[A New World]

We have never been unfamiliar with the word 'change'. Every day something is constantly changing. Whether it is the temperature or the climate. Change can be attributed to improvement or downfall. In this world, very few remain constant.

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"Please fall in line, everyone. There's no need to rush. Everyone will get food."

I watched Angel as she guided the remaining survivors/students of the entire academy. In my estimate, the number of people who attended the graduation ceremony can be counted to hundreds, if not a thousand.

However, the number of people currently remaining doesn't even exceed eighty. There's an enormous difference between the number of survivors and the deceased. As I walked around, I could see that there were still corpses, both intact and mangled, still laid out in the open grounds.

To my gratitude, their bodies have been covered by clothes found in the academy's storage room, so that the people wouldn't see the gruesome images.

*Drop*

'Hm? Rain?'

"Oh no, it's raining! Everyone, please head over to this way."

The rain started to pour, and Angel was forced to relocate the rations somewhere. Despite the pouring weather, I continued to scan my surroundings. However, there was nothing to view that can bring back the happiness that the world once had.

Broken buildings, mangled corpses of both humans and beasts, traces of blood and human flesh. Everywhere I looked screamed the word 'destruction' to it. The only thing that was giving life was Angel and her will to continue helping the people.

My condition had already stabilized. Although my wounds are not fully closed yet, it is healed enough to let me walk and roam around. Maybe it was because of that I feel relax that I just now notice the difference between having a limb and not.

The imbalance in weight between my right and remaining left arm causes me to lose equilibrium before when I try to move. However, my body and mind easily adapted to that change, and I can move normally now.

'Weird, I don't see any Elementors anywhere. Did they go outside the academy?'

With the monsters completely cleared, the academy now has become somewhat of a haven in this world. No one can say anything outside, but here everyone will be safe, at least from the monsters.

The Elementors, that they call them, went out on an expedition somewhere near to clear out the vicinity of the academy, as well as scavenged for food and clean water.

Just walking by, I saw someone I know playing by the swing. Worried as well as bored, I approached him for a talk. He was staring down at the muddy ground, seemingly lost in thought.

"Kenny."

"Hm?"

He slowly looked up to meet my eyes. There I saw the change that happened to him. His eyes lost its previous luster, and he was kind of doleful, contrary to his usual lively and wild behavior.

"Oh, it's you Ray. Wait, what happened to your arm?!"

Kenny became worried when he saw my severed limb that was covered in bandages. Seeing my wounds must have brought back some life and empathy out of him.

"This?" I raised and waved my decapitated left arm.

"This is nothing. It's just a big scratch."

"Right. A big scratch, bullshit. What really happened?"

To my expectations, he didn't believe me one bit. It was nice to find someone to joke around with, especially in this gloomy atmosphere.

"Well, a giant mantis came out of the sky, found me, and fucked me up until I am in this state."

"That... sounds rough."

I sat down in the swing beside him and began telling him what happened after the rift appeared. Of course, there was some exception like how I could kill a seven-meter-tall mantis that can destroy even buildings.

"How about you, Ken? What happened at your side?"

Kenneth began narrating his side of the story. After the awarding ceremony ended, Kenneth apparently left the campus to buy something outside. However, when he returned, what awaited him was a chaotic world with monsters roaming the land.

Frightened, Kenneth quickly tried to leave the academy but was forced to go back when he found monsters on the road outside. Valuing his own life, he hid somewhere safely in a classroom.

He was found there by the Elementors, and that was when he realized that he was safe. However, the sudden change did affect him anyhow.

"Tell me, Ray. What are we supposed to do in this world?"

"To be honest with you, I have no clue. However, just because we are uncertain doesn't mean we should stop moving."

He sat there, looking at me blankly for a moment. After that, he laughed, cocking his head back. Then he looked at me again, this time with a serious expression.

"Ray. This is just between us, but I have a secret. I can't tell anyone but you."

"Deal. What it is?"

"While I was hiding... a monster suddenly broke through the window. I thought it was the end of my life. However, when it was about to attack me, an earthen spike suddenly manifested and pierced it. I am an Elementor, Ray. Just like them."

An Elementor with the affinity of earth? I see, my friend seems to be more special than I thought. In the entire campus, only a handful managed to awaken their own powers and become an Elementor.

"How...exactly did you do it?"

"I'm not sure, but I just imagined something that will pierce the monster. Then I felt something like an energy gathering below the monster just in front of me, and boom! Just like that a spike came out of nowhere and killed it. Amazing, right?"

"Truly amazing. Now, you can be like those protagonists in the novels that you dream of."

"Man, shut up."

After talking and fooling around for a while, I bid Kenny farewell to gather thoughts of my own.

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KENNETH

After saying his goodbye. Ray left, saying that he has somewhere to attend to. I wonder where will he go now that the academy is in ruins, but it's like I can just ask him outright.

He also somehow felt different, like a mysterious character hiding something. I didn't feel this way about him before. He used to be an open book, although a very long one. However, earlier he felt like a spider pulling threads somewhere hidden, waiting for a fly to be trapped.

I thought that he would shock beyond relief when I told him about my newly acquired powers, but to the contrary, he was kind of cool with it. There was no hint of envy or fear on his face, as if to him I was just another human.

'I really want to know what is going through that mind of his.'

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I was now inside one of the vacant rooms. After hearing Angel and Kenny's explanation of their powers. I had a subtle idea of how to use it. First, there is some sort of energy that is around us. It is similar to air, albeit more mysterious and abstract.

This energy, which I will call 'mana' for now, is able to affect or influence the elements in our world, to the point that it can even produce, enhance, and recreate those elements.

In simple terms, mana can influence the components of our world. May it be air, dust, water and many more. Not only that, it can also manifest those elements by using the surrounding elements. It's like burning a crayon and using the melted wax as a candle, although in a massive scale.

Mana can bend the fabrics of reality.

With that in mind, I wanted to conduct an experiment. If my theory is right, then the Elementors who can wield those elements are beings who are gifted to have a higher sense of manipulating mana, to the point that it is extremely easy for them to conjure those elements.

That means that an element is not necessarily available only to those who awakened it. Anyone who can properly manipulate mana can also use that element, however it will be extremely difficult, as mana cannot be seen and is hardly felt.

However, in my previous fight against the mantis. I managed to get some idea on how to manipulate and use mana. All you need to do is imagine it converging or diverging at one point. In the end, it relies on your will.

'I sure hope this works.'

Picturing the mana gathering in the palm of my hand, I felt a kind of cold sensation permeated through my skin. I focused on that sensation and tried to release some energy. It was hard to focus at first, but I focused on the feeling of releasing energy or mana in my hand to ignite the oxygen around my hand.

"Combust."

Combustion. It is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous product, in a mixture termed as smoke.

*Fush*

'I didn't expect it to be this easy.'

Using the mana as a fuel to heat up the oxygen in the atmosphere, I managed to create something only those esteemed and highly regarded Elementors can.

I conjured flames.

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