CHAPTER 54: SIXTEEN AGAIN.

I’m back as a miserable sixteen year old. I just joined the clan youths for training.

It wasn’t a choice, because I needed to be fed and sheltered somehow.

I haven’t received any gift yet. I’m as useless as they come. Nothing to recommend myself, except I am the younger brother of a great hero, though I never really knew him.

Getting a gift is something that is both anticipated and feared. For someone in my shoes, it is anticipated.

Once you are gifted, you are sent to the Imperial army. Not everyone gets a gift. It’s always a probability. Even if your parents were legends, it doesn’t mean you will be one.

People are afraid of receiving gifts because they get dragged away from the comfort of their homes and sent to the Imperial army where they wake up to peril everyday. They are compelled to join the fight against the demons and protect the Continent.

No one wants to be torn away from their family only to be killed by a mindless demon. It’s terrifying.

But, for people like me, it’s hope.

If I receive a gift and get recruited into the army, I will receive three meals a day, a roof over my head, and status.

Everyone wants to be someone. I am no exception.

I hate it when anyone I encounter looks at me with pity because of how I tragically lost the only family I had.

I never really forgave Yumi, my late brother’s wife, for ending her life as she did.

I had done everything I could to help her. But, some scars don’t heal, they only deepen until the person becomes a putrefying mess. She left me all alone - there’s no coming back from that.

Just imagine if I can make it into the Imperial army. If luck is on my side, I could become a General of a regiment, or earn a respectable title.

Imagine the number of ladies that would flock to me then.

Good looks without a dime to your name is hell. Worse is when your name has no worth. Girls tend to just admire from a distance and shake their heads, saying things like ’If only he wasn’t so poor’, or ’If maybe he had a family. Orphans are generally bad news’.

That’s when I developed the selfish mentality. I have no one to care about, and no one cares about me - no harm done.

I am sitting on the stone fence surrounding the training courtyard, swinging my legs in rhythm to my thoughts.

But, this isn’t where I’m supposed to be. I’ve grown up. I’ve made a name for myself.

The last thing I remember is that unsettling encounter with the Demon Queen. I don’t exactly know what she did to me, but it has something to do with me being back in my sixteen year old self.

A few boys are gossiping across the courtyard. Their wooden swords are hanging askew on their waists.

Hmm. There was once a time I had difficulty wearing my sword. Several thousand years of working from the ground up teaches you a few things, doesn’t it?

After I graduated from this sham of a training school, I embarked on a journey to encounter my dopplegänger.

All Dromes have a copy of themselves in the form of elements.

I had to climb a mountain for months before I reached the summit.

I had been so excited to follow family traditions. It was my gateway to activating my powers. I was so eager to make a pact with the lightning element so I could enlist for the Imperial army.

On that mountain, I had encountered so many demons. It was almost as if a real training ground had been given to me on a silver platter.

I was almost killed several times.

I had been so full of myself then, thinking that demons were inferior to my power.

Now, I know better. A lot better.

Speaking of demons...

Arya.

We had fought bitterly.

I had said very hurtful things to her, although she deserved some of them.

I judged her too harshly. I, myself, am far from being perfect.

I really don’t know what I would have done if I had been in her shoes.

The Demon Queen is just diabolical. I used to have this detached and unbiased view of her.

She had always been calm and forthcoming, even a bit humorous. There was no mistaking the dark power simmering beneath her porcelain skin and pretty smiles.

After what Rames confided in me, and probably the rest of the gang, my opinion started changing somewhat.

I started seeing her as heartless.

But, it became much worse when Arya arrived in the Blink. She started showing other dark facets of her personality.

She stopped lurking and started ruining everything for everyone.

In my brief battle with her, I had felt her power. She was holding back. She always holds back.

No one knows her limit. Everyone assumes it’s infinite and unmatchable.

After my encounter with her, I realized that she is not indestructible. She can be defeated just like anyone else, but it would take a lot more than skill and power.

It would even take more than rank.

We would need to find her weakness.

I just allow myself to fantasize though. Even if we defeat Fang somehow, there are still six more waiting to be dealt with.

All the Demon rulers are forces to be reckoned with.

Even Claw.

I haven’t met him, but I’ve heard so many dark things about him.

"Xian Xi. Come down from there. You might fall."

My mind returns to my present condition.

A freckled boy in a wool robe responds to me .

The older me is not afraid of heights, but I can’t tell him that.

I shrug.

He nods and returns back to continue sparring with someone else .

Is this where my story ends?

I hear a faint voice calling out to me.

Is that Arya?