"What is this place?" Ari asked aloud. Turning around, he watched the blank white expanse around him, no wall visible as the floor and ceiling shared the same color.

"Welcome to My Space," Udin replied. "This is a space I created using my Kairos fruit power."

"Why?" Ari asked, his expression grim. "Why did you take me here, Udin?"

"There was something that I needed to tell you," Udin responded, puzzling Ari with his answer.

"After the bombshell of information that you had just dropped? I can't imagine there would be something more confidential than that for you to bring me to this place," Ari remarked, incredulous at Udin's reason.

"I don't want Opet to hear this conversation," Udin revealed, his expression complicated.

"What?" Ari scoffed. "Why? Even if you don't want Opet to hear what you were trying to tell me, the fact that you brought me here would already make him suspicious. There'd be no way he wouldn't react when his two roommates just disappeared in front of him. Moreover, the longer we stay here the more he becomes suspicious of where the hell we went to."

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about that," he replied, his face complicated.

"What do you mean?" Ari demanded.

"The thing is, as far as Opet was concerned, we haven't gone anywhere at all. The you and me that inhabit this place were nothing but our consciousness. Moreover, this place is outside of the timestream. No time will pass on the outside world when we leave this place. The only thing that Opet will see is that the two of us just went still for a couple of seconds, and then we resumed as if nothing happened."

"So, this is a kidnapping, then?" Ari accused, his expression hardened at the situation he found himself in. "All your talks about fate and my body being taken over by a ghost. It was nothing but a misdirection, huh? The truth is, you were the one that wanted to take over my body, was that it?"

"No, no, no! You misunderstood!" Udin refuted with haste, panicking as both of his hands waved back and forth in frantic motion. "I only bring you here to talk, that's all! I swear!"

"Why would I believe you? As far as I'm concerned, all the things that you spout in the cafeteria were a lie. Fate doesn't exist, and not every name is meant to be taken seriously.

"Not every name has a hidden meaning, Udin. Even if the Charismata fruit's name is actually derived from those modes of persuasion that you talked about, it could just mean that the Anesthetist chose them because they sounded cool enough."

"What about True Name, then?" Udin countered, causing Ari to go silent. "Sinstramata. Does that ring any bell?"

With eyes widened in shock, Ari felt his heart skip a beat as he was unable to believe what he had just heard from Udin's mouth.

It only took a moment before Ari was able to respond. In an instant, he was in front of Udin. He grasped Udin's collar, bringing Udin's face closer to him. "Who told you that name?!" Ari growled with a furious face, jolting Udin in fright. In this non-physical space, their form is a mirror of their spirit. While Udin looked like the exact person he was in the physical world, the same thing can't be said about Ari.

Just like Udin, Ari was also here wearing his gray school blazer and uniform. But unlike Udin, his face looks different. While he still looked bald with no hair covering his smooth tan skin, every orifice of his body was filled with grayish-pink hair. Mouth, nostrils, eye sockets, each and every hole in his body are full of it. He looks like a puppet made out of human skin, stuffed full of human hair the color of gray matter.

"No one! No one," Udin said, averting his gaze from the inhuman visage before him. "I learned of the name from my prophecy."

Sinistramata, the left eye. That was Dom's true name that bound him to Ares, Dextramata, in a familiar bond. Every Simalolong clan member was bonded with a newly spawned Oculi familiar since they were born. The fact that the two newly born entities were bonded just after they were born into this world makes their bond special.

Oculi, as a spawn of Mind-elemental calamity, are spawned with a mature human intellect. These true names are the names that they thought of as they are bonded together in a familiar bond. The only ones who should know about these names are Dom and Ares alone. Ari, as someone who inherited Ares' memories, is the only one who should know of this name aside from Dom.

"Where did this prophecy come from, Udin?" Ari demanded.

"Like I said, I got them from the Anesthetic herself."

"You really mean that the enigmatic Anesthetic has not only granted you a Kairos fruit, a fruit that you claimed can change fate but also shown you such prophecy? What are you, humanity's savior?"

Udin was silent, unsure of how to proceed. He doesn't expect this level of hostility from Ari.

"Can you identify Charismata fruit, Ari?" Udin whispered after a while.

