1 That Day

Without a moment's waste, a child, the oldest of three took long strides in pursuit of a wild boar, still too small to be butchered but old enough to outpace him. He imagined himself triumphantly holding the boar above his head on its back, but before he could react to the change in terrain at the foot of the volcano, the boar expertly swerved to its right and disappeared into the greenery. The foliage spread itself farther and farther apart, leaving sparse patches until the deep grey ashes and black dust formed waves of uneven footing. In an attempt to follow the boar's movements, which only resulted in Soma slipping, he took the liberty of planting his face into the gritty soot.

"Hey Soma, are you okay?" a small boy's voice asked. Soma plucked his head out of the earth and in front of him stood a boy and a girl, both extending their hands out and despite being shorter than Soma, loomed over him.

"Thanks you guys, I'm all good now, Vega," Soma replied. In unison, the two children pulled Soma up onto his feet.

They had never made it past the foot of the volcano, only stopping to mesmerize its unusual formation and shagged exterior. Soma brushed off the remaining clumps of dirt from his black hair. Unlike his siblings, Vega, whose silver white hair slightly poked out from his dark gray hoodie, and Saiph, whose long black hair never happened to appear disturbed in the wind, his hair faded to a dark chestnut. Despite Saiph being born with eumelanin, Vega sported an identical face as Saiph being the younger twin by eight minutes.

As they sneakily hiked the steep ridges, their hoodies made them stick out like a sore thumb, especially so with Saiph. Her white short skirt only seemed to emphasize her presence like a beacon among the other two, who wore identical gray hoodies. They walked side by side, exploring each crevice under their feet and hopping from one stone to the next. Much to their surprise, the volcano was a lot larger and tiring to climb all the way up on their own two feet. Vega found a flat rock to lay his back on, defeated and exhausted from his lack of endurance and experience. He complained, "Why can't we use our wings, big brother? I don't know if I'll even be able to stand once we see Master Simurgh."

Soma joined Vega and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his dark blue t-shirt and pulled out a handkerchief from his blue jeans, offering it to Saiph to sit on. Soma was given his first pair of wings as a gift the day he turned seven, like every child of the Tengu village. Soma still wasn't sure if using the mechanical wings was a good idea for the twins at this altitude, especially since they had just gotten them yesterday, and even at the age of nine, Soma was still considered inexperienced. He rubbed his bracelet of wooden beads, stuck between the option of trekking the rest of the way on foot or eating another mouthful of dirt when they inevitably lose control of their wings.

"Hey big brother?" Vega asked Soma.

"What is it Vega?"

"Master Simurgh is at the top, right?" Vega asked, seeking reaffirmation.

"He should be. He always flies this way."

"Big bro, will we see him fight?" Saiph asked, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.

"Hopefully," Soma responded gleefully. "I want to see a Grandmaster in action, too."

As the three prepared for another hour of walking up the volcano, Vega spotted a glowing red crystal embedded not too far away among smooth, black stones.

"Soma! Look!" Vega exclaimed in awe of the mysterious object.

"No way, that's a Purified Flame Gem!!" Soma said, shocked at the rare gem right in front of them.

"We should take it right? Right?!" Saiph exclaimed at the sight of its beauty, a pulsing glow that radiated from the crystal. The crystal was about the size of a child's palm and glowed a deep crimson that faded into a bright orange.

"We could take it back home, show mom and dad, and take it to Mister Ardit!" Soma replied. As he reached towards the gem, he felt the heat rising but persisted. Suddenly, he jerked his hand back, feeling a slight burn the moment his hands came in contact with the gem.

"Agh!"

"Soma are you alright?" Vega and Saiph said in unison.

"I'll be fine, I-I'm used to fire, remember..?" Soma said as he gave a weak grin. As he tugged at the gem, it cleanly broke off the surface of the volcano.

"Yay! You did it!" Saiph said, in excitement. Soma turned back at Saiph and Vega where he let out a triumphant grin.

Soma's victory was short lived as a stream of lava shot out of the crevice that the gem produced, landing on his forearm where it immediately cooled, forming a smooth, black glass over the scald. He collapsed and struggled to grasp the gem in his hand as he screamed in agony. Saiph and Vega dragged him by the shoulders to descend the Volcano away from the consistent stream of spurting lava.

"Soma--" Vega said choking in between sobs.

"We have to get out of here Vega. This is bad," Saiph said in panic.

"Right..." Vega said, wiping his tears with his hood.

