Knox pulled himself off of the bright green grass and helped Blake and Tokar up.

“Amazing,” said Tokar. “The top of the pillar is much bigger than I expected. Even the Blessed House looks tiny from this distance.”

Blake nodded his head in agreement. “Damn, it must take, like, days to mow the grass up here. I’d go crazy if I had to do the lawn work up here.”

Knox stayed silent while he enjoyed the breeze that pushed the heat away from him. From his left, Knox heard the voices of the examinees that took the first elevator. Surprisingly, despite the amount of people on it, the elevator didn’t snap.

“I don’t get it,” said Knox. “They had at least 3 times our weight on their elevator, so how did it stay in tact the entire time.”

Tokar said, “Well, you kind of just have to think about it. I’m guessing that the woman, Mia, I believe, designed this phase to test see if we can get out of bad situations. It could’ve also been bad luck or a poor design.”

“What the hell?” spurted out Blake. “What do you mean by that?”

“The whole point of this exam is to find psychics who can assist in finding the man who assassinated Vauhan’s daughter.” Tokar pulled the collar of his dark blue shirt and swiped the sweat that was forming on his neck. “You never know what kind of situation you may be in when hunting them down, so the MCG wants to make sure that the people who pass the test are smart and strong enough to do so. As for the elevator that didn’t snap, they tricked us into choosing an elevator that was further away from our starting point.”

“I guess that makes sense,” said Blake, who was clearly confused. His physical strength was always much better than his smarts. The 3 of them looked at the elevator station to their right, watching as a boy, close to Blake’s age, started climbing the rope, using the same technique and Knox’s group. The boy had a medium haircut, with small strands falling a bit past his ears. His hair was colored silver, which was odd to all 3 of them. He wore a pair of tan khakis and a button down white shirt, which was covered by a furry maroon vest that had a black outline.

Following the boy came a woman, who looked to be in her 30s. Even in the terrible heat, she wore a black overcoat and a tight pair of jeans. Her lips were bright red from lipstick. Her pitch black hair went down to her lower back.

The two of them jumped onto the pillar and stood completely still. Knox continued to watch them, but he didn’t see either of them say a word. “Hey guys,” said Knox. “What do you think of those 2 over there?”

Blake and Tokar simultaneously looked at the 2 examinees and examined them closely. Blake snickered and said, “The only thing that I see is that woman’s big ass.”


“No, that’s not it.” Knox paused as he glanced back at the silver haired kid. “That guy, he’s not like the rest of the people here.”

“Why? Just cuz’ he has silver hair?”

“No, he sticks out more than everyone else. It’s like he’s a threat.”

“Eh, I think the heat’s getting to your head, man. He looks like a normal kid to me.”

Tokar watched as Knox and Blake continued to talk about the boy. How odd, thought Tokar. He can sense someone’s strength just by looking at him? Is that even possible? He may just be bluffing, but I can’t tell yet.

“Everybody quiet!” The small chatter from around the elevators immediately hushed after hearing the booming voice that echoed in the sky. Mia walked to in front of the examinees who took the first elevator up. “Listen up, I want you to make 5 perfect lines of people in one minute. If you fail to do so, the exam will end here, understand? Now get to it!”

Without hesitation, Knox, Blake and Tokar sprinted to Mia, along with the other examinees. It was messy, but the examinees quickly made their lines in under the stressful minute.

“Well, I’m glad to see we have good listeners,” said Mia, ignoring the rolling eyes from the smartasses. “Anyways, congratulations on passing phase 1.” The people in first 2 lines gave each other confused looks.

“First phase?” asked a chubby man in the front line, who had balding brown hair and a 5 o’clock shadow. “I don’t get it, when did the first phase start.”

“You see, you were one of the lucky ones who didn’t choose a bad elevator. Actually, as a matter of fact, the only elevator that wasn’t rigged to break was the one closest to the stage. Mia looked towards to the furthest two elevators and smiled deviously. “It seems no one came from the back 2 elevators alive. What a shame.”

Some of the examinees, especially the ones from the first elevator, started to get nervous. They had a hard time dealing with the fact of how dangerous the exam could be. “Getting back on track,” continued Mia, “I’ll give you some relieving news, so stop being so tense, will ya? The second phase should be fairly easy.” After hearing her words, the tense examinees quickly loosened up.

“The second phase will go down like this. I will be coming to each of you and I will chop you on the side of your neck. Here’s an example.” Mia walked close to the examinee directly in front of her, who was a bald man with unusually pointy ears. She cocked her right arm above her head, and with great speed, she chopped the man in the neck. Without any sounds, he fell to the ground, unconscious. “Oh, too bad for him, but he’s eliminated.”

“This is retarded,” claimed an examinee in the back. “Why does this have anything to do with being a psychic?”

