{Prologue}: New Standards Of Living!

Riddle me this - What does a boy do when he is thrown into a dark cell with no windows?

Having a hard time finding the answer? This was the exact thing Micah sat in his new home thinking about. What does a boy do when he is left with no options? Since he went straight from one dark room to another, he had no idea how long he had been out or what day it was. He didn't even know where he was. From the walk between the first room and his cell he figured out he was in an underground tunnel system. But, beyond that he had no clue where in the world he was, for all he knew, he could be on another continent. He doubted that heavily, but with magic, you never know.

'What if I use my speed to get out of here? Like I did before I got caught, would that work?'

Blue's stoic answer came rapidly and with certainty. 'No, Master. You are not at the level yet where you can accurately control yourself during transportation. This was my fault since I underestimated how ill-trained you are. If you try and move out of this cell using your powers, you could end up materializing inside a wall, or leave a limb in the void between the physical world and the particle realm. I suggest when they aren't standing guard close to your cell that you start practising your powers. If you manage to successfully reach a high enough level, escape will be effortless.'

'I see. I won't lie, I am starting to wonder if you're actually out to sabotage for me.'

'What do you mean, Master?'

'Well, you said when we began exploring my powers that you would explain everything as I learned and mastered more of my powers. But now, I'm learning that there are so many dangers with using my powers, and I can't help but feel this wouldn't have happened if I knew how much travelling with my powers tired me out. You said I was stronger than before, but I lost consciousness just from travelling a short distance.' Micah sat leaning against the wall of the cell. Darkness surrounded him on all sides, and he kept his eyes closed because whenever he opened them he could feel the walls closing in. He hated the feeling, it was like feeling yourself losing grip with reality. So, to save him from that, he barely ever opened his eyes.

'As stated previously, a simple miscalculation on my part.' Oddly enough the voice in his head sounded a little apologetic. 'Also the reason you lost consciousness is that you traversed a very large distance, not a short one. You actually appeared close to your village. Such an immense jump between two points would have killed a normal human. You only survived because you are so much more than human. I promise Master, everything will be easier and will make more sense when you achieve better control.'

'Can you stop saying that? It's starting to really annoy me. Control this, master that. I am trying to manage my powers, but it's not so easy. Most hosts you have had you said had prior training, meditation, martial arts, anything. I had nothing like that. I have no idea how to will my powers to life. Plus, it's not even similar to the magic in this world, both you and Brain have made that very clear. So, for once, can you stop putting pressure on me like that. I'll master it when I do.' He finally let himself snap a little. He could still feel that his improvements to his mental stability helped him in coping with this situation. He also credited his "not breaking down in despair" to the fact that he was constantly evolving. Every second, a small sprinkle of inquiry would just come to him. Small minute details about Angel's face or Brain's speech-pattern would arise. This was his mind evolving at bizarre speed, and he felt no pain or discomfort from it.

'I apologize, Master. There is so much information to go over and if I were to explain it all to you, even now as your mind is evolving, much of it would still be missed. So, for convenience, I thought I would wait until you were at the appropriate mental strength. That seemed to have been a miscalculation. I will in the future warn you of every danger when using your powers.'

'I would appreciate that. Now, I apologize for lashing out against you, please don't abandon me, I'm starting to really like the idea of no sleep.' Micah had never had a peaceful sleep in his life so he had current trouble leaving that aspect of humanity behind. 'I can also start to plan on how to help people using these powers. My old man told me I would one day make important changes somewhere in the world, and I can feel that this might be it. If nothing else, I will make sure to enjoy my time.' Micah's mood improved, which was hard for him to believe since he was stuck in a dark cell while surrounded by mages many times stronger than him. This is when he suddenly felt something warm and fuzzy inside his chest.

'Blue, what was that?! It feels like a wave of fire is spreading throughout my body, it doesn't hurt though.' Micah didn't open his eyes, but he straightened out his back and sat up properly against the wall.

'I can only guess what feeling you are referring to. But, that should be {Faith} at work finally. You are starting to believe. Whatever enlightenment you reached just now, it resonated with the {Faith} as you are now the host of. In essence, what you felt was your bond to your powers and to the Concept of Faith increasing through belief. If this is the case, you should start to naturally translate the will of your {Faith}. That simply means your bond to your powers have and will continue to deepen.'

