Chapter 3 - The Magic Security Team_Plane of Darkness

When I woke up, the noise around the dormitory has subsided. It almost feels like the school is back to normal once again.

Except it isn’t.

As I woke up Luthriel and both of us were ready to go to school, sounds of magic being fired started ringing in my ears. As I would have guessed, it wouldn’t be long before the students start to ‘test’ out their powers again. I generated a shield around both of us to reflect any attacks that might reach us while we both walked out of the dormitory.

The lessons of the school has definitely changed. Master Inoxion must have tweaked the system within the school using his own network. This school could be a useful place for the gathering of potential recruits for us, however we have to teach them first, about how to control their powers properly, and the knowledge of the Elemental realm, since they are going to entangle themselves within the matters of it soon.

Break time came. After the lesson on new school rules people begin to restrain themselves from playing around with their powers. This is a relief, but I knew that there are bound to be people who are going to go against the rules. As I was thinking about this, the group of boys that I defeated two days ago came up to me.

“Hello, Innight. We have come to return the favour you gave us back then. Prepare yourself.”

Suddenly, without any warning, my entire body flew right onto the wall. I did not gain any injuries but I felt as if several invisible hands are holding me up against the wall. I cannot retaliate as I’m severely weakened after casting the Time spell yesterday and am still recovering, I can only perform basic attack and defence spells, which are useless against an opponent that is capable to control others.

“Now then, Innight, fight back. You have shown us how powerful you are, now let us test each other out to see who is stronger.”

“I don’t have time for you bunch of power hungry creeps. Let me go this instant.”

“Now, now, Innight, there is still plenty of time to spend to do whatever that is on your mind. Play with us for a little while more.”

As he said these, I felt the gravity of the surrounding being intensified by a magnitude as the invisible hands are lifted away from me.

“What is it now, Innight? Aren’t you powerful enough to defy other powers of the Elemental Realm?”

I’m surprised. How did they know about that? Only members of Darkness and Light, with the addition of Time herself, knows that my true powers were of level of omnipotence as they experienced it.

“We would like to see your power, Innight, entertain us!”

I am unable to lift my head to see who is the caster, but I can feel one of them is casting light based spells on me, which burns through my skin.

I have the capability to cast a sealing magic on all of them to lock up their powers, but I’m unsure whether it is enough to lock up a power as great as the caster of the object manipulation. Nevertheless, it would be a good option to try it out.

“Fermion. Helvensker.”

A magic circle appeared under the group of boys. I observe flows of magic being absorbed into the circle from them.

“What is this? My power seems to be weakening!”

“Bastard! What have you done?”

They said these as they crumbles to the floor, I begin to feel the gravity field returning to normal.

“Nothing much. I’ve placed a lock on your powers. If you have no idea about it I will tell you this: I have much greater knowledge of magic compared to any of you here. If you have the power but lack of the knowledge, you are powerless against the most knowledgeable people that lacks of power. You are still far too early to fight against me.”

“A lock?!”

“Yes. Magical locks are difficult to be lifted, and the methods of lifting them differs according to the caster. Until you have lift the lock, you are unable to use any of your powers. Go and do more research to figure out how to lift them, or try to defeat me in a battle.”

“You…!”

“Now if you excuse me, I need to meet someone else.”

I walked away from the group of boys and out of the classroom. I need to find Time first. From what I’ve gathered, she is transferring to our class today, but she has been given special permission to stay in the library for the first few hours of school today. I went to the library and found her reading a book on the tables.

*Ahem* “Time, I want to talk you to for a while.”

“Ah, if it wasn’t Innight! Nice to meet you again. You may ask any questions you have, I’m free now.”

“Time, as I have previously mentioned, I notice you have the same energy signature as the Old Magic. What is your relationship with them?”

“Well, Innight. I first have to inform you that I am not your enemy, and nor are them. I do share a similar goal as theirs, which is to awaken the real identity hidden in yourself. I merely burrowed some power, to be precise, Time, from them to sustain the clones I’ve made for myself. Every time I run out of Time I burrow it from them, or else I would have resort to extracting Time from other humans, which may result in problems. Naturally this caused me to share the energy signature of members of Old Magic.”

“Sustain your clones? What are you up to?”

