The First Knight

'Wait, what?' Ethan White was shocked. He could not help but suddenly blurt these words into his mind.

'I was not talking with my master? Then with whom am I talking? And my gifts?' A sudden sadness filled his entire being. Ethan White was feeling gloomy, and he wanted to go back to sleep without thinking about the voice's owner.

He was even starting to think that he was cursed. 'Why do I always seem to have more voices in my mind than the only one I would have?' First, The Second Descend, then some mighty presence possessed his body to do some poetry. After that, someone called the Sovereign of Handsomeness was telling him how many concubines Mr. Handsome has.

And now, he was the master of someone. Ethan White thought his life was bugged. Maybe the universe was a simulation, and Ethan White was one of the guinea pigs. Except this pig seemed more like a bus. Maybe at the end of the year, he would be forced to start his own bus line.

Ethan White thought that perhaps he was sick. He had read a lot, and he was reminded of the mental diseases. There were a few related to hearing voices in their minds. Maybe he would go to a psychiatric hospital later in the morning. But he was afraid of not being able to absorb more Heart Core. He also had to look for his family's prestige.

'''Ehm… I do not know about these gifts… but if you allow me to introduce myself…'''

'Shut up!' Ethan White reacted.

He seemed to feel a shy and amicable tone from the voice, but he was getting sick of this situation. Each time he reached a milestone, someone has to be knocking on his mind like it was charity.

He did not want to hear anything else about his newfound disciple. He only wanted to rest.

It seemed like his aggressive reaction worked. In the following five minutes, there were not any foreign thoughts in his mind. It was only himself.

"Sigh." Ethan White was relieved. Ethan White thought that the foreign voice left him already. Probably, the owner of this voice was a Sovereign of Shadow, the ugliest of all Sovereigns… with a list of women sending him a restraining order from all over the galaxy. Presumably, he was also a member of the Emperor's Alliance, repressing all the Monarchs of his domain.

'How low has fallen this Sovereign of Shadow, to want me, a mere Apprentice, to be his master.' thought Ethan White, proud and annoyed at the same time.

'Well, it is not his fault. He met with a mighty being like myself. The holder of the Stellar Body. No Sovereigns would be able to resist my charm.'

If a nose could grow lengthier by being shameless, there would be many people queuing in front of him, wanting to show their private parts to his nose.

In this mood, Ethan White went down to the kitchen and made himself some toasts. He sliced and toasted the bread, pouring sunflower oil on the visible parts. After the bread soaked up the oil, he filled the toast with butter.

Taking a seat in the dining room, he noticed his mother had already left for work. He thought it was normal. After all, he spent two days sleeping.

At that time, he did not even feel that tired. He was only taking some time for his body to assimilate with the Stellar Energy when he was feeling sleepy. Ethan White thought that he would only sleep until the next day, but in the end, he slept for two entire days.

Ethan White thought it was a bit too much to sleep for two days, but he was not going to doubt the voice in his mind. This Sovereign had already enough being the ugliest of the Sovereigns. He did not even want to think how the life of the Sovereign of Shadow would be. Having to wear a mask on a daily basis and getting bullied by the other Sovereigns.

For a moment, Ethan White felt an urge to become his friend. But after he got reminded how these Sovereigns seemed to be hitchhiking on his mind, his mood turned angry again.

Deciding to forget about the foreigner voice in his mind, Ethan White turned on the TV.

"I feel grateful to be serving humanity in this dark hour."

Ethan White changed the channel instantly, but it was being retransmitted live on every channel of the TV.

"Tell us, Laura Lopez, being the first Ascended on Earth to be a Knight, can you tell our viewers how you reached this stage?" asked the reporter.

Ethan White noticed the reporter was a familiar one, from TV90.

"The key is training. Being an Ascended and awakening an ability is already good, but it is not enough. If you want to strive for higher heights, you need to train. Begin with using your ability every day, attempting to create new ways to use your power."

"For example, a fire's user could use their fire to cook. This would give them more uses for their ability, increasing their creativity, while also becoming more flexible. The control needed to cook using your own fire ability is highly difficult, giving tremendous improvements." said Laura Lopez, continuing his explanation.

