บท 1: Torture

(Re-edited and re-written!)

His chest heaved up and down as he stared at the ceiling, his steady breaths becoming steadier the longer he stayed on the floor

"This sucks. I wanna go play now!"

He said, rolling over to the side, uncaring of the cleanliness of the floor and his own hygiene. It wasn't like he could get sick anyway.

He felt the training was definitely messing around with his mind, though his parents would probably call him dramatic for saying so. Maybe they were right. Maybe they were wrong. His opinion didn't matter anyway.

Hugo enjoyed living in his fantasies. He'd never had any friends in the full thirteen years of his life, was never allowed to leave the house and was pretty much avoided because of his family and parents.

"Ahh." He sighed loudly, causing his long mop of black hair to shiver from the slight gust.

His black shirt stuck to his prematurely chiselled body from the sweat and he couldn't help but look at the black scarf from the side. Time and time again Hugo wondered why the training was necessary.

He knew why. It was nothing secret to him. His parents made sure that he never forgot why he constantly trained and didn't play.

'It's for your own good,' they said. And they didn't lie.

The young boy stared at his scar-covered arms and wondered for the millionth whether the power he was born with, was a curse or a blessing.

All of this.

If it wasn't a curse then he wasn't sure what a curse was

Sometimes he even wondered whether his parents adopted him. It didn't make sense to anyone

It was common knowledge that children of Awakened would have a variation of one of the parent's Awakenings or a combination of the two abilities. Like:

Minor Fire Control and Eagle Eyes had a small chance of becoming something like Laser Vision.

However his combination...

Divine Strength + Rune Creation = ???

No one knew what to make of it at all. His brother though, was in a better boat than Hugo.

Divine Strength + Rune Creation = Runic Body.

He got a much better end of the stick that was certain. But what did that matter?

"I can't even see my own brother..."

His sighs grew louder as time passed but there was nothing he could do about it.

Hugo had never activated his power after that first event. But he had trained for it. Over and over and over again. It was painful.

But little did he know, the time to use his powers would soon come...

. . . .

*Meanwhile*

"Manuel, what do we do? I feel the seal we kept on his powers every day." She tugged her husband's shirt, eyebrows furrowed with underlying pain and worry."

The man named Manuel laughed a little shaking his wildly growing mane of hair around.

"Oh, you mean Hugo?"

"Who else would I mean, Manuel?"

"Come on, you know I was joking about it, Rai."

She kept silent. Rai could not bear to joke about something as serious as that.

"Don't worry Rai. He'll be fine, besides nothing bad will come to pass with his measly abilities."

Rai shook her head in objection. "His powers are the kind that grows naturally without any external influence. It might even be the kind that grows exponentially with each use! I'm afraid they might flare up again and..."

"Oh? But it's only happened twice hasn't it?"

Twice. Hugo himself didn't know about the other times that happened

This time was when he first basked in the light of the world. They had just birthed him when first used his powers. It was extremely inconceivable. Not to mention that the power was so strong that even grown adults could not compare.

"It'll be fine…" Manuel paused, hearing someone calling for him. "Hmm? It's Yuno. He's calling from the Odas. I'll go meet with him now."

Rai was sitting there in the indoor garden, the look of worry not leaving her face once. And her beautiful golden eyes stared straight at the training room Hugo presently stayed in.

. . .

13 Years Before

"Get a doctor! Where are the doctors? My wife is in labour!"

A gruff man's voice could be heard. It was Manuel's voice. It hadn't changed one bit even thirteen years before. The younger Manuel held a woman in his hands while screaming in the hallways of a hospital.

A doctor from that hospital rushed forward with a stretcher and a bunch of nurses. There were no more words to be said after that. The doctor and his bunch of nurses speechlessly took the woman, Rai to the closest emergency room.

"Ah, it hurts. It hurts so bad, it feels like hell!" Rai screamed, making Manuel's heart churn.

"Don't worry Rai, it'll be all right." He held her palm trying his best to comfort her.

"No, it won't you dumb oaf! Arghh! This baby isn't normal. It feels like I'm giving birth to an elephant accompanied by dozens mor- Argh!"

Rai screamed in pain before she could finish.

"Mr Smithson, please you are to sit in the waiting area while the doctor works. Obstructions are not advisable." A petite nurse walked up to him and interrupted their conversation. Manuel Smithson was a law-abiding citizen, so he submitted and left the ER to the waiting area just outside.

Manuel couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen with Rai and the baby. This was perhaps the most nerve-racking moment of his entire life.

