The Demon Empowered Orphan

Chapter 2: A New Beginning

Over five years had passed since the war with the Shalkers ended. Every adult was conscripted in order to stand a chance at winning. Yet, unfortunately, about 1 billion people perished during the war. This was roughly 10% of the world's population.

This event left many children as orphans. The government decided to pay for their living expenses until they went to military school. The government only provided them with the bare minimum, enough for food expenses, and a 7 metre by 7 metre apartment room. This was only enough room for a small bathroom, kitchen, bed, tv, and a desk in the corner for studying.

Zak Farrell  was an orphan living alone in an apartment provided by the government. He belonged to a family of ancient martial artists, training every single day from an extremely young age. 

The name of his family dojo was "The Way of The Blissful Demon", it was not very well known since it did not focus on ability-oriented training, which Zak  did not at all mind as he trained his heart out along with his parents every day, being recognized as a martial arts prodigy that would only come every few thousand years even from when he was 6, being able to easily grasp even the most complex of moves.

The dojo did not have many students, so his family wasn't exactly the richest. They were saving up their money in order to buy an ability orb for their son to help him in life since martial arts was nowhere near powerful enough to protect their son in the now dark world they live in.

Uprisings from non-ability users always happened all around the country saying that humanity had gotten corrupted ever since the rain, but the government would always be able to easily quell and disperse the masses with only a single soldier as they were a minority and did not see them as a threat at all, all of them being weak, despicable peasants who, even with the best of technology and equipment, could not stand up to even the weakest ability users in the military, even when combining their strength.

Even though his family was poor, Zak  was happy with his living situation. He was always cheerful and never complained. He loved practicing martial arts every day, and he was thankful for having a kind and loving family. It seemed like he had a bright future ahead of him, especially after he receives the ability his parents had been working so hard to buy him.

But, when the war started 9 years ago, his parents were conscripted and never returned. 3 years into the war, a government official told him that both his parents died on the battlefield. At that moment, Zak 's eyes became sad and lifeless. The news was too much to bear for the 10-year-old child. He simply could not accept his parent's death.

He had no other relatives that were alive, so he had no one to turn to. He was completely alone in this world. Zak  shut himself up in his room, crying for weeks on end, only coming out once a week to restock on food.

After a month of non-stop crying, the previously happy and cheerful Zak  was now a husk of his former self.

He was still sitting in his bed with shallow eyes that seemed completely devoid of life. He had contemplated suicide a few times, but he could not go through with it every time he attempted it. He would always watch news of other abandoned orphans around his age or even younger going through with it so he always wondered what was stopping him from doing the same. 

For anyone that had seen the dark abyss of the outside world, it was more than clear that all that awaited him was pain and anguish unimaginable by anyone. When he lifted his knife towards his throat, trying to take his own life for the 10th time that week, he heard a loud knock enter his ears.

With a sigh, he instinctively put down his knife on his bed and lazily walked towards his front door, opening it. He looked at the man with his dead eyes and said with a sigh, "What do you want?"

The man at the door was a tall man in a military uniform. Zak  was only up to his waist and he did not care to look at his face. The man seemed unaffected by the sorry and miserable state the child in front of him was in. He was really bored and tired from working all day to care, he was only one out of the many 1000s of children he had to go to after all.

"I am here to deliver something to you. Your parents told the military that if anything happened to them, we should give you this metal box. Sorry for the late delivery. We had so many things to deliver, and yours was part of the last batch." The man said in an indifferent tone, handing a metal box to Zak .

Zak  quickly took the box and slammed the door on the military officer without even flinching. He took the box in his room and looked at it with his eyes that were still devoid of life.

Then, out of nowhere, he felt tears coming down his face, his hands instinctively raising to see if they were even real. This was the first time he had cried in over 2 weeks. His eyes had abruptly regained their previous bright green colour. A rush of emotions suddenly entered his body from all the memories he had with his parents.

He looked down at the box underneath him, his parent's signature engraved on it with a heart, a message to the side…

"To Zak , our dear son… if you are reading this then we are really sorry we could not make it back…  So, so, so sorry... Please stay strong! We really hope for a bright future for you! Take this gift and keep it safe no matter what until the time is right… we both love you dearly, our little demon," Zak  mumbled the message attached to the box, his tears dropping on it like a waterfall, leaving the message soaking wet.

Setting the message to the side, he focused his gaze onto the box, slowly opening it.

When he did, he found a golden necklace with a Latin carving written on it,

"Remember, you will die."

That had always been his family motto.

