Chapter 2 - The Start

"Good work, Raiden."

Hearing his name, a black haired youth lifted his head and glanced at who called him. His azure blue eyes seemed as if they could peer through the soul. Upon seeing the people in front of him, his somber expression relaxed and he gave a slight smile.

"Thank you, Major Braham."

"Hey, no greetings for us?" A slightly dissatisfied voice came from the side. The girl with long black hair pouted with a hint of discontent.

"Mm. Good afternoon Emily. Sergeant Caleb."

The young man with glasses, Caleb only nodded slightly in acknowledgement while the young woman, Emily, still looked slightly unsatisfied with his greeting.

"So unfriendly. I said you should call me Em whenever we don't have to keep up formality."

"Alright, don't pester him on that today. We have a small party for your last mission before your military leave." Braham interrupted, pointing at a conference room, playfully decorated with colorful balloons, streamers and various other paraphernalia. Raiden could see through the glass pane on the door and what he saw was a banner saying 'Happy Travels Raiden' with several other people under it.

Seeing his colleagues gathered together like this made him lose his gloomy demeanor and he smiled widely.

"You guys really didn't have to…" He felt glad but he also felt slightly guilty for some reason. Mostly because some people under the banner have relatively high ranks and even a moment of their absence during this time of day would give headaches to their assistants and secretaries.

"Don't mind the small things and relax a bit. You probably won't have to deal with any of this after tomorrow but we still have to pick up the slack so we definitely won't waste this opportunity." Emily joked.

Braham laughed before he patted Raiden's back before walking ahead of him into the room. Emily gently pushed him from behind towards the door.

Upon entering, he was greeted with loud popping noises as confetti blew out of confetti cannons held by two people, one is a handsome young man with golden hair and another is another young man with a large body build that goes a little over two meters. Both of them had cheeky smiles and they greeted him with enthusiasm.

"I gotta say, I'll miss you buddy. Without you, my job would just get so much more difficult. Actually, can we switch places instead? I wanna go on leave too but my appeals won't get approved…" The blonde young man said jokingly with a smirk.

"You won't have to worry about things here. Me and Zane will fill in for you. We'll work extra hard!" The big bodied youth grasped Raiden and the blonde youth named Zane on the shoulders with a big goofy grin on his face.

"Who says I'll work hard with you huh?" Zane asked while trying to struggle out of the big youths arms.

"I hope you keep him in check, Zach. Make sure he brushes his teeth regularly and washes behind his ears." Raiden snickered as he made a sly grin.

"I'll make sure that he does." Zach gave back an equally cheeky smile.

"Hey you two, I don't need a babysitter." Zane on the other hand, felt uncomfortable and slightly unhappy being treated like a toddler.

"Fairly certain that if it's you, you would definitely need a chaperone at all times. It's you after all." Emily who was just behind Raiden commented on the side.

To this comment, he couldn't help but feel offended. As he was about to retort, he was cut short by a loud voice. A woman with brown hair tied into a bun walked in front with confident strides. She had the natural air of a boss and superior officer. Her curvy waist swayed seductively as she walked.

"Alright, enough messing around. We're here to see the lieutenant off. He's been serving for quite a long time and it's just about time for him to get a well deserved break. The work he's done has saved us from more than a few critical situations. Let's all drink a toast for him and wish him luck on his future travels!"

She lifted a glass and said, "Cheers and farewells!"

Everyone else lifted glasses they held as well and said cheers. Emily gave Raiden a glass of alcohol and he raised this one and said cheers with a smile. Although he doesn't usually drink alcohol, he would drink some this time for the festive atmosphere.

After talking briefly with some people, he left the main crowd and went to the table with food on it. He hovered over the plate with breaded porkchops and he took several pieces, along with other food prepared.

He ate the meal with gusto, evidently hungry from the mission he did a few hours earlier. He continued to eat until half his plate had gone. The woman with brown hair walked up to him and said her greetings.

"Good work on the latest mission lieutenant. Not bad for a final mission."

"I only did what was necessary on order to fulfill my objective Captain Amanda." He replied respectfully as he bowed his head slightly. When he lifted his head, he saw her countenance in full.

The title of Captain is only given to men and women who have made considerable achievements and accumulated those achievements over a long period. People with high ranks are known as veterans, and being a Captain would mean that they are among the best.

