“Why does this look so old-fashioned anyway. Isn’t this supposed to be a prestigious academy for training the young ones in utilising their gifts?” Kiara complained.

“This is the castle built during the war of Melbourne. They made the academy city around this very castle that was used as a stronghold to honour the fallen of that war.” Sam replied nonchalantly as he walked besides the silver haired girl.

“Yeah I know that, but it’s been what? 300 years? They can at the very least mordenize it. I mean look! The footpath is made of cobblestone!?” Kiara whined as it was difficult walking through the cobblestone path wearing high heels.

“Jeez Kiara shush with your complaints already. I know you’re supposed to be a princess but I’m not gonna carry ya.” Sam joked.

“You idiot I’m not even asking you to, besides you’re not Starboy lol. You’re not even strong enough to hurt a fly.” Kiara replied with rolling eyes.

“Need I remind you that I’m a A grade ability user? How many people can manipulate their own AND other’s bio-electricity?” Sam arched his eyebrows with a smug smile.

“Yeah yeah very cool. Although Sam, do you have a plan?” Kiara asked in a geniune concerned tone.

“About what?” Sam furrowed his brows.

“Our abilities dummy. I have serpent physiology so I could do all that a snake can do as my basic ability but after my [Upgrade] I can tap into the powers of mythological serpents. Some of them can manipulate elements, so I can fake my powers as elemental manipulation, but what will you do?”

“You’re thinking too much into it. I’ll show my ability as it is. Besides not like I have many options lol” Sam replied in a lax manner.

“Why don’t you just show one of them? You have two abilities right, bio-electricity manipulation and immortality. A bizarre combination if I do say so myself.” Kiara advised.

(This poor girl. She has absolutely no idea about the power you possess lol.) a voice spoke in Sam’s head.

‘Shut up idiot. I was about to tell her after our victory over White Walker, that is until I found out that she’s starting to fell for that bastard. There’s no way I can trust her love struck ass now.’ Sam replied in his mind with a frustrated tone.

(Ahaha so you love her but don’t trust her huh? Kinda ironic for a person who can literally manipulate the physical form of all life, biology. Why don’t you just program your brain to not love her anymore? Oh wait are you a simp? Or a masochist?) the voice teased Sam.

However before Sam could speak any further Kiara spoke up;

“Sooo what are you gonna do?” she asked.

“Aghh you’re right. I’ll hide my immortality.” Sam answered nodding his head._.

“Noice.”

Right now the duo was walking towards the academy’s testing ground. That’s the place where they will evaluate abilities of all the examinees who wanted to join this academy.

***

“Next!”

Humanity will always remember the last day of year 2022. For that day, the future of humanity took a turn, for the worse or for the better, no one knows.

31st December 2022 a child was born, now this child in future will come to be known as light bringer.

No one knows how it happened or why it happened. But after a few minutes of the child’s delivery, he began to emit a bright white light.

Soon after that light embraced the whole planet and that event will forever be known as the first light.

Every child who was born after the first light possessed some kind of supernatural powers that’s only been seen in fiction.

Many things happened since then. Power struggle, militarizing superpowers, animals evolving into monsters to hunt down humanity, you name it.

Afterall humans became gods so of course there will be consequences because clearly they weren’t ready to hold such power.

Although after the dust settled, the glorious age of humanity came, led by a single person, Arthur Willburn a.k.a Starsuper.

Starsuper united the humans and brought the golden age 300 years ago. Although conflict for power still exists between two big factions. Heroes, the side where Starsuper himself stands and Villains, a faction led by 12 powerful ability users.

All that aside, the times right now are peaceful. As peaceful as it can get in a society run by superpowers.

Right now it’s 2795 or rather 773 A.F.L (After First Light) and according to the government’s survey data, 4 out of 10 people possess superpowers.

There are several institutions established to teach children about how to control their ability. But there’s only 1 institution that teach children on how to ‘hone’ their ability. An institution owned by military. The Gifted Hero Academy.

There are several branches of it around the world. Their goal is to create soldiers that can battle villains and dispose any threats to society.

These academies also functions as a stronghold in case an all out war were to break out between the two power faction.

And currently the calamity rank villain Medusa and her henchman Crawler were standing in the testing ground of one such prestigious academy.

“The line is way too long.” Kiara complained.

“What do you expect? It’s the first batch of examinees, of course there’s gonna be a long line. Although not many of them will be able to pass the test.” Sam commented casually.

Before however Kiara could even reply, a boy standing behind Sam spoke up;

“Hey you talk about yourself man I will definitely pass the test!” the boy commented in a proud tone.

“Ohhkayyy… Good to know.” Sam didn’t even know how to reply to that.

“Meh I sense the side character vibe from you.” Kiara commented teasingly.

“What did you say!” the boy was clearly furious after hearing that comment.

“Oh my, seems like you’re deaf, my apologies.” Kiara replied with a teasing smile.

“Y-Youuuu!” the boy’s cheeks were beat red from anger, you could even see a nerve twitching above his eyebrows.

“Kiara stop.” Sam helplessly shook his head. “I’m sorry for my friend here, she has a tendency to go overboard with her jokes.”