"I like the feeling," Micah blurted out loud for himself.

"What feeling?" The voice of a man with a curious heart came from outside the cell. A voice Micah recognized instantaneously as this was one of his two jailors, Angel being the other one.

"Feeling of faith, I suppose," Micah answers after he calmed down from the sudden arrival. He was the one who often brough the food here, either him or Angel. But between the two, this man was the most engaging, often asking questions and trying to explore the mind of Micah.

"Faith? Useless no? It does not bring power, I tell you what brings about change, m-"

"Yeah, yeah, money is power. I know!" After quite a few interactions, he had basically a full understanding of how this man worked. Another display of his ever-increasing intellect.

"Hmph, displaying a rude attitude like that will not earn you your food any quicker. I thought you and I had an understanding. You do NOT interrupt another in conversation."

"From what I've gathered during my short life, interruption during a conversation shows interest in the topic and will often lead to more interesting conversations. I think it's quite normal to interject your own opinion into conversations. Another point we can discuss in the future I suppose." Micah said and smiled at the man.

"What is with you today? Why are you suddenly in such a good mood? Have you perhaps found a way to escape? No, that is simply impossible. Are you perhaps falling for Angel? Has she made any intentions known? I must certainly look into this." His eyes darted back and forth as his mind raced to find an answer. Suddenly their prisoner was in a much more cheerful mood. Faith? No, it can't accomplish such a thing. Surely it has to exist a materialistic reason for such a change. Only money can bring upon such a smile.

"Forget it, Hoteye! Someone like you, someone so focused on the materialistic value of the world will never understand. Faith comes in more forms than one. I just found my faith I think." Hoteye was one of the strangest humans Micah had ever seen, in fact he doubted that the man was human. He had once asked if he was one of Brain's failed experiments, and that had earned him some time under the pleasant company of highly advanced torture equipment. Fortunately, he had an increased healing factor and scars faded relatively quickly. But, the pain was still something he couldn't escape, the whip Cobra used on him occasionally for fun still hurt.

Hoteye possessed physique unlike any human, he is big, very big. Tall as two Micah's, at least. Wide as three of Angel. He also possesses the most peculiar body. It is consisting of geometrical forms with sharp angles, not possessing rounded parts.

"You are certainly the most interesting one that we have had locked in here," Hoteye said, not even looking at Micah anymore. He was gazing into the void, possibly thinking of the conundrum of what made Micah so happy.

"Eat your food now before it gets cold, I must go and think this over." He was so focused and troubled over this that he just forgot to place the tray down and he instead dropped it, making all the food spread out on the ground.

'Good thing I don't need food.' Micah laughed to himself as he looked at the disgusting food on the floor. I think this nasty-tasting food was just one of many ways they tried to break his spirit. But, lucky for him, he doesn't need food.

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How many days had passed Micah didn't know. It felt like an eternity. He didn't need to sleep and his body suffered no consequence from staying up, but he was sleeping just so he wouldn't risk the chance of going insane from always staring into the darkness. His mind wasn't a steel-trap yet. He didn't actually know if he could suffer from any form of mental illness, but he sure wouldn't like to test that theory. Blue said people can't infiltrate his mind, but can he become depressed? Good questions that he would eventually need an answer for, but while locked in this cell he decided not to test that.

"Micah, wakey, wakey," Angel's soft and angelic voice drifted in through the bars and awoke the boy from his slumber. She was hitting a stick against the bars lightly as a makeshift alarm clock. Because of this cell being completely submerged in the darkness she couldn't see him and he could barely see her.

"I'm up, what's going on?" He walked somewhat absentmindedly towards the bars. When getting up to them he could finally see her, and he could only admit that she was growing more beautiful every time he saw her. He still didn't know her age, but he guessed around seventeen or eighteen. Though she was rather short, so maybe she was older, and just had an immature appearance.

"Brain wants to talk to you. Follow me!" She said sweetly. He knew better than to fall for that act, she was quite sadistic and he knew she probably didn't care for him at all. At most, he might be interesting for her to observe. He was unique because unlike previous prisoners, he only became happier the longer he stayed in the cell. They, of course, didn't realise that it was because he was slowly starting to comprehend his powers. He estimated that in only a few days, he would be able to escape with relative ease. It was actually Blue's estimation, but he could also feel how he was starting to understand how to turn his body into light at will.

