How It Starts

 “His powers are outstanding!”

“Truly top-notch skills and experience for such a young boy!”

“The Rose family always delivers their best! We should never expect anything less from a family as great and magnificent as them!”

‘These voices of praise and excitement coming from these faceless people with names I don’t know, they mean nothing to me. Instead, all I hear are the empty words of mindless followers who enjoy boasting about me, about what I can do and what I can achieve for my family. They have become dark monsters that want me to be the epitome of perfect, to strive to be the best and help save our crumbling society. Why would I ever want to save humanity? I don’t care about those horrid people, the liars, and cowards. Even my parents, putting on airs to please the crowds and showing off their awesome strength. This is nothing to fight for, nothing to defend or protect. Nothing for me to want to give my life for. Nothing.’

“Good morning, Aiden. You look well this morning.”

Twenty-two-year-old Aiden Rose looked up from the screen of his computer monitor. His co-worker and childhood friend, Kian Griffiths, had entered the room with a tray of tea in his hands and his usual sweet smile on his face. Aiden returned it with a small smile of his own and sat back in his seat. Kian was considerably taller than Aiden, standing at 6’7 ft while Aiden was a mere 5’7 ft but their personalities were the exact opposite of their appearances. Kian’s long blonde tresses were tied into a ponytail that swung gently behind him as he handed Aiden a cup of tea.

Aiden held the delicate white cup in his hands and let the aroma of the tea caress his nose. “Today’s brew is… Pure Moonshine imported from East Africa.”

Kian nodded his head happily. “Yes. that’s right. Amazing, as always, Aiden.”

“You’re much more amazing than I am, Kian,” Aiden told the other, sipping the drink. “I really admire your ability to utterly recreate any dish or drink. Quite a useful, innovative power.”

“Please don’t flatter me, Aiden. You know that my Perfect Creation is less than useful in this world that we live in. That reminds me, how are you doing hacking into the Dats Program? You’ve been working on it for the past three days so I was worried that it might have been too difficult for you to figure out.”

The bespectacled male chuckled lightly. “Don’t underestimate my abilities, my dear Kian. I’ve almost got this figured out.”

Kian smiled with delight. “I am so sorry for doubting you.”

Fingers flying over the keys, Aiden’s eyes were glued to the screens in front of him. The flashing coded words reflected from his lenses, a single drop of sweat slid down the side of his face and he typed in one final input before pressing ‘Enter’. The screens went dark then lit up with scattered red text glowing ominously. Aiden narrowed his eyes.

“What is this...” he muttered, trying to read the flying script.

“Aiden, I have a bad feeling about this...”

Eyes widening, Aiden stood from his seat and shouted, “Get down!” before grabbing onto Kian. Suddenly, the building began to rattle and shake violently followed by shrieking laughter that grated the ears. And then, a multitude of shadows raced through the room, laughing their high pitched laugh and destroying everything in sight. And just as quickly as they had come, they were gone. Kian had gone white and was trembling a bit when Aiden rolled off of him.

“A-Aiden… What is happening?”

“This was all planned…” he muttered with a frown. ‘They intentionally created an increasingly and annoying long firewall of codes in order to distract me so that they could attack. I’m such an idiot...”

The blonde sat up, looking at his friend. “What should we do? The university is in danger and if they manged to defeat us then...”

“They won’t. Kian, go find the others and head to ASA. I don’t think they won’t leave here without letting this place fall.”

“Please be careful,” Kian said then got to his feet and rushed out.

Aiden’s frown deepened. “Kian… You are the only one that I want to keep safe. So, for that reason alone, I will do everything in my power to end this.”

Twenty years ago, it was revealed to the world that humans weren’t the only things inhabiting the Earth. And they weren’t friendly creatures. Wistens were what they were called, large and terrifying beasts of white with tentacle arms, long arching necks with a wide mouth that held several rows of sharp, jagged teeth. Their large, canine-like feet had massive claws protruding from them and they made the most horrifying sound known to man. The world’s population quickly decreased from the billions to the thousands as they were eaten, annihilated or turned into a Wisten.

Humanity was in a desperate state but, somewhere under the rubble glimmered a spark of hope. Some call it magic, others call it superpowers but whatever the case, it became their weapon to fight back. Select human beings are born with gifts, given certain powers and abilities such as Perfect Creation, Vertigo Manipulation, Precognition, etc. And more often than not, they use those powers to protect humanity and exterminate the Wistens. But fate can be cruel and the darkness is unrelenting. Without a strong willed mind and a determined heart, all can be lost.

Aiden was born into the Rose family, a pretigious, almost noble name where persons great power and high achieving skill that have proclaimed they would defend humanity with their life. He was to be their ultimate weapon, their one and only son who was blessed by the very Gods themselves to be the savior for all of them… If only he believed in that. The one person Aiden could truly say that he wished with all of his heart to protect was Kian, his lovable, gigantic friend. What did anyone else matter?

The massive building had gone quiet now, traces of the destruction from those shadowed beasts almost everywhere. He hoped that Kian had managed to find everywhere left alive, he made a note to contact him later. His footsteps echoed in the empty hallway and he gazed out the windows, their glass shards hanging then crashing to the ground. He frowned slightly, hearing movement behind him.

“Sword Summons,” he murmured, holding out the palm of his hand and grasping the hilt that appeared from the swirling light.

He pulled out a beautifully sword with a shining silver blade. Turning slightly, Aiden narrowed his eyes into the darkness. That familiar screeching and screaming greeted him and an enormous Wisten came barreling down the hall, its long tentacles arms crashing through the walls before lashing out at Aiden. He jumped backwards, landing on his feet then rushed forward, ducking under the attacks from the faceless beast. Bringing up his sword, he slashed off the arms of the monsters. Dark red blood spurted from the wounds and the beast roared in pain, smashing its feet into the ground. Aiden used the opportunity and summoned another sword before he moved and leaped into the air, bringing both blades down into the Wisten’s mouth. Its body wriggled madly before being sliced open by Aiden’s swords.

It fell back onto the ground, bleeding heavily as its life slipped away. Aiden flicked the blood from his swords and frowned deeply. “Whoever is out there, come and show yourself. You tried to attack this facility and Kian, meaning you are my enemy.” He turned around, his eyes narrowed and his swords ready. 

Author's Note

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Reviews

[WanderingDavid]

This isn't really the type of book I enjoy, but you write well. My suggestion for improvement would be to describe more about exciting stuff and maybe edit out some of the boring stuff. For example, you write "And then, a multitude of shadows raced through the room, laughing their high pitched laugh and destroying everything in sight." Wow, that sounds exciting. But only one sentence? What were these shadows? Did they hear the laugh coming or going, or was it just when they were in the room. If they destroyed everything in sight, wouldn't they have destroyed your characters, too? My suggestion would be this should be much more than one sentence. I would gladly exchange a few more paragraphs describing the attack for a few less paragraphs describing a cup of tea.