4. Universal Energy

"We're here."

Ethan pointed at a map. Diana stood behind him, watching over his shoulder with a rather confused expression.

"How can you tell? All I can tell is that we're in the middle of nowhere, literally."

She looked around her, a large desert stretching out from all sides ending only when it merged with the horizon. Remaining confused, she returned her gaze to Ethan and his seemingly random study of the map. It was hanging in the air in front of him, faint blue sparkles of energy traced the outlines of the map, keeping it steady and readable.

They had been travelling for a couple hours and at this point they had decided for a short rest. Ethan's eyes raced across the map looking for something. Without sparing any attention towards Diana's question Ethan focused in on one specific point on the map before returning her question with one from himself.

"Pop-quiz! Please tell me the basic facts about the sand dragon."

Ethan raised his head looking across the desert towards where the faint silhouette of a mountain-chain could be seen. Diana rolled her eyes thinking through an answer before beginning to answer Ethan's 'pop-quiz'.

"The Sand Dragons are a very territorial species who favors having their den in high altitudes. This because even though there species name is 'Sand Dragon' they feel a higher connection to the earth and favorably rocks. Thus the place with larges probability of finding a Sand Dragon's Den is either inside mountain-ranges or on top. The Sand Dragon has a extremely high affinity for the earth power and is considered a god among Dwarves, often going by the name of–"

"Thank you that's enough, good work Diana." Ethan cut her off, giving a thumbs up behind his back.

He rolled up the map and with the flick of his wrist the map disappeared, only a few blue strokes of energy slowly descending towards the ground. Suddenly, Ethan set across, racing down the sand dune they were positioned on, sliding down the side like a madman.

'Such an impatient guy, he could've at least told me his plans.' Diana sighed deeply, looking after the madman before she herself began sprinting down the side.

By channeling her power to her legs she visualized a tight skin of flames surrounding her feet and soon they manifested beneath the soles of her feet. Diana forced more and more power into the flames raising the heat to an extreme level. Now, glass began forming at the location of her every steps making her grip level go up significantly and boosting her overall speed.

In the distance, Ethan wobbled forwards like he was both stoned and drunk while trying to walk normally on a ship navigating during rough sea. Sand covered him up to his knees while he continued to pummel down the valley-side making him a lot slower compared to the woman behind him racing downhill with terrifying speed. Diana slowed down enough for her to be walking comfortably in the same pace as Ethan.

Diana laughed at the sight of Ethan struggling to move forwards.

"Where are we going?"

"You said it yourself, Sand Dragons like to live in the mountains, so we're going to a mountain."

Ethan gritted his teeth in frustration over his slow pace and inevitably he gave up, blue energy violently sparking around him as he forced the sand out of the way. He began to float, levitating a few centimetres above the surface.

Truth to be told, every fighter in this world had a energy pool inside them, positioned in the body as a second heart. It collected the universal energy bound within the atmosphere and refined it through a refining process inside the energy pool. This was the base of all energy a fighter could muster. The volume of these pools and the attributes the power had marked the class a fighter belonged to. The more energy the pool could contain and refine, the higher class a fighter would get slotted into.

The collection of universal energy wasn't something that a fighter could fasten, instead, it happened as neutral as breathing, just a bit more consistent. Using more universal force than the pool managed to gather causes it to dry out. If that happens, a fighter is left being no different from a cripple. Thus, learning the signs of a drying pool is very important and most importantly is to not overexert the pool if it's dry. This could in the worst case scenario cripple your body and sometimes even kill you.

When a kid awakens his base-power, fire, earth, water or wind, a violent surge of universal energy will descend and enter the kids body. After a while, the energy would force its way outwards, appearing in the form of the power the kid showed most affinity in. Very rarely, kids would have a double awakening, showing big affinity in two different powers. But, the longer this process was going on, the larger the kids energy pool would be.

Normally, a few years after the first awakening, kids had the possibility to awaken a 'power-trait'. An example of this is the town chief, Darwin's, 'Wind Flames'. The power which influences the trait is often the second power a kid shows great affinity in but sometimes traits would have a deviation. This could be a trait showing affinity towards powers that weren't considered real powers, mostly because of how rare they were. Traits put in this category could be darkness, light, sand, space or time.

