Jason didn't know what time he got back to his boarding house room on the outskirts of Seattle. His body felt like it had been run over by a tractor multiple times. Every muscle ached, every bone hurt, every cell in his body screamed for rest.
But Jason couldn't rest. He couldn't sleep. The question left by that voice kept echoing in his head: "Choose your path, Jason." What choice? What path? Should he become a hero? Should he stop those monsters? Should he sacrifice his boring life to save the city?
Jason entered the room quietly, trying not to make noise. Budi must already be asleep, and Jason didn't want to wake his roommate. He opened the door to his room carefully, stepped in, then closed it gently.
His room was dark. Jason's head light still glowed, though not like it did in the alley earlier. The light was now dimmer, like a lamp that had been reduced with a dimmer switch. The light was enough for Jason to see his entire room clearly.
Jason sat on the edge of his bed. He stared at his own hands. Hands that a few hours ago had conjured fireballs. Hands that a few hours ago almost died from a monster's attack. Hands that now still glowed with transparent light.
"What if I try to master other elements?" Jason spoke to himself. "If I can only use fire, I will always lose to that monster. But if I can master more elements..."
The voice in his head appeared again: "Good idea. The crown has the ability to control four main elements: fire, water, air, and lightning. You've already mastered fire to a basic level. Now it's time to learn other elements."
Jason got up from his bed. He walked to his window and closed the curtains tightly. He didn't want any light escaping from his room. He didn't want neighbors seeing his head glowing like a light bulb in the middle of the night.
After making sure the curtains were tightly closed, Jason returned to the center of his room. He chose the largest area, the space between his bed and his desk. He took off his shoes and placed them in a corner. He took a deep breath.
"Okay, let's try water," Jason spoke in a tone that sounded like he was giving instructions to himself.
Jason imagined water. Water from a shower, water from a faucet, water from the sea. Jason imagined the sensation of flowing water, cool water, living water. He raised his hand in front of him, palm open facing forward.
"Come," Jason whispered with a weak voice.
Nothing happened. No water appeared. No energy flowed. Only silence and the dark room illuminated by Jason's head light.
"Hmm, maybe I need to be more intense," Jason whispered to himself. "Deeper. More passion."
Jason raised his hand again. This time with more dramatic movement, more full of energy. He imagined water flowing from within his body, water that wanted to come out, water that wanted to be released.
"Water!" Jason yelled with a voice that wasn't too loud, afraid of waking Budi.
Something happened. But not something Jason expected.
Suddenly, Jason's entire room was wet. Not like rain inside the room, but like Jason released all the water that might exist in the room's atmosphere at once. Water flowed from the ceiling. Water flowed from the walls. Water even seemed to emerge from places that shouldn't have any water.
Jason was thrown backward, falling on the floor that was now like a swimming pool. Water reached half a meter high in Jason's room. His bed was submerged in water. His desk was submerged in water. All of Jason's belongings in the room were submerged in water.
"No, no, NO!" Jason yelled while trying to stand in the waist-high water. "What did I do?"
The voice in his head spoke again, but this time sounded like it was holding back laughter: "It seems elemental control still requires more practice."
"That's not a helpful response!" Jason yelled back.
But then something worse happened.
Jason's room door opened and Budi appeared, his whole body wet, hair dripping water, eyes wide with an expression difficult to define. Budi looked at his room and Jason's room, everything had become a swimming pool in the middle of the night.
"Jason..." Budi spoke with a soft voice full of indefinable feelings. "What... what are you doing?"
"I can explain," Jason said quickly, even though he really had no idea how to explain this.
"My room is wet!" Budi yelled. "My room is WET! I just bought a new laptop yesterday and now everything is WET!"
Jason couldn't say anything. He could only stand in the middle of the puddle in his own room, with a head that still glowed like a lamp in a very dire condition.
"Sorry," Jason finally spoke. "I didn't mean to."