“Nothing, Innight. My power of Time manipulation is wanted by many and I’m hated by many as well. I have done many things in order to gain information about you, I rarely appear in my true self as I’m constantly in danger of being killed. Just yesterday you have saw how dangerous it was to wander around without a single form of protection. Even the me that you are speaking to right now is a clone of my real self.”

“What do you know of my past?”

“To answer that, Innight, you will have to ask them, the members of Old Magic of The Void. I only knew about your identity through them and I have gathered information that you once lived in The Void in The Gap, and carried on the role of destruction and recreation of the Existence.”

“Interesting. I would have to find a way to contact them and know more about it. Time, you are welcomed to drop by my room when you feel free to talk to me.”

“Eh? Are you sure? Didn’t you just set me on your unwelcome list just yesterday?”

“I decided to lower your danger level. Since you have no intention to harm anyone it would be the best. You also appear to have intention to help us so I can regard you as an ally.”

“That would be a wise choice to make. One more thing, Innight. Light is up to something. As an ally of yours and the Old Magic, I need to inform you that they are extracting something from beneath the school. However, that object is sealed with multiple layers of Old Magic, which is delaying them from obtaining the object sooner.”

“I’m unsure what is the object they are looking for and why they are hunting for it, but they appear to be diverging a large amount of resources for it. I’ve tried using my clones to trach them down, but they were erased by a certain stronger magical source.”

“Can’t you use your power over Time to stop them in their place?”

“I have a limit. I’m already using up a significant amount of Time to try to keep my clones in place. I could use City of Devouring Time to extract Time from them and stop them, but I could be discovered if they capture my clones and traced back to the origin of my magic.”

“I see. It can’t be helped then. I will contact you if we need your help. Goodbye”

“Goodbye.”

I returned back to my classroom. The boys that I’ve just defeated were still grumbling over the loss of their powers. Some of the students were fiddling with some of the equipment that the teachers brought in, accidently releasing some forms of magic.

Time came into the class. No one seems to take any notice of her, even though she has a dark aura surrounding herself, and waves of magic ripples out of her. The dark aura is likely to be a result of her interaction with members of Old Magic, the ripples of magic is due to her immense power over Time. Luckily, such ripples of magic are of different wavelength compared to the ones that could damage a creature.

The bell rang, signifying the end of break time.

Lessons carried on as per normal, with only a few accidents of magic disruption. Time performed well in all the classes, earning herself praises from the teachers and everyone else. The boys that had their powers locked up failed to find a method to lift the lock I placed on them, one is because there is no lesson on spell casting today, and another is because even if they ask, I highly doubt the teacher will be able the lock I’ve placed on them. Soon the school bell rings for the last period.

I walked along with Aquis and Luthriel to my room. When I reached there, Time was already sitting in the middle of my room.

“Time, please stop giving me surprises like these. One day you are going to give someone a heart attack.”

“Ah, I’m just following your suggestion of meeting you after school.”

“You had your fun didn’t you? Taking the first place in everything that we do.”

“Of course I have to. I have played with magic with so long I have great knowledge about it, also I have help from members of Old Magic, that should be no surprise to you.”

“I have question for you, Time. Where is your real self hidden?” This came from Aquis.

“Ah. For that question I cannot answer you. My life is dependent on it. Even though I know that you all have no means to harm me, I fear that others who also have the ability to manipulate Time can trace back and identify this conversation. If they happened to be of my enemy I may be put in danger. However, I can tell you that I hide myself in a manner that unless someone has the power of omnipotence they wouldn’t be able to discover me.”

“That means… Only Innight is able to know your location.”

“No. Innight doesn’t. Zealus does.”

“Ah yes, how could I have forgotten? Innight’s powers are sealed. With those seals still intact his powers are greatly restricted.”

We went on and talked for a while longer, Time left in the middle of our talk as she mentioned that she has to reduce the number of clones due to her insufficient Time.

“A day that passes without any inference from Light. This is uncommon to occur. While I would like to say that Light has given up on taking back their territory, knowing them, they are most likely to be doing background works.”

“Indeed. Time have also informed me that Light is attempting to extract something below the school compound, and they are doing this very quietly and slowly so they wouldn’t be detected. I ponder about the object that they are extracting but we don’t have enough information on their plans yet.”