“Good question. I forgot to mention that you can use your powers in any way to assist you, so feel free. Now, let’s get this phase started.”

Mia slowly started from the far right. She went one by one to each examinee, asking for some general information, such as age and country of origin, before she attacked them. It was a slow process, and a tough one to watch, too. In about 20 minutes, she took out the entire first row, which consisted of at least 40 people, and only 12 remained standing.

“Holy s***,” muttered Blake. “That b**** is crazy. Like, hot, but still crazy!”

Knox, despite having a grudge against her, couldn’t help but agree. Other than his dad, he’d never seen someone with such a strong arm. Even without psychic powers, she’s still very powerful.

“Man, I’m so screwed,” said Blake. “My powers aren’t even useful for this phase. I really hope those guys up there were just a bunch of wimps.”

Knox said, “We’re all the way in the back, so she might be tired by the time she gets back here. You’ll still be in a lot of pain, nonetheless.”

Blake clenched his teeth nervously. “Don’t remind me.”

“Sorry, I’m just trying not to sugarcoat the truth.”

Mia soon cleared out the second row soon enough, with 18 people standing. Though they passed the phase, they were still in a dreadful amount of pain. It was hard for any of the examinees to watch. Mia continued down to the third row, walking up to the silver haired boy who stood in front of Knox, Blake and Tokar.

“Oh, it’s him,” whispered Knox. “I didn’t even notice him.”

“Yeah, same here.”

Mia got close to the boy and looked him directly in his eyes. The top of his eye lids covered about a quarter of both of his eyes. “Your eyes,” she said.

“What about them?” he asked, with a modest tone.

“They’re also silver, just like your hair. That’s a bit odd, don’t you think?”

“Only a little bit. It’s just a coincidence, I suppose.”

“Alright, kid, what’s your name?”

The boy smiled. “Well, I never really liked my old name, so I just call myself Silver.”

“I see,” said Mia, awkwardly. “Anything else that you’d like to share.”

“Let me think.” Silver looked up to the sky for a moment. “I’m 16 years old, I’m allergic to peanut butter, and my real name is Stefanos Rao.”

Mia widened her eyes. “Did you say Rao. Like the Rao family?”

“Yes, I’m from the Rao family, but I ran away. I felt the need to choose my own path instead of listening to my parents and brothers for the rest of my life.”

“Amazing,” whispered Tokar. “I never would of thought that someone from the Rao family would actually be here.”

“And who exactly are these Rao people?” asked Blake.

“I’m shocked that you’ve never heard of them. The Rao are a very powerful and rich family of missionary psychics. For the last 10 generations, they’ve hunted down some of the most powerful psychics in the world and taken them out. Of course, normally the head of the household does that kind of work. Judging by Silver’s age, he probably isn’t even close to the level of, say, his parents, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s powerful. For all we know, he may be the strongest person here.”

Blake felt a shiver run down his spine. “Damn, Knox, you were right. That kid is dangerous.”

“Let’s get on with this,” said Mia. “You’re wasting my time.” She cocked her arm the same way she did with the examinees. She was about to swing down, but something felt off. The wind around her started picking up. From what was slight breeze turned into heavy winds that almost swept her off her feet. The other examinees were in the same position. “Stop!” she yelled. Instantly, the winds stopped. “You pass.” Without any more words, Mia went onto the next examinee.

“Huh?” said Blake. “The dude passed? How?”

“Are you blind,” said Tokar, rudely. “He was controlling the winds. Stuff like that doesn’t just suddenly happen in a matter of seconds. The scary part was that he was able to control it so well, yet he stayed still the entire time. We have to watch out for him if we want to pass this exam.” Both Knox and Blake nodded simultaneously.

“Look,” said Knox. “Mia’s at the woman who was with Silver.”

Mia stood evenly headed with the woman. The woman had her arms crossed in an impatient form. Her facial expression practically said, ‘Can’t we get this over with already?’. Mia snickered. “I can tell you’re the impatient type, so just tell me your name so we can get this over with already.”

“I agree,” said the woman. “My name’s Keira, age 31. I like money and power. Now hit me, b****.” Mia was just about ready to kill Keira from the disrespect, but she was able to resist. Mia gave a quick chop to Keira’s neck, and to her surprise, Keira didn’t use her powers to defend herself. She squeezed her eyes tight to help suppress the pain, but she was still standing.

“Wow,” said Mia, sarcastically. “For a w****, you did pretty well.” A few chuckles came from the remaining examinees as Keira’s face got red from embarrassment. It started to look live a rivalry was forming between the two women. Mia moved on quickly, eliminating several more people as she advanced halfway through the 3rd line. “Halfway there, guys. And it looks like only 37 people out of around 100 have made it so far, so congrats to you guys. As for the rest of you, prepare yourselves.