The Story of Airsan, Part One (7)

Roughly a century after the death of Sirius, the entire country of Zedan had gone through an economic crash. All of the royals and high-class civilians migrated over to Arbok. Most of Zedan's cities were obliterated, and there was often a shortage of food. The First Order was home to the world's poorest country. Zedan was already a country made up of approximately 75% desert, now it just looked like barren wastelands. This story starts in a small, primitive village in the mid-western region of Zedan called Ofri Village. Zedan did not have a monarch, the country was ran by the First Order's advisors. These advisors did not have the country's good interests at heart. They would make underhanded deals with the Seventh Order to keep themselves happy and rich, while the civilians continued to suffer. This came about after Sirius' death, all of the royals left, and the Seventh Order sent a group of people to become the First Order's leaders, keeping the country poor, and the Seventh Order rich. In Ofri Village, the most respected person was the village elder. He had no name, and was the great-grandson of Ai. He would long for the day when Zedan would thrive once again. The elder had no children, but he did raise a boy he named Airsan. Airsan (age 12) was like the village's pride. He was born with noticeably strong powers for someone in Ofri. He was a yellow lightning user. Most people from Zedan at the time had basic, one-dimensional powers. But Airsan would find many useful ways to use his. The village had no electricity, so Airsan would sometimes make his own lights and power them himself. When he would go hunting with the adults, Airsan always proved useful. He could use his power to send a bolt in the sky as a signal, or paralyze animals that were too fast to catch up to. Airsan could also jump start someone's heartbeat who was on the verge of death. The villagers loved him. Though he was happy with the life that he was given, Airsan would hear and read stories about other lands: the free-natured people of Britannia, the magical forests of Titania, the snowy continent of the Northern Territories, the colorful festivals that often occurred in Arbok. All sorts of wonderful things. He just wished he had something to be proud of too.

Oftentimes, Airsan would walk to the neighboring village, about a half-mile walk from Ofri. He'd go to play with the other children, or to retrieve the fresh water of the oasis there. One time while walking home from this village, in the sand there was a dark, purple colored lifeform. It had no defined shape, and resembled a round slug. Airsan had never seen anything like it before, it stood about five feet off the ground, and seemed to be made up of acid, all of the desert plants just withered and burned when the cell touched them. This acidic lifeform was a test subject from the Seventh Order. It was a Demikai (a conscious being made up entirely of energy) that needed to find a human host to use its power. It attempted to use Airsan as one, but he defended himself by shocking it. He ran home. As this cell had no power in its current form, it continued the opposite way toward the other village. Upon reaching it, the cell searched for a host. It found the village's elder, a frail man on his deathbed. He was deathly skinny, and could barely speak. The villagers were terrified of the cell, and stayed away from it, giving it a clear path to take their elder as a host. The cell entered the old man's mouth, and seemed to disappear. In a few seconds the pale skin of the man bubbled like acid throughout his body in a purple-ish color. He stood up, and his frail body became healthy. The old man was young again, his wispy white hair becoming full, turning a silver color that went down the length of both sides of his head. His eye color was pitch black. The villagers gasped, and wondered if the elder had been blessed or cursed. He cracked his neck. "Much better." "Elder?" one woman said. He turned his head towards her. "Jocan." he replied in a sly voice.

Jocan walked to the middle of the village. "Call everyone here." he said to the woman, "I have a special announcement to make." The woman sheepishly rounded everyone up. Jocan observed his surroundings. "Roughly 160 people." he muttered. "Alright everyone," he called out. The villagers, believing their elder had been revived, hung on to Jocan's every word. "This new body of mine is much stronger than the ones I used to have. I'm going to take this sad, pitiful country you all have here, and reform it into something much, much, greater." The villager's eyes lit up with hope, some of them started cheering. Jocan smiled to himself. He looked up. "And all of you are a sacrifice to make that happen." Silence. The women screamed, children started running away, chaos ensued. "Too late." A black circle grew under the entire village. It was glowing purple. Every last person in that village was absorbed into the darkness. There were muffled screams, the cries of horrified children, the yelling of men, swearing their revenge, and then once again, silence. The circle shrunk, and went back to Jocan. He had absorbed the life force of the entire village. His black eyes glowed a purple color for a moment. He left the village without a trace of a person ever existing there.