“Hmph!” the boy humped flicking his neck long red hairs as if saying, ‘I will show you!’

“Next!”

“Kiara Vikterovna.”

“Vikterovna? …I-Isn’t that one of the family that got massacred during the battle between White Walker and Medusa!?”

“Whaaa- how do you know that?”

“I heard it from my father who was sent on a rescue mission there. He told me that four families died and no one is left to carry their names, one of the family was Vikterovna, but apparently someone did survive.”

Few students from back of the line started gossiping after hearing Kiara’s false surname.

‘Taking on the name of one of the family we massacred ourselves, how cruel Medusa.’ Sam smirked proudly.

“Ability?”

“Water manipulation.”

“Begin display.”

As soon as the invigilator asked Kiara to begin, she streched her hands forward and manifested a huge ball of water before aiming it at one of the targets set in a distance.

‘So just a water ball huh.’ the invigilator proceeded to cross of Kiara’s name.

As if waiting for that cue the temperature around them started dropping. The invigilator looked up at Kiara only to find out the water ball she menifested earlier was now started to freeze.

In a matter of second that ball froze and a huge boulder of ice was launched at the humanoid target with an incredible speed.

“Boom” with a loud noise the ice boulder crushed the target making everyone present their gasp in shock.

“Do I need to display more?” Kiara asked in an arrogant tone.

‘M-More!!? She have more than one trick in her arsenal at such a young age!? She is a prodigy, a potential S class perhaps!’ the invigilator thought in her mind for a second before answering;

“No need, this will be more than enough, go and stand there.” the invigilator gestured her to go and stand among the examinees who are done with the test.

“An A rank potential…”

“No you idiot, she said her her ability is simply water control and not ice, that means she has a mastery over her ability on the molecular level. She froze water by suspending the water particles, at the very least she’s a S rank potential.”

“Shut up with your chatting boys at the back!” the invigilator shouted and ordered the boys who were murmuring earlier to be quiet.

“Next!”

Upon hearing the call, Sam stepped forward and introduced himself;

“Samael Gracefell. Ability, Bio-electricity manipulation.”

“What did he say!”

“Gracefell! Like in that villain, Grey Gracefell a.k.a Blacknight!?”

“Not only that, he said his ability is bio-electricity manipulation, like Night Crawler!”

Murmuring between the examinees broke out after Sam finished his introduction.

‘Maybe I should’ve forged a false identity too.’ Sam sighed in his mind.

After all, Crawler is a famous villain, and not only Sam is claiming to have a similar ability like his, he also belongs from a criminal family, of course people are going to be suspicious.

“Wait Night Crawler, who’s that?”

“Yeaaa I don’t know him either…”

‘Ouch’ Sam felt a slight pain in his chest after hearing those last two sentence.

“You fools he’s the henchman of that famous villain, Lady Medusa.”

“Oh right that weak guy.”

‘Your mom’s weak you dumbfuck, let’s see who is weak when I’ll fuck your sister in front of you.’ anger was clearly visible on Sam’s face as he heard that last comment.

(Lol!).

“First a member of a family that was massacred by Medusa and now a dude who have a similar ability like her henchman, coincidence? I think not!”

“Guys shut up, just because his father was a villain doesn’t mean he is too. We are not our parents, we are who we wants to be, what makes us ourselves is not what background we belong to but what is in our heart!” the red haired boy from earlier spoke up, killing all the murmuring from a moment before.

“That’s right guys, even if we possess an ability similar to some supervillain or a background that we aren’t proud of, what matters the most is that we don’t let it define ourselves and make a constant effort to move forward. Just the fact that this boy is standing right here is proof enough that he is not his father!” a blonde girl spoke up from the back of line.

Everyone who was whispering earlier felt guilty for accusing an innocent boy of being a supervillain. Besides what’s his age anyway? 18 at most, there’s no way he could be a supervillain.

“Very good you two, and you all should be ashamed, you are standing here in Gifted Hero Academy, aspiring to become one of the heroes who have come before you, you all should know better than to bully someone just because of their background.” the invigilator spoke in a serious tone.

(Poor kids, they are getting scolded even though they are right.) the voice inside Sam’s head commented.

‘That’s not the point, it’s so easy for me to just crush everyone’s neck here, all I have to do is expand my bio-field enough to cover the whole academy and snap my fingers. Honestly just the thought of killing all these ungrateful brats gives me joy, should I give it a try?’

“…egin!”

(Now now, calm down and remember your mission, you’re here to find out Starboy’s weakness not to kill a bunch of weaklings.)

‘Haha right’ Sam chuckled in his head before a voice snapped him back to reality.

“I SAID BEGIN!” The invigilator snapped her fingers infront of Sam to get his attention.

“Huh? oh sorry. I got distracted in my past for a moment.” Sam said putting on his most innocent face, adding to the guilt that his fellow examinees were feeling already.

“It’s okay child, you can now begin your display.” the invigilator spoke in a gentle tone that wasn’t there earlier.

And so it began. A story of two villains enrolling in an academy meant for heroes, a story about love, hate, friendship and of course the biggest betrayal imaginable.