21th January, 2015. VIT, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India, Earth.
1:00 pm.
A thunderous sound resonated throughout VIT. An empty field in front of the Subash Chandra Bose Block (L Block) in the Men’s Hostel area was utterly destroyed.  Smoke spread all over the surrounding areas of the field and many students were incapacitated due to the shock of the explosion.  Other students ran towards the nearest shelter they could find. Entire hostel blocks quaked due to the ferocity of the explosion and nearly everyone in the circumference of the blast radius plummeted to the ground due to the intensity of the tremors. From the hostel windows in the upper floors, students could see only smoke and dust covering the empty field where the explosion had occurred. The security guards were not accustomed to a situation like this and they too panicked. As all the students ran inside the hostel blocks, some of the students taking shelter in a nearby hostel block caught glimpse of a figure running inside the cloud of smoke. It was a tall, lean figure, most probably a student of VIT. The students called out to the figure, but the figure jumped right into the cloud of smoke, into the now destroyed field and disappeared from sight.
        Immediately after I hear the sound, I, Prasad Dasi, run outside my hostel block (K block), and head towards the direction of the sound. My sight falls upon the empty field. But all I can see is a thick fog. Lots of smoke and dirt in the air. It must’ve been a pretty huge explosion. According to my knowledge, this large an explosion can only be made by a missile strike or heavy explosive weaponry. Or maybe, just maybe, a meteor from outer space had crashed into VIT!! Well, fantasy aside, I really hope it is a meteor rather than a missile. I cover my eyes with my left hand, and walk towards the empty field. My fellow students yell at me to return back to the hostel, but paying them no attention I approach the fog. I see the unconscious body of a few students who were close to the field. The shock of the explosion must’ve rendered them unconscious. Poor them, unfortunate souls. I have no time to help them now, must go to the source of the explosion. I can see the border of the field faintly in my vision. I close my eyes, take a deep breath and run towards the field. I make a running jump at the edge of the field and successfully land inside. Upon landing, I start striding towards the center of the field, being careful as to not fall into the crater made by the explosion. Logically thinking, this size an explosion could be caused by an airstrike. Maybe a rogue missile had hit VIT, or it was intentional Anyhow, the crater due to the impact must be huge. By my estimation, I am already 100 metres inside the fog, yet my legs can’t feel any disturbance in the ground or the edge of a crater.
         After a 50 more metres or so, I feel the sunlight coming from ahead. Have I made it to the other side of the field? Impossible, the field has a 600x400m perimeter and my calculations aren’t that bad. I stepped outside the fog; the first thing I feel is the sunlight shining brightly on my face. In front of me is a small depression, not big enough to be called a crater. It has a radius of around 10 metres, which is very small compared to the big craters made by missile strikes. The depression is surrounded by fog on four sides, with sunlight falling on the depression. I see something embedded in the middle of the depression. But just then, my eyes fall upon a person standing to my north east near the edge of the depression. It is a tall, lean guy who appears to be in his 20’s. He is most probably a student studying in VIT. It appears I am not the only one who is curious about the explosion. The guy doesn’t notice my presence. He descends into the depression and starts walking towards the object embedded in the ground. I take a deep breath, get into a running stance and sprint towards the depression. I jump off the edge of the depression. I pull back my fist in the air in preparation for a flying punch.  The guy looks in my direction, but before he can react I deliver a strong punch to his face. My fist collides with his nose and at that moment I push the rest of my arm forward. Due to the force of the punch he stumbles and falls down on his back. Not wasting a moment, I move forward towards him and deliver a swift chop to his neck using my left arm effectively rendering him unconscious. Sorry buddy, you may have come earlier than me, but the one who wins is the one who takes action. I shake my right wrist to nullify the pain caused due to the punch; his nose sure was hard. I then catch my breath and head towards the center of the depression towards the object.
        A purple rod was protruding a few inches out of the ground in the middle of the depression. I first check around the rod for any meteor or missile fragments, but don’t find any. There is nothing here except a purpIe rod. It is some kind of alien device? I grab the rod with both hands and try to pull it from the ground. No matter how hard I pull, it refuses to nudge. I use the entire weight of my body to try to pull it from the ground, but it doesn’t move an inch. It’s only a matter of time now until the fog disperses and the rest of the students get here. The guy I just knocked unconscious will also wake up eventually. I don’t think he saw my face, but just in case I will get a haircut to avoid charges. I check the area around the rod once again for any irregular objects. Now that I think about it, this entire situation is kinda weird. Fog around the middle of a depression which is too small considering the huge explosive sound I heard and a strange pink rod in the ground. Whatever, I will think about this later. First, I need to get out of here. As I was about to climb out of the depression-
      The rod started glowing. Purple light emitted from the rod in all directions. The light isn’t so bright that I cannot look at it directly. But for some reason I feel uneasy while looking at the light. I walk towards the rod. I hesitate for a second before grabbing the rod; something just doesn’t feel right. But I haven’t come here for nothing. I bend forward and grab the rod tightly.