Some days later, back in Ofri Village, the elder told Airsan to go get some water from the neighboring village. He thought about resisting because of what he encountered the other day, but decided that the chances of running into that dark slug again were slim to none, so he went anyway. First thing Airsan noticed was how eerily quiet the village was. There were no children outside. No one was talking. There was not a single sound in the entire village but the wind blowing against the huts and clay houses. He dared to peek inside them. Nobody. He thought they must've migrated elsewhere, until he got to the oasis. The normally fresh, crystal clear water was now a dark purple. It was poisoned. "The villagers were killed." Airsan said to himself. He looked around but there was no sign of the culprit. He had no choice but to find fresh water elsewhere. He needed to bring water back to Ofri Village. He moved northwards to the Coi Desert. He'd been there plenty of times, but it could be dangerous because of desert monsters. Sometimes they'd appear during the summer months. It was late spring. Airsan decided to take his chances. In the Coi Desert, there was a large city. Zedan's capital, Royal City. Unlike the name, there were no actual royals there. But it was one of the last well-developed cities in Zedan, where the middle-class would live and work. After an hours worth of walking into the desert, Airsan felt a sinister energy creeping up behind him. As he turns around, he notices a silver haired man with glowing purple eyes catching up to him. It was Jocan. Airsan prepares himself to fight. He notices the energy coming from Jocan, and the energy that the dark slug gave off was the same. It didn't take long for him to realize what had happened. "Where is Royal City?" Jocan asked. "I don't know." Airsan replied. He started charging himself up. Jocan smiles. "I doubt a child like you is aimlessly wandering through such a vast desert." Lightning begins to charge up around Airsan. "Stay away!" he said. Airsan was scared of Jocan. His energy was different from anything he'd ever felt before. "You seem to be moderately strong. Your life force is probably worth an entire village!" Jocan exclaimed. He charged at him. Airsan tries to fight back, but Jocan far outclassed him in technique and power. He gets beaten up for a while. "You should consider this an honor." Jocan says. His black circle spreads underneath Airsan. He starts sinking into it. "I-It burns!" he exclaimed. Jocan starts grinning. He prepares himself for the power he's about to gain. But Airsan won't give up. "Discharge!!!" Lightning starts blasting wildly all over the place. It electrocutes Jocan, he lets out a grunt of pain. His focus stopped for a moment, letting Airsan free. He flew out of the sludge and back to the sand. Jocan was visibly angry now. "You're gonna wish you hadn't done that..." A black orb of dark energy forms in Jocan's palm. "Die." he said.

*"Lotus Flower: Air Strike!!!"*

Someone counters Jocan. There's a dust cloud of sand in the air from the impact. The man's name was Lotus. Lotus was an Omega Knight of the First Order. He was on a search for Jocan, an S-rank criminal. He was known to possess bodies and switch hosts when the corpse could no longer be of use. It seemed that this time around, Jocan had found a particularly strong individual to possess. The fight was now two on one. Jocan said that if he wanted to, he could take them both on easily, but his new body wasn't a hundred percent ready for such a strenuous fight. He began melting into the ground, saying that there'll be a time when he'll get his chance. Lotus decided to ignore his taunt and carried Airsan back to Royal City Hospital to treat his wounds. Airsan was worried about getting some water that he could take back to Ofri Village. Lotus went to get four large barrels of water, and secured them to a sled made to ride on sand. The sled was being pulled by two lizard-birds. Lizard-birds (native to Zedan) were often used for pulling cargo or wagons and the like. They could run 65 miles per hour, and had great stamina. And since they didn't need much water, they were perfect for desert transit. Lotus accompanied Airsan on his way back to Ofri. The villagers were ecstatic to see so much water at one time. Ofri Village's population was only about 85, so to them this was a lot of water. Lotus told Airsan that he'd be able to better support his village if he became a Knight. That way he'd earn money and at the same time, he'd be able to save other people too. It didn't take Airsan long to figure out the right answer. He told the elder the situation. The elder approved. And thus started Airsan's journey into the real world.