CHAPTER I (1)



Night was upon the city of Osaka, but it was not one of nothing but peace and tranquility. It was one of those where it was far from being short of pure screams and shouts of genuine terror and pain, as well as the tears of both agony and sorrow.

Chaos, death and blood like none other blanketed the city, perturbing the life settled in the affected area.

Smoke from lingering fires filled the skies, camouflaged by the dark of the night, all the while more and more of the lives of innocent civilians were being claimed by unforeseen, unimaginable things known not to humanity.

"What the hell is that?"

"Run! Don't wait for me, Reyo, just go!"

"No! Jess, please! Wake up, say something, anything! Stay with me!"

"Move out my way, lady! Move it!"

"Please...anyone but my baby.."

"You damn bastards! Stay the fuck away from my children! And my wife!"

"Help, please, help me! Anyone! Please!"

"Mama...where did you go...?"

"Dad! No. No, no, no, no...please..."

"Agh...! It hurts, it hurts...make it stop, make it stop!"

"Get away! Get a-away from m-me!"

"Please! I-I have a family...I have children...barely two years of age..."

"Mother...I'm sorry."

"Help! Anyone?! Help me!"

Cries along the lines of those echoed throughout the whole of the city, acting as more evidence of pure devastation taking place, caused by horrific creatures that was clearly not of this world and had collectively decided to wreak havoc on mankind and the other lifeforms on Earth.

All seemed to be completely hopeless and lost as the attack seemed to be never ending as it continued on, seemingly relentless, but suddenly, several bright lights emerged from the dark in the sky. Blue, orange, green, you name it, it was there.

There were about forty or so of the lights, and as they began to race down towards the still plunged in chaos city, they split up into smaller groups, appearing to go to different parts of the metropolis.

The impact that they all made upon landing was enough to attract the attention of the creatures, and to said creatures' bewilderment and confusion, as the dust that had risen during impact cleared away slightly, it revealed silhouettes of not stars or lights but actual humans.

One of the monsters, a black scaled and red eyed giant 8 feet tall viper with three forked tongues instead of one, moved cautiously towards the strange group of food that had been presented to it, a black goey substance continuously dripping down its body and onto the underlying ground. Said substance acted as a strong acid, melting away the parts of the ground it had made contact with.

It hissed sharply, and upon closer inspection, it could be seen that the forks of its tongue were sharp blades, of which were dripping with the same black substance its body was and were extending and protruding at unsynchronized intervals as if they were an entirely different lifeform on their own, trying to devour the meal before them themselves.

As if in unspoken agreement, the group split up - each individual silhouette sprinting off in separate directions and ultimately leaving one facing the viper. The blinding dust eventually cleared completely, revealing a clearly muscular male of a height of 6,2.

He had jet black hair that was styled messily, sharp assessing navy blue eyes and appeared to be in possession of an excellent physique.

Along with a gas mask that covered the lower half of his face, he wore tactical clothing - a simple black shirt (one sleeve long, the other completely cut off, revealing a muscular arm) that was covered by several gears that hung on crossed straps, which both connected an equally gear covered belt at their ends.

Simple, matching black pants covered his skin from the waist down, which were then met with dark combat boots.

The entire outfit was covered by a white cloak, which was adorned with golden geometric patterns.

"Alright, you bastard. Your fight is with me," He punched a fingerless gloved fist against his other palm while narrowing his eyes, clearly readying for battle.

The viper hissed, bearing its fangs and its three bladed tongues --still extending and protruding menacingly--, as it rose to its full height, revealing that as it turned out, it was, in fact, not merely eight feet tall.

The thing stood at something like thirteen feet at its full height, but even so, the man's composure did not falter even in the slightest. It almost seemed as though he had faced so much worse before this thing.

He raised his arms, with his hands crossing each other, and brought them down in a circle motion. As he did so, glowing golden light could be seen trailing his motion in a much larger picture several feet above his head, then staying there, lingering in the air until it formed a full circle like he had been drawing with his hands being a golden colour pencil and the air being his canvas.

Within the outline of a circle, even more lines began to manifest themselves without the man doing so much as lifting another finger. Within the span of a few seconds, they had formed a perfect outline of a compass, including the letters and the needle. And then the visual of an actual compass manifested within its guidelines.

"South."

The single word was barely completely formed by his lips when the needle of the giant compass swung from north to the corresponding direction in less than three seconds. He held out the sleeveless arm away from his body and opened his hand to let a large sword like needle manifest in the space before it, before tightly clasping that hand around the handle. He did the same to the other hand, before rushing forwards, more than ready to execute this blasted terrorist.

