{Prologue}: Test Of Trust!

Micah opened the door and went inside with his body numb from the sheer nervousness residing inside. As soon as he walked in, he only caught a glimpse of Brain before a blast of magic struck his chest and sent him out through the door, destroying it easily when they collided.

'What the hell!' Micah hit his head on the floor and felt his fleeting consciousness but managed to stay awake through sheer willpower. The blast of magic was powerful, and in that instant, he realised, that even if he could move very fast, it probably wouldn't be close to enough to defeat this man. Just one tiny blast of magic almost took him out.

"As I suspected, you have higher durability. Interesting, come inside, I have an offer for you." Brain walked inside the room again without checking on the boy's condition.

Micah wanted to lash out but he wasn't sure how valuable he was to Brain. He had concluded that the master of this guild was mildly crazy, so only an idiot would provoke him without being able to predict the response.

As he walked into the room he saw a chair already prepared for him. "What kind of offer?" He asked calmly as he sat down.

"To join us on our mission to endless power. What else?"

'Damn, Angel was right. Or she knew all along.' Micah only allowed the shock to linger for a few seconds.

"I'm not saying I'm declining, but do I have a choice in the matter?" He saw Brain's mouth twitch slightly, but he didn't get a read on the man, not as he had with Angel.

"Of course."

'He says! Of course, I have the choice to decline, I am asking what will happen to me if I decline.' He cursed in his mind. Brain wasn't letting any information slip. He was way too experienced in the ways of this world to be outdone by Micah. Even though he was quickly becoming more impressive, a lifetime of experience could still play around him with no issue. 'I don't wanna accept, but I can't hesitate or he will surely know I have no desire to join. I am so close to figuring out dematerialisation. Only a little while longer. SHIT, do I have to accept?'

"Mind telling me more about, eh, what you do here?"

"The search for power, like every mage in this world does. The only difference is we use more effective and direct methods." Brain rested his hands on his desk and looked into the eyes of the boy. His piercing gaze made it really difficult for Micah to focus.

"I don't know how I would be useful in that regard. But, I have taken a liking to this place," Micah tried to smile to lighten the mood. As he suspected, Brain acted like he hadn't noticed the attempted joke. "I-I would be glad to tag along and see if endless power exists." He said in his most evil voice. He would only need to play along for a few days, and when he mastered dematerialization, he could leave before anyone could stop him, magic or not, no one is faster than light.

"For reasons you surely understand, I can not take your word for it. What we do here is highly important and I can't have it fail because of incompetent subordinates. So, until I know I can trust you, you'll remain in that cell. For the next couple of days, I will hold some tests for you to see how you fair in combat." Brain waved his hand and Micah only felt a slight disturbance in the air before a blast of magic came and knocked him into the wall. He was cleanly knocked out this time.

****A Day Later****

Inside Micah's cold and dark cell, he sat with crossed legs on the bed. Sporadically throughout the night, the room had illuminated in incredible bright light.

"I finally did it! Look Blue!" She appeared beside him from a cluster of azure-coloured particles. Her eyes rested on Micah's arm that he kept turning into light and reverting. This was light-dematerialization. This is what {light}-users use to travel at high speed and fight with. This would increase his piercing and explosive power to unprecedented heights, at least in comparison to his previous power-level.

"Congratulation, Master." She was clapping her hands with a proud smile. Her tone was stoic which kind of ruined the mood for him.

"It felt like it took forever. I can't believe some previous hosts mastered this in minutes. How freaking talented were those people, it took me god-knows how long." Micah was amazed at the stories Blue had told about the talent and bravery previous hosts wielded, yet he still didn't care he was lagging behind so far. This was a huge victory for him.

"I am proud of your master. Next, you should learn how to diminish your light. You are bright like a miniature sun, enemies will see you coming from miles away if you're outside in the night. But, that takes much longer to learn than this, so that will have to wait, tonight I believe you planned to finally make your escape." Blue couldn't be heard or seen by anyone, so she was fine to talk out here, but he chose to start using telepathy as to make sure no one heard him.

Suddenly there was a sound coming from behind him, it sounded like Angel when she used a stick to hit the bars on the cell. Then not soon after Hoteye's voice came, though he was whispering. "Micah, are you awake?" It was night and that meant that this place was absent of absolute every source of light, so he couldn't see Micah in the cell.

"Hoteye? What's going on? What are you doing here?" Micah felt his heart start to beat faster. Did they hear him, did they figure out his escape plan somehow? Would he have to beat Hoteye? He really liked the guy, they had bonded a lot over their many discussions, he would hate to have to hurt him. And, it would be his first fight ever. In the past, he was always just beaten on by bullies without being able to fight back.

"I'm here to help you get out!"

"What the hell? Aren't you part of this, what the hell are you talking about? They will kill you if you try and do that!" Micah was taken aback, he rushed to the bars with eyes wide in shock and terror. He was met with not only Hoteye's unblinking stare, but Angel also stood in the back keeping an eye on the corridor.

"Angel? You too? What's going on?! You two will be in serious trouble, there is literally no way they don't figure out that you're behind this." Micah was starting to feel his stomach turning in anxiety. He realizes that they locked him in here and kept him prisoner and that they had been apart of his torture. But, the feeling of these two potentially dying for him made him feel sick.

"That's why we're going with you! I heard you talk a few nights back, I assumed you were talking in your sleep, but then you started asking and answering questions from someone you called Blue. We don't know what the hell is going on with you, but I have been listening in every night and I know you have the ability to escape." His smile turned into a grin as Angel looked back with a smug smile as well.