"I can," he replied. Seeing Udin so meek while he held him like this, Ari couldn't help but feel his emotions bled off.

Manipulating his fruit power, Udin manifested a small card in his right hand. "Here," he said, offering the card to Ari. "That's the manifestation of my fruit's spirit."

"A card?" Ari asked, puzzled. While he can't say that he was knowledgeable about matters concerning the mythical Kairos fruit, he had never known of a fruit that derived its legacy from a card.

Holding the card, Ari saw a cosmic-themed pattern on the backside of the card. Flipping the card around, he saw the image of a singular man in a medievalesque art style. The man stood on the edge of a cliff, his feet about to step off of it. In his hands, he holds a bundle of things tied to a stick. A wanderer, the imagery of a vagrant. On the bottom of the card, written in a fancy font was written 'THE FOOL'.

"So this is a Kairos fruit, huh?" Ari remarked as he sensed the three powers of the fruit. Logos fruit was the easiest, only having 16 possible elements. Using observation magic, Ari felt the mana emitted by the card using his own. He felt the mana of the card reacting to his mana, a feeling of vast infinity spread around him, ever-present yet always almost undetectable. The logos component of the fruit is space, the existence of the place they were in was evidence of that fact.

He also felt the mana try to elude him. He felt the mana of the card move in his hand, but instead of moving around his mana-coated hand, it passed through it instead. Nothing is able to contain this concept, able to phase through physical and even nonphysical objects. The Ethos component of the fruit embodied the concept of intangibility. No obstacle can bar the fruit's path, able to escape even from the timestream itself to escape reality to have a chat with him.

And lastly, Ari felt the feeling of meeting a drifter. He was a wanderer, an explorer, traveling the world to places that fancied him, and no one could tell him otherwise. The Pathos component of the fruit is the legacy of a freeman. His spirit is his own, no one can force him into a binding contract but himself. No one can displace his soul by force, and no one can enter his spiritual domain unless he lets them in.

The three powers are one and the same, a facet of the mythical spirit fruit.

Receiving the card back from Ari, Udin absorbed back the manifested representation of his fruit's power. "Do you believe me, now?" asked him.

"I can't think how this proves that what you had said about being granted this fruit by the Anesthetist and showed a prophetic dream."

"That's... I don't know what else I can do to convince you, then," Udin said in exasperation. "You can only trust me on my words."

Ari was silent, processing the information. "Okay. Let's say I believed you. Why would you tell me this? And why would you want Opet to hear nothing of this?"

Udin was silent as he thought about how to answer Ari. In the end, he decided to reveal a bit more of himself. "Do you believe in an alternate universe exists, Ari?" Udin asked.

Ari didn't know where this question came from, but he answered it anyway. "I mean, what the necromancer does is basically summoning spirits from an alternate universe, aren't they? So yes, I do believe an alternate universe exists."

"Would you believe me if I said I remember my past memories of living in another universe?"

"Of course. Of course, you do," Ari said with a defeated sigh.

Udin ignored Ari's reaction and continued his explanation. "In my previous life, there was a novel series that was famous worldwide. Xenarch - the sorcier lord," Udin started. "And the author of that book is named Anastasia Corbuzier, with a pen name the Anesthetist. The prophecy that I talked about are all the things that she wrote down in the books," Udin revealed at last.

Ari was silent as he tried to process the information. Anastasha Corbuzier is able to manifest magic upon the mundane world with nothing but modern earth technology. What's to stop her from influencing the world to obey her vision, the narratives that she designed, now that she wields magic? And what's to stop her from writing those visions down in a book, and then disseminating it in an alternate world?

"The day that I died, I and twenty-five of my high school friends took a trip to the mountain villa to celebrate our graduation day. Then, the bus that we rode fell off a cliff," Udin continued. "When we came to, we found ourselves in a pitch-black space. In that place, the form of Anastasia Corbuzier appeared. She looks just like how she looks in photos back in our world, but we can sense the difference. In that space, she was a god. She has an aura about her that feels like can destroy us with her mere thought. An authority to affect the reality around her.

"She offered us a new life in the world that she had created, in this world. She gave us each a Kairos fruit of the Arcana series, and in exchange, we are to do our best to subvert the narratives that she had built. We are to change the fate of the world, and she will do her best to thwart us and make sure that fate will run its course."

