The crowd watched as the crystal’s glow began to change colors beginning at the lowest talent level of blue. Then the light intensified to purple, then to red, orange, yellow, and white. A white glow signified the birth of a heavenly genius, a talent rarely seen outside of the royal family in the capital. Yet the crystal wasn’t done glowing, it’s color continued to change as other colors came back and mixed within the crystal until it looked like a rainbow had come to life and was raging within. This phenomena had never been witnessed before in the long history of the Shard Kingdom making it a historic moment. The crowd did not know what the crystal’s change meant but they didn’t care at that moment because regardless of how heaven defying the talent of the boy on stage may be his affinity was in plain sight, a grey flame. The grey flame has been seen many times before and is known particularly for its uselessness. No great mages were ever created from individuals cursed with the grey flame affinity which is more commonly labeled as the null affinity. This was not from lack of trying but simply from lack of results.

Null affinity mages were infamous for being completely useless in battle. They, like all other sentients, could produce effects of other affinities but for some reason it would never transcend above the level of basic spells. They were well respected craftsman that had a prodigious ability to manipulate mana but that was all. They could not proactively defend themselves outside of enchantments which is why any battle mage that received the affinity was considered a waste and did not receive the same treatment as other battle mages. For this exact reason the crowd could relax. The boy could do nothing to them and although he may have enough influence to protect the girl from the likes of the mayor it wasn’t enough to influence a professor of the academy.

(Elf Girl’s POV)

‘I shouldn’t have left home. All I wanted was to go to school.’ She thought as she felt her eyes to begin to water. She could see that the professor was looking at her again making her hands clammy even as she clenched the hilt of her sword. She was always told not to leave the city or bad men would find her. Why couldn’t they just be scary stories she thought.

*sniff* *sniff* “Please, go away. I just want to go home. I won’t leave again, I promise. I just want to see my Mommy and Daddy!” She cried as the professor began walking towards her. He wore a creepy smile on his face and his eyes kept looking her up and down making her cry harder as she falls back because she is too scared to stand. She looks to the boy that ran up on stage but he is still bowing towards the crystal with his eyes closed. She doesn’t know what to do as the professor is getting closer, all she can do is cry for her parents to save her and close her eyes.

(Mono’s POV)

‘Everytime...Am I that scary looking? I’m even trying my best to smile here and you have to go and start crying. *Sigh* I knew I should have skipped testing this year, so much for finding a disciple. Well maybe not a complete loss, the girl is an Elf and regardless of affinity the boy is a magical knight. Yeah, this can still be good!’ By the time Mono had finished with his inner monologue he was already standing over the elf girl as she bawled her eyes out in front of him crying to go home. Looking at her he had no idea what to do in this situation. Luckily he was saved by the sound of laughter coming from behind him.

(Liam's POV)

“Hahaha! I can’t believe how naive I was!” I laugh as my eyes open to the scene of the crowd. They are still standing in the same spots as before I ran up on stage so I can deduce that not much if any time has passed. I can feel that my body has changed along with my mind but it isn’t the proper time to assess anything accurately at the moment as I can see Mono looking in my direction. Now that I’m close enough I can see he is a lot younger than I thought he would be, appearing to be no older than my father who I believe to be somewhere around mid to late twenties. He has a shiny bald head and goatee and even though he has on what I can only assume is an officials robe of some kind it still doesn’t work to hide the powerful muscles covering his body. ‘He looks way to much like a certain wrestler named after a boulder.’

Regardless of my thoughts I quickly bow in his direction. “I apologize for my behavior of rushing the stage and tarnishing the solemnity of this ceremony. I was naive in believing that the young girl behind you was in danger when I saw the interest placed upon her by so many in the crowd including you yourself and I wished to protect her. I see now the errors of my way and humbly ask for your forgiveness.” I say maintaining my bowing position. For a moment after I am done speaking no one speaks but then the crowd erupts in what I can only assume is attempts had frantic whispering. I realize why they are whispering of course, I’m a five year old blacksmith’s son that just spoke like a seasoned nobleman. All I can say is the void changed me, or as I now know Origin changed me. As I was being baptized by the Origin realm the words that made up my hint continued to change sometimes into words, sometimes into images, feelings, memories. The experience is difficult to describe but I came out of it knowing, knowing what I have no idea as all I can really gather is that the place I was trapped in for so long is a lot more powerful than I believe even gods could be. Well that and the word Origin.

‘Seriously though how long is this guy going to make me continue bowing to him’ I thought as even the whispering had already started quieting down. And as if to answer my thoughts Mono finally said something.

“You’re forgiven, stand over here.” He said pointing directly to the side of the elf girl.

…*Sigh* at least he is consistently monosyllabic I have a feeling that getting more than a sentence out of the guy would be more of a miracle than an actual miracle. Moving over to the girl I see that she is squatting on the ground with a runny nose and puffy eyes that clearly came from crying. I want to ask what is wrong as I know nobody would mess with her while Mr. buff dude Mono was there but stayed quiet as I refused to make another fool of myself during the testing ceremony. That’s when it hit me that I never found out what my talent level was.

‘Shit! Luke you there?’ I thought trying to get his attention. Getting no response I remembered the message he sent about losing connection right before I entered the origin realm again.

‘Wait how could I forget that?’ I thought. This was logical reasoning because after being altered by Luke I had never forgotten anything. In fact now that I was thinking about it I couldn’t feel the presence of my second consciousness and there wasn’t a tiny map in the corner of my eye. All of the tangible benefits I got from Luke seemed to have disappeared, my abilities as a Champion essentially nerfed into oblivion. The most worrying part is that I’m not freaking out, quite the opposite really as I think I’ve never been this calm. I really want to know what the Origin realm did to me, am I crippled or is it something else? Before I could really begin to dissect the issue a familiar blue screen popped into existence in front of my eyes.

Loading 3%...12%...30%...70%...90%...Loading complete.

Begin Origin

Yes

No