Chapter 2: E.M.M.A

Many hours passed and Matt had yet to regain consciousness, his family worried that he might never wake up again. With the storm raging overhead, there wasn't even an opportunity for them to get a doctor. Things were starting to look bleak for Matt, but as soon as the storm started to calm down, Matt started to slowly open his eyes.

The first thing Matt saw when his eyes finally adjusted, was not the worried faces of his family members. but a blue rectangle floating in front of his face. It was somewhat see-through and there were words on it.

| You have successfully activated the elemental magic stone. You have received the elemental magic system |

"W-what? What is this thing? and where am I? " Matt mumbled to himself and at that moment his family realized he was finally awake.

"Matt!" they all yelled in surprise and ran over to his side. animals could be heard in the background startled by the sudden noise.

'Oh that's right, there was a magic storm, we were getting the animals to the shelter, guess I didn't make it back inside fast enough' Matt thought as he took in his surroundings and realized where was. Something really weird was happening though, the blue rectangle was following him around,  no matter which way he turned his head, it was always right in front of his face. Before he couldn't analyze it further, he felt his sister throwing herself at him. "Matt, you're awake! Are you ok?" Michie said with a worried look on her face.

"Don't worry it takes more than some lightning to get rid of me" Matt said with a smile in an attempt to cheer up his sister. "Actually, I feel perfectly fine, I guess your lucky rock really did protect me." Matt said as he realized that he really did feel ok. He should have died from that lightning strike and yet he wasn't covered in burns, his body ached from falling down the stairs, but it was definitely better than being burned to a crisp. He checked his pocket looking for the little stone, but it was nowhere to be found. "Sorry Michie, guess I lost your lucky stone" Matt said as he rubbed the back of his head.

Matt looked past his sister and saw his parents nearby with a worried look on their faces, his mother had tears rolling down her cheeks. "Mom, really I'm fine, The lightning didn't hurt me, falling though, not the best experience, don't recommend it" he laughed awkwardly trying to make light of the situation. His mom ran forward and gave him a tight hug, tears still rolling down her cheeks. "I.. thought... I'd... lost... you!" she said in-between sobs, hugging Matt even tighter.

"Don't mom, I'm not going anywhere, but please stop squeezing so hard, my body still aches from falling down the stairs" he said with a strained smile on his face.

After everyone was sure that Matt was ok, and he had been checked for burns, multiple times. It was time to deal with the elephant in the room. "Do any of you see that blue rectangle floating right there?" Matt asked while pointing at the wall in front of him.

"I don't see anything, are you sure you're ok son? I think you might have your head harder that we thought." His father said, still a little worried for his son, especially now that he claimed to see weird floating rectangles.

Matt looked at his mother but she shook her head saying that she didn't see anything either. Matt finally looked at Michie, "Do you see anything Micchie?" Matt asked his little sister, but she just shook her head. "I only see the wall." Matt decided it'd be best to drop the topic, lest his family think he'd gone insane.

Focusing on the blue rectangle thing in front of him once again, Matt couldn't help reaching out and touching it, but there was nothing there. He read the words once again 'You have successfully activated the elemental magic stone. You have received the elemental magic system.' It still didn't make any sense to him, he didn't remember having a magic stone, much less activating it, and that in the world was an 'elemental magic system'. Did he gain the ability to do magic? That couldn't be possible. Everyone who could do magic had shown some sort of potential by age of 10 and even the latest bloomers had some magic by age 12. However, Matt was 17, he had never shown any magic powers, not that he was expected to have any.

'How do I make this thing go away?' Matt thought,  this thing was getting annoying and the idea of living with that thing front of his face from now on did not sound appealing. 'Go away, shoo, disappear, dismissed' Matt thought of many different words, hoping one of them could make the thing in front of him disappear, he didn't say any of these out loud as he didn't want to look like a crazy person by talking to himself.

As soon as he thought of the word "dismissed", the rectangle went away, but before Matt could celebrate 3 different rectangles appeared in front of him, this time at the bottom of his vision rather than right in front of him.

| HP: 17/24 |   | MP: 16/16 |   | S: 12/24 |

Matt looked at the strange numbers in front of him, he couldn't understand what they meant or why they appeared in front of him. 'what does this even mean?'

"Oh, you're finally awake." Matt heard that same unfamiliar voice from before once again, it didn't sound like anyone he had met before. Matt looked around trying to figure out where the voice was coming from.

"Are you looking for me? don't bother you won't find me. and before you ask, no they can't hear me, but they can hear you. So unless you want to sound like a lunatic who talks to himself, just listen for now" 

Matt nodded, his parents already looked worried enough with the whole lightning and floating rectangles, he didn't want to worry them anymore.

"you've got some nerve, passing out like that! I wait 300 years for someone to activate the stone, and it's a kid who passes out before I can even introduce myself. Anyway, I'm your Elemental Magic Mastery Assistant, you can call me E.M.M.A. Since you missed the introduction earlier, I guess I have to do it again" The voice said, obviously annoyed that it had to introduce itself a second time.

"Congratulations, you have successfully activated the elemental magic stone and acquired the elemental magic system. you probably don't know what that means, but that's why I'm here. Basically the EMS is here to turn you into the greatest elemental mage of all time. whether or not you can actually accomplish that is up to you. Any questions?"

Matt looked confused, he was just told that he should be quiet, but now he's being asked if he had any questions. Just then, Emma spoke again. "I can read your mind kid, just think about the question and I'll answer it, you can speak to me through your mind."

'alright, I have a few questions. What's a magic stone? how am I going to be the greatest mage, I was born without magic? and how and why are you in my head?'

"1st and last question are related so I'll answer those 2 first, the magic stone is an ancient artifact of great power, once activated it will disappear and all of its energy will be transferred to the person who activated it. As for why I'm your head, that's because you activated the stone when you got hit by the raw magic of the storm and now that power is inside you. there's a lot more to it, but it would take too long and you wouldn't understand it anyway. And about the no magic thing, don't worry about that, like I said you absorbed all the power in the magic stone, so you now have more magic than most people in the world, you can't use most of it yet, but that's besides the point. For now all you need to know is that with my help, you'll do great things in the future"