The color of a fighters energy pool represented the form of power a fighter possessed. Thus, Diana's energy pool was colored a vibrant red with faint trails of purple marking that she had a mutation to her fire based power. If one would dissect Ethan's body and look at his pool, one would see a unusually large, deep dark blue colored pool with shining strips of light blue and moss-green swimming around like fish in water.

The thing is, Ethan's pool was still almost dried up from that one portal and with how big the volume of his core is, even after hours of not using his energy he still ran on gas fumes. Thankfully, the level which Ethan had mastered levitation to allowed him to gather more universal energy than he spent levitating

Diana and Ethan fell into a silent rhythm, Ethan levitating and Diana walking on blazed glass panels. Together they made their way up and down the endless amount of gigantic sand dunes.

"You know, Ethan, you've never told me the origin of your power... I've always tried to slot the blue energy you radiate into a category but, with my current knowledge I just can't."

Scratching the back of his head, Ethan looked up in the sky.

"I guess you're right, I've never really had the time to do so." Ethan looked at Diana with a apologetic expression, "But do you mind clearing a way for us and I'll explain after we've set up a camp for the night?" He pointed slightly left from their current course, where a bunch of desert creatures were moving rather quickly in their direction.

Diana sighed lightly before unsheathing her two daggers sprinting off with violent flames surging around the thin white blades.

'If she's already at this level of prowess without awakening her power-trait, I wouldn't want to be the one to face her when she does.' Ethan chuckled to himself, levitating a bit behind Diana's slaughter, a smug grin dressing his normally emotionless face.

The night slowly came and with it the biting cold. On top of a sand dune two small tents could be seen, a little fire lighting up the nearest surroundings. Around it, the shadows of two people danced on the ground. Clad in thick fur coats withdrawn from whatever capsule Ethan had on him, they watched the flames dance in the night.

"Tell me, what do you know of the current leading houses in this world."

Ethan's soothing voice was nowhere to be heard, instead a chilly, heartless voice ripped the silence apart, sending chills down the spine of Diane. She snapped awake from a light daze before looking towards Ethan with a stern expression. Seeing his lack of emotions and his locked stare on the raging flames in front of him, she picked up the trail.

"The only thing I know for sure is that the Empress is the leader of this continent we're currently in. I've also heard that she isn't the true ruler of this continent, that there is people standing even above her in terms of political and physical power." Diane looked confused towards Ethan, 'What did this have to do with his past?' A concerned expression taking over the former stern.

Simultaneously on the other side of the continent, a large castle dresses the peak of a mountain, its black walls running around the whole peak, marking it as a crown marks the royalty. Three equally black towers rose from the ground, shooting towards the dim moon. The center tower being larger than anything else, almost touching the pitch black sky. The two other towers formed together with the centerpiece a triangle, the base running across the steep side of the peak and the main tower standing on the tip of the peak stretching its majestic body. Inside the majestic tower, a throne room laid shrouded in shadows, the only light coming from the moon, shining down through a canted window on the roof of the tower. The moonlight perfectly hit the crown of a woman, sitting on the throne bearing dark red armor. A sheathed longsword laid casually in the lap of the woman, one hand resting on the hilt and the other holding her tilted head up.

Long, shimmering, silver hair fell graciously over her armor-clad shoulders. Pale, white skin shining in the moonlight as two big eyes looked at the kneeling figure down on the floor of the throne room.

"What's the meaning of this question? Of course I'm aware of the current houses, I'm a monarch," A cold, yet soothing voice trailed down to the kneeling figure, "Now, tell me something actually worth my time before I behead you here myself."

The patience of the woman was clearly running short, yet, the kneeling figure kept being silent for a few more moments.

Over in the desert, Diana locked gazes with Ethan, shocked over the uncontrolled rage burning in his normally calm eyes. The next words he spoke were so laced with venom that the air seemed to corrode at the simplest touch.

In the castle the kneeling figure finally took tone again and asked the same question as Ethan, at the same time.

"Have you ever heard about Sovereigns?"