Chapter 3：Dead Eyes

"Jason tell us about the chronicles right after the dark-age began!" a deep but somehow scholarly voice resounded inside the small classroom.

A young 13-year-old boy stood up from his chair with a straight back facing the front without looking anywhere in particular, as he began to narrate the events from 300 years ago.

"300 years ago the invasion of foreign races and wild beasts began because the mana outbreak that occurred during this time

The mana outbreak created rifts to other planes that linked them with Argos for some reason we don´t know.

In the beginning, humanity was unaware of the invasion of foreign races.

They were still shocked by the mysterious energy explosion and the creation of blood-red cracks with landscapes behind them.

Later on news about the appearance of tall, bulky and humanoid-like race with huge wings, ravenlike heads and medieval-looking weapons overshadowed the explosion of the overly compressed "mana" ball with the invasion of the unknown energy we now call [Mana] inside every living being to the essence including the planet.

Unfortunately, humanity wasn't prepared to fight back against an invasion of excessively terrifying existences and suffered huge losses.

The [Corvi] race wasn´t the only invading race and many intelligent races entered Argos, transforming the planet into a battlefield between them, leaving humanity as cannon fodder for each other.

Humanity tried to fight back but their weapons were completely useless against these foreign races, as they protected themselves with a membrane of mana.

This mana membrane deflected bullets and even bombing was useless against them.

Humanity suffered and had to withdraw to the smallest continent on Argos´ also called Canir with their surrounding Archipelago of around 40 small islands.

Canir, where most humans are living now has the smallest amount of permanent rifts and the permanent rift, fortunately, connected none of the intelligent bipedal race planes with Argos.

The only permanent rifts it had were worlds with beasts that invaded Argos quite often because of their wild instincts and desire to massacre humans.

Even if they had everything they needed on their own side, these powerful beasts continued their attack not caring about the losses of humanity and even they themselves had to suffer once in a while.

Meanwhile, the Archipelagos had a few more permanent rifts and a huge problem with the overpopulation of beasts.

They didn´t receive much support from the main continent, as nobody was able to fight these existences head-on.

Humanity lost more than 90% of its population that had not a single effective way to fight back except using fire against fire.

It took them a long time but after years of experimenting and a huge amount of luck, humanity was able to handle mana more easily.

Some could manipulate earth while others could control water as if it was the extensions of their arms.

But humans don't own an innate element they could use their mana with.

Rather than a bane, it was a blessing in disguise.

Maybe it was luck or destiny, as a young and courageous or more likely naive teenager saved the cub of an invading beast from getting killed.

After the cub was saved, the youth was also almost abducted and killed by other humans because it was seen as a threat.

This particular cub wanted to protect Its savior as it bit instinctively into the finger of the youth, subconsciously forming the so-called soulbond contract between each other with the appearance of bright shining light."

Jason stopped for a second and took a few deep breaths before he continued his narration

"The whole process about the first soulbond is described in a dozen-sided text but I will skip most of it."

"Unknowingly to everyone else, the youth felt a connection between himself and the beast cub slowly building up and even more importantly, he felt a connection to a certain element.

Using mana, he could feel the connection to the cub´s affinity and he was somehow even able to use it to a certain extent.

Furthermore, after forming the contract the youth found out that his constitution increased to a certain extent and it continues to grow with its bound.

Through the soulbond the contractor's constitution would receive an amplification which influenced everything around the contractor.

That was how mankind found out about the soul awakening and soulbond contracts.

With this important find, the exploration of rifts to other planes with weaker beasts began.

Many other things were additionally found out.

For example, not every beast was compatible with each human but even so, they were desperately trying to gain strength.

To find out if a human was compatible with other elements they created certain relics with the remains of artifacts from the battlefield of other races.

As such, mankind could awaken ones´ soul, which would show what type of beast one could form a contract with in addition to the compatible affinity.

Everyone wanted to form a contract with strong beasts but it was only obvious that these beasts wouldn't just look at their cubs getting kidnapped.

A war between beasts and humans started with the beasts on the winning side.

Even if humanity was losing out, some cubs were still caught and more and more humans got to use their bounds´ elements.

Humanity suffered many losses but they didn't retreat without any gains.

They grew stronger with each day passing, while the amplification of their soulbond´s increased the overall combat prowess of humanity by a large margin.