“Innight, Aquis, incoming message from Lord Inoxion.” Luthriel interrupted us.

“Turn on the communication crystal. Accept the request.” I instructed him.

Luthriel took out a purple crystal from my cupboard and put it in the middle of the room, then he sprinkled some magic over it. A magical circle with the symbol of Darkness appeared under the crystal and a hologram of Master Inoxion appeared.

“Finally got through. Innight, listen closely to this piece of information I’m delivering. The Darkness Elemental Plane is currently under attack by unidentified creatures and we are trying our best to push them back beyond out boundaries. Chronos is currently buying us more Time as we speak to allow us to build up soldiers for counterattack.”

“However, there is something of great concern that we have figured out from a general of theirs. They are planning a second wave of attack over the entire Physical Realm, and their starting point is at your school. From what we have gathered, they have already started to send soldiers over there and they are blending them in into the student population. We still haven’t figure out their reason of attack and which elemental they belong to, but this is irrelevant now.”

“Innight, please be on the watch out and inform Nightius or me if you spot any suspicious activity. Remember, this time we are fighting against something of unknown power so don’t try to tank it out, especially when you are so vulnerable.”

Saying that, the hologram vanished and the magic circle dissolved.

“Looks like we just got more jobs on our hands.” Aquis said.

“I agree. This time round we are dealing with something of a larger scale, and we don’t even know the intended purpose behind the attack.”

“Why should we worry about it so much, Innight? There is nothing we can do about it. You are also powerless to defeat the invaders in case they do attack.” Luthriel lied down on his bed.

“The problem is this school is a ticking time bomb. People can be brainwashed into other people’s tools, and the students here, who are far too inexperienced in this type of situation, can easily be brainwashed. The last thing we want is for our soldiers and allies turning against us.”

“Luciferrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”

Someone screamed and a girl flew into our room, then landing on my bed. I immediately identified the girl as Nectilius.

“What do you think you are doing?!”

Nectilius climbed up from my bed, and stared in my face for a few moments.

“AHHHHHHH!” She screamed in my face. “Hide me, please, quickly!”

“Why?” I asked.

“I will answer you later, just hide me now! Quick, or else I’m in for a world of pain!”

“Well that’s fine with me. Luthriel, open up my personal cupboard and throw her inside.”

“That wouldn’t work on him! He has…”

“I know what you are about to say. All-seeing eye. I have magic that prevents that power from seeing certain things. Now unless you want to be discovered by him in 5 seconds time, please go in.”

I locked the cupboard after Nectilius went in. A boy with grey hair and a pair of sea blue eyes ran into our room almost immediately after.

“You prankster! Where did you hide?!”

He then noticed us.

“Hey, you three! Where did you hide that girl named Nectilius?”

“She was eaten by someone. You wouldn’t be able to see her any time sooner. If you haven’t heard of The Eater, you should do more research on it. This school is beginning to attract more abnormalities after the waves of magic transformed everyone. Start to learn about the magical creatures.”

“Innight, you must have played a trick here. Stop fooling around and tell me the truth!”

“Oh. I’m that famous now? Never knew that. About Nectilius, yes I admit I lied a little, but you will never be able to find her, that is the truth.”

“Gr… Remember this! I’m too busy to deal with you now but I will come for you one day, Innight!”

“You are welcomed to challenge me anytime you like.”

“Gah!”

The boy rushed off. I open the cupboard and dragged Nectilius out from it, her face looked frozen and stiff, probably from fear.

“Hello? Nectilius? Are you alive? The chaser is gone now and he probably wouldn’t be back so soon. Can you now please explain what have you done to cause him to react like that?”

Nectilius’s face twitched for a few seconds before she returned to normal.

“Ah, thank you very much for helping me out! You saved my precious life from being lost to that hideous man I couldn’t find any way to repay my thanks.”

“I don’t really mind saving you, but can you please explain why are you hiding from him?”

“Uh, I was practicing my magic in my own room when that boy suddenly interrupted me. He flung the door open and screamed at the top of his lungs, which surprised me. Allow me to explain, my magic needs me to be 100% focused or else it will backfire, when the boy interrupted me my focus was dispelled. The spell ended up attacking him and it caused him to lose his eyesight for a few moments.”