"So you are saying that there were 26 otherworlders that wield Kairos fruit in this world, trying to divert fate and fight against the Anesthetist herself? Why would she ever do that?" Ari asked, incredulous. He was unsure how to feel about this revelation.

"And how should I know what her reason was? And no, it was only me that was sent early. I was sent here as a baby with my past memories intact, while the other twenty-five are to be sent here at the exact same time the novel started."

"And when was that?" Ari inquired.

"Three years from now, when Opet and the others are starting their lives as a university student," he replied.

"So why did you tell me all this, then? And why can't Opet hear nothing of this?"

"Because I don't want to change his fate," Udin answered. "I loved reading Opet's and the others' story, and I would hate myself if my meddling would only change their fate for the worse. That's why I tried so hard to be as far away as possible from you and the other classmates. I don't want to influence their fate.

"But you are different, Ari. You, you met a tragic fate here in this school. I don't know much about this present because I had never read about *you*. I only know about the Ares Simalolong which has been taken over by a ghost that haunts this school.

"I don't know much about what happened to you because it was before the timeline of the original novel. I planned to do the same to you as I did to the other, ignoring you.

"But seeing you interacting with Opet in the class, someone that I enjoyed reading about, I can't help but feel guilty for knowing what would have happened to you and do nothing about it. I realized then, that nothing is stopping me from informing you of your fate. If I could change your fate for the better, then I would gladly help you by informing you about this."

Releasing his grip over Udin's clothes, Ari began to pace around the place as he tried to gather his thoughts.

"I'll need to think about this," Ari said after a while. "Please, return me back."

Udin nodded his head as he watched Ari lost in his own head.

With a swipe of Udin's hand, Ari saw the scenery change into a familiar expanse. The blood-red floor represents the body, the grayish-pink ceiling represents the mind, and a wall in a kaleidoscope of color represents the soul. The instinct, the thinking, and the feeling triad of the spirit, marking the boundary between his spiritual domain and the physical world.

"That's Dom isn't it?" Udin asked from the right side of the throne he sat on, looking toward the meditating form of Dom. Dom was seated in the middle of this body's spiritual domain, his legs crossed and eyes closed as he isolated himself from the physical world through deep meditation.

He looks just like what Ares should have looked like had his body was not used for the ritual to awaken Ari. Dom's medium-sized build is lean with wiry muscle, unlike Ari's which had some flabby skin in areas of his body as if he was using oversized skin to cover the skinless body of Ares. It was an anomaly how the magically healed skin had grown like that, but Dom could care less about it.

Other than the skin, the biggest difference between Dom's soul and Ari's body is that he still had his hair intact. Sixteen braids of grayish-pink hair sprouted from his scalp, each strand of braids ending in an eyeball-sized orb of the same color as the hair.

"Looks like a human-beholder hybrid," Udin commented.

"You should leave, Udin," Ari suggested in a not subtle manner, flexing his will to evict the foreign soul from his spiritual domain. This was Ari's inherited spiritual domain, he had authority in this place to evict and let another soul in at will.

While others can use their magical power to contest this authority, Ari felt like he was bashing his own head at a solid wall as he tried to evict Udin. It was as if he had no authority at all against Udin, his will clashing against an immovable object.

"Alright, alright," Udin said, his hands raised in mock surrender. Activating his fruit poser, he phased through Ari's spiritual domain to return to the physical world.

Left alone in his own inner world, Ari couldn't help but sigh as he resolved himself to return to the real world.

----------------------------------------

"Are you sure you are alright?" Opet asked him for the nth time. The lunch break was over and now they entered the third period, the Augmentation magic practice.

Using the dueling hall as a site of their practice, the twelve members of their class are already inside the modified dueling arena. Donning their combat unitard, the teal-colored uniform is a contrast to the gray arena floor and white dome marking the boundary of the area.

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Unlike the general education class where the three classes of twelve students attended the same lecture, this time each class occupied their own dueling room. They were to battle against each other in the near future, the less they knew about each other's strengths and weaknesses the better.

it was several minutes before the class started, so the students were still grouped around each other to spend the time. Just like in the cafeteria, the three roommates Ari, Opet, and Udin are stuck around each other. Until the end of their lunch break, Ren had not reached out to them again.

