Epics is the name given to those who awakened their gifts before the beginning of the spatial era. Most of the organisations currently at their strongest have an Epic at the helm. Those who work in organisations with highly regarded strength but awakened their gifts after the beginning of the spatial era are regarded as Rankers. As for those who worked in these organisations but their gifts had not awakened, they were called Hunters.
The distinction in strength comes from the fact that those who awakened their gifts before the spatial era could literally draw in more energy from the world long before the spatial era began. Thus, their gifts could become stronger and be tweaked according to what they wanted, and thus by the time the spatial era came to be, their gifts only needed to draw energy from the earth, and thus their growth was explosive. Their growth and power were influenced by the explosion of the forbidden zone, and thus they were infused with a lot of energy, which gave them both a head start in terms of both energy and time.
There would have been many more Epics were it not for the fact that being awakened during that time didn't always mean you would survive. After all, any of the forbidden zones was hell after the explosion, let alone during the explosion. The Rankers, on the other hand, were those who awakened their gifts during the spatial era. Most of the Rankers were Hunters who were in the vicinity of the spatial tears, and thus the tears infused them with their energy, and thus their gifts were awakened.
This is not to say that just anyone could awaken just by being near a tear. One of the requirements of becoming a Ranker is that one had to be a Hunter. Otherwise, one might just end up dead the minute one got near the rift, or worse, explode if one's body were too weak. This went to show that a weak body absorbed the energy slowly to become a Hunter, and when exposed to the right kind of energy, then their gift would awaken.
The second requirement is having an energy with which one is attuned to. One of the reasons why Epics are unique is that most who were exposed to the energy near the explosions became explosions themselves after they couldn't handle the energy—not to mention the fact that although the energy was mostly neutral from the major explosion, there were still many rogue energies with different affinities that afflicted all lifeforms around them. This went to show just how resilient, lucky, talented, and extraordinary all Epics were from most Rankers. Most of the current population is comprised of Hunters.
One of the reasons for the mysterious deaths that occurred in mass before the spatial era was due to the energies finding themselves in the lifeforms of the planet in a bid to evolve. Those whose bodies could not handle it died. Those incapable of passing the stronger genes could not even give birth even if they survived. Those that survived were either Hunters or those who didn't have adverse effects to the energy. Thus, the spatial generation was born. With the deaths caused by the natural selection through the energy, the new generation had been growing stronger and stronger, but that didn't mean they'd be stronger than Epics—at least not until the energy in the world was properly saturated.
One of the reasons organisations wanted to have more Epics on their side is that they would grow stronger with an Epic—not to mention the fact that there were two Epics that remained unknown the entire time. It was for this reason that the siblings were so cautious. After what was mentioned in the paper they had a while back, a captured Epic was no hero to anyone but rather a lab rat for The Pact. That meant that one could be an Epic, but if one had something that drew just the wrong or right aspect of The Pact's curiosity, they would end up on a dissection table rather than in the lead of an organisation.
That is not to say there weren't Epics under other Epics, but even a fool could tell it wasn't going to be as easy as joining and serving for the three siblings since they were a unique anomaly—considering the aspect of whispers, not to mention that they were all 10-year-old Epics, and three siblings to be precise. They were more likely to end up in labs, and that was not a chance they'd take.
In the paper they had, they read that an Epic heading an organisation with a gift that could interact with the spatial tears had recently been attacked and captured by The Pact, and little is known of him. Even the one who reported it barely managed to write before they succumbed to their wounds. It's not that the three siblings were not powerful, even for Epics—it is that the difference in resources for Epics ensured that the gap widened a lot.
Take the Epic called Indra, for example. He found a spatial tear more than a mile long that was attuned to lightning. That was basically heaven for him, and thus, despite most Epics not having more than 8 years since awakening, there was a clear distinction in power—not to mention that the three siblings only absorbed natural energy for the last 10 years. Even a 5-year-old Epic might do them in if their power capacity has been enlarged. They are aware of this and thus do not want to take the risk.
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Immediately they attacked, Jake attacked those two who were meant to counter him. They controlled metal they carried with them. It was a great thought, but they were just too weak, and the metal was not one attuned to capturing an Epic, let alone one as old as him. Jake was proud, and that is why he took on the two, but he was well aware that these two Rankers, despite not knowing the specific power ranks among Rankers that they belonged to, were not easy fish, and thus did not hold back.
