Running, jumping from tree to tree, laughing as he did. The thrill of the race makes his heart beat faster and faster and adrenaline coursed through his veins. He was happy.

“Haha, you’re going to lose your footing soon – Oh, ouch. Nearly fell.”

“That’s what you get get for wishing bad on others.”

“Hey, look, he’s way up ahead. Wait! I have something to tell you!”

“You’re just saying that so I’ll pause and you can catch up!”

This was a dream. A sweet dream, a familiar dream, a dream he never wanted to end. The scene changes, this time they’re playing with catapults.

“I hit three of them now.”

“Well I hit FOUR.”

“How? That last one doesn’t count.”

“It does.”

“Hey, Grigori you saw it, right? Did he get it?”

“He’s not even looking, he hit five already. Stop wasting my time, I’ll lose at this rate!”

The scene changes once more. This time it’s hide and seek. He’d found the best place, no one would imagine he’d hide here.

A sweet dream, a familiar dream, a dream he never wanted to see the end of. It was time to wake up.

Grigori opened his eyes, the dream was over and he was back to the present. He was sitting on his bed with his back resting against the wall, that was the best way for him to keep alert when asleep. He looks down at his hands and sees they’re clutching his knees tightly. He slowly loosens his grip and drops his hands to his sides. He looks up to observe his surroundings, everything was the same and there wasn’t any cause for alarm. The room Grigori had woke up in was a small, dimly lit space barely enough for just one person. To the left of his view, just in front of the bed was a drawer about two and half feet in height with several items arranged on it. At the other end of the room was a small wardrobe where he kept a few clothes and in the middle of the room was a spherical shaped light source about the size of a fist. Its energy was running low and it could barely light the room now. This was where he had lived for several months now and every place he stayed before here had been similar. A minimalist life like Crow had taught him to live.

Grigori sat on the bed, staring at the ball of light as it got dimmer and dimmer not ready to move just yet. That’s how it always was when he had those dreams, they left soul weakened. He eventually got himself together, came down from the bed and walked to the wardrobe. He picked a change of clothes from the wardrobe, not spending any time thinking of which to wear, there wasn’t much to choose from anyway.

In a few days he would be meeting the “new team” Crow had told him about. He and that frustrating thing called Luna. Speaking of Luna, where was she now? Probably blew up something and got herself thrown into space. Once he was done changing he walked over to the small drawer. There were three items arranged on it, a dagger with a blade two feet in length, a crown and a ring.

He picks up the dagger and puts it in a sheathe strapped horizontally to the lower end of his back. He stands before the drawer and stares deeply at the two items left, just as he’d done every day before. Anger filled his face and he clenched his fists so tightly they began to whiten. He stayed like that for a while before slowly unclenching his fists as his anger began to fade. It left him and was replaced by an even greater feeling of sadness. The look on his face told of sorrow so deep it rivalled the ocean’s depths and beyond. But doing this never changed anything and so he pushed down his emotions and left the small house to face the events of the day.

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LOCATION : PLANET VESTA

This area is currently at risk of an attack, please head to the closest warp gate for safety

This area is currently at risk of an attack, please head to the closest warp gate for safety

This area is currently at risk of an attack, please head to the closest warp gate for safety.

A siren blares throughout a city scape at the same time with a pre-recorded warning message, both of which alerted its residents of an impending danger. But despite the continuous warnings, no one seemed to be bothered and paid the messages absolutely no mind. They all went on with their daily activities, completely unbothered. Was it a false warning? Or maybe a drill? Neither of these were the case, danger was in fact approaching, from the depths of space towards the planet Vesta.

With its incredible speed, it was only a matter of minutes before it would hit the capital city, wiping it out along with a large portion of the planet. It burst into the atmosphere and dispersed the clouds that hung over the city, revealing a clear blue sky. A large rock-like figure, big enough to rival a mountain in size was up in the sky directly above the city now, casting a shadow wide enough to cover it completely. At its appearance the city’s residents finally seemed slightly perturbed but they didn’t panic. Everyone was looking up to the sky now, with the same casual expression on their faces. This object wasn’t a space rock or anything like that but actually a living thing. A drift rock is what it was called. It moved through space until it came across a planet or similar body and attacked it violently.

The drift rock sped towards the city bearing a gift of destruction but once it got to a distance of about two kilometers from the ground it clashed with an invisible barrier, halted in its path. The city residents watched in awe as their ever unfailing shield kept them safe once again. But the drift rock wouldn’t give up and put in even more force trying to break through the barrier. The barrier shimmered every now and then it’s nature became apparent. Surrounding the entire city was a spherical barrier made of flames, covering every inch of space around it, from the top and even all the way underneath the ground. That was the reason why the residents weren’t bothered. They had no doubt their shield would protect them.

In the city’s center among the other residents stood a single voyager, looking up to the sky like everyone else, watching as the drift rock wrestled with the barrier.

She’s gotten better over the years. Not even in the city but can stop this thing from breaking through.

It was a cool sight but he’d have to stop the monster soon. He jumped off the ground, high into the air, above even the tallest skyscrapers and got within range of the monster, only a few hundred meters away. Once he stopped ascending, he stretched out his hand and pointed it towards the drift rock.

Venerable Lance : Wide angle shot

An incredible amount of mal energy shot forward from his hand in a wide range, enough to cover the entire drift rock. The wave of energy collided with the drift rock, completely annihilating it and leaving nothing but dust. The voyager fell down to the ground with incredible speed. Just before he hit the ground he somehow backflipped in the air and landed with a soft thump. This man was none other than the captain of Vesta’s royal guards. Yuga.

