An Enlightenment Event is the moment that changes everything.
It's the action — the spark — that turns an ordinary person into something more. A hero.
Most heroes bragged about their Enlightenment Event. Who wouldn't? Anyone that had the cooler story of how they got their powers was bound to be generally liked by the civilians.
But Enlightenment Events don't always mean getting powers.
They were any occurrence that led to a person gaining the abilities or the mentality that leads to them to use it to be a superhero.
Some, like Excelerator, were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He was a scrawny college kid who bumped into a chemical experiment during a thunderstorm. One explosion later, he could move at supersonic speeds.
Others, like Knightguard, never needed powers.
He lost his parents to a mob, and that tragedy shaped him into a symbol of justice, a force of sheer willpower.
For me? My first Enlightenment Event wasn't nearly as dramatic.
I was eleven. The city had been under attack for hours, the streets shaking with the echoes of collapsing buildings.
I was trapped under a slab of concrete, my leg crushed, my voice too hoarse to scream. I thought I was going to die there.
Then, just as my vision started to blur, someone reached down, grabbed me, and pulled me free.
It wasn't a hero. Not one of the flashy, godlike figures soaring above the city.
It was just a man.
An ordinary man in a tattered business suit, covered in blood and dust. He was coughing, wounded, and he could've run to safety.
But instead, he saved me.
I'll never forget his face, the way he smiled through the pain.
"You're safe now, kid," he said. But I never saw him again after that. Though the memory remained with me, my hero was lost in the chaos of the battle.
But the moment never left me. It defined me.
If someone with no powers, no special training, no reason to risk his life, could choose to be a hero… then so could I.
And I did.
I became a hero using the thing I was most skilled at: a skateboard.
I didn't have super strength. I couldn't fly or shoot lasers. But I could ride — fast.
I became Skateboard Man, a hero who sped through Sector D on four wheels, helping the helpless, stopping crimes in the ways I could.
To me, at that time, it was enough. My will alone was enough.
But the more time I spent meeting other heroes, facing dangers I couldn't handle, I quickly realized that it wasn't enough.
Even worse, despite all I believed in, despite my sacrifice, even my idol — Golden Guardian himself — had said what I was always thinking.
My worth as a hero was as tiny as my power.
Skateboard Man couldn't do a damn thing. Not in a world with the likes of Golden Guardian and Lady Phoenix.
I looked down at my arms once more, folding the metal gauntlets into fists.
My death in the hands of Snake King, my abduction by the alien woman and my assimilation with the Forever Core.
It was a real Enlightenment Event. My second Enlightenment Event.
This meant I had meta-abilities now. Powers. But I needed to know just how much power I had.
I stood in an empty field, the wind rushing across the plains, my body still covered in the Forever Armor.
The moment I thought about it, I felt it hum with power.
I stretched my hand forward. The circle pulsing in my palm intensified, and suddenly, a circular loading bar appeared above it.
"Use 10% power."
Only a small fraction of the bar filled.
"Incinerate," I said.
Suddenly, a golden flame erupted from my palm.
The blast wasn't fire — it was something purer, something hotter, something that cut through the air like divine judgment.
I pushed my face away because of the heat as the fire struck the human dummy I had placed in the distance, reducing it to nothing.
There was no ash. No embers. It was just completely gone.
My eyes widened at the damage and then I looked down at my palm, watching the pulsing light in the energy circle dim away as excitement sizzled through me.
'Is this the kind of power I have now?' I thought.
A sudden sound cut through the air, and my interface lit up again.
[Discerned that host has begun testing the Forever Armor.]
[Activating Self-Training Mode.]
Suddenly, multiple golden outlines stretched from my body, morphing into holographic clones of me.
They surrounded me, moving in unison, their blank faces locked onto me like predators sizing up prey.
'What the...?' I stepped backwards, dropping into a defensive stance. "What the hell's this?"
The interface lit up again.
[Multiple beginner and intermediate fighting styles have been downloaded into your memory.]
[Calibrate your muscles and nerves to move with the new knowledge.]
[Take down your enemies. Only one ability is available: Incinerate.]
I glanced around, watching the holograms take fighting positions.
"Oh. I get it now," I said. "This is self-training mode. The suit created these clone dummies to help me test my combat skills."
"Alright then," I flexed my muscles and took a more attacking pose. "Since getting rid of this armor means that I die, I have no choice than to accept it."
"Let's see what this Forever Armor can really do."
The first dummy lunged.
My body moved before I could think, my foot twisting into the ground, my fist lashing out.
It connected with the clone's face, sending it flying backward till it crashed into particles on a tree.
I paused. 'What? That wasn't even My full strength. And yet...'
I looked at my fist once again. '...My hits had never been that powerful before.'
Another came from my right.
Normally I would have been taken off guard, but my instincts adjusted.
My body flowed into a stance I didn't even know I knew. I sidestepped, ducked beneath its swing, and countered with a crushing elbow to the ribs.
It shattered.
Two more attacked together.
I pivoted, my arms moving in ways that should've been foreign, but weren't.
The first clone came with a spin-kick, but I activated the gauntleted in my right hand and caught the other by the throat.
"Incinerate," I ordered.
The golden energy burst forth, erasing the dummy in my grip.
When the order came from behind, I ducked below, threw quick multiple punches on its back, but before I could throw the final punch, the hologram also shattered.
My eyes widened. 'What? Those weak combo punches were enough to take it down?'
Before I could think more, the last dummy charged.
I clenched my fists, took a deep breath, then slammed both hands together.
Consequently, they adjourned, morphing into one giant gauntlet rocket.
"Incinerate!" I yelled.
It unleashed everything. A rupturing blaze of golden fire that burnt the hologram and the grass of the field, even causing burnt scars on the trunk of the far away trees when it was done.
When the light faded, I stood alone, my breath ragged, my hands trembling.
However, I didn't feel exhaustion, not a single sweat fell from my head.
"I can't believe it…" I exhaled, my whole body pulsing with adrenaline. I'm strong.
I clenched my fists.
"I'm so fucking strong."
Suddenly, a notification flashed across my visor.
[Incoming Call.]
'Huh? Did the Armor connect itself to my mobile phone?'
[Incoming Call: Boomerang Man]
Jake Todd.
"Answer," I said.
Click!
"Reno? Where are you? Have you forgotten that today is the last Hero Assessment Day? You said you'd watch with us to see if there'd be any S or A-Class Heroes!"
My eyes widened. 'Shit.'
The Hero Assessment where new heroes proved their worth in order to be placed in a Class, given a licence and offered a Guild contract, had been going on for weeks now and today was the last day.
Since I'd just had a second Enlightenment Event, this meant this was the last chance for me to get reassessed.
I couldn't be an E-Class Hero forever, not with the kind of power I had now.
I needed that reassessment.