1 Chapter 1: Alone

The world has changed ever since The Great Rise. Out of nowhere the ley lines suddenly burst open after years of built-up and neglect. With it, many wondrous miracles returned to the world, but so did many horrors.

The enormous amount of different energies had started to affect animal life and plant life. Soon monsters from myth returned to the world by evolving some animals into said beasts, and some even new beast never before seen or heard off. Modern weapons only managed to repelled low leveled beasts raging from E to F, but the stronger beasts couldn't be harmed by anything above a tank or a massive explosion, but there were still beasts that just brushed these off like they were nothing, and seeing as nukes weren't a viable option, humans basically had a whole arsenal of nukes we couldn't use. They were being pushed into extinction, little by little losing territory. The plant life that had become so rejuvenated by the energies even took over cities humans were forced to abandon, in less than a month. It wasn't until humans started to awaken dormant powers that we stood a chance. Soon the stories, myths, and legends of the past began to make sense as Mages, Psychics, Martial artists, and other classes emerged.

As it turns out, deep inside us, buried in their DNA structure, many genes were dormant for a very long time. We haven't been able to map our genetic structure because we lacked the technology and understanding, until The Great Rise. The energies that now surged all around us, in the very air, had coaxed that which had become dormant due to years of abandonment, and thanks to those very powers that had been awakened within us, were we able to avoid extinction. After fighting off countless hoards of monsters and securing a few cities for ourselves, we finally managed to rebuild and form safe places for us to live. However, much of the earth had been retaken by the plants and monsters, some parts of the earth even got terraformed and now our cities, while large, were very few.

Expanding our territory is a task that has become nearly impossible despite our new powers, our new weapons, and even after 10 years since powers emerged. Of course, human greed is without limits, which is why they also hunt for more power. The secrets lost to the ages, were now being hunted down by everyone, in ordered to understand what wonders we could accomplish. However, there is another reason. Everyone wants to be on top, everyone wants to rule, and so human lust for power now runs rampant as they fight amongst themselves for power and the crown. Everyone starts weak but some grow faster than others and so a new gap is made to divide people instead of uniting them for their survival. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the weak are meat for the strong to eat.

As if that wasn't enough to divide us, some mage-scientist discovered a way to measure people's power and how much potential one has at the moment of birth. It was because of this that Jason Miller was abandoned at birth. His test showed that his genes, for one reason or another, remained dormant and his parents couldn't accept this, however, they still needed to take responsibility for him and wanted to see if his genes would awaken later on. It was not such a rare occurrence for a baby to be born without their genes awakened, it was just an uncommon thing for families who had power for generations, and being born with the power genes dormant meant they were behind the rest who were born with them awaken. Because the Miller family was one of great wealth, influence and for producing many powerful individuals, Jason being born the way he is meant he would fall behind since the beginning. However, to protect their reputation, they feed and clothe him, but far away from the main family.

Abandoned and alone, not even allowed to use his family's name, he grew up being raised only by maids and the schools. All the while bullied and treated like crap, all thanks to the rank system and being born powerless. The only kindness he ever received came in the form of a chat room. Friends he never met, faces he never saw, were the only form of social interaction he had other than ridicule and bullying from school. However, unbeknown to anyone, Jason kept looking for ways to awaken his genes. He looked for answers as to why they weren't awakened and hadn't awakened after years from being born. He even tried practicing martial arts and learning magic but nothing succeeded nor did they brought him answers as to his dilemma.

Young Jason was 15, with white skin, short black hair combed back, near-black eyes, and a lean muscular build. Right now he was sitting at his desk trying to focus on the teacher giving the class, but behind him, children kept throwing things at him. He had sat at the front of the class because while he lack power he somehow excelled in different areas. His grades were top every time. He was no genius, but he had a knack for memorizing material and sometimes applying it. He also had an uncanny talent to mimic certain things just by watching someone do it multiple times. Even during his low-level martial art classes, his teachers were amazed at how he managed to mimic what they had just demonstrated. It was rough around the edges but after practicing a few times or experiencing the attack itself he was capable of reaching a point of near-perfect imitation. Some thought he had a talent for martial arts and that once awaken he could be one of the best but ultimately that was just here-say. In the end, his genes remained dormant, and teaching him the basics was all they could do. Regardless he attempted to excel not because he wanted to impress anyone, but because he simply wanted to prove himself he could if he tried. That did not earn the respect of his parents or others, only his teachers and his maids. Most noticeable was his head butler/bodyguard/martial arts teacher, but we'll get to him later.

While Jason managed to ignore all the objects and small forms of magical, psionic, or energy base of attacks, and focus on the subject being explained, that did not mean he was without anger. As any young man would, he wanted to retaliate and fight back, but every time he did he was beaten to a pulp. If not for having healers amongst the staff his parents put in place, and the school nurse, he would be in the hospital regularly. However, he hated having to go through a beating if he could help it so he endured as much as he could before lashing out.

