“Hmmm … this is strange …” Elder Roon mumbled under his nose, but it didn’t go unnoticed.
The other six – two men currently playing Go and two more men and two women observing the game that had already lasted for over a month, immediately glanced towards the bold elderly man in brown robe who sat cross legged in front of a large slate while pressing his palms on it.
“What happened?” Elder Salana asked.
If she was a mortal woman, one might assume she was around forty years old, but just like the rest of the present she was a true immortal thus no one had an actual clue about her age, except for herself, of course. What everyone could agree upon though was the fact that she was incredibly attractive – not a random teenage doll, but a lady radiating allure that stemmed from her inner beauty.
The other female of the group, elder Mist, was rather similar to her colleague, in fact, for multiple centuries they had this silent competition on who was the top beauty in the War Academy. The main difference between them was that elder Mist always wore white while elder Salana preferred dark colors.
The rest, elders Ulano, Stan, Jabari and Neely, were true immortals just like their female colleagues, each with their own particularities, but there was one common characteristic among all present, except for elder Roon that is – they all were bored and found excuses to be here, next to the three by six yard stone slate in hopes something exciting might finally happen.
Instead of going on with their regular duties, they hung around the large hall elder Roon usually worked in. He was one of the most experienced runemasters of the Immortal Alliance and did his research for thousands of years. The only problem was that from the moment he graduated he never stepped out the War Academy and continued his research here. Of course, it was considered a ‘problem’ or rather – a waste by other academics of the Immortal Alliance, but the man himself didn’t care at all. He loved it here and that is why he stayed.
The complex rune formation he was currently operating showed the progress of around hundred youths. They were the cream of the crop talents that gathered from the territories of the Immortal Alliance in order to hone their combat talents further and become true Alliance’s pillars in the future. Normally their performance in the first two stages of exams would’ve sufficed and they would’ve been considered full-fledged students of the Academy, but a couple of months ago higher-ups received intel that multiple members of the corrupted path planned to infiltrate the War Academy.
To weed them out elders came up with a simple plan – organize a third stage of entrance exams and let the future students hone themselves while at the same time kill off the spies. The whole endeavor would take place in a special pocket dimension managed by elder Roon where they had to go though ‘survival training’.
Truth to be said, the sixty day mission was not that hard at all, in fact, many students considered it a farce. The pocket dimension had enough resources for anyone to survive and apart from few beasts there was no danger whatsoever.
The trick was that there was an expertly spread rumor that spies from the corrupted path have infiltrated their ranks and that forced everyone to suspect everything and in addition forced the hand of the actual spies to go on rampage inside the pocket dimension. Yes, most of those who died were from the Immortal Alliance, but this was just the first trial by blood these youths will go through and there were many more to come. The War Academy didn’t have the elite reputation for nothing.
During the first few days there were indeed quite a few incidents where disciples of the corrupt path attacked the youths from the Immortal Alliance. In fact, these attacks almost halved the numbers of participants, but the ones who left surely were the best of the best. What present elders found annoying was that all the action transpired within the first half month and now for over ten days nothing happened. Most participants seemed to be crawled up somewhere, waiting for the exam to end – until elder Roon caught everyone’s attention.
“Did we get another one?” elder Mist, the head of the Alchemy division, asked.
“Hmmm, actually there were two … but then another one … and then one less …” Elder Roon mumbled under his nose things that didn’t make sense.
“Elder Roon, could you please explain properly? … that is if it doesn’t break your concentration.” Elder Jabari, the head of the Beast master division said.
“What concentration? I can do this with my eyes closed!” The old man snorted, but it was kind of funny, because he was mostly sitting there with his eyes actually closed.
“This just doesn’t make any sense!” He continued, “There were hundred and two kids inside few moments ago. Then one died, over there, near the lake in sector 7C. That left us with hundred and one, but suddenly another person appeared making the headcount to go back up to hundred and two. And then another one died again … so … this doesn’t make any sense …”
“Could it be the first one didn’t actually die?” Elder Salana asked the only logical explanation that everyone had on their mind.
“He did. And the formation confirmed the arrival of a new participant!” Elder Roon stared at the slate with furrowed brows in confusion, “How the hell can that happen?”
Hearing his words the rest grew serious. They knew that only elder Roon could transport anyone into the pocket dimension, at least that was how is should work. But if he said someone suddenly arrived, it could only signify that the means of the corrupted path were much more advanced than everyone thought.
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“Give us a bit more detailed report so I can inform the headmaster.” Elder Neely sternly said. He was the head of the administrative division and, even though all of them were elders and true immortals, he had the highest seniority.
“Two people, most likely from the corrupt path, were stalking another two participants for few days, apparently looking for a good opportunity to attack. Up until now they hadn’t had any confrontations, so previously I didn’t pay much attention when they began to travel alongside of each other.” Elder Roon explained, “Then for some reason, maybe because of arrogance, they attacked rather openly and during the fight one attacker died. Few moments later another person appeared from nowhere and probably joined the fight, because the second attacker died right after. The defenders lost their beast and are injured, but otherwise are fine. The two attackers are dead and the fifth person should die any moment.”
