Afterword

Hello all! The Author speaking, and I would like to congratulate everyone who's reading this for completing this book! For those who stuck around, it means a lot!

Honestly, completing this book has been such a hassle; it really shouldn't have taken me a little over a year to complete, but here we are. I would say look at my author notes, but uh, I deleted all of them (except for the last one) when I cut up my chapters sooo…

This also isn't my first time writing a book, but it is my first time completing one. The first book I started I still plan to complete, it's just I wanna complete this series first before continuing on to the other one (and no, the other series is not on Webnovel, or anywhere, unless you somehow have access to my computer).

Speaking of this series, as the name suggests, this is the first saga of The Hidden Power Saga; I plan on having five sagas of varying length (the next book will be waaaaaay longer than this one, but chapters are shorter) along with probably a couple spinoff books, which I'll get back to at the end.

But back on topic, the point of the Hidden Power Saga is for you, the reader, to come up with reasons/explanations for the characters abilities. By the end of the book, you should have a pretty good idea on how they work, but luckily for you, I'm gonna explain them here (most of them anyway)! So if you don't wish to learn about the abilities, because it may or may not get pretty technical, then skip towards to the page break, you really aren't missing out on too much.

I also plan on telling each of the characters nationalities, because apparently that's a thing people care about (I personally don't care, you can view the characters as whatever race/ethnicity you desire unless it explicitly gets stated what skin color or whatever they have. Also, it is based on what it would be on Earth). Now, without further ado, let's begin!

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Erebus (Race/Ethnicity: Japanese): His ability is quite simple; he can manipulate the element of Darkness to his will (note the capitalization). His Darkness is also, if you think in Pokémon terms for a second, super effective against demonkind. He can summon Darkness as easily as he can breathe, and wielding is like an extension of his body. Basically, the sky's the limit with what he can do with the Darkness he wields, as you saw in those fights.

He can hide things within the Darkness as well (which is where he keeps his weapons) as well as go into his own Darkness, melting into a shadow-like self (if you've seen Fairy Tail, it's basically like what Rogue can do). Note however he doesn't go into a shadow/dark dimension, he just literally becomes a shadow (he can also attack while in that state). He doesn't do it too often though, since once he gets attacked by an outside force, he'll be forced to revert back (although only certain attacks can actually cause that reversal).

Another thing, for the more astute, and that is yes, there is a difference when he uses Shadow before a move and Dark before a move, and the secret behind that right eye of his, although both are effective against demonkind (Dark being more effective though).

Everything else is self-explanatory with him. There is one more thing to mention. In this story there are elements (obviously). There are 10 people in the series who I deem to call Elementalists, and they are extremely broken. Put it simply, they can conjure and wield their elements at no cost to themselves. There are 4 main elements (fire, water, earth, and wind), as well as 6 hidden ones. Three of the Elementalists have already been introduced in the series at this point, although who they are is yet to be seen…

Eros (Race/Ethnicity: American): Sparkles! Love Master and Sexual Deviant Extraordinaire, this guy is where we have to start getting into the real technical stuff, because he can do quite a bit. He has two main abilities, the first being the power of persuasion (not charming!). He can pretty much convince people to do anything sexual related to both himself or to other people. His natural charm leads everyone to become attracted to him, to the point where I decided in my head that he is Eros-Sexual (He's attracted to everyone and everyone is attracted to him, to whatever extent he desires). However, he can decide whether or not to use it, so it's not on permanently (although he tends to leave it on at a rather low level for the day to day). He also can't affect people who wear glasses/contacts, hence why Prometheus wasn't charmed during their fight (Note however that the ability works by looking at his body, not the eyes. Also, the more skin he shows, his ability naturally becomes more effective).

His other ability is to use to power of Love and Sex (the capitalization doesn't mean anything here) to augment his body. Using different forms he likes to calls "Tendencies," among other moves, he can do a variety of things. The easiest way is to just do a quick rundown of his abilities:

Love Prevails: Using the power of Love, he can cause a physical manifestation of love to come off his body, affecting the surroundings much the same way an explosion would, although with people something intriguing happens…

Frolicking Tendencies: Using the power of Love, he makes his body as light as someone feels when they are spending time with their most precious one. Basically, he can dodge really well.

Admiration Prevails: Using the power of Love, he causes an emotional manifestation of love to come off his body, causing a wide range persuasion boost (basically how he got all those followers in the end of the book. I should also mention that his persuasion normally wouldn't work on someone who is asexual or aromantic).

Lover's Embrace: Using the power of Sparkles (he automatically makes them whenever he's happy, don't question it. Also, capitalization doesn't mean anything here either), he combines them with his power of Love and can forcibly persuade things/people he normally wouldn't be able to.

Masochistic Tendencies: Using the power of Love, he can toughen his already tough body with love to enjoy the attacks, reducing the amount of damage he gains. Also something to note is how is body is really tough, he's like a tank. Basically, with his ability, you can't harm his body well unless the love you feel for someone else is stronger than what he feels for you (since he obviously loves everyone). The reason he has those scars from his parents is because their twisted love was able to affect him normally.