This was his daily routine, with fights only happening once in a while. On his way home, like always he tried to avoid the bullies that tried to torment him. While he did have a bodyguard of sorts, he wasn't shadowed by anyone, rather he was only protected within his house. Outside of his threshold, he was completely on his own. That being his reality he memorized many different paths home so that the bullies wouldn't be able to find a pattern. However, there were occurrences where he would still get caught and beaten.

Today was one such day.

"Well, well. If it isn't our favorite punching bag." Said one boy behind Jason.

'Crap. Not again.' Jason thought as he turned his head to look over his shoulder. 'Ah shit! Is fucking Dylan.'

Dylan was a bully that had been tormenting Jason since school started. He was a psion with speed-based abilities. He could run roughly 25 miles an hour and barely break a sweat. Which meant Jason couldn't outrun him. Behind Dylan was his crew, which were just 3 brown-nose idiots. They were basically parasites that used Dylan for their own protection and feeding off whatever crumb he left behind. Dylan was a D+ Rank psionic who had also been training martial arts but had yet to learn to use Qi. In this world, people were capable of using any three of the great energies to become power. Psionic, Qi, and Mana. However, they were also able to use 2 or sometimes all of them if they were strong enough. Dylan had been born a psionic with speed abilities but he was greedy and wanted more so he started training martial arts as well. Despite not being able to use Qi yet, Dylan was still considered somewhat strong for his age. Jason was the lowest Rank there was, known as G rank, which was reserved for those without power. After G was -F, F, +F, and so on till S or SS.

While Jason knew he couldn't outrun Dylan, that didn't mean he couldn't escape him. Jason always carried a few items for self-defense or escape in his backpack, the only problem was being fast enough to take out something useful from the aforementioned backpack, before Dylan closed the distance. Unfortunately, today was not Jason's day and Dylan had closed the distance before he could do anything. Dylan was always an asshole but today he was beating Jason unusually harder than normal. Jason didn't know what he ever did to deserve such treatment and even Dylan's posse had tried to talk him down. It only made him beat on Jason more.

'Why? . . .' Jason thought. 'Why must I suffer like this?. . . What did I ever do to deserve this?. . . Why was I even born? . . . Am I only here to suffer? . . . Unloved . . . Beaten. . . Hated. . . God. . . If there is a God. . . If you even love us wretched humans. . . Please. . . Help me.'

Dylan beat him to an inch of his life and left Jason bleeding and bruised. He was barely breathing and the bruises had turned his face into a swollen mess. This wasn't the first time Jason had been beaten to such an extent, it was just the first time Dylan had gone so far. The other bullies had done it before. If Jason had to pick between evil and a lesser evil he would've picked Dylan, but after this, he thought that maybe it didn't matter anymore. 'It looks like I'm finally hated enough to kill. . . What the fuck did I do to deserve such a shitty life?' Jason thought.

He couldn't move but luckily he didn't have to as he spoke, "C-call," he coughed up some blood before finishing, "Call Luis." Suddenly his there was an A.R. Display in his eyes that showed his call. Since The Great Rise and the emergence of powers, technology had made progress by massive leaps and bounds. One such invention was a contact lens that worked much like a smartphone. "Young Master. Is everything alright?" Asked a man with an elegant but rough voice on the other end. Jason quickly said, "Video call." and right after he could see Luis's face and vice-versa. Luis looked like a white elderly man but still in his prime, with blue eyes, white short combed-back hair, and a ducktail-style beard. As soon as Luis saw his young master his response was, "Oh dear." He said in a relatively calm voice as he spoke, "I'll be there instantly, young master. Please hold for just a few minutes." Luis Vortel was his head butler. While it may seem like he didn't care because of his tone, Luis actually cared a great deal. You could say Luis was as close to a father as he could get. He practically raised Jason and taught him basic martial arts. When the beatings started Luis and the rest of the staff were outraged, but as time passed they had gotten too used to seeing their charge end up in such a state, and although complaints had been filed to the school, they couldn't do anything since the events happened outside of campus grounds and after school hours. As for complaining to the families, they only made empty promises that ended in Jason getting beaten up even more. Unfortunately, Jason couldn't ask for help from his family since, in simple words, they didn't care at all about him. They barely care enough to give him a small 2 story house with just a maid, a butler, and a healer. Even if Jason was to awaken his abilities today or a year ago, they wouldn't care. Not unless his growth and power was something they couldn't ignore, but in their minds that wasn't likely. There had been cases when people awoke their abilities later in life and they became really powerful, but those were very rare cases.

Luis arrived in a car rather quickly with a young man in his early 30's, riding shotgun. This was doctor Bry Huffman, the healer. He had brown curly hair, stubble, amber eyes, dressed with a white button-down, black pants, and his white doctor's coat. Both he and Luis had been taking care of Jason practically since birth. Bry, having done this many times before had already gotten out of the car before it even stopped and ran to Jason's side to use his healing abilities all the while serious as if this was normal. He wasn't scared for his life, he knew Jason was strong enough to survive a beating, he just wanted to ease his pain as quickly as possible. While Bry began his treatment, Luis parked the car just a few feet from them so that Jason could get in as soon as he could be moved. It didn't take long, really. As sad and cruel as it may sound, thanks to Jason's constant beating's Bry's healing abilities had raised enough to be -B rank. Bry was a psionic with healing abilities as his main source but that didn't take away from his medical knowledge or his fighting abilities. In fact, he was a proud psionic capable of fighting with other abilities other than healing. However, compared to Luis he was greatly outmatched. Luis was mainly a Martial Artist(Qi user), but he also had a grasp of basic combat magic. His rank even reflected his strength which was A.

