Months ago, inside a forest in another world. A humongous tree is standing in the centre of the forest where the trees around it look like a joke.
A huge face manifests on the tree, and from its mouth, a tall woman with a wooden and mossy body falls on the ground.
The wooden woman pushes herself up to her feet, and her thighs shake as she almost loses her balance.
"A weak one." A wooden man with green tomahawk hair saw the entire scene.
The wooden woman puts her knees on the soil, and she bends her head downwards. "Father."
"I don't have a weak creation."
Presently, Coseria brushes the moisture off her eyes. She is jumping from tree to tree at a fast pace.
Nicholas is walking back and forth in his bedroom, and he shifts his gaze to the tall man who's sitting on the sofa. The door of the room opens, and Nicholas points at the tall man on the sofa.
"There's a trespasser!" Nicholas told Juan while pointing rapidly at the tall man.
Juan looks at the sofa. "Seriously, Nicholas?"
Nicholas stops pointing and blinks repeatedly. "What?"
Juan throws a pillow at Nicholas. "THERE'S NO ONE THERE!"
Nicholas looks back and forth at Juan and at the empty sofa.
"But he's there! sitting on the sofa," Nicholas said while pointing his hands at the empty sofa.
"Just go downstairs! Sister Madelaine wants to talk with you through Face Meet." James walked out of the room, and he closed the door while shaking his head.
"I can't believe this!" Nicholas settled on the edge of the bed.
The tall man on the sofa speaks, "Are you done being paranoid?"
Nicholas looks at him with narrowing eyes. "Seriously?! Who wouldn't act like this when they're seeing a ghost?"
The man on the sofa clasps his hands and rests them on his lap. With a gentle smile, he begins to talk, "I am what you can call 'passerby'. I am not a spirit but an embodiment of the power within the crystal which has chosen you."
Nicholas stands up and walks toward the door with an annoyed expression. "Never mind! You can follow me all you want but I will not obey you. I'll start working on my 5th day!"
At the cafe where Nicholas is working. The aroma of flowers and coffee beans filled the air, and facing one of the espresso machines, he watched the machine pour coffee into a cup.
He looks over his shoulder, and from the chair, he sees the passerby looking through the window beside him.
"Geez! This man won't stop following me," Nicholas said.
After his shift, he walks along the sidewalk as the moon is in the dark sky. He releases a deep breath from his mouth and stops walking.
He faces the passerby with frowning eyebrows. "What's with you, huh? Just tell me what you want!"
The passerby stares at Nicholas with a calm gaze. "I know that you know what I want. I want you to head to where the guardian of the crystal is."
Nicholas grits his teeth as his fingers fold towards his palm. He looks up and groans while marching on his feet.
"Darn it! What will I get if I go to where that guardian is?! Can't you see that I'm working my ass to earn money!"
The passerby remains staring at him with calm eyes, and that drives Nicholas to scratch his hair while growling.
"YOU! WHAT DO I GET?!"
"You'll get the chance to save this country."
"How?! I am in the Philippines, and corruption exists! How can I save this country?!"
"You can't save a sinking country but you can save the world by protecting the crystal from the monsters who are hunting the last guardian of the crystal."
Nicholas releases another heavy deep breath as he sits on the ground. "Let's get this done with so you can disappear! What is the guardian, and what do I have to do to save this guardian that you spoke of?"
Nicholas blinks repeatedly with a pursed lip while seeing the passerby sit on the ground with his thighs bent aside with his sandals touching each other.
"Nicholas, you must train under my provision but also with the help of the elemental titans nestling within you."
"The what in my body?!"
With a one raise of the passerby's hand, Nicholas' brown eyes turn green. In his mind, he is standing in a world with only white surroundings.
He looks around him, and he suddenly feels every hair on his body rising. He looks in a certain direction and sees 7 crystal keys floating.
A hand touches his shoulder, and Nicholas looks at his shoulder. The passerby is smiling softly while staring at Nicholas.
"Pick one key, and that will train you to save the last guardian of the crystal."
"Wait! If I have this shard within me, then, what is the use of saving that crystal if this shard within me is the same as the crystal?"
The passery chuckles and shakes his head. "I have never verbalised that it's the same with the shard in your body but be aware of this, you are not alone."
"Now, pick one key," the passerby told Nicholas.
Nicholas diverts his eyes at the floating keys, and he grabs one of them from the air. He smiles and stares at the key in his palm.
