Mali and Decey ran around the whole town, with crude costumes made by recycling thrown things. They played many games with Mali's friends. He never thought Decey could smile like that. That big goofy smile that tempts him to be best friends with Decey.
They knocked on doors of every official living there, and darted as soon as they heard footsteps approaching the door. They used to play pretend fighting with swords and everything. It was always fun for the two.
Good memories, huh?
Once they got older, Mali and Decey were still best of friends. However, ever since that day on the hill, Decey had yet to find Mali. He wanted his support, when he was at his mental lowest. He wanted his encouraging words before leaving off to Zahl.
Decey stood in the middle of the corridors of Zahl, while everything ran as slow as paint drying. He wondered, how did he activate this ability of his? The same thing happened a couple of times before, only, he barely remembered it.
He came to the conclusion that those previous times were caused unconsciously. Now Decey had a new objective: To understand why it triggered right now, and to find out what happened to Mali.
Suddenly, he felt as if he regained his ground, after falling for what seems like 10 minutes. Time has begun to move. All the faculty and the other Primes around Decey had begun to walk, and one of them slipped on that puddle of water.
That's enough reminiscing in the past.
Decey washed his face with water and went towards his training ground.
The corridors were very spacious, and lead to huge rooms left and right. One of the pathways lead outside to a collection of 8 dome-shaped rooms. These are the training room, fitted with black tinted glass all over. The white cement like material glued all of the panels of glass together, and on the bottom is a door. Decey opened it to see contraptions that he couldn't wrap his mind about.
"Ahem." A robotic voice rang throughout the room.
Decey turned around, searching for someone. The sound originated from the roof.
"Who's there?"
"I am Headmaster Lye's digital replica. You can call me LYDA. "
Decey was puzzled to say the least. First of all, how did Lye manage to do this? Second of all, why did he do it? Third of all, why him..?
"Erm, LYDA.." Decey moved his eyes around everywhere to maintain eye contact while conversing. Although he doesn't even know where this LYDA thing is.
"You can look anywhere. I am present in this entire room."
That makes it easier then.
"LYDA, are you assigned to every prime?"
"Yes, I am. My main job is to guide everyone while the actual headmaster manages his buisness."
"Are you in all of the 8 domes?"
"Yes."
Decey realised that Lye trains with this *assistant* too.
"What can you do exactly?"
"For starters, you will have 2 hours of training in this place. You and all the other primes, I mean. Here, you can ask me for guidance on domain manipulation and boost alike, you can run simulations such as changing the terrain or the entire environment. You can also fight entities. They're ranked in ascending levels, so you start off with 1 and go till your limit. "
Decey couldn't control his excitement. This must've costed a fucking forturne to create such a complex system. This has an unsettling hue too. If Lye was to invest this much on the improvement of himself and the Primes, it means something big is coming up. It's all fuel to Decey's theory.
The dots, ever so slightly inch closer together.
Decey didn't know where to start. He began to simply walk circles around the room, searching for a good rock to sleep on later on. In the middle of the room, there was a metal platform. He could only assume that would be where the entities spawn in. The surroundings were fitted with some plants and small trees, some flowers, and a small stream of water, stretching across opposite ends of the dome room.
"How refreshing. Lye certainly loves his furniture."
He sat down on the ground, and looked up at the ceiling.
"How strong is this place?"
Almost immediately, the robotic voice came alive.
"Very strong. This glass is specially heated and cooled repeatedly to the point where a full punch from the Lann family would only dim its shine."
Decey wanted to test this out. He stood up and instantly created a circular mold. Waves of Domain began to leak out of him, the trees and plants swaying periodically side to side.
The circular void floating above of his hands horizontally slowly turned into an attack Decey had devised before, this time however, he used his Functional Domain.
The circle suddenly appeared above his right shoulder.
YES, IT WORKED!
Decey had wanted to place these molds around his person. On a worst case scenario, if someone attacks him, he could easily retaliate by activating the mold.
Now he wanted to see how strong the attack would be. He imagined the same muscle, now it had felt natural for Decey to use it as a third hand.
The metallic grey liquid inside that mold aggressively distorted the space around that mold, almost as if it crumbled up transparent paper around it. That effect had continued to spread in a sort of cylinder, towards a random tree. There was no aggressive light, nor any flashy sounds. The sound could only be described as ice cracking.
Decey couldn't tell what he aimed at. Maybe that would be because the only thing infront of him was a perfectly circular hole in the oh so called impossible to break glass fittings.
He took a beat to realize what he had just done. The path that the attack took, had created some sort of residue. He didn't know how to explain it, only that it had somehow bended space to that extent. It was almost as if someone had created a replica of the view, and made it into a glass cylinder.
Decey walked around the thing and got a better perspective of this. The cylinder stayed the same, wherever he moved. It reminded him of those portraits, where wherever you go, the eyes always seem to follow you. The only reason he could come up for this bizzare thing could be the exponential character.