"Yeah, I'm alright Opet," Ari replied, sighing once more. He watched as Ren was talking with a girl, Evelyn, a distance away from the other classmates. "Just having a lot to think about."

"What were you discussing, anyway? It was like, boom, a burst of space mana blew apart your wind barrier, and then some moments later the two of you are done talking telepathically. It was too short for you to be sighing so much this past hour, in my opinion."

"Just more of the fate talk is all."

"Why would you talk telepathically if it was more of the same?" Opet inquired, not believing him.

"He just felt that the info is a bit private for you to hear, that's all," Ari said in half-truth. While it's true that Udin doesn't want Opet to hear their talk, Ari framed it like what was private was Ari's fate, instead of the fact that Udin was a transmigrator sent here by the lady hypnotist herself to change the fate of the world around for some reason. 'Why would someone want to send strangers to go around and distort their vision, anyway?' Ari asked himself for another time.

"I see. You should think about it later then, instructor Budi has already arrived."

Turning his head towards the new presence, Ari found instructor Budi walking towards the center of the arena with four others in tow. Unlike the students, the teal-colored unitard the five are using had some extra accent to indicate that they were a teacher.

"Attention, everyone," their homeroom teacher called them as he arrived, his voice stern as always. "These four fresh university graduates are here to act as your mentor for magic training classes. The twelve of you will be grouped into teams with your roommates.

"These four each will act as the mentor of your team," the instructor said, his hand indicating the four young adults following him. "I'm here to act as a supervisor, overseeing your training with your mentor. Understood?"

Seeing that no one raised a question, instructor Budi nodded his head and took his leave. He headed towards the edge of the arena. Once there, he took the teleporter to go to the monitoring room of the dueling hall, monitoring the class in progress.

"It seems that we are also teammates now," Opet remarked. Ari nodded in return, watching as the four mentors each walked towards their respective mentee.

"Ei-yo, there!" said one of the mentors as he approached their group. His hand raised above his dark blonde hair in greeting. The young man smiled at the three's direction, his green eyes twinkling with eagerness. "How convenient, for the three of you to already be grouped with your teammates.

"My name is Karl Magnussen," their apparent mentor said. "I'll be your mentor for the next 3 years."

"Yo," Opet greeted back, his hands raised in return. The other two also raised their hands following Opet's lead. "Err, what should we call you, senior?"

"Just Karl is fine," he replied, his hands moving in a shooing motion to dispel our worries. "Alright, then! You three ready to start your first magic class in high school?" their mentor asked as he watched the three for their reaction.

"Can I ask a question, Karl?" Ari said with a raised hand.

"Sure, go ahead," he said nodding his head in Ari's direction.

"The instructor mentioned earlier that you are a fresh graduate from a sorcier university. Is that true?"

"Yeah," their mentor answered, nodding his head. "And what of it?"

"Why did you become a high school mentor, Karl? Isn't the University's graduates required to conscript into the military?"

"Oh? You were curious about that?" Karl responded. "You see. When you guys graduate from here, you'll be promoted into a Senior Sorcier, right?"

Ari nodded his head in affirmation. When someone began their journey to become a sorcier, they trained as an apprentice sorcier for three years in the middle school of a sorcier academy. The ones that graduate from these middle schools are then promoted to the rank of junior sorcier.

The graduates from the high school of Sorcier Academy experienced the same thing. When they graduate, they are promoted to the ranks of Senior Sorcier.

"Unlike middle school and high school where you are promoted to the next rank the moment you graduate, Sorcier University is different. In order for the graduates of Sorcier Universities to be promoted to the rank of expert Sorcier, we also needed commendation from at least 3 expert sorcier and 1 elite sorcier.

"The conventional way to get these commendations is by serving in the Military. As for me and my friends, we are here as a mentor to get a commendation from an expert sorcier, and in this case instructor Budi. That's all."

"Huh? But then why don't every university's graduates just become a mentor then?" Ari asked, puzzled.

"Well, because only the top third of all graduates are given the chance to. It was a privilege that not everyone can enjoy," their mentor replied like it should be obvious to the three of them.