“Then it is nothing serious. So why did he..?”

“The problem is that the spell rendered him powerless, and it took me a few moments to break the spell. He flew into a rage when he found out he was blind because of my spell and refuse to understand the situation. He swear to kill me as a result and I therefore ran off.”

“To kill you just because of that? How low level of tolerance does he have? Also, don’t play around with your magic if you know that you cannot be disturbed. Next time don’t use your magic unless you are very sure that no one will disturb you while you are practising it. You can get into ten feet of trouble if you do that again.”

“Yes, I’m sorry about disturbing you, Innight. Please allow me to stay in your room a little longer, until he has cooled down.”

“Fine. Aquis, get her a cup of coke and bring more snacks from the cupboard.”

We begin to talk about how the school has changed, and I taught everyone the origin of magic, about the history of Magic, and told them some stories of the origin of the Mythical Creatures. The sky begin to grow dark and eventually night time arrived.

“He should be calmed down by now. I really thank you, Innight, for letting me stay here.”

“No problems. You are welcomed to drop in anytime. Just don’t come in when my door has a sign hanging outside.”

Nectilius waved goodbye and left the room.

“Such a troublesome company she has, don’t you agree, you two?”

“Innight. Do you think that Nectilius is doing this on purpose? That is, looking for you?”

“I concur. Innight, she seems to be targeting you for some reason or another. It is obvious.”

“I understand this. I suspect she is working under the members of Old Magic and they intend to do something about me. I will do something about her, but not when there is a bigger matter at hand. Now, Aquis, it would be wise to leave now. You are reporting for a new mission tomorrow aren’t you? You will need some rest.”

A girl crept out from the shadow outside Innight’s room. She was accompanied by another few copies of herself.

“Hee hee hee. Zealus is busy indeed, isn’t he, me?”

“He does look that indeed, me.”

“Since he is busy, we should also be busy, that makes sense doesn’t it, me?”

“Exactly, me. To the next phase of our plan, we better call them now. To work, me.”

“Aye, me.”

Suddenly the door of Innight room opened, Aquis stepped out of it and her eyes come into contact with the girl.

“Time! What are you doing here with your clones?!”

“Alas! This is not the best time to meet now. I will see you again.”

The girl vanished into the shadow with her clones.

“That girl, she is also up to no good. Having power over shadows and Time makes her a dangerous person to approach. Furthermore, she has connections with members of Old Magic, and her personality itself is complex beyond measure. We will never know what her intention is. We can still treat her as an ally, but we need to keep a close eye on her.”

I raised my level of alertness for the rest of the night. Master came by in the middle of the night to investigate the girl, but he could not detect her anywhere in sight, not even her clone is present within the town.

“I suspect that girl named Time. She appears to have her own intentions in approaching you, at the same time working together with members of Old Magic. I dearly wished I have the power of omniscience to know what she really is and her real motives to transfer here.” Master told me the next morning after I woke up.

“*Yawn* I have the same doubts as you do, Master. I would do some investigation around the region. I feel there would definitely be someone having powers of omniscience in the school itself, if I can find who is that then I would be able to answer this question.”

“*Yawn* Eh? Lord Inoxion? What brought you here?”

That was Luthriel.

“I’m here on a business to deal with the girl named Time. She appear to not be around here now, though…”

“Ah, so everyone is awake here!”

The door of my room opened and to my upmost surprise, the speaker was the last person that I would ever expect to turn up: Time.

“Time!”

“WHAT?!”

Master Inoxion appeared to be absolutely flabbergasted. I do not blame him at all.

“Uhm, Innight, may I ask a question? Who is this person in this darkened armour?”

“This is not the best time to explain now, Time. We are going to be late for school if we stay here any longer. Master, please stay in this room for now, I will bring her here when school is over. Luthriel, hurry up and get dressed.”

On the way to school, I asked Time:

“Time. Where did you go after you met me last night? I cannot detect your presence anywhere.”

“Hee hee hee. I did told you I have associations with members of Old Magic didn’t I? I went to meet them yesterday night at a meeting place that is at a different axis of dimensions.”

“Really, Time, I’m starting to mistrust you if this is how you behave. Can you at least act in a way that is much more predictable and traceable?”

