Chapter 1: Pendant

An old TV buzzed in the corner of a dim apartment. Both its image and sound were distorted and revealed many cracks on its screen.

"The attacks from the interdimensional beings have quickly become more frequent and rifts are appearing inside the Kingdom walls..."

Darius rolled over his bed and reached for the remote, turning the old static TV off. His apartment was cheap and rundown due to being in an isolated area, reserved for the bottom-feeders of society, or in other words: Regular Humans (without abilities).

In the present day society, in which abilities and the capability to defend against the unknown interdimensional beings are everything, being deemed unresponsive to the energy known as 'Flora' ment that you were useless to society and were tossed aside to work low-paying and distasteful jobs.

Of course, being an orphan only made his life worse. His parents were high-ranking Guardians in the frontal attack force who were humanity's first line of defense against these beings, and also the most powerful. After sacrificing their lives in an A rank rift, they were called Heroes. Not long after, officials directly under the King came to inform Darius and also register his magical capability, however to great surprise, they detected 0 energy inside him, deeming him useless. The instant change in how they viewed him is still burned to his memory: how they tossed him aside and ridiculed him as if he were an insect. Despicable.. he thought.

Shaking his head, he sluggishly got out of bed and headed towards the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, it showed a a young boy measuring 168cm with inky black hair that ran down across the right side of his face. He certainly wasn't handsome but he wasn't ugly either. He splashed water on his face to wake him up and continued his daily routine consisting of a quick bath before getting ready to begdrudingly drag himself to school - literally (mc depressed af 😔).

After reaching the door which had clearly seen a tough life due to the rundown paint and damage, he exited his single room apartment. The rising sun instantly blinded him and brought a comforting breeze that warmed his body.

"Ahh.." he sighed.

After reaching the school gate, he heared the faint voice of a distant figure, rapidly getting closer and closer. Soon a face could be made out. The figure was a young boy, the same age as Darius and had average facial features: shoulder-length black hair, blue-green eyes, a sharp nose and few freckles that were not visible from a distance. It was his best... only friend from his childhood: Alex Wagner.

"Brooo!!" Alex shouted, loud enough that everyone diverted their attention to them.

"Hey! We have Ms.Juliet for Magic Theory today. Her nickname is the 'Ice Witch' so you better pay attention if you don't wanna get on her bad side."

"Pfft you should be telling yourself that" he said.

Personality-wise Alex was the complete opposite to Darius, in the fact that he was quite a character when it came to socialising. Dairus, on the other hand, was an introvert and would seem almost non-existant to his fellow classmates if not for them. Despite having top class looks, Arthur Merrick was the youngest son of the renowned Merrick family who were known to produce powerful ability users who contributed to the defense against the interdimensional entities on the front lines. Arthur and his gang had caused nothing but suffering for Darius during his time at the Liazan Academy; they would inflict physical pain on him incessantly through the use of their abilities, and also ridicule him publically infront of his other classmates. They were all level 3 ability users and had amble control over the Flora running through their veins, whereas Darius was stuck at level 1 even after years of physical training. The sheer amount of physcial tempering of his body resulted in him appearing incedibly defined but was still useless when compared to the supernatural abilities wielded by his foes.

After entering their relatively large classroom, they sat at their appointed desks and waited for the teacher to arrive.

"Hey bro, you lookin' kinda down today" Alex mentioned.

"That 'Arthur' didn't try anything did he?"

His mind fixated on that name and his eyes showed his clear discomfort. Of course Alex took notice of this.

"Right that does it. I'm gonna..."

"Oh and what are you going to do?" Arthur cut him off mid-sentence, entering the classroom with a smug look plastered on his face.

He sucked his teeth and gave an intimidating look at Darius as he barged past, making contact with his shoulder.

"B*tches"

Alex was about to get up when Darius pulled him down to his seat, signalling him to stop and shaking his head.

A few minutes later, the teacher walked in and assembled her materials on the podium elevated at the front of the classroom.

"I am Ms.Juliet and I will be teaching you Magic Theory this morning." she announced.

She sent a quick glance at Darius then disregarded him completely. It was common knowledge amongst the staff that he had no inborn ability. It was a prestigious academy after all. The only reason he was enrolled was because of his parents who were high ranking Guardians - if not for them then he couldn't have even dreamed of setting foot in a place such as this.

He did have his own qualities however, although no inborn ability was present, his IQ and ability to plan a course of action in stressful stiuations was above-average and helped with calming his mind down after suffering numerous beatings under the hands of Arthur and his gang.

"Mr.Acker" said Ms.Juliet.

"Ah.. yes?"

"It's imperative you understand this class... even in cases such as your own" she added.

"Ah.. yes." he apathetically responded.

Time slowly passed on and the class soon came to an end, then following other dreading lessons the day itself came to a close. Darius slowly walked home as indifferent as he did in the morning and upon reaching his apartment, noticed a military vehicle stationed outside, as if waiting for him to return. After reaching the door, a person greeted him and introduced himself to be a Guardian serving under the Kingdom's *personal attack force*.

*Guilds/Associations exist that employ Guardians to tackle rifts away from the front lines*

"Greetings, son. I'm Colonel Anders and I'm here today on behalf of your parents."

His eyes widened on the mention of his parents and he instantly paid attention to what he had to say.

"After searching through their belongings, we found a package addressed to you, son."

The Colonel was normally emotionless during these confrontations, but he was one of the Guardians saved by Darius' parents as a result of their tragic sacrifice and felt some sympathy towards him. It truly was a shame. After leaving, Darius shut the door behind him and didn't hesitate to open the package. Inside he found a small box. He searched thoroughly incase he missed anything but found nothing, it didn't bother him though, as long as they left something.. anything. He slowly opened the lid of the box and was surprised to find a small red pendant in the shape of a rose. A note fell out and hit the floor, reading "Say 'System' ~ Dad". (pretty cliche ik 😅)