Destiny Wars

Prologue

“Mama, what’s happening?” - The shivering boy’s words hurt the woman in his embrace even harder than the terrible pain assaulting her belly. Tears started streaming down her bloodied face, as she built the strength to whisper in his ears.

“Everything is going to be okay... but now mama really needs you to do something for her, alright, Rey?”

Rey raised his head, sobbing, and looked straight into his mother, capturing the same gentleness she always wore in front of him and nodded slowly. She smiled softly in return, her gaze dulling slightly as life rapidly slipped away from her grasp.

“Rey, turn back now and run as fast as you can. Don’t look back... and take care of Luna.”

“Mama!"

“Rey... please... I beg you...”

Tears streamed like a waterfall from Rey’s eyes, but the fleeting thought of Luna slapped him back to reality. He clenched his little fists and rose, engraving the last moments and the lovely smile of his beautiful mother in his mind, as her gaze dulled. Time seemed to slow down at that moment. Then at some point, biting his lips with enough strength to draw blood, he turned around and ran faster than he ever thought to be possible. His agony burned in his chest, but he didn’t look back, as the malevolent screech grew fainter and fainter in the background.

-

The mournful scream of a youth rang inside his room as he shot up his bed. After awakening his chest heaved drastically, and his face was wet with tears, along bloodshot eyes that carried anger that knew no bounds. After scanning his surroundings, his hands covered his face and the youth slowly began to recover from his despaired state and calm his body and mind. A loud bang echoed through the room and a younger girl rushed in and jumped into the bed, tightly hugging him.

“It happened again, Rey!” soon after a gentle hand fell above her head, his breathing steady and a hoarse voice sounded

“Don’t worry little Luna, I’ll be fine” the hug tightened, as if she wanted to take part of the burden.

“These nightmares have hurt you long enough, brother.” the soft whisper rang when Luna looked into his eyes, her eyes reddening and tears tainting her tender face. A poke suddenly tapped on her forehead, at the same time of a growing mischievous smile. “Ouch!“.

“You’re such a crybaby!” the voice sounded better, no longer bitter, but reassuring. Rey looked at Luna’s puffed cheeks and laughed, then he returned the hug, surprising his sister who became red as tomato, but did not push him away. She stuffed her head into his chest and breathed deeply, finding warmth in a comfortable place. Rey caressed her silk like hair, making her giggle. He then sighed after a few moments of peace.

“Hey sis, don’t start drooling on me. What is going to happen to my reputation if the most talented kid at school gets late to class?” Luna stood up and harrumphed pointing her finger at Rey.

“Who’s the kid here?” But Rey was intently looking away, staring in a certain direction outside the window. Luna frowned and followed his gaze. There was nothing worth of notice. “What are you dozing off to? Ah! Look at the time! That ’s mean, Rey!” She startled and ran out of the bedroom, her voice echoing through the corridors. “Breakfast is ready, take care today goofus!” Rey’s laughter filled the room, breaking the sour mood brought by the nightmare. He walked to the short balcony and looked at the sky smiling.

“Mother, are you happy with how she’s growing up? I took care of her like you asked to, but it seems like the roles are steadily reversing. Luna is growing faster than I could ever hope to accompany. Her talent will shelter her from harm.” them he became subtly somber, like something was weighing on his shoulders, slowly wearing him out “I’m sorry mother, I know all you ever wanted was for us to live a happy life, but I won’t stop until I avenge you, even if I have to enter the depths of hell.”

*Note from the author

Dear readers, this prologue is currently in the first draft so it is very short and subject to changes in the future. I’m open to suggestions, so feel free to express your feelings and ideas in the comments.

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Chapter 1 - The F-Class

The early morning ended quickly and the duo left the Academy private family housing for their homeroom classes. Rey arrived almost immediately before teacher Marcos entered class, so much that he had not even the time to sit before his colleagues from class A stood up to greet him. Close call...

They all sat at the same moment and waited in silence for their senior teacher to begin talking. Marcos was a sturdy man, the kind of witch who did not tolerate indiscipline. A serious man, clothed in a fashion-like military uniform, he had an aura to him that Rey thought that at the same time inspired pride, admiration and fear... he walked to the center of the platform of the classroom, which was designed in a semicircular manner, with seats comfortable seats positioned at different heights.

Marcos scanned and scrutinized each and everyone of his new students slowly, as if engraving their faces and attitude in his memories. Everyone gasped a long breath when Marcos’ gaze met theirs. Except for Rey. He stared back and nodded, which led, for whatever reason, to a rare slight smile forming in the corner of Marco’s face.‘This guy must be relating me to my genius sister...’

The professor closed his eyes for a moment, and when he slowly opened then again they showed sheer indifference. His loud voice echoed, making everyone widen their eyes in surprise. “I will not welcome you, for none of you are actually welcome here.” The pause he made after the declaration seemed to intimidate everyone in the stadium to a higher degree, increasing the tension.

