The Numbers

It has been more than a century since Lucian returned from the demon realm and told them about the peace. Just as he said, no demon had appeared for over a century. When Lucian stepped out from the gate, awakeners were already waiting for the demons that would come out from the gate. Everyone was surprised to see a human walk out of the gate. Whenever the portal is used in the demon realm, it creates a tear in the human realm from which they walk out. The arrival of Lucian shook the human realm. When he told them of the peace, everyone started seeing him as the hero who brought the peace. Lucian didn't tell them about the demon lord; he just told them he had destroyed the portal before stepping in. Even after he died, they still called him the hero of the world.

With the peace that humans got, they used the time to develop their weapons. They went ahead to make alliances with the elves and even had the elves live among them to teach them some elf magic. They also went into an alliance with the dwarves, and the dwarves were responsible for making strong weapons and magical artifacts. Humans may be weak, but they have resources that other races needed. So, it made them able to get alliances they needed. Even though there was peace, they didn't stop training and developing; they knew the peace would one day come to an end, as Lucian made it clear to them. Also, apart from the demons, they had the monsters to take care of. The monsters were mindless and easy to deal with. So, they didn't see much challenge in taking care of the monsters.

With the elves and dwarves' alliance, the humans also got to visit their realms to help them take care of monster attacks. The three races united and formed a strong alliance. After a hundred years, the demons repaired the portal and resumed their invasions. But this time, they had more than one portal, so they could appear in more places at once. It made things difficult for the humans, but they now had the elves and dwarves to help them. The demons were surprised at the combined effort of the three races. So the invasion didn't go as planned. After that day, the demons only sent minor attacks to the human realm to steal some of their minerals. Sometimes they succeeded, sometimes they didn't. So, just like the humans, they decided to look for allies. The allies the demons would make, would one day plunge the human realm into destruction.

Away from the public eye, some mad scientists were busy conducting inhumane experiments. Experiments to create a stronger version of a human being. Just like the demons, some awakeners were blessed with elemental magic. Not all awakeners had elemental magic, but any awakener with elemental magic was stronger than an ordinary awakener. An A-rank elemental awakener could go toe to toe with an ordinary S-rank awakener. While most elemental awakeners only had control over one element, some few ones could control two elements. Then, in a very rare case, they could control three, but no one had ever been able to control all four elements. So, a man hoped to find a way humans could control all four elements. If humans became able to control all four elements, it would change them from the weakest in all realms to the strongest; no race had a being that could control all elements.

"Doctor Levi." A man in a suit called the scientist in charge of the experiment.

"Yes, Mr. Tilo. Have you come to see how the experiment is going?" Levi smiled as he adjusted his glasses. Doctor Levi is an old eccentric scientist who doesn't care about anything except his experiments. His gray hair was unkempt, and he had a strong smell of alcohol. If not for his knowledge, Tilo would never get close to him.

Mr. Tilo is one of the richest men in the human realm, but his family has only one thing lacking: they have no awakener, which makes them a second-rate family despite his money. So, since there is no awakener in his family, he decided to make one.

"Look." Dr. Levi led Mr. Tilo to watch the experiment. There were different pods with people locked inside.

"For one to be able to handle the power of all the elements, they need a body that can handle it. The pod is altering their bodies. As it alters their DNA, it also injects the awakening serum," Dr. Levi explained the procedure.

"What if they try to attack us after the success of the experiment?" Tilo asked.

"Don't worry about that." Dr. Levi let out a sinister smile. He had implanted a nanobomb in their heads, and if they tried to attack him, he would activate it. Dr. Levi believed that what he was doing was for the greater good of humanity. He believed that the demons would one day come back to repay the defeat they suffered centuries ago. He was certain they would come back stronger, so he needed to make the human race ready. Mr. Tilo didn't care; all that mattered to him was to make his family powerful.

"They are ready." Dr. Levi giggled.

The pods slid open, and the people inside came out. They already knew the drill; they had been here since they were kids. They were kidnapped from orphanages or picked from the street when they were kids. Many of them had died during the experiment, while some died trying to escape or attack the scientist. So, the ones alive had accepted their fates.

"Take your positions." Dr. Levi spoke through the microphone, making them look up. Dr. Levi and Tilo, together with other scientists, were watching from the control room above. They had bulletproof glass protecting them.

"Let's start with air," Dr. Levi ordered, and they started with air. They formed a ball of air, and it spun for a while on top of their palms.

"Water." He ordered, and they all summoned a ball of water. The doctor couldn't contain his excitement.

"Earth."

They did the same.

"Fire." This was where it got bad. The first person who tried to do it fell down and died instantly. Another tried and also dropped dead. Many others died without even trying anything.

"What is happening?" Tilo asked.

"The DNA alteration failed; their bodies couldn't handle it." Dr. Levi spoke sadly. His sadness wasn't because of the people who died, but because of his failed experiment.

"Try fire," he ordered the remaining ones without caring about their lives.

"It will kill us." One of them complained.

"I won't repeat myself. Fire." Dr. Levi didn't care about their lives.

"It will be our death." Before the young man could finish his statement, his head exploded. They knew that Levi was responsible for the death; they just didn't know how. Whenever any one of them tried to attack Levi or escape, they met the same end, so the fear had always made them obey every order given by Levi.

"If you don't want to end up like him, do what I said." There were only five of them remaining now, two females and three males. Since none of them wanted to die, they did as they were told. Luckily, none of them died, but only one was able to ignite the fire. A beautiful girl who looked barely above twenty. As the fire came up, she looked at the young man beside her and smiled; the young man returned the gesture.

"It is a success." Dr. Levi screamed with happiness. But his happiness was short-lived as the girl started bleeding from the nose. Her body couldn't handle all the elements. The young man beside her instantly held her up before she could lose her balance.

"626," he called, and the young girl let out a smile. She had always hated the fact that they had no names, except for the numbers they were called.

"745," she muttered.

"Do something." 745 yelled. Since 626 was important to the experiment, Dr. Levi was not going to let her die. He immediately ordered the girl to be brought to the medical center as fast as possible.

"She will be fine," the remaining girl came and stood beside 745.

"Even if she makes it, we won't be left to live," 755 said.

788 came close before speaking, "Even if they let us, we won't last for much longer; I can feel it."

They all could feel it, and it was something that bothered them. But 745 wasn't bothered about his life. His only concern was the woman he loved and the baby inside her stomach.