Friend

The burly man inspected Roderick. He could not feel anything, be it elemental power or something else. The youth in front of him was really unfathomable, if he haven't seen the record of the battle himself he would never believe someone like him could be capable of something like that.

"Ares is waiting for you, follow the path and you will see his office." Stepping in the elevator, the man waved his hand and a new floors appeared out of nowhere. The man pressed the floor zero and the doors closed as Roderick realized he was left alone in the hallway.

'Damn, I going to see the strongest elemental master on Eden!' Only now that he realized the situation he was in and that there was not way to escape. From what Artemis said, they must have gathered any possible information about him so he could not lie. It took a few seconds for him to calm down when he realized he had already arrived in front of the door the burly man spoke about.

Knock, Knock.

"It me, Roderick." An voice came from behind the door, as if he had been waiting for his arrival for a while.

"Come in." Roderick turned the handle and the strong smell of coffee permeated the room where a mountain of parchments in many ancient languages, books and a pile of documents took all the space in desk.

"We may have the most advanced holographic computers, VR and many other alternatives like Bio Storage, but nothing beats the old smell of paper. Come here, I have been waiting for you." Ares was reading what looked like a comic when he put down the comic book and looked at Roderick with a face that was difficult to read. Roderick really could not believe what he saw. The Ares everyone knew about was a strong man both in close combat and in long-range to the point he was known as the ultimate soldier. No one even knew what stage he was in, only that he overcame the third stage limit long ago even when few had really seen him. As for the Ares before his eyes, it was a twenty year old man wearing a white inner suit. He looked more like a scholar than his title of Ultimate Soldier.

Before Roderick snap out of his line of thought, Ares asked in a mysterious way: "Do you know from where those priests came from?"

From the following silence he already had his answer, "Eden is not the only place where you can find humans. There was Order of the Metal Knight the Church of Light, the former vanished from the world days after the the great disaster where the all animals achieved intelligence and were bestowed with powers way above ours turning into what we know as Elemental Beasts and the later turned their back against their fellow humans and swore loyalty to the three Bestial Gods."

He gave a pause to let Roderick digest what he heard, then he continued: "The three priests are members of the old church of light or whatever they are called now. As for your power, you may not know buy elemental beasts of lightning had been seen before despite being the most difficult to find and if they can have lightning beasts then why not we humans can't have lightning element masters in out side."

"So you are saying I'm not the only one with the power of lightning?" Roderick never heard of anyone possessing the power to use lightning. Maybe, all of this holds a secret bigger than what he can imagine.

"Well no. You are the only human with this power which make of you the first and only elemental master of lightning in the world. But of course we need deal with a few problems first. In the way things are, you will be killed sooner of later by the church so I thought of giving a gift that you can choose if you want or not. If you accept, even becoming one of us is not impossible, but we must deal with this threat before anything."

He was fully right. From now on those people will try anything to kill him. Even if he is the only elemental master of lightning in the world, he just needs to be killed before he can grown into someone powerful enough to protect himself. No, even his family was not safe if this is the case.

"I had a fake body prepared for you. If you wish I can release the news of your death while giving you a new life and identity as one of us. I can give you one day to think. Go now, but make sure you don't leave the headquarters or contact anyone outside. I remember Artemis was really excited to have somebody the same age as her in the HQ, she never had a friend in the same age which made her socially awkward." Roderick barely had the time to reply before he was thrown out of the office and the doors closed.

"I am really going to consider accepting his agreement." Roderick sighed. So many things happened at the same time that it made him feel overwhelmed. From incapable garbage to the world's first

lightning element master. He could not be sure about what could happen with his family and the idea of leaping over college and enter the Divine Guardians was really the best offer a youth like him could receive. After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to think of this later when the doors of the elevator opened and he saw Artemis seating on the ground holding a deck of cards,

Seeing him leave the elevator, her face lit as their eyes met and she waved at him with a shy expression before.

"Can Roderick play a card game with me? Big sis Athena gave this long ago." Since Artemis was announced as a member of the Divine Guardians, everyone spoke of how indifferent and cold she was with others and how she never accepted a interview or when a fans wanted to take a picture with her. He also thought about what Nerys should be like when he suppressed those thoughts, he knew it was not good to think about a person that never contacted him after that day.

This past year where everything turned upside down had taught him one thing: He should not judge people by their cover or the way they acted on the outside. Classmates who pretended to be friends had turned away from him as everyone else that venerated him as a genius started treating like a fool. All of this made he become better at judging who he should not trust. However Artemis was different, she was raised here and grew up in a place without any peers to compare.

Having only old men and women to play with and when she had the chance to see others Artemis could never enjoy a friendly talking with them as he status was already too great and they all stared at her with envy, greed and other negative feelings. Seeing Artemis like this made him realize how she was not a mature and prideful woman like many thought but a shy and playful kid he could be good friends with.

"Of course, can you tell me the rules?" He nodded while smiling and they went to the garden as Artemis explained the card game rules while moving her hands frantically to show how much excited she was.