A boy with pitch black hair and hazel brown eyes sat cross legged on the bare ground in a forest, his clothes barely above being called rags due to their dirty and torn state, his body covered in dirt and blood,
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 the boy, it slowly condensed until it formed an uneven sphere the size of a ping-pong ball,
"Dark Shot!", the sphere shot off following the cry from the boy, the sphere flew uninterrupted to pierce through the trunk of two trees before dissipating, and left in the holes created by the attack was wisps of darkness that corroded and enlarged the hole by a few millimeters before stopping.
"Still too weak.", the boy 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 white skin looking pale,
"Only one E rank spell is enough to put me in a state like this, perhaps being an E rank mage is beyond me", he sighed before approaching a bag made of wool a few meters away from him,
"On the bright side, dinner is available", he smiled looking into the bag that contained the dead bloodied body of a rabbit. Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he headed towards the peripheral region of the forest.
Getting close to his destination, he could already hear the rushing, and distant thunderous roar he had gotten used to over the course of three years,
His destination slowly revealed itself to his vision, a beautiful running river that led to an odd waterfall deeper in the forest.
He approached the river and despite the azure light of the sky behind him, could see his reflection quite clearly, the black hair he had inherited from his father and the brown eyes from his mother,
Looking into the resemblance he shared with them ignited a memory in his mind, a memory he wished to forget.
3 Years Ago...
A younger version of the boy sat in the arms of a woman with beautiful brown eyes and flowing brown hair that had mesmerizing yellow streaks,
Her facial features slightly resembled the boy's with a few differences, "Mom, why don't I have streaks like you and dad", the young boy pouted, pointing at his hair,
"Oh but you do my little Lolo. Your streaks are just black, the same color as your hair", she reassured her son only causing him to pout more,
"I said don't call me Lolo!", he whined into her arms, "Sorry Mr. Logan Kress", she jested.
"That's better but Logan's fine", young Logan returned the smile his mother threw his way,
"Listen, there's something I want to tell you", Logan's mother beckoned unto his attention, her face turning serious, "It's about magic", she revealed, waving her hand and causing a gale to blow in the house,
"Your dad has blue streaks on his black hair, so it's pretty obvious that his elemental affinity is water, my yellow streaks betray my affinity for wind but you my Lolo-Logan, possess black streaks with denotes an affinity for Darkness Magic.
Your magic has a lot of inherent weaknesses and strengths but those are for you to figure out yourself but worry not, after all you're just 13 but you see, the path of a mage is often solitary and cruel, even the most loved mage becomes worthless once he can no longer cast a spell and even those you consider your friends will betray you for a chance to stand out.
Now, I'm not telling you this to scare you but to prepare you, to let you know what lays ahead for those who practice magic. So now that you know, will you accept?", Logan's mother pulled out a scroll from what appeared to be thin air,
Seeing this, Logan nodded before reaching for the scroll and grabbing it, he slowly undid its binding and read the name of the spell.
Death Arrows
He was about to delve in when the door flung open with a loud bang.
"LILY, YOU NEED TO LEAVE NOW!!!" a man stood at the now open entrance of the house, his black hair sporting blue and violet streaks, his usually stark blue eyes bloodshut,
His figure appeared lean and anxious, "What is going on?" Logan's mom, Lily, scanned her husband's body, taking note of the violet streaks in his hair, she let out a frigid gasp, immediately understanding the situation,
"Mirror Plague" she muttered to herself, her eyes turning teary before steeling, "You need to leave the town, at least one person here is infected, otherwise I wouldn't have contracted it" her spouse, her lover confided in her as soon as she figured it out.
The Mirror plague was a magical disease created by a mad alchemist, it inverted one's elemental affinity; earth became wind, light became darkness and in the case of her husband, water becomes fire,
The inversion either caused a massive detonation due to conflicting elemental energies or the infection caused the infected to lose their magic and it takes effect a few hours or days after contraction and in rare cases, even immediate.
The man was about to leave when a pulse of mana involuntarily left his body causing the room to cool down before the temperature suddenly spiked, igniting the room,
Before any of them could react, another pulse left the man's body and fuse with the flame, increasing its temperature and durability against being extinguished.
Lily observed the distress of her partner and deduced the nature of his infection, it would be explosive. Smiling sadly, she placed her hand on her son's head, "I'm sending you to a little cottage in a safe part of a forest not too far from here. I know you're young but it's the only way, there are spells waiting for you",
"Mom, what? I'm confused, don't send me away" Logan begged his mother, tears streaming down his face, "Don't worry my little Lolo, I'm always with you" Lily kissed her crying son on his head before muttering a few words.
Logan's body turned ethereal and dissipated, Lily looked deathly pale, she turned to her husband, walked toward him, held his hand, "Till death do us part" she whispered into his ear and hugged him just as he detonated,
Logan reappeared in front of a small brick cottage, in his hand the spell his mum had given him, tears still streaming down his face as he sobbed.
Present Time...
Logan laid on the ground as he reviewed his past but was forced to stop when he saw a mass of fire flying overhead and crashing into the forest,
He stood and ran to the crater where it landed, there he could see a multi-colored crystal hovering a meter in the air, he entered the crater and approached the item, "What the hell?" Logan wondered but was forced to stop when the crystal released a pulse of energy, he immediately turned to run but it was too late,
A dense black gas left Logan's body and entered the crystal, Logan felt himself losing consciousness but right before he passed out, he saw the crystal turn white.