When Zak  wore the necklace, he felt all his fears and negative emotions disappear like they were never present. His negative emotions flowed out of his body like a river, calming his nerves and steeling his resolve to continue living. The process was almost unnatural.

On that day Zak  made a promise to himself. He left the comfort of his house for the first time in weeks and punched towards the big blue sky with a smile, making a vow.

"Mom, Dad, if you can hear me… don't worry about me. I'll be ok, I won't let this consume my life and I will live life to the fullest."

"I'm sure that's what you would have wanted me to do… right?"

When Zak  returned to school, he thrust into the dangerous, despicable world he had previously thought it was. 

He was bullied and humiliated every day. His lack of ability and family power made him the perfect target. Yet, even through all of that, he would never fight back or get angry, no matter how many times he got beaten. He always stayed positive, no matter the situation. Even during the most brutal torture and manipulations he had gone through, he stayed positive.

He was no masochist, but for some seemly inexplicable reason, he just could not help but smile and feel happy…

Because of Zak 's harsh martial arts training that he did every single day, he was much stronger than the average non-ability user. However, that didn't mean much. Even an -F rank student-level ability user with little training could defeat him.

Rumours had spread about him throughout his entire school, about a boy who would stay positive no matter what he went through. 

Many people tried to debunk this theory, trying to prove that he could have negative emotions by torturing him until he broke. But no one had yet to crack him, which frustrated many students to no end. Even the most despicable, inhumane, heinous actions would not make him show a single crack.

Ever since he got his necklace, he felt no sadness, anger, or fear. It was like he mentally could not have those emotions. He only felt positive. He always believed people's words, thinking they were always honest. It was like the thought that people could lie never even crossed his mind. The only exceptions were with the matter of his necklace. Then, you could see small hints of negative emotions boil up inside him. It was really unnatural, almost like there was a greater power in play.

Sunday, September 4th, 2130

Zak  had just turned 16 this year. This meant that he was now required to attend military school, The first day being the next day.

Throughout the years, Zak  had yet to lose his positive attitude.

He had been training severely during the summer to prepare for it. Through his intensive training, he learned one of his family's secret techniques. This was an enormous achievement. To put this into perspective, Zak  trained his entire life and could only learn 1 secret technique. But only during that summer, he learned 1 more. This was remarkable growth. By learning these moves, Zak  was now confident that he could go head to head with an F rank ability user while only 4 months ago he would have lost without a doubt.

Zak 's family taught martial arts that depended on the manipulation of energy called "Demon Energy", in order to perform various techniques. These techniques were by no means an ability or an ability substitute, as they were far weaker.

His current moves were the following :

A technique that gathers one's demon energy into their sword and unleashes a powerful downward slash dealing immense damage.

Consumes high stamina and energy.

A technique that gathers one's demon energy in their legs to perform a short powerful step, enabling the user to do a short 1-meter dash at immense speed. Can be chained and performed multiple times in succession.

Consumes medium stamina and energy.

These techniques required a lot of stamina and energy so they couldn't be spammed. This meant that Zak  had to be mindful of when to use them in a fight in order to not overexert himself.

After Zak  finished packing his bags, he went to sleep early in order to wake up refreshed and on time for military school the next day. He threw himself on his bed like a child and started staring at the ceiling while holding his necklace in hand. He couldn't help but smile and feel excited about tomorrow. His eyes started to slowly close, and he slept the whole night smiling like a baby.

Zak  woke up feeling rejuvenated after having a good night's sleep. He slept for over 9 hours, This was more than he had ever slept in months.

A soldier from the military would come to take him to military school at 9:30 so he had an hour to prepare himself.

The government always sent 1 military personnel to escort each orphan to military school. They only recently made this rule because many orphans would usually try to avoid going to school and run away. The soldiers' jobs were just to safely escort them to military school and if the orphan was not home, then their job would change to tracking them down and making them go by force.

Zak  just about had enough time to do his morning routine. He had breakfast, brushed his teeth, did 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 squats before practicing his martial arts techniques. After he finished practicing, he noticed the time was 9:15. This gave him just enough time to take a shower which only took him a good 10 minutes.

He wore his usual clothes, put on his parent's necklace, grabbed his bags, and patiently waited on his bed for the soldier to come. Not too long after, he heard a knock on the door.

"Zak Farrell , this is Private Harry Morris from the country Z's military force. I am here to escort you to military school."

As soon as Zak  heard the Soldier's voice, he rushed over to open the door. As the door slowly opened, he greeted the soldier with a smile as he cheerfully said, "Please lead the way sir, I'll be in your care."