“Tee hee. I have my own reasons to act as such. I cannot reveal to you the reason why I do so, you are free to come up with your own explanations.”

“Time. After school today meet me in my room. The person you saw this morning wants to meet you. He wanted to meet you since yesterday.”

“Eh? His intention isn’t to hurt me, isn’t it? I haven’t hurt anyone here yet!”

“No. He won’t. I can guarantee that. As long as you remain harmless and you have no intention in harming any of us, me, Aquis and Luthriel, you are safe from any attacks from our Plane.”

“Your plane? You meant the Darkness Elemental Plane?”

“Yes.”

“That is strange. You belong to The Void, which is the element of creation before any other elements are formed. Why do you join the Element of Darkness instead?”

“That is a long story. I will let my Master explain that to you.”

Break time came. The same group of boys that taunted me yesterday surrounded me again.

“Innight! Fight us proper this time! No tricks allowed!”

I shoved them a look.

“As I have mention countless times, I have no intention to take any of you on. There is no good that would come out of fighting anyone.”

“There is something good that will come out of this! We gain fame throughout the school! Right now you stole the spotlight for placing the curse on all on us and destroying this very classroom. WE envy that, and we want to take that role from you!”

“So that was why you all are so persistent. Sadly, I have no intention to take any of you on. I’m busy, so please move away.”

“That will not happen. You must either defeat us or accept defeat before we will let you pass.”

I have already generated most of my power back after using the Time spell two days ago. I can try another Time spell on them to stop this nonsense once and for all, but there is no guarantee whether they would be able to clean up the mess after I use it. Regardless, they would not stop pestering me and I would need to give them a small hint of my true power.

“Since you invited me to show you your place, let me grant you your desire. Overclock, Rewind.”

A clock with its complete 12 roman numerals appeared under the feet of the group of boys, the hands of the clock turning anti-clockwise. The boys started to grew younger as they stand on the clock.

“I did mention no tricks! What did you do?!”

“This is not a trick. I perform a simple Time reversal spell on all of you. I have told all of you again and again not to disturb me and your ears appears to be not working or you have an underdeveloped brain that caused you to be unable to think rationally.”

“Cheater!”

“It is you who are too weak. Go and do more research and practice more spells before coming back to face me again.”

I pushed aside the now 10 year old boys and walked away. I heard various insults being thrown towards me but I choose to ignore them. Then the leader of the group appeared before me again.

“Nitrix!”

A small green globe appeared in his hands, he tried to fire it onto me but it exploded in his face. He begin to shrink until I couldn’t see him anymore. I took out a magnifying glass to search for him, and found him raising his fist and throwing more curses. I took out a crystal and placed him inside, then I transferred the crystal to his seat. I then went to the group of boys.

“If you will not listen, you will be punished. Let me give you all this last warning. The next time any of you cross my path again you will not get away alive.”

I went off to look for Time. I found her in the school library again, this time round she was looking around a magic book named “Forbidden Magic of Time”.

“Are you reading on how to improve your control over Time, Time?”

“Hee hee hee, indeed Innight. I need to improve my extraction of Time from others.”

“A question, Time. Why are you extracting Time from others? I know you will need Time to keep your other clones active, but why are you using so much clones?”

“Tee hee. That is a secret.”

“Well I will not delve into it if you intend to keep it as a secret, but at least give me your promise that you will not bring any harm, using your clones, to any member of the Plane of Darkness.”

“I can promise that.”

Suddenly our surrounding begin to blur and everything turned into strange creatures. My communication crystal begin to heat up in my pocket, I took it out and connect the line.

“Hello? Is this Innight?”

“Yes. And who might you be?”

“Innight, this is Nightius. Something has happened to the school. You should now be able to figure out that the entire school has undergone a transformation, everything has turned into dreamy like. We suspect a student is involved in this incident. Innight, I’m busy stabilising the influx of sudden soldiers of Light over the region, so I cannot help you identify the source of magic. Innight, you have to find out the source of magic and disable it before it ingests everything into this world of illusion.”

“Understood. Should I call upon Aquis and Luthriel to help?”

“Better would be. They know very basic magic but a little help is better than none. If you excuse me I have to cut of the communication now, they are advancing towards the school.”