The sheer speed of his made it seem like he had teleported behind the vile creature, the only proof of his attack being the lingering golden slashes that still struck it multiple times before it stopped just as he ended the attack in a crouch like position.

To his surprise, that attack didn't quite land even a single hit on the thing. On the contrary, it only seemed to agitate it, and it now turned to face him, hissing violently as it opened its mouth to its widest extent and sent its tongue blades towards the man.

He managed to evade the assault by hopping back several times, but every time a blade made contact with the ground, a large chunk of the concrete cracked and in some instances, broke completely, only demonstrating the pure force that was put behind the attack.

"Take a chill pill, won't you?" The man remarked, spinning and positioning his two blades so that they were facing down towards the earth as he somersaulted back to avoid a particularly large attack where all the blades struck at the same time, stabbing them into the ground for balance and support as the momentum sent him back several meters.

He grimaced as he didn't manage to avoid the attack entirely - some of the black substance had splattered onto the sleeved arm, melting the cloth almost instantly and burning through his skin like the corrosive acid it apparently was.

But he didn't have enough time to give attention to the pain, for the viper was on the move again. With cruel and malicious intent, it dropped to the ground and began to slither towards him at a dangerously quick pace, the tongue blades never once ceasing their attempts to land hits.

"South-East!" He grunted out as he began to dodge the impending assaults, slipping in attacks of his own time to time as the massive needle of the equally colossal compass swung to the corresponding direction.

As a result of this calling, a golden light enveloped the whole of his body for a fleeting moment or two, before disappearing as a whole.

Four blades then managed to slam themselves to the ground in front of him, behind him and next to him, the corrosive acid already beginning to melt the concrete.

A third needle sword was conjured through a flash of golden light by him right above his head, which then quickly extended and swung around, shattering the blades with powerful force. This provided him the opportunity to jump back -- just as two giant fangs buried themselves at the spot he was in not even two seconds ago.

The beast seemingly hissed in pain as it attempted to dislodge itself from the concrete. The man took this golden opportunity to ready another strike, extending his sleeveless arm towards the struggling thing.

"South-West." The giant compass's needle swung to where south west was, and as soon as the pointer landed there, his palm began to glow a bright golden light.

After a few moments it faded, and black substance could now be seen dripping down both his arms, seemingly starting from his neck. But this one didn't melt his clothing, nor did it burn through his skin.

He grinned beneath his mask, flexing his bare arm.

"Somehow I doubt you're immune to your own acid, you goddamn freak."

And just as the viper managed to pull its fangs out from the ground with evident struggle and rose to its full height immediately after, the man made his two needle blades vanish into thin air, before he forced the black substance to quickly coalesce into a thicker and denser pool by his palm and pulled his arm back and threw the stuff at his foe like he was throwing a baseball.

Just like he suspected, it melted right through its scales, exposing pink flesh, and a deafening roar of obvious agony filled the area. The creature shook its head from side to side as the blades began to reform themselves on its tongue, and he took his chance to sprint forward and jumped up right in front of its still wide open mouth, even more of the acid accumulating on his palms.

He narrowed his eyes and twisted in midair to avoid an impending blade, before boldly grabbing onto two of them. The areas where he had touched instantly began to melt from the acid, of which quickly spread downwards towards the rest of the tongues and mouth and ultimately leaving nothing but melting parts in its wake as it continued its path, due to the man's manipulation of it.

The snake was practically screaming in pure agony, even though it shouldn't have been possible, but its torture did not end there.

As soon as the man's feet touched the ground again for a mere second, he had already propelled himself upwards once again, this time landing on the head of the thing.

Only for something like two seconds though, because in the blink of an eye, he had twisted his body to the side so that he was eye to eye with it.

Making it so that the black acid went around his open palm, the needle blade materialised itself before it and he clasped his hand around the handle tightly, quickly making sure its blade was dripping with the acid, before adjusting its position as well as his own before swiping once horizontally, immediately drawing blood from the bloodred eye of the monster.

It was now practically screeching and seething in anguish, one of its eyeballs literally melting away. It was not a pretty sight. Dark blue blood soaked the already damaged streets, splattering the surrounding buildings as well, and now a whole eyeball was somehow detached from its pocket, falling and splattering onto the ground with a horrific splat. Its parts embedded themselves onto the surviving concrete, and that alone was enough to make the man gag.

