Chapter 2

Two years later.

"Why are you always alone?" Jessica, one of the girls had come to me, always bugging me, I felt unnecessarily bad for her that I ignore her.

"I'm not alone," I turn to her while answering, walking away towards the individual training facility ( I.T.F ),

"I'm just not interested in being with people".

It's been two years and accordingly I've increased my abilities, compared to how I was before, I'm definitely going towards the right place as my foundations are solid. Devour, Darkness with a fear and anxiety effect, and the one I've been waiting for, formless shadow.

The devour attribute played a major role in acquiring these two attributes, but with the exception of killing the original host of this ability; they can greatly help me. Darkness is as it is, creating a nearly inextinguishable gas like prison around a target and instils fear and anxiety in them which leaves them defenceless unless their will to live is strong.

Formless shadow is just as it implies, after I had killed the owner of this ability and taken it, I could create a shadow version of him, which looked exactly like him but this time, because of my abilities, it doesn't just create a shadow like replica of him but it creates a replica of any and every thing I want it to. As I descend down the stairs towards the door leading to the ITF, a shadow replica of myself was created to go scout outside the school, in truth I've ever left the school but whenever I found a dark affinity user sent by the dark church, a church only accepting those with dark attributes; I would use the flames to devour their main attribute and kill them so I can fully use the attribute.

The shadows are alive due to the flames, in my memories, no matter how long I searched, I couldn't find any connection with these black flames or why it is alive but it isn't a problem because for the shadows no matter where they are, they are connected to me, what they see, I see. What they hear, I hear and what they know, I know. It completely suits the saying being multiple places at once but what I really want, is a teleportation ability, not only can my devour attribute take another attribute from a dark affinity user but from its upgrades, it can fuse my attribute with one such as it in uniqueness; say my formless shadow was in a different place and It was going to be destroyed or it senses danger, I can immediately teleport to it or switch places with it. This can only be known if I can get a teleportation attribute to fuse to the attributes I already have; opening the door to the ITF and walking in. I'll think about this later.

...

Meanwhile, the formless shadow that had gone to scout looked nothing more than a dying flame if anyone saw it. When it had almost reached the end radius of the school and was about to turn back, there they were, two, maybe more people talking in the woods nearby a river bed in the open. It was smart, since there are trees you never know who can sneak up; taking into account the gear they were wearing and their size. They must be normal adventurers but I wont bet on that, changing the shape of the flame to a wolf was easy but I want to know both their powers so I divide the wolves in four and let them go have fun, they cant kill it as long as I'm alive and they cant win it unless they are at a level stronger.

The wolves charged in, two for each as they reached their target almost with a swing clawing out their throat. It was a battle to spectate as I cannot allow even one person to be alive if they are useful. The one that was speaking, black hair protruding out of the hood with a mask on and the entire body filled with artillery that even the church wouldn't hand out easily, were they mercenaries? The other had used an ability, creating a shield to protect him out of no where, that was useful, until the fields shape had changed, just like formless shadow it created spikes at will on the shield. It was then I knew, this ability, has to become mine, as he was focused on the two wolves, their tales fell of and turned into two flames, floating towards his blind spot. One of the flames landed on the shield and the other looked for a contact with his skin. This was merely a test but if I can successfully acquire this, my offense and defence can be solidified and liquidated at will without my need to excessively do away with what energy I have in a battle. The only skin that was shown on him had been on his fingertips, as he was wearing a glove cut out at the fingers and thumbs, maybe it was the glove that had allowed him more energy to be able to change such large shields shape easily.

This was an opportunity worth risking, he hadn't noticed so I accelerated the flames speed towards that little opening and before he could react to the flame, it already hit, burning him up from out and within, stealing away his life force for me and taking that attribute with which he was proud of as the flame on the shield burnt it up for synchronization on both ends to occur at a fast pace.

"Derek?!!" the man had shouted out, his voice like a middle aged man and his fighting style wasn't anything to scoff at. Maybe it was experience that the other one was lacking.

He had stepped back as the other wolves joined in to finish him, I fused them together, since he didn't want to use his ability; I'll just take it. The shield ability had completely fused with the all my attributes, and the only thing left was to try it out. I had shaped the shadow into the body of his dead friend and brought up a shield around him as he was encased in it, the darkness attribute had been added to bring him more fear as he saw his friends face thinking this was all real, dying to his friend. And just before I was about to use devour on him, I thought about that shape I would use on the shield and it occurred to me to infuse devour into the shield itself. After infusing it, three spikes aiming for his head, heart and stomach had pierced into him, devouring his entire existence within seconds.

It was then I realised what his real powers were, agility coupled with quick reflexes. Even in the church and dark church, there weren't many that had this ability which made it rare in the sense that in the war, there are those who love to sneak attack, maim and kill their opponents secretly, this ability saved the lives of those that had it; if only I had it, I wouldn't have died in such a distasteful way. After devouring the ability, the wolf had turned back to flames and come back to me, once it returned, its experience and might had told me that in this day and age, there weren't a lot of people that could face me head on. In the room I was in, I had created two little flame men and given them both the ability of the ones that had died to see what would have become of either of them if they fought each other, in the end, the one with the reflexes had died, this was something that had to be done not just so I could play around but to solidify my knowledge of the abilities I have and the more I will get.

I get up and leave the training room, and headed towards the library to read some books on controlling your energy in different ways, on the way there I saw someone pour a cup of water at my brother, which was a mistake because no matter how strong I am now, my brothers ability is limitless, he is the definition of god in man. He looked at the water coming towards him and let out a lightning surge which traced back to the cup with which it was poured as it exploded in the hands of the one who had poured it, he and I smirked, these kids just don't know who they can and cannot bully. I walked away towards the library, yawning on the way, I felt like I was being followed but since there was no hostility, I guess it's fine.