"I-I, ehm, it's hard to explain," Micha let his head drop as he felt unbelievably stupid. He thought he had been careful when bringing Blue out, but apparently not.

"Another time! Time is money, we should move now!" Hoteye said and brough forth the key to the cell.

"No! Not before you tell me why? Not once have you shown dissatisfaction about being here? What if this is a test brough upon by Brain?"

"Actually, we talked about this, and we don't know why. Before you arrived, we kind of just existed here, we had our sights set on Brain's mission and we were content. Then you showed up and we suddenly just started to, I don't know, change? The more time we spent with you, the more we realized you don't belong here, you are too good. And we don't wanna go down this path any longer. Maybe you have some magical powers to change the hearts of people."

Angel also interrupted at this time with. "Can we go now, please? If we delay any longer, Cobra will notice us. That guy is a freak, and I doubt even the three of us could take him."

"Yes, of course." Hoteye stretched his hand to Micah. "Please Micha. Trust us, we shall talk in length once we are out of here. I promise you this is not a test of any kind." Micah saw Hoteye trying to bring forth an honest and kind smile, but he was only half successful and it looked very funny and uncomfortable. His face wasn't made for smiling, that much was obvious.

"That's not entirely correct. This is surely a test is trust." Micah said and took the hand and shook it. Then Hoteye opened the door for him and Angel approached and said quickly. "Thank you, whatever you did to us, I haven't felt this good in a while." She immediately signalled for them to follow and left out of the room without giving Micah a second glance.

"We should follow before she leaves us behind, and believe you me, she would do that I am sure." Hoteye tried smiling again. "Time is money, so we shall show you the fastest way out."

Running out of the room, they stared down the south way in the corridor outside, for there stood Angel with an annoyed expression. "Hurry"! She hissed quietly.

They both nodded and followed after her. There were many turns left and right, but eventually, Micha saw the exit out of the cave. He could have probably escaped unnoticed before, but he was very glad they had a change of heart, which he still found weird and suspicious. But, he took a risk and if it would end up paying off, it would certainly do him some good.

"I can't believe we made it," Micah whispered quietly as he touched the stone wall by the exit. He could finally see outside and it looked like they were in a canyon or something similar to it. The exit was located in a pretty revealing location, but from the structure of the landscape around them, he didn't doubt that it was pretty well hidden. They were surrounded by giant rock formations that made him feel tiny as a fly.

"Let's move, I know my way through the forest from here. Hopefully, we will have gained some distance by the morning when they notice we are missing." Hoteye started leading them up the trail leading into the forest located above them.

In the last possible second, Angel dove forth and pushed Hoteye out of the way as the tail of a snake struck where he had stood. Due to the sudden action, Hoteye was unprepared and hit his head on a rock and lost consciousness, Micha froze from the giant snake now in front of them.

"Angel, Hoteye, you guys should know better. Nothing escapes me!" Cobra stood on the head of his partner and grinned at the escapees. "Boss, Hoteye is out, should I kill him or?" Cobra looked back at Brain standing slightly behind him. They had appeared in front of the group out of nowhere. Micha deduced quickly that they must have known from the moment Hoteye and Angel came to his cell.

Brain, with no emotions on his face, just nodded. His eyes locked onto Micah. "You say you don't control your powers, but look at this. All my hard work with those two, gone to waste in such a short span of time." He looked genuinely angry now that he had started speaking. "I knew something was wrong. Her behaviour changed too rapidly. Questioning my methods of torturing you, asking for you to join us. That is not the Angel I trained. One word and she would have ended you, yet she questioned me? The question is now, how are you controlling them?"

Cobra moved at the same time towards Hoteyes with the intent to kill. Angel was beside him about to take out her keys, as she was a Celestial mage. But the snake carrying Cobra launched itself at the command of Cobra towards her and tried to bite her.

'No, Angel! MOVE DAMN IT!' Micah stood frozen when Brain's and Cobra's combined killing intent hit him head-on. Now seeing Angel and Hoteye about to fall prey to the snake, he summoned an iron-will and without much control, he disappeared only to appear above Cobra. He started to fall but before losing balance, he kicked against Cobra which the man easily defended against but was forced to abandon his attack on his former comrades.

"Look who woke up," Cobra said as he was blocking the kick. He grabbed the leg but it turned into the light as did Micah's whole body. He appeared by his fellow escapees and grabbed them both tight. 'Please God, let this work!' He closed his eyes and envisioned his old village and they all disappeared from sight. There was only a flash of blue light then they were gone.

"Shit, I didn't think he could do that? track them down," Cobra spoke down to his partner, he was terrified of what Brain would do to him. The guild master could have most likely ended the lives of all three, including Cobra if wanted to. This meant that them getting away was Cobra's failure, and he knew Brain's stance of failure.

As odd as it was, Brain wasn't very bothered, only a little annoyed. "Don't fret. Prepare to move, we are relocating to another hideout. We don't have time to chase kids around the world, and who knows where they've gone. We don't know how far he can teleport, for all we know he can be on the other part of the world by now. We have much more pressing concerns. And, those two don't know enough to stop me now. When our goal is achieved, I will personally seek them out and kill them for betraying me." Brain said no more and walked back inside.

'Next time, Micah. You won't escape. Now that I know your magic, I'll find a way to counter it. If the others were here, you would not have escaped, so you should count yourselves lucky.' Cobra looked towards Brain and after a while, he just shrugged his shoulders. He was like the rest of them, pretty numb to emotions.

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End