The Mage With Sealed Powers: - Nick Venom (fox in socks read aloud .txt) 📗

Episode One "Merlin"

“Welcome to Wrickar!” The king announced. Enix and his classmates looked around wildly, not understanding how they changed settings within a brief moment. “I am King Hiroth! I welcome you all, future heroes!” He declared before standing up from his throne. Everybody in the room bowed their heads to the king, leaving the teenagers out of the loop.

“What’s happening?” A male classmate asked.

“Did we die!” A female classmate shouted.

“Did we teleport to the past, this has to be a dream!” shouted the third classmate. 

Enix, meanwhile, looked at the beautiful artwork that was painted all over the throne room with amazement. He stared at everything new in the throne room with his dark emerald eyes.

“Were we summoned as heroes?” Enix shouted, his voice filled with delight. He ran his hand through his messy black hair as a nervous tick of his.  

The king looked at him and, for a moment, displayed a nasty glare at him before adjusting his attitude to work with his image. 

“Yes, you all have been summoned as heroes! Now, heroes!” The king shouted before motioning for a servant to bring something in. “To check for your potential, we’ll need to scan you.” The servant reappeared, pushing a cart with a transparent orb on top of it. He pushed it to the king’s side, flinching at every movement that the king made. The king dismissed him before glancing over at a man dressed in a black cloak. “Discard him,” he mouthed to the man. The man nodded and disappeared into the shadows, taking the old servant with him. The king then put on a joyous smile when directing his attention to the heroes. 

“One by one, place your hand on the orb.” He ordered them. Enix and his three classmates nodded their heads and went up to the orb, forming a single-file line. Enix prepared himself to receive his overpowered skills, hyping himself up while his classmates looked at him strangely. They whispered about him, insulting his actions.

“That kid is a little… off.” remarked one of the male classmates.

“He seems like such a wimp and a nerd. How much do you want to bet that he’s a virgin,” whispered the female classmate. 

“I’ll take you on that bet. That kid can’t be of any use. Hopefully, he gets a useless skill.” the other male classmate muttered. They laughed and laughed at his excitement, which Enix ignored. He was used to being laughed at.

One by one, Enix’s classmates received their overpowered skills, leaving him the last one to the orb. Enix proudly placed his palm on the orb and waited for the good news to arrive. Unfortunately, it didn’t, instead, the king shot him a dirty glare as he read off Enix’s report. “Enix, male, 5’9, green eyes, black hair, tan skin, zero percent power, and no skills.” The king kept up the fake happy tone as he directed Enix’s classmates to follow a priest to be baptized while Enix was ordered to follow the cloaked man.

“I’ll take him,” An older man who appeared to be in his late fifties. The man was overly tall, surpassing Enix by over a foot, and had long hair that went down to his chest. His beard surpassed his hair, descending to his stomach before suddenly stopping. The man, who took a step forward to address the king further, was dressed in a purple and gold cloak that covered his chin and below.

“You’ll take him?” The king asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I need some help with my experiments.” The older guy said, winking at the king. The king smirked and nodded, allowing Enix to follow the guy out of the throne room. 

Once outside of the throne room, the guy grabbed Enix’s hand and dragged him to his research room where he sat him down in front of an open window. “I don’t have much time to tell you this, but your real power and skills are being sealed by me.”

“My power and skills? Didn’t the king say that I don’t have any?” Enix asked, scratching his head.

“It was an illusion trick! The king is corrupted and wants to use you and your friends as pawns to further the ongoing war with the demons. Now that he believes that you’re useless to his plan, he intended on discarding you!”

“So, I’m not useless?” Enix asked. 

The man nodded his head. “No, you have an almost infinite source of raw power. Combine that with your world-devastating skills, you could easily defeat the demons and the entire royal family within a second. I couldn’t let him find that out or else he’ll mark you as a threat and begin a plan to gain your trust before betraying you. 

That’s why I’m sending you to a town that I owned to begin your training with one of my disciples until you can garner enough control over your power to destroy the royal family and put a stop to this endless cycle of summoning heroes and using them as disposable powers for the king’s profit while their citizens suffer. One of my trusted friends named Zeke owns a cargo plane and will be taking you to the town. I’ll be returning to the town to raise your limiter.” The guy said before raising three fingers and placing them on Enix’s forehead. “Now, your limiter has been raised to one percent. You can use up to one percent of your power. Once you have control over that one percent, I’ll increase it but, for now, I have to sneak you onto Zeke’s plane and get you to that town.”