He averted his gaze from the viper's face to its body instead, noting that the acid he had thrown at it earlier had melted most of its scales away. After making it so that the black substance on his arms disappeared completely, he resummoned his two blades and rushed in for the final strike.

Golden slashes attacked the thing continuously and viciously, ceasing only when the man had reappeared behind it, in a position where his attacking arm was bent over his head. He swiped the sword back to its belonging side, the dark blue blood splattering off of its surface and onto the underlying ground as he did so, just as the entire body of the viper seemed to cut itself into small pieces via several lingering gold lines, landing on the ground with a disturbing flesh squeezing sound.

The man grimaced in disgust at the sound, forcing himself to turn around.

The thing was well and truly dead, all right. Big, fat chunks of its literal body were splattered everywhere, its blue blood decorating its surroundings in a morbid manner and remnants of its own corrosive acid still eating and hissing angrily away at the remaining concrete.

He shook his head and turned away. Even after years of this profession, he still couldn't bring himself to get used to these morbid aftermath displays of the executions of these horrid beasts, but in all honesty, who could really blame him? Fortunately for him, he was then promptly distracted by the voice that sounded through his communicator device.

"Depth. You done there?"

"Sure am."

"Good. Dispatching clean up crews to your location. For now, head back to the Academy for regrouping, got that?"

"You got it, boss."

"We'll see you then. Safe returns."

__ __________



One day later

"LOTUS Academy is not a high school nor it is a college. It is an honourable institution constructed to train the gifted for the greater good, to produce protectors that will serve nothing but justice against the entitled creatures who dares to plague our homeland. We sincerely hope that you are all fully aware of what you have signed up for," The man, now identified as Depth, spoke out to the group of around fifty seated on the grass before him.

"Dedicating and putting your lives on the line to fight creatures that are not of this world is no easy task. So rather back out now, sooner rather than later."

Not a single soul moved an inch; all was silent and eerily still, either intimidated by the tone of this man to make a move or determined to do this.

"Each name signed up here," Another male spoke up, gesturing to a poster attached to a pole to the side. He was much shorter than Depth, standing at around 5,5, and had long, waist length dirty blonde hair that was styled into a low ponytail and a pair of brilliant green eyes. A rather large crow could be seen perched on his right shoulder, silent as the audience before them.

"Could make the difference of a life being claimed or saved. Please, think this through before you make a final decision."

The last male on stage stepped forward, narrowing his unusual purple eyes as the wind softly blew his messy, short raven hair around, slightly messing it more than it already was.

"Those who decide to go through with this...we commend your bravery and your wits. Deciding to back out does not make you a coward, for this matter is not only life threatening, but offers serious consequences if not handled properly, thus making it a high pressure job. Make your decision now; if you wish to dedicate your life to saving that of others, please register your name and ability on the poster right over here, and if you wish to not not proceed, please exit this area in an orderly fashion. Thank you."

The trio disappeared behind the stage curtains in unspoken agreement almost as soon as he had concluded his speech, providing their recruits time to make a life changing decision.

"What are we hoping for?" The dirty blonde haired male questioned Depth as soon as they were out of sight.

The latter released a sigh, lifting a hand to rub his forehead and squeezing his eyes shut, as if stressed about something.

"At least half of them. Three quarters would be great, but it's unlikely," he answered. "They're getting stronger. Surely I wasn't the only one who noticed that yesterday? Hollow, you're the intellectual one. Haven't you noticed?"

Hollow, the ravenette, nodded as a response. "Mhm. I could name several differences right now. Their durability has improved drastically, as did their endurance. Resistance to attacks has also proved to improve in significant amounts, and suddenly, weaknesses became so much harder to exploit. Even with my Adaptation Intellect."

"Right," Depth agreed, opening his eyes and averting his gaze to the ceiling. "They're undoubtedly adapting. Adapting to our attacks, adapting to our defenses, adapting to our everything. They're eventually going to grow completely immune to all this, and everything's going to crumble like they never existed in the first goddamn place."

He suddenly slammed a fist against the concrete wall next to him as he spoke the last sentence, putting enough force in that punch to leave a dent where his fist connected, whilst gritting his teeth and lowering his gaze, his hair and lighting casting a shadow that covered his eyes.

