The Test

Walking down the street next to Aris, I thought about what the man had said to me about remembering me. It was strange that he would but it would also explain a lot.

'Mabie if I was to travel to the capital then I can find answers? Its not like it would be out of the way, since I am already planning to go to the magic school in the capital, as soon as I can pass this test...'

Focusing back on the current task I realized that the man had led us, all the kids that were able to take the test, to a clearing in one of the fields near the town. Our towns exports weren't that much, just Hops, sheep, and cattle. due to this we had lots of open terrain, as long as you were willing to walk out of the immediate forest. As we reached the center of the grazing land, owned by the Aeddans to the north of the village. The walk to get from our town to the farms was about 20 minutes, but you could make it faster if you ran.

The man told us to wait where we were standing and walked 20 more paces ahead of us, before placing his hand on the ground and chanting a spell.

"Earth storage!"

A stone building rose out of the ground. On the side of you house there was a walled off court yard where Archery targets were placed. On the left side of the house were dummies for practicing close combat. As I walked closer to the building heading to the entrance, I could see that is seemed to be all cut out of a simple piece of stone, almost as if it war grown like a plant. As they entered they quickly realized that the interior was bigger than the exterior made it looked to be, as it entered into a flight of stairs that headed down.

"What is this place?" I asked to anyone who was listening.

"I think that this is a conjured house? though this is much more lavish than any I have ever heard about before. usually they are just a single room, and a small room at that. to be able to conjure a whole training yard, let alone have the earth itself shape a room underground that is this big, is something that I have never heard of being done before."

And indeed it was big. At the bottom the stairs there was a huge room with training mats spaced out in a 3 by 3 pattern along the far left wall, used for sparring and dueling. Along the wall opposite to the stairs however was the most impressive thing in the whole room. To one side there was this orb that was connected to a glass tube that stretched up the whole wall, that was at least 12 feet high. Small blue veins spread out of the glass tube wherever they touched. Following them, it seemed that they each connected eventually to an orb of different hues and colors.

"This, is an affinity machine. It tests you for your elemental affinities that you can currently used. I would expect that most of you could only use one, as you need extensive training to use any of them. of course, us royal knights can use all of the basic elements, and some of us can use most of the others." The man spoke, before putting hand on the orb that was placed on a pedestal in front of the glass pipe. The pipe slowly filled up with a brown light, before traveling down the glowing veins one after another, lighting up a plethora of the different lights.

"As you can see I have a talent in all of the basic elements, along with space and matter magics."

"The order of elements to there color goes Blue, which is liquids, Red, which is fire, Gray, which is gas, and then brown, which is earth."

"Now, most people would tell you that the elements are fire, water, earth, and wind. But this isnt true. Elemental affinities arent only limited to controlling air after all, but if you are good enough then you could even separate the Carbon directly out of the air we breath. This is the same for water. Just because the easiest thing to control is water doesn't mean that we can only control water. The reason that water is the easiest to control is because it is the purist of its elements. With enough training you could even control natural liquids, such as becoming a blood hexer, which is someone that can manipulate blood. If you wanted to you could even train to specialize in controlling oil, using earth magic and water magic. So in short while we shorten the elements down to Earth, water, fire, and wind; the true elements are Earth, Liquid, Fire, and Gas."

"Now, I want each and every one of you to walk up and place your hand on this glass orb. not only will this tell you your magical affinities but also your weapon affinities, and any skills you might have. Skills, unlike spells, are something that are given to you or that you are born with. you can not learn these and people with skills are highly sought after."

One after another the people walked up, until finally it was his and Aris's turn.

"Ladies first" Jason said as he let her take the lead.

"Gee thanks"

As they got closer to it Jason stopped and let her continue the last few steps to the machine. He knew that she would do well because they both had trained together from a young age, sneaking out of the village at night to cultivate there power and grow stronger. It was a passion that they both shared. Even then though that wouldn't be enough to make him confidant in her. He was so confidant because he himself had taught her how to use magic, along with teaching her the bow.

The machine whirred to life as she touched it and a teal color flowed through the machine, before connecting the branches and lighting up several orbs.

———————————————————————————————-

Elements:

Water

Nature

Psyche

Weapon Proficiencies:

Spears

Bows

Skills:

Blood Thorn

Self Improvement

———————————————————————————————-

"As you can see, some people are more talented than others. Aris here is a perfect example of someone who has the talent that only comes around once every generation. having both plant and water elements would be enough, but with her psyche element to she can imbue her plants that she creates with a hypnotic magic to lure in her pray. It is safe to say that any man who gets on her bad side better watch his back" At that the man winked at Jason.

"Ok, Humphrey, thats enough, lets let this kid take his test now" a second voice sounded. this was the other guard that had been quietly walking with him.

"aaah, fine Fred, if you insist. But one last thing. the color of the glass pillar represents where you draw your mana from. for me it was brown because I draw mana from the earth. some draw from water, and some from other elements or astral beings. there is an endless amount of possibilities, and is something new is discovered the machine will automatically update."

