[General Mason POV]

General Mason: “Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahah Is that good he says!! Haha!! This kid is crazy! Hey! Dr. Kalmar is that good!?”

Dr. Kalmar: “H…H,his stats are… far beyond the average values…e, even if you were to compare him to the noble children… well there’s just no competition, save a few geniuses.”

General Mason: “Ha! And in his own age group?”

Dr. Kalmar: “It’s pointless to even check; sir if I may be so rude as to say this, but isn’t the academy a waste of time for him? Even his academic records are outstanding.”

General Mason: “Yeah I agree, you said you haven’t checked everything right? What else is there?”

Dr. Kalmar: “There are quite a few of his skills missing on this list; we also haven’t checked his physical values once his skills are active and we removed his seals but we haven’t given him demonic mana yet.”

General Mason: “Good, now, kill everyone present; make sure all of their souls end up in prisons in the lower levels. No witnesses, no survivors, is that understood, Baleka?”

A female voice sounded out and a cloaked figure appeared out of nowhere.

“Yes sir.”

[Thabo POV]

The checks these guys did were pretty professional; they never made me run or write tests or even circulate my energy. They plugged me into some machines and spells for what seemed like a routine check-up. Most of the machines here are pretty advanced looking but also very simple; like the first one they took me to was literally like a fridge or something, well it looked like one at least. It was rectangular and stood up-right. It had a silvery metallic color and feel with a single button in the center. Well it was more like a small hole; I pressed my thumb inside the small hole and it pricked me. A single drop of blood and the readings were taken.

The machine took only ten minutes to analyze the sample before a result came back. The number of checks it did in that short space of time was unbelievable. It mapped my entire Genome. That’s right this thing knows my whole genetic code. It also checked for every disease and pathogen in my blood, and told me what diseases I am most likely to contract as well as what age I’ll probably contract them. It gave an estimate of what age I was most likely to die at when I was a normal human.

The other machines were similar; they scanned my eyes, my brain and my internal structures like my bones and stuff, they also injected some weird fluids in me saying they were nano-bots designed to fight of infection and that they would draw power of some of my waste mana, so they were basically a really advanced version of an all-purpose vaccination.

Some other machines I had to step inside of were just as interesting; they had glass windows all around and were supported by metallic frames. They scanned my energy circulation; reading my mana and ki control and distribution levels. The final part was when I stood in the middle of a plain floor with nothing around me. Out of nowhere mana built up around my body; holographic circles appeared indicating that I shouldn’t leave a certain area. That’s when after about an hour passed my external gates where unsealed.

Throughout this whole process I noticed mana circuits on the floor connecting all the equipment to a large group of technical analysts on the other side of the room. They were seated in bar chairs and had hovering discs in front of them which were the same as the ones before serving as computers. Mana fired back and forth between them and the machines as they analyzed the results.

This is a good time to explain the difference between mana and magic. Mana is raw energy that the human soul, and many others, produce. Mana circuits are part of the soul; they are completely invisible but make up about 60% of your soul excluding the primary 13 structures. They were assumed to be much like tubes or veins channeling energy like it were water but later experiments discovered that mana circuits had a much more fluid design.

The functional unit of mana circuits are small soul particles the size of a cell, and much like brain cells they channel currents to each other; over some years of repetition and practice the cells attach to each other in a specific sequence. They form a line of code or commands that mana passes through. They channel and control mana. Now magic is defined as the combination between pure mana and these mana circuits. If mana exists within a particular mana circuit it is considered magic, regardless of what it actually does. A spell is a bit different to these definitions as it is not a physical thing but rather refers to information; the lines of commands or codes that mana circuits can be formed into.

So I guess what I’m looking at is magic; being that mana is flowing through circuits in the ground. Later on I’ll study into how mana circuits are installed into electronics; I have a basic understanding of it but I’d rather not jump into calling myself an expert. I only know that mana circuits are only made by souls and that many people capture and kill animals to harvest their circuits; much like killing a cow for leather and meat. Though mana circuits usually regrow from living people so it’s also possible to use humans; keeping them alive only to harvest circuits from them every year.

Huh? These circles floating in the air around me are magic as well then? They’re pretty interesting; the circuits respond automatically to anything that touches them. Something like a security system they release simple pressure and thermodynamic magic to keep people at bay. I guess they don’t want me to leave the circle for now; they’re pumping like 10 000 units of mana into this magic right now isn’t that a bit excessive or do I simply just have sadly low mana levels?

