KINETIC

Entering the Masters office was the same butler he had previously spoken with. He gave the Master a slight bow out of respect before speaking. "The one you selected has arrived, Sir."

"Excellent, send him in." The Master closed the files he had been looking at and waited for his new subordinate to enter. The butler left and within a minute the boy entered.

"Trent Zemor. Your appearance seems to have changed since you went through the process." The master noticed a few changes based on the image of Trent he had seen.

Trents eyes had become a purple and red colour, his skin was now much paler and the scar over his left eyebrow had vanished. The most obvious difference was his hair, It had changed from being light brown to being the darkest black.

"I'm told that's a good thing." Trent replied. "I suppose it does show that your body adapted nicely. Perhaps that's why you have acquired such useful abilities." The Master grabbed one of his files and opened it.

"According to your file, not only are you the first to aquire this combination of abilities, one of those abilities has never been seen before. If we add in your fire ability... It makes me curious about your combat strength." The Masters voice hinted that he was impressed with Trents potential.

" I've gained the power necessary to achieve my goals and from what I've heard, those goals somewhat align with yours." Trent seemed to be enjoying the praise he was receiving. He couldn't quite place it, but the Master seemed oddly familiar to him.

"That's why you're here. You're going to become the new leader of the Guardians. The Guardians are those that received useful combat abilities from going through the process. You are the strongest we have right now, so you will be their leader." The Master picked up a cloak and mask and threw them to Trent.

The mask was different from the typical cultist mask, as this one didn't cover the top half of the face. The cloak also wasn't just simple black like the others, this one had a large basilisk embroidered over the back in silver.

"You'll have a mission to do and I expect you to do better than your predecessor." The Masters voice sounded intense and powerful as he said this, perfectly conveying the intent to punish Trent should he fail.

"What do you need me to do?"

***

Leo and the group were all seated inside the carriage as it moved down the road. Cain was the only exception as he had been designated as the driver for the day.

As they traveled, Leo was constantly practicing with his ability. Trying to figure out a way to more accurately influence the air around him.

He had gotten better at sending energy through his Battle Aura, but he still couldn't control it too well once it arrived at the destination.

Doing a Force Strike was easy, all he needed to do was send the energy from one place to another and release it. The energy would go straight into the target and impact with the same force as the punch he had used.

When trying to influence the air, he needed to cover it with energy and then attempt to move the energy in a direction while also moving the air inside of it.

So far Leo had tried everything he could think of to improve, he tried using more energy and layering it over each other, he tried using small amounts of energy inside the larger energy field and moving it all at once, he even tried to condense the energy, but all of it proved pointless. He was no closer than the first time he attempted it.

He stopped using his ability about an hour ago and had been replenishing his energy since. He knew they were close to their destination and he wanted to be at full strength just incase they were attacked again like in Grove Village.

After another hour had passed the village had come into view, and the sight that was in front of them was worrisome. The village had huge pillars of smoke rising from it and the destruction was becoming clear.

As they arrived at the entrance to the village they could see a similar sight as in Grove village, only worse. The buildings were all completely destroyed and there didn't appear to be a single living thing as far as the eye could see.

"This is horrific..." Rene was deeply disturbed by the sight in front of her and she wasn't the only one.

"Did the cult do this? I can't imagine anyone else being responsible given the circumstances." Clay voiced out.

"It would be the biggest coincidence ever if it wasn't them." Cain replied. Nila had remained quiet so far, but it was obvious that she was upset. Her hands were shaking while she looked at the destruction, but it was clear that she wasn't sad or fearful. She was furious.

" There's no bodies." Cain pointed out what everyone had noticed so far. Not a single corpse had been seen throughout the entire village. Apart from the buildings having recently been destroyed, it would look like nobody had been here in hundreds of years. It felt like a ghost town.

Due to the strangeness of the situation, Leo decided to activate his Aura, hoping to see something that might give him a clue as to what happened here, or where they should go next.

He activated his Aura and started walking around the village. There were several streets and his Aura only covered part of the village, meaning he needed to walk through the entire area to see everything.

After going through about half the village and finding nothing useful, Leo was beginning to lose hope, as were the others. Their moods had been worsening as they saw more of the village and it felt as though they were wasting their time.

Just as Leo was considering giving up the search, he felt something, a sliver of movement. "No way... Quickly over here!" Leo ran towards a collapsed building "There's someone under here, I can feel them breathing, but only just. They won't survive much longer." Everyone started digging through the rubble, with Cain being especially useful.

His ability made the stone lighter, allowing the pieces to be moved easily. As the rubble was removed they eventually found what they were looking for. Below the rubble of the collapsed building, the miraculous sight of a child was seen. Against all odds, this little girl had managed to survive.