A few minutes after their short exchange Cehedia fell asleep, exhausted from exerting himself too much. He was unsure exactly when, but somewhere in between his long nap he saw Jerod leave the infirmary, though he was too drained to say his goodbyes and Jerod didn’t seem to want to wake him so they parted ways without so much as a word.

***

“-adet Cehedia, wake up.” The man’s voice trickled into Cehedia’s ears, the first part of the sentence cut off as Cehedia had been too deep in his slumber to process it.

“W-What?” said Cehedia as he opened his eyes, his voice groggy from sleep. In front of him stood a middle-aged man with black swept-back hair and thin-framed glasses. He nudged back his glasses as Cehedia inspected him, inspecting Cehedia as well before jotting something down on the clipboard he had in his hands. The man was dressed in a grey uniform that consisted of a grey long coat that drooped all the way to the floor, and a cape whose collars covered his mouth and ears. Its sleeves were a slightly lighter shade of grey and had a white star with a single circle around it on the right sleeve.

“Good, you’re awake. I’ve been instructed to heal you and send you to your accommodations. This is your uniform, you will get the rest of it once you report to your dorm room,” said the man as he began unplugging the machines that Cehedia was connected to.

“Heal me?” asked Cehedia, his voice a tad better than the last time he had spoken. The man ignored Cehedia’s question and simply held his palm out in front of him once he was done with the machines.

“Heka, shifa' – yushfaa,” he chanted, prompting a green light to emanate from his palm and envelope Cehedia’s entire body. For a split second, it felt as if he were melting, but the feeling quickly subsided and was replaced by a warmth that slowly washed away his pain. The process took a few minutes before Cehedia could no longer feel any pain in his body. The man however seemed slightly exhausted, holding on to the table right next to Cehedia’s bed in order to keep his posture stable.

“Cadet Cehedia, you are discharged. You are to take the next hastram to Kaion Hall and report to the Hallmaster. There is a hastram stop just outside the infirmary,” said the man with an authoritative tone after he had rested enough to catch his breath. Cehedia slowly got out of bed, stretching his limbs to test if the healing had been the real deal. After confirming that he was indeed fully healed, he nodded his head to the man who had healed him before proceeding to the exit.

“Cadet, you’ve forgotten your uniform. Walking around the academy in that attire will result in disciplinary action.” Cehedia quickly looked down at his body and found that he was wearing a hospital gown.

“And you might want to remove your bandages,” the man added before leaving the room ahead of him. After unwrapping the bandages, and putting on the uniform that was set aside for him he began inspecting himself. His uniform was vastly different from the one the man had been wearing. His consisted of a midnight blue undershirt, a white jacket, and trousers of the same color. A single circle with nothing at the center was embroidered on the jacket’s right chest.

He realized that after he had put on the jacket he felt unnaturally warm, it was hard to describe but it felt as if the warmth was perfect, too perfect. In fact, one would have never expected such warmth from such a lightweight jacket. After inspecting the material the jacket was made out of -giving up on trying to explain what exactly was going on- he left the room. As he walked through the hallways he tried remembering how he had gotten to the infirmary since his memory from the entrance exam was still a bit wobbly. And though Jerod had claimed that they had both made it, Cehedia wondered what state the agents had found him in. And whether he would have to go through some sort of punishment for slaughtering some of the participants.

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After a bit of walking around, he finally found the exit.

[W-What?] Cehedia was surprised by what he saw in front of him. He stood behind two large glass doors and past them, the ground seemed to be covered in a white substance. The doors in question had a thin layer of moisture covering the glass, which made the scene even more strange. He pushed the doors open and was met by a gust of cold wind that temporarily shocked him. Cehedia had gone through cold nights, but he had never felt this cold before.

However, a split second later, he felt a warm layer slowly envelop him, regulating the heat around him before it was perfect once again. He guessed that it must have been the jacket he was wearing, again with the perfect temperature, huh.

The white stuff seemed to come from the sky, as millions of tiny particles were falling to the ground as Cehedia looked around. Visibility had been diminished, but Cehedia could still see several buildings around him. The layout of the buildings looked unlike anything he had ever seen before. They weren’t placed in concentric rings like how they usually were in the Hive city, instead, they were placed in straight lines, each one a different design from the next.

Though the ground was covered in white fluff, Cehedia noticed that there was a metallic rail line that cut through the center of the pathway. He quickly realized that it must’ve been the pathway that the ‘hastram’ took to traverse the academy grounds, what with there being a bench that looked an awful lot like a bus stop right next to the rail line.

After taking in the new scene, Cehedia made himself a spot on the benches.

[Smoke?] wondered Cehedia as he noticed the smoke that escaped from his mouth. After smelling it and confirming that it wasn’t smoke -much to his relief- he picked up a lump of white fluff to inspect it. It was chilling to the touch and melted incredibly quick after he had touched it, turning to water as it escaped his hands.

[Water?] he thought to himself, trying to get a bit of it into his mouth. It tasted pretty good, he was used to drinking contaminated water in the shanty districts so after having that little taste he began scooping up larger chunks of the white fluff and gulped the water down as it trickled through his fingers.

As he was enjoying his drink, an object came rushing towards him from the distance. It moved faster than anything he had ever seen before. His instincts screamed at him to run away, but he knew that he would never outrun it.

[A demon? No, why would a demon be in an academy? Perhaps a wild beast?] He thought to himself, though he knew his pondering would not help his situation. The falling white fluff made it hard for him to see exactly what it was, though he realized that it got bigger and bigger as it approached, its eyes glowing a menacing yellow color.

“Seth, attribute darkness.” After saying the words, a glowing black knife appeared in his hands, and a black hue covered his entire body. He wasn’t going to die without a fight. Though as the beast got closer he realized that his worrying had been for nothing.

[A bus?] An oddly-shaped one though. And nobody could blame him for not realizing it sooner, buses generally never moved that fast. The speed at which that thing was moving was unnatural, and buses generally didn’t have headlights that strong. The snow that covered its exterior didn’t make it any easier either.

The oddly shaped bus stopped right in front of Cehedia, its doors opening with a mechanical whirr. Several students dressed in attire exactly like his, though with a variety of differently designed jackets stared at him from inside.

“Is he holding a blade?” whispered one of the students, staring at the black blade the Cehedia was holding onto.