CHAPTER 1

THE MYSTERIOUS SWORD

His footsteps echoed through the empty hallways of his school. Once again Clyde was late for his 10th grade math class but he couldn’t help it. Lately his locker has the habit of jamming and that keeps him from getting to class early. He wore the school uniform which was a simple blue suit with the school emblem on it which said Raven Glenn High.

He arrived at his class and skid to a stop. He reached for the door and swung it open revealing a class full of students giving Clyde dirty looks. He ignored them and walked over to his desk.

“Clyde, your late again.” said the teacher. He looked at his teacher. She was a blonde in her mid 20’s, with blue eyes and wearing glasses.

“I’m sorry miss, but my locker keeps on jamming!” he answered a little annoyed.

“Sorry, Clyde but that’s the third time this week. I’m gonna have to give you detention.” she said as she resumed her class.

“But c’mon, its Friday!” The class laughed as the teacher continued. Clyde dug through his backpack and took out a few books. He placed them on the desk but did not even bother to pay attention to the remainder of the class. He was too angry to even care. He ruffled his black spiky hair for a second and then put his head down on the desk.

He hated this class. Not only was it math, but it was the last class and now he had detention so he has to stay longer now.

On the other side of Raven Glenn a man had just arrived in town. He was at least in his 40’s and had black, slicked back hair, white armor and a sword on his belt. Next to him was another man around the same age. This one had brown hair and wore blue armor, but he had no sword on him.

“So Felix,” began the man with black hair. “this is the town?”

“Yes Leonardo, somewhere in this town is the sword that will grant you unimaginable power. It’s called the Diamond Blade. All you simply have to do is locate the blade and claim it as your own.”

“And where do I begin to look for it?”

The man in blue armor laughed. “You’re going to have to look for it yourself. As of now you are on your own.”

Leonardo furrowed his eyebrows and walked away from the blue armored man. Felix watched as the white armored man walked away and grinned. “The beginning of the end starts today…”

Clyde sat in detention staring out the window. Dark clouds had covered the entire sky and now the whole town was enshrouded in darkness. He turned over to his teacher who was sitting on her desk grading papers from other students.

“Hey miss?”

“You aren’t allowed to talk Clyde.” she answered without even looking up at him.

“I know, but it looks really nasty outside and I have to walk home and all.”

The teacher looked outside and saw all the clouds. “Wow I didn’t notice. Okay lets make a deal, since you stayed half an hour today, you can make up the next half on Monday. Its that fine with you?”

Clyde shot up from his desk. “That’s perfect, so I can leave now?”

“Yes, and be careful on the way home.”

Clyde picked up his backpack and walked out of the class. Moments later he made it outside of the school and began to walk home. He noticed that the temperature had dropped a bit since morning, but gave it no thought. Also the street lights had turned on already. He had reached half way home when he decided to walk over to his friend Valerie’s house.

Valerie was Clyde’s best friend ever since they were little. They met when they were in kindergarten. When Clyde was younger he never made many friends due to his heterochromia, a rare eye condition in which one eye is a different color than the other. His right eye was blue while his left was green. Valerie was one of the few that never made fun of him.

When they were in the third grade, Valerie got into a car accident and lost her eyesight. Ever since then she was always home schooled and Clyde would visit her often.

He arrived at her house and spent most of the afternoon there before finally going home.

The next day the weather was no different from before. It was still dark and the temperature began to drop even more.

A man with metal arms, spiky red hair and green eyes walked through the town. He was tall, but was only 17 years old. He wore a white tank top with blue jeans and a backpack.

He was very deep in thought, not paying attention to the townspeople when they stared at his arms. But he really didn't care either. He had gotten used to this kind of reaction from people.

As he walked through town, he passed by a school that had the little kids playing in the playground. He stared at them and became a little angry, but why?

He decided to cool down a little, so he headed towards a restaurant. It was still early in the morning so breakfast sounded very good right about now.

When he arrived at the restaurant, he went to open the door when a man with white armor walked out. It was Leonardo. Leonardo gave him a mean glare before walking off. He shrugged it off, not thinking much on it.