So the circuit in this case are these circles in the air with mana flowing through them and the spell is the security ‘blow away’ code written into them. Oh, the spell just changed, I can tell that the mana circuits changed their programming. I need to practice that later but I think they’re scanning me now. My gates are already unsealed so I guess they’re just checking my stats now. I heard you can look up all a person’s personal information simply by checking their central gate. It all comes up as a [status]. Being a high leveled being with access to the system I guess commander Mason can force my [status] to reveal itself to them. I really hate this place; one day I’m going to burn these fuckers to the ground… breath, relax, not now.

Okay their done checking my status; by their reactions I think its ok for now. I’ll have to figure out how to get some privacy later on but it’s convenient having an opinion on my progress right now. If someone as high ranked as a General thinks I’m doing well, I can take his word for it. Huh? Kill everyone? Did he just say that? Someone just appeared out of nowhere.

A woman in a cloak. I can’t tell what she looks like, but it’s unbelievable that I never noticed her till now; she was standing right next to general Mason. I am confident that there was no teleportation this time around I noticed no such disturbances in space. Was she just invisible? Wait? That’s possible? Damn I have a fucking lot to learn.

Ah… the scientists and analysts are dying; they really have no combat capability what so ever. You’d think people in Hell would all learn how to defend themselves. Or maybe that woman is just too good. I can tell she’s using a really small gun; there’s a muffler there as well so these guys can’t tell what’s hitting them.

Her fighting style is quite interesting; she first showed up next to general Mason. Then she activated a martial arts and shot across the room to the side close to the wall on my left. She could now see most of the workers in the room unhindered. Then she disappeared again; probably some sort of invisibility she’s using. Once she disappeared I heard the faintest sounds of muffled gunshots. The way the wounds on the scientists’ bodies were showing up was an obvious giveaway.

The crowd of researchers and analysts all started running and going wild. This must have been a signal for her to reposition herself; she reappeared and activated her martial arts again. It must not be possible to use her martial arts and cloaking or invisibility at the same time; I can’t imagine it’s impossible so maybe just a limit of her own skill or control. She charged out like a bullet again. This time her switch was far quicker. She jumped up into the air and went invisible again; shots were fired and after a while she reappeared just a few feet away and landed on the ground.

She landed with her knees bent and from her low position grabbed something out of her back pocket maybe? I can’t tell with the cloak in the way. Now that I pay attention I can’t hear her foot steps that much; more muffler spells? Or is it the shoes she’s wearing and her martial art style? She threw something into the crowd, well actually quite a few small round devices after filling them with her energy. Ah, I can tell what’s going to happen. No way my senses are quick enough to sense the content of those devices but even an idiot won’t ask detailed questions when they see a dangerous animal right? If there’s teeth just run, same applies here.

Oh no to late they all went off; guess they were grenades then. I wonder if this woman has any sense of decency and safety. She threw those from a low position. True, that fact alone meant that most didn’t notice her throwing them and were caught off guard, and whoever survives the blasts would feel like she could attack from anywhere and become more anxious by now, but what if one of those grenades rebounded and came flying back at her?

She stood straight up now; she started spreading out her senses looking for survivors I guess. Though I don’t think you’ll notice much in this adrenalin pumping situation most people’s souls are pumping energy out at full blast. Even if they just died the energy doesn’t just suddenly disappear. Maybe she’s using a materialistic scan? After the blasts though that’s just stupid, but I can tell she’s shooting some survivors. She even walks to where they are sometimes; is it heat vision?

No point in thinking about it now the massacre is over. What was that like 15 seconds? Shame scientist group your asses were owned. Well you guys did a good job checking me; I’m pretty satisfied. Maybe once the general calms down he’ll let you guys go? Not sure how he’s going to send your souls to prison cells but he doesn’t seem like the type to lie.

[Dr. Kalmar POV]

This boy the general asked us to check and authorize is a monster. I cannot believe it says his age is twenty-one. Where did such a monster come from? Is it another secret experiment, or some noble’s child trained since birth? Either way I have a bad feeling about this; it’s the first time I have dealt directly with General Mason, or any General class individual at all. Why did he come here? He should have a personal lab to take the boy to.

General Mason: “Good, now, kill everyone present; make sure all of their souls end up in prisons in the lower levels. No witnesses, no survivors, is that understood, Baleka?”

No

No. No. No. No. No. NO!

I knew it! Never get involved with the affairs of high rankers. A woman just appeared out of nowhere I have to run away! Oh No. I just heard screams behind me. She’s already at the wall!! What the Hell is that George is already covered in blood! No everyone’s covered in blood. They’re falling, why aren’t they running? I can’t now. I can’t process all of this. I don’t want to die. She’s in the air now… no she’s gone where did she go!?

