Arcanum Infinitum

Chapter One: The day of fate

Magic. The unexplainable impossibility, that has been slowly explained and made possible. Discovered almost as soon as mankind began, magic was tragically not explored as well as other parts of day-to-day life. Only after the artificial intelligence crisis 2000 years ago, when humanity's faith in technology was receding, did magic truly start being studied and explored. Only those born with the aptitude could ever control the mana in their bodies, however, and the factors that play into this are, as of yet, unknown. Although, Runes were a suitable replacement for those without the aptitude. Magic can do all sorts of things, whether it be summoning weapons from thin air, controlling the elements, making new cells to stitch wounds together, or even manipulating time itself, to a certain extent. However, magic was always unpredictable. For some mages have special Mutations in their genetics, to perform some special types of magic. While mages with these Mutations are just people, who can be both good and evil, there is one kind of Mutation that had been discovered by the Holy Imperials to be nothing but pure evil. The Mutation of Absorption. The rarest kind of Mutation, that turns the person with the genetics into a heartless monster capable of absorbing mana like a leech, and increasing the power by sending it back. These leeches cannot use their magical abilities unless they have absorbed magic, and even then, they cannot store magic in their bodies; they must either send it back instantly, or store it, in some sort of vessel. This is the rarest kind of Mutation, and the monsters that possess this Mutation must be sent to the Holy Imperial Army to be tamed. The last Absorber monster mage was discovered 2000 years ago.

A boy with short blue hair and amber eyes was reading to himself, sitting at the edge of a small ring, seemingly waiting for someone. As he read through the passage, he felt a little uneasy, and scratched his neck, thinking to himself, 'Man, this author REALLY hates-'

"Mr. Law? Oh, it's nice to meet you, you were scheduled for magical combat, were you not?" The voice of a teacher snapped him out of his thoughts, as he hurriedly snapped the book closed and turned to the teacher. "Oh, hi...uh...you're not...you're not Professor Multi."

The teacher was a tough looking old man that was much taller than him. He stared at the young boy, with a smile on his face. "Professor Hanz Multi called in sick today. I'm Professor Richard Zimmer. I'm the Rune Studies teacher, so you've probably not met me, Mr. Natural Mage."

Marshall smiled at the man, and held his hand out for a handshake. "It's nice to meet you, Professor. I suppose I'm in your care today."

Professor Zimmer smiled back and shook his hand, nodding. "Yep. Give me a sec to prep some runes, and then I'll be right with you."

Meanwhile, at the same time, in a different place....

A tall boy, with tan skin, broad shoulders, shoulder length white hair, and rough, but kind looking green eyes stood at a desk, looking at his phone, waiting for whoever was on the other end to pick up. The room he was in was full of knicknacks he made himself, small vehicles, droids, gauntlets and gloves with runes painted on them, even a suit of armour, painted to the brim with protection runes. In his other hand, he held a card, the Ace of Clubs, with "DEAL ACCEPTED" written on it. The card was metal, lightweight, and razor sharp. He tapped his foot in impatience as he waited for the person on the other end to pick up.

"Pick up, pick up, please...." A click sounded. "Laura, hey there."

"Hey, Quin. What's up, you sound worried? Is something wro-"

"He responded. In the affirmative. I... I'm leaving, tomorrow. So, I wanted to, uh....say goodbye. You've really helped me a lot, and I owe you too much, and-"

"You're not leaving me. Not alone. I'm coming with."

"Laura, this is MY planet we're talking about, this has nothing to do with you, I can't put you through this-"