"You see," he continued. "Compared to serving in the military for 5 years, mentoring you guys will take 3 years right? While we were also needed to serve for 5 years eventually, these next three years that we took as a mentor would be counted as well.

"This means that after our duty as your mentor is done, we only needed to serve for just two years. Moreover, since by then we are already an expert sorcier, we would receive a better treatment as well compared to our peers that served as a senior sorcier."

"That sounds nice," Ari thought aloud.

"Right?" Karl said in agreement, his smile radiant as he enjoyed himself. "While we would be responsible for your progress as sorcier, it would be miles better than having to scour the country for a sign of calamity outbreak for five whole years. I suggested you three take your training seriously if you guys want to be like me and the others. And that starts with this class."

After saying that, their mentor waved his hands. The space in front of him distorted as three wooden swords materialized and floated before him. "Before we begin your training, I want you guys to take these," their mentor said. Waving his arm forward, the swords floated over to each of them.

"Wooden sword?" Udin remarked as he grabbed the sword before him. The moment he grabbed the sword, the magic that held the sword afloat vanished, jerking Udin's hand with the sudden weight increase.

"Not just any sword. It was a Longinus," Karl clarified.

Longinus, the main armament of any qualified psychopomp. One can even say that the Longinus is a companion of a Psychopomp, their partner in their duty. A psychopomp channels their Absolution magic through their personal Longinus to cleanse any lingering spirit that refuses to proceed to the afterlife.

"Well, training Longinus to be exact," their mentor added. "You will get your personal Longinus of your preferred weapon type at a later date. For now, these will do just fine.

"As a psychopomp trainee, it is imperative for you guys to master the Separation magic technique. A psychopomp uses the Absolution magic technique to cleanse a lingering spirit and send it into the afterlife, and Separation magic is a vital component to mastering the magic.

"While Longinus can take any form of weapon that suits each psychopomp, the sword-shaped Longinus is a very good tool to assist you three to learn to wield and master the Separation technique."

"Are we gonna learn separation magic then, Karl?" Opet asked as he inspected the wooden sword in his hands. Turning the sword in this and that direction, he examined the deep brown wood of the blade.

The Longinus is in the shape of a European longsword. The crossguard ends in a bulbous shape similar to the rounded pommel at the bottom of the wrapped grip of the sword.

"No, Separation magic is for tomorrow's class. For today, we are going to practice Augmentation magic," Karl informed them. "You guys had any problem wielding augmentation magic?"

The three of them shake their heads. During the three years of middle school, each student has only ever been trained to wield and masters the five primary magic technique. This was done to make the students focus on building their foundation. Any other technique can be learned later in high school and university.

"Alright then. Today's practice is about maintaining output control of your augmentation magic in prolonged use," their mentor said as he began to walk toward one corner of the arena.

"What are we going to do, Karl?" Opet asked as he and the other two followed their mentor.

"You are going to float in place," he answered.

"And how should we do that?" Opet asked once again.

"By jumping up using augmentation magic and keeping it up with just enough output to counteract the force of gravity," he replied as he stopped near the edge of the arena. Turning around to face the three, he made a shooing gesture at them.

"Take your position in a line with 2 meters distance between each of you," he instructed them. "Oh, I almost forgot. Only use augmentation magic, alright? No domination or other magic to improve your magical control."

"But why though?" Opet asked. "If we're to train our magical output, then isn't it better to just complement the augmentation magic by using domination magic on our mana to maintain the mana inputted to operate the augment? Domination magic is better suited for it."

"Sure, but let me ask you a question, Petrus. How many kinds of magic techniques can you use at the same time?"

"I can use two different magic no problem," Opet replied. "And also, Karl. Call me Opet, please. I'm used to being called that by my friends."

"Oh, right. I haven't asked you guys for that haven't I?" he chuckled. "And what about you? Syafruddin Prawiranegara, was it? How much can you handle and what should I call you?"

"Just call me Udin, err... Karl" Udin answered, uncomfortable at calling their mentor by just that. "I'm the same as Opet. I can use two kinds of magic at the same time."

"What about you, Ares?" his mentor asked without hesitating to call him Ares. "And what should I call you?"