Walking up to the machine his nerves tenses for some reason. He felt like this was a very bad Idea. Touching the orb, there was an ominous silence as nothing happened for what felt like and endless amount of time. Finally something started to happen right before the man was about to tell him to take his hand off the orb. Painfully slow, the glass pillar filled with a silver liquid. When the liquid reached a fourth of the way up it turned crimson, in another forth of the way up it turned gold. for the last forth of the vial it turned to a clear color that seemed to distort reality all around it.

Faster than the glass pillar filled, orbs of light started to light up one by one, before a grinding sound filled the whole chamber, making all of the young people close there eyes and cover there ears, dropping to the floor in pain. from the corner of his eye he could se that the royal knight seemed to be tense and warring with excitement and fear.

A new light appeared on the machine, blinding to look at and position high above all of the other 'nodes' of power. Then a click sounded, as a crack sounded on the machine.

"hurry! record the boys stats!" Humphrey yelled at Fred, who was standing there in his shock. Quickly looking down he started scribbling things as fast as he could.

'click'

'click' 'click'

'click' 'CKINK'

With an ominous sound the glass pillar shattered and all of the magic that was being held within the machine flowed back into Jason.

"OH, God, what have I done?" I prayed.

"I got it!" Frank yelled as he started to read all of the nodes that the machine had displayed.

———————————————————————————————-

Elements:

Dragon

Summoning

monster

mana fundamentals

doomsday prowess

fire

water

earth

air

darkness

Weapon Proficiencies:

swords

bows

spears / staffs

knives

daggers

Skills:

Bloodswrite Wraith

Vampirism

soul harvester

Reaper

Self Improvement

———————————————————————————————-

"Jason Bloodswrite, just who are you?" Humphrey said with a gleam in his eyes and his hand on his hilt.

"As I have already said, sir, I have no recollection of who I am, as you don't. I cant even remember my parents. All that I do know is that was raised with luxury and all the training I could get., however I cannot tell you any details.

"Can you swear upon your families name that all you have said is the truth?"

"I, Jason Bloodswrite, hear bye swear on my blood that I have no recollection as of right now as to who my family is."

As I said this a screen appeared in front of me, as did Humphrey, and a beam of light shot from them into there chests. This was a normal sight that happened whenever someone swore on there blood. When someone did that the earth itself would hear and monitor it, making sure that you don't break the promise or else you would face harsh consequences.

"Good" Humphrey said to me as he turned away, with his hand still on his hilt.

" We will now start the tests!" Humphrey said before yielding the floor to Frank.

"Ok, So there are... 16 people here currently, that is twice as many people as we need. As suck we will be holding a set of tests to reduce the number of candidates down to 8. The tests we be in this order; Magical aptitude, Weapons testing, hand to hand combat, then finally Rule less sparring. At the end we will pick the 8 of you who have the highest ability for growth." Frank spoke

"Ok, now we are going to start with the weapons testing, as you have all already had your magical aptitudes tested."

Leading us out of the building and into the harsh light of the afternoon, we followed him into the sparring area.

"Ok, I want you to line up. When I say go, the dummy will attack the person in the ring. Each time you defeat the dummy it will increase in one rank. For those of you that don't know the ranks it goes Iron, Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, then finally Divine. These ranks are then broken down into sub ranks. these go as followed. D, C, B, A, AA, AAA."

One after another people entered the ring and were immediately thrown out as the dummy was turned on. Most of the people were hadn't even trained one in combat ability, instead content with there village lives. Some of the people however were able to stay in the ring. Darius, Yarun, and Kun all survived until Copper D. 3 other people, named Envy, Warcoth, and Destiny, reached Copper AAA.

"Aria, please enter the ring" Frank said.

13 minutes later, Aria was bent double next to Jason, her hands on her knees, with sweat dripping off her face. She had fought viscously until bronze rank B. Apparently the ranks get hardener and harder to climb the farther you went. If this was a representation of real life, then climbing to the highest ranks, or even gold rank, must be neigh impossible.

"Jason, please enter the ring" Frank said with a dark undertone in his voice. There seemed to be something that he Humphrey had discussed beforehand because they seemed slightly off.

Stepping up and onto the Wooden platform covered in a mat, I readied myself for what was to come. With a whir, the machine booted up, but instead of attacking, Frank raised his hand at the machine and the ranking bar on the side of the dummy raised. Copper A, Copper AA, Copper AAA, then finally Bronze A.

"What are you doing!" I shouted in rage when I saw this. no one had been able to fight above bronze B.

"Are you trying to kill him?" Aria yelled at Frank, who had a grim face.

"Due to extenuating circumstances this is required. Jason is from an unknown background, and we have to see everything that he can do.

I started to sweat as I realized the predicament that I was in. Half of my abilities I didn't even know how to use, and I didn't even know about the skills. In simple terms, I was borderline screwed.

When the dummy started to move, I barely had time to react. enhancing my reactions by imbuing my senses and body with wind magic, I rolled to the left, before jumping to my feet and dashing at its back. As a sent a fist at its wooden head, an arm came up and blocked it, shield in hand. Realizing my plunder I tried to back off and grab a weapon from the side of the mat, but it kept itself glued to me, turning around and kicking me in the gut.