Again people are falling. I see dots of blood on their clothes. Want happened I didn’t hear anything but screaming. NO! Sarah!

Dr. Kalmar: “S,s…Sarah! Ru-“

She just appeared a few meters in front of me out of thin air. That’s not possible. Why is she so fast? Damnit.

*Boom! *

Explosions!? When did she plant them? How many more are they? Am I next? I need to run I need to get up- my left leg won’t move.

Dr. Kalmar: “…huh… my leg, AHHHHHH!”

It’s gone! My leg is gone! Blood there’s blood everywhere! No! Please don’t kill me, I’m from a small good family. We’re no one special. I’m not in anyone’s way. I don’t want to die… I don’t want to-

*Muffled gunshot*

-Huh… not bad, she’s new so I was questioning her ability, but no complaints I guess. With this there won’t be any energy trail so the judges can’t directly pin me. Though I don’t care if they do it’s just irritating getting told off during those meetings. Time to go then.- Thought General Mason.

General Mason: “Time to go Thabo, we have a lot to show you. Plus, I’d like to get you settled in as soon as possible.”

Thabo: “… where are we going now?”

General Mason: “You need to learn more about how Hell works. You’re a new entrant so you won’t understand our society as much as those born here do.”

Thabo: “You said I won’t benefit from going to the academy here. When what should I do?”

General Mason: “Another thing you’ll learn about in Hell. I believe on normal worlds people have ‘jobs’ right? Well here we have ‘positions’, anyway this place smells horrible so let’s go somewhere more hygienic. I’ll show you to one of my apartments and you’ll get something to eat there. Your hungry right.”

-Huh, not a question, he’s already awaking away. Guess I’ll just follow then.- Thabo thought.

That girl disappeared again, but I’m sure she’s still here. Lady what are you a professional stalker or something? We already saw you, the jig is up, just come out and walk with us you weird ass assassin. You know what, it’s not even my problem. Yeah and I don’t care that there’s some invisible woman walking with us right now, probably staring at one of our asses. Maybe she just shy; that’s a valid reason to stay unseen when people know your there. Yeah, yes, I can live with that reasoning, ok nerves gone.

This place is pretty messy now; I didn’t notice how big it was when I came here, but like why is every room in this place so huge. I mean these are all rooms, they have to be there’s no outside so this is inside and therefore some type of room. Back to the point though why aren’t we cleaning up? Or are there more invisible ladies to do that? Oh there’s another elevator over there. It’s pretty far guess I better start a conversation while we walk.

Thabo: “Commander, sir, who was, no, is this women, is she one of your employees?”

Commander Mason: “Just Victor is fine boy.”

Thabo: “… ok sir Victor, why do you go around with… this specific type of worker?”

Commander Mason: “Huh? You mean Baleka, well she’s new and I thought this would be some good experience for her. I make it my personal mission to foster growth my boy. Especially within my own people.”

-I see so having assassins around is so normal he doesn’t even notice the question.- Thought Thabo.

Thabo: “Is it really helpful for her if there are so many others around? I mean there should be no pressure in this kind of circumstance.”

I would obviously begin to notice the slight life forces all around once I’ve seen the disappearing trick once. It’s really good though I would never have noticed if I wasn’t focusing deeply on it.

General Mason: “Ah! So you can already tell? That’s my boy! Anyway it’s just normal procedure to have back-ups so it’ll always be like this. My people always work in teams. Oh by the way, you need to gather a team quickly. I’m all for being a one-man army but at least have other armies at your back to build your empire.”

Thabo: “A team? For what? Which reminds me I wanted to ask but what exactly will I be doing? I mean what do you do? Don’t tell me you have no work at all.”

Commander Mason: “That’s also hard to explain. We in Hell believe that the strongest rule over the weak. We rule and don’t really work. In my case the only thing I do really is gather more followers and employees and dictate what they should do. Build houses, manage finances, etc.”

Thabo: “Hell has companies? I noticed that Hell allows citizenship but does that mean more than not being tortured?”

Commander Mason: “Haha! Hell has everything you can imagine. And yes once you earn your freedom it’s basically free reign to do whatever you want. We have economies and everything here. Well Hell’s system itself didn’t set any of it up, we the people of Hell did. So the whole ‘the strong rule’ thing was more something that occurred due to our influence.”

Thabo: “Is that a law here or something? And why can I communicate so freely this is weird what language is this?”

Commander Mason: “Wow! Wow! Slow down with the questions I’m not some teacher boy. Anyway there’s a translator engine installed in the system. Soon you’ll learn that we use the system for almost everything. Also that isn’t a law more like a Hell wide policy.”