He walked in and sat at a table. Once again, everyone stared at his arms while trying to avoid eye contact with him. He shook his head slightly and called for waitress.

Clyde walked out of his house and slammed the door shut. He had just gotten into another argument with his father and step mother and he needed some time to relax and get his mind off of things. His father doesn’t really love Clyde much. He constantly blames him for his mother’s death during child birth. His step mother married Clyde’s father a when he was three and they had another baby. Naomi is Clyde’s little sister and the only one in the family who actually respects him.

He headed towards Valerie’s house and knocked on the door. A few moments later her mom opened the door.

“Hey, good morning Clyde. What brings you here so early in the morning?” she greeted. She was a beautiful young woman, with shimmering brown hair and brown eyes.

“Hey ma’am. Valerie and I were planning on heading over to the town square today.”

“Oh, okay. Well she is up in her room. You can come in.” Clyde thanked her and walked up the stairs and went to her room. Since Clyde was always over Valerie’s house, her mom treated Clyde like one of the family, giving him trust. Enough to even walk inside Valerie’s room.

The door was closed when he arrived so he knocked on it. Moments later she opened the door.

“Yes?” she said as she stood on the doorway. Valerie was a bit shorter than Clyde was and had chestnut colored hair with eyes to match her hair. She also was a spitting image of her mother.

“You ready to go to the square?” he asked.

She quickly recognized his voice and a smile spread across her lips. “Yea, I’m ready!”

“Okay then , lets get going.”

They left the house and headed toward the town square. Every weekend since she lost her eyesight they would always go to the town square and relax. They would talk about anything and everything. They enjoyed spending a lot time with each other.

As they walked towards the town square, they approached a restaurant. They were about to pass it when all of a sudden a man with metal arms walks out of it. Clyde came to a stop and held Valerie back.

“Clyde, what’s wrong?” she asked but got no response back.

The man was just about six inches taller than Clyde was, but the man seemed to be just a little older than Clyde was. They both stared deeply at each other for a long before the man turned around and left. As the man walked away, Clyde couldn’t help but stare at his arms.

“Clyde,” began Valerie once again. “what happened?”

“Some dude just came out of this restaurant and he had mechanical arms!”

“Mechanical arms?” she began. “ South from Chryseria is a country named Khayren. Somewhere in Khayren is a big metropolis. In that city there is a big building named ManaTech Corp. They take technology and infuse it with mana to create machines that never run out of power. I knew they made airships, boats, and weapons but I didn’t know they made human body parts…”

“ManaTech Corp.? I never heard of it.” Clyde mentioned scratching his head.

“That’s cuz it’s a new corporation. It has only been around for a few years now.”

“A few years? No wonder.”

“I wonder what happened to him?” she asked with a little sadness in her voice.

“Don’t know, you want me to go ask him?” Clyde grinned getting a stupid idea.

“No! I was kidding!”

“Okay, okay. I’m kidding too. C’mon, lets go.”

After the little run-in with the man they reached the town square. They sat down on a bench and talked for the rest of the morning. The town square was not a full as it usually was, which was okay because now they can talk without the constant noise of the people around them.

A few hours later, it was now afternoon and the dark clouds still lingered in the sky. But this was really unusual. By the looks of it, it seemed as if a strong storm was coming, but the things is that there is no wind to make it seem like a storm. Also, the news has not issued any warning of any storm approaching the town, but they couldn’t explain the origin of the clouds either.

Clyde dropped Valerie at her house, but he still didn’t want to go home. He knew that if he returned home, he would be walking into a war zone and he didn’t want to be a part of that. So he thought of going to the library. He needed to go there anyways because a few days earlier he was assigned a project and he needed books for it. The library was on the other side of town near a small forest, so it took him a while to get there.

He arrived the library and it was a large two story building with glass panels and glass doors. He approached the door and it slid open automatically. As he walked in, a man with white armor and a sword on his belt walked out and pushed Clyde out of his way. Clyde quickly turned around and gave the man a dirty look. The man noticed this and stretched his arm out and grabbed him by his collar. He picked him up to eye level and they stared at each other.