“Why are you doing this for me?” Enix asked, his blood boiling at the king’s devastating actions and repulsive.

“Because you can surpass me one day and bring peace to this blood-soaked world. Now, let’s leave.” The guy said before turning towards the door.

“Wait, who are you?” 

The guy turned around and looked at Enix. “I’m the Royal Court Mage, Merlin.” He said before turning back towards the door and opening it.

 

TBC…

Episode Two "Takeoff"

Merlin led Enix to the royal hanger---which held over twenty air fighter jets and five large cargo planes---being very careful to not draw much attention from any of the staff or guards Fortunately, the descriptions of the heroes hadn’t been given out so Enix and Merlin were able to swiftly pass by the staff and guards with relative ease. Merlin hoped that nobody would ask about Enix as they made their way towards Zeke’s plane, which was a hope answered. 

Merlin brought Enix to one of the large cargo planes where a man---with dirty blond hair wearing aviators and his silver air gear---waited for them. “This is Zeke, one of my trusted friends,” Merlin said, shaking Zeke’s hand.

“You must be one of those.” He then looked around before motioning him to follow after him. Enix nodded, turning around to face Merlin. 

“Go along with him while I deal with the matters here,” Merlin told him. Enix nodded and turned around, following Zeke into his plane---the word Hellbringer printed in black paint over the side. 

Zeke led Enix to the co-pilot seat and sat him down before going to the pilot seat. He turned on his plane and went through all of the procedures before beginning to move the plane into position. One of the supervisors of the port noticed Zeke’s Hellbringer entering the takeoff area---marked by a yellow chalked area that had two attendees clearing planes to leave the hangar and enter the runways. The supervisor waved Zeke down, bringing him to a rolling stop. Zeke opened the passenger door to see the supervisor. 

“What’s the problem, Holt?” He asked the supervisor, a middle-aged man with balding hair and a chubby figure. He had a brown mustache that extended past his nose on both sides. He wore a supervisor’s outfit of a loose light blue jacket and black pants with matching black shoes.

“You haven’t been cleared for takeoff.” Holt declared.

“What?” Zeke shouted, furrowing his brows. “I’ve taken care of all of the procedures. The attendees already cleared me!”

“As a supervisor, I can veto any clears that the attendees assign. Your plane is grounded for an hour while we get the other planes out!” Holt’s eyes lingered at Enix, noticing that something was off. “Who is this kid?”

“A friend of mine that’s helping with dropoff,” Zeke claimed.

“Well, I need to see his identification card,” Holt declared. Zeke glanced over at Enix, locking eye contact, before digging through his back that laid to his side for an imaginary identification card for Enix. He glanced up at the gas pedal and pondered about it, but was interrupted before he could act on that thought.

“I’ve checked their cards and I’m sure that there are legal pilots.” Merlin declared, overshadowing the smaller in height Holt. Holt looked up and nodded sheepishly, apologizing to Zeke and Enix before leaving. Merlin chuckled as he watched Holt scurry away. He then turned towards Enix and handed him a silver watch, displaying time using Roman Numerals. 

“Take this, you’ll need it for the future.” Enix nodded and waved at Merlin as Zeke brought Hellbringer to life, rolling toward the attendees. One of the attendees---a young man with strong black hair and dark features---checked the cargo and Zeke’s license and identification card. As for Enix, who, by regulations, needed an identification card even for being in the co-pilot seat, he was able to bypass the system on Merlin’s orders. The attendees cleared Hellbringer for runway access. 

Zeke pushed Hellbringer into a slow start, picking up speed as he traveled down the runway before pulling up and entering the sky. Enix glued his head to the window, looking out at the beautiful and luscious scenery as it passed the plane. Zeke glanced over at Enix and smirked, remembering the first time that he flew and the amazing sites he’d witnessed. 

“Strap in, this will be a long journey,” Zeke told him. Enix peeled himself off the window and strapped himself to the seat, glancing over at Zeke’s bag. He noticed a switchblade hiding in the bag. The switchblade resembled an antic, with its hardwood handle and aged look. Enix, after glancing for a few seconds too long, looked away from the bag and focused on the front window, a large sheet of glass that wrapped from one end to the other, and stared at the beauty that presented itself. A glittering lake surrounded on three sides by mountains with the fourth side having a road that extended hundreds of miles in length.

“This is my second life,” Enix muttered while glancing down at the silver watch. Why did Merlin give me this? Will this allow me to live my new life to the fullest? Will it activate my powers?

 

TBC...