"Ari. Ari is fine. I can use two kinds of magic with no problem, and if I focus myself I can manage to squeeze in a third one," answered Ari, making his mentor's eyebrow raised in surprise. "But because all my focus is used to perform the third magic, the efficiency of the spell is atrocious. It wastes too much mana. While I can brute force it by feeding it more mana to achieve the same output as the first two, I can't rely on it more than once or twice before my mana is exhausted."

"Not bad, not bad at all," his mentor praised him. "You must have worked hard to already reach this level."

"Yeah," Ari answered with less enthusiasm than he should have. While he has worked and trained hard these two years since he was awakened, most of the work is done by Ares and also Dom, his predecessor.

"So, back to the topic," Karl started. "While it's true that domination magic is more suitable for regulating your magic, you guys have a limited capacity to wield various types of magic at once. That's why it was better for you to hone your intrinsic control over your augmentation magic."

The three of them nods their head in understanding. Putting their new training Longinus some distance away, the three of them took their position and jumped.

Under normal circumstances, augmentation magic is used to boost the power of someone's attack. Using the magic on one's body, a sorcier can augment their attacks and even themselves to cause tremendous damage in one attack.

On the other hand, this exercise is designed to apply force on the body and continue to supply it. By applying a force equal to that of gravity, the three of them are able to stay afloat.

The three of them bobbed in the air as their mentor watched over them, their output not stable enough to be constant. They had just passed the two-minute mark when Udin swayed around. His body moved back and forth as he tried to remain stable, but alas.

Udin flipped upside down. The moment his head turned downward, his body began falling faster than it should be.

"Urgh," their teammates groaned as he held his head in a pained expression. Karl reached him not long after, using magic to heal Udin.

"Alright, alright. Let's take a break a bit. You two can stop as well," their mentor instructed.

They stand around Udin's collapsed form. "How do you feel Udin?" asked their mentor.

"Better," he replied as he raised himself to a seated position, his head hung down. Now that he was healed, the pain had gone and he was only left with the feeling of embarrassment.

"Do you know what you did wrong?" asked their mentor.

"I only applied force along the center of my body instead of applying it all throughout my body," Udin replied.

"You are correct," Karl replied. "But you are a junior sorcier, so it's normal for you to not be able to do that just yet.

"If you were to also use conception magic on your spiritual domain and then use augmentation on it, then you should be able to do what you said just fine. But you were constrained to only use your augmentation magic, so only applying it on several discrete places is to be expected. Instead, you should do it like how your teammates do it."

"And how did you do it?" Udin asked the other two, a sinking feeling in his stomach as he waited for their answer.

"By using augmentation not only on my center of mass but also on my hands for stability," Ari replied.

"Dammit," Udin grumbled under his breath. "I should've thought about that."

Their mentor couldn't help but smile at Udin's reaction. "Alright. It's good that you learned from your mistakes.

"You are able to maintain it for just over two minutes, just one minute shy from when I would want you to stop and rest for a bit. Now that it's almost five minutes since you start, chop chop. Go back to training. Three minutes floating and two minutes rest."

And with that, they continued their augmentation magic training.

----------------------------------------

"Good work boys," Karl congratulated, approaching the three.

The three of them are sprawled on the ground, heaving and wheezing after an hour-long magic practice. While their mana usage is nowhere near exhaustion, the fact that they had to stay focused for about thirty-five minutes over the hour-long session has drained their mental juice.

"Here, take this," their mentor said as he produced three packs of cyan-colored liquid with a cap on it. "Drink it. It should help you to recover more of your mana and mental energy while you are rested."

After distributing a pack to each of them, their mentor took a seat on the floor of the arena among them. "So, how's your first day of high school?" he asked them.

"Great, I guess," Opet answered, laying spread eagle on his back. "Aside from instructor Budi's boring explanation of the curriculum, everything was fine."

"Same here," agreed Udin, raising his hand as bit as he lay on his stomach. Besides the altercation with Ari, it was a normal school life for him.

"Yeah," Ari responded. "While I was a bit uncomfortable for a bit during the general education classes, everything was fine."

During their first and second period, they attend the same lecture as two other classes, the Hunter class and the Pastor class. Because of the small number of population of each class, it was more efficient for three classes of twelve students to attend the same lecture.