Anyway, I could go on, but you get the gist. If need be I can write a chapter in more detail with how their moves work, but not here.

Aether (Race/Ethnicity: Uh, I don't really know tbh, but German sounds about right, if only because I would find it hilarious to hear him yell "German Science is the best in the World!" in a german accent. But if not German, then somewhere in Europe, probably Russia or something. Actually, yeah, let's go with Russian): He has the power of plot armour lololol.

Hemera (Race/Ethnicity: Canada? This one doesn't really matter): She uses the power of Day (capitalization may mean something) to do a variety of neat things! I struggled to decide if she should be the Light Elementalist but decided this would be better since it makes sense when you look at Nyx's ability.

Combat wise, she uses the power of Daylight (capitalization doesn't mean anything) in order to attack her enemies to varying degrees of power. Daybreak is actually the weakest move in her arsenal, with there being two other degrees of power after that. The move causes an explosion of Day to occur at whatever it impacts and can also be sent out as a ranged attack, kinda like a ki-blast.

Light's Out causes a flash of Day to appear, knocking out the enemies in front of her (Unless the enemy is strong, in which case they'll just take damage), while Happiness Punch is uh, a punch filled with happiness? It's her standard move to punch people up, it doesn't really mean much, she just likes the sound of it (note that it does also use the power of Day). Also something to note is that due to her overwhelmingly positive and happy nature, she never holds any ill will towards the enemies she fights, hence why she was able to beat up Epimetheus.

As for her Hemmy Scale, she can do it because she's Hemera…? Some things are better left mysterious, no?

Nyx (Race/Ethnicity: African, where doesn't really matter, although if I had to say, probably Egypt or Ghana): She uses the power of Night (capitalization may mean something) to do a variety of neat things! It pairs up nicely with Hemera's Day if I do say so myself.

Combat wise, she's the probably the most technical out of everyone on this list. She can use the power of Nighttime (capitalization doesn't mean anything) to cause illusions and trap a variety of things. Night Rend, one of three of her primary abilities, allows her to send things to the Shadow Realm!

Joking obviously, but it can trap people, emotions, pretty much anything that isn't a building, to a pocket dimension where it's eternally night. She used to be able to keep things there indefinitely, but once Depra used his ability on her, it synergized so she can only keep emotions and mental duress for about 3 days or so, everything else is fair game though. Another thing to keep in mind is that she quite literally carries the weight of whatever she's carrying with her, so it can't be too heavy. She mostly uses it to get rid of attacks or knock people out by sending their consciousness there.

Nightfall works in a kind of reversal, sending out whatever she took in covered in Night. She can also cover people with Night, them being surrounded by Night until either Hemera uses Daybreak nearby, or when daybreak actually occurs (if it is already day then you'll just have to wait for daybreak again. She is also stronger at nighttime as well). Note that when Hemera uses Daybreak, if Nyx uses Nightfall, the Day will be dispersed and the attacks will cancel, although that is not always the case…

As for the last part of her ability, and the Clock Strikes, I think I'll keep that one a secret for the time being; the only hint you'll get is that it uses Illusions (kinda) and some other stuff she wasn't able to use in the battle, since a lot of them held back their stronger moves.

Necessitas (Race/Ethnicity: Mixed. I always think of her to be between Hispanic and African-American, although the latter doesn't really matter too much): Her ability is simply said but harder explained: She can make things inevitable.

What that means is that any event she wants to occur, she can make it forcibly happen in the present or the future, whichever she wants. Oh, I guess I should also mention that she is physically the strongest in the NELNEHAT's, with Erebus being a close second. Note that they are just born naturally strong, and it has absolutely nothing to do with their abilities (and no, I'm not lying or hiding anything (as far as I know), some people are just like that in my world. Just roll with it).

While her power is really broken when you start thinking about it, it is also the most taxing out of everyone's ability. The harder the event to make inevitable, the more energy she uses up. In a battle sense, it won't mean much, like say if she wants to make sure her punches and the like hit the person (hence why she's broken as fuck). However, using it continuously like that will wear her out rather quickly, so she doesn't really do it like that. The one the book focuses on, like the event of Depra getting captured, that takes a lot out of her; she can only do something like that once a week when she was first using the ability, but how much she can do now is to be seen…

Also, depending on how hard the event would be to reach, how far into the future the event will be, and other factors, all of that increases how much energy she uses. She also can't change how an event will play out once she's used her ability, but she can change the smaller events inside of it to try to change the outcome, although doing so takes a lot out of her (that's what she did to make sure Pandora reached Depra without interference in order to try to change the outcome, and she passed out after that, so that should tell you something).

As for what exactly she did to Depra back in the past, she accidently used her ability to attempt him to come to terms with what he does in the future (note that physical events to make inevitable are a lot harder to do than emotional ones), and Depra forcibly interrupted it before she could finish, hence why he went batshit insane in that moment.