“You got a problem, punk.” asked the swordsman.

“Yea, he’s ugly and has the breath that can kill an elephant.” he scoffed.

“You have a smart mouth kid. Would you like me to cut your tongue off?”

“I would rather have a smart mouth than one that smells like crap.” Clyde answered back with a grin.

The man reached for his sword but decided against it. Killing this kid would call a lot of attention towards him since there are a lot of people around and he definitely doesn’t need every eye glued on him.

“Get out of my face!” said the man as he slammed Clyde against the wall and walked away.

Clyde became furious at the man. He just wanted to walk up to him and punch him right on the face and knock him out, but he knew that he was no match for him. Not only was the man stronger than him, but he also had a sword. Fighting him would be like sheep to the slaughter.

He watched as the man walked away until he came to a stop and grabbed his cell phone. Clyde not being able to mind his on business got a little closer to listen to the conversation. The man dialed a number and waited for an answer. A few seconds later he got it.

“Yes, I think I found it!” said the man. “When will you be able to get here?” he waited a few seconds. “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m gonna check things out real quick then just to make sure its still active.” and with that he hung up.

Clyde didn’t understand what they were talking about but he was very intrigued. He saw the man walk off again but this time into the nearby woods. This intrigued Clyde even more and his curiosity got the best of him as he followed the man into the woods. He kept his distance though, making sure that the man would not notice he had a stalker.

About half an hour passed and the man arrived at his destination inside the forest. It was a small clearing by a small cliff. This small cliff had entrance that looked like a cave. Clyde hid behind one of the trees and saw how the man walked in. He decided not to follow him in since that would only prove idiotic and get him caught, so he waited outside.

Five minutes passed and the man was still inside. It had gotten a little windy and they only thing he heard was the rustling of the leaves above him while the ones on the ground swirled around. That was all he heard for another five minutes until another sound was added to the scenery. It was now the crunching of dry leaves. Clyde turned towards the cave and saw how the man came back out and was now leaving. He waited for the man to have a good distance between them and he rushed for the cave.

He looked in and it was dark, but not too dark. He could see only a little bit, but it was enough to not have him walk into something. He stood there for a few moments, pondering if he should go in or not, but he did eventually. But little did he know that the man in blue armor was watching him closely high up on a tree.

Clyde walked through the cave and notice that the deeper he went, the lighter it would get. He continued deeper and deeper until a few minutes later he finally reached the source of light. His eyes widened as he saw what it was.

A glyph. A small, round glyph imprinted on the cave wall that glowed white. He approached it at began to examine the glyph. He wasn’t able to recognize what the designs were but in the center it had a small diamond. Clyde walked up to it and touched it when all of a sudden the glyph began to glow even more brighter than before. He quickly stepped back from it and noticed that his body began to glow the same color the glyph was. Little by little his body began to disappear. He tried to scream but no sound came out of his mouth. Moments later his whole body was gone.

The armored man stood high up on a branch outside the cave as the interior began to glow. A sly grin spread across his face as he reached for his phone and dialed a number.

He waited for an answer. “Something interesting has come up.” he said. “You might wanna come here. I’m in a town named Raven Glenn over at Chryseria.” he waited a few seconds before he talked again. “Trust me, this will interest you.” he said and finally hung up.

The man then dialed another number. A few seconds later he got an answer. “Hey, something has come up and your not needed anymore for the time being.” he pulled away from the phone and squinted his eyes. Who ever was on the other line was yelling in anger. “Then you might want to come to the cave again.” and with that he hung up. “Kid, you better know how to fight, cuz you just got into the biggest mess of you life.”

Clyde slowly opened his eyes and waited for them to focus. Once he was able to get up, he looked around and saw his surroundings.

Space. He was standing on a giant slab of stone the size of a football field floating in what seemed to be outer space. Many stars littered the black sky with a few constellations here and there. He looked up and saw the moon, but this moon was different. It was much bigger than usual and it glowed in seven different colors. First it glowed red, then blue, green, yellow, brown, white, and finally black. Then the cycle would repeat itself.