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The city was safe now and it was time to explore but it looked that would have to wait. Once Yuga landed he was met by several other royal guards, his subordinates. They seemed to have a message for him.

One of them, a woman with a bob cut and daggers sheathed on either side of her waist spoke up. Her name was Werenita, the deputy captain of guards.

“Sir, it’s time for training, the princess is waiting. You’re a bit late.” Said Werenita

“Late…. Nothing we can do about that. Heading there now.” And he zooms off, out of the city and out to the mountain range beyond. He quickly got to where the princess was waiting, an arid land with several mountains in sight. At the base of one of the mountains stood even more guards, about ten of them. Everyone there looked similar to the other in their uniform except for one person. Amongst the guards was one person dressed differently. A girl who looked to be at the end of her teenage years physically. She had bright red hair and flame orange eyes. She was pacing back and forth, a small frown on her face but as soon as Yuga appeared the frown was wiped off her face and replaced with a look of anticipation and a bit of mischief. Yuga nodded at the guards then walked up to her.

“Hanrare, there’s a show I wanted to-“ Yuga started to say just before he was engulfed in a ball of flames. He’d been caught off guard. Through the flames came a fist aimed at his head but he was able to react to it and caught it with his left hand. The flames cleared up and the princess stood in front of him, her arm directed at his head.

“This doesn’t count as part of training.” sajd Yuga.

“Ha, in the real world the enemy wouldn’t wait for your signal.” replied Hanrare. Yuga gripped her fist with his left hand, pulled her towards him then drove his left elbow into her face which sent her crashing into the mountain’s base.

“In the real world, I don’t hold back.”

“Owwwwwww.” cried Hanrare. She immediately tried to get up but the attack was so strong it shook her brain and left her stumbling for a couple of seconds.

At least she’s still awake. He wasn’t meant to hit her, the first time he did she had passed out and all the other guards were alarmed. The aim of this training was to see how far the princess could push him. Once she was recovered from the force of the blow she didn’t wait a second to return an attack and shot a ball of flame towards Yuga from her right hand. He dodges the attack by running to his right but she fires several more pursuing him with balls of flames as he ran to the left and he successfully avoided all them, leaving a trail of fire behind him.

As Yuga ran leftwards to avoid the attacks, Hanrare shot off another attack with her left hand that curved and came for him from the front in the direction he was heading while she kept him running with towards it with attacks from her right hand. He doesn’t stop to avoid the attack but responds by unsheathing the sword strapped to his waist and split the flame in two. The two halves of the flame come together and engulf him. When the flame clears Yuga remains untouched, he had put up a shield just in time to protect himself.

But hanrare didn’t plan to give him a second to rest and shot another attack at him, this time a concentrated stream of flame much faster and more powerful than the previous attacks. It breaks through Yuga’s shield and sends him flying back. A second attack comes for him while he’s still in the air and he drops to the ground dodge it but it stops mid motion above him and morphs into a great pillar of fire.

Blaze Tower

The pillar of flame grew wider and wider as the princess concentrated harder, a fierce look on her face. It drove Yuga deep into the ground melting through sand, rock and even the minerals beneath the earth. So hot even the other guards began to feel the heat and every creature in the area ran for safety. Hanrare held the pillar of flame and kept pouring in more energy into the attack but it was extremely tasking and she started panting from exhaustion and strain.

As powerful as the flame was it wouldn’t be enough to pin Yuga down. Soon after, the pillar of flame was split in two and subsequently dispersed as Hanrare lost hold of it. Yuga bolted out of the hole in the ground and landed softly with not even a scratch on his body. Hanrare grunted, frustrated at her inability to harm him even a little. She mustered even more energy discharged a barrage of attacks from every possible direction at Yuga hoping to overwhelm him with sheer numbers.

Hell’s war zone

However, Yuga was more than capable of handling himself against them, dodging one, slicing another, putting up a barrier, doing all three actions repeatedly till all the attacks were taken care of.

The princess was nearly spent now, her chest heaved and sweat dropped from her face but she wasn’t ready to give up yet. Pooling together the last bits of her energy she prepared for one final attack. With a high pitched battle cry, she manifested a ball of flame, barely the size of fist but it grew larger with each passing moment. To the size of a head, then a person, then a large building and kept on expanding , larger and larger till it got so large it dwarfed the entire mountain range. The attack had grown into ball of flame so great it looked like a second sun had landed on Vesta.

Angel’s Divine Judgement : Flame holocaust

One of the guards put up a barrier to defend himself and the rest of his fellow guards from the heat of flame. The heat from the flame set the few trees that grew on the mountains on fire and the blood of every creature around boiled and evapourated till their bodies dried out.

That’s dangerous thought Yuga as he watched the manifestation of a calamity the princess had made. Dangerous but cool. However, he would have to stop it. Hanrare was concentrating so hard on fueling the attack that she wasn’t even paying attention. Yuga stretched his hand towards the flame and concentrated. Suddenly, the flame began to shrink, becoming smaller and smaller till it completely fizzled out. The intense heat of the fire was soon replaced by a contrasting chill. Several seconds later the area where they were fighting was covered deep in snow.

Ice age

Hanrare, seeing that even that attack didn’t work, gave up the battle and passed out.