CHAPTER I - ORIGIN

The Year 223.

It was the third of July, in earth time. A war is currently taking place on Planet Sargas. The warmongering Empire dubbed 'The Novus' were in the process of eliminating the planet and its' forces. 

The Novus Corps deemed the planet and the people that inhabited it as 'too dangerous', which is why they took it upon themselves to eliminate every last existing Mantian.

And as of right now, they were succeeding. The Novus were in possession of more capable Soldiers than Planet Sargas, which is why right now, Manta is mostly deserted. 

Arcus Antares and the few remaining Mantian Soldiers that were still fighting on Sargas.

Luckily, Arcus happened to be one of the Sarga Army's most powerful warriors. And so, he was a great help, especially with his 'Astral Core'. 

The Astral Core is the source that powers a Mantian. At first, the chance for a Mantian to be born with a Core was about 90%. But that was thousands of years ago. As time went on the chances dropped, and now, it is much, much rarer to be born with a Core. 

Those born with an Astral Core are considered to be Blessed By The Sun. These powers were necessarily adapted onto the race many years ago for the sake of survival. But by now, the race has long gotten used to the ways of Planet Sargas, which is exactly why the chances are dropping. 

But once a child is born with a Core, their family will be blessed with the powers of the Sun for the next two generations. Right now, under one million of the population (12 billion inhabitants total) have a Core.

Arcus Antares is an Astral-Core user as mentioned before. In his past, he grew up training to join the Sargeras Military to carry on his father's legacy. He joined around the age of eighteen, (The Age requirement is 18, and you are considered an adult by the age of 17 on Sargas.)  Immediately impressing the higher ups. Within only one year of joining he had already become one of the top ten in the entire Army with a Base Threat Level of eight-hundred thousand, making him one of the top twenty strongest Mantians globally.  And even more, he has access to a power residing deep within his Astral Core.

And currently in the present, he was in the middle of a war that had been going on for five days. There didn't seem to be any hope for his people. 

Five days prior, he sent his family off to the universe to protect them from the war. 

This way, he erased all the concern from his mind. He was able to fight at top potential.

Arcus looked at the war that was going on, determination flowing in his veins.

  His fists began to glow a bright red, as he charged out towards the Novus. Arcus was fighting with all he had. Within minutes, he had taken out every soldier on the field. "Too weak to be the big dogs.." He thought. 

He could feel the presence of someone nearby and turned towards their direction in time to see them cuff their hands around their mouth. 

"Chrollo!!" they shouted, as they started waving their hands in the air.

A serious expression appeared on Arcus' face at the familiar name. "Chrollo, huh? Isn't that-"

Arcus shut his mouth immediately and ducked as a mysterious person appeared in front of him.

The guy threw a punch above him. If he hadn't ducked, he would have gotten hit. 

He lifted his right fist and shoved it towards the man. The man backed up immediately, avoiding the attack.

Arcus observed the man's dark blue uniform, and noticed that no star was visible anywhere on him. "Good. He's not a Senior." 

"You must be the Great Red of the Sargeras Army, correct?" Chrollo asked, sneering at Arcus. 

Arcus glanced left and right, not moving his head. "He doesn't seem to have any backup..." He tapped the back of his neck, and from his own uniform came a hologram that formed in front of his face. In appearance it was similar to a Monocle, but otherwise it was completely different.

He focused his attention on the man and waited for the device to lock on to him.

On the screen, a circle appeared around his opponent, and next to it read:

DANGEROUS ENTITY IDENTIFIED. 

Chrollo OF THE NOVUS JUNIORS

THREAT LEVEL - 1,400,000

"Hmm.. I can manage that." 

A look of rage spread across Chrollo's face as he vanished into thin air, catching Arcus by surprise. "Pay attention!" He shouted, quickly appearing  in front of him as he threw a fist at Arcus. 

A Red energy surrounded his entire body, blowing Chrollo back away.

The red energy dissipated a few moments later, revealing Arcus. But now, a bright red aura bordered his fists entirely. Chrollo leaped back in a second attempt to attack. 

"Super Manta Ray!!" Arcus shouted as a large red burst of energy hit Chrollo point blank.

Chrollo was ragdolled back once again, slamming into an unidentified broken structure. 

"My 'Red' Transformation boosts my Threat level to around two and a half million, but it tires me out. I need to finish this quickly." He thought to himself. 

He rushed to Chrollo. The man was barely on his feet when Arcus struck.

Chrollo brought his hands back and gritted his teeth, then began throwing straight punch after punch in Arcus' direction. 

Arcus weaved around the many times Chrollo swung at him, seemingly unbothered at the speed of his opponent's fists. His Threat level had ascended beyond Chrollo's by an entire million. 

"Ack-!" 

He landed a blow directly to Chrollo's stomach, pushing him back. 

Not giving him a chance to escape he jumped forward, landing another hit in Chrollo's gut. 

Aiming to finish it quickly, Arcus was about to fire a Manta Ray.

"Get off of me!" Chrollo shouted as he hit Arcus hard enough to knock him back into the sky. 

Arcus did a backflip, landing on a rock. 

He then shouted… "Manta Ray!!!!", releasing the large red blast of energy directly onto Chrollo.

He screamed in terror as he was wiped off the face of Planet Manta.

After the blast dissipated, Arcus inspected the scene to see nothing but the remains of the attack. 

Taking a deep breath, he deactivated his 'Red' skill and took a seat on the big rock. 

"So many Mantians lost to this war." 

He looked down at the battlefield. It was a town previously known as Crux. Crux neighbored his own hometown that his family resided in. He remembered taking his son there to see the statue of Crucis Crux, a Legendary Mantian known for many good deeds done to the race. He was also the strongest known rival of Orchid Mauve, another famous individual of Mantian History. He looked behind him to see if the statue still stood. Yes. It was there. 

