The room was made up of five rows of long wooden tables, each row elevated half a meter or so from the previous, that curved around an elliptical platform in the front of the room. On the wall closest to the platform were three large chalkboards which despite looking quite old were cleaned spotlessly, each one housing a row of neatly placed white chalk at the bottom. Looking around, I was greeted by the familiar sight of faces that I thought I would never see again, engrossed in books, hurriedly revising notes presumably from any studies done during the holidays or chatting with peers.
However, my eyes were scanning the crowd for the face of someone I had longed to see for a very long time and when I finally laid eyes on her again, I couldn’t help but smile. Her lavender hair was partially styled into twin tails that ran down to her shoulders leaving the rest to fall down the back of her head, her pair of azure eyes sparkled with the beauty of the sky, everything about her was as mesmerising as I remembered. She was Evelyn Rumil, a lightning affinity mage, vice-captain of our adventuring party, and most importantly my partner.
I must have been looking in her direction a bit too long, as the red-haired girl sitting on Evelyn’s right, I believe her name was Iris or Eris had gently nudged her to get her attention before leaning over and whispering something in her ear. Evelyn then looked at me briefly before giving me a quick wave which I echoed before I began walking up the auditorium to find a seat. There were many empty seats but I decided to sit next to Lucas, who was sitting at one of the tables that made up the back row, engrossed by a book he was reading, so engrossed in fact that he didn’t even notice me until I had already sat down.
“The Tales of Providence huh?” I remarked, pointing at the old dilapidated leather book which seemed as ancient as it was big, sprawled out across the table in front of Lucas.
“Hmm? You’re familiar with this book?” he replied, not even bothering to look up at me. The book he was reading was a collection of historical documents and recounts from various warriors involved in the subjugation and defeat of the first Demon King Laplace, notably the five heroes who now branded themselves in modern legend and folklore.
“Why wouldn’t I? I’m sure most people know of Laplace’s defeat at the hands of Zonia’s strongest warriors, even if their battle happened a millennia ago.”
“Well technically, the Zonian empire was only truly established after Laplace’s defeat so it would be inaccurate to refer to them as Zonia’s strongest heroes as most of them never fully regained their full strengths after that battle, but I digress. I never exactly took you as the sort of person to care about historical accounts,” he replied matter of factly, though now at least looking at me when he spoke.
“Thanks for correcting me,” I sighed, rolling my eyes slightly as I took out my notebook and writing equipment. “Why are you sitting so far back? I would have thought that someone as studious as you would want front-row seats to learn all about magic theory,”
“Well, Professor Paraveral isn’t exactly the most exciting lecturer, and the stuff he rants on about isn’t even interesting. Like if he’s gonna give a two-hour talk about magic theory he should at least talk about cool things actually worth ranting about like Lost Magic or the Elysium Series right?”
“Uh-huh,” I replied sarcastically, though I was somewhat surprised that he felt the same way as I did about our professor. I was about to continue my conversation with him when a loud bell sound rang through the auditorium, and the curtains began to rhythmically fall shut one by one. I had almost forgotten that this guy loves his dramatic entrances.
Soon, the distinct k'duh, k'duh of leather shoes echoed over the now-hushed whispers of the students as Professor Paraveral entered the room. Whilst his efficiency and effectiveness as a professor had often been questioned by his students, it was impossible to argue that he didn't look the part, dressed in a pristine grey suit, a pair of brown shoes that looked like they had just been polished, with a white dress shirt and black tie peeking out from under his blazer.
“Now class, while I would like to welcome you back from your holidays I’m afraid that our lecture today is rather content-heavy so I would not like to waste precious time on such trivial things,” he began before turning to the chalkboard. The professor began to draw an intricate magic circle on the chalkboard, consisting of two main circles, a hexagram inscribed within the inner circle which was bordered by a ring of runic characters, the outer circle circumscribed by geometric lines that zig-zagged along its circumference with the outermost protrusions joined to form the edges of a twelve-sided polygon.
“Now class, today we begin our study on magic circles and the process and principle behind how mages are able to inscribe their spells onto the environment to be cast at their will. As you are all aware, mages oftentimes use magic circles to assist their visualisation and thus casting of a spell, which leads many to assume that they are nothing more than an abstract tool. However, that way of thinking is entirely incorrect as the magic circle actually encodes the caster’s will and intentions for the path the mana must take in order to perform the spell”
“Now class, if you would kindly turn your attention to this example I have drawn up on the board here, it is important to note that drawings of magic circles are not themselves magic circles but mere templates to form them when imbued with mana,” he explained, extending his hand out slightly as he began to infuse mana into the chalk drawing, which propagated a replica of itself, this time made out of mana, a couple of centimetres in front the board.
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As the magic circle illuminated the slightly dim auditorium with its yellowish-white light, there were a few hushed whispers from the rows of students in front of me, probably regarding what the professor would do with the projection.
