Greetings, District Commander...

A well-built old man was sitting at an oak desk, his most distinguishing features being his grey hair and the scar covering his throat.

The man was clad in a green military vest, decorated in a plethora of medals that he'd done unspeakable things to achieve.

This was the district commander of sector 'Elenor,' the third-largest state on the continent.

One of the lowest priority experiments of the 1,000 subjects they were currently testing in the state was to undergo the third stage today.

The phone began ringing, "Greetings, district commander!" An enthusiastic voice called out from the line.

"Kane undergoes the final phase today, yes? I want soldiers there to take him in when it's done, and get a body disposal crew ready at the lab site, there's almost no chance of him surviving anyways."

"Understood, it will be taken care of immediately district commander." The commander hung up and let out a sigh.

He didn't particularly enjoy this, but his empathy had long since gone numb, he'd sold himself to his country ages ago.

----------

Kane and his father were locking up the apartment when some familiar footsteps made their way up the stairs.

"What are you doing here, Cass?" Kane turned to meet her.

"Oh, I was gonna ask if you wanted to come walk Cody with me. Y'know, because you're always sooo busy on the weekends," she chuckled while looking around curiously.

"Where are you guys going?"

Kane sighed, "Doctors appointment, wanna come?"

"As fun as that sounds, I think I'm good." She gave Kane a quick hug, "If you get cancer or something I'll kill ya."

"With all the smoking your mom does, I wouldn't be surprised if I did," Kane smirked.

She pulled away from him with a grin and waved goodbye.

Kane was met with an "O-ho-ho" from his dad.

"Just get in the damn car," he joked.

Truthfully, Kane could probably run to the hospital faster than his dad could drive him, but that obviously wasn't a very good idea.

The central hospital wasn't a very long distance from the city's outskirts, making the ride fairly short. Kane enjoyed seeing the various cars and locations on the way there with senses that could now envelope a building.

The Elenor Central Hospital is one of the most renowned in the world, Kane had gotten surgery here when he was 11 after being pushed down the stairs of his school by some bullies.

And now they were pulling into its parking lot for Kane's check-up, it was required by law that all students get one at the beginning of their semester.

Kane walked in through the automatic door, examining the lobby of the hospital with his scan ability.

Facilities like this are where the continent's true technological prowess shine, holographic displays, a delivery system to every hospital room through large paths under the floor, the latest cybernetics and medical treatments, it was very impressive.

Kane saw a nurse storing something in an open slot in the wall, giving him an idea to try holding items in the subspace around him, he quickly dismissed it as he'd never have enough mana to keep them in there.

"Kane, Tom, welcome!" A short man in a white coat made his way towards them.

"Doctor Lain isn't in right now, so I'll be taking over your check-up. If you'd just kindly follow me!"

Kane nodded and began trailing behind the man, his dad striking up an enthusiastic conversation about old movies that lasted the whole walk.

Arriving at the room, the doctor had Kane change into a hospital gown and take a seat.

He went through the usual procedure, checking his ears, tongue, reflexes, etc.

"Do you work out, Kane?" The doctor asked while checking the curve of Kane's spine.

"I work out pretty often actually, I'm the gym teacher's favorite student," Kane bragged.

Maybe it was because his body was in the middle of being examined, but Kane didn't feel comfortable releasing any mana, or doing anything that might seem odd to the doctor.

Because of this, he failed to spot the vial filled with dense mana conducting liquid sitting inside the cabinet across from him.

"Alright, now let's catch you up on your vaccines, are you afraid of shots Kane?"

Kane shook his head, "Not really, go ahead," Kane's ears perked up as he heard a group of people lingering by the doorframe.

The doctor went to the other side of the room, grabbing a syringe and filling it with the liquid.

Kane could feel his arm being wiped down, shortly after being followed by a light prick.

"That should do it, we're ready now!" He called out rather loudly.

It only took a second, but Kane could feel a dense liquid entering his bloodstream, every nanometer of it being filled with a slightly altered version of mana, Kane's expression grew to one of shock immediately.

