Path of Becoming Stong

Aziel Mateo who grew up from a middle class family, and like to venture in the woods, where he trained his body because he was born without any magic. In the Academy where he was admitted, he experienced how cruel life really is. He was being bullied and ridiculed by other students for lacking magical abilities. He continue his training in the shadows, trying to stay out of the way for those who could control elements, and could easily end his life if provoked. His daily life in the Academy was a struggle. Every day he spends there was a reminder of his own shortcomings in a world he reside in. Despite everything, he still keep pushing himself, training his body like hell in order to overcome his shortcomings, without the help of any magic.

But everything changed during their camping trip. An event that forever altered the course of his life happened in that trip.

While on his way to train in the forest for the last night of their training camp, Aziel was ambushed by his classmates in the Academy, and get eaten by a dragon before losing his consciousness.

When his senses returned, he found himself in a cave, where there was a woman cooking food. Aziel was about to ask the woman where he was, when he spotted the large dragon beside him. And he recognized the dragon, it was the one that ate him whole.

Aziel shouted in shock and fright.

"WAAAAAH!!! A DRAGON!! Don't eat me!" Aziel jumps up panicking, however when he jump up, he found that his broken body was all healed.

"What?" Aziel was jumping up and down to see if his body has really been healed.

"I'm pretty sure my limbs were broken. How did it get healed quickly? Who helped me?" Aziel was in deep thought when he realized that the lady that was cooking was looking at him.

"Were you the one who helped me recover?" Aziel asked the cooking lady.

"Thank you so much!" Aziel thanked the lady while bowing his head.

"You were asleep for three and a half days. I can't say that it was quick." The woman talked for the first time.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Aziel apologized quickly for the misunderstanding, but was halted immediately after realizing something.

"Wait, three… THREE AND A HALF DAYS!?" Aziel freaked out counting through his fingers.

"I need to hurry, they might still be waiting for me in the camp. I need to be there or I might get left behind. We were supposed to return to the Academy the day before the other day." Aziel was about to head outside when the woman began to speak again.

"They already left." She replied in a simple and clear sentence.

"What? Then I will get there on my own." Aziel started walking outside, then came back to thank the lady.

"Thank you for saving me. And if I may ask, where are we? What part of the Kingdom are we in? Aziel asked the lady cooking.

"I'll answer your question after we eat, sit there and I'll serve you your meal." The lady instructed Aziel.

"I am in a hurry, but I guess a meal won't hurt, right?" Aziel answered smiling when his stomach growled in hunger.

"I can't remember the last time my stomach made a sound like that. I'm sorry and thank you for the food." Aziel started to dig in, when his tears started to flow out from his eyes.

"Why am I crying? Am I that really hungry? Haha. I'm sorry." Aziel laughed as he wiped his tears off, but it wasn't stopping from coming out, that's when he realized that the taste of the food tastes so familiar. It's sending him nostalgic feeling that he couldn't figure out where he had experienced it. The taste of the food was out of this world, he indulge himself in eating while crying. As if he really missed the taste of the food. Until fragments of memory were flashing through his mind.

A fresh smell of air, an environment that soothes his nerves, and a lady wearing the same apron flashed through his mind. His eyes widened when he saw the familiar utensils that his using.

"Wait. These things looked familiar, these feelings seem familiar, and you look familiar as well. Lady, have we met before?" Aziel couldn't help but asked the lady while tears keep flowing from his eyes.

"You haven't changed a bit, you're still a big eater, hehe." The lady replied while smiling at him.

That's when he remembered the lady from his childhood who give him food whenever he go to her house. Aziel began to cry even more, and put his plate down.

"It's been forever since the last time I saw you, why did you leave? I… I was looking for you but somehow I can't find you, even your house wasn't there anymore. And in time you started to… fade away from my mind. I grew up feeling that there is something missing inside me. I… I missed you." Aziel cried without making a sound as he said everything.

"I had to. The people were having a suspicions of you." The lady starts to confess the reasons why she left.

"What does that have to do with you leaving? Am I the reason why you left?" Aziel asked the lady.

"Yes because for some reason you were the only one that could went through the barrier I set up in that place, and people starts to have a suspicions on you why you always go to the woods every morning and came back during dusk without bringing any food. They were thinking that maybe someone is feeding you from the woods. The night after your last visit, people went there and was about to find the barrier I set up. Although they can't went through it, it was an invisible but a solid barrier. They could still touch it if they come closer. That's why I left, I left to protect you." The lady told the harsh truth.

"I'm very sorry." Aziel realized how bad the consequences of his actions are.

"I'll be taking my leave now, I won't bother you anymore. Thank you, and again I apologize." Aziel bowed his head and was about to walk outside when the lady asked him something that triggered his curiosity.

"You don't want to know why I cast that barrier, why I left for that simple reason, and why did I help you now after a long time?" The lady knows how Aziel's curiosity works.

"I know you had your reasons, but why would you tell me? The same kid that made you left that place." Aziel asked without looking at the lady.

"Because I need you. You're the only one who could help me." The lady replied.

"How could I help you? I know you're more powerful than a thousand of me combined, so how can a weak person like me do that? Not to mention, I don't have magic." Aziel asked the lady but this time, he was facing the lady, his eyes were red from crying, snots were coming from his nose, and his face was that of a helpless kid.

The lady stood up and walk towards Aziel.

"Because this weak you, was able to go through my barrier without me noticing it, you're the only one who has the courage to face the unknown, the heart to help the weak, and you have something that any person or even gods doesn't have." The lady points Aziel's chest.

"You have a massive latent power. If that power comes out without proper guidance you will harm not just yourself but also the people around you."

Aziel's eyes widened when he heard the lady's words.

