Time Flies at the Tower, Sicarius's Problem

Sometimes questions pop out that can never truly be answered. This goes for the attacks of the Cult of Sin. Their motives were as unclear as the murky depths of the ocean. Once the staff of Last Hope got involved with the patrols their attacks slowly died down.

Just like that. They completely disappeared again leaving nothing but remnants of terrorism. The City of Angels waited for a second attack, for the cultist to escalate the chaos within the city, however, nothing happened. Even the great Omni couldn't decipher the Cult's plans, and yet he assured the city that all would be well. A year passed, then two, then nearly a decade. Life slowly returned to normal and the unrest of the common folk died down.

The city rebuilt itself and reinforced its security. The buildings and structures that were damaged were merely rebuilt by powered which were capable of earth and metal manipulation, while the security was largely improved thanks to the Commander of the Police Hanzel. It seemed as if he didn't let the attacks smother his resolve, and has been exemplary in his actions which were always done with a smile.

Multiple orphanages sprung up within the city to take care of the children who have lost their caretakers. Such institutions were praised and often the target of charities. In fact, with the money they had, the orphanages all over the city were capable of setting up powered schools of their own. These powered schools all ended up being conjoined with an organization of powered schools all set up by orphanages, named the 'New Beginnings'. With them and the Last Hope, it seemed like the security was as tight as it will ever be.

At the top of the tower, Sicarius stood, watching the calm of the city below. It's been nine years since the attack of the Cult. He stood by the edge of the tower with one misstep quite possibly leading to his death, however, he wasn't phased.

Refusing to participate in anything else other than training, Sicarius had overcome the limits of his physique repeatedly. With muscles seemingly bursting from his black shirt and black loose pants. The years of training with Omni and the two kids were decent but left much to be desired. Since Sicarius had no powers yet Omni could only train him through combat drills and physical exercise. This would have been effective to Princess or Venus but to him, who's been in multiple military institutions of multiple worlds, Omni's training was merely maintenance of the skills Sicarius already had.

The good part of being Omni's disciple, however, was that he had access to the best training gear out there including multiple machines for exercise that increased his efficiency.

Progress had been made, but on his face was nothing but a deep scowl. Tied on his waist was a modified chain rope dart with sharp glimmering knives on both ends.

He seemed to be contemplating deeply, but he was disturbed by the sound of projectiles.

Multiple arrows of dark energy were in the air all rushing at him from behind. The sight was a short one as he was quickly blinded by a strong flash of light.

Being blinded didn't make Sicarius lose his focus as he wielded his rope dart. Quickly he jumped off the edge and pierced one end of his rope dart on the side of a wall causing him to swing off the edge of the tower.

The arrows passed through where he was and once it was clear Sicarius yanked himself back up with such force that he shot through the room. A teenage girl with long black hair tied into a ponytail wearing black loose clothing dodges out of the way from Sicarius. A shield formed in her hand just in time to deflect the blade of Sicarius's rope dart.

Sicarius rolls on the floor to ease his landing before facing his opponents. However, once again he was quickly blinded by a flashing light.

"Troublesome."

Sicarius muttered as he closed his eyes. Heightening his hypersense, he could perceive the whole training room in complete clarity through his remaining senses. He knew where Princess was, so he directed his attention towards the other sounds of heavy breathing which could only have been Venus.

Sicarius's legs burst with strength as he sprinted towards Venus. Princess sprinted after him in an attempt to save Venus from him. At least that was what Sicarius assumed until he reached Venus.

A vicious sense of danger engulfed Sicarius, in haste, he pierced his rope dart at the ceiling and yanked.

"Arms of Shadow!" Princess yelled, and Sicarius found himself blocked from retreat by enormous tendrils of darkness.

"Pillar of light!" Venus yelled, and a ray of light devoured from above.

The light was as radiant as the sun. Everything in its path was sure to be obliterated, or at least incapacitated. The sheer magnitude of this skill would make any onlooker gasp in awe.

"Did we get him!?" Princess asked as soon as the light dimmed, however, they were met with nothing.

One look above and they'll see Sicarius. Hanging on the ceiling with his rope dart pierced on the roof and wrapped around his waist. He looked like he didn't escape the power of that attack. He was rather pissed at this fact.

With his remaining strength, he dislodged his rope dart and hit both teenage girls with the chain on the back of their heads. He staggered as he landed on the floor and both girls fell flat on their faces.

A laugh echoed throughout the training room as Omni levitated towards them.

"That was the closest you two have ever been!" Omni chuckled, "Look at the state of the boy, he looks run over!"

Sicarius didn't find it as amusing as Omni did. Despite all the years of physical honing, the gap between him and those with powers was nowhere near where he would like. He was merely human.

In fact, with all of Sicarius's physical stats, he could barely be classified as human.

But when you're against people who could literally summon rays of light from the heavens what could you do?

"Damn it!" Venus yelled as she stood up,

Princess held the back of her head as she glared at Sicarius, but upon seeing Sicarius's sorry state she couldn't help but laugh. Sicarius seemed disheveled with his clothes partially torn and his hair in wavy spikes that seemed like french fries.

"I need to get stronger." Sicarius said, "Old man, isn't there anyway to accelerate the awakening of my powers."

The old man chuckled, however, that chuckle quickly died down as he looked at Sicarius. His eyes displayed a calm expression laced with sympathy. Sicarius didn't like the look. It was as if Omni was satisfied with Sicarius just being this strong.

Sicarius was 15 years of age this year. Usually, the awakening of powers would happen in the early teens. The earlier the awakening the better it would be as they would have significantly more time to train their powers.

There are cases of people who awaken their powers in the late years of being a teenager, if they awaken at all, but by then they their potential is lower. A status above 3 would be rather difficult.

If Sicarius didn't awaken his powers at fifteen then Omni would have no choice but to place him among the support classes and stop being his teacher. Sicarius didn't need Omni's combat drills but he would lose all his privileges and would only be a common soldier among the rest of the powered. That was something that would be greatly inconvenient.

"Unless you take experimental drugs or augment your body with advanced mechanical parts I don't see how much more a human with no powers can be stronger than you are, boy." Omni explained,

Sicarius could merely scowl. The emergence of mana happened merely a hundred years ago. In this world there were no thousand year old artifacts nor were there miraculous inheritances. The path to strength here strongly depends on powers, and the lack of them would prove to be incredibly inconvenient to Sicarius and his plans.

"You want to be stronger when you can make a status 1 and 2 shit in their pants! Maybe only a status 3 can match you and that's already too strong for a human with no powers!" Venus said standing up as she brushed off the dust from her clothes.

"My goal is to be the strongest." Sicarius merely stated,

"Yeah," Princess smirked mockingly, "the strongest status 3."

Sicarius stared at her in reply with his dead violet eyes. If this was his limit he'd rather die.

"Why don't you try attending Mana Theory classes then boy?" Omni suggested, "Usually before a child awakens we teach them Mana Theory and Sin Extermination classes. Only when they awaken do we send them to their specific class. Try attending and you might gain some insight."

"Him? Attend a class?" Venus asked incredulously, "He could teach one!"

"That's actually a good idea, grandaughter." Omni said with his fingers on his chin brushing his beard, "I'll appoint you as a combat instructor for the school. Good idea right boy?"

Sicarius raised an eyebrow.

Perhaps it was a good idea. Sins could take over humans and their powers. Not only that but the cult still runs rampant in the shadows. Sicarius doubted that anyone would have a power he hadn't encountered yet, however, being powerless, it would be best to learn whether he could take them on. The possibility that there would be other geniuses like Venus or Princess was not zero.

"When do I start?" Sicarius asked,