Chapter 2: A New Start

  The night sky was bright — not from the stars, but from the burning woods.

  Evan lived with his grandfather deep in the Eastern Sayan forest, near the icy, crystal-clear waters of Lake Baikal. Their home was a rge, sturdy wooden hut with four rooms, built old and strong, standing alone in the vast, silent wilderness.

  But now, all of it was up in fmes.

  Firefighters arrived, the crackling of fire mixing with hurried footsteps and shouted orders.

  “Who in their right mind would start a fire in a pce as remote as this?” one of them shouted, eyes scanning the bze.

  “People like us don’t need to know why,” another replied, his voice low and grim. “Just do your job if you wanna survive. I’ve heard the Russian government might be involved in this.”

  Under the debris, they found Evan — barely alive, his small body burned and bruised, his face covered in ash. It was nothing short of a miracle he’d survived.

  The incident stayed silent from media coverage, buried deep by external pressure, left to vanish without a trace.

  Evan was hospitalized, and after a few days of quiet recovery, he was sent to the neighborhood orphanage.

  He only had fragments of his memories.

  How did I get here? Where is Grandpa?

  When the nurses expined they found him in a burning house, he stayed silent. He didn’t say a word.

  But deep down, he knew something was off.

  He remembered what his grandfather used to say.

  "Evan... cough* cough* if you ever find yourself in trouble, head to the west… to Transnistria, in Moldova. From there, ask for the White-Eyed One. Tell him you’re Jonathan’s grandson."

  But right now, Evan was in no state to head to Moldova.

  He was just a kid, alone, lost in a world he’d never seen before.

  Evan was then moved to an orphanage in the nearest town — Irkutsk.

  He had never stepped foot outside the woods before, so everything about the town amazed him.

  He read the name of the board aloud as he stood before the orphanage, his voice soft but clear.

  “Рассвет.” (Dawn)

  Thankfully, his grandpa had taught him many things when they were alone — including how to read and write.

  Upon entering, he was greeted by a middle-aged dy. Her hair was half white, but her pale skin was fwless, showing no wrinkles. At a gnce, someone might’ve mistaken her for a girl in her twenties.

  “Hey there, little one, what’s your name?” she asked softly, a gentle smile on her face.

  “Evan,” he replied.

  “Alright, little Evan… this is your new home. From today, we’re going to live together,” she said, picking him up and smiling warmly.

  He slowly started to understand what was going on.

  If he was going to live here, he might as well make use of everything around him. From that day on, he made the library his second home, going there every day. In time, he was able to gain a basic understanding of his powers.

  All powers in the world were believed to have come from a single one — ‘Absolute Creation’, the ability the ancient king once possessed. From this, two major abilities were born: ‘Absolute Destruction’, and ‘Absolute Transmutation’. These, however, were now considered nothing more than long-lost legends.

  From these original forces, countless other types of powers had emerged. It was said that for every type of matter that existed, there was an ability to control it.

  The most common ones were:

  The ability to control wind

  The ability to control fire

  The ability to control water

  The ability to control earth (basically rock, dirt, and such)

  These powers were collectively called Elemental Control, while other abilities that branched off from them were known as Deviants.

  Each power was ranked from F-rank to S-rank. Of course, since these cssifications were made by humans, there were always exceptions.

  A person could obtain power by interacting with it. The time it took to awaken a specific ability depended on their natural talent and their affinity toward that element. Normally, people were born with an affinity for one element, though rare cases of individuals with multiple affinities did exist.

  In any case, Evan knew he had to check this out.

  Affinity could only be tested through one thing — trial and error.