"But this is only the beginning. The Ascended also needs to acknowledge the weak and strong points of their ability. Being able to think outside the box is a needed ability as well."

Laura Lopez was suddenly interrupted at this point by the female reporter, a slightly annoyed expression on her face.

"Is this 'think outside the box' what you put into practice in Canada? We all watched the video uploaded by the Earth Alliance. Being able to kill thousands of invaders effortlessly without even using your element ability. You started to become a symbol for humanity in that battle." said the reporter. Her eyes were as bright as the stars, and her smile was turning wider and wider.

Julia Motos was clearly very pleased to be in front of her idol. She even did her a favor, naming her 'a symbol for humanity'.

"Thank you, Julia, but you are partially wrong."

Ethan White seemed to notice some of the light in the eyes of the reporter to darken.

"I could kill these thousands of invaders precisely because of the element of my ability. As everyone already knows, my ability is ice. I can control and shape ice in several varieties of shapes. People seem to think ice is only freezing and fire is only heating, but it is a limited view. Ice can change the temperature in a specific range, the same as fire does."

"What I did there was a joint effort by the army and me. The army extracted and moved the frozen water of a lake into one of the battlefields where the Golden Civilization was using most of their troops. My role there was to take control of the iced lake and change its temperature."

"The chosen battlefield was not in the mountains, as the other battlefields are, causing the environment temperature to be lower than where the lake previously was. A unit formed by ice and fire Ascenders were in my charge, and together, we made the frozen lake to melt." said Laura Lopez, with a smug expression on her face.

She, after all, was the first Knight on Earth. For the time being, she got the title of the most powerful Ascended and the symbol of humanity.

However, she was aware of the Golden Civilization having stronger Ascenders than her. They only deployed one of such Ascenders on each battlefield, and their presence was enough to make the human Ascenders feel dread.

Initially, the Earth Alliance suspected these powerful generals were at the same level as herself and called them Knights. One time she happened to have a battle with one of the generals and was almost defeated. What was even worse, she was not defeated by the general, but by his personal guards. Afterward, the Earth Alliance's top officials changed their minds.

They gave a new name to the generals of the Golden Civilization: Grand Knights. And they recognized the fact that each Grand Knight was surrounded by at least ten Knights. Killing one Grand Knight was impossible without nurturing one.

Therefore, the army was trying to make more Ascenders to reach the Knight stage.

She felt lucky that at the time she melted down the frozen lake, the Grand Knight was placed far away from her location. However, the enemy's ability was the thunder element.

When the Grand Knight was attacking a fortress on the plains, the unexpected water stream shocked him. His attacks were interrupted by the water, and the electric current turned the newly formed river into a killing machine. This greatly increased the casualties on the alien's side.

Fortunately, every soldier on the Earth's side was warned beforehand. As a result, only a few clumsy Ascenders on the human side were killed.

The thunder element Grand Knight had to retire from the battlefield, becoming the first victory for humanity since the start of the war.

But Laura Lopez knew that the world was not aware of this. The Earth Alliance was manipulating the news, threatening the news agencies which did not comply with their orders. Laura Lopez was aware that if she went to the streets to ask the people passing by about the war, most people would say they were winning.

Maybe a few would be conscious of the reality, after all, a lot of territories have fallen. Not everyone would believe the news recklessly.

Laura Lopez was also informed of the latest Earth Alliance activities. The headquarters had issued a lot of changes, and one of these changes was the duty of the Special Extermination Force.

The Special Extermination Force was a squad in charge of halting the advancements of non-humans on Earth, in other words, other animals becoming Ascenders. But after the failed mission in the Amazon forest, Captain Thomas, the only survivor of the team, was replaced and sent to the frontline in Norway.

The new captain of the Special Extermination Force squad was in charge of infiltrating society to find and execute traitors, humans in contact with the Golden Civilization. They were selling them information or planning terrorist attacks.

This was found out after a man was detained for selling 'golden alien bath water' in eBark.

Laura Lopez was thinking that the world was becoming crazy, but she quickly dismissed her thoughts and continued the interview.