The crystal stopped glowing. I begin to move out of the library but felt a tug behind my shirt, I turned around and saw Time making a sad face to me.

“Can’t I help out?”

Her face looks like she is going to cry any moment. That face she makes is going to break my heart any moment, I just cannot stand it. I sighed.

“Alright. Even though I have not been given the permission to take you on with this mission, seeing that you have cooperate well with us so far I decide to give you a chance to prove my trust is right.”

With this her face broke into a smile.

“Yay! Let’s go off right now! To find the course of this abnormality and resolve it!”

With that she ran off. Without me. I sighed.

“Well, knowing her, she will bound to pop out of the shadows somewhere again later.” I said to myself.

“Well you are right!” Time popped out behind me.

“GAH! Stop giving me heart attacks like this!”

“Sorry! So should we look for your friends now?”

“That would be our first goal, but look at the surroundings now.”

As I speak, the floor dissolved into nothingness and outside the door is nothing but an empty void.

“Eh? Looks like we are disconnected from the school.”

“Right, Time. It appears that we are floating within The Void, but I’m unsure whether it is The Void within The Gap or it is The Void in the Physical Realm. Both behave very differently and I’m unsure how are we going to get us out this mess.”

“Innight! Are you there?”

I’m surprised. That sounds like Aquis and Luthriel. How did the both of them access this place that is floating in the middle of The Void?

“Aquis! Luthriel! Where are the both of you?”

“Look up!”

I looked up. At the ceiling a portal is visible and both of their heads were visible.

“How did the both of you figure out I’m here? And how did you access here?”

“We were informed by Nightius about your location. We just opened the door and found the whole library as it is now.”

“Ah, I see it now. The magic is disorienting Space. No wonder everything looked out of place. Time, quick, hold onto my hand and let’s get out of here before the Space here twists even more.”

Time grabbed onto my hand and we both flew out of the library through the portal.

“Innight, why are you helping Time?”

“She is on our side now. She has intentions to help us out so I decide to give her a chance. We have more important matters on hand now, like to find out this source of magic abnormality.”

“You are right, Innight. Before Nightius disconnected us, he told us that he found the traces of magic originated from the school assembly ground.”

“You meant the soccer field?”

“I think so. We have to first attempt to exit this crazily disoriented place first.”

“I have an easier way. But I would need both of your help. As you have probably saw, I lost most of my magic after using Time magic on the boys just now. I need to refill my magic in order to help out in this situation, both of you should have mana crystals right?”

“Yes, we have a chest full of it, what about it?”

“Get me the chest of mana crystals. I can perform a simple spell to convert all that mana crystals into magic. Using those I can refill all my magic and even give it a large boost.

“Wait for a moment.”

Aquis opened up a portal and pulled a chest from it. She opened it up, inside were crammed with bright blue crystals.

I drew a magic circle and placed the crystals in the middle of the circle. I allowed the flow of magic to mingle with the crystals, the crystals glowed and after the light diminished, the crystals turned transparent. I felt my magic restored fully.

“Alright, Aquis, keep those crystals and let us find the source of this abnormality!”

We walked around the school building and tried to find the main exit, but every single doors and hallways seemed to have disconnected from its’ original location and re-joined to another one. It begin to feel we are walking in a shifting labyrinth, never able to find the exit.

“This is never going to end. Spaceframe, disintegrate!”

The entire school shook and the hallways and doors all faded, which then was replaced by its’ original form.

“What did you just do, Innight?”

“I broke the magic holding the disorienting space in place. We need to hurry though, it consumes a significant amount of my magic and I cannot use it too often. We should hurry to the exit before the space start to disorientate again.”

We have no trouble finding the exit after I dispelled the magic. However, the moment we opened the door, we were flooded by soldiers of Light.

“Timelord, Consumption!”

Shadows appeared under the feet of the soldiers and hands appeared from it, dragging all of them into the shadows.

“Time! What are you doing to them?”

“Hee hee hee, nothing. I’m consuming them. Be thankful that I’m helping you out.”

“Yes, yes, Time, we appreciate it. Now we really should find the source of all this. From my analysis of the flow of magic, it is indeed coming out from the field.”

