“You don’t realize what you’ve done! Do you?!?” Shouted the apparent leader, in that deep, unfathomable voice of his.

“Oh, so now it’s all my fault?” I replied.

“Yes Nise’evuv, it is your fault! You made us prolong the procedure, and five of my colleagues paid the ultimate price! By killing them, you’re effectively killing knowledge itself!”

“And I care?”

“How dare you! You sacrilegious, inapprehensive, weakling!” He shouted.

It looked like I was pushing him over the edge. I have no intension of doing such a thing, it just happened. I was answering back without a care in the world, and I didn’t know why.

“I didn’t mean to do that. How was I supposed to know the consequences?” I replied.

“You weren’t, but what worries me, is that you don’t seem to be bothered by what has happened. For that, you shall face my wrath!” He seemed serious, “Others. Stay out this. It is between Nise’evuv and me!”

He lifted up his arms, and started to unveil his face. As the hood of his cloak came off, I saw a face wrought of age. He had wrinkled ears, shiny silver hair, and creased faced. But underneath all that, his eyes still showed signs of great power.

“This is it ‘Danny’! This is your day of beckoning!”

He dropped both his arms, and make two fists. His feet were together, but he now he separately moved both feet apart, with a thrusting movement. He pushed his shoulders up, tensing them, then forced them downwards, and simultaneously opened out his hands, stretching them like he was trying to grab the hand, of a falling friend.

He shouted, and started to clench his hands. His whole body started to shake, and an eerie black haze formed around his body. His fists were now fully clenched, and he turned his arms around, so that his palms were facing me. He bent his elbows, and pulled his forearm upwards, until they were perpendicular to his body. Then he tilted his elbows outwards, and pulled his fists towards his body. I started to feel his presence increasing, I could feel him getting more powerful.

He proceeded to pull his fists downwards, so they the met against his body, at his chest. His arms made a straight line. He screamed once more, and I felt the ground reverberate ever so slightly. It looked as if he was pushing against his fists. There was a black flame that started to appear, around his joined fists. The flame extended upwards for a few centimeters. His wrinkles had suddenly disappeared, and his hair was now jet-black. He looked like a young, strong man.

He opened up his right hand, and used it to cover his left fist. He carried on exerting force on his hands. And the flame started to grow. He proceeded to pull his right hand away, and drain the flame into a ball of black, dark, power. He let his left fist drop, but kept his other hand with the flame upright. He stepped backwards, leaning onto his right leg, and stretched his right hand, along with the ball, backwards. It was a stance that revealed he was going to throw the flame ball. He was now almost twice as powerful as he was, when he started to make the ball. He had some how summoned up strength.

He turned his head to look at the ball of power, and concentrated on forcing the rest of his power into the ball. I could see this by the fact that the black haze, started to disappear, and it seemed to be flowing into the ball. Once all his power was invested in the flame sphere, it started to move further away from his hand. It was now hovering, intimidatingly, above his out stretched hand.

“I’m not one to normally resort to violence, but you pushed me too far.” His voice had changed somewhat, it was now a lot chicer. He sounded more confident.

With that, he lifted up his left arm, and prepared to hurl the sphere at me. As he unleashed it, I saw it leave his hand, and move slowly towards me. I saw him follow through in slow motion. Time was slowed down again. This was my only chance to get away, to get out the path of death. I sidestepped to my right, but found it incredibly hard to move under the restraints of time. It was as if time was slowed down, but as a penalty, I was slowed down to. This had never happened to me on Earth, I wondered why it was happening now.

I turned my attention back to the situation at hand, there was still a great danger looming. I noticed that while I was still moving away slowly, the ball seemed to be changing direction. It was following me. I wouldn’t be able to move out the way. I was going to have to block it somehow. Then a thought occurred to me, I had no other choice, but to try and deflect it.

It was closing down on me, and I would soon have no time left. So I stopped moving away, and readied myself for defense. I slowly stood back, leaning on my right leg, and lifted up my left arm, to use as a shield. I was going to just have to trust myself, if this didn’t work I was done for. But I had no other choice, and no time to decide another course of action.

The sphere was about two metres away from me, and at shoulder height. I pulled my left arm in towards my right shoulder, then I clenched all the muscles in my left arm, and let my arm fly. It flung towards the sphere, and I watched as the two neared each other. My arm was only 45 degrees from my shoulder, and ideal impact was at about 80. The sphere was a metre away, and closing fast. There was nothing I could do know but wait. I concentrated whole-heartedly on my arm, my only defense. I let out a scream, brought on by despair, and my arm suddenly burst into blue flames.