While only around one billion humans were left, they grew stronger and stronger each day they absorbed the natural mana, Argos began to generate since the mana outbreak.

Nature and mana worked together against humanity as plants, stimulated by mana began to grow more than ten times faster while the strength of animals increased, the more mana they absorb-

This increased the reproduction ability in addition to the strengthened constitutions they received from mana.

Evolving wasn´t a fantasy anymore and millions of new races emerged from wildlife and evolved plants were sometimes even able to achieve sentience while animals were able to acquire an element affinity.

Humanity was forced to gather together in order to build a few fortress-like cities close together in order to survive without getting overwhelmed by beast tides.

While the first rifts were the biggest problem at the beginning, the numbers of evolved wild beasts were getting more and more threatening, forcing humans to increase their military power more and more.

On Canir 12 permanent rifts exist while some of them are.."

*DING DANG DONG*

"That's enough for today, Jason, your reproduction was good."

The school bell rang and the teacher left the classroom

Jason was still standing there with his feeble build, patiently waiting for everyone to leave.

He had short black hair and pretty facial features. If his hair were longer, many would mistake him for a girl.

With his tender age of 13 years, he had still had some childish features but he wasn't chubby as he didn't eat much.

His eyes however were Jason's most special feature, as they looked like a dead fish without the slightest trace of life within.

A fortune-teller predicted that his eyes were the most important asset in addition to his beautiful soul when he was born, however, that was only a dream for the young Jason at the moment, something unattainable one wanted to happen sometime in the future.

Jason thought of it as a bad joke because he was born with malfunctioned optic nerves.

His mother was said to have special eyes but he had never seen her obviously.

She worked at a big and respected family, that was said to treat their workers as if they were part of their family.

However, one day an evening a few years ago when his mother should have been already at home, a butler came over to their apartment with a tearful voice and something heavy in his hands, a briefcase

The butler told him that his mother died during a spar between their family's patriarch and another big clan's heir.

Apparently, there were some disputes during a party with multiple important personalities of large families involved, which resulted in the foreign heir getting disgraced and humiliated.

The foreign heir was aware of the intimate bond between the servants and the Cerus family.

As such he went on a rampage and it was said that more than ten servants died before he was finally stopped.

It was a disaster and the whole party was immediately disbanded and the Cerus family was dismayed, filled with anger because of the deceased employees.

Having money and the power to subdue small families like the Cerus-family, the opposite heir chose money to shut down the families who lost their loved ones.

Not even the media dared to release any news about the accident that happened.

The family-like employer knew about Jason's situation and they offered some help but Jason couldn't comprehend what happened as he was still a child without any experience of death.

The butler gave Jason his condolence and laid down the briefcase next to Jason, where he would be able to reach it before he decided to leave the blind boy alone within the lonely apartment.

He didn't even know the name of his mother's killer, because nobody answered his pleadings about the whereabouts of the murderer and only the family name of his mother's employer was branded in his mind.

'Cerus'

He wasn´t even able to cry, as the wrath, frustration, agony, and sorrow were subdued deep within himself.

But how could Jason hate the Cerus family as they treated his mother so well before the accident happened?

His father was said to have been the chairman of a large company governed by the Federation, backed by his family and other authorities.

Apparently, he wasn't scared about anything at all, but that was a mistake.

A feud with a certain family he got involved with caused the annihilation of his family and his companies destruction. Only he and his wife were left.

His mental situation got worse as he became an alcoholic and gambler who lost a few hundred million credits, amassing a huge amount of debts.

His mother told Jason, that she left his father before anything could happen when she noticed that she was pregnant with him.

The story was clear, but Jason didn't believe her story at all.

The Cerus family took both of them in but Jason was suspicious because he had never heard anything else about his father before while only his mother knew who he was.

Not a single picture was taken or stories told, but Jason didn't suffer because of that as he didn´t need a father.

His mother was everything he needed….

She was grateful for the Cerus family and decided to work for them with her special eyes.

Who would have thought that her decision would kill her someday?

Jason didn't know what her eyes could do but apparently, they were special enough to bring up a child and herself.

The Cerus family gave Jason an allowance and the opportunity to enter a decent middle school even after his mother died.

For Jason however, this money wasn't even close to replacing his mother who raised him up alone with much love even with his eyesight problems.

He had nobody by his side and he was lonely in such a dangerous world.