10 Chapter 10 The Affinity Orb

With that being said, Astaroth walked away leaving Marcus, Vera, and I at the waterfall.

"If what he said is true, that fucker is old as hell, literally." Marcus said while checking to make sure had Astaroth really left.

"I know right. That would mean everyone is a child in his eyes." Vera said following up on Marcus's statement.

"Out of that whole story, the only thing you two got out of it was that he's old. I know not to tell you guys a story in the future." I said.

"So, who's next?" Vera asked with a devilish smile.

Marcus and I looked at each other with a "not me" look before deciding to let Vera choose. It seemed only fair since she was the first to go and didn't have a choice in the matter either. Thanks to my good luck or something else out of my control, she chose Marcus.

"I'm going to remember this Vera, just you wait." Marcus said as he took the same position on the rock Vera did only moments before Asaroth's story.

Marcus lasted about five minutes before he fell into the water, indicating it was my turn. As I passed through the water I could feel my wounds being healed. The low-level healing pills had healed most of the surface damage, but I was still having internal pains that had not yet subsided.

I sat down on the rock and without a doubt, Veras's description was spot on, and before I knew it I was sinking to the bottom of the pond as well.

"Four and a half minutes? I guess I'm better than you Damien." Marcus said as I pulled myself out of the water onto dry land.

"Fuck you Marcus, that shit really does hurt. Vera, it's your turn." I said returning an evil smile of my own.

----------------------------------- SIX MONTHS AND A LOT OF PAIN LATER-----------------------------------------

Six months had passed since Astaroth left us at the waterfall. No one had come looking for us during this time. Since we assumed we were safe here we just continued to train our bodies with the waterfall. We discussed the blood gem several times but decided to wait until Astaroth returned. He may have some additional information about it and may know of a safe and more effective way to activate it.

It was currently my turn under the waterfall, and I was twenty minutes into stage seven. If my guess was correct the purpose of stage seven is to make the body more resistant to law attacks. At this stage, the waterfall makes it feel like lightning is sticking your body over and over again. The lightning I've been trained in pales in comparison to what I was feeling. After another two minutes, I finally fell back into the pond for what felt like the millionth time allowing the formation at the bottom to help my body recover.

Within these six months, my short black hair had grown well to the middle of my back. So needless to say, going in and out of the water had become a little annoying. As I was getting some water out of my hair I could see Astaroth flying from the direction of the cabin, and within a matter of seconds of me noticing him, he landed in front of us.

"You children have progressed nicely, it's time for part two of your training." Astaroth said.

"We haven't even progressed through all nine stages yet." Marcus stated.

"The fact that you and Damien made it to stage seven and Vera stage four is a great accomplishment for such a short amount of time. You three can finish later if you wish but I feel you've played in the water long enough." Astaroth said.

"Just knowing that you've been watching us is a bit creepy." Vera said.

Astaroth just shrugged his shoulders and walked to the lever.

"Have you kids ever turned the lever to stage zero?" Astaroth asked with a sly smile.

"Why would we do that?" I asked while raising an eyebrow.

As if to answer my question he pulled the lever toward his body. The mouth of the dragon statue started to close cutting off the water flow, and the rock we've been setting on began to move. We all watched as the pond started to drain out revealing complex and detailed formation on the ground. With our attention on the formation, Astaroth had to point out the staircase where the rock was once located.

"Shall we get going?" Astaroth said as he started walking to the staircase.

All three of us followed Asaroth down the winding staircase made of old stones that could give way at any moment. The staircase was still wet from the pond water, so unless I wanted to fall down Lucifer knows how many stairs watching my step was paramount.

It was about an hour before we finally made it to the bottom. I don't know what I was expecting, but what I saw was definitely nowhere on the list.

Collum after collum filled the colossal room. The collum's had writing on them that glowed in pure white light. The writing was something I had never seen before, and the look on Marcus's face said that he was just as dumbfounded as I was. After studying the collum's for a short while and getting nowhere I turned to the only person in the room who had any idea what they were.

"Astaroth, what are these and where did they come from?" I asked.

"Well let me put it like this my young Prince of Hell, if you were kicked out of your home would you leave empty-handed?" Astaroth asked.

