Chapter Four: It Begins; Part One

After I went to bed last night, I had a very strange nightmare. I opened my eyes to find myself surrounded by darkness. I was standing upright, but I couldn't see my arms, legs, or any part of my body in fact. I tried to make my body spark to generate some light, but nothing happened. I started to get freaked out after that, but took a few steady breaths to remain calm. I had never had a dream I was so conscious in before, it felt so real.

Suddenly, I heard a voice that made my heart stop for a second. "Afraid of the dark..?" The voice was a bit raspy and deep, having a slight echo to it in that darkness. I shivered and quickly turned to the voice, seeing a figure quite clearly despite the darkness. The only feature I was able to make out however was its eyes. They were black, the darkness of its eyes spreading out to its sclera and making them a light grey.

"Don't worry, I'll provide a little light in this darkness..." I heard another voice say. I looked next to the dark figure to see another figure, though I could clearly see this one in their entirety. It was a young man and he had a faint, mint green glow to him. The top half of his face was covered by the fur hood of his hoodie, darkness cast over his face, but I could still see his constant glowing mint green eyes. The young man held his hand out toward me and I moved back as I saw a small glowing ball form in the young man's hand. He then fired a mint green ray of light at me and I yelled in fear, shooting awake in a cold sweat in that instant.

I panted, running my fingers through my hair and sighing. "Those two...weren't they the same people I had a vision of when I first came here..?" I slowly shook my head and I took a shower to take my mind off the dream. Soon enough, Jinny and I were outside at the training grounds as usual. Today she was going to be teaching me how to actually fight instead of testing me or just beating me up so I can "take blows better". Or at least she was supposed to.

While we were getting ready, the sky suddenly grew really dark. It looked like it was going to rain, but something was off. I could smell smoke, coughing as I smelled it. "T-Those aren't...rainclouds..." Jinny suddenly moved to me quicker than I'd ever seen her move before, even quicker than when she fazed through that table to yell at me before, and she quickly summoned a barrier of water around us, keeping us safe from the smoke that barreled down on us. "J-Jinny, what's going on?"

The smoke clouds surrounding the water were blown away by a wave of powerful wind, and everyone else who was in the mansion was suddenly around the barrier. Everyone had serious looks on their faces and looked as if they were ready to go to war. I guessed this could only mean one thing: we were being attacked by the Dark Elementia. My guess was confirmed when Akari spoke. "Show yourself Atiyama."

Then someone spoke, their voice quiet and emotionless, a tad bit of eeriness to it as well. "I should've known a sneak attack wouldn't work on you... Too bad..." The smoke clouds gathered up in front of us and dispersed, revealing five people, including someone standing behind the man in the center; Atiyama. He was the same man in my vision and had the same voice as the figure in my dreams, just without the echo.

The other guy was wearing the same hoodie as the young man in my dream, but I couldn't make out his features due to the fact that his back was to us and he had his hood pulled up. The others however were very easy to see. There were two young women to his right and two men to his left, one on the older side and the other looked quite young.

One girl had long black hair that was like a shell for the bright, orange glowing hair on the interior. Her eyes were the same bright orange color and her irises were shaped like volcanoes. Her body was quite curvaceous and she had a rather elegant aura about her, not to mention her impeccable beauty.

The girl beside her had short purple hair with specks in it that looked like glitter. Her eyes changed color and her irises changed shape whenever she blinked, but every time they were in the shape of some kind of gem. She had quite a bit of muscle as well as curves to suit her mature aura.

The older man right beside Atiyama's left side had dark grey hair and his eyes were the same grey color, his irises shaped like clouds of smoke. His eyes looked a bit bloodshot and there were bags under his eyes, and he had a bit of a stubble, but he had a well toned body and fair skin.

The other, rather young looking male, had deep purple hair that matched his eyes and his irises were both shaped like a skull and crossbones. I had a bad feeling about him with the wild smirk he had on his face on top of the crazed look in his eyes.

"Wait a minute...shouldn't there be..." I noticed there were only six on them, but, according to what Akari said, there should be seven of them like there are seven of us.

Just then, something lunged at Jinny and she quickly moved out of the way, glaring back at whatever it was fiercely. "Damn, I missed..." This thing turned out to be another young man. He looked back at Jinny with a smirk. In his hand was a long spear made entirely of ice. His hair and eyes were the lightest blue I had ever seen, almost white, and his irises were shaped like icicles or spikes of ice. I couldn't really tell due to how far he was from us, but his skin looked as pale as a corpse's and his body was as lean as mine.

"Too bad for you, it'll take a lot more than that." Jinny scoffed and glared.

"I'll get you with this eventually and when I do..." He chuckled sadistically, his smile fading as he glared at her. "I'll take my sweet time making you suffer..."

He dashed at her and I couldn't help but jump in front of Jinny. "S-Stay away!" I fired a weak bolt of lightning at him and he quickly jumped out of the way.

"Oh? So lightning boy has some spark, but we expected that." He flipped over us all and landed beside Atiyama.

"Can all of them do stuff like that?!" I thought to myself, surprised at his athletic skill.

"Acting on your own all the time is going to get you killed one of these days Korudo..." Atiyama spoke.

Korudo roll his eyes. "Yeah yeah, whatever you say sir." The spear in his hand cracked and crumbled, the bits of ice flying off with the wind.

"You have a lot of balls attacking us on our home turf." Agni growled, his fists aflame.

"Well, it's the best time to finally give myself an advantage. Attack before the newbie gets a chance to toughen up..." Atiyama smirked so faint it was hard to tell if he was even smiling. He wasn't really at all what I was expecting honestly. He reminded me a lot of myself, my real self.

"Huh? Wait, that doesn't make any sense. The same would apply for your new member." Akari stated with confidence.

"Oh, but you're wrong. You see, I kind of got lucky..." Atiyama looked back at the person behind him. "My friend here...is a bit of a natural talent."

Hearing that word made my heart skip a beat before I suddenly saw a strange mint green colored light flying right at me, just like in my dream. I quickly ducked back, narrowly avoiding it, as did the rest of us.

I quickly gasped for air and completely fell on my back, realizing I had stopped breathing for a moment. I looked at the young man behind Atiyama and he smirked. I could see the glow of his mint green eyes under the shadow of his hood. I shivered, feeling his intense bloodlust from a mile away. "W-What's this guy's problem..?!"

"Everyone! Protect Sanda at all costs! We can't let them kill him!" Akari shouted.

"Everyone, kill the Lightning Elementia at all costs..." Atiyama commanded afterward.

All of them suddenly formed a wall in front of me, their backs to me, and the other seven charged at them from all directions. "RIGHT!" They all yelled simultaneously and began fighting one another, Akari fighting off the boy who seemed to be the Plasma Elementia and Atiyama at the same time.

My eyes widened as I stood there and watched everything happening before me. "What do I do..?"