1 Chapter 1

I was making dinner when my younger sister Ella rushed in and shouted that Archbishop Grahm was visiting town to announce a selection to find promising talent for the approaching war against the Areta Kingdom. The Areta Kingdom was primarily composed of a few pureblooded demons and demon-kin, or the offspring of a demon and human to some degree. Every year the threat of war hung gloomily over our heads, as the church announced that the Areta Kingdom was increasingly encroaching on our borders and evidence of raiding and burnt fields could be seen in some villages farther from the capital and closer to the border between the two kingdoms.

The church helped the crown in securing the country and finding new talent to increase the kingdom's power, but they were also deeply involved with the people, monitoring their well-being and keeping a firm grasp on public safety. So today's visit was a bit worrying considering the fact that the selections were occurring more and more frequently each year to attempt to filter out talents from the masses as each citizen approached their sixteenth birthday.

When someone turned sixteen they would gain full access to their magic or skill as their brain and bodies would finally be mature enough to safely use and improve upon that power.

I had heard from my friends that it was like someone opened a door in your mind and then suddenly everything that you were meant to know made sense and you were able to instinctively use your power like it was another limb.

I am turning sixteen in two weeks so this was a pressing issue since the town head was a church rallier and would no doubt pester me to submit my talent to the church and enter the selection. I am not sure if I will go to the selection though because my father is often out of town leaving me and my sister alone the majority of the time.

My sister pulled me out of my thoughts when she shouted at me, "Serin! Get your head out of the clouds! You need to come with me so my friends and I can see the Archbishop over old man Terran's big head."

I'll admit I am a bit of a pushover when it comes to my sister so I let her take my hand and she pulled me past our neighbors' houses and the mill, all the way to the main street. By the time we got there the crowd was huge and she pulled me over to a huddle of her two friends Beut and Silv, both seven years old, who then proceeded to attempt to climb on to my back to see over the adults' heads. Needless to say, it didn't work and they ungracefully fell off of me in a huff and I didn't really make it any easier for them either. Finally they decided to take turns and since Ella was my sister, she claimed that I was her thing, and she climbed on my shoulders for the first rotation shouting that she could see him and that his clothes were so white.

For a second I caught a glimpse of the man and his gaze kind of scared me like some kind of bad premonition. It wasn't that his face was mean or angry, but I just got a bad feeling like something was going to happen if I kept looking at his eyes, so I quickly averted my gaze shuffling further behind Terran.

The town's head, Mr. Zenith, introduced Archbishop Grahm and the later began his speech talking about the holy knights and the knight's army holding the border and the power of the true gods. It only devolved from there to training offered by the church, paid of course, and the glory of protecting the kingdom and defeating the nonbelievers of Areta Kingdom that worshipped 'the devil'.

Yes, the Areta Kingdom did not have any Norvish churches, so they were hailed collectively by the church and the crown as lawless nonbelievers who worshipped high demons and devil-beasts. The most well-known was dubbed 'the devil' as no one wanted to speak its true name, and many stories circulated about it even though it had never been witnessed by anyone who lived to tell about it at least.

The most prominent story about 'the devil' was that he was a horrifying and calculative monster with two hearts, one physical and one metaphysical, that was made of magic that he used to enhance both his bodily and magic power exponentially in order to subjugate the humanoid races and destroy the true gods, along with the Morrigan and her children. It was said that he destroyed the origin god when he was at the peak of his power splitting the god into many smaller fragments of itself to create today's current true gods. But as he was dealing that blow the origin god hit 'the devil' in the shoulder with a metallic bolt of lightning injuring him and forcing him into hiding to lick his wounds.

His other comrades were wounded and the Morrigan was gruesomely split in half leaving her children to disperse among the world. These children came to be known as devil-beasts and his comrades were known as the ancestors of today's demons or the high demons.

Nowadays, 'the devil' was only spoken of by parents scaring their children and the church, or by crazy conspiracy theorists.

The girls took their turns switching out who was on my shoulders and when the Archbishop started talking about the selection I stiffened up because Archbishop Grahm announced that the selection would no longer be optional and that the crown was mandating each citizen's attendance once they reached the age of sixteen due to the increasing threat that Areta Kingdom and the devil-beasts posed to the safety of the Norveltik Kingdom's people.

This news shocked me and as soon as I heard it I knew that it spelled trouble for my small town and my family, as I might be separated from my sister in a month's time during the selection if the church's inspectors found my awakened power to be useful to the kingdom.