The core group of the Misfits was gathering in their back garden, watching with awed looks as a dozen or so peashooters were walking on leaf-like legs, hopping and jumping around as if their torsos were made out of springs. Their bodies were differently colored; blue, green, orange, or black, and from their mouths, they were constantly releasing little bubbles and silly, happy noises.

"They are so cute!" Lia said, watching with sparkling eyes while Ceiline and Stumpy herded them into a group before the others with a proud look on her face.

"Are they… alive?" Rinzen asked, watching their happy, beady eyes as they lined up before them.

"Not really," Ceiline said, a bit out of breath because the little rascals were prone to wandering off and had to be flocked back to the line by Stumpy and her. The former proudly circled the group and watched the peashooters, acting as their guardian and overseer. "All of them are as alive as a plant. But they are etched in their core with a magic formation and soaked in the essence of one particular element."

"We also placed another formation in their pots while raising them." Raufon chimed in as he was helping Ceiline through the summer, staying at the Academy.

"They are acting along the parameters of the formation carved inside of their bodies! I made multiple changes to my original invention and made it adaptive."

"So they can learn?" Rinzen asked, her mouth hanging open, clearly stumped as she had never heard about something like this.

"A bit." Ceiline nodded after a brief thought. "Not like us, of course. They are… well, more adaptive. As I said. In a battle, they can comprehend what is happening, move out of harm's way, and counterattack. They are more autonomous than their pot-bound versions."

"You are a genius…" Aurora wrote, turning towards Ceiline, honestly amazed at her work.

"No shit!" Koadriana nodded, agreeing. "This is going to shake up the Houses for sure!"

"Y-you think?" She asked, getting a bit nervous.

"Why are they different in color?" Keily asked, raising his hand while doing so.

"The byproduct of being raised by their chosen element." She continued explaining, returning to her excited and happy expression, and with that, a magic circle appeared around her arm. Following the simple activation spell, the orange-colored peashooters hopped forward, sending fireballs toward the already-prepared Raufon.

"Woah!" They exclaimed as a group, watching them switch, and now the blue ones were spitting jets of water at him, and with another switch came the black peashooters, blowing black, tar-like smudge at his defenses.

"With the control spell, you can tune into their magic frequency and control them at will. You can dish out simple orders they will follow; attack, defend, patrol, guard, scout, retreat, scatter, and standby. These are pre-programmed into them. We did it when raising them!" She said with pride oozing from her as she set them back into standby mode, and the peashooters started to happily bounce around and blow bubbles again.

"This is… so… awesome!" Lia squealed, looking at them, hopping from one foot to another.

"They are still only as strong as a 2nd Tier mage." Raufon chuckled, shaking the tar off his hands and dispersing his armor. "But we are looking into raising stronger ones."

"The problem we ran into is that only one turns out to be good from five. The rest are defective. They mostly fail in maintaining their form and simply turn off, reverting back to that of a plant."

"Turn off?" Rinzen asked, and Ceiline nodded, waving her hand, and all the peashooters stopped moving and turned into nothing but a plant, without any bouncy movements or shine in their beady eyes.

"They are not sentient or alive like you think." Ceiline smiled softly, "They are mimicking it via magic. They run on mana, and when they deplete it, they revert back to plants. Of course, the successful ones, like these, enter a recharge state. See as they root themselves down? They take nutrients from the ground and air, and after a day or so, they are back to full force!" She laughed, turning them back on.

"They can last two days on standby!" Raufon said just as proudly as Ceiline. "Of course, in battle, they would only go for half an hour or maybe, MAYBE a full hour! We are still working on improving that!"

"This needs to be sealed," Rinzen said suddenly, shocking everyone, especially because her voice was firm and authoritative. Her aura was unmistakable as the Head of one of the Houses. "You can't teach this to anyone but your House and those who take an oath to the Nerifits." She said, looking into Ceiline's eyes, almost ordering her. "I will send word for the others. This is a new spell that is not for the public. Who knows how to create them?"

"Only us!" Ceiline said, turning scared momentarily, raising a hand along with Raufon.

"I am honor bound to the Amarins," Raufon said defiantly and a bit apologetically, glancing at Ceiline.

"No problem." Rinzen nodded. "It is just that this can't leave the hands of the Six. No outsiders are allowed to learn this, not without our control and supervision! Got it?"

"Yes!" They answered in unison while Lia was looking at Rinzen with surprise.

"You spoke like my Mom right now."

"I am part of the Six." She replied, looking a bit embarrassed. "I have… obligations."

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"Um. I know." She smiled at her, patting her hand. "Still, Ceiline, this is awesome! We have to celebrate this!"

"Yeah!" Keily agreed, "Let's have a barbecue!"

"I won't argue with that." Raufon grinned, patting Ceiline's shoulder, who still looked nervous. Now that she started thinking about what her invention may mean for her or her House, she became aware that this turned out to be something that was way beyond her.

…

….

……

"You already saved it?" Lucian asked as Somia materialized next to him in his office.

"Of course." She nodded, letting the Headmaster read through Celine's spell and how she created her peashooters. "She used the bracelet for the difficult equations. I co-created it, in a way."

"Heh… I wonder how many spells you know and keep in your head."

"1,080,931,067,248 currently."

"Over a trillion?!" Lucian yelled, almost falling back in his chair, looking as if his long, fluffy tail had been stepped on. Repeatedly.