It was the same sort of haze that I noticed around my enemy, when he was preparing his attack. I was shocked, and hadn’t expected that sort of thing to happen, but I was overjoyed at the same time. This gave me a chance. I was excited, and prepared fully for impact, which was imminent, and soon.

The sphere seemed to be exactly where I judged it to be, because my fist, and it, was about to collide. I saw the blue flames touch the black, and the black sphere started to move away. There was luckily no explosion, I was just deflecting the black ball of flame. As my arm followed through, the new coarse for the ball was chosen, it deflected off towards my left, but my left was also where the two injured Learned Ones were standing.

At least one of them was standing, the other was lying on the ground. The standing man somehow managed to see the black flame, and he started to move away. Time was speeding up, but I could still see what was happening. The standing man was diving away, and the flame was headed directly for the man on the floor. He had no chance, his death was now foretold.

They were luckily at least fifteen metres from me, for when the ball it, it exploded more than I though possible. Incase of such an incident, I had moved to behind one of the pillars, and the leader had been behind one for quite some time. I didn’t see where the other man had gotten to, but the guy on the floor was going nowhere. As the explosion started, the whole room heated up, and turned dark.

The flames erupted outwards, and blew past me, the hit the pillar and somehow dissipated, but they still blew past it. Luckily the pillar was wide enough to protect me. The flames continued to blow past for a few seconds, then suddenly everything was back to normal. The room cooled down, and it lightened up. I looked around the pillar to where the man was lying on the floor, and saw nothing.

There was no part of his body left, no remnants at all, just a black mark on the floor. It was almost as if he had never existed, and I noticed that the other dead bodies were also missing. The room had been cleansed of dead bodies.

I looked over towards the leader, and saw him looking upon the scene with amazement. He had not expected that to happen. I saw the other man lying against the next pillar, he had somehow managed to escape death, but didn’t look like he was in good shape at all. Amazingly the rest of the room seemed unscathed, there was only one mark on the floor, the mark from the explosion.

The leader looked over towards me, and his wrinkles suddenly appeared again.

“What have I done? How did this come to be?” He asked, still in shock.

“I deflected it, but I didn’t know that it was going to kill him.”

“But how?!? That was my most powerful attack! Only a highly trained warrior could have deflected that! Yet you managed to, without any training! You truly are Nise’evuv, and you are even greater than you were prophesized to be!”

He looked truly shocked, and in awe of what I did, and to be truthful, I am to.

“This is my fault Nise’evuv, I should never have resorted to violence. Now another is gone, and there are only two of us left. We shall soon perish.”

“Perish? Why?” I asked.

“Our source of knowledge is too great for our bodies. With eight of us, it was evenly distributed. But with only us two, we will die in a matter of weeks.”

“Is there anything I can do?” I asked.

“There is one ancient technique that could work, but it isn’t something you just do. I'm not sure if I'm ready to accept the consequences, and even if I was, I’ll have to ask my source about it.”

“How long will that take?”

“I'm not doing it now. I'm still need to mourning my friends deaths.”

“I understand that. So what must I do in the mean time?”

“Before I will even consider the route I have spoken about, you must complete the Elementary Training Grounds.”
”The what?”
”It is a test of strength, and will make your power grow immensely. After your last show of greatness, I bow down to thee.” He proceeded to bow down, his arms were out stretched, and his hands were on the ground. Then from that position, he spoke.

“But you must still pass the test.” He got up, and continued his speech.

“I need to teach you something first, I will postpone my mourning.” He said.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you are ready.”
”I'm ready.” I replied.

“Then let it begin.”

He walked into the clearing where the bodies were, and told me to follow.

“I will now teach you the most important skill you can ever learn. So I need your undivided attention.”

“You have it.” I answered.

“I'm going to teach you how to absorb energy. It is a way of life, that the celestial refrain from using, that is why they are weak. You can absorb energy from the dead, or incredibly weak. Energy is what makes us warriors, that ball of flame was an energy attack, that you’ll learn about in the training. Are you ready to learn.”

“Hell yeah!” I replied.

