Rain hissed as it struck the burning ruins of Ren's home.
Smoke curled into the night sky while the flames slowly died beneath the downpour.
A thousand questions clawed at Ren's mind, but only one word escaped his lips.
"Why?"
whispered Ren, kneeling at the edge of the rubble, his arms scalded and bleeding.
"Why... why... why... WHY?!"
He looked at the man standing to his left and asked in a voice full of agony.
"Why couldn't you come here sooner?!"
The man, wearing the distinct black and blue striker uniform, replied to him with a dark grimace.
"I'm sorry, Ren. The spirit swarm had us spread out all over the city, I came here as fast as I could."
The boy, Ren, knew that lashing out at him wasn't fair, but he was too blinded by rage to think right now. His parents, sister, and home lay there in front of him, dead, burned, and broken. He stood up and clutched the man's collar with his bloodied, injured hands.
"You're a striker, Cain! You're supposed to protect us from the spirits! You're supposed to prevent things like this from happening! You're supposed... to be our heroes."
Tears started running down Ren's cheeks as Cain just stood there.
Cain grasped Ren's hands and spoke to him in a gentle tone:
"Calm down, Ren. I know you're hurting right now, but you have to calm down before your unstable Ether assimilates a random spirit's power, you know how dangerous that could be."
Ren clenched his teeth and spoke through his tears.
"I know, Cain. I know that leaving my emotions out of control leaves my Ether open to spirit powers, but still! How am I supposed to calm down, Cain? My family's dead, my home's destroyed, and the strikers I always looked up to couldn't protect them! ...So tell me, Cain, how the hell am I supposed to calm down?!"
Just as Ren finished speaking, a loud explosion echoed from the direction of the city's central market.
A white figure shot out from the blast like a comet streaking through the night sky towards where Ren's home once stood.
The next moment, Cain could feel a huge tremor shaking the city, but luckily, the white figure landed outside its walls. Cain felt relieved for a moment, until he looked back at Ren and saw him falling to the ground.
"Ren!"
Ren was slowly losing his consciousness as the spirit's power assaulted his Ether.
'Ah.... So a spirit's power really did enter my Ether...'
Ren's thoughts were slowing down as the spirit's power was reshaping his Ether to fit it better.
'I should... Regulate my Ether.... Before the power takes control.'
Ren knew that if he didn't control his Ether before the power took over, he'd turn into a monster no different from a wild beast soon. However...
'Why.... Should I even.... Try?'
Memories of Ren's family run through his mind, the family he's never going to see again, so why should he even live? Besides, Cain was right there so he wouldn't let Ren injure anyone.
'I should just... Die...'
Rather than getting consumed by the spirit's power right away though, a foreign energy guided Ren's Ether, and he heard Cain's voice.
"Pull yourself together, Ren! Your parents and your sister would hate to see you like this!"
When Cain said that, more memories of Ren's family ran through his mind, his parents always supporting him in his dream of becoming a striker, his sister idolizing her brother who worked to achieve his dream... He knew Cain was right, they wouldn't want to see him waste all his effort and die like this.
'I... Can't... Let them.... Down!'
Ren recalled the internal circulation method he learned in his lessons and began regulating his Ether.
'the power... it's resisting the circulation...'
The spirit's power was hindering the flow of Ren's energy while Cain was supporting it, the two forces were colliding inside Ren, yet the power was still stronger. Ren focused all his attention on directing the flow of his Ether to form a nascent core, and little by little his Ether began to coalesce and gather into his incomplete core with the help of Cain.
'It's the final push...!'
Ren gathered the last of his Ether and slowly condensed it into the last drop to form his core. Then suddenly, Ren's body shone with a bright white light. letting out a yelp before losing consciousness.
"Aagh!"
The last thing Ren saw before fainting was Cain's shocked face as he said:
"...A mystical spirit?"