"All the spells are recorded in the Academy's library. In me. I can recall them if you have the spells' names. Every spell that was ever used with my bracelets gets documented. What I personally remember and could cite to you by will is around only a thousand. No more. I only memorize the truly unique ones even if I couldn't use them."

"Scary…" He whispered, biting his lips, watching the half-transparent body of hers.

"I designed the bracelets and myself to be the repository for all spells. We are only returning to where we were before our Realm was sealed. We can't let our knowledge be lost again. And that is an optimistic evaluation on my part."

"So we are getting as strong as before the dark ages…." Lucian murmured, but Somia shook her head.

"No. I did not mean that. We are getting there in knowledge, inventions, and magic technology. Our ancestors were much stronger than we are now. For one simple reason; the Realm was not sealed back then."

Since learning about her presence, Lucian also learned a lot from Somia, especially concerning the times before the Dark Ages. Which was, in turn, taught to her by Erias. In their words, their Realm experienced a calamity somewhere ten thousand years ago. It was not a natural one, but an attack from the outside that resulted in their Realms being sealed away. It was hard to believe, but all the evidence that Somia shared with him pointed to it being true. Lucian felt that Somia knew more than she let on, but if she did not want to share, it was not his place to ask. No matter how hard his side was, he was itching to know more.

"What are your plans for this year?" Somia asked, jolting Lucian back to the present moment. "You have to focus on the now and not on... theories."

"Teach them hard. We don't know how much time we got."

"A decade. At most, going by my estimations." Somia said calmly, dousing him in cold water.

"Shit…"

"You are more ready this time. It won't be like 4000 years ago."

"I hope so. I need to accelerate Lia's No-Space study and pit the Misfits against the Undead. I will focus on the most talented ones. Their group climbed to the top of my Academy in two years; now, if they want to stay there, they must perform!"

"Good idea. I can fish out Undead for you to use in training. My telescope is sensitive to their presence. I made it to find where they were hiding anyway. I will find them, and you can bring them out."

"Not for searching for lost holding bags?" Lucian asked as he was in the belief that was their primary purpose.

"That was a byproduct. Its main function was to find the Undead and discover why they retreat into No-Space and how they remain… intact. Why do you think they managed to find one at its first usage?"

"You should have left a warning up…"

"Hm." She fell silent, thinking but then simply nodded. "My bad."

"..."

"They will lie low for the foreseeable future," Somia spoke again after a moment of silence. "Partially, because we are prepared for them this time."

"There is more to that."

"Yes. This time, they can't focus on their attack. Erias is at their side, disrupting them."

"Can we send help to him? Through you, maybe?" Lucian asked, thinking about many things, but Somia shook her head.

"No. That is a realm of non-physical reality. Relax. He had been preparing for this for a long time. Our Realm will be freed of the Undead, and the doors will be reopened to the Cosmos in this Era."

"I just don't know how much of it will remain standing to see that day."

"Just make sure that enough survive so we can rebuild," Somia answered coldly before disappearing, leaving Lucian there, rubbing his forehead, and feeling a headache creeping up.

…

….

……

Lia was standing straight, her body surrounded by blue flames, resisting the wild and dangerous winds of No-Space, keeping her soul inside her body, while Lucian stood next to her, watching.

"We are getting there."

“I… can’t…” She groaned, and by just opening her mouth, a part of her soul was starting to fly out.

"Let's rest," Lucian said, watching her trying to gulp it back before being teleported back to their classroom, hidden between reality and No-Space. "You were close to a minute now. Good job!"

"T-thanks!" Lia gasped for air, leaning forward, barely supporting herself.

"You surprised me with the fact you managed to teleport. How did you learn that?"

"When I interfered with yours." She said, forming a slight, playful grin. "I noticed that you had a connection to reality through that gate-like spell. You were using it as an anchor?"

"Yes." He nodded, letting her continue.

"I just… copied that. Open the door to No-Space by my magic, slip in, and try to reenter, my senses honed onto the anchor point I left behind!"

"Your mind is dangerous, girl. Doing that requires a ton of preparation and calculations… you could have been lost in No-Space and died!"

"I still did it!" She showed a proud V-sign.

"Haaah… I won't argue with you, but you need proper training! From now in, we are going to take strolls in No-Space until you get used to it and can withstand it for at least ten minutes!"

"Sure!" She agreed readily, not backing down at all. "Teleporting could be extremely useful in a battle! How long can you stay in there?"

"With my current strength, around an hour. If I do battle in there, make that into ten minutes."

"Battle in No-Space?"

"Yes." He warned her seriously, "Undead can follow you in, and they won't be affected by it. They hold the advantage in there, and by casting magic, you would be drained of energy way faster! It is not a space for us to exist in. Don't take it lightly!"

"Y-yes!" She nodded, looking into his eyes earnestly.

"Mhm. Now… rest. And we are going to go back in after you are ready. My goal will be this year to make sure you can travel through it safely and firmly while teleporting. But don't use it callously, Lia! It is a weapon best to use when nobody expects it, and finish off your enemies in a flash! When an Intelligent Undead sees you do it and you let it survive, all the others will be aware of the fact. You just can't risk that!"

"Got it!" She gulped, sitting down, meditating to restore her mana and go at it again. She had a feeling that it was not just her mother that looked anxious, trying to hide it, but also Lucian. It was enough for Lia to ensure the Undead were up to something, and she wanted to be ready. When the time came, she was not about to run or hide but fight on the frontlines with her brothers and parents.