"How could that even possible? Did I forget to mention that I don't have any magic? I didn't get the blessing from the universe." Aziel asked the lady, confused on what she was talking about.

"That's exactly why. You see, the universe granted powers to the weak who can't protect themselves without it, but you, you're different. The universe saw you as a powerful being that doesn't need any of its powers. You were just like the gods. The gods who were once humans, also didn't get their powers from the universe, their powers comes from within themselves. And, those gods experienced the same way you did, but a little different." The lady told Aziel something he couldn't comprehend.

The lady wasn't making any sense in Aziel's mind.

"What do you mean, the gods experience the same way as I did? Am I also a god? You're not making any sense." Aziel speak his mind.

"No, you're not a god. What I mean is that, they experience the same way as you did, in a sense that they didn't get a blessing from the universe, and different because they unlocked their powers at an early age of five years old and below. You have your power but there's a force inside you that was preventing your powers to come out. I don't know how to force your powers to come out but I have here the powers that you could use for the mean time." The lady said to Aziel as she showed a magical chest beside the huge dragon.

"Woah! What is in that box? Why is it glowing?" Aziel asked the lady, amazed as he approached it while wiping his tears.

"That box is a magical chest. I put there all the ancient magical scrolls that I came across while venturing around the world. Why don't you open it and try one of the scrolls?" The lady encourages Aziel to open the chest.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me? I need to get back to the Kingdom as soon as possible, and who are you exactly?" Aziel said to the lady.

The lady's expression turned into a gloomy one.

"I was also one of them. I experience the same as you did, that is why I was helping you. As I see in the near future, during a tournament, these gods were having an argument that leads to the destruction of the Kingdom. All of the people in that Kingdom were turned to dust, and the neighboring Kingdom didn't even offer a helping hand. That is why I need you to help me, help you, helping others." The lady said in a gloomy but serious tone.

"What? That's so many helping words, my mind malfunctioned there for a bit." Aziel punned a joke to lift the mood a little.

"What do you say? Will you help me, and your people, or you'll just let those gods destroy the peace in your land?" The lady asked Aziel seriously.

"Please, help me and my Kingdom. Train, and use me as you may see fit and right. I can't let my people get killed for no reason." Aziel bowed and pleaded the lady.

"Okay, for now let's continue eating while the food is still hot. We'll start the training tomorrow morning. Prepare your body and mind tonight, as I don't promise you that it will be a light training." The lady warned Aziel on the hellish training up ahead.

"Before that, may I know where we are? I promised I won't escape or do anything about it." Aziel asked the lady about their location.

"We are inside the barrier I set in a different Kingdom." The lady conveys a shocking news.

"What? How did I end up here?" Aziel asked the lady when he remembers the Dragon who ate him.

"Oh right." Aziel sat in defeat.

"What? You finally decided not to take this path because you're in a different Kingdom?" The lady asked Aziel about his decision.

"No. I was just saddened to hear the news that I was so far from them." Aziel said in a gloomy tone.

"If you're sad by that news, then do everything you can so that they won't be taken away from you by those gods!" The lady said to Aziel in a serious tone.

"Yes, ma'am!" Aziel's answer was short but it was full of conviction.

The two of them continue to eat, when the lady say her name.

"It's Eleanor Gaia."

"Pardon?" Aziel was confused for a second.

"My name is Eleanor Gaia, one of the thirteen gods of this world." Eleanor reveals a massive news that no one in the Kingdom knew.

"WHAT!? Cough! Cough!" Aziel didn't expect that one, and it caught him off guard which made him cough.

"I'm sorry. What do you mean thirteen gods? Isn't there only twelve gods?" Aziel asked in confusion.

"There are a total of thirteen gods, but those bastards betrayed me. That is why I was living alone in that house where you found me. That place was covered with a magical barrier that no one could break through except for them. They were hunting me, because of the powers that I possessed. But you don't have to know that for now." Eleanor gests Aziel to continue eating.

Aziel respected Eleanor's every decision, so instead of trying to be nosy, he decided to follow her order and focus on eating.

Once again in a very long time, Aziel's appetite was satisfied. And due to him being so full, he couldn't move an inch and laid beside the dragon. Aziel figured that the dragon arrived in that forest to save him from the ambush, and it didn't hurt him. So, he began to open up to it, trying to be friends with it.

"His name is Drako, he's my only companion, and the guardian of that place where we first met. But like me, he didn't noticed you too for some reason." Eleanor introduces his companion to Aziel.

Aziel was starring towards Drako amazed by how huge it is.

"What is he doing, milady?" Drako asked Eleanor telepathically.

"Don't worry, he's a curious kid and he usually does that when someone amazed him." Eleanor replied telepathically.

"I never had a friend this huge, can we be friends? I'm Aziel Mateo?" Aziel offers his hand for a handshake but Drako was so huge even lying that Aziel still needs to look up just to see its eye.

Drako didn't expect someone to have the courage that offers a handshake to a dragon like Aziel did.

Drako just exhaled a huge air from his nose that blows Aziel's light blue hair away.

"He can't offer you a handshake, but when he does his blowing thingy that's basically a handshake for a dragon towards human. So, that means he accepted you as his friend." Eleanor clarified Drako's action to Aziel.

"Really? Yes! I now have a humongous friend. Can I lie next to you? How old are you? What is your favorite food? Wait, how do you eat? Do you also poop?" Aziel bombarded Drako many rhetorical questions as he lied beside him.

"He's unbelievable, milady." Drako couldn't help but exhaled another huge air from his nose.

"Yes, you're right, but that's also the reason why I grew fond with his company." Eleanor replied telepathically.

A few minutes passed and Aziel fall asleep. His sleep was so deep that it was already morning when he wakes up.

-End of Chapter-