Neither Hollow nor Raphael, the blonde hair, flinched, as though they'd been somewhat expecting this sudden outburst. They could only share the burden with him, for the truth was undeniable; they had won the battle, sure, but they were very clearly losing the war that held billions of lives at stake. Depth's frustration could be warranted and could be entirely justified, considering the weight of the current situation, and the fact that they were losing more and more protectors --and innocent lives-- to these blasted creatures day by day.

Not to mention that not enough had been fortunate enough to be blessed with superhuman abilities like they had, and not enough of the gifted were willing to step up to this task of defense.

It was hard.

Pressuring.

To keep at it almost everyday, to fight and to try to keep those vile monsters from claiming more lives than they already had and to continue on with life like this. It almost made Depth want to end it all.

But he obviously couldn't. He had a job to complete, a top priority one at that, and he wouldn't be doing anyone a favour by willingly subjecting himself to death, for he was one of the strongest defenders this Academy had to offer the rest of the world.

He would only be letting everyone down, because to the world, the LOTUS Academy had promised it protection, and the world leaders had provided said academy the funds to guarantee that protection.

Yeah, no. Suicide is out of the question, in this war anyway. His job was to save lives, and he'd see it that it would be fulfilled for as long as he lived.

He must've spaced out at some point, because he was suddenly startled back to life when footsteps sounded behind him. Turning around, he caught sight of Hollow approaching him and Raphael, the sign up poster in hand and a rather conflicted emotion being worn.

"There were fifty-six in total," he reported, stopping before the other two and presenting the poster to them. "Twenty two signed, thirty four left."

Depth let out an exaggerated sigh. "Not the ratio that we really wanted, but I suppose it'll do for now. Better than nothing." He took the piece of paper from Hollow, quickly examining and scanning through it's contents.

"These three look like they have potential, one for each of us."

Raphael raised a brow at this, walking and peeking over at the sheet, almost instantly catching sight of three names underlined in red by God knows who.

"Michael, Renate...Tvach. What're we waiting for? Let's go get 'em!"

_____________

"Mmm...okay. You three," Depth crossed his arms, addressing the trio seated on wooden chairs before them.

The six of them were currently located in a spare classroom, three of whom being confused as they'd been called out and separated from the rest of the signed ups.

"Full names, age and abilities."

An introverted but muscular looking man got to his feet. Dark brown hair, pale complexion, hazel and bloodshot eyes.

"Tvach Tersova. Twenty four years old, turning twenty five this year. My power, I call it Mirrokinesis. I can manifest and manipulate mirrors and glasses however I want. Like I can make them fly, turn them into weapons, make them super durable, etcetera, ercetera. Oh, I can also create a pocket mirror dimension, useful for trapping and distracting."

Oh, that's such a cool power. Hollow thought, as Depth hummed in acknowledgement and turned to the next person, nodding for him to begin.

The next person stood up almost lazily, showing that compared to Tvach, he was rather short. He had dark brown hair with blonde highlights pooling towards the bottom that was tied into a low ponytail, dark eyes that were accompanied by dark eyebags and appeared to have an average physicality.

"Michael Ferners. I'm twenty one. Visualkinesis, I can control what my enemies are seeing through both their naked eyes and eyes that are part of their abilities. Mostly illusionary and typically enough to disorient and confuse my enemies, but I can also materialize those visuals into reality.

Example being that if I were to make you see knives throwing themselves at you as an illusion, I can pull those knives into reality and they can actually throw themselves at you and can actually kill you.

Most of the time, enemies can't tell what's an illusion and what's real."

"Sweet," Depth remarked, and he was not bluffing - a power like that could prove to be a really useful one in combat, if used correctly, and could be used for the benefits of allies and disorientation of enemies. He turned to the last person who then stood up -- he was a rather tall male, standing at around 6,2, and had dark hair and red eyes.

He was quite fit, as far as Depth could tell.

"I'm Renate Nathans," He stated firmly, nothing but determination clear in his eyes.

"Twenty three years old. I can manipulate three natural causes at a time, and currently, I can control blood, gravity and weather. I call this ability Natural Force."

"Okay, nice, great, splendid, awesome. Now that that's out of the way, take a seat, you three," Depth ushered, the trio immediately complying.

"My name's Depth. This guy right next to me is Raphael. The other guy is Hollow. Okay now that introductions are out of the way--"

"Woah, woah, Depth buddy, slow down," Raphael interjected with a teasing snort. "They're newbies, they just got here! Cut them some slack, won't you?"