Thabo: “It’s a policy that the weak are mistreated?”

Commander Mason stopped walking, turned around and looked Thabo in the eyes. His face went from the relaxed jolly expression he wore whilst talking to Thabo as if he were his son to staring daggers at him as if he were a criminal.

Commander Mason: “I’ll let that slip of the tongue slide since your new and obviously naïve. Here in Hell power is everything boy, make no mistake about it. You’ll soon come to understand that here a hierarchy is as natural as breathing. I consider you on a personal friendly level as if your one of my own because your strong. Don’t forget that. Weakness in Hell might as well be a crime and once you begin to understand the system you’ll realize that no matter how many of those ant’s riot and complain. It will change nothing. I won’t force you to be a part of it, but you better get used to it kid. I hear that on mortal worlds there’s this thing called democracy right? That’s not possible here. Magic just makes us too different. And that’s a fact not opinion.”

Thabo: “…”

Commander Mason: “Anything else you wanna ask boy?”

Thabo: “No, just back to what I asked before. How do I become one of these ‘rulers’ your talking about?”

Commander Mason suddenly let a huge smile free on his face.

Commander Mason: “Good now we’re asking the right questions, enough of this political human rights crap. We’re here to talk about one thing. Power. We’ve reached the elevator let’s talk about this once we get to my place. Those clothes your wearing are an eyesore honestly.”

We got onto the elevator. Me and the commander, as well as some other unseen individuals I’m sure. Same as before this thing moves crazy fast; I’m starting to get scared of asking whether there’s an outside or not. Hell seems like one huge prison to me and it’s possible that there’s no sun here. No really this is getting scary hey.

We arrived after about 2 hours; can’t believe this guy wouldn’t say anything else till we arrived. The doors opened into another one of those huge rooms. Though this one was smaller. It was a lavish place with paintings and decorations all over. Most the tables were glass and the furniture had no legs and simply floated. There were no light bulbs either only balls of light releasing energy that went on when you stepped into the room. At the same time holographic screens appeared with that I think was the T.V. down here displayed on them.

Mason walked past all of this wonder like it was nothing and grabbed a drink from some crazy ass fridge that I thought was a wall before it popped open. He threw me a drink as well without asking me anything. I get a feeling this is his personality but I’ll ignore it for now.

He carried on walking through this whole place and I saw some more crazy shit. In some rooms there were cars and in others there were wild animals, whole Olympic pools and even weapons. Like imagine a whole room of guns floating around neatly in place waiting for someone to declare war somewhere. I would agree that he’s a General just from seeing some of these rooms in his house; though I’d think his crazy.

He pointed me to one of the rooms and said.

General Mason: “Get in, and change. The butler will come get you and bring you to me.”

I stepped into the empty room without question. I think fear is really getting to me if I’m planning on finding clothes in an empty room. The whole room was circular and had mirrors along all the walls. It was maybe ten meters from one side to the other and had one glowing light ball thing floating below the roof in the center. I approached the center of the room hoping to dream up some clothes and what do you know, more surprises.

Female voice: “Would you like to begin fitting sir?”

Thabo: “What!? Who you?”

Female voice: “A computer designed for cloth storage, dressing and fitting.”

Thabo: “Ohhhh, I see, cool, cool, makes sense, everything else here been crazy. Just get me a Lakers Jerzy then.”

Female voice: “None in stock. Should I order one sir?”

Thabo: “… No …”

Female voice: “Understood. What would you like to wear?”

Thabo: “Get me some black jeans and leather formal shoes, let me browse through your collection before you present them. Next I want a white shirt and leather jacket. Actually, make the shoes some Nike sneakers. Get me a white pair with blue coloring, like lines or something, got it?”

Please don’t judge me, I adapt fast, plus I haven’t had anything good to wear in ages. This mirror changing room is good the mirrors acted as screens and showed me what I’d look like in my clothes before I wore them. Then I said ‘I confirm’ for an outfit and this happened.

Female voice: “Please hold still and don’t move at all sir. Your clothes will now be materialized.”

Oh yeah, clothes came out of the ceiling even though I never saw no hole when I walked in then after my old ones were removed this thing help me put on the new ones. With all this shit flying around I felt like a ghost was helping me change. If I didn’t sense the circuits, I would have run out screaming. Anyways I’m dressed now.

*Beep*

Mans’ voice: “Sir Thabo, I am the butler General Mason sent for you. Are you ready to join the general now?”

Was this guy just waiting outside? How did he know I was done? You know what that’s none of my concern. Yeah I’m open minded as fuck. None of the shit that goes down in Hell will creep me out.

Thabo: “Yes, take me to the General immediately.”