While their childreo the Christmas festival together, Daniel and Andrea had called their friend and boss over to their house to talk and have dinner.

  Their boss was the head of the association for the whion they lived in. He oversaw several major cities and all of the hunters in the region. He also had enough power to be called an S rank hunter himself.

  The city Zenith’s family lived in also had the main association headquarters for the region. This was where Daniel and Andrea worked, and why they had to travel a lot of work, sihey had to often go to every city in the region to che their association branch.

  Daniel and Andrea had been friends with their boss since before the first outbreak. In fact, that day, they were together, and is the only reason why they survived. In fact, he is Anthem and Arias' godfather.

  But they called him to e over today because of Zenith.

  Tomorrow was Zenith's 16th birthday, when he could finally bee a hunter. But for various reasons, they wao do the registration in private.

  Before an awakened has their status unlocked, they still give off magiergy. Their body ’t process it normally, so they are just normal people, but it be measured. This is the main eople find out they are awakened without undergoing the status unlog, which used to be much more dangerous.

  This was doo every person found during the first outbreak. With that many people tested, they were able to set a baseline for normal people, then normal awakehen intrinsic skill holders then unique skill holders. They all gave off more energy than the previous.

  After the status is unlocked , this reading ges because the body starts using the magic power. But the measure is a good judge at how much power a hunter will have, right after starting. A person without an intrinsic skill isn’t worthless, but a person with one, if they are nurtured, and in the short term, are more valuable.

  After the first outbreak, before he was taken in by the Bck family, Zenith had his innate magic tested, just like all of the other survivors. And he broke the measuring device. Every time they tried again, the device would break.

  This is why Daniel and Andrea were initially asked to take him in. Their childreed the highest outside of Zenith, so they thought that enviro would be the best for him. And from there they eventually fell in love with him and decided to fully adopt him.

  So, they called their friend over to ask a favor. They wao go ihe association was closed the day, to do all of the status aration stuff. The two of them know how to do everything for it, so they could do it alone.

  So when their friend got there, they were prepared, havi Zenith out so he didn’t hear about this. They wa to be a surprise, not even Aria and Anthem knew about this.

  Whe there, they sat at the table and made ideal chit chat until they were ready.

  Eventually the topic was brought up.

  “Hey, we o ask a favor of you, Gideon” Daniel said.

  “Hmm, what's up?” Gideon asked.

  “Well, tomorrow is Zenith's birthday, and he is finally turning 16” Aarted.

  But before she could finish, Gideon figured out what they were going to ask.

  “And because he doesn't have a known innate magic value, you want to do his status aration alone?” He said.

  Daniel and Andrea looked at each other, surprised he knew what they were going to ask.

  “That's exactly right” Daniel ended up replying. Gideon could see the surprise on their faces.

  “Don’t be too surprised. I saw this ing. The association higher ups, the ones even above me, wao know more about him for a while. He is the only known person to ever break an innate magic ser. But since he was under 16 they had no way. If I tell them its about him, ces are they’ll approve anything” Gideon told them.

  “The hell do your weirdo bosses want with our son?” Daniel asked him.

  “They just want to know about his skill. A few of the top brass like colleg data on skills, so they care about what his could be. It is almost defihe highest rank intrinsic skill” Gideon expined. “But for your request, I have two ditions”.

  “ditions? What are they?” Andrea asked.

  “Ok, first, Zenith still o pass the test fhschoolers. I’m not going to let you get past that” Gideon said.

  This caused the two of them to burst out ughing.

  “That won’t be an issue” Andera said. “In fact, we are thinking of having him take the high school exam now anyway”

  “Well, then we are on the same page. The other dition is that I want to be there as well, to make sure everything goes well”

  ‘Um, that's fine. So we are good to do it tomorrow, while the association is closed?”

  “Yep, just tell me the time and I'll be there. It is a holiday anyway, so I got nothing going on” Gideon told them.

  “Well, now that that's done, how about you stay for dinner? We’ll call the kids back. They’ll be happy to see you.” Andrea said.

  “Of course, I would never give up a ce at one of your home cooked meals”

  After that, Daexted Anthem and Aria to e back for dinner, and Andrea got started on dinner.

  But, very quickly, Gideon got a call from someo the association.

  “Sir, there's been an attack at the Christmas festival i point. We got a call from Miss Aria saying it is the Kings End guild. She said their leader was there” the person said.