The way his domain worked is it didn't immediately increase the damage output exponentially. It started at e, e^2, e^3, and so on. So, there would be a small lag. Due to that lag, it created a rapid increase of energy that would release just as rapidly.
This caused the space fabric to act as a flash frozen water container, essentially freezing in place.
Decey slapped himself on the cheek
This is too complicated for me.
A certain buzzing could be heard all over the room.
"What is going on…?" LYDA had just realised there was a gaping hole in the room.
"LYDA, you were probably exaggerating on the whole tempering of glass bit. It wasn't much for me."
The voice took a pause. Decey suddenly had a doubt. What is actually considered strong in this world?
If a common person like him could do something like this, what about others? Others with insane transcendentals and gifted Capacity, they could destroy the world if anything.
Surely I'm not as strong as I think I am right?
He didn't want to deal with all of this BS so he plunged himself into the stream of water.
As he resurfaced, completely refreshed, he changed into his work out clothes.
"LYDA, I'll need a full body scan. Check whether my Domain Boost is correct or not."
"I also have a personality setting. If you feel this is too monotone, you can change it."
Hmm…
"In that case, be a bit more like Lye."
Static had begun to blare throughout the dome room.
"Consider it done.", with the similar sass that the hesdmaster had.
>
Decey stood there, panting frantically, bathed in sweat. Small tears in his shoulder and hip area could be seen on his blue and black embroidered spandex suit. His domain, still wanting to be used more, acting restless.
"It seems that your Domain Boost abilities have a delay. Did you never use your Domain till recently?"
"I'm surprised you noticed, though its delayed for milliseconds. I actually was born in a Normal Family. None of my family members were Defined."
LYDA took a small break in between. It looked as if it had to fact check everything from somewhere.
"Isn't your mom the Savant, Kela Oris?"
Decey laughed. He even fooled the mysterious piece of tech.
"I guess you could say that. I got adopted. She's my actual aunt though."
"What happened to your parents?"
Decey looked slightly up, confused if he should tell or not.
"They died."
He noticed that LYDA had stopped speaking.
Expecting therepy from something like this is too much, Decey.
"I am sorry for your loss." LYDA spoke in a more humane manner. His inflections currently mirror Lye's.
"It's fine. That never stopped me."
Decey felt slightly down. He diverted the topic, and felt weirded out that he felt the need to do that with LYDA.
"What's the scan showing?
LYDA spoke with confidence, as it was programmed to.
"From what I can see, you have a 90% efficiency rate for Domain Boost, which is very good. As for your Domain Manipulation, it's an astounding 99% efficiency rate. I've never seen anything like this."
"Is that you talking or Lye?"
"I don't know how to answer that question."
Decey felt as if he had a small victory. He heard that anything above 90 is incredible, so he must be atleast above average.
"Will you record my stats?"
"Only if you consent."
"Just save it as above 90% for both."
"Why hide it from him?" LYDA's tone shifted slightly.
Decey stayed quiet. He didn't know if LYDA autonomously reported to Lye, or if LYDA took sides.
"I have class now." He packed his bag and stopped at the door.
"Will that hole be repaired before anyone notices?"
"Yes."
"Brilliant."
>>
Decey forgot to change into his uniform, so he rushed into the bathroom right next to his first class, which was History.
There were two to three kids, loitering near the sink. Decey just went past them and entered one of the stalls.
"Isn't that the guy?" One of the kids said.
"Yeah, that's the new prime. Fucking git."
Are they seriously talking shit about me?
Decey heard the tap turn on. He decided to ignore the back talk.
Ugh the damn belt isn't going in.
"Although that other first year, I think her name was Heet?"
"Ohh. Bro she's smoking hot. I heard she was single.."
"She's actually in my history class. I think I'll shoot my shot!"
"Nah fuck that. She wouldn't go for you."
Decey tried his best to control his emotions, something that he was dreadfully awful at.
He knew this would happen but, witnessing it happening infront of him..
Decey's heart began to beat louder, his blood racing miles in his veins. He felt furious, but deep down he was scared. Decey was never the type to fight people, he was always scared of getting hit by others.
Now, he had two options.
To walk past them.
Or to obliterate their faces.
I like the second option.
Decey kicked the stall door open. The two kids turned towards him.
One of them. Buzz cut, lots of muscle, taller. The other, looks shorter, more lean, spiky black hair.
"What's your deal?" The one with the buzz cut asked Decey in a cocky tone.
"Ah nothing. You shouldn't really talk about women like that. Forget about talking behind my back."
The slimmer kid shoved Decey back into the stall. Decey tripped and almost fell head straight into the toilet.
I'm not good at this intimidation thing..
"You're new here. There's something we call knowing your place. Who the fuck cares if you're a prime? You probably bought your way in."
The one with a buzz cut gave the other one a high five. Decey got back up slowly, trying to act as if nothing happened.