The statue was oddly durable. Actually, every historical statue on Sargas was. It must have been made of a very strong material.

He missed his son. He hoped that one day, he could take him to see the Historical figures once again-

Abruptly he felt a strange but dangerous presence that took him out of his thoughts completely. "What- Who could that be?" 

His body tensed up instinctively. "Someones coming-!" 

He jumped up to his feet and flipped off of the rock, just as it was vaporized from existence in front of his very own eyes. He shielded his face with his arms as rocks and dirt spewed all over him. "Finally, someone else to fight. You aren't weak, are you?" The person laughed, landing in front of him. He had messy golden hair that was all over the place, and it went to his shoulders. His fiery reddish-orange eyes reminded Arcus of the Red Giant, along with the man's entire aura. His skin was tanned, and he wore an all black skintight suit that covered everything up to his neck. "Who are you-?" 

  Arcus paused, his eyes catching on to the strange, small tattoo resembling a star on the man's face, beneath his left eye on his cheekbone. 

"This must be a Senior. I can't feel his life energy. I don't think I can deal with this guy." 

"Manta Ray!!!" 

He fired a red beam at the ground, before quickly dashing away. "I need to find an escape!" 

The man coughed, dust surrounding him in all directions. 

As Arcus fled, a sudden wave of heat passed over him, slowing him down. He took a moment to catch his breath, as sweat now poured down his face. "Hell's this?? I'm hot?" Shaking his head, he quickly rushed back up and continued running.

The man only walked after him, his face lacking emotion. Arcus went straight for the Travel Ships back home. 

He leaped into the air and fired two manta rays from his feet to boost himself through the sky. This was much quicker than running.

Within minutes he managed to reach his hometown, Arkobi.

But before he could land on the beloved streets… 

The man appeared below Arcus. He was poised in an attacking position, a maniacal grin on his face. Arcus quickly stomped his left foot on the air, blasting himself back.

Grunting, he flipped himself backward, soon landing on the ground with ease. 

"Where you headed?" The man asked, his eyes focused intensely on Arcus. 

Ignoring the question, Arcus shut his eyes, "Looks like I have no time to waste. I'm going to need to resort to what my father taught me years ago." 

He grabbed onto his suit top and tore it off.

It ripped rather easily, as he balled it up and tossed it aside.

He took a deep breath, as a faint red glow surrounded his body. He grunted painfully, a bright red aura erupting from around him until it surrounded his body entirely. It continued to flow into the sky, growing thicker with each passing second. "It's all or nothing.!!" 

"Oh?" The man rubbed his chin curiously as he watched on.

Arcus let out a scream as all the power that was released into the sky returned to cover his entire body. 

When it all layered onto him, it revealed that he was now entirely red, a bright neon red. His eyes were now whiter than a blank sheet of paper. His muscles bulged, his mouth twisted into an agonistic frown. A searing pain pulsated throughout his entire body, as if he himself was inside of the sun. Suddenly, a huge domain of red energy surrounded them as if they were inside of a bubble. "What could this be?" The man asked. The new Arcus ignored him once again and stormed towards the enemy, tackling him.

He shouted ferociously as he aggressively thrashed the opponent back and forth, firing off large Manta rays from his fist each time it connected. The enemy did not retaliate and accepted all of Arcus' attacks.

  After crushing his opponent into the ground, Arcus leaped into the sky with immense strength, releasing a violent shriek as he did so. 

He raised his arms, then swung them downward, releasing a humongous manta ray.

The attack was gigantic, instantaneously devouring his enemy, whilst erasing a chunk off of planet manta. 

. . . 

Arcus dropped to the ground, crashing hard enough to kick up dust and land in a small crater. The red aura surrounding his body quickly disappeared as all his power was put into that last attack. "That should… buy me… Enough time..!!" 

He coughed a few times, before continuing to speak. "I Have… To go..!!" He was scorched from head to toe, his clothes all gone and most of his skin burned away, revealing a red mess of blood. Everything hurt as if someone had poured acid all over his entire body.  He slowly stood to his feet, his entire body trembling head to toe.

Grunting, he stumbled over to the balled up shirt he tossed aside earlier. 

After two minutes he reached it. Acting swiftly, he unwrapped it, revealing a red button that was on the underside of his jacket. He pressed it, sighing out of relief as he allowed his body to drop onto the ground. 

Within minutes, an escape ship arrived on the scene, landing in front of him.

It was shaped like a sideways egg. With a windshield on the more narrow end. A hatch opened on the side, inviting Arcus inside. 

He climbed in, taking his time to reduce the pain as much as possible. It was a small pod big enough for one person, and one person only.  He propped himself into the seat, exhaling sharply each time his finger tapped the interface. 

COORDINATES SET.

LOCATION: PLANET 11719 

ALSO KNOWN AS: EARTH

Arcus sighed in relief, as the countdown began. He shut his eyes, a relieved grin crossing his lips. "I'll see my family soon." Was his last thought, before he fell into a deep sleep. While he rested the ship began to fly off into outer space, leaving the planet. 

Meanwhile, outside of Planet Sargas. 

  The man immediately opened his eyes, glancing around frantically to figure out where he was. "Wha-" 

  He burst out into laughter, painfully clutching onto his stomach as he realized where he was. After his laughter died down, he rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Ain't seen that one before." He allowed himself to chuckle a bit longer. "So this is the closest I'll get to fighting Corvus." Rubbing his face, he turned around, looking off into the distance to see Planet Sargas. Arcus' Savage-like Manta Ray had sent the man all the way into orbit. The man popped his neck and knuckles. "The planet's done. My work here is over." 

He turned around and blasted off into the mysterious void known as Outer-space. 

END.