"Looks shiny and cool enough–!"
A strong sensation flows throughout Nicholas' body as a breeze of air hugs his entire figure.
"That was!" he said.
The key disappears like a bubble that pops. Nicholas is frozen in his feet while a fist is heading closer to his face but Nicholas leans his head backwards.
"Let me train you first!" The passerby stopped his fist from moving and flicked Nicholas' forehead.
Nicholas rubs the reddening spot on his forehead with his eyes flinching. "Damn you!"
Henceforth, Nicholas began attempting to hit the passerby with sharp punches and kicks but the passerby off Tea fist getting closer to his face. He steps away from the fist, and steps closer to Nicholas as he thrusts his palm towards the' face of Nicholas.
A loud slap echoes in the entire white domain. Nicholas falls backwards with his back hitting the ground but he stands up quickly with shaking legs.
"What was that for?!" Nicholas asked with narrowing eyes.
Nicholas cracks his neck and rushes toward the passerby.
Along the course of the training, Nicholas' punches are easily avoided by the passerby, avoiding each punch with dashes.
Nicholas stops moving while releasing fast breaths. He narrows his eyes and dashes toward the passerby.
The passerby lands on the ground. "Don't pour your power from your anger. Use your focus so that you can reach–!"
Nicholas strikes the passerby's face before he could finish speaking. The punch sends the passerby staggering backwards but he was able to recover his footing.
"That was strong!" The passerby brushed his lip with his thumb.
Nicholas is already panting with his chest heaving. He clenches his fists and moves them closer to his face as if he's taunting the passerby to strike.
"Fine. I'll do the real thing which is sparring with you."
After those words left the passerby's mouth, he disappeared in the blink of an eye. Nicholas looks everywhere but before he turns his eyes at the other direction, the passerby is already in front of him.
"Stop mocking me!" Nicholas thrust his clenched fist.
The passerby slaps the punch away, and he thrusts his palm against Nicholas' waist. He gasps as a trail of saliva comes out of his mouth while he's stumbling backwards.
"That was!" Nicholas held his waist with gritting teeth.
"Are you ready to be trained, huh?" The passerby threw something at Nicholas.
He looks down, and pick the object from the ground. "This is a!"
Nicholas looks at the passerby with a curved eyebrow. "A chicken bone?"
The passerby smiles. "You'll need to break that to access your ability but rest assured that it will regenerate."
Nicholas looks closely at the bone and rubs his chin. "This is unique for a transformation."
The passerby shakes his head. "You won't transform into another form but you will gain abilities."
"Abilities?" Nicholas shifted his gaze to the passerby.
"Why don't you find out?" the passerby told him.
With a snap of his fingers, a tear manifests, and a dark humanoid clad in dark grey armour steps out of the hole.
A dark aura seeps from the spaces in the armour of the dark humanoid. He turns his head at Nicholas, the armoured man swings his sword which sends a dark slash straight at Nicholas.
"Use that!" The passerby yelled.
Nicholas looks at the knife with a green blade floating in front of him. He immediately grabs it, and his eyes widen as the dark slash hits his knife.
"Ngh!" Nicholas felt his feet drifting backwards against the ground.
The knife slips from his grasp, and the slash hits his torso. The impact pushes him backwards, and he falls on his back.
"Will you stand or finish your enemy or will you accept defeat?" The passerby's green eyes began to glow.
Nicholas places his hands on the ground and pushes himself back to his feet. He looks down at the knife and picks it up. However, while Nicholas is picking up the knife, the armoured man swings his foot which hits Nicholas' face.
"Hey!" Nicholas aimed his knife at the armoured man.
The passerby smiles. "Your enemy will not wait for you to pick your weapon. Your enemy will do anything to finish you."
The armoured man swings his sword at Nicholas but he jumps away from the sword. Nicholas feels his sweat falling from his forehead. He dashes closer to the armoured man but the armoured man suddenly faces him.
"What–!"
Nicholas blocks the sword with his knife. "He's moving faster!"
A shriek emerges from his mouth as the armoured man flickers in his movement. He appears in front of Nicholas and swings his sword at him but Nicholas strikes the sword with his knife.
"Now, I know!" Nicholas gritted his teeth.
He grabs the wrist of the armoured man and steps closer to him before impaling the throat of the armored man with his knife.
The passerby only watches Nicholas staring at the fading armoured man.
"Impressive," the passerby whispered.