The next instant-
          Everything becomes white. I can neither see anything nor feel anything. There is nothing except white everywhere. The ground below me gives way, and I float vertically in the white space. My mind feels heavy, as I feel weary. I am not able to feel my left hand, but I can feel a rod like object in my right hand.  Little by little I can feel my consciousness fading. In the distance I can make out a vivid silhouette of a man holding what appears to be a scythe in his right hand. He moves closer to me, or maybe I am drifting closer to him; I cannot really tell. The silhouette raises the scythe over my head, and then everything goes black.


21th of Month 1, 2015. Yeovil Academy, Naustacia, Esteon.
1:00 pm.
A thunderous roar reverberated through Yeovil academy. The sound originated near the eastern boundary of the academy 200 metres east of the main study hall. The ground shook violently due to the intensity of the explosion. Although the students inside the academy couldn’t feel the tremors, everybody else on the academy grounds felt the ground shaking. Some students close to the epicentre were thrown off balance, but they quickly regained their composure by adjusting their body’s center of mass in synchronization with the ground. Other senior students were unaffected by the tremors; as if nothing had happened. These were students of Yeovil academy who were going be future soldiers of Esteon, an incident such as this should be trivial to them. But an explosion of this scale that too inside the borders of Yeovil; no student would dare damage the academy grounds lest he wants to face the wrath of the Academy’s director. All students rushed towards the source of the explosion to see what exactly occurred there.
         Ceil Von Aarholt calmly walked towards the source of the explosion. The ground quaked beneath him, but he walked on as if there was nothing. Ceil perceived the vibrations in the ground and walked accordingly placing his foot at the right place at the right time such that his overall balance and mobility don’t get affected. The precise location to place his feet, the frequency of vibration of the ground, the use of his arnament to assist in the balance everything was calculated by Ceil in a fraction of a second and that too while moving forward. To perform dynamic calculations at such a tremendous speed one needed to be an expert, if not a master, at Cytos usage. And it wasn’t only Ceil; few other students were also headed towards the blast site braving the quakes. They all utilized techniques for terrain maneuverability taught to them during the ‘Evasive Tactics’ subject in Yeovil. The tremors lasted for half a minute after which Ceil increased his pace in order to reach before the other students. All of a sudden, smoke and fog enveloped Ceil and the students around him. This mist had come from the direction of the explosion, spreading all around clouding the vision of anybody who steps into it. Giving it no thought, Ceil closed his eyes, visualized the distance from his current location to the blast site and broke into a sprint. After increasing his velocity to a certain level, Ceil unleashed his arnament and dispersed the mist around him. He could achieve this feat by transferring the momentum gained by running to his arnament and expulsing it in the form of wind and heat energy, thus clearing the mist around him. This was an advanced survival technique taught in the Advanced Survival Strategies lectures supposed to be used in misty or cloudy environments. Other students headed towards the blast site had also managed to clear the fog surrounding them. With the mist clear, the explosion site was now visible to everyone.
         What appeared in front of their eyes was a small depression with a depth of 1m and radius of 10 metres. Ceil and the others had expected a huge crater, judging from the frequency of the tremors and the loud explosion. In the middle of the depression, there was a purple rod embedded in the ground. Currently, there were eight students including Ceil surrounding the depression with many more inbound. All students scanned the area evaluating the others who had arrived. Yeovil’s strongest 2nd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 11th and 14th ranked students stood face to face against each other. Student ranks in Yeovil are determined on the basis of their Cytos usage capability, and the top 15 ranks in Yeovil are considered the strongest students in all of Esteon. An encounter among these few but strong foes assembled here would certainly lead in a significant amount of destruction. Ceil took a deep breath and calmly stepped into the depression. All other ‘rankers’ proceeded into the depression following Ceil’s lead with the exception of the 14th ranker, who stayed behind intending to be a spectator. Upon reaching the center, the 6th ranker Jose D’Costa casually walked towards the pink rod and stretched out his arm to grab it. At that moment, the 5th ranker Lorenz Kerstin drew his arnament and strike Jose, who quickly responded by summoning his own arnament in his outstretched hand and repelling Lorenz. At the same time, the 8th ranker Sylvia Yoslene had concealed herself using her 3rd Protocol deception arnament after dodging a ranged attack by the 11th ranker Claude Gusteau. Claude after firing a warning arrow using his 4th Protocol Longbow arnament drew 10 more Cytos enhanced arrows for a wide area shot. Ceil stood still in front of the embedded rob, just like a statue but his eyes observing everything occurring around him.