“In the previous semester you heard all sorts of songs ingrained with praise and honor and must have been treated like treasures, all of you gems to be polished inside this Academy. But to me, and pretty much every teacher you will meet from now on, none of you is no greater than trash. No! Trash at least we can use to feed your so-called pigs. But you? Just leechers sucking our resources. I already read your files, and know that some of you have a lesser degree of talent and the majority have none, or somewhat close to it. But do you know the real reason why you were treated like jewels in your first semester here? Do you even know the real reason why your class is named “The F-Class″ while others have all kinds of fancy names? Because of your FAmylis! They are the reason you’re even allowed to step inside this Academy in the first place, when normally you wouldn’t be allowed to get even close to it.” His expression turned to disgust for a moment, while observing the general reaction to such accusations. Most of the students understood this logic and turned their faces down in shame.

“It seems like you get it. Now, out there, even the completely talentless are striving to use other abilities to help this newly created vassal state in which you were born to grow and stand on its own feet, while you were pampered in the last half of a year. That’s why if starting today you don’t strive to take something you learn here and make it useful to this world in the future you will keep living forever in shame. And that conclusion is what I sincerely expect of all who are in this class” Marcos indifferent eyes suddenly flared and a living fire seemed to snake inside his eyes, while a gust erupted from him, making the cape striped in his shoulders swing like it had a life of its own. It eventually left his shoulders and flew up in the surge, combusting afterward and bringing a rain of ashes to the head of the stunned students. They paled and some of them had even signs of passing out at any given moment.

Marcos then closed his eyes and the pressure that came from him disappeared at that same moment. The students were able to breathe again, although dirtied black by ashes in their heads and shoulders, along with the rest of the class.

The professor opened his eyes again, that time, flashing with determination. “That said... you still are MY students. And I’m not very fond of failing at my job. So brace yourselves and give it your all! I want you to prove me wrong. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

“YES SIR!” The students got up from their seats and clamored together as if Marcos’s determination had become their own. The commotion soon settled and many of them were even startled to the point they did not understand why and how they had screamed so loudly, or even why they had screamed at all. But Rey’s eyes sparkled, his determination was real, and he felt he would have responded exactly the same way even without the coercion of Marcos charisma.

Marcos nodded briefly in approval and swiftly moved his hand. Another gust blew in the classroom, but this time it cleansed away all the ash and dirt that had fallen upon them, and even beyond that, they felt a soothing energy erasing their fears and solidifying that determined state of mind.

“Well, now that this is out of our way we can finally start the lecture. Last semester, as you must remember, the classes for the F-class weren’t actually about being taught the wonders of spiritual energy, as you might have perceived. It was about learning basic information, common sense and solidifying your foundation in this world that is entirely new to you, but mainly it was about squeezing every last bit of potential and latent talent still remaining out of you. You learned how to better introspect, feel, absorb and accumulate spiritual energy in the root of your soul.” Marcos said sternly.

“By now, all of you that can actually absorb spiritual energy must have reached a particular bottleneck. From now on we will focus on studying basic theoretical knowledge about elemental manipulation and spiritual growth. Those of you who have reached the minimum requirement in those months will take part in practical lessons with Miss Sarah. The completely talentless can use the time of the practical lessons to study extracurricular themes that can benefit our kingdom in both manpower, creation and application of resources and research”. Marcos paused and scanned the class again, who seemed now eager to begin and perform well in their own way.

“I will point out also that those assigned to practicall classes should focus on also at least studying one of the extracurricular themes. Everyone here might not have the potential to weave the bigger punch, but you still can become pillars of our kingdom in the future nonetheless if you perform well in a particular area, or can use the knowledge of your old world to create trinkets or and other things our kingdom lacks. You can also contribute by integrating insights of your so-called technology into our own. Just remember that the laws that govern this higher world are completely different from your uprooted old universe, therefore most of the technology as you know of is useless here. There are many in this kingdom who lack talent, but still are rich to the bones and have great status, for the contribution they made. Anyway, I wish you all luck in your prospects.”

Marcos snapped his feelings and hundreds of books appeared out of thin air and rushed toward the frightened students. Suddenly, before crashing in their astonished faces, the books came to a stop and gently landed on their tables. Each one of them received a pair of books: ‘Basic Elemental Theory’ and ‘Compendium of Auxiliary Fields Subjects’.

“Unfortunately for you, in the F-Class I cannot, nor have the time to babysit you. So use the time of this class to study throuly the first chapter of the book to your left, because for every lesson I taught you, I will expect that you already have a rudimentary understanding of the subject. Those that don’t will definitely lag behind. You only have half an hour of my attention everyday for questions pertaining to the said theme, so don’t be late.

The second book is self explanatory, it will help you choose your extracurricular lessons. “See you tomorrow, you bunch of unlucky fellows.” An intense flame lit, enveloping Marcos, then his whole body turned to ashes that transformed into a dark cloud that slowly dispersed, without blemishing the clean floor of the room. The whole class froze with mouths agape, until a fascinated shout broke out the silence.

“Wow, that’s a cool way to make an exit!” Everyone stared at Rey while he stood up, books in hand, confidently making way towards the classroom door, with a warm smile plastered on his face. Some gazes seemed to carry palpable scorn, others inwardly nodded at his words, and finally, there were a few students that felt to carry complex and mixed feelings in their eyes.

None of this complicated atmosphere slowed Rey from rushing to see if his little sister class had ended earlier as well.