The moon kind of made him feel uneasy so he looked away from it. He again looked around and noticed a giant, white pyramid-shaped building. He had no other better idea of what to do in that bizarre place so he began to walk towards the pyramid.

Once he reached it he entered it. The inside of the pyramid was also white, and it was also very bright. It was probably made out of marble because the wall sort of gave off Clyde’s reflection as he walked in. The inside was really big and long with white, stone columns connecting the floor to the ceiling which was at least fifty feet high.

At the other end was a giant white door. Clyde walked towards it and once there, he saw that the door was bigger than he thought. Almost five times bigger than he was. He pushed on the door and it slowly began to open, making a loud noise.

After he was finally able to open enough so that he could walk in, he peered inside. He saw what looked like a shrine, but what caught his attention was a sword lazily floating a few feet above the shrine. He walked in and went to take a look at the sword.

The hilt was made of silver and it had no hand guard. Also the blade was about 3 feet long and made of diamond, and it was triangular in shape.

“So, you finally arrived.” said the blue armored man to the swordsman Clyde was following earlier.

“So, why did you call me telling me I was not needed!” yelled Leonardo.

“Just wait a few minutes and you’ll see why.” Felix answered back.

“Why? And you said you would get here tomorrow! I thought you were out of town.”

The blue armored man didn’t answer him. He just leapt high into the trees and disappeared.

Leonardo became very aggravated, but he had no choice but to stay there and wait for whatever was going to happen.

Clyde looked at the sword that floated in mid air. It was really mesmerizing. He has never seen anything like it before. Then he suddenly remembered the conversation the man who came out of the library had on the phone. He mentioned something about finding something. Was it the sword the man was referring to?

Clyde hesitantly grabbed the sword by the hilt. A few seconds later, his body began to glow again, before he was teleported out of this bizarre place.

The swordsman was now getting really mad when all of a sudden the inside of the cave began to glow. He wondered what it was but before he could go in and check it out, he was momentarily blinded by a quick flash of light. When his eyes focused, he saw the same boy who was at the library laying on the floor. Upon a closer look, he noticed what the boy was holding.

“It can’t be!” he roared in anger. “This little scum followed me and found the Diamond Blade!”

Clyde slowly woke up. He got off the ground and noticed the swordsman looking at him with killing intent.

“Whoa, what are you doing here? I thought you left!” Clyde backed up slowly and realized that he was holding the sword he found.

“I can’t believe it, this little kid beat me to it! He got the Diamond Blade!”

“Diamond Blade? That’s what its called?” Clyde said while looking at it. “What’s so important about it?”

“The Diamond Blade is a special sword that grants the user incredible power!”

“And you wanted it? Then good thing I found it then cuz you would probably use it for you own selfish desires!”

“You little scum, I will kill you!” roared the man.

“Wow, your not so smart. Why can’t you just come here and take it from me instead of killing me? Or does killing little kids make you happy? What, is that a sort of sick turn on for you , you weirdo?“

"You fool, I can’t. Once you touched the blade, you became its master. Now no one else can use it. That is unless I kill you.” he said that last part a little menacing.

“Dammit, I’m screwed now…” he muttered while looking down at his sword.

“Don’t worry,” began the man, drawing out his sword from it’s sheath. “It will all be over soon. I, Leonardo, will spill your blood today!”

Leonardo charged at Clyde. Clyde panicked and quickly dove to the side, dodging the man’s attack. Clyde got back up just in time to block a horizontal attack from the man with the Diamond Blade. The man began to push down on Clyde’s blade.

“There’s no way you can beat me kid, so hurry up and die and give me the Diamond Blade!”

Clyde struggled a lot trying to keep the opponent’s sword coming down and slicing him in two. He then kicked the man as hard as he could on the gut, making him stagger back in little pain. Clyde took this opportunity to rush the man and deal a flurry of blows, but Leonardo nimbly dodge them all with ease.

