Starless

-Aiken Faran, Star Affinity Level... Zero-

As everyone looked at the words on the blue screen in front, Aiken, who was the one closest to it, felt like his world crumbled.

***

Almost a hundred thousand years ago, the Earth underwent an extreme change. A new type of energy propagated, seeming to come from nothing. Obviously, Earth's scientists didn't believe such a thing was possible. Finally, after many years of research, it was understood that this energy came from another type of energy everyone knew existed but no one could detect: Dark Matter.

Research continued, trying to understand what caused that change in the Dark Matter, making it now perceptible by both living beings and machine sensors alike. The answer... was in the Sun!

Turns out that the contact of the Sun with Dark Matter changed Dark Matter itself, creating this new type of energy. That wasn't all. As modern equipment evolved, humanity was able to check if such a thing also happened in other nearby stars. 

Sure enough, that was exactly the case. The further humanity was able to research, the more certain they were that this new type of energy was now present in the entire galaxy... and probably the Universe! On top of that, it wasn't only the Sun. Neutron Stars, White Dwarves, Black Holes, you name it. All these celestial bodies seemed capable of transforming Dark Matter into more of this energy.

Later, this new type of energy was simply called Stellar Energy, as contact between Dark Matter and Stars was necessary for more Stellar Energy to be created. The only doubt was... why now?

The Sun and other Celestial Bodies have existed together with Dark Matter for billions of years. Yet, such a thing never happened before. Not only that, but this sudden change seemed to have occurred over the entire Universe at once. 

Several theories were raised. The most accepted one was that the concentration of Dark Matter in the Universe reached a critical point and that undetectable pressure became the trigger for the transformation. Of course, other theories were out there, too. Quite a few even believe it was the will of God.

However, even though this new type of energy existed, no one could find any use for it. The Stellar Energy was there; everyone could feel it, and machines could detect it. Yet, absolutely nothing could be done with it. It didn't help propagate any type of signal, it couldn't be used to create energy, and it definitely didn't have any kind of positive or harmful effect on anyone's life.

Things... didn't continue like that, though. A little over twelve thousand years after this energy first appeared, a baby was born. There was nothing different about this baby at first. But when he reached the age of fourteen, something changed. This young man became capable of manipulating Stellar Energy, using it as he saw fit. Naturally, the government of the place where this person was born immediately went out and hid his existence. They needed to understand what was happening first.

Unfortunately for them, that was only the first one. All over Earth, more and more of these men and women appeared once they reached the age of fourteen, and the governments went right and left, trying to cover it. Obviously, such a solution only worked for the first few years. It finally reached a point where there were way too many of these people appearing, and the planet's governments as a whole saw themselves forced to release the news.

Stellar Energy Manipulators... that's what they were called. They seemed capable of using the Stellar Energy to not only manipulate the elements, but also become stronger themselves. A huge commotion was ensured, and a wide search for Stellar Energy Manipulators was initiated. 

Humanity was afraid that these Super Humans would take their place, seeing just how much they could do. Even a pretty bad Stellar Energy Manipulator could do the job of ten men on a construction site easily. They could even use this energy to fly! They weren't particularly fast, with the best ones at that moment known to be able to fly at 30km per hour at most. Still, how impressive was that? On top of that, one could train to develop their manipulation even further, so this limit in flight speed was broken year after year by the oldest but still young manipulators.

One might think things would go very wrong when the conflict between normal humans and Stellar Energy Manipulators started. Yet, they didn't go as bad as people initially thought. There wasn't a war of humans against Stellar Energy Manipulators like many believed would happen. Why? Because after 27 years, the last 'normal' fourteen years old human was found!

From there on, all kids at the age of fourteen awakened their Manipulation Powers. Whether the living people wanted it or not, normal humans would cease to exist in at most a hundred years, so why would a war be necessary against each other? Everyone understood it would be meaningless. It even reached a point where the last living 'normal' humans were considered a national treasure, being protected until the end of their lives. Slowly but certainly, society transitioned into the age of Stellar Energy Manipulators.

Further research was done into it, and machines that were finally able to use this Stellar Energy were created. All of that was for the sake of understanding one thing: Why was humanity able to control Stellar Energy? Although we say fourteen years of age, that wasn't entirely correct. To be more precise, all people awakened their Stellar Energy Manipulation Abilities at the age of fourteen years, five months, six days, ten hours, and forty-two minutes. Yes, it was this precise for every single human.

