Not Yet

"GET UP YOU DAMN MUTT!"

What…? Where am I- AUGH! A kick was launched at my gut making me cough and roll over to the side. I noticed the cracked concrete and walls of buildings as if they had been bombed by artillery shells but before I could even process what was going on, I was grabbed by my hair and lifted up like a cub.

"Pay for what you stole!"

"W-What?"

Confused, I tried to seek answers but with no response my back was punched again and the impact made me fall to the ground with my whole body aching. I was getting tired of this. Do they take me for some kind of lowly human being to just sit and take a beating? I will show them something that I'll scar deep within their minds.

As I was there with my body aching the same way when undergoing that damned training. My eyes picked up a piece of a broken brick laying there, it wasn't sharp enough to kill but it would suffice. Extending my hands towards the piece of brick, I grabbed it and got up slowly.

"You still want a beating?"

"Nein {No.}, I think It has sufficed but now it is your turn."

The man was baffled by what I said but by the time he would process everything, my body would have lunged at him and stabbed him in the right arm continuously. As I continued to stab, my soul began to slip away towards insanity but it oddly felt… Outstanding. A feeling like never before but as my mind slowly snapped me back to reality, I saw a sight that many would consider abhorrent and disgusting.

The man who had beaten me with an inch of my life had his right arm hanging by only a few threads of meat as his bone was visible enough to see the cracks I had caused on a superficial level. My stomach would gurgle out of disgust and as I ran away, a bright line engulfed me.

When I woke up, I found myself under the stream of human waste. My mouth was filled with all kinds of sickening filth as I swam towards the coast. I climbed out of that rotten puddle, with my stomach begging me to throw up all the waste that had gone inside my digestive system to the point I felt like my organs were about to be spewed out. My lungs struggled to even grasp oxygen as I forced myself to crawl away from the coast.

As I reached a place where I could breathe at ease, I gasped for air and enjoyed the clear oxygen of nature. My brain tried to remember what had happened to me. Just to vividly remember Ausha shooting me with her Elira and me falling but question being… How am I still alive?

Using my arms, I slowly began to remove my armor and clothing, though. My body physique had reached the peak of what a human could dream of, I still was not invisible to wounds caused by bullets, blades and explosions alike. My eyes began to look down at my chest searching for any marks left by the bullets.. Surprisingly…The gun wounds, they had disappeared? I began to check my body up and down until stumbling across something I had only seen in a few individuals.

A jet black strip of a marking that resembled a dark flame had appeared from the right side of my chest with pinpoint precision on where my heart was and continued down to the fingertips of my right arm. It was not a tattoo, this is actually an Elira.

Eliras are markings that have no known origin, some have considered them a gift of god, while some a curse by the Devil. The reason for them being so frowned upon is that the first instance of them being used, caused a massacre back in New York, USA. No set number of casualties was ever announced but the death toll was large, with around 50,000 falling victim to a power gone Rogue. But the one thing everyone was sure about was, these markings give powers that can level even cities in moments if used correctly.

"If this is true… Then I suppose God wanted me to at least take revenge upon those devils before sending me off as well."

As my body laid on top of a small grass patch, I sat down in a cross legged position to meditate. Although my knowledge of Eliras was scarce, I had studied and collaborated with those who possessed such Eliras and their description of it was as follows:

"Oddly enough, Eliras mostly pick a random part of your chest, arm, leg or face to appear. But it's the same process, if you are someone who has a strong spirit and learned meditation for a minimum of a year or two, you can figure your Elira out."

Although this explanation was rather vague, the one who said this was an old coworker of mine… I slowly began to calm my breathing, as I felt myself being separated from the outside world and it felt strange yet familiar. When I found myself inside my heart, I saw a purplish flame kindling and crackling inside.

My instincts told me to approach it slowly and so my body followed. My approach was the equivalent of trying to tell a puppy I am not its enemy and when mere inches separated us, the flame allowed my hand to touch it.

For a second relief had taken over but then the flame slowly began to reject my touch by burning my hand. It couldn't talk, nor did it have any human features but I felt as if it said that it was not yet ready. My mind couldn't wrap around what I felt at that moment. A flame talking to a person? Only in fairytales.

As I returned back to my physical body, my eyes wandered around my Elira until they picked up something. The mark around my heart had an empty space with a circle surrounding it, was this related to what the flame previously said? Most likely, but for now, I cannot stand here, I need to recover in a safe area.

"I do suppose she owes me a favor…"

I clicked my tongue at annoyance as the person I was about to go meet wasn't one who valued promises nor words as much as other valuable things. But deep within me, a seed of trust had sowed and blossomed so perhaps I could trust her.

My body jumped into the air, landing perfectly as I began to put on my armor, though. It was slightly damaged, it was mine and one that had protected my life through hells of situations time and time again. Let's just say, we have a bit of history with one another.

My destination was set but the feeling of those bastards soon picking up on my trail wouldn't shake off my mind. Right now, I need to recover, after that, may god save them for I will drag them to hell with me even if I need to. Say your final prayers, damned hounds, for I will be the wolf that will hunt you down to oblivion.