Chapter 9

"Lightning God' Ken Battler is from the province of Bagura. He is the Army commander of this province and he is just twenty-two years of age. He attained this position at the age of nineteen. Can you believe it?! At just nineteen, he became the head of the army in his province. I mean, he is my age right now and I am nowhere close to competing with the top brass of the military in my province. Those old fogies don't even pay attention to me or take me seriously, except if I am on an official assignment, representing my dad.

It might seem that he is now living an enviable life of prominence, but his path to greatness was laid with killer sized thorns. Unlike the other Xis, whom were born into affluence, Ken Battler came from humble and tragic beginnings and he really has quite the story.

His mother died at childbirth, while conceiving him and his father abandoned him as a baby, in the care of his late wife's father. Ken Battler's grandfather was just a poor farmer, struggling with his wife to eat and survive, but not withstanding, he still took good care of his grandson and he and his wife showered him with love and affection.

They lived in peace for a while, despite the hardship, until Ken Battler turned thirteen.

There was an uprising against the royal family of Bagura and rebels sprang up from all corners of the province to challenge the incompetent leadership of the Grand Duke, his officials and his family. This uprising, which started out as a peaceful protest, one day, suddenly morphed into violence and little pockets of guerrilla warfare.

While Ken Battler was out running an errand for his grandparents, his grandfather was caught in a crossfire between some members of the army and the rebels, while he was out on his farm, and tragically died. His grandmother couldn't bear the thought of losing her dear husband and died from the shock.

Ken Battler was all alone. He knew no one and he had no friends.

Luckily for him, Bagura was a lightning province, in the sense that, every citizen capable of tapping from the atmospheric mana, only learnt and trained in the elemental laws and ways of lightning and Ken Battler was extremely talented in the manipulating lightning. The guy was a natural at it. So, it wasn't difficult to gain admittance into the military, despite his young age, and carve out a career path for himself.

When Ken Battler turned 18, six years after his grandparents death, the rebels organized themselves into one banner and confidently marched out to challenge the military of the province to full blown warfare.

The rebels had witnessed explosive growth, over the years, and were thirty-one thousand strong, compared to the military's twenty thousand, and that was including recruits. But though the odds were not in the military's favor, the upper echelons took on the challenge in the name of Grand Duke, and marched out against the rebels.

A bitter war ensued. A war so grand, so terrible, it shook the very foundations of the province. The military had more expertise and slightly better tactics, but the numbers difference was too big of a gap. The war lasted for a week. The rebels had the upper hand and by the end of the week, the remnants of the military were surrounded and were under the mercy of the rebels.

Without intending to spare any of the survivors, the rebels began lynching to death each survivor in brutally, creative ways. Ken Battler was among this survivors. Right at the moment his enemy's spear was about to be launched deep into the pit of his abdomen, he screamed in despair at his horrible fate, and then suddenly, like a miracle from the nine heavens, he exploded forth with unfathomable power. And then and there a new kind of lightning was born!

Arges in general has two forms of lightning; purple and white, but Ken Battler's lightning, which was originally white, transformed to black! The lightning invaded every single person in the vicinity and corrupted the lightning mana and aura within them. Every single person; either friend or foe, either army or rebel suffered the misfortune of death by bodily explosion!! In the midst of strewn body parts, thick, crimson streams of blood, flowing like a river, the pungent smell of death; a monster was born. And this monster was conferred the title 'lightning God' and was on his nineteenth birthday was elevated to the status of Commander of the Bagura Army."

"Wait a sec, Illenia. What exactly are the features of this black lightning? I am confused. How does his lightning corrupt a person's mana and aura?" Douglas interjected perplexedly.

"No, no, his lightning doesn't corrupt just anyone's mana, only those who manipulate and conform to the ways and laws of lightning." Illenia explained. "That's why he's called the lightning God. Anyone without a death wish, can't use lightning against him.That name wasn't just given to him for fun. As for the exact features, well I don't really know. I only know what my scouts reported. No one has really seen or heard about him using his ability, since that outburst, years ago. But, I am positive that this black lightning goes way beyond just corruption."

"Ken Battler." Douglas memorized the name, "Sounds like he would be fun to have a row with."

"I highly doubt that. I would rather avoid him at all cost" Illenia refuted Douglas's last statement.

"I am more interested in this Rutger Reigin fellow. I am guessing he is related Rutger Saline, right? The guy who fought against Ajaman Keller in the epic final?" Douglas inquired curiously.