"Didn't mean to? DIDN'T MEAN TO?!" Budi yelled louder. "How can your room flood by itself without meaning to? Did the drainage pipe in this house break?"
Budi walked out of Jason's room with an angry movement, checking his own room and other areas of the boarding house. From outside the room, Jason could hear Budi calling the boarding house owner, telling about the sudden flooding in their rooms.
Jason stared at his room that had become like an aquarium. All his belongings were wet. All his belongings were messy. And he still had no idea how to explain this to anyone without sounding crazy.
"Okay, don't use water for now," Jason whispered to the crown on his head. "Let's try air. Air won't flood the room."
Carefully, Jason cleaned the water using fire element to evaporate it (which made his room like a sauna, but without any new explosions). After his room was dry enough, and after Budi was finally satisfied with the explanation that the drainage pipe was broken (which was a lie, but Jason had no choice), Jason returned to his room.
This time, he opened his window a bit to make sure there was ventilation. He also opened his door a bit so air could flow.
"Okay, air," Jason spoke while taking a deep breath. "I want to try to control air. Light air. Air that won't make a mess."
Jason raised his hand again. This time he imagined air. Air that blew gently in a garden, air that made leaves move, air that made people's hair flutter.
"Come," Jason whispered.
The air came.
But not light air like Jason imagined. The air came like a hurricane. Air erupted from Jason's hand with terrifying speed, sweeping everything in his room. Books flew here and there. Clothes flew in the air. Even Jason's bed almost got pushed into the wall.
"Okay, stop!" Jason yelled while pushing back the air with both hands.
The air stopped instantly. Objects that were flying fell to the ground like rain. Jason's room now looked like it had been hit by a tornado.
"This is worse," Jason whispered while looking at the mess he had created.
From outside his room, Jason could hear Budi yelling again about strange wind and suspicious sounds from Jason's room.
For the next hour, Jason tried various combinations of elemental training. The results were always messy. When he tried to combine fire and air, he almost burned his window curtains. When he tried to combine water and air, he made his room look like it had been swept by a snow storm.
Eventually, Jason gave himself an order to stop. His room was messy enough. Budi must be angry enough. And Jason was tired enough.
Jason sat on the wet and messy floor of his room, his breath ragged. Jason's head light still glowed, but the light was dimmer now, like it had been drained from trying to control the elements.
"Training is hard," Jason whispered with a tired voice. "These elements... they have their own will. They don't want to be controlled."
The voice in his head appeared: "That's why training is needed. Magic power is not about muscle strength, but about mental discipline and control. You must learn to unite with the element, not force them."
"That sounds easy to say," Jason responded with sarcasm.
Jason stood with difficulty and walked to the window. He opened the curtain slightly to look out at Seattle at night. The city that usually seemed normal turned out to be full of dangers and monsters he didn't know existed before. The city he saw every day from his boarding house room apparently needed a savior.
And that savior was himself. A bald man in his 32s with a head that glowed like a street lamp and a room messy from uncontrolled magic training.
Jason stared at the city longer. Jason's head light shone through the curtain, creating golden light that fell to the streets below.
But Jason didn't realize that his light was being observed by someone.
A woman standing on the roof of a building across from Jason's apartment, with a telescope and notebook in her hands, was writing quickly on the pages of the notebook. The woman had dark hair tied at the back of her head, and a face full of curiosity and intelligence.
"Mysterious light," the woman whispered to herself while continuing to write. "Light that appeared in the alley this morning. Light that appeared in the city center this afternoon. And now that light appears from an apartment room in Midtown?"
The woman lowered her telescope and opened her investigation journal full of pages. Pages that contained stories about mysterious light, about strange explosions, about shadow monsters that had begun to appear in Seattle.
"Who are you?" the woman whispered while staring at Jason's head light that still glowed through the window. "And what are you doing?"
The woman smiled with a smile full of curiosity. The smile of a reporter who had found a big news lead.