We headed out to the field, and we found a giant bubble surrounding a student inside. At various point of time small bubbles break away from the giant bubble and floats away to somewhere else. We were all in awe of the situation.

“This is the source of the entire magic abnormality, but how do we resolve it?” Luthriel broke the silence.

“Easy. I have to apply Insigma to stop the magic and force the magic to break down. That would clear up the abnormality.”

The student seems to have noticed out presence. She turned towards us and delivered a wave of bubbles towards us.

“Quick! All of you! Get behind me! Acastic!”

A circular barrier generated around us ad blocked out the bubbles. When the bubbles touched the ground the ground dissolved into nothingness.

“Insigma! Hopefully she breaths in the spell!”

She still flung waves of bubbles towards us, when suddenly she stopped, and her bubbles begin to dissolve and pop, eventually the giant bubbles popped as well and she fell to the ground.

“We did it! Now just to seal her magic. Ganteuis!”

The entire surrounding turned back to normal as I felt her level of magic went down. She opened her eyes.

“Who are you? Don’t hurt me! I have done nothing wrong! I will hurt you if you come any closer!”

“We are not going to harm you. You were instead the one who started all this mess. What is your name?”

“Dreanite.”

“Well, Dreanite. May we ask you what lead to all this mess?”

“A group of boys surrounded me and wanted to take my power. I activated my magic to fight them back.”

“That’s all? Did you know what you done caused great problems to the school itself and to everyone?”

“But I did it to defend myself! Are you going to harm me too?”

“And you attacked us when we haven’t done anything to you, that is not an excuse, and NO, we are NOT going to harm you. However, you are not able, and permitted, to use any form of magic for the next entire week. Now if you please excuse us.”

I walked away, I heard she shouted “Dream Nexus!” but to no avail. Then that was followed by another few attempts, when it finally dawned on her that she is unable to perform any spells, she started crying. I have to harden my heart and remind myself she tried to attack us so I cannot sympathize her. The communicating crystal started to heat up in my pocket again, I picked it up and connected it.

“Hello? Innight, are you listening to this?”

“Yes, is this Nightius?”

“Yes, Innight. We fought off the invasion. We saw the surroundings have returned to normal, so you must have successfully resolved the abnormality. That is good news. I’ve been thinking about something, Innight, and I want to tell you about it.”

“And that is?”

“I want to start up a Magic Security Team, and you will be the leader of it. With all the students here, and some of them unable to control over their great powers, this type of situation is bound to happen very frequently and the teachers are unable to disable them, like what has happened today. I want your opinion about this.”

“Sounds perfect to me. The only request I have about this idea is I want Aquis, Luthriel and Time in my team.”

“Good. I will suggest this to Lord Inoxion and I will update you on his response.”

The crystal stopped glowing and I put it back into my pocket. I did a stretch.

“Now we have cleared up the abnormality, we should investigate whether there is any damage in the school.”

“That wouldn’t be necessary, I’ve checked the school using my clones while you are still busy talking with your Nightius. There is a few missing students that must have been swallowed by the Space distortion, but other than that no damage done.”

“We were lucky this time. Space Distortion is a dangerous ability to be dealt with, luckily she has not yet mastered her spell or else I couldn’t have dispelled the distortion so easily.”

We went back to the school, the teachers announced that since there has been an event today we are given a holiday today. The four of us went back to the dormitory and met in my room. Master Inoxion was already waiting for us inside.

“Innight, I allow the formation of the Magic Security Team, however I do not trust this girl named Time. I have a list of questions for you, Time. If you can answer them well and up to my standard then I will allow you to stay with Innight, if not please do not approach any of our members of the Darkness Elemental Plane.”

“As you please. Can we start now?”

Master Inoxion started asking a list of questions. They ranged from simple questions like: “Where do you come from?” to complicated questions like: “How much is your knowledge on the magic of Time?” Eventually the list is exhausted.

“Innight, I’m satisfied with her answers. She is allowed to interact to any of us. Do you have any Elemental Plane that you intend to work with, Time?”

“No. And I do not intend to work with anyone.”

“Well if that is your choice, we will not force you to join out forces. Time, you are now allowed to interact with Innight and meddle in our affairs. I will let Innight to teach you all about our Elemental Plane. Innight, teach her properly about everything.”