Almost puking I jumped back and imbued more wind magic into my boots, shooting off towards the armaments'. Sadly, there was no time to grab armor, but I was able to pick up a staff. Spinning it in my hand to pick up momentum I turned and brought it up directly into the line of attack from the dummy, blocking and countering the attack.

Jumping again to center myself in the arena I brought up my guard in preparation for a rush. Instead however the dummy held out a hand and a fireball shot out of its open palm. Swinging my staff to block it, I countered the fireball by infusing the staff with an aura of wind. This was harder than imbuing an item, because you had to control external mana instead of internal mana. as I looked to where the dummy was, I realized that I had played into its hands, as it was gone. Turning around and raising my staff to block the attack that I knew was inevitable, A flaming sword stabbed into my gut. Even though we were fighting with training equipment I knew that that was not just a flesh wound, as the force behind the blow was enough to push the polished wooden sword deep into my body, rearranging my organs.

I collapsed to my knees in pain as I looked up at the dummy, feebly trying to strike it. When I didn't concede after that blow the dummy twisted and pulled the sword from my gut, before delivering a powerful spinning kick directly to my jaw, sending me flying across the arena with blood trailing after me. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I was not sent out of the arena.

Holding my hand to my stomach to keep my guts from falling out I stood up and faced the dummy.

"Stop fighting, you might die!" Aria called to me.

I was to focused though and couldn't hear anything except for my breathing and the dummies' continuous creaking as it moved.

"DONT FORGET YOUR PROMICE CHILD" a horrendous and awful presence descended upon the arena and the crown of people around him, though no one else could hear the voice but him. To everyone else, it felt like there blood was congealing in there veins and there hears felt as if they were going to stop beating.

Jason however didn't see any of this as a dark scene played out in his mind. He was standing in a church with red stained glass windows, holding his wrist over a bowl for offerings. A priest stood on a dais preaching with a knife in his hand.

"With the blood the blood of the virgin warrior as a conduit and the offering or a follower of Khorne, we ask that you descend from your throne of blood and deem us worthy of your presence" The high priest spoke as someone cut my wrist and let the blood dribble into the bowl. I realized that I was being held against my will.

The dagger that the high priest was holding stabbed out into a follower that was kneeling next to him, penetrating their heart. An awful presence descended, filling the room with a coppery taste and a red ominous light. The blood of the follower flowed out of there body and congealed into the shape of a man, black scabby armor forming around his shoulders, feet, and head.

"High priest, why have you forced me from my throne and down to this plane of existence? A rumpling voice reverberated through the room.

"The time has come, that we are the gods of blood and not you, Khorne!"

The priest took the knife that was stabbed into the follower and slashed at Khorne. A blood red wave washed out of it, but like a stone on a craggy beach, the wave of blood parted around him not daring to touch him.

"Ha, ha, hah. You dare you my own power to try and subdue me? Foolish mortal, I shall send your soul to battle under the legions of hades for 20 eternities!"

Khorne reached out his hand towards his high priest and clenched his fist together. What happened next Jason had no idea how he forgot. The high priest convulsed as his heart beaded faster than his body could handle, blood was magically pumped into and through his body. He swelled up like a marshmallow before blood started to run from his eyes, nose, and mouth. Like a whine bottle popping open, his eyes shot out of his skull like they were dam rupturing. Out of then came a torrent of blood that flowed towards Jayson, before flowing around him and grabbing the mysterious person that was holding him up. As he turned around to look at the person, he was showered in a wave of visceral blood and body tissue.

Turning back around, he stared in horror at the being that just did that.

"Do not worry, for I will not kill you, child." The not fully formed and half armored man said, before bending down and picking me up.

"You are precious to me, see, my church seems to have gotten the wrong idea of me. I am the god of blood, Khorne. Just because I am the god of blood however does not mean that I am evil. It means that I am a double edged blade. The power to manipulate blood is both a blessing and a curse. Anyone who knows that you can do that will instinctively be wary of you at first. Some may even want to kill you. I need you to promise however that you will carry my seed of power within you and bring my church back up to its formal glory. I use to be a church of healing, and in war times, a church of strength and power. Now though I have been desecrated and my power wanes. It has taken all of my focus just to create this body, and now that I have no followers, I am dying."

I shook my head in confirmation, and the blood that was flowing around us like the red sea exploded upwards, making a dome around us before diving strait into my wound on my wrist. I was horrified at first, but after a minute of still being alive I calmed down. It was actually a very nice feeling, as the blood poured into my body. I could feel that it was turning from physical matter, to a bloody power that circulated within me, settling a physical root within my heart. The rest of the power spread out from me and settled into an aura of fear.

"Thankyou, when the time comes, you will learn of the importance of what you have done, and I will bestow upon you a reward when that time comes. for now though I can not have any one learning of this. I will block your memories of this untill you are in need of my strength. Till next time.

Blackness...