"I wholeheartedly agree," Hollow added, his tone nonchalant. "For starters, you could not rush introductions. But I suppose that's a bit too late to correct now, so just carry on, I guess. You do you."

Depth cleared his throat. "Why, thank thou for thy permission for me to continue on. Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," Here he sent a joking glare to his companions, before turning to his attentive audience once again.

"Introductions are done and over with, so now we move onto the practical test part."

This stirred some life from the other trio.

"We're going to fight!" Raphael exclaimed, a bright, genuine grin plastered on his face, of which was accompanied by a glint in his eyes. "We're going to be in teams of two, and we're going to battle until we no longer can just so you three can have a taste of what fighting really is. With that said, I want..." Here he paused, before suddenly pointing to one of the newbies.

"You! To with me, to be on my team."

The crow on his shoulder cawed, as Michael blinked multiple times in surprise, his eyes widened. "Me?"

"Yes, you."

Internally, Depth glowered, his brows furrowed. You knew I wanted him, didn't you?

Raphael gave him a knowing smirk, confirming his suspicions.

He sighed, disappointed, but had the decency to not say anything about it because of the three of them, he was the weakest. Yeah, yeah. Higher your rank is, more benefits you get. Including choosing first.

"Renate. Would you like to be on my team?" Hollow inquired politely, unlike the way a certain man declared for another certain man to be with him. (That sounded wrong, even in Depth's head.)

"Of course, I don't mind," Renate replied quickly, his eyes also widened. Hollow's lips formed a small but noticeable smile.

"Well. That just leaves me and you, bro," Depth shrugged, addressing the only choice he really had.

Tvach nodded once.

"Ready to fight," He spoke quietly as the other two beside him also stood, before adding.

"Bro."

Depth grinned. He'd need to work a little extra more to rid him of that introvert mindset.

Ten minutes after their "meeting", the six of them found themselves standing in the middle of a massive concrete battlefield, of which was filled with all sorts of things that could prove to be either a help or a hindrance to the mock battle, like

there were small ruins and walls that could obviously be used as covers from attacks, but bombs ranging from smaller sizes to larger ones also littered the ground.

"Every time we recruit newbies and every time the top three of the recruits are selected, we have this mock battle," Depth explained, placing a hand on his hip as he glanced at the three newbies that were lined up in front of the veterans.

"It's kinda a tradition now, as at some point, Principal Riman began to overlook this thing and announced it as an official initiation thingy for newbies and yeah. Don't worry, no one's going to seriously hurt. Not with good sir Zacke here," he nodded to a man that was leaning against a dark grey painted wall that was out of the actual battleground perimeters, who gave a brief nod of his own in greetings.

"He's the principal and vice's personal assistant and is usually the one who dispatches protectors to monster attacks," Hollow pitched in with the explanation. "But he's also an excellent medic. He can pretty much heal any injury due to his gift. You name it, he heals it."

"Yup, so he's very reliable!" Raphael added happily. "But back to the main topic at hand...the main objective is to either knock your enemies unconscious, or somehow force them out of battleground perimeters, which are outlined in that red over there. Whoever lands behind that is out, and can not be returned to the game. Permanently eliminated until a victor emerges."

He pointed towards said red outline, before Depth took it as his cue to continue the explanation.

"Use your abilities as you so wish," he mentioned. "The point of this exercise is for us to understand your abilities and potential, so it'd be even better if you don't hold anything back. Don't worry though, there's a barrier surrounding this place, even though it's not actually visible to the naked eye. It's meant to prevent your powers from reaching outside where they can cause damage."

"Each team will start at different corners and can only start moving once Riman announces so," Hollow continued from where Depth left off.

"Only when something's gone terribly, terribly wrong will he cease this exercise, so don't hold back."

Raphael nodded. "Okay, then. That's basically all the points down. Any questions?"

"One," Renate spoke out. "It's unrelated to this, but I'm just curious. Is there any specific reason as to why you three specifically are...well, kinda guiding the newbies yourselves? Because as far as I know, the rest of us go to something called 'General Ed'?"

Depth grinned shamelessly at this.

"I won't elaborate, cause this is seriously the wrong time and the wrong place, but you three should just know that you're the ones with the most potential and the most power within the newbies group for this month. We're the same, only difference being that our scale covers not merely a group, but the whole of the LOTUS Academy."

Hollow sighed, looking somewhat embarrassed, before adding.

"It's a corny name, but because of that, they've dubbed the three of us The Significant Three, or just The Three for short because we have the three highest rankings on the board."