That was to be expected. After all, why would such a Universe-changing event use Earth's year-time system? That would be ridiculous. Obviously, the time it happened had nothing to do with Earth's rotation at all.

Still, the new human race wanted to know why humans got the ability to use Stellar Energy. Finally, the answer was found: The Stars Guidance!

Every single human, when they reached that exact age, would be chosen by a star! This connection with a star, regardless of how far it was, allowed them to manipulate the Stellar Energy. Stellar Energy was created by those celestial bodies, so it made sense. Further tests only proved it even further. Thus, the name Stars Guidance.

At some point, a new system took place, the Stellar Measuring System. It turned out that some people had incredible affinity with their own stars, while others could barely connect to them. Everyone could use Stellar Energy, but the degree of manipulation ability was obvious to everyone. Thus, the Stellar Measuring System appeared. 

The System had two measuring points. First, it was the person's Star Affinity Level. Or, to be more precise, how much of a connection existed between the person and his own star.

The second point was the Manipulation Power Level. You see, even if a person's affinity with their star was low, they could still train themselves to become stronger, being able to Manipulate more Stellar Energy at once and, consequently, more precisely. That was true regardless of their level of affinity. 

Of course, those with a higher affinity with their own stars could train faster, become stronger faster, and increase their control faster. So, as one can imagine, those with a high level of affinity were considered to be the top prospects, while those with poor affinity were cast aside.

At first, the Star Affinity Measurement had three levels, but as the years passed, it also increased as humanity further evolved with Stellar Energy. No one knew how many levels would really be at the end in the future. The same went for the Manipulation Power Level.

Humanity continued to prosper, and technology that was capable of using Stellar Energy evolved nonstop. Its potential was just like the potential of technology itself, limitless. After twenty-one thousand years... humanity made its first contact! Another intelligent race, living in the same Milk Way Galaxy, was detected.

Both humanity and this race, which called itself the Longe Race, passed through the same transformations, ultimately reaching the same idea of communication. The Stellar Signal Communication. This type of signal, which used Stellar Energy, was able to communicate with literally anything within Stellar Energy's range instantly! You could literally have a conversation in real-time on the other side of the galaxy without any delays whatsoever.

That wasn't hard to imagine, though. Since it was found that every human was connected to a different star, regardless of how far it was, this type of instant communication has been theorized, developed, and now proven.

New contacts arrived in the following thousands of years. In the Milkway Galaxy, two other races existed... well, at least two races intelligent enough to develop their own technology and use the Stellar Energy Communication. One, obviously, was the Longe Race, while the other was the Kastriu Race.

Fortunately for all races, instant communication was one thing, while travel was another completely different. Earth's database of new races had surpassed the tens of thousands in number by the time Stellar Energy's discovery reached seventy thousand years old. Yet, they all stayed in their own solar system, at most visiting nearby ones. That's because no one found a way to travel faster than light yet. Visiting any of these other intelligent races was simply a ridiculous notion. Earth, for example, was only able to reach and colonize Pluto but didn't try to venture any further.

However, that didn't last. In the year seventy-three thousand after Stellar Energy's appearance, a message reached Earth from a different Planet tens of thousands of galaxies away. They... had been visited by a different race!

Similar cases happened in the following thousands of years. And with that, the appearance of new alliances and galactical empires soon took form. Above all... wars also took place. 

Nonetheless, the secret of interstellar travel was found, and Earth joined this new exploration endeavor. Milk Way could be said to be quite a weak galaxy, having only two intelligent races, so both joined hands, creating the Milk Way Alliance to defend against potential threats.

Finally, the new Universal laws took place. Wars were not about pieces of land on a planet anymore. Now, emperors, presidents, leaders, or whatever name those in power used fought for the right to control entire galaxies. Some even had thoughts of dominating the entire Universe.

Now, almost a hundred thousand years later, it was Aiken's time to join the world of Stellar Energy Manipulators and fight for Earth... or so he thought. He had aspirations to become a powerful Stellar Energy manipulator. He knew there were many affinity levels regarding a person's Star Connection. Yet, he didn't care. He already accepted that even if his affinity was low, he would put ten times more effort to make up for it.

Yet, the blue screen in front of him didn't care about his feelings. It only told him the hard truth. Aiken... was now the only normal human in existence...

The Starless!