"I see you were paying attention to Grand Commander Jozu Hanks speech. Rutger Reigin hails from the province of Santi and his father is Rutger Saline. After the loss to Ajaman Keller, Rutger Saline ignored all the desperate attempts from the capital to recruit him into the ranks of the military. He even rejected Grand commander Jozu Hanks private invitation to be his protogee. Though, I am guessing he felt annoyed by the fact that the grand commander settled for him, only because Ajaman Keller was no more. He became the Grand Duke of his province a year later, taking over the prestigious position from his father, and then, he fathered a son, much more monstrous than he was." Illenia said.

"Why is he a prime candidate to win this edition's tournament?" Douglas inquired

"The citizens of the province of Santi worship the divine or heavenly bodies. That is the sun, the moon and the stars. In turn, they draw from the energy and mana of this bodies to create their own specialized techniques. In the entire history of the Santi province, Reigin is the first person that could draw from all three divine bodies, at the same time. No other person had ever been able to achieve this. And from what I got from my scouts, in the finals of the preliminaries held in Santi, he created an unimaginable spectacle. He combined the energy of the sun and the stars to create a new kind of divine body and he demolished the arena in his province with just one blow from this insane abnormality. Though his opponent was left uninjured, but the poor guy lost the will to ever fight again. And Reigin achieved by holding back about less than fifty percent of his true ability. He is simply supreme. "Illenia said admiringly.

"I still haven't understood why this guy seems so great and should be feared. Sure, he has some insane talent, but how powerful exactly is he?" Douglas doubted the hype of Rutger Reigin.

"What???? Haven't you been listening properly or are your ears malfunctioning? I said, the guy completely demolished the arena in his province with just a single blow. How else would I make you understand how powerful he is!" Illenia exclaimed in annoyance.

"Illenia, Douglas doesn't understand anything about the people of Santi and he knows nothing about the power of the divine lights, so he can't comprehend the ridiculousness of Rutger Reigin's ability." Jason came to Douglas's rescue. He then began to explain things slowly and methodically to his friend.

"It's common knowledge that Zion looks down on all the thirty-two provinces and views us as commoners or pieces of shit, unworthy of their respect. But, such notion isn't exactly true. Not a lot of people know this, but Santi has a special relationship with Zion. I wouldn't have known this, if it weren't for Illenia's uncle. Zion has so much love for Santi, that if the King requests for a private meeting among the upper echelons of the capital, an invite would also be delivered to the Grand Duke of Santi. Santi is almost treated, as part of the capital and enjoys a lot of benefits. Like, for an example: a significant reduction in the taxes and tributes offered to Zion, compared to other provinces.

Now, I am sure in your mind you must be confused as to why this is so. It's actually not strange, if you critically think about it. Arges in general, celebrates strength. It's the core value of this nation and Santi, well, is indeed strong. It's the most powerful among the provinces.

Santi has no military. You know, the idea of the military is to protect the province and its citizens from internal and external factors, but in Santi every single resident born in that province has the ability to use mana. Right from the moment when one is born, training in combat and mana manipulation commences.

Illenia mentioned the tapping of energy from the divine bodies. Let me explain more on that for you to properly understand. The residents of Santi worship the sun, moon and stars and draw its energy into their mana veins and uses it as theirs. It is said that the energy derived from the sun is hotter than fire, the moon; colder than Ice and the stars; faster than lightning! Now, you can understand why they are so formidable.

In the Arges Combat tournaments thousand year history, Santi has the majority of champions and holds the highest number of wins and up until Rutger Saline, all of those fielded by Santi could use only one out of the three divine energies. Rutger Saline was a prime candidate to win the last year edition's tournament and breezed through the competition, until he met Ajaman Keller.

Rutger Saline could use two divine lights and was already acknowledged as a freak. So what exactly would you call a guy that can use the energy of all the divine bodies and can even perfectly blend two out of this energies to form something disastrously absurd? Ajaman Keller was famous for been able to combine both fire and lightening and the only reason he was able to scrape a win off Rutger Saline was because Rutger Saline couldn't combine his sun and star energy.

But Reigin can use all three and can even combine two, at will. Don't also forget how crazily powerful each of this energy derived from each of this divine body is. Tell me, what exactly would you call a guy such as that? And apart from his outwardly comprehension ability and mastery of the art of the divine lights, I am sure that he also has a large mana reserve. He is undisputedly, the uncanny combination of his father and Ajaman Keller put together in one body. So now do you understand Douglas? The guy is both a once in a millennium genius and an absolute, incredulous monster. Can you now comprehend the absurdity of Rutger Reigin? Do you now see why he is a prime candidate for acquiring the glory of been crowned the King of the Arena?"

Chills ran down the spine of Douglas and his brain began to tingle from digesting the information he had just received.