Tower of Origin - Book 1 - Chapter 1 - Awakening Part I (Patreon)

                                                                       Blake Artorius
                                                   Year 6137 | Month 11 | Day 1

“-any newly awakened Chrono will no longer be restricted directly by the human laws of the planes of Arkea and will instead be held under the laws of the Chrono.” The officer blathers on as I ignore her to look out over the city below.

Unsurprisingly, despite the five year time gap since I was last awake, there don’t seem to be very many changes.

At most I think there are more vehicles driving through the streets below, but from what I can tell, this hospital is located in the eastern edge of the city, close to the wall connecting Faust to the dark plane Chrysallia. So there isn’t all that much development out here when compared to the inner areas of the city, or the areas close to the walls bordering the light planes neighboring ours.

Not that it really matters much to me.

I lay down on the bed with my head leaning against my knuckles and my elbow resting on the mattress itself as I continue gazing out the window without bothering to look at the woman who is beginning to list out the laws. As if I didn’t already know them.

My thoughts begin to drift back to the last thing I remember before I apparently entered a coma.

It seemed like a good day. I had just left my graduation ceremony for high school – of which I would have gladly skipped if it weren’t for Diane’s insistence on attending – and was on my way to an arcade close to the school before a loud explosion echoed through the street.

And then everything went dark, and I find myself waking up in the hospital after apparently taking a five-year-long nap.

Actually…

My brows furrow slightly at the thought of the arcade.

I hope that arcade is still there.

Although I might not have much time to go anymore, what with this awakening garbage.

With that thought in mind, I reach my right hand up to my right eye before feeling the strange sparks of Chrono Energy flickering out of the Chrono eye and touching my hand. After that, I focus on the energy, using the knowledge ingrained into me by the eye itself and activating my power for the first time, causing a few incredibly small strings to appear above my left hand. At the same time, I feel a faint twitch from my new Chrono eye as the very small amount of energy used to power my ability is taken from it.

The strings are too small for the officer to notice anything, and I begin playing around with them out of curiosity, creating several different shapes until the hospital room’s door bursts open.

At first, I ignore the sudden entry, but my attention is drawn to it as I hear the officer stop listing laws to address the new person.

My eyes widen slightly as I find my sister standing at the entrance with a slightly fatigued but also relieved look on her face.

“Blake,” she says, a smile slowly beginning to appear on her face before it disappears again and she faces the officer, “you are dismissed.”

Director? My sister?

That’s an interesting twist.

The officer salutes her with a “Yes, ma’am!” and leaves without another word, closing the door behind her in the process, leaving me alone in the room with Diane.

Hmm, glad she’s gone. Her constant talking about laws was getting annoying.

I nod towards Diane before focusing on the strings in front of me again as she stares at me with that same relieved expression she had before.

The strings themselves aren’t very difficult to manipulate at first, but when I try to add more, they proceed to get harder and harder to control, leaving me almost unable to control ten strings at once.

Not bad.

But how strong are they?

I ignore my sister who is approaching my bed and reaching for my head as I look around for a second to see if there’s anything I can use to test the string’s durability and cutting power.

Suddenly, my attention is drawn back to Diane as she chuckles and says, “You haven’t changed at all, have you?”

Without showing much if any emotion on my face, I shrug and continue searching for something to use as a test subject.

It’s not like I was awake during those five years, so of course I’m still the same.

Diane – having raised me since I was nine years old on her own – seems to understand exactly what I had just thought and chuckles again before muttering, “It’s good to have you back, little bro.”

I grunt in acknowledgement before frowning at the lack of anything to use as a test subject.

Then again, this is a patient’s room in a hospital, so I doubt they’d have any blades lying around that could test a string’s durability.

Actually…

I turn my attention towards the weapons located around Diane’s person, including knives, guns, and even a sword – likely meant for dealing with Chrono and their much more powerful, and highly bulletproof bodies.

“Mind if I borrowed your sword?” I ask while raising my gaze to Diane’s face before briefly taking note of her single lifted eyebrow.

“To test your ability?” she asks without lowering the brow, only to unsheathe her pure-black sword and hand it to me once she sees me nod my head.

I nod my head again to show my appreciation before focusing on one of my strings and quickly moving it towards the blade.

It isn’t until after the blade cleanly bisects the string that I realize my blunder.

I frown slightly as Diane chuckles, apparently having seen the string despite its miniscule size, and says, “You should probably test it on a normal blade, and not an Ark infused one. At least for now, while you’re still only a Tier 1 Chrono.”

Yeah, I should’ve realized that before trying.

And I doubt the director of the CRD in Faust has any normal blades on her...

I glance at the strings before focusing on my hand.

Well, guess if I can’t test their durability with a blade, I can at least do this.

I move the string to my hands before grabbing both ends of it with them and pulling. However, even after using all of my strength, I can only barely rip it into two. Despite it only being a single thread of string.

And that’s with the string digging slightly into my hands and causing them to bleed during the process.

Diane whistles in appreciation and says, “That’s a pretty good ability you’ve got. Certainly a lot more versatile than mine.”

I nod my head slightly before glancing at her crimson Chrono eye.

If I remember correctly – and I think I do – she awakened as a Chrono just two years after mother and father died, which should be about twelve years ago, with an ability that matched her emotions at the time perfectly.

Berserk.

An ability that increases all of her physical capabilities by an enormous amount depending on the strength of her current emotions, with a base increase added on depending on her Chrono Tier.

Diane tenses up as I hear very faint voices begin to sound from the earpiece resting in her ear. She then frowns and shakes her head before focusing on my face and saying, “I know you don’t like this stuff, but we have to finish with the indoctrination process.”

My brows furrow in irritation before I sigh and turn to look out the window again once she begins finishing what the other officer from before was saying, except in a much shorter fashion.

“The third Chrono law – Chrono are bound only by the Chrono laws and the contracts they sign, and nothing else. The fourth Chrono law – Thanks to the Chrono’s abilities to both open temporary passages or simply walk through the planar barriers, they may enter and exit any and all planes at will. The fifth Chrono law…” she continues on and on, repeating law after law that I already know before finally reaching the last law, “and the Final Chrono law – each and every Chrono is still beholden to any of the human laws that do not conflict with these Chrono laws, of which you can find a list of the specific laws that still apply on the CRD’s main website.”

“Now,” she suddenly says after a brief pause, drawing my attention back towards her, “I doubt I really have to ask this, but do you know which Chrono faction you will select?”

I immediately nod my head before turning back to the window again as I clearly state, “Neutral.”

Through her reflection in the window, I see Diane nod her head in agreement with my choice while pulling out some sort of tablet and typing on it. She then speaks out loud, likely speaking to whoever is on the other side of that earpiece, “He has chosen to join the Neutral faction.”

After hearing that, I sigh and lay back down on the bed again.

If only the Neutral faction were completely neutral.

But I guess it’s difficult to not piss people off if you beat them in a game within the Tower, so it’s bound to be impossible to keep out of Chrono politics completely.

Unless, of course, I move to the monster-infested lands of one of the dark planes.

That’s something to decide on at a later time though. Because that just makes things even more annoying.

After all, there’s no arcades in those planes, nor are there any good sour foods.

Not to mention the monsters, but I could just use those as training practice. So they aren’t much of a problem.

At least, not after I get stronger.