Lachesis (Race/Ethnicity: French or German, one of the two, although I'm leaning more towards French): She can see the future. In the beginning she wasn't able to control it very well, but she pretty much can see at will now, although by the end of the book…

Something else to add is that her ability does get affected by Necessitas' ability, so if Necessitas makes an event inevitable, that means all Lachesis can see in the future is that event and slight variations of it (although if that event is truly the only outcome possible is uh, an interesting discussion you can have).

And for the last one we'll be covering in this Saga, the man, the myth, the mass murd—oh, I can't say that? Ahem, anyways, last is the one the book is named after:

Depra (Race/Ethnicity: Either Greek or American, although again, doesn't really matter): The Depra King, can, quite simply, make anything disappear, within reason. It's activated by saying (or thinking) the word disappear. Even if he doesn't mean anything by it, if he so much as thinks it, something will disappear.

Now uh, here's where we get into something a little tricky, and that's with how he got his memories back. As I mentioned earlier, he can make anything disappear, and yes, that does include the entire world. Yes, you read that right, he can literally make the entire world disappear if he so chooses, or if he even so much as thinks it. Now, the within reason thing I mentioned earlier is not something like he doesn't have enough energy (because he can pretty much make things disappear at almost no energy cost to him), but more with how he understands the thing he is making disappear.

Let's put it like this: Depra can easily make physical objects and stuff disappear, but the more abstract the concept, the harder it is to make disappear (so he can't get rid of everything, like spacetime or singularities or anything like that). Going back to memories, when he made them disappear, he did in fact make them disappear, which is why his mental state became unstable from that point onward, because he made them disappear, but the memories didn't replace themselves, so instead his brain just repressed everything about that point in his life so he wouldn't have a mental breakdown, if that makes any sense at all (it should).

Now, here's the real kicker. If he does make a more abstract concept disappear, one of two things will happen: 1, it'll stay gone and won't ever come back, under a certain condition, which leads to 2; when he starts learning more about that abstract concept, the less of an effect his ability has on it. Basically, if he learns enough to make his entire previous perspective on the concept either gone, or loses grasp on what that abstract concept is, there's a chance it'll come back.

Now uh, that might've been slightly confusing, but put simply, if his understanding of a concept changes, the concept he'll have made disappear will have a chance of coming back. And I say chance because his ability will literally start rejecting what's trying to come back, hence why he spazzed out and why his body felt like hell after he remembered everything. Basically, it's pretty much chance on what'll happen, although the more his perspective changes, the higher the chance of it changing.

That should be everyone's ability explained (in the NELNEHAT's anyway), and other people's abilities will explained in other Afterword's or in the story proper (Hence why Pandora's ability will not be explained, since, well, you know. As for the villains, their abilities are kinda self-explanatory, although if enough people ask I will do it.). Now on to the rest of the Afterword!

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When I first started thinking up the concept of the book, there were no supernatural elements within it. It was simply going to be a story about a depressed boy who would slowly but surely change and grow out of his shell. I actually kept a lot of what I had in the original idea, although in the original there was only one friend group, which would later become the NELNEHAT's.

When I started to actually write the book however, a lot of things changed, because I made a hasty decision to put it in as the first saga in the Hidden Power Saga. I only did so once I wrote the chapter titled "Unnamed Boy Meets The Depra King" in Time Traveling Hero, and the rest is history.

The ending is also something I had planned from the beginning, so it's not as if I changed it midway (although in the original idea it was going to be far more wholesome). I made up quite a bit though throughout the story, like the backstories and the villains at the end (although I always wanted the main guy to be Iapetus, the sons came after).

But you know, in the end, writing this was a lot of fun. I am now heavily attached to all these characters, I love them to pieces, and Depra ended up being a way more complicated character than what I originally thought, although the name The Depra King was always going to the nickname of the protagonist, the nickname is what I came up with first. I also never realized that people legitimately didn't know the play on words I did with the name (there were originally two, now there is a third, rather obscure one. See if you can figure it out). I wrote that as a joke that Depra doesn't understand what his own nickname means, but the fact that a lot of people don't know rather surprised me.

Now that we're at the end of the long, arduous journey, what did you guys think of the story? Is it officially a masterpiece (not even I think that by the way)? In fact, write your favorite (and least favorite) moments, favorite character, favorite ability, favorite fight, and your overall thoughts on the story, and what you would change if you had the reigns. Also, would you have liked the story if I had it with no supernatural elements? The story would be drastically different, but would you have read it?

In truth, when I think of my stories, everyone is always happy and having fun, and yet somehow they always end up darker than I originally intend. Maybe that's because of how I am as a person, but I do know everyone in this series will get a happy ending (well, haven't fully decided the ending yet, so maybe not everyone).

Now, for one last announcement, as I mentioned in the beginning, I am planning spinoff series, and I already know what the first one will be about (it'll follow a certain red-eyed black-haired edgelord). And as for the next book, Time Traveling Hero, I'm writing it, just gonna wait to release the chapters I have until I finish Arc 2 (although it is taking me waaaay longer than I thought it would, so I might release chapters when I'm almost done).

Once again, thanks for following me on this journey, and hopefully I'll see you in the next Afterword, having continued to follow the series.

Well, till next time!

- The Author