Divine Magus: Awakening
Chapter 1: Darkness Within

Chapter 1: Darkness Within

The world creaked and groaned as a tremendous boom rocked the earth and created shockwaves.

Mountains in the distance crumbled into fine dust.

As the dust that rose settled, a boy could be seen lying in a crater.

He opened his mouth and coughed up blood as he slowly stood up and observed his surroundings.

He could see the panic on people’s faces, he could see them screaming yet all he could hear was a high-pitched ringing.

He stared at the barrier that separated him from them in confusion.

"What’s happening?" He asked aloud, at least he thought he did. He couldn’t hear himself.

The people began moving erratically, pointing towards different directions.

’Dog-no, dodge. Why are they telling me to dodge?’ He pondered but followed suit anyway.

As soon as he moved away, a figure appeared and punched where his head was.

The simple motion of swinging its fist generated wind currents that threw the boy away.

He stumbled but managed to get his footing before skidding to a stop.

The figure in question had a humanoid physique with a body that was covered in grey wisps of energy that slithered as though it were alive.

’What the hell?’ The boy wondered as the figure blurred and vanished.

It appeared in front of him and threw a punch to his stomach that connected and sent him hitting the other end of the barrier.

’How exactly did I end up here?’ He wondered as he saw the figure lean forward.

’Ah. How could I forget? It was only six months ago that I found that crystal.’ He remembered as the figure lunged at him with frightening speed.

******

6 months ago——>

A boy with white skin and hazel brown eyes sat cross-legged on the bare ground in a forest.

His clothes were torn and ragged- far beyond rags.

His closed eyes flickered as he mumbled in a language that was only to his hearing, his hands forming signs.

Wisps of darkness gathered about half a meter in front of him, and it slowly condensed until it formed an uneven sphere the size of a ping-pong ball.

"Dark Shot!" The sphere shot off and flew uninterrupted piercing a tree before dissipating.

"Still too weak." the boy, Logan, cursed himself after observing the damage caused by his attack before standing up.

His body shifted slightly as a wave of dizziness hit him, his already pale skin becoming even more so.

"Only one E rank spell is enough to put me in a state like this, perhaps being an E rank mage is beyond me." Logan sighed before approaching a bag made of wool a few meters away from him.

Inside the bag were fruits he had managed to forage.

Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he headed towards the peripheral region of the forest.

He got closer to his destination, the loud roar accompanying a waterfall became distinct.

His destination slowly revealed itself to his vision.

It was a beautiful river that led to an odd waterfall deeper in the forest.

He approached the river and despite the blue light of the sky behind him, could see his reflection quite clearly.

He could see the black hair he had inherited from his father and the brown eyes he got from his mother.

He smiled wistfully as the memories of the time they had spent together flooded his head.

A scowl twisted his smile as he remembered what took them from him.

Logan’s parents had died from a magical disease that had been created by a guild of mad alchemists.

His dad had always traveled around due to his status as a utility mage.

Somewhere or somehow, he had caught the enigma known as the Mirror Plague.

This disease was insidious in its effect- changing the elemental affinity of a mage to its counterpart.

Light became darkness, Earth became wind and in the case of his father, water became fire.

After the inversion, the conflicting elemental energies within the mage either led to a massive detonation or a loss of magic.

His mom, Lily Kress, had just handed him his first spell and was telling him about the magical world when his dad entered the house.

He tried to warn them about a possible carrier in the village while his mother took note of the symptoms her spouse had.

She deduced the nature of his infection as explosive and didn’t hesitate.

She drained herself by casting a powerful spell to save Logan from the ensuing explosion but in the process doomed herself.

"Yellow streaks for wind, Blue for water, red for fire, brown for earth, silver for light, and black for darkness. My yellow streaks show my affinity for wind magic." Logan muttered word for word the last words his mother had said before the incident.

The words that marked the end of a semblance of a normal life for him.

Luckily for Logan, his parents had kept a small cottage in the safe part of the forest for their retirement.

His mom had used her spell to send him there because not only was it safe, but it had three other spells waiting for him.

Dark Shot(E-rank): Creates a sphere of pure darkness with corrosive properties.

Draining Touch(F-rank): Feast! Feast!! Feast!!!. Let us feed on the world and let it decay at our touch. The spell created a membrane that allowed the caster to drain vitality and strength from the victim.

Dark Shield(F-rank): Creates a shield out of darkness.

Death Arrows(F-rank): Creates arrows out of darkness. It was also the spell that his mom had given him.

Logan clenched his fists as anger filled him.

"I swear that I’ll hunt down those responsible for this plague." He said through clenched teeth.

He shook his head vehemently to shake off his emotions when he caught sight of a mass of flames flying overhead.

He watched it crash into the distance with a boom.

He immediately left the river and ran to the location.

He avoided branches and jumped over roots to save time but was forced to slow down at the sight of ash falling from the sky like snow.

He walked further until he saw a crater in the ground with smoke and ash billowing from it.

The trees, bushes, shrubs, and wildlife that were unfortunate to be in the mix died in an instant.

Logan approached the crater with caution and slid down the sloped entrance.

In the center of the crater and floating a meter in the air was a multicolored octahedral crystal that gave a faint glow.

Despite the odd situation, Logan felt a strong urge to touch the crystal, and without thinking or hesitation, he did.

Strangely enough, it felt smooth and cold to the touch which was odd for something that had just been in a giant mass of fire.

As he maintained contact, a dense black substance left his body and was absorbed by the crystal.

Logan watched in horror as the crystal turned white before he passed out.