TENEBRIFIC (Rise of The Darkness)

Prologue: "When Realization Dawns"

"The initiation is about to begin. Make sure that all the equipment​s are working properly. As you might already know, this test-"

Rhiannon rolled her eyes at the robotic female voice surrounding her. The heat that comes from the holographic fire her hand-device conjures evident through the smoke that engulfs her entire being.

"The hand device was made to prevent any damage, making all the attacks the participant conjures with the device turns into a hologram, as a mean to prevent you from harm we also-"

"Gosh, this tutorial is too long! Just go on with the test already!" Rhiannon frowns, zapping one of the speakers with her electric blue thunder.

"Participant number 000-027, Rhiannon Barin, please refrain yourself from taking a headstart," a voice says through the intercom, reminding her sternly to keep her behaviors in check.

"Yeah, yeah. Can I please just start the test now?" A soft, teasing chuckle echoes through the intercom​, making her frown slightly.

"Eager, aren't we, miss Barin?" The chuckle turns into a soft laughter, coaxing Rhiannon to smile along, "okay, since you can't seem to contain your excitement, let's begin the initiation test."

Rhiannon looks up at the holographic monitor that shows her current statistics, a determined smile gracing her face, "Thank you, sir or miss operator. I've been looking forward to take the test ever since the first time I got into this academy!"

"I can see that," the operator replies. The room suddenly gets darker and the sudden drop in temperature is alerting Rhiannon that the test is about to begin.

'Wait, are they seriously going to give me an ice test? I'm a fire user with thunder as my secondary element, I could pass this test with my eyes closed! They can't be serious,' Rhiannon thinks as the room gets mildly cold and shards of ice begin to form within her field of vision, Rhiannon let the shards grow for a while to see if there's another element she needs to clear out besides the ice.

When the cold becomes too overwhelming for the fire user, Rhiannon tries to conjure a fire with the hand device she was equipped with, but her attempts in producing a decent fire fails spectacularly.

"Wait, something is wrong here," Rhiannon says, confusion showing on her face. She checks her hand device to see if she could spot a malfunction, all the while noticing that the shards has slowed down its growing process.

Not too long after the ice shards stops growing, a sudden burst of wind suddenly comes, striking Rhiannon with anxiety.

'Conjuring a thunder doesn't seem to work as well,' Rhiannon thinks as she tries to conjure her second elemental magic.

"Best of luck to you, miss Barin," another voice echoes through the intercom, shocking Rhiannon even more. The panic girl checks to see whether her connection with the operator room still remains, only to find that the operator has disconnected her only form of communication.

"Wait a second!!! Something is wrong with my devices!!! Help me!!!"

Rhiannon screams, hoping that her voice will somehow reach the operator of her test. She tries to conjure her elemental magic once again, with disappointing results.

"Gosh," the wind suddenly picks up the speed, scraping small ice shards and taking them with it, "If this keeps up, I'm going to fail the initiation test."

Walking through the harsh wind proves to be a problem as Rhiannon tries to move from her initial spot to where the biggest block of ice grew. The wind speeds up even more and one of the ice shards blown by the wind suddenly scratch the skin of her right ear.

And make it bleed.

'Wait, wait, wait, wait, it was supposed to be holographic," a trail of blood drops to the surface of the ice as Rhiannon touch her ear, flinching slightly as her soft hand makes contact with the scraped skin.

A sudden realization dawns on her.

"My test was rigged! Help me!" Rhiannon tries to scream to the intercom once more, "this isn't funny! Help!"

After a few seconds of frantic screaming, the cold air finally takes its toll on her, slowly freezing the panic girl, halting her movement.

'I can't use my powers here unless I'm wearing the device,' Rhiannon's teeth clatters as she drops on her knees, 'and if I take the devices off, I won't be able to feel the warmth of my fire anymore.'

Rhiannon's eyes begin to close as a final thought runs through her mind, "I should've listened to that robotic tutorial."

***

And there you have it! The prologue for this story. I hope the chapter is good enough and that you guys will be able to imagine what's going on easily.

Let's hope that I can stick to writing this story while also writing my final graduation papers as well.

Your vote and constructive comments are more than welcome!

Xoxo,
S R Jones.