  “WHAT?! I am close to there. I’ll head right over there. Send everyone avaible. This might be a ce to catch him” He told the person on the phohen hung up.

  “Gideon, what's going on?” Daniel asked him.

  “There was an attack at the Christmas festival. You should e with, Aria was the one who called it in”

  “Yeah, the kids were going to the festival today” Andrea said.

  “Did you hear anything about Anthem or Zenith?” Daniel asked.

  “No, I just said I would head over. So we have to go” He said, leading them out the door. But before they could leave, Andrea got a phone call.

  She saw that it was Aria and answered immediately.

  “Aria, what's going on? We heard about the attack.” She asked.

  “Mom, something is going on with Zenith” Aria responded with a lot of worry in her voice.

  “What's going on, expihing, from the beginning” Andrea asked, getting serious.

  “While we were at the festival, some women grabbed Zenith. When I tried to separate them, they attacked me, calling some kind of target. When I beat them, their leader showed up. Seeing him seemed to mess with Zenith, who was already not doing great after the women who grabbed him. Then Anthem showed up and got Zenith ao get away, telling me he would ha. But after we got away, Zenith just fully colpsed.” She said, rushing through a lot of it.

  “Ok, stay calm. I'll e get you two” Andrea said, then got off the phone. “Zenith colpsed after getting away.” she told the others. “I’ll take a different car and find them, you two go”

  With that, they split up.

  Before they pulled away, Gideon yelled at Andrea. “Take him to the association. I’ll call ahead ahem. We don’t know if this was caused by them or if it's nothing”

  “Got it” she said, got into her own car a.

  ?

  While I slept, I had a bizarre dream.

  I was in an unfamiliar house.

  I was seated at a dining room table with 4 other people. But it wasn’t me, or me now.

  I was small, like a child, small.

  When I looked at the other people at the table, I couldn’t reize any of them.

  Their faces were all blurry.

  But I know I know who they are.

  I don’t remember my birth family. I never really thought much about it, thinking like the people who found me, and just assuming they had died during the first outbreak. But mom and dad did try to find out who they were.

  But nothing ever came of it.

  But right now, I know that this was my birth family.

  And I felt nothing looking at them, and not knowing who they were.

  ?

  When I woke up, I found myself in the medical wing of the hunters association. I’ve been here several times in the past. When I looked around the room I found my whole family asleep here as well.

  Mom and dad were asleep on a coa the room, their heads resting on each other.

  Anthem was in a chair, sleeping in a very funny and strange position.

  And Aria was asleep in a chair, with her head on the bed I was in.

  When I try to think back to what happe night, I hit a wall.

  I remember talking to Mia and telling her not to talk to me anymore. But after that, it’s a blur.

  A person whose face I ’t remember grabbing my arm.

  A person whose voice was wrong.

  Aria fighting them.

  Another person whose face I don’t remember.

  Aelling us to run.

  I remember some things but the details are missing.

  Thinking of waking my family and asking them what was going on, I am stopped by someoering the room.

  “Oh, you're up?” the man, my uncle Gideon, said.

  “Uncle Gideon? What's going on?” I ask him.

  “Well, there was a terrorist attack, and you escaped from it, only to colpse ter. So your family brought you here” he told me.

  While we were talking, my family started to wake up.

  The first person to fully wake up was Aria.

  “Zenith, your awake!” She said, very loudly, and hugged me.

  This in turn woke up the rest of my family. They all seemed happy I woke up. After a little celebration, they got to the real things they wao know.

  “So, what do you remember from st night?” Mom ended up asking me. So I expined. How the women grabbed me, the fight, and us running away. I had to tell them I don’t remember most of it, and how in my memoires none of them have faces and that I thought that one of their voices was wrong.

  They were fused but just put it all on the panic attack I had.

  “Yeah, our doctors check you out. Nothing was doo you magically. They just think you had a regur, if not severe, panic attack.” Uncle Gideon expined.

  “Well, that's somewhat good to hear.” I say, then I got some weird looks from my family. “I mean, I have them sometimes, and now we don’t have to worry about whether or not a dark guild wants me dead” This got mom and dad to look weird at Anthem and Aria. But that seems to be something they don’t want to tell me about.

  “Well, how about we get to the most important part of the day” Uncle Gideon said. This caused all of my family to look at him super pissed.

  “What's going on?” I say.

  “How about we get yistered as a Hunter?” Uncle Gideon said. And my family started to yell at him.