{During Heet and December's training}
"Baby, I'll be honest. You need to learn how to be tough."
"What do you meaaan?"
During CQB training, Heet had been training Decey, who had no ounce of toughness oozing out of his person.
"You're too nice. I love that, but in this world, you'd be a perfect target, you know?"
"No one bothered me before though."
"Yeah because you were roaming around with that Mali guy, and whenever someone approached you, you'd give them that *look*.
Don't get me wrong, that look gets me everytime.
But, in Zahl, everyone will want to pick on you."
"What should I do?"
"If anyone, I mean anyone, doesn't matter if they're stronger than you, bigger than you, smarter than you.."
.
.
.
Decey slowly walked towards the lean kid.
Deepen your voice first!
"What the fuck did you say?" Decey said in a slightly lower tone.
The strong kid went infront of the lean one and stared down at Decey.
"Are you jealous we're trying to ask that bitch out? Too bad, I won't show you how I'll fu-"
Once he's closer, with your entire shin, kick above his knee, the thigh area, as hard as you can.
Decey boosted his entire right leg and kicked as hard as he could at the jock's thigh. He went flying across the bathroom, landing on the porcelain sink with full force on his face. The sink broke, as he fell on the ground, unconcious and bleeding from his mouth and nose. His entire left leg turned purple as he began to cough out blood.
It all happened in a blur. Decey felt something inside him. Something he never felt before, rage. He felt satisfied after that.
No.
He wanted more.
If they really ticked you off, make sure they won't bother you.
He turned towards the other kid, who was clearly scared.
"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO HIM?"
Decey noticied he began to smile devilishly.
He turned towards the other guy, with malice that could kill someone.
"He must've been new here. It's going to be a problem if he doesn't know his place." Decey began to walk towards the kid he kicked into hell, while the other kid stayed near the stall, shaking.
He lifted the jock up by his ear.
"How would you like it if I called your mom hot, huh?"
No response from him.
He slapped the kid with his free hand. The blood from the jock's mouth spilled all over the ground, and Decey's uniform
"Don't sleep on me yet. You didn't finish that sentence. You wouldn't let me see you do what?"
Decey looked at his hand, covered in blood.
Was he doing the right thing?
He was never into violence.
So, why did this feel so right?
The world doesn't learn.
Unless you become cruel.
Only then will you gain respect.
Decey repeatedly smashed the jock's face on the counter of the sink.
Again and again and again and again and again.
As Decey calmed a bit down, he looked at the face, completely disfigured. His nose bone protruding, his cheek caved in, his teeth shattered. A huge dent in the forehead too, leaking miserable blood.
Decey felt disgusted and slammed his face once more with his knee till he stopped moving.
The lean one rushed at Decey, screaming.
Decey didn't know how, but he instinctively moved to the side, watching the kid slip and fall down on the broken pieces of the sink.
The kid let out a blood curdling scream, as he writhed in pain from the fragment half inside his shoulder.
Decey couldn't comprehend this situation. He knew this was morally wrong. They just said words, didn't act upon them yet.
Was he in the wrong at this moment?
There was an answer.
A bone chilling answer.
An answer he thought to himself
"At this point, I simply don't care anymore.."
The lean kid wouldn't stop screaming so, Decey grabbed his faulty belt and used it as a muffler and shoved it in his mouth.
"Do you still want to ask out my girlfriend?" Decey asked very slowly while bending over him.
The kid frantically shook his head, only realizing that it hurt much more to do that action. He began to shake violently in pain.
His eyes rolled behind his back, as his tears streamed down his face.
Decey stood up and observed the situation. The broken sink was slowly flooding the bathroom, washing away the broken teeth and blood from the scene. Two men completely obliterated, on the floor. One of them knocked out, another one was about to from the pain.
Decey didn't bat an eye, and went over to the other sink which was working perfectly. He rinsed his hands and face. He also took out the blazer, covered in blood, and threw it on the jock's face.
As he opened the door, Decey turned towards the jock.
"Wipe yourself off, will you?
𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐟𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬."
>
"Is that really necessary, Heet?
I don't feel comfortable being bad."
Heet laughed.
"My innocent boyfriend, that's not being bad. That's called making sure no one can bother you."
Decey looked upset. He knew Heet was a very good fighter, but he didn't support this mentality.
"If someone were to hit on me, what would you do?"
Decey looked right at her, his eyes already burning in rage.
Heet noticed this, and internally, was very happy he loved her that much.
"See? You care about others that you love, more than yourself. That's good but, you need to care about yourself too."
The most important thing is, no matter how angry you are, no matter how bad you want to hurt someone..
.
.
.
Decey closed the bathroom door, staring into nowhere. His body is still craving for revenge. He swore to himself to never let anything ever happen to his loved ones.
Not again.
He noticed there was this phrase he couldn't get out of his head.
Never lose yourself.