"Really? What does he want?" He asked as Angel unlocked the cell. She wasn't worried about him escaping. With everyone in this place being a highly powerful mage, he wouldn't get far.

"I don't know. Maybe you're finally getting the guild tattoo," Angel said nonchalantly.

"What? Wait, wait, wait?!"

"What?" She turned around when he heard the panic in his voice.

"You're a guild? Like a mage guild?" He looked at her with wide eyes, and his jaw somewhat hanging.

"Yeah? You didn't realize?" Now she looked very amused.

"No, I certainly did not." Micah thought one hundred per cent that mage guilds were supposed to be a force for good. Approved by the council. He suddenly felt so stupid. Even though he was getting smarter as the days went by, he just realised how little he truly knew of the magical side of the world. It was somewhat obvious if you really thought about it. If there were good people, there would be bad people. If there were good guilds then there certainly could be bad guilds.

"Honestly, I thought you were rouge mages or bandits. Something like that, not an actually established guild. Are you legit, like Fairy Tail and such?"

"Fairy Tail?" Angel stopped for a second before answering. "Well, they fight for their goals and we fight for ours. The methods we use are more efficient but are quite looked down upon by the world, so if you mean to ask if we're good guys. No, I would say that we are not good guys." She grinned at him.

"You don't look like a bad guy, and neither does Hoteye. Brain and Cobra are the only ones among you that look scary and people might believe are evil." He had been told the guild had more members but most of them were never around to meet him. The different missions took them all around the continent.

She shrugged her shoulders and chuckled at that. "Don't judge a book by its cover. Anyway, Brain is in that room over there, I have other things do to so I'll see you later, Light-boy." She pointed down the well-crafted corridor they had arrived at. From this short walk, he was certain they were underground. The whole place was a maze made up of multiple well-crafted and well-lit tunnels. This made his plan to escape just slightly more difficult. He would have to navigate a lot of space to escape from underground. Or he could always wait for them to take him outside, that's assuming they ever will.

"Thanks, also I'm not sure how this whole prisoner thing works. But I don't think you should be so nice to me." He genuinely was confused about why she was acting so friendly to him. Shouldn't jailors be there with the thorn whip on a daily basis? Well, they weren't, not daily at least.

"Normally I wouldn't even bother talking to prisoners, but I like you. Where everyone previously occupying that cell broke, you smiled and sat through. Starvation doesn't work on you, darkness doesn't bother you it seems, I find you fascinating because mental torture has virtually no effect on you." She lazily waved her hand and walked away with a grin.

'I have no doubt about Brain, but Angel, Hoteye they don't really seem to belong here. I can somewhat feel goodness still residing inside of them.'

'Another perk of your new identity. I shall explain quickly since you don't seem to have much time. The higher mastery you gain, the easier you will have in reading people. It works almost on instinct. You can feel the colour of someone's heart. There is, of course, no colour to people's hearts, but a previous host used that term and I thought it sounded simple enough. I hope you understand the meaning of it.' Blue explained rapidly, her words shot out like a machinegun.

'I couldn't see any colour or anything, but I know for some strange reason that those two aren't totally evil. I can feel that they are also good and not just evil. It's a wildly strange sensation." Micah said as he started walking slowly trying to delay his arrival at Brain's office.

'You will get used to it. In time you will also be able to read intentions and will be able to more accurately determine someone's alignment. Are they good, bad or somewhere in between? With age and experience, you will be a very difficult man to fool.' She sounded proud when she said it. She did speak of powers that originated from her, so Micah thought that maybe she isn't totally emotionless.

'Good to know indeed. I might survive through this partnership after all.' He said with a smile, which he dropped when he arrived at the door.

"Come in!" He heard Brain's voice even before he had knocked.

He grabbed the door and opened it with mostly confidence. There was still hesitation in his movements because Brain scared him. He could handle his caretakers just fine, those two didn't bother him no matter what they did now. But, Brain was someone he genuinely feared. 'Fear is good, fear creates motivation to survive.' He told himself before he walked in.

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