Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Rena, Jen, Paul, and Lethen sat inside the cabin, staring out the windows. They had watched as a man who looked on the verge of death had stepped out into the area of safety Rena's light magic had created. He appeared to be talking to Lucius, but the latter appeared about as interested in whatever this man had to say as a miser was towards a beggar.

An ominous feeling settled in around them as the fog thickened and surrounded Lucius once again, cutting him from view. Rena knew her spell was still active and it began draining even more magic than before. Lucius was likely still in need of any assistance he could get, so Rena simply kept funneling power into the spell.

If she increased its strength she would suffer mana deprivation in minutes, so she simply maintained it's current level. She had maybe thirty minutes until the spell failed, but she figured it was better than nothing.

"Do you think he's still okay?" Lethen asked. No one wanted to voice the question, but it was shared by them all. They could not see or hear them, so they had no idea what was happening in behind this veil.

"I don't know. But I am pretty sure that whoever that man was, is the source of this phenomenon." Rena answered. The fear she had felt earlier vanished. It was still a scary situation, but now that she knew it was nothing paranormal, she felt a lot better…which was good because Lucius was not in here to comfort her.

"It is." Jen answered. "That man was marked. This fog is from his mark."

"How can you tell?" Paul asked.

"I've seen some very interesting things in my life and some terrifyingly powerful Marked Ones. When it is something of this scale, you can sense the power behind it. It's almost alien and feels nothing like mana." Jen answered, her eyes still glued to the outside as if hoping that she might catch a glimpse of something. There was a strange curiosity in her eyes that Rena had not noticed before.

"Marks feel different from mana?" Paul asked.

Rena knew from experience that they did. However, like Jen said, once you have seen a terrifyingly powerful mark in action, the power behind them became so thick and oppressive that even normal people could feel the energy.

"Yes. Arts use Physical Mana to enhance the body and objects, like weapons or armor. Magic uses Metaphysical Mana to enhance the mind, allowing the user's mind to create the forces we know as spells and make them reality… but marks… they use something different… and to those without marks it feels like this." Jen explained while making a general gesture to towards the space around them.

"I see… so that's why the air feels so…" Paul began.

"Thick" Lethen finished.

There really was not a way to describe it well, but what Lethen said was not far off. Rena could only describe it as walking outside on a horribly muggy day, but multitudes worse. While she agreed completely with Jen's description of this, she could not help but wonder what kind of Marked One she had run into that gave her such experience.

A brief sensation of Arts activation flashed through the air, pulling the group's attention back to the windows from each other. Jen's brow furrowed and she glanced over at Rena, but did not say anything. It was clearly Arts, but it felt… off somehow.

The world was still for what seemed like an eternity and Rena's breath became ragged. There were maybe a few minutes left on her spell at most by now. When they felt the surge of mana from the Arts, they knew for sure that Lucius was fighting, so she was terrified what might happen when the spell vanished. He would be completely at the mercy of this fog.

While she was beginning to panic another sensation washed through the cabin.

"Holy… is that what I think it is?" Paul asked.

Lethen nodded with a smile. "Yeah, our boy is experiencing a breakthrough. Watch out Rena, someone's going to join you in the Beginner Rank. No more Novice fighters here."

"In the middle of a battle too…that's rare." Jen had a massive grin. "That mystery man might be screwed, though it only matters if Lucius can access his Potential."

Rena's ears latched onto her leader's words. "Potential?"

"Yeah. Everyone has Potential granted by the gods. It's their maximum power that they can reach. For a brief moment on a breakthrough, you have access to your full potential. It's the gods' way of protecting you in the middle of a rank up."

"If he can…" Rena started. However, yet another sensation washed over the building. This one felt like the activation of a mark. Rena remembered this one and once again looked outside in panic. It felt worse than what happened five years ago.

"Shit, that one took them out." Jen said, pointing her thumb back at Paul and Lethen who seemed to have lost consciousness. Rena couldn't blame them. Sweat beaded on her and Jen's faces. The amount of pressure they were feeling was immense.

Rena was holding back the urge to vomit when suddenly the mist vanished completely. The entire camp was in plain view, as were the trees of the forest surrounding it. Standing in the center of the village was Lucius' opponent. Lucius himself was standing a mere ten feet from the door to the cabin. Tendrils of shadow twitched and writhed on the ground, while some were wrapped around Lucius' armor.

There were brief crackles of electricity that danced around the surface of his skin, which gave off a similar glow to the Arts.

"[Pri*$#*@al A*#en*@%on]"

The world shook as strange words escaped Lucius' lips. They echoed in Rena's mind, but save for a few letters that were discernable, most of it was simply a series of opposing tones, squeals, and crackles.

"Amazing." Jen whispered. "So that's the potential of his mark. I feel his magic and Arts too…he's combined them all into one…that is…"

Rena saw a strange glint in Jen's eyes. It was a look she had never seen the woman make before. Frankly, it was a look that the girl had never seen before in her life. There was no time for her to analyze this strange expression however, as most of Rena's attention was settled on her friend.

If what Jen said was right about the potential thing, then this state was temporary and would not last forever. While she could not see her face, the girl could tell that Lucius was in extreme pain. He was moving slowly and his legs and arms quaked with every movement. Each step he took seemed to send out a shockwave of energy that felt unlike anything she had experienced before.

The enemy had fallen to the ground and scrambled to get up, but every time Lucius stepped towards him, he was knocked down once again. Several flashes kept emitting from his left hand as he appeared to be trying to activate his mark. Weapons of different sizes and shapes appeared in his hands, in the air around him, and above Lucius.

They seemed to be made of the same fog that had entrapped them and there were enough to arm a garrison all pointed directly at her friend.

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