Michael Blackwood

For the past two weeks, I hadn’t been able to spend as much time with my friends as I would’ve liked. While I trained with a sword, the others trained with their threads, and meditated in order to grow in strength. Every few days, we’d all take a break from training and the princess had used these days to teach us more about the different levels of harmonization, why my friends were chosen to be summoned to this world, and what had happened with the previous summoned heroes.

On the last night of our two week training montage, the princess had gathered all of us for a refresher on everything we’d learnt.

“Ok so there’s how many levels of harmonization again?” Levi asked the princess.

The princess gave Levi a look of frustration, and sighed.

“There are seven classes of harmonization. Dormant, Awakened, Kindled, Tempered, Refined, Harmonic, and Transcendent,” she said with a small frown. “Each class is exponentially stronger than the last, with the Awakened class having enough power to water plants, to Transcendent having the power to wipe out a continent.”

“Wait, didn’t you say that people have awakened in a stage more powerful than the transcendent stage?” Levi asked a second question, obviously annoying the princess.

She glared at Levi and answered.

“Levi, it is very clear to me that you have not been paying much attention during these little learning sessions of ours. Only one being in the history of our world awakened a stage of harmonization above Transcendent.”

I saw Calvin raise his hand from the corner of my eye.

“You mean the ruler of the demon race, correct?”

The princess nodded in response.

“Yes. He had so much power that even our normal stages of harmonization couldn’t define him. Over time, he became known as the only Singular class threat. Potentially having enough power to wipe out the planet.”

Skylar spoke next.

“Is that the reason why the previous heroes failed to defeat him, and had to resort to sealing him away?”

“That is exactly the reason why,” the princess replied. “They tried pushing past the Transcendent stage in order to even the playing field, but were unable to. Their following battle with the demon king and his race is what resulted in the extinction of the elves.”

So even with a very clear limit to how much power someone can wield, this demon king still achieved something beyond that.

“Wait, so if the previous heroes failed to defeat him, then what hope do we have?” Dylan proceeded to ask.

“As of right now, the reason you all were summoned is to prevent the seal from being broken. If you fail in that regard, then a fight will be unavoidable.”

“So you’re saying that we could all die?” Rebecca asked next.

“That is only the worst possible outcome. Don’t dwell on that. Just focus on getting stronger so that doesn’t become a reality,” the princess answered.

I looked at each of my friends, not knowing what I would do if any of them died.

“I have another question that I’ve actually been thinking about for a while now.”

The princess turned her attention towards Calvin.

“Yes?”

“How exactly did this demon king have so much power?”

“Nobody really knows. The most popular theory is that the demon king was a child of one of the five gods, although they wouldn’t stoop so low as to have a child with such an evil race.”

The rest of the night went by quickly, with the princess continuing to refresh everyone’s memories on the information that they had been learning in the two and a half weeks they had been there.

As we headed back to our rooms in order to get sleep in preparation for tomorrow’s mission, I couldn’t help but dwell on the princess’s words earlier that night.

So the possibility of dying is a very real one. I was foolish to think that none of us would die, but still, knowing that it’s a possibility truly scares me.

“-hael? Earth to Michael?”

I jumped when I heard someone calling my name and when I looked over, I saw Skylar staring at me as we continued walking back to our rooms.

“Sorry, what?”

“I was just asking if you’re ok. You’ve got a weird look on your face,” she said, and she sounded slightly worried.

“Oh… yeah I’m fine. Just thinking is all.”

“Listen to me Michael,” Skylar started to say while giving me a smile. “Nothing bad will happen tomorrow. I promise you.”

“I know. It’s just a standard guard mission for training,” he replied. “I just can’t shake the thought that something might go wrong anyways.”

“Just get some sleep tonight. I’m sure that will help,” she said as we came to a stop in front of the door leading to our rooms.

As I walked down the hallway towards my room, I stopped, and turned around to face Skylar.

“Yeah. Goodnight Sky.”

Skylar gave me a big smile.

“Goodnight!”

I opened the door to my room, walked inside, and started preparing to sleep.

God I’m exhausted.