Clyde lost focus and the man managed to punch him in the face, sending him back a few yards through the air. He quickly got back up and hurled the Diamond Blade at Leonardo. The man swung his sword, trying to deflect the Diamond Blade. But before he was able to, Clyde dismissed the Diamond Blade making the flash of light blind Leonardo temporarily.

While he covered his eyes, Clyde rushed in and tried to stab him.

“You’re clever,” said the man while dodging the stab. “but you lack skill!” Leonardo grabbed Clyde’s arm and twisted it, making him drop the sword. He then forced Clyde down onto the ground, making him kneel.

“How did you know where I was going to attack?”

“When you’ve been in many battles like I have, you develop a sixth sense for these things. If I wanted, I could kill you with my eyes closed.”

Clyde believed him too. This guy was completely out of his league.

“I have to say, for someone who has never fought in a sword fight, you did decent. You have great potential, but you are going to die now!” The man held his sword by Clyde’s neck, ready to slice it when all of a sudden he was thrown back by a powerful punch to the face.

Clyde looked up at the person who had just saved his life. It the man he had just seen earlier when he and Valerie were going to the town square. “You’re that dude I saw outside the restaurant before!” said Clyde.

“I could say the same about you kid.” he answered back, but not looking at him. He had his attention on Leonardo who was now getting up. “So, you like to pick on kids? Not very brave are ya?”

“You’re lucky you got me when I was distracted. But your luck has just run out!” answered the armored man enraged.

“Hey kid.” the red head now shifted his attention towards Clyde.

“What?”

“Can you still fight?”

“Of course!” he got up from the ground and got his sword back.

He noticed the sword and gave a quick look at Clyde. “This sword, where did you get it?”

“I’ll fill you in when we kick this guy’s ass.”

He grinned and looked over at Leonardo. “By the way, I’m Dante.”

“Clyde.”

“Well Clyde, I guess we’re buddies for the time being.”

“You two ladies done yapping!?” interrupted the man.

Dante rushed Leonardo with Clyde following close behind. Leonardo swung his sword horizontally, trying to slice Dante in half but he managed to deflect it with his metal arm and landed a strong punch on the man’s face. He staggered back and swung his sword once again. This time Dante grabbed the sword with his hand.

Clyde appeared from behind Dante and struck the man on the side with his sword. The man was wearing armor, so he did not get cut, but still felt the full force of the impact. He was knocked back a quite a distance.

The man got up and noticed he accidentally let go of the sword, and now Dante was holding it. Leonardo was now unarmed, but did not give up the fight.

“You think since you got my sword you have me beat?” he said with a menacing smile. “I am a warrior, and I know that during battle one may end up being unarmed. So I trained my self in the art of mana, just in case something like this would happen!”

“Thing’s are getting a little more interesting now…” mentioned Dante.

Clyde looked at the both of them. Leonardo had something up his sleeve, but Dante seemed to have something too.

The man rushed the two boys with his hand held out. Suddenly it began to glow red. Clyde looked at it and felt uneasy, but Dante tapped him on the shoulder.

“Watch this Clyde.” he said as dropped the sword and he flicked his wrist upwards.

The ground shook for a moment, and a giant plateau shot out from under Leonardo, sending him skywards. He began to fall back down onto the ground and landed hard on his back. Leonardo's hand stopped glowing red.

“Dude, what the heck was that?!” said Clyde both excited and a little scared.

Dante laughed and walked over to where Leonardo was now at. Parts of his armor were now shattered and pieces were scattered all over the ground. “He’s done. He won’t be getting up anytime soon.”

Clyde dismissed the Diamond Blade and also walked up to him and saw that he was unconscious. He sighed in relief and turned over to Dante. “Hey man, thanks a lot. If it weren’t for you I’d be dead now.”

“It’s all good. You’re just lucky I had to go through the woods to leave town. Now, we should tell the town guards about this guy and have him arrested.”

The both turned around and headed towards the town.

“Yes, I watched the entire fight. He did have a little help, but he has a lot of potential.” said the blue armored man over his cell phone. “I’ll have a little talk with him tomorrow, and if he’s not convinced then I guess I’ll have a little fun with him until you get here…”