even there.
Now, Sora was trying his best to find the outskirts and then the way out of this village.
He knew it wouldn't be easy, entering and exiting the village was a tough task. They were secluded from any other villages and outside influences like other people.
Sora had never actually seen a person that wasn't from this village, all of them matching with the same brown eyes with the same white pupils.
To be frank, he was sick of it.
All of the villagers worshipped an ancient golden peacock named "Shuen" that resided in the heart of the village.
It rarely interacted with anyone and kept to itself, insisting the villagers stay clear of any outsiders and to obey all of its set rules and regulations.
And they did. All of the villagers obediently followed this creature. Although they weren't necessarily blindly following, each person had their own reasons and motivations. The main belief being that since they were born within the presence of God and bearing God's eyes, even if they are unable to activate them due to the fact attempting to would leave them dead on the spot, that they are superior to anyone from the outside world.
Now, Sora didn't exactly know why they weren't permitted to activate the eyes, neither did any of the villagers themselves, but most believed it was due to the eyes strictly being used by their God.
And Sora's existence was a clear contradiction to this.
See, Sora never needed to activate the eyes, because he was born with them permanently activated.
Due to this fact, he was cast aside. He was seen as a heretic, because he was using the Eyes of the Lord without permission.
Although the root cause of this hatred was all because of jealousy.
The eyes themselves seemed quite bland and more of an inconvenience than a boon to the average person.
The main ability of the eyes, according to everything Sora has attempted or experienced first hand were…
First and foremost, the ability to perceive a strange colourless force in the air and other foreign energies.
Sora had no idea what this force was, but occasionally he would also see a blue force inside of people and in the distance and rarely, but on one or two occasions he had seen a sinister orange-red coloured force in the distance.
Secondly, he was able to subtly influence the force in the air. He could just slightly condense it into having physical form, allowing him to create invisible constructs such as barriers or bullets.
Using this ability typically gave Sora sharp headaches that lasted about a few seconds, leading him to rarely use it.
Another application of this technique was that the more of the force he compiled and compressed into a physical form, the more colour it had.
When a large quantity of this energy is bunched together it shows an increasingly golden hue in the air. The more force compressed… the stronger, more destructive yet less discrete the technique becomes.
Sora also discovered that when he is just resting, that is when the eyes show the sun like pattern, but when he is actively manipulating the forces… that is when the design shifts to star like pattern.
As of now, that is all Sora had been able to achieve with the eyes.
Sora suddenly snapped back to reality, realising that he had finally reached the outskirts. He stood facing a large wall about 8 meters tall, but no mere wall could ever hope to contain Sora.
He bent his body and launched himself forward before leaping up at the wall, his small body only reached about a quarter of the way up.
But that was not a problem, moving quickly and withstanding the sharp pain in his head, Sora fumbled a platform of invisible force beneath his feet, allowing him a second jump.
He didn't waste any time, he crouched down and leapt upward, just barely grabbing onto the top of the wall as he vaulted over.
"Great job."
Sora felt the headache dissipate as the familiar voice of his ancestor came from his mind.
"Thank you, Ancestor." He replied in a far more docile manner than he usually spoke.
As of a week ago, Sora had begun hearing the voice of someone who claimed to be his Ancestor in his mind.
He didn't think much of it. He already saw himself as the mortal incarnation of a godlike being, considering his eyes and his unique appearance. So… what's so special about hearing the voice of your godlike ancestor?
Sora himself wasn't a huge fan of listening to someone other than himself, even if the person in question had the presence on par with the subject of the villagers worship.
But alas, the voice could soothe his headaches and even gave him pretty good advice when it came to utilising his eyes. So he didn't really ask about any of the voice's demands.
Sora landed on the sandy ground of the desert, he was officially out of that damned village.
Though, this was very short lived as he suddenly felt a tight grip pull the collar of his shirt.
"Sora, come on now…" the familiar voice of his sister sounded from behind once more, this time in an amused tone.
Sora sighed, he knew deep down that his big sister would never let him escape. Especially after pulling something like that, after all, his big sister was truly the most interesting person in this village.
Except himself, of course.
…
…
A few moments later, Sora watched as his sister repeatedly bowed to the parents of the kids he had beaten to a pulp.
'Tch… she shouldn't have to bow to such filth…' he thought to himself, subconsciously glaring at the families.
The mother of the teen that Sora had destroyed the hand of was the first to reply with a sigh. "Fuko dear, it's okay. The year is coming to a close and we haven't used our quill yet. If anything, you just gave us an excuse to use it before we get a new one."
This made Sora's eyes widen slightly. 'Their quill? They still haven't used it?'
In this village, each family had the opportunity to obtain a Quill from Shuen. The quills themselves were enough to fully heal any minor wound, in this case, it would be used to regrow the teen's finger.
Sora wasn't particularly shocked by that, he had grown up around it after all, it was relatively normal in his eyes.
However, before Sora got out of this situation, the woman shifted her gaze toward him and the glint in her eye told him everything he needed to know.
"You, however…" She spat, her voice carrying disdain. Even if she respected Fuko, that respect was not given to Sora. "You must be punished."
Sora squinted his eyes and looked around with a genuinely confused expression, he then pointed a finger towards himself and tilted his head. "Uhh, me?" He asked.
Fuko's mouth twitched slightly. 'Does he think this is some kind of joke?' She thought to herself.
The teenager's mother blinked, her sharp gaze faltered at the sheer absurdity of Sora's question. "Y-yes, you." She stammered.
"But it was self defense?" Sora said, actually a little shocked.
"Kill them all and leave this village. We do not have much time." That voice pierced through Sora's mind, making him flinch slightly, but not enough to gain a reaction from anyone in front of him.
This happened often, Sora figured his "ancestor" was quite the hothead, always making spur of the moment decisions, always so needy and constantly trying to get Sora out of the village for whatever reason.
Sora himself didn't really see a benefit of leaving the village. Sure he hated the place, sure the people treated him horribly and sure everyone here was beneath him. But his big sister was here, he got to eat all the food he wanted and life was relatively easy.
But in all fairness, a deep feeling within him yearned to escape, to truly unleash his potential and rule over the world.
And somehow, his ancestor could apparently assist him in achieving his true potential, so Sora was willing to listen for the time being.
Well, not to such a silly demand of killing everyone here.
"Your hands shall be severed!" The woman finally managed to shout.
Or maybe he would fulfil that demand after all.
Sora's expression turned to bewilderment at the sheer stupidity of the statement.
"I only attacked because they dared to face me. And to sever my hands after I destroyed one mere finger? You are lucky I didn't shoot a hole betw—!" Sora's mouth was suddenly covered by the hand of his elder sister, who thankfully interrupted him before he went on a tangent.
"Ma'am, don't you think that is a little… too much?" Fuko attempted to negotiate, her voice cracking slightly.
She appeared to be calm, but Sora could see it. With his eyes he could see a strange blue well of energy in each person, everyone in the village including himself seemed to have a minuscule amount of this blue energy.
Everyone except for his big sister.
From what he could see, her amount of this blue energy was easily ten times larger than anyone else's that he had seen.
This energy fluctuates occasionally, usually spiking and getting more erratic when the owner's emotions started to become angry.
And right now he could see that Fuko was starting to get angry.
This… he did not expect, she was usually very calm and could always mediate anyone, even the angriest of people didn't sway her.
But now that he was threatened, she seemed to finally let some of her emotions slip.
Sora didn't know what to say at this point, he didn't make any snide remarks and just let his big sister handle the situation for once.
Sora Hino -
Fuko Hino -
The Eyes -
The Eyes (focused) -