In any event, once Jason's wounds were all healed he managed to stand up and walk towards the care with Bry just a step behind him. Jason got in the back seat letting out a sigh of relief as if he had been standing all day. The wounds were healed, but his body was still somewhat sore and tired. "Young master, I still think we should discuss moving you to another school." Said Luis as soon as Jason let out his sigh. Bry had gotten in just moments after Jason had sighed and when he heard Luis's comment he interjected saying, "We've tried that before Luis. No matter where we send Jason, he still gets bullied. There are no schools for G ranks. This will just continue until he graduates." Bry's tone was one of disappointment. Both Luis and Bry had grown attached to Jason and as any family member would, they hated seeing Jason suffer. "I still think it would be better if we just got him private lessons instead of sending him to those so-called schools." Luis said, with a bit of anger in his tone. He was as composed as he could be but that didn't mean a bit of anger didn't worm its way out. Bry again protested, "We can't shelter him forever, Luis. Eventually, Jason will have to join the rest of the world and fend for himself." Luis didn't comment, just a single "Hmm" escape his grasp. Jason on the other hand didn't pay much attention to the conversation. He had heard it before and while they had moved him a few times to different schools the story seemed to repeat itself over and over again, no matter where he ended up.

Once home, Jason was just too tired to even sit down and eat, so he just went upstairs took a quick shower, and locked himself in his room. He just sat down at his desk and began to work on his homework just so he could go to sleep before. As he worked he heard a knock followed by, "Young master, I made your favorite today. Would you please come down to eat?" The voice was from a woman. She was the maid, Maria Franco. Jason loved her cooking, and she was as close to a mother as he had, so regardless of how tired he was he hated the thought of letting the food she made for him go to waste. "I'll be down in a minute. Let me just finish this and I'll come down." Jason said. "I'll just bring it up for you." Maria said through the door before quickly walking away. A couple of minutes later Maria knocked on the door again before entering the room with a tray table and a plate full of white rice, country-fried steak, French fries, and soda. Maria was a very talented cook and was capable of making any dish so long as she had the ingredients at hand. However, Jason never really cared for expensive meals. He enjoyed the homey meals the most. For someone deprived of the loving affection of a mother, Maria's home meals were as close to such a thing as he could find. While Maria did treat him with a hint of motherly love, it was just that. A hint. Since birth, there was no one to hug him when he was sad or hurt, not even someone to kiss him goodnight. Maria could do a lot of things but all inside the household were bound by a strict code of professionalism, realizing that after Jason's 18th birthday, they would have to leave him likely never to be seen again. The problem with not growing attached to someone is that it's very hard not to do so. Over the years, more and more of the walls they had built to protect themselves and Jason, had eroded. How could it not? Jason despite being powerless, was a very caring child. Often they would find him trying to find ways to make life easier for the staff. Like how he made plans and packed a few things in his backpack so that he could get home without bothering Luis or Bry. How he would never once let a single dish Maria made go to waste, not even the ones he hated. He would even go out of his way to help around with house chores when he really didn't need to. One time they even caught him getting beat up for trying to protect a cat from being abused by some kids. He even demanded to keep the cat but unfortunately, it had an owner already. To them, it was incredible how he cared for others. Someone who the world had done nothing but hate him and he still had the capacity to care. However, that wasn't really true.

Jason only cared for those who cared for him, and those who had not harmed him or anyone else. He always liked animals better than people. He could easily turn a blind eye to a bully being bullied, but when an animal or another weak but good person was being bullied, that would be the only time he would willingly intervene. Though that would be as far as he would go. He didn't like interacting with people unless it was through a chat, because people came and went all the time. In his view, they would all leave him eventually so why bother trying to make a lasting friendship when he would just eventually be left behind. 'If my own family abandoned me, why should I expect any different from those who aren't even that?' was his thought. In chat, it was easy to socialize because everyone was a stranger and they all came and went at their leisure, and so he never grew attachments to anyone. 'It's better this way.' Jason thought. Not just towards the chat room but his staff. He already unwillingly had grown somewhat attached and the thought of growing ever closer to his 18th and having to say goodbye, made him feel like a dagger was slowly being stabbed into his heart inch by inch every day. What made it worse is being so close to that inevitable day, as Jason is currently 15 years old.

After finishing his diner and his homework the only thing Jason wanted to do was sleep, and if there was any kind of mercy, perhaps not wake up and just live in his dreams, but life is never that kind. Crawling into bed and finally closing his eyes there was only one thought lingering as he fell asleep, 'When will it end?'