1 Chapter 1: An echo(1)

Blazing light darted across the sky, tearing through the clouds and crashing into the ground leaving no trace of life in its wake - eradicating everything entirely, the thunder bellowing a cry of warning all too late.

Though it was late a small, glimmering, dancing light could still be seen through the window of a small, corner cobble-stone house in which a young boy sat upon a stool draped in tattered, ripped old rags which barely shielded him from the vicious winds blowing from the northern wastelands.

As the boy was perched on his chair he closely examined a small card adorned with fine green lines which stretched across the card in a systematic, almost robotic fashion. The lines shone in the dark- glowing on the young child's face. A face that at such a tender age had already been left bruised and battered by the harsh realities of life as he inspected the card he realised the light began to shine more violently and had suddenly become extremely heavy and he could not move it from the desk it was left on.

The boy's name was Reiner Loca. The card had been left on his desk two years ago by his grandfather before he had passed away. His grandfather had been a man of great stature, a wealthy business man at that too. However, everything changed on Reiner's third birthday when Reiner's uncles and aunties launched a large-scale lawsuit and usurped control of his grandfather's fringe science business.

Reiner's grandfather had revolutionised the world 20 years ago when he managed to prove the existence of mana and its influence on modern culture and ever since the day the truth was uncovered all manner of people came out admitting to having not only being aware of mana but also knowing how to exploit and use magic.

Voodoo sorcerers, grimoires, summoners, cultivators, reincarnation systems everything anyone could ever dream of was real they had hidden themselves in a separate dimension, what we now call a pocket dimension, and separated themselves from what they referred to as the ignorant. Ever since they were revealed to the public as a direct consequence to Reiner's grandfathers unveiling a 10-year period of chaos had ensued- the Cambrian revolution.

Reiner's grandfather being the shrewd business man he was had already planned for this and began stockpiling on all sorts of different mana manipulating spell casting guns, shields, wards, summon charms and monopolised the market for the fringe science supernatural. Reiner's grandfather was considered to be one of the smartest and most influencial men post- unveiling with his net worth far exceeding what anyone could ever fathom, however, he was too trusting and he was backstabbed by his own blood losing everything he owned.

Reiner's grandfather had died due to unexplained causes he died as a shell of his old self. An echo of his previous brilliance.

Tonight, was the last night before Reiner's spiritual awakening, after the curtain dropped a united world government was formed to tackle the new threat which would be faced. It was decided by the world government the best way to take control of the situation was to form a registry of all magic users and at the age of 6 and take every child through a systematic awakening of their power and assess their potential future threat level. If the child's potential threat level (PTL) exceeded amber they are taken into mandatory discipline camps where they are forced to learn how to control their power and subliminally trained to become government lap dogs to fight in the celestial battles.

The small card suddenly began to levitate and float violently like a boat crashing against the waves of the horrific ocean. It then began to pacify before dashing into Reiner's forehead. A wave of pain engulfed and emulsified Reiner's consciousness leaving him trembling and convulsing as he screamed in pure and utter agony.

After what seemed like an eternity the pain subsided, and a sense of clarity could be seen in Reiner's eyes. The card had disappeared and upon a quick once over in the mirror there were no visible changes in Reiner's physical appearance the only noticeable difference was the rags he had called clothes were even more torn by the constant tugging and pulling whilst he was on the floor. A further change could be seen is his eyes they seemed to be coated by a layer of fog making it hard to see his true eye colour. Had this been 20 years ago that would have stood out and been marvelled at possibly sparking some extra-terrestrial conspiracy videos from Mike Chen, but today people would chalk it up to a mere enchantment or biomechanical enhancement.

Reiner glanced towards the clock it was 2 pm his awakening was scheduled for 5 pm he only had 3 hours to run to Westminster were the public awakenings of everyone from London was held.