He urgently shot his mana out, spreading it into the space around him. He was taking a large risk, but he fully believed the doctor and the shot were completely tied to the Ember situation.

Just before he could teleport away, the door burst open to reveal a barrage of tranquilizer darts, although they stunned him for a second, Kane was still capable of escaping.

That was until he heard his father whimper as a gun cocked in front of him. "Stay still and retract all of your mana, or else we kill you and your father. And believe me, we can tell if you're using it."

"Damnit," Kane retracted his mana, gritting his teeth.

As his mana became neutral, the tranquilizers immediately took effect, causing Kane to pass out.

----------------

When his consciousness returned, he found himself sitting in a chair, large walls of reinforced concrete surrounded him from every side.

He sent his scanner up through the roof of the box-like room, but only found more concrete and some dirt above and below it all.

He sensed a single door leading out into a long narrow hallway, but the hallway was lined with defense measures that would tear Kane to shreds. There was no way out.

After a few minutes of huddling into a ball contemplating what they might've done to his father, the door opened.

An old man in a green military vest walked out to meet with Kane, a woman by his side wearing an armored black and red uniform that seemed to pulsate with mana.

Kane asked a question, "What did you do with my dad."

The old man smirked with a light scoff, "This is the first greeting I've gotten in a while that hasn't started with 'district commander.' Whether your dad is fine or not depends on you kid, right now he's being held in a comfortable lounge."

"What do you mean by 'depends on me?'" Kane worriedly asked.

"Here, I don't want to start off on bad footing. And since there's a good chance you'll be dying soon because of us, the least I can do is answer your questions."

The old man sat down cross-legged opposite of Kane, "You've received the third injection, which is the most difficult to survive. Since you skipped out on all the training protocols in 'Ember,' there's a very good chance you won't make it."

Kane was filled with shock, "W-what were the first two injections, when did I get those??"

The man chuckled, "I'll explain from the start then. With the capabilities of science increasing so drastically over the last few decades, we began building higher-powered scanners, which picked up a new element called 'Manilium.'"

Kane nodded along, both scared at the situation and highly interested in the explanation.

"Now, Manilium isn't like other elements, it's everywhere and found in everything, a building block of every other element, space and life itself if you will. Though for whatever reason, nearly impossible to detect."

The old man got up and sat back down closer to Kane.

"We recently discovered that certain individuals like yourself, have an extremely rare genotype that allows compatibility with Manilium. So, using a very conductive liquid that fuses with blood vessels, we figured out that 'channels' could be forged inside the bodies of these people, allowing them to hold and use Manilium at will," The old man grinned.

"To put it simply, the results were astounding, their bodies could be quickly conditioned past human limits. They could rapidly heal themselves, utilize elements, supernatural abilities, and so on."

"It was recently decided that we'd 'flip the Manilium switch' so to speak, on as many compatible people as possible for the benefit of the military."

Kane was finally able to put most of the pieces together, "What about Ember?"

"Ah, that was the fun part. We released our newest VR technology to the public and had a game made for it around the principles of Manilium usage. The headset takes blood samples while the player is in-game and checks for compatibility, if the player is compatible, the first dose is given remotely from the headset."

"You guys were f*cking injecting me with crap while I was in the game?!" Kane was furious.

The man smiled, "Yep... oh, don't try anything Kane, this woman next to me is a rank 3 Manalite, which for the sake of your understanding, is a magic soldier strong enough to remove the ashes of your blown off corpse from existence. "

Kane was trying really hard to hold back, not because the woman in the room might be more powerful than him, but because they had his father.

He took a deep breath and tried his best to calm down, "Go on..."

The old man had a satisfied look, "The first dose just introduces the capability of gathering Manilium, once the body has had some time to adjust, the second dose is given, forging paths for the Manilium to travel throughout the body."