Soma continued to writhe in pain, his arm still suffering from the burn. He looked at the twins in a blurry mess, holding back any tears despite how much it hurt. He remembered the day after he turned the age of five, his heat tolerance was unmatched by any child around him and was able to pick up a piece of metal lodged inside a pile of burning charcoal. Even to someone who's used to handling fire every day, the pain was so unbearable for someone his age that he was barely conscious and could hardly speak as it spread throughout the rest of his body.

Pebbles began to shower down from above, assaulting their backs as they held onto one another. The steady trembling beneath their feet grew into a seismic sauté that cooked up a stir fry consisting of felsic lava and chunks of boulders. Vega and Saiph flinched at the sudden trembling underneath their feet and their hesitant footwork only served to further their descent, causing them to fall backwards. The boulders gained in speed and leapt into the air, oily black smoke pouring out from several perforations on its surface and a flowering inferno blasting from its largest orifice. They hovered in the air by propelling themselves with their fiery clouds and resembled that of a furnace, temperatures ranging from bone dry scorching to being able to re-roast of ash into much finer ash, practically liquifying even the smallest speck of dust.

"F-Furnace Class Wraiths?! Here?!" Soma said, still in pain.

"Do you have enough White Lightning stored in your wings, at least enough to carry big brother away and call for help?" Saiph turned to look at Vega.

"Sorry Sis, I don't think I do..."

"W-Why did this have to happen… on a day like this..?" Saiph said, already feeling defeated. A raucous splintering thundered from behind in the same way firewood cracked in the blistering heat of a bonfire. The twins snapped their heads toward the direction of the harsh sound only to find a completely uprooted blaze bark tree. Its roots set of like hundreds of sparklers, setting off a disturbing light show mimicking that of an enclosing jaw of an angler.

A fifty foot tall dragon made of fire and metal. It merely looked at the children and glanced at the small Wraiths as if it was ordering them to attack.

"Vega," Soma said, just barely hanging on to his consciousness. "In my pocket...I kept our practice needles from earlier...use them…"

As Soma fell unconscious, Vega nodded, given a hint of hope from his older brother and rushed to find forty needles made of crystals. It gave off an aura that felt like electricity, a white lightning that did not shock him at his fingertips. Vega took twenty needles and had one in between each finger of his left hand and gave twenty to Saiph.

"Here goes nothing sis.." Vega said, tears running down his cheeks but flared with determination.

"We will come back home, Vega" Saiph responded, as she tried to hide her fear.

Vega then pulled out a flask and opened it, where he spilled some of the contents towards the needles, in which they started glowing blue. Vega then took a stance and threw the needles at the Wraiths, swiftly pierced their bodies. However, it was close but no cigar as four out of five needles failed to hit the core of one Wraith.

Saiph on the other hand, was able to destroy one Wraith using five needles, where she persisted in making sure the other two are safe.

As they were down to their last needles, the twins were fatigued. The Wraiths seemed endless in numbers and emerged by the dozens. Four Furnaces shot at the trio, leaving scratches and burn marks on the Twins, shielding Soma from any further damage. Soma, still unable to get up, struggled to do at least something to protect his siblings.

"S-Sis…"

"Vega…."

Before the Wraiths reached within five feet from them and were about to all shoot fireballs from every single direction, Soma heard a chant from an unknown location.

"Grandmaster Art: Purification Arsenal"

Silver white flaming spears immediately descended around the three and pierced the monsters with ease. The three were now, instead of being surrounded by a crimson flame, were now surrounded by pure white spears twice the height of Soma. They all gave off a feeling of safety, that whoever did this was someone they could trust, someone with so much power.

The caster was nowhere to be seen, but Soma knew who it was when he heard the man spoke.

The unknown man descended upon the children. Revealing to be a man in his forties, chestnut hair fading down to a bright orange with his hair swept back. Some strands of his hair were large and resembled a phoenix feather. He wore a black kimono with a bright orange trim, where the sleeves had a flame print. The man also had a device, a small and compact device located at his chest, which radiated a white aura for a moment but glowed a deep orange instead. He also held a blade with a genuine phoenix feather tied to the end of the hilt. In the back of his kimono was a crest that Soma knew well, the orange strokes resembling a feather inside a flame to express the rebirth inside a fire. It was the Phoenix Grandmaster, Simurgh.

"G-Grandmaster...S-Simurgh…." Soma said, as he coughed up blood.

"I did not expect you three to follow me beyond the forest." Simurgh spoke sternly. As a Wraith attempted to attack from behind, he slightly tugged his katana from the sheath, revealing only a small portion of his blade. In the children's eyes, flashes of light crescented where the cores are and in an instant, were destroyed.

"Don't despair, children, you're safe now."