"I suppose not, but you mean to say that these collum's come from Heaven?" I asked.

"Exactly, and as for what they are, well they have been called many names, but let's just go with stones of law. As I'm sure you know a person can learn any law but how far they can progress depend on a person's affinity for that law. These stones of law won't allow someone to fully understand every law, but they will allow them to progress roughly ten to fifteen percent further than they normally would. How have you children been determining the laws that you practice and how have you been practicing them?"

Vera was the first to answer saying that she had never practiced or even heard of laws before. Marcus followed by saying that he knew of the laws but he never devoted himself to studying them. Astaroth then looked at me.

"Boy, please tell me that you have a better answer than these two." Astaroth said.

"Alexander, my trainer was the one who determined the laws that I practice, as for how he chose them, I have no idea and never dared to ask. He would train my brothers and I through the normal method of exposing us to nature's natural laws. I would be sent out during storms and to high mountains to further understand the law of wind. Luckily Alexander was a practitioner of lightning or who knows what he would have had me do." I said.

"What is Hell becoming? How can your fathers allow this to happen? They are shitty ass kings if you ask me." Astaroth began to vent his frustrations before realizing that we were still in the room. Astaroth cleared his throat before speaking again.

"What's done is done, nothing we can do about that now. If you kids turn around you will see an affinity orb. The orb does exactly as the name implies, it will determine your law affinity." Astaroth said.

We turned in unison to see a dusty orb located on a table. The table was pushed against the wall and was covered with a faded red cloth. I found myself thinking that this orb looked anything but special.

We all walked over to the table and just stared at the orb before Astaroth dusted it off revealing its true clear appearance. I looked at Vera to see if she was going to ask how does it work, but she only shook her head. Marcus laughed after seeing her response to my unasked question.

"How does it work?" Marcus asked as he took a step forward with his chest puffed out like he just accomplished something amazing.

"It's simple, just place your hand on the affinity orb and it will do all the work for you." Astaroth said.

Marcus's chest deflated in disappointment thinking it was going to be something harder.

"Damien, why don't you go first this time I'll take the next one." Marcus said as he took a step back to stand next to Vera.

I looked at Marcus as if he just ate the last of my food before stepping forward and placing my hand on the affinity orb. Twenty seconds passed, then forty then and minute then two minutes, nothing was happening. I went to take my hand off of the orb but realized I wasn't able to.

"Is this normal?" I asked Astaroth.

"Umm.... no. I've never seen this happen before it should take thirty seconds at most." He replied."

Then out of nowhere a projection appeared before all of our eyes.

"Now that, is normal." Astaroth said.

But that was before he had a chance to look at what the projection said.

{Law affinitys}

{Wind 100%

Lightning 100%

Water 100%

Chaos 100%

Fire 100%

Darkness 100%

Earth 100%

Light 100%

Life 100%

Death 100%......}

The List went on and on like this and I couldn't understand what the hell was going on. How is this even possible? I removed my hand from the orb and looked at Ataroth to see if he had an answer, but he was just as lost as I was.

"Not even Archangel Michale can say he has a perfect affinity with all laws. This is just unheard of. This means you are perfectly in sync with the universe." Astaroth said in a state of confusion.

"So does that mean I could beat Michale in a fight if I train all of my laws to perfection?" I asked in excitement.

Astaroth was knocked out of his daze with my question which resulted in him laughing so hard he fell on the floor. I could only stand there with an embarrassed look on my face. After a while, Astaroth was back on his feet wiping the tears from his eyes.

"Look kid." He tried to say before he started laughing again.

"Look kid, laws are not the only source of power in this universe, and even if it was Michael has millions of years of experience. What do you think Michale is doing right now? Don't answer I'll tell you. He is training and preparing for war. Even with King Lucifer and Beelzebub dead Michael knows that another was will eventually happen. That guy has issues, he was literally created for the sole purpose of leading Heavens Army and to kill anyone who opposes God's rule. Now step out of the way Mr. Perfect and let someone else have some spotlight." Astaroth said.

"Can I beat Michael in a fight he asks, The kids these days are pretty funny." Astaroth started talking to himself as Marcus stepped forward for his turn with the affinity orb.