CHAPTER 46 - IF I HAD POWER
LUKE HODGES
"So Luke, have you figured out where you live?" said the girl walking beside me with long choppy blonde hair and yellow eyes, quite the unique beauty.
"N-no, and sorry that you have to stick with me for so long." I said, my eyes covering every ground I could, trying to recover my memories or at least the place I was in.
Everything was different, and the more I stayed here the more things progressed. Time, I mean.
Time here passed fast but I didn't. As a human being, time is supposed to make me age until I would be six feet below the ground but I don't see any changes in me. My hair is still the same length it was when I got here, my skin, my eyes, my teeth are all the same. I was an eleven-year-old boy in a modern city with a girl the same age as me.
Aside from all that, people from this world ignore me along with my companion.
"Can't believe it, huh?" The girl spoke in a reminiscing tone, looking with her golden eyes at the night sky with memories and hopeful thoughts.
"What do you mean?"
"Come on, don't act dumb. It's been twenty-six years since we met each other. Quite a long time don't you think?"
That's right, it has been twenty six years since I arrived here. At first I ran through the whole city screaming and pleading for help but no one ever noticed me or acknowledged me, so I did what I had to do to survive. I stole food–which I am not proud of–and I have no excuse for it. Taking the opportunity of being invisible, I'd sneak into convenience stores and grab what was cold food.
Later in time, maybe a year or two, I met another girl with the same problems as me. Behind an orphanage confused on where to go. At first I wanted to walk as fast and far as possible from her but something deep inside told me that I would regret that.
I let out a deep sigh before taking her in.
It seemed that she was tired of life in an orphanage, not something I would understand or even feel, but I never asked her about it and instead took dead aim at the subject.
We spent twenty six years roaming around this city, crossing streets–the same streets–over and over again with only survival in our minds. Yet, like the good kids we were, going to school invisible is the best thing to do. This ghost type ability or syndrome–or whatever you want to call it–made it easier for us to learn the history of this world.
Apparently this world had a similar thing to mana called: Ki. It sounded familiar since there was an anime about that specific thing back on my earth.
Kids from six could start developing training for it, the rest depends on your bloodline and how much Ki your body can store. If you secure Ki, even with a little pool of it, you can become what they call a "Candidate King".
The teachers really didn't give more details about this topic and rather ignored it or avoided it for certain reasons. I tried looking for the details myself but I didn't find anything but empty words and other classified things.
Looking back on it, there was a reason why I was trying to look for it. Now I just wanted to enjoy this quiet life I had achieved.
"You are right, it's been a long time since we met. Yet my question to you is why are you still the same as twenty six years ago?"
"I could say the same to you. Could it be that we are both long lost siblings and our parents were immortal?" Her attention turned to me, the golden eyes giving this show of glitter. She was being genuine with this question.
At first I too had that question but after a decade it had left my mind, like there was something I had waited for so long to come back to me. A memory or even information about it. I wasn't so sure about it, and talking about it to someone who had the same problem as me, immortality of some sorts.
"That could have…happened. However, how would that explain our differences in appearances?" I gave in to her conversation. I didn't want her to think she was a bother to me, it was the opposite. I was grateful that she existed the way I did, ageless in this world where I don't have any memories of my past.
There were fragments, nothing more, nothing less. It was washed away with time. Two wars occurred here over some political dispute in power.
Power…
If I had power… yea no.
Who am I kidding? If I had power, any sorts of power, I would end up worse than the infamous guy with the funny mustache. Power would only get to someone's head and think irrationally, hurt those who are dear or closest to them without realizing.
"You are right… Maybe different genes?"
"Maybe but I feel that answer is far stretched, yet, you might be a genius."
"Me a genius? You finally understood that? Gosh you are dense Luke Hodges."
"Yeah right, I just took some time to test your intelligence, Sylvie Leywin."
Sylv gave me a confused stare before saying in an annoyed tone, "Indrath! Remember it is Indrath and not Leywin. Are you sure you are not getting old mentally?"
I waved and dismissed my mistake. She was right, that was her family name and yet I would call her something else. But where does Leywin come from?
***
My eyes opened. My distinct surroundings are completely different from before.
"I was in the field…!"
A sharp pain jumped all over my body, starting from my feet and it worked itself up to my chest and later my head. I cursed to myself, holding my head from the feeling of exploding.
Where am I?
That was the question I had, and yet, it became obvious where I was. My body laid in the rough ground, it hurt. My arms were weak and my fingertips didn't have the strength to pull a simple stick towards me.
What's more, I felt mana all around me going in one direction. The ground trembled and shook like explosions going off not that far from me.
"I-I have to get u-up."
Pleading with my body, I barely got the strength to get on one knee. I checked my mana core for hopes of at least having some mana left but with there not being any mana in my core explains the reason why my body aches.
The necessary thing here was using Mana Rotation. That was the problem, I couldn't use mana rotation even after years of training how to use it. Now, more than ever, I need it.
I pushed myself to my feet, standing felt like I was a drunk man unable to keep my balance. The spinning world around me tried to throw me off my feet and into the ground again. I wasn't okay with that.
If I were to use or achieve the technique, my process of mana would slow down. I would be unable to ascend into the next stage anytime soon. That's right… it would take me more time to rise into the next stage and… I was okay with that. More time is what I need. Maybe after this I might be able to see my family and spend more time with them, to tell them I was back.
Nevertheless something deep down, the mature part of my mind, told me that it was just a hopeful imagination that appeared now and later when the reality of human nature veils on fake and naive dreams.
I didn't disagree on that, even now, as I "am" an young boy no less than eleven-years-old.
The tremors began to get more aggressive and made it harder for me to stand. With my hand on the wall next to me for support, I walked slowly but surely to where the ground-shaking came.
Around the corner, before I got to see the reason for the tremor. My body began to heat up rapidly to the point where I could hear my skin sizzle like a sausage in the grill.
In the background, I was able to make out some words I heard. "Phase Two, Dragon's Awakening."
Hearing those words of a form, I couldn't help but push forward until I was the individual's face. "A-Arthur?"