“Oh wow, they are at it again. These rankers can never get along, can they?”
“Better stay back, things are getting heated up down there. “
“They had better finish it before the director comes, or they all are going to get punished”
Many other students had arrived to the depression and were enjoying the skirmish happening in it. The top rankers of Yeovil were strong, but they lacked co-ordination and teamwork. That was because Yeovil did not encourage teamwork as it gave more emphasis on the strength of an individual rather than a team. Furthermore, if a lower ranker defeated a higher ranker in fair combat, than they earned that rank. Lorenz and Jose had a personal grudge towards each other, as Jose had his position of 5th rank stolen by Lorenz the previous year. The 11th ranker Claude saw this situation as a nice opportunity to quickly dispatch of Sylvia and gain the 8th rank, as he did not believe a coward who used stealth and cloaking technique had any right to be in the top 10. Each of the top 15 rankers had some sort of grudge or dispute against another ranker for various reasons. As the fight progressed, Jose had Lorenz pinned down against the depression wall and Sylvia had taken a direct hit from one of Claude’s arrows. Ceil hadn’t moved from his current position at all. Al of a sudden, the rod embedded in the middle of the ground started emitting a purple light. All of the rankers in the field looked towards the light for an instant. As everyone was distracted by the light, even if it was for an instant, Ceil made use of that opportunity to use an advanced Cytos technique. Ceil’s veins throbbed, his arm and leg muscles bulged and his iris turned from brown to a purple shade; time came to a standstill around Ceil. Ceil then made his move.
      Ceil immediately vanished from his current position and materialized his arnament, a huge 7th protocol sledgehammer in his right hand. Ceil then appeared near Jose in a flash and swung the hammer vertically on Jose’s chin, dislocating his skull and facial bones and sending him flying upwards. The next instant, the hammer came diagonally crashing down on Lorenz’s head effectively burying his head in the depression wall. Then, facing towards Claude Ceil assumed a crouching position, aligning his body parallel to the ground and getting ready to sprint. Ceil gathered Cytos energy in his legs, and then pushed both of his legs off the ground, and charged right at Claude. He smashed his sledgehammer horizontally on Claude’s back, breaking his midribs and causing him to fly forwards towards the seemingly injured Sylvia. Ceil then gathered Cytos energy at his feet and propelled himself into the air and swung his hammer vertically downwards at a point in the air. The hammer made contact with a body in the air, which slowly faded into the shape of the 8th ranker Sylvia who was preparing a sneak attack against Claude. In an instant, Ceil managed to use Sylvia’s head as a stepping stone and descend to his original position in a flash.  Ceil withdrew his arnament and adjusted his breathing as to calm his body; the technique he just executed placed a huge burden on the body. The flow of time reverted to normal for Ceil, his muscles were relaxed and his blood blow turned normal. Smoke began emitting from Ceil’s arms and legs; an indication of the extreme burden placed on the body by using this technique. After the flow of time returned to normal for Ceil, the effects of his attacks on the other rankers could be seen. The spectators around the depression watched as Sylvia’s body fell from the sky, Claude collided with the depression wall passing through a hologram of Sylvia and Jose flying in the sky. None of the spectators could neither follow Ceil’s movement nor see him use his arnament; they could only see the bodies of the rankers flying around. This technique was known as ‘Sonic Burst’ amongst the students because of its speed and ferocity; Ceil had displayed this technique a few times in Yeovil. Even with an inferior and outdated 7th protocol arnament, Ceil had taken down several other top rankers while not killing them outright; a feat worthy of the title of 2nd ranker.  As the students looked in awe, Ceil shrugged, wiped the dust out of his shoulder and grabbed hold of the pink glowing rod. The next instant-
        Everything became white. Ceil could not see anything. He could only feel something in his right hand. He raised his right hand and was surprised to see himself holding a huge pink scythe. It was most probably an arnament judging by its looks. In the distance, Ceil could make out a silhouette resembling a person floating vertically in the air. It had a similar scythe in its hand. Ceil decided to test this scythe arnament by cutting down the silhouette. He walked towards the silhouette and raised the scythe directly above its head. The next instant, everything went black and Ceil lost consciousness.