“Ok, keep an eye on them.” Elder Neely said and rushed to the headmaster’s quarters. To a regular person it would’ve seemed he simply vanished from the spot.
“Which spirit beast was that?” Elder Jabari asked in an upset voice.
Even though beasts were considered tools by many, this immortal often openly considered humans to be sort of beasts. While others made fun of him for that, he didn’t care and continued to promote the idea of every living creature being relatives or even brothers. Obviously that didn’t hinder him killing others if he deemed necessary – he called it ‘the cycle of life’.
“Nice try.” Elder Roon snickered, “No spoilers!”
Before the third stage of exams the elders of the War Academy had a bet which students will survive and each had their ten picks. Not that many brought their beasts along thus revealing the information which beast died basically was telling which students were still alive.
“That shouldn’t be too hard to deduct.” Elder Salana shrugged, “Since the master of the beast was together with another one for several days, it is likely they knew each other beforehand and trusted them enough. In addition, most of those who had beasts were girls. In this batch there only larger two groups of friends, one of them being from the Golden city and the others were the locals from the Savage immortal realm. From all of these only Fan Yun girl from the Golden city had a beast with her … oh … so that’s how it is … she’s one of yours, elder Roon … a runemaster’s apprentice, so it makes sense ...”
Elder Roon’s upset stare spoke a thousand words, but elder Salana didn’t care and continued, “So the other one is probably … elder Mist’s pick Alice Hubert, but that’s just a guess. They somehow managed to defeat two guys from the corrupted path and stay alive, so technically it is possible one of the Golden city’s boys is with Fan Yun. How am I doing, elder Roon?”
“Hmph!” Elder snorted and closed his eyes, focusing back on the slate.
“What about the fifth person?” Elder Mist asked.
“I’ll let you know if there is any useful data.” Elder Roon said and from that moment on ignored everyone.
The rest tried to stare at the stone slate for a while, but since the red dots that marked the locations of the participants rarely moved and nothing interesting happened, they went back to watching Elder Ulano and elder Jabari playing Go.
“What is it?” Fan Yun looked in confusion at her friend who suddenly behaved kind of odd. The annoyance she earlier felt began to quickly resurface again, but before she actually became angry, what happened next left her completely speechless.
“This is …” Alice rushed over to the amulet Fan Yun threw aside and picked it up.
“I know this …” She muttered, “No, no, no! This can’t be! No, please, no!”
“What. Is. It?!” Fan Yun repeated, trying to remain calm.
“Yun Yun! It’s Leo! It’s our friend!” Alice almost screamed in panic staring at the pile of meat nearby.
“What Leo? What friend?” Fan Yun patiently asked.
She knew that apart from her and Alice, from the Golden city only Alice’s brother Claude, Kevin Shaw and Harold Stevenson came to the War Academy. The two Roche twins, Francis and Fabien, refused to leave the comfortable life they had thus the gang from the Golden city was reduced to five.
“Leo! The boy from the mortal realm, remember?!” Alice was starting to become hysterical, “I bought him this amulet and … and Kevin gave him this ugly thing!”
She took out the Cleaver from the amulet to show to Fan Yun, but immediately dropped it aside. Then she began pacing around the pile of meat that finally had a name, but all she could do was to bite her nails and hold back sobs.
Fan Yun finally remembered the guy from the King’s kitchen who told incredible stories and basically infected Alice with the need for adventures. After he departed she couldn’t find peace for months and in the end, ignoring her mother’s pleas, came to the War Academy. Indeed, he was the reason for their current predicament!
Be as it may, the two of them were alive and the poor country bumpkin found his end here, in the small pocket dimension belonging to the War Academy. Although how he got here was the real question!
“So he was from the corrupted path?” Fan Yun voiced the conclusion of her train of thoughts, “How did he get into the Golden city then?”
“Who the hell told you he was from the corrupted path?” Alice glared back at her, tears sparkling in her eyes, “This naive and innocent boy probably had never even heard of them!”
“Ye, probably …” Fan Yun realized she pulled the idea of the guy who fell from the sky being from the corrupted path from thin air, “Too bad he had to die here …”
“What do you mean, died?” Alice glared at her again, “He’s still alive! Fix him!”
Fan Yun looked at the pile of meat Alice was pointing at, then back at her friend in confusion. There were still coming weak gurgling sounds from what once was Leo, but there was no way he could survive this, in fact, no one below the Nascent soul stage could!
“H … how … how do you expect me to fix him?” Fan Yun stuttered, “There is nothing left to fix!”
“Aren’t you the most promising runemaster’s apprentice of the Golden city? How do you guys say it – human body is like a formation, right? Just fix it since it’s broken!” Alice said and squatted next to Leo, “Look, this is where his heart is … probably. I’ll protect the spot while you set the rest of the body in place. When you’re done, I’ll give him some of the medicine I grabbed along …”
For a few moments Fan Yun stared at her friend in disbelief, but then sighed and complied. After all, this guy was someone they knew and he kind of saved them from Cooke. Even if he died in their hands now, she had the obligation to at least attempt to save him. After all she was the disciple of masters from the Golden city and her family name was Fan!