That would also mean that they would have a considerable seniority in comparison to newer troops. The woman in front of him should be well over her prime and yet, she looks as if she is still at the peak of her youth.

She was almost as tall as other men which gave her quite an imposing presence. Her skin was a healthy glow of golden bronze, and her eyes were sharp like a hawk's. She may have looked intimidating, but she also looked like a wild and dangerous amazon beauty.

In contrast to her wild and imposing presence was her long brown hair neatly tied into a bun and fixed with a pair of bamboo chopsticks. She wore a form fitting dark blue suit with a miniskirt that covered all the way to her knees. Her suit looked as if it could barely hold in her more-than-just-sizeable bust. Her formal clothing did not conceal her allure, but instead accentuated her sexiness even more.

Seeing that, Raiden didn't even flinch as he looked at her calmly. The brown haired woman, Amanda was not bothered by his indifference. In fact, she preferred people who acted this way rather than those who couldn't conceal their own lust.

"You will be going to an academy huh? It's surprising that a kid as smart as you has never actually finished high school yet." She asked in wonder.

"You know my circumstances. I never got a chance to enter. I'm quite excited though." He spoke, while chewing on porkchops.

"School is the appropriate environment for a child to grow up in. Although you're not a child anymore, it would still be nice to experience what you've missed. Make sure to thank the Major for the opportunity." She reminded.

"I will remember. Thanks." He smiled slightly.

"Alright, I'll leave you be to do whatever you want. Enjoy yourself and give farewells to everyone before tomorrow." Amanda spoke and then walked away.

Raiden, no longer needing restraint, took over half the food on every plate on the table and stacked it on his plate, only needing less than five minutes to eat it all, prompting him to return to stacking more food on his plate.

Amanda who had walked away approached Braham who stood nearby. He was leaning on the wall while observing the whole party, glancing at Raiden every now and then.

"He's quite gluttonous huh? I guess that's one way to enjoy a party." Amanda said.

"The mission this time was a lot more taxing than expected. Still though, I don't understand how you can look proper while repeatedly eating so much food." He spoke in wonder.

"You should know better than me right? Poor kid. I'm not sure if he could get along with those rich brats in the academy. He might look their age but he's probably lived longer than some of the teachers." She turned to where Raiden stood. He was still eating massive quantities of food, but now he was approached by Emily, the two young men and a few other people.

"He still acts like a kid so he should be fine. Speaking of which, calling those other kids as 'kids' might be fine but calling him a kid? That doesn't help in making you seem any younger." Braham joked as he chuckled lightly.

"Don't patronize me." She glared at him with irritation. Braham only laughed harder.

The party started kicking up in full. Laughter and music played. In truth, this place shouldn't be so boisterous, even if a high ranking officer went on leave. It is a secret military headquarters after all. It is only because Raiden is a special case.

Raiden is a special officer alongside his rank as Lieutenant. Although special officers are given preferential treatment over those of the same rank, it isn't to this extent. He can have this kind of treatment because he has incredible value to the Union. His abilities are powerful and versatile. More than that, he has a natural talent to pick up things he learns incredibly quickly and he can adapt to any situation.

Although there may not be too many young geniuses, there would still be a number, but Raiden is still a cut beyond the rest, and maybe more.

Any young talents who have the same level of ability, or at least come close would never be allowed to waste away in the military in the first place. They would be protected by their families or more powerful groups and organization since they would become their backbone. Too important to be allowed in a crude and bloody place like the army.

The government is also linked with the military. If the military gains power, the government in turn gains more authority. In the past, the government had absolute authority over the people it governs. In this era though, while the government still makes and enforces the law, its authority is no longer as solid as it once was.

Technically the Union isn't a government or a ruling group. Instead it is an organization that links the strengths of multiple countries together and enforces rules to ensure that no country steps out of line. In essence though, it is the same.

The United Nations may be a more familiar organization, but that has long been replaced by the Union. It may seem similar, but there are major differences between them. Their main objective of maintaining world peace is the same, but the method used in doing so is different. One hoped to maintain peace through mutual agreement between countries. The other instead uses a threat of oppressive force to keep ambitions in check.

Such a change happened because of one incident that completely overturned the balance of the world. It caused a major upheaval in the world order and halted human progress and development for nearly a century. Some countries had even vanished from the map entirely. Afterwards, it ushered in a new era of brilliant scientific advancement and development.