"Wahhh!"

Suddenly, the sound of a baby coming into this world was heard and the feeling that he couldn't shake was replaced with joy.

Wordless, Manuel rushed into the ER and witnessed the most shocking thing in his entire life. It was not the cuteness of the child, nor the smiles of all the doctors and nurses, not even the death of his wife and child, instead...

"Help, please help!"

"Ahh!"

Screaming doctors and crying nurses were held up in the air by black, sand-like particles that formed tentacles to hold them like that. Manuel was however only focused on one thing, not the yelling doctors, nor the black sand-like particles that formed the tentacles. It was the sound of the baby crying that was hidden under the others.

The baby was still bloody and curled up. The black particles he saw before came from him; his son. They forced their way out of his body through the pores, which caused an evidently painful sensation in his son's body.

"Wahhh! Wahhh!"

The baby's cries rang out in his ear, he almost didn't notice that Rai was dying.

"Rai? Rai, hang on, don't die on me!"

Manuel looked in his purse for anything that could stop Rai from slipping away, stop the Reaper from coming for her soul, stop her from going into the light. It didn't matter what expression was used. He would not let her die!

*Pop!*

Manuel's large hands fumbled about with the bottle that had the cure to her life. The pills were relatively small, big enough but small and difficult for Manuel to handle with his large hands. While she was slipping away, he nervously fumbled with the pills in the bottle.

"Whew!"

He sighed as he finally managed to put the pill in Rai's mouth. After helping her swallow it. He focused his attention on the child who had stopped crying. The black sand-like particles also disappeared. Manuel walked over to the child with a shocked countenance and gently carried the boy.

"My boy…" He whispered as he cradled the baby.

The eyes fluttered for a second, opening and revealing the dark wise eyes. Manuel held the baby for a few more seconds and left him to the frightened nurses after.

It was a saddening thing, to see your child being treated as a monster in front of you.

Manuel sighed. As long as his boy had that power, there was nothing he could do about it.

. . .

Back to Present

The child was named Hugo immediately after Rai woke up that day on the 6th of January

He was kept in the dark about the event that happened on the day of his birth. But Hugo knew he was different since before he could speak. There was no hiding the heavy eyes and calculated steps people in his neighbourhood had.

And he'd understood this immediately.

That was how his narcissistic and arrogant side came to be.

"Of course they're scared. Fortunately for them, I'm not interested in weaklings.

On the day he turned four, as per his parent's orders, Hugo was not allowed to play outside. He would undergo a strict training regimen guided by instructors from all over Allegro.

After thinking for a while, Hugo jumped to his feet and picked up the dark scarf from the side.

"After this, we'll see what Mom and Dad think!"

And without any other thought punched the door of the training room open and shot straight onto the paved ground of the large manor.

The Smithson clan was a family of artisans. Very strong ones. And his dad was the head of the clan. They were well-known across multiple cities and regions for their impeccable skills and attention to detail.

That might not seem like much, but they were just called cities because of convenience. Each was the size of a medium-sized country in the old world. And the country he lived in, Allegro was a place where people of all nationalities were accepted. It was a sort of neutral zone for all nations.

Allegro had 26 cities and together they formed the three regions; Alpha, Beta, Gamma.

Hugo as the child of the direct bloodline of the Smithson clan had access to certain privileges such as; access to any yet-to-release game, secret information and new technologies. Guards and other semi-important people with any ounce of knowledge of this region would bow to him when he walked by.

Not that any of it mattered anyways.

"Hummm…"

Hugo hummed as he walked past the guards in front of the manor's doors. Those golden armours looked too old-fashion, and they were also cheap. The guards were shocked at seeing Hugo's appearance and stopped lazing off to guard for real.

It was the first time he had come out of the house in a long while. They had only seen him when he came out to take a second of air in before being pulled back to training.

He reached the main gates easily and after sticking his tongue out he jumped over the gates faster than anyone could anticipate. These physical training sessions all this while had actually paid off!

'Ah, the fresh air is so good once in a while!'

Hugo didn't remember what the outside world was like. He had probably spent the last two years at home and the only contact he had with people that weren't his parents was with Ruki and his brother, Yuno.

*Honk!*

A loud vehicle honked just as his foot touched the road. Hugo jumped back in alarm, all the while cursing his hair.

"The outside is as strange as I remember." the boy muttered walking everywhere like he owned the place.

He continued on, oblivious but his adventure came to a stop when he reached the park. This was more peaceful than the others, he sat down on a comfortable bench and sunk into it to the extent that he even drifted to sleep.