When I finally got into bed, I could feel the nervousness about tomorrow start to fade away as I closed my eyes and the darkness of sleep took me.

—————————

“Mommy, why did you name me Michael? Why not something cool like Rex?”

“Oh that is a cool name. But you see, your name has a special meaning to daddy.”

“Really?”

I was sitting in my mothers lap. We were in my bedroom and she had just finished giving me a bath and she was drying me off.

“Yes baby. You were named after daddy’s older brother. Your uncle.”

“When will I get to meet my uncle?” I asked, curious about who my uncle was.

“Well you see, your uncle had to go on a very important trip,” my mother replied, and I could see a hint of sadness in her eyes. “And he’s not coming home anymore. Daddy misses him very much.”

“Well if daddy misses him, then I miss him too!”

My mother gave me a small, warm smile, and I could see tears starting to form at the edges of her eyes.

“Even though he’s on a trip, I’m sure he’s watching over all three of us right now.”

“Really? Does uncle have super powers?”

“Yes, I’m pretty sure he does.”

————————

I woke to the soft sound of rain hitting the window. My eyes felt wet, and when I rubbed them, I realized that I must've started crying in my sleep from the sudden memory manifesting as a dream.

“I miss you Mom.”

As I sat up, I thought to myself that the memory had probably surfaced in order to help ease my stress. Looking back, I knew that my uncle had passed away before I ever got to meet him, and that my mother was just explaining it in a way that a four year old child could understand.

For about thirty minutes, I washed myself up, and got dressed, fully prepared for the coming day.

We can all do this. It’s just more training, that’s all.

I walked over to my door, and opened it. When I did, I was surprised to see Rohan standing on the other side, just about to knock. When I looked at the doors to all the other bedrooms, I saw the rest of the people me and my friends had been training with, each in front of one of my friends' doors getting ready to knock.

“Good morning Rohan,” I said, looking towards him again.

“As to you, Michael. Her majesty wanted me to give you this.”

I looked down towards the bundle Rohan was holding out to me, and I gently took it.

“Oh, thank you. What is it?”

“That is something you will have to see for yourself. Her majesty is waiting outside for you and the others. Once you have changed, please follow us. We will be waiting out in the hallway for all six of you.”

“Alright then. Thank you for the message.”

Rohan dipped his head in a small bow, and proceeded to head back towards the opposite end of the hall.

After I closed my door, I walked over to the bed and placed the bundle down on top of it. When I opened it, I was amazed at what I saw.

Inside were pieces of armor and a small cloak. Nothing too flashy, but suitable for protection. Next to the armor was a straight sword in its sheath.

I pulled the sword out, and it gleamed in the dim light.

“I don’t know much about swords, but the weight feels amazing,” I said, as I examined the sword, then gave it a few quick swings.

When I put the sword back in its sheath, I looked back towards the armor.

Makes sense that we’d be wearing protection.

I proceeded to attach the pieces of armor to my body. First I attached the greaves, then the vambraces. Then I attached the cuirass, and draped the cloak over it, which I noticed had a hood attached to it as well. Finally, I attached the sword to my hip.

This kinda makes me feel like I’m in a video game. What was that one called again? Where you played as an assassin?

Before I could remember the name, I heard a knock on my door. When I opened it, all of my friends were on the other side, all wearing each of their own variations of what I was wearing, except slightly more flashy.

Guess because they’re the summoned heroes, their gear will look better.

Each of them were smiling at me, but I felt my eyes finally land on Skylar, who was draped in a pure white tunic, with armor covering various parts of her body, and had a small dagger attached to her waist. Her long brown hair was tied into a bun, and her blue eyes practically lit up when she saw me.

“Michael, you look awesome!” she exclaimed.

“Same goes for you Sky,” I replied with a small chuckle. “Everyone else here too, you all look amazing. Like real heroes.”

Everyone laughed at my remark, but I could tell that they felt reserved. Hesitant even.

Skylar turned around suddenly, and when I also looked to where she was focusing her attention, I saw Rohan, as well as the other trainers standing at the end of the hallway.

“Are you all ready to go?”