Theories became laws and the universe had never been clearer. What was assumed to be impossible and could only exist in the realm of Science fiction had become real. All of this happened because of one thing.

The descent of magic onto the world.

...….

The Kirelian Pulsar incident, on the year 2034. In the most advanced research facility in the world located in northern Europe, the perpetual motion, "Infinite Energy" generator, the Kirelian Pulsar, collapsed and exploded. Such words couldn't even begin to describe the possible destruction and devastation it could have caused.

As expected of a generator that could supposedly produce energy from nothing. Created by a genius scientist named Edward Kirel, he had found a 'fracture' in space which was supposedly the area where a singularity like a mega black hole had collapsed within the last hundred million years. He had managed to harness its energy using his intellect and innovation. A machine, now named the Kirelian Pulsar, was created which could handle its powerful energies without inviting disaster on the planet.

The machine would create ultrawave pulses which would cause tiny slivers of energy, less than a micrometer in width, to leave the 'fracture' and these slivers of energy would then be channeled into a usable form like electricity. It seems simple in theory but in order to apply it, it would require the utilization of the entirety of human science just to barely keep it contained.

The machine was over fifty feet tall and spanned for a quarter of a kilometer. A hundred specially trained men were required to keep it running and another hundred were needed on standby. Its energy output with a single pulse could easily power a hundred cities the size of Las Vegas in the US for a decade. And that is with the energy absorbed to the most minimal limit.

The machine was built on the west of Norway. The massive amounts of power was given away to dozens of countries with a price that was several dozens of times cheaper than its equivalent in output if fossil fuels were used instead. It had reduced global carbon emissions by almost 90% and had reduced the economic burden that many countries had from importing fossil fuel from abroad.

But there was still an enormous amount of leftover energy left, even after exporting massive amounts. It was then that the most advanced countries in the world decided that this place should be the center for all of human scientific development. Thus, the Universal Institute of Advancement was created. It was here that the most brilliant minds of over a dozen countries put their heads together to usher in a new era.

This union was short lived however, as history has always shown, greed and self-interest would always come up. Countries which were reliant on their export of oil for their booming economy, like Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iraq joined together to destroy the machine and return their monopoly. This was known as the Energy War, and was one of the shortest, but most disastrous wars in all of history.

In July of 2034, there begun several skirmishes near the borders of Norway. France, Britain, Italy and Germany were the first to respond while US and Japanese reinforcements would come in half a month. But that half a month would be too late as on the second of August, Saudi Arabian infiltrators had entered the institute and caused a meltdown in the Pulsar Core.

The resulting aftermath threatened to rip apart the very fabric of the universe since the concept of 'infinite energy' goes against universal order. Their foolishness and greed nearly caused the complete annihilation of the solar system. But specialists within the facility managed to contain the disaster at the cost of their own lives. What was left of what was meant to be the forefront of humanity's genius was now nothing but a massive gaping chasm that continued for several hundreds of kilometers.

The United countries could only glare in resentment at the countries that almost caused the destruction of the planet. While they may have been in opposition, the United nations had to rely on the oil of these countries while they searched for another substitute. The countries that caused the incident only gave some 'concessions' with cheaper oil prices for two decades. But it wasn't up until there that their brazenness stopped. They continued to use the war as leverage to exploit more from the United nations.

The union could only begrudgingly concede to their demands. Canada was their main oil export but it wasn't sufficient for over a dozen countries. Some had even decided to defect and switch sides. If it was only up to here, it couldn't possibly be one of, if not the most devastating event in human history.

When the world balance was tilting, several strange incidents started occurring globally. A kid running faster than cars or trains, a man that bent a steel bar three inches in diameter, a woman who threw fire at another woman who irritated her. There is no clear record of when the first incident occurred but, on September twelve of 2037, an incredible but terrifying incident happened. At 3pm in the afternoon of that day, the King of Saudi Arabia was found dead at his bedroom, horribly mutilated and dismembered with a bloody mark on the wall written in Arabic that said, 'Here lies a fool, a hindrance to humanity.' Later, his entire family line was also found dead, mutilated in the same horrifying way. This marked dark days for the Royal House of Saud and the start of much more chaos for the world.