Seb received the biggest shock of his life two days after his 16th birthday.

It was a humble celebration, which felt quite empty since his mother was not there with him. For some reason, everyone else knew the day he turned sixteen and his holo-watch was bursting with congratulatory massages from the few people he knew, and alot of people he didn't even hear of until then. There were massages from seniors, adults, staff and administrative.

To compensate for the fact that Seb couldn't celebrate his sixteenth birthday with the company of his friends and family outside, he was sent a handsome two tier red velvet cake to his room along with a free allowance of ten thousand currency points.

Seb was at a loss towhat to do on that day. His birthday was on a Sunday, so he decided to go for a bit on shopping on his own in the town, eat something delicious at the cafe and  ate some kebabs. He distributed the cafe among his classmates, much for their delight.

Ivan even had the grace to at least try and crack a smile to wish his happy birthday. At least, that is what Seb thought he meant when Ivan said, "Guess you are older by another year now," Early in the morning.

And so to the surprise that caused Seb to choke on his own saliva on the telephone booth.

"Happy Birthday mom_"

"Henry proposed!"

Choke. "Wha_"

"Just now! Oh, it's so romantic Seb!" His mother thwn started to cry. There was congratulatory cheers from the background.

"Is that Seb?" Deputy Kendell asked. Seb guessed they were out somewhere. By the sound of the wind, probably a beach. It was a good thing he thought to call Deputy Kendell's phone.

His mother was still crying when Deputy Kendell took over the phone.

"Hello, kid_"

"You proposed?" Seb said. He didn't realize how low his sound became.

Deputy Kendell gulped nervously as he turned away from the strangers who were congratulating his fiance with hugs. Most of them were women of all ages who were hugging and kissing her cheek.

"Yes..."

There was a pause of silence.

"Where?"

"Uh... Silver Line beach resort."

"Were there roses?"

"Plenty," Deputy Kendell replied, a bit confused now.

There was another pause of silence.

"Thank you," Seb finally replied.

"Uhh... Okay?"

"Thank you for making it special for her. And for proposing. But keep in mind _"

"I know I know, I mess up, you kill me. I get it kid," Deputy Kendell said with a laugh. "Guess you will have to call me dad from now own."

"In you dreams," Seb replied.

The phone was handed over back to Seb's mother and she kept on blabbing in spluttered words on how the proposal went.

"Oh Seb. I hope... I hope you won't mind," she finally asked.

"He asked me before he left."

There was sound of more crying, "Oh, Seb. Is there a way for you to be at the wedding _"

"Don't worry, I will be there."

"Oh Seb."

The conversation couldn't take too long as Deputy Kendell had more plans for the day.

Seb didn't realize he was a bit teary eyed as he stared at the telephone booth. Ivan noticed that something was off when they were practicing in the evening.

"State your problem," Ivan said to him in the changing room.

"What?"

"You were distracted. I guess something happened in your home. Hope it's not something bad."

"My mom is getting married," Seb replied. "Her boyfriend proposed."

Ivan didn't say anything much for a while. "And is it... A good thing?"

"He's good for her. When my... Father divorced her... It left her in ruins. She was depressed for years. It's good she found someone who treats her better and she is excited, but_"

"You are afraid history might repeat itself again," Ivan replied.

"I don't feel like he is that type of person though."

Ivan closed his locker as he stared aimlessly in front of him. Seb remained quiet as well.

"It might be a bit wierd for you."

"It is."

"Are you going to the wedding?"

"Well, of course."

"You'd better inform administration at least a month prior. They are not that fond of sending us out."

"Noted."

Two months afterwards, disaster struck New Angeles City.

Missions were always an emergency. But there were always flexible for underaged wielders who still went to school. Seb had always been called for missions in the Monsters Den on days like Saturdays, or at least the mission the pre-planned when there were signs of an arrival that could be detected twenty four hours prior from the equipment at the Base Mana Observatory. They were given excuse from class and the topics for the day delivered. Underaged Weiders were not necessarily for missions.

As Ivan always said, they were only there for show.

The emergencies were always dealt with by experienced adults, and the general public didn't appreciate the Guardian Force sending minors to dangerous missions. Of course, Seb was thankful quite a bit for that. Just because he didn't mind facing monsters didn't mean he had an early death with.

The tenths of September was a day most would say they could never forget. Even the morning of the day felt odd, as if the air was charged with electricity. The sky was cloudy, with lightning flashing once in a while with muffled thunder rumbling in the air. When Seb looked up, he noticed that most of the storm clouds seemed darker and concentrated in the direction of The Beam.

He didn't think too much about it as he sat in class. The weather outside was awfully windy and cold.

"Must be a big storm brewing," Seb girl a girl say from behind him. Yet, Seb couldn't help but look towards The Beam, which was barely noticable from the second floor on the school building.

Miss. Jennings, the new math teacher walked into the classroom with her books and placed it down on her table, her gaze looking at the brewing storm outside as the children in the classroom.

"Okay class, turn to page eighty-six," Miss Jennings said, only to be interupted by the static of the school speakers.

"Attention all trainees, please proceed to the training center in an orderly fashion. This is an emergency. Please proceed to the training center in an orderly fashion. Do not panic."