“Now, now, settle down class,” the professor exclaimed, turning to face the rows of students frantically trying to scribble down a sketch of the magic circle in their notebooks. As he did so, the magic circle seemed to move with his hand, now being held out an inch or so in front of his right hand, which was pointing in our direction.
“Now class, as you can see in front of me this magic circle here is ready to be cast. I’ve held it out like this so that each and every one of you, and yes I do expect you to be copying this down, can clearly see the intricate detail housed within this inscription. Now, while I don’t expect any of you to be able to read or gauge the nature of the spell based on just its’ magic circle, a key attribute I want you to take away from this is that they do not have to be cast right as they are formed,”
As the professor explained this, he suddenly rotated his hand in the air slightly, the motion akin to turning a key in a lock, and almost instantly the magic circle disappeared, which caused a few gasps, some puzzled head turning, and more confused whispers to arise from the crowd.
“I’m surprised that geezer actually used the magic circle of a half-decent spell,” Lucas whispered.
“An Elysium right?”
“I’m surprised you recognised it,”
“Well a seasoned adventurer like myself should at least be able to do that much right? I even know a couple of mid-tier Elysiums if you wanted to see them,” I joked, managing to catch a glimpse of awe and excitement flashing across Lucas’ face before he recomposed himself.
“I might have to take you up on that offer. After all, who could resist seeing the remnants of the last Great Mage first-hand?” he laughed, before turning his attention back to the professor.
The Elysium Series was a collection of a hundred spells containing the wisdom and teachings of a man who existed during the Golden Age of Magic over a millennia ago, the Great Mage Elysia. Someone so gifted and knowledgeable on the properties of mana manipulation that he was said to be able to freely interchange between any element despite not possessing the affinities required at birth, an ability long since lost to time.
I had turned my attention back to the lecture briefly, as the professor began to explain to the students how despite the visual absence of the magic circle, it still lay there dormant in the air.
“So you see class, when a magic circle is made dormant it will automatically activate when tampered with, with the exception of a very skilful and precise application of mana known as a countercast, which we’ll explore more in-depth at a later date,” the professor explained, flamboyantly raising his left hand in front of him, with his index and middle fingers kept extended whilst the rest of them curled around his palm to make a gun shape. To prove his point, the professor gathered mana at his fingertips and prepared to release a bullet of mana towards the direction of the class.
The students watched as the bullet of mana flew off the professor's fingertips and flew straight towards them, with their initial shock being quickly replaced by surprise as the magic circle reappeared in front of the professor, dissipating the bullet of mana that had collided with its surface. Almost instantly, golden chains of mana began to shoot out of the magic circle, wrapping tightly around the professor’s arm.
The professor however gave no signs of surprise and stood there motionless like a statue before he slowly raised his right hand into the air, with only the first two fingers extended like he had down with his left earlier. With one swift motion he ‘cut’ through the air with his right hand and moments later the sound of shattering glass rung throughout the room as the magic circle collapsed.
“For your information class, what I did just then was in fact a countercast,” he uttered rather elegantly, before quickly dipping into a stylish bow as the students began to applaud him in unison, showering him in cheers.
“That was rather flashy wasn’t it?” I asked Lucas who I was surprised to see actually paying attention instead of reading his book which he had done for most of the lecture.
“Well, that’s one of the many annoying things you have to get used to if you want to sit through one of Paraveral’s lectures. Though I suppose seeing the 23rd Elysium and its countercast in action makes it somewhat worth it,” he quickly replied before he started to read his book again which amused me slightly.
After that somewhat exciting demonstration, the Professor began to ramble on and on about how small alterations to the magic circle of a spell can significantly change the produced effect, which led to more ramblings about ancient runes and the impact they have on spells until the whole lecture devolved into a history lesson about the origins of the runic alphabet, runestones, glyphs and everything that you wouldn’t find in a Magic Theory Lesson. For the most part, I hadn’t been paying attention to the stuff Professor Paraveral had been saying, I mean most of the stuff he was lecturing on about I had already known, but apart from me most of the other students had also drifted away from the professor’s ramblings in favour of doing their own things, Lucas included.
Instead, I began considering my plans and goals for this regression. I had come with the knowledge of the Legion’s actions yet I possessed no means to thwart them. Little was known about the Legion, no one knew where their base of operations was, nor what the high-ranking members even looked like, which meant there was little I could do to directly jeopardise their plans. However, what I could do was dedicate everything to empowering myself and those around me, so that when the Legion made a move, we would be ready for them.
The images of several powerful relics flashed into my mind, which was when I realised that as of now there could be artifacts that only I knew how to command, seeing as I witnessed them in action in the future.
If I could get my hands on even one of such relics or better yet stop them from falling into the hands of the Legion, I could rewrite the fate of the world itself.