Unbeknownst to him though...

"A little kid that has such cute looks will definitely sell well on the market," A man's voice laughed in a perverse way that would make anybody's hair stand on hair.

A sinister voice rang out, and then suddenly, Hugo realized that beside him sitting on the bench was a fat man with greasy fingers wearing a mask covering his mouth to nose. Hugo's vision was getting more and more blurry, and his hearing was getting distorted too, finally, he could see and hear no more. There was nothing but black.

'So, the outside world can also be like this.'

Hugo thought in a pitch-black space separated from the world. Within the space was only him and an... Umbrella? He reached out to touch the umbrella and then…

*SPLASH!*

The feeling of cold water pouring over his head hit him like a truck. But this sensation gave him one chance to break free of whatever drug the pervert was using.

"Agh!"

Hugo woke and noticed he was still in the same spot. Only a single second had passed in the real world, while he spent about ten minutes in that pitch-black space. Hugo concentrated his strength on his back muscles and pushed against the bench and then;

*Boom!*

With nothing but his back to use, he blasted off the bench and landed a safe distance away from the pervert.

"What? Impossible! That fellow told me that a whiff of this perfume and even a Second Stage Evolutionary would fall asleep!"

While he was talking, he didn't notice that Hugo was no longer at the spot he'd just landed on.

*WHOOSH!*

A loud whooshing sound was heard, and the man felt a small breeze even from under his mask. Right in front of him was the "victim's" leg formed into a kick. The man, although relatively big, was able to turn swiftly.

"Hmph, not so fast. Black Matter Chains!"

Black sand-like particles flew out of Hugo, causing him to let out a small groan, and formed large black chains that wrapped around the man's leg and slammed him to the ground.

There was nothing the man could do. He was just a normal human, not even a first-stage Awakened or a Quasi Evolutionary, just an ordinary human. Unfortunately for this child trafficker, he met an Awakened with a top-notch ability.

By now, the park-goers had already gathered around Hugo and the trafficker, at first it was only dumb statements like this;

"That child has gone out of control!"

"A child is assaulting an innocent man?"

"What has happened? This is what happens when you give the Awakened too much power. Now even their scions think they're better!"

Hugo, on the other hand, was confused. 'Why are they insulting me? Did I do something wrong? I caught the bad man, did I not? So why won't these peasants respect me!'

Some people who recognised Hugo immediately tried to stop the ignorant ones from speaking too much, it worked but brought about an unexpected effect.

"So he's using his authority as the scion of some large clan to harass others. It's despicable!"

Finally, the police arrived riding hovercycles.

"What's going on here?"

The youngest officer asked. He wore a black uniform that had two stars on them. The tag on his uniform identified him as "Lieutenant Elroy".

"Officer, please do something. T-That Chil- no, that demon is harassing the poor man!"

An old woman bellowed with tears. She was delusional from old age.

The officer took a look at the one in chains and the child holding him down. Note, Elroy gave no single f*cks about his "job". As far as he was concerned, the only thing he had to do was look cool and follow the majority opinion. And in light of that, he did the thing he would regret most in his whole life.

"Stop there you fiend!"

Hugo who was focused on holding the man down with his chains heard the officer. His face turned from the earlier confusion to joy.

"Oh, thank god you're here, I was really starting to lose concentration-"

Before a second's warning, the officer rushed over to him and cuffed him. The cuffs clinked and clanked and finally shone with a blue light. These were Null Cuffs, they could block the ability of any Awakened.

"B-but-"

"Save it for the judge kid. If you keep quiet, maybe you can escape with a one-year probation term on the charges of Unlawful use of Abilities and Improper Harassment of Human life."

Hearing this, Hugo's face darkened.

'To think the outside world can also be like this. Maybe my father was right, maybe I should just train inside for the rest of my life. I'm a monster. They should just lock me up in a room forever.'

All sorts of thoughts ran through Hugo's head, and that was how the switch was flipped. His eyes grew cold and distant. His thoughts were covered with a veil of aloofness.

'I know what I must do now. When I grow up, I'll become the highest-ranked Skydancer in the world and I will demolish the current world order. No more corruption and crime. I will eradicate evil and even if there has to be any evil, it shall be only me!'

Those last thoughts fueled the remaining spark of power that was within him.

BOOOM!

A loud explosion rang out in Hugo's body. The officer who was escorting him to the hovercycle suddenly released him.

"Argh!"

When he awoke... he was at home. And his family was dead.