"Generally, a special quest is given to help candidates who are falling behind learn to consciously manipulate Manilium or strengthen their willpower, those who cannot do both are extremely likely to die from the whiplash. Frankly, with you being blind and choosing Aporter as your class, I'm shocked you survived."

"Can you explain without being a d*ck?" Kane muttered coldly.

"I'm just saying, the Aporter skill set is very hard to learn in comparison to other classes. Anyways, after surviving the second dose, candidates will be switched over to a new system and given forced quests, this is to make them gradually increase their pain tolerance and combat skills," He continued.

"From that point on, they'd subconsciously practice mana control in real life while playing. If they had any potential, their Manilium control in the real world would increase enough to allow them to survive the final dose, which you just took."

"What does the final dose do?" Kane nervously questioned.

The man grinned while leaning forward, "I'm sure you noticed that in Ember, you had a 'core' of mana around your heart? The final dose turns your heart into a center for Manilium storage," He looked around the room for a moment, turning his attention back towards Kane.

"The first one hurts, and the second one kills you if you aren't strong enough to push through, but the third one will cause the mana channels to bond directly with your heart. If you don't have a large enough amount of Manilium or control to shield your heart during the process, it'll almost instantly kill you."

Kane breathed an internal sigh of relief, he'd probably have no problems with the third injection then.

"How many people have survived the third stage so far, how many people don't make it through this?" Kane asked solemnly.

"We have around 3,000 third-stage surviving candidates, about 4,000 more undergoing the process, and a little over 1,000 in Elenor. The process has a 0% survival rate for those without the right genetics and a 32% survival rate for compatible people like you. I'd put it at 0.2% in your case, since you skipped the training in Ember."

Kane stayed silent, he was a bit fearful of the future, but the realization that he'd become so powerful without even having a mana core was shocking. He was excited thinking of what'll happen once he has an actual center for storing it.

All in all, he'd only just stretched his channels out wide enough to hold usable amounts of mana throughout his whole body.

The old man finished up with this, "If you somehow survive stage 3, you'll be put into a military unit, given decent pay, appropriate training and equipment, and can return home on your off days no problem, this entire operation will be going public soon anyways. Your dad will also be released. So long as he stays quiet about the processes involved and what we've done here, you'll all be fine."

"... And if I die?" Kane stretched his mana out wanting to see what the man looked like, getting a surprised glance from the woman next to him, while the commander didn't seem to notice anything.

Now that his mana was active again, he could sense a strong aura coming from the woman by the old guy's side.

"If you die, your body will be disposed of and your dad will be privately brainwashed, executed if the brainwashing doesn't work, with fake reports of you and your father's deaths being circulated to your friends and family."

"Jesus, guess I'm surviving then..." Kane said with a disturbed frown.

The old man sat up and smiled, "That's the spirit kid, I'll come back when the third stage starts, you have about 3 hours left to train your mana. Assuming you know how."

The woman walking behind the commander had no doubt Kane would handle the injection just fine, but she decided to leave it as a surprise.

Kane spent the next several hours absorbing, releasing, and moving mana. He could feel the thick liquid that had been injected into him slowly moving up his bloodstream, getting dangerously close to his heart.

The old man walked back in, "Should only be a few minutes left. I won't hide behind the excuse that I'm just doing my job when you die, kid. I want you to know that I do feel sorry for all of this, but also know that I'd let this happen to you a thousand times over for my country."

"I don't completely blame you, if you didn't do it, someone else would've, so your presence in all this doesn't mean a whole lot to me." Kane began doing some stretches while he spoke.

If he wanted to get back at anyone, he'd have to find the people who greenlit the "Ember" plan, but he wasn't even close to openly rebelling against the government at the moment.

And as much as he hated himself for it, he wasn't even that mad at his situation. Kane sucked at holding grudges, he figured he'd probably end up enjoying himself as a super-soldier.

Those thoughts faltered when he thought about how much having a single finger cut off hurt. How bad he'd felt in the past after only beating someone up... could he even handle killing?

He didn't really have a choice anymore, he'd either live out a prosperous career as a soldier, or die.