But because of this, Ari couldn't help but be the center of attention of the other two classes' members. While everyone was polite enough to not bother him, the feeling of being observed by twenty-four curious pairs of eyes unnerved him a bit, the inconvenience of enhanced sense once again rearing its ugly head.

"You're a bit famous aren't you, Ari? With the rumor and all," his mentor laughed at his misfortune. "Well, speaking of rumor, have you heard about the ghost that haunted this school?"

Ari felt goosebumps across his body at what their mentor had just mentioned. "What rumor?" he inquired, his full focus directed at Karl.

On the corner of his eyes, he noticed Udin stiffen at hearing their mentor. He pushed himself against the floor, raising his body to a seated position to hear their mentor out.

Sensing the mood change of his two teammates, Opet also raised his body and sat up to hear what made his teammates so interested.

"Oh? Interested, aren't you?" Karl remarked at seeing the three's reaction. "Well, there is a rumor that since the past year or so, there has been a ghost that haunts the first-year student dormitory. Each night, there would be someone who was possessed by the ghost during their sleep, and the ghost would bring the victims into the Dungeon Pagoda to enter a dungeon and then kill them off. The victims would only realize what happened to them twelve hours later when they woke up in the healing pavilion in a new clone."

Ari was silent as he digested what their mentor had just told them. "And why would the school do nothing about it?" he asked after some time. "It was more than a year already, so why would no one do something about it? We are a sorcier school for fucks sake, there should be someone that can contact an expert psychopomp to exorcise the damn ghost."

The other three watch as Ari gets more and more worked up the more he talks. He was heaving afterward, his emotion sky-high. Opet couldn't do anything but sit beside him and give him a side hug.

"I don't know why you're so upset about this, but there are reasons the school is unable to do anything about it," their mentor clarified. "The most important fact is that the ghost was not just any other ghost. It was a student who killed himself and haunted the school premises as a ghost ever since."

Ari and the others are unsure how they feel about that.

"Is the student that powerful that no one can exorcise him?" Ari asked.

"No, not at all. In fact, it was the ghost of a first-year student. About a year and four months ago, a student got expelled from the school. Unable to accept the fact, he decided to take his own life by severing his own spiritual domain.

"While he was officially expelled from the school, the fact that his original body was still in the healing pavilion made it so that every time someone tried to exorcise him, the healing pavilion would heal him back and he would escape once more."

"Then why doesn't the school just remove his original body from the healing pavilion then?" Opet asked.

"You see. The healing pavilion worked by connecting your original body and clone in a sympathetic bond. This bond then allows your spirit to inhabit both bodies at once. It basically helps you create and maintain a clone of your body, as you can't do that as of yet. The moment your clone dies, your spirit returns to your main body.

The only way for someone to remove a student's original body from the healing pavilion's cloning center is by having their spirit also inhabit the original body. In other words, by having their clone killed.

But this ghost, Radja Iandhika, if I remember his name correctly. He has severed his spirit so that his original body is still alive while his spirit died to become a ghost. And because his body is alive, nobody can remove it from the healing pavilion.

And because the healing pavilion is unable to heal the severed spirit back whole again the moment we exorcise the ghost, the ghost is then just restored back to its original condition when Radja severed his own spirit."

"Why don't they just seal the ghost then?" Opet asked. As a child of a renowned sealing master, he was more knowledgeable about the topics compared to his two teammates.

"More of the same, truly. The healing pavilion won't let anyone seal the spirit of the students that it protects, even if the spirit is dead and already," Karl replied.

"That's... frustrating," Opet remarked.

"I know right? But many of the powerful magical that the school uses are the creations of The Founder, Sir Pandji. The sorcier academy is the place to nurture the future sorcier of the country, so he made sure to apply as many safety precautions as he could. He made it so that only the Archon of the country, and the one that is chosen by the Ophiuchus Kairos fruit just like himself, can change how this artifact works. So, unless you three or others managed to be chosen by the Ophiuchus fruit and become the Archon can the situation change for the better."

The three of them are silent as they each process this information. Before long, the bell rang from somewhere outside the dome, indicating that the third period was over.

And with that, their first day of high school is over.