Nervous chatter filled the classroom. Miss Jennings felt her voice tremble as she spoke, "E-everyone, please line up. Don't panic. The facility has the best defense and security in all of New Angeles. Nothing will happen. It's probably for safe measure."

All the trainees stood up, heading their way to the door. Seb felt himself frozen as he stared at the Beam once again. There was something off about that day.

"Sebastian?" Killian called out as Brian dragged him out.

Seb tried to shake away his nervous thoughts as he stood up and followed everyone to the ground floor of the training center, which was like a gymnasium, was already packed to the brim with all the students. Most were standing with their classmate while others sat on the breaches. The LCD screens, which used to show close-ups of the mock up training duels for the lower level classes, flashed with the news.

It was probably the second time he entered the duelling hall. Gabrielle once dragged him in to witness a mock battle, which was designed for duals of trainees with low levels and low grade weapons. High Grade weapons spelled disaster when allowed to unleash their magic wantonly, hence the special simulations rooms with high density concrete walls. But the low grade weapons didn't need that many precautions, and was safe to have an audience nearby, with supervision of course, hence the use of the dueling hall. Seb once saw Killian dueling with a girl who used a dagger.

Killian lost, unfortunately. The girl was more agile and faster than him, and allowed her to speed up with magic.

The dueling hall was filled with nervous tension as most of the trainees gathered around the LCD screens. Seb found Ivan looking athe news with Jeremy.

"New just in, an Arrival has been sensed by the Arrivals detector of the Base Mana Observatory of New Angeles City about an hour ago in the Monsters Den with a reading  falling under the SSS energy emission scale from the beam. The city has been put under the state of emergency as local authorities and the Mayor advising all civilians to stay indoors, and to remain in your safe rooms if available. Wielders from all around the city has been deployed to the Monsters Den at this moment, with a few posted at the city for civilians protection. We have Andrew, our field reporter, at the scene. Over to you Andrew."

The news anchor's view was pushed to the side was the view of the interior of a hover-craft appeared on the other side, showing a man wearing a bullet proof suit as he held a microphone.

"Thanks Gloria. As you can see, I am inside a M65 Dragonfly, heading towards the Monsters Den. The air inside is tense as the technical officers prepare the equipment of communications and shooting. The wielders seemed to have arrived ahead of us. No once exactly knows what today's Arrival has in store for us, but the researchers of the Base Mana Observatory expects a storm, something unlike anything we have faced so fall ever since the Island Port fell thrity years ago."

"Does anyone have any clue for what type of Arrival we might be expecting, Andrew?"

"The technical officers are reluctant to say anything for sure, but what there are saying Gloria, is that it will be massive."

"Thank you Andrew. Now, we will go over to our field reporter Richard Hue who will be bringing us coverage from the streets of New Angeles City."

The scene shifted to a man in a rain coat in the middle of a city square.

"Richard?"

"Are we live? Oh. Thanks Gloria. This is live from New Angeles City square. As you can see, everyone is in a hurry to go back to he safety of their homes. We can see famous shops like Lucinda and Haverry closing down. The streets are jammed back with vehicles trying to hurry home. The weather here is turning brutal."

"Can you feel it?" Ivan asked from next to Seb.

Seb noddes. You could almost taste the wrongness in the air.

The footage shifted to the reporter in the hover-craft who turned the camera to show the audience the view of Monsters Den. The center of the storm seemed to be the Beam. Currents of blue spread around, encircling the Beam like some sort of ribbon dance.

"Mana Plasma," Jeremy muttered.

"What?"

"That's concentrated Mana."

The view then shifted to one of the screens inside the hover-craft showing the footage camera drones, whose footage was unclear due to the rain pelting down in front I fnthe camera lense, but the beam pulsated, and something like a cloud of black smoke suddenly burst out of it.

"Is that smoke? Everyone heard Andrew ask someone.

"That's not smoke dude!" The second voice said. It was probably the camera man.

"Level 4 pixies detected!' someone said.

"How many?"

"I don't know! Maybe billions! And They keep coming! The heat signatures are all amso dense, it's uncountable."

"Shit!"

"You means that's some sort of a creature?" Andrew said.

"My Lord."

The duelist hall was so silent, you could hear a in drop.

Andrew pulled the camera man to the windows of the hover-craft, from their view, they could see the whole of Monsters Den covered by a cloud of black.

They turned the camera back to the drone footage. The drone was closer to the Beam now and the angle was aimed downwards. From below, they saw something black slither out of the beam. Dozens of them.

"Level 5! Basilisks!"

"Look up! Wyrms as well."

"Shit! A whole hoard of them!"

All of a sudden, a sound is a blowing horn echoed throughout. So much so that it was even heard from the Crow's Nest, and louder from within the hover-craft which was making it's way towards the beam.

"What's that?"

"It's the end of the world man."

Seb and Ivan turned to each other.

"That's not a hoard. That's an invasion," someone said.

Gabrielle felt her hands reach out for Jeremy's. "How on Earth is anyone going to stop that?"

Jeremy didn't say anything at first. He just squeezed her hand.

"I don't know."