“Alright, you’ll need to concentrate now. Look over to the mark from the explosion. Now concentrate on the last image you had of the man laying on the floor. Close your eyes, and picture it.”

I did what he said.

“Now think of the explosion.”

I thought back to the black flames, that feeling of power. I thought back to when it exploded, and when I knew the man was going to die. He then started talking again.

“This is hard for me, but I must carry on. Think about that feeling you got, subconsciously, when he died. Look within yourself, and call that feeling up. Call it!”

I searched inside myself, for the moment when he was killed, the moment when his energy was lost, and I found the moment.

“I found it, I can feel his presence.” I said.

“Good. Now concentrate on that, and open your eyes.”

I concentrated for a few more seconds, then opened my eyes. Where his body had been, I could now see a reflection of his body. It was him all right, but he was transparent, and illuminating. His body was there. I could see it, but how? He was killed.

”I see his body.”

“Brilliant! Now help to put me at rest. Stretch out your arms. Point them at him. Stretch out you fingers. Imagine grabbing onto him. Pull him towards you. Pull in his strength. Keep it.”

I did as he said, I concentrated, and did everything he told me to. I was not literally grabbing onto him. I was just making the gesture. Yet when I did, I saw his “body” move towards me. It was limp, and floated, but was flopping down. This was truly a reflection of him, no live man could do that.

I pulled in his strength, and as I did, I felt his body ‘fuse’ with mine. I was absorbing him. His body was gone, but I could his power entering me. Making me stronger. I could feel myself getting stronger. I could feel the power cursing through my veins. My blood was on fire! And I fucking loved it!

Once I had absorbed all his strength, I took a moment to reflect. I could sense that I was more powerful, and I like it.

“Was that okay?”

I turned, and saw the leader leaning over, holding his hands on his knees. He was in pain, and I could see him screaming, but no noise was heard. Then all of a sudden, he stopped, and seemed to control his pain. Then he spoke to me.

“You must absorb all the other bodies, and make it quick. When you absorb them, the force of knowledge hurts me. It will hurt my only of fellow Learned One, but you must do it. He is already in enough pain, just make it quick. That way we’ll live.”

“I’ll do as you say.”

“Good, just concentrate on what I told you before, and do it again. Then train.”

I closed my eyes, and thought back to when they were performing that ritual on me, to when I forced them to continue, and killed a few of them in the process. I concentrated on each on falling to the floor, and I felt their powers. I opened my eyes, and say the transparent bodies once more. There were now five other bodies on the floor. All dead, all limp.

I out stretched my arms, and prepared to draw them in. I pointed each hand at a different body, and drew them in. It didn’t take long for the bodies to reach me, and enter me. So while I was starting to feel the strength increase, I started drawing in the others. I drew in the next two, and I left the most powerful one for last. I drew him in to, then pointed my arms skyward, and screamed for joy. This power was the best thing I had ever felt. This power made me feel like a new man.

I lapped in all their strength, and felt my veins pulsate. I felt my muscles grow, felt my energy increasing. I felt my senses enhance. Then I felt the inflow of strength decrease. Once the inflow stopped, I pulled my arms down, and put them at my side. I felt like a different, but much stronger person.

I looked over to the leader once again. He was keeled over, lying on the floor. Convulsing. His whole body was moving, and I knew he was in trouble. I lent down to help him, but before I did, I heard a loud noise behind me. I quickly turned, and saw the walls ripping apart, an archway was forming. It was a few metres wide, and at least ten metres high.

Upon looking through it, I saw something human like. It was standing upright, and gesturing for me to go to it. It looked like that was the Elemental Training Grounds. I looked back to the leader, and saw that he was still convulsing. I looked over to the other man, and saw him doing the same thing. Then I heard the loud crack again, I quickly turned, and saw that archway starting to close.

The ‘man’ was still standing on the other side, and he was still calling me. It was closing slow enough to let me get there in time. But I had to make my choice now. The leader said that it was a test, and I didn’t want to fail. This looked like my only chance. So I swiftly jumped up, and ran to the archway. There was just enough space for me to fit through. As I go to the other side, it shut closed.

I was on the other side of the arch, alone, in some foreign place. I was just starting to like the leader, but now I had to do this for him. I had to do this to feel that power surge again, to feel myself becoming immensely powerful. When I got back, I would definitely ask him his name, but for now I took the consolation prize. I turned and faced the ‘man’.