He attacked with his blade, and the woman, who seemed to sense the threat, went on the defensive, and the chain turned into armour. But not before the tip of the blade had dug into her clothes, and thus a weakness was already there by the time the armour covered her. Coupled with terrifying strength, the blade ripped right into her chest, killing her instantly. The other one only had time to scream and place his armour around him before the blade arrived, infused in a grey energy. The armour was actually strong enough to stop the attack, but the second strike cracked it, and the man had to infuse more energy into the armour. But that only spurred Jake on, and he became more aggressive. The clash woke the frozen crowd from their stupor, and they moved to attack. Jake didn't put their reaction to mind. After all, their plan was to eliminate the strongest threats first to ensure they were not overwhelmed—after all, they still had to survive and get to the tank.
"Miria!" The guy screamed just when he realised he was in danger, but Miria, who was just as worried when she saw Gregor die, was suddenly attacked. But since she had a lightning shield around her from the very beginning, she only felt a sharp drop in energy before adding energy to the shield.
Aedar had a unique energy that had a dark red signature, and it was lethal, especially to living things. Aedar's energy was infused in his blood more than his bones and flesh, unlike Jake's. Every attack that he carried out using his blood assimilated all the energy it interacted with and grew both in quantity and quality. It also took in another energy that he guessed was the soul and grew stronger. This was what it meant that he had a great advantage on living things. Most energy most Rankers used had a connection to them, thus his blood simply saw it as food, just having a slower effect compared to its rate of feeding on blood and souls.
While he attacked them, none noticed that the energy in those who died slowly disappeared, nor did they notice that the blood flowing out left a husky body and moved weirdly. The blood slowly condensed and attacked other weaker enemies while Aedar himself capitalised on Miria and ensured she did not save the metal Ranker. Aedar was weaker after draining his own blood to maximise attacks on others and cause chaos, but every once in a while, a seemingly small amount of blood rushed to him, and his strength slowly returned, and his attacks became stronger against Miria.
That is not to say she was passive, but she was clearly at a disadvantage, with her lightning seemingly being better for large-scale attacks. It almost looked silly when she tried to attack him and he dove into a crowd. The attack caused more harm to the crowd than him. After all, he drained their energy and killed them as she attacked him, so he was not necessarily getting weaker but stronger. Every once in a while, he would send an attack her way and drain her of more energy. It slowly became a slaughter, but things were not all good because just as Jake had finished the metal Ranker, another lightning mage Ranker turned up. Only instead of going for Jake, he hatefully came for Aedar.
"Dorn! Thank goodness you are here!" Miria exclaimed.
The man nodded and attacked, but unlike the girl, his attacks were made for precision. And using his twin daggers, he attacked Aedar aggressively. Aedar was currently also slaughtering the riff raff to keep more energy, and thus his attention was not entirely on Dorn, but that didn't mean he was pushed back. Aedar had spent most of his time in the wild hunting for the last 10 years, and since the ability to replenish energy by hunting was second to none, he could hunt days on end without stop, without tiring. He could still fight Dorn and Miria just fine without having to draw more energy from the blood he was using to hunt in the surrounding.
Over time, he had even created a small blood clone, but considering it was made from blood of weaker beings, it condensed into a smaller size to maximise quality. Over time it'd grow stronger, but soon a problem started to appear. Stronger enemies started to appear, and Jake was not having an easier time, and thus Aedar had to split the clone to blades again and attack them covertly to help him—not that his situation was any different, but he was better suited for battles against many enemies compared to Jake. The two had barely made any progress towards the tank, and the situation was not getting any better.
*'We need to break out and cause as many casualties to them as possible as we do, but preserve as much strength as possible,'* Aedar transmitted.
The two were just about to coordinate with each other when something weird happened. Miria, who had been most passive, suddenly made an area-of-effect attack, filling the area between her, Dorn, and Aedar with lightning, and that is when it occurred. The attack was seemingly absorbed into the blade, and a sense of dread assaulted him as the blade slashed at him. Aedar sidestepped and parried in an attempt to divert the attack, but despite his best efforts, his blade shattered, and he was pushed back and flew into a nearby building and came out the other side, flying more than 50 meters away from where they were supposed to find their escape and cutting off the range of the mental transmission between him and Jake.
In this split second, a part of his aura flared up, and just like dominos, the aura on the small blood blades also flared, exposing their existence in the cold night.
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