After saying these, Master Inoxion left through a magical circle.

“So, I have been given permission by my Master, you are allowed to interact with us and meddle in our affairs. Time, you need to learn about our Elemental Plane first. Here, this a knowledge crystal, inside contains the teachings of the Darkness Elemental Plane. Put it at your forehead and it will release the knowledge stored within the crystal into your mind.”

Time took the crystal from my hand, but instead of placing it on her forehead, she opened her mouth and swallowed the crystal.

“What are you doing?! I still need to keep that crystal for future recruits!”

“Ah, I’m just extracting the contents of the crystals. Here you go.”

A transparent crystal appeared in her hands. The contents has completely been drained from it.

“You… I really have no words to describe you. Now I have to waste extra resources to refill the crystal.”

“Tee hee.”

I shook my head and took the crystal back from her.

“Whatever. Time, now you know about the Darkness Elemental Plane, I need you to do more research on the members of Light Elemental Plane, which are our greatest enemy. You need to know absolutely everything about them because from Nightius’ report, they have planted a surprise for us here and we don’t know when they will attack. You have to know their weakness and their methods of attack at the back of your hand.”

“Yes Innight.”

The afternoon went by quickly as I explained about our history of the Darkness Elemental Plane and Light Elemental Plane to Time. Nightius called in later again through the communication crystal.

“Innight. There has been a discussion in the staff room, they decided for the next entire week it will be a school camp.”

“Interesting. What led to this?”

“It appears that they think all of you need a break after so many events, however the bigger goal is to resolve the problem of your name popping up everywhere.”

“I suspected as much. Well I would really need to find a way to stop my name from appearing everywhere. So tomorrow the whole camp starts?”

“Yes. I don’t have the information on what will happen during the camp but we can guarantee it will be enriching.”

“Alright, thanks for the update. Then what about the Magic Security Team?”

“It was approved. Tomorrow you will be given the badge to prove yourself, we will also announce this tomorrow to the student body.”

“Understood. Will Master Inoxion watch over the entire camp?”

“Negative. Lord Inoxion told me that he is busy with meeting with the other Masters of the Elemental Plane, he also needs to visit the Ancient Beast of Darkness.”

“That is just as expected. Remember to update me if you figured out anything about the surprise Light left for us.”

Time and Aquis left my room soon after. I played around with the crystals I hoard up myself with Luthriel until around 10 o’ clock. Then I turned off the light and both of us went to bed.

In the principal’s office of Innight’s school, a group of people is meeting up inside. All of them wore purplish robe and have a mask over their faces.

“Member 7, what is your report on situation of Zealus?”

“He has not noticed anything. Currently he still has 3 more seals to break before he truly awakens.”

“Good. Remember, we are to wait for Light to break through the security before we can step in and protect Zealus.”

“Leader, what about his current master, the Grand Ruler of Darkness Elemental Plane, Inoxion?”

“We need to set up events that help to break the seals without causing trouble for ourselves, this will avoid our detection by him. Remember, our goal is to reawaken Zealus from the human vessel named Innight, and we will want as little problem to deal with the Darkness Elemental Plane as possible.”

“Leader, what about tomorrow onwards? They have a camp and they would not be in the school.”

“Member 2, 4 and 10, prepare a vehicle to transport all of us to their venue under the cover of some other teaching partners. Member 3, 7 and 8, bring along the instruments. Member 5, 6 and 9, the three of you come along with me for the entire duration of the camp.”

“Roger that.”

The next day I, Luthriel, Aquis and Time, was presented in front of the whole school with a shiny crimson badge, on it was written “Magic Security Team”.

“So, from today onwards, please avoid using Magic in the school grounds unless it is a fixed battle or a practise session. If any of you failed to adhere to the rules, the Magic Security Team is allowed to intervene the situation and stop any of you using magic.”

We left the stage and went back to our respective classes.

“Now, we have something important to announce. Because of the recent incident and various other reasons we have decided to organize a school camp. Our intention of the camp is to reinforce your knowledge on the Magical world and to stabilize your magical skills. As this is a school event, we will……”

“Innight, what do you intend to do in the camp? You are already knowledgeable and strong.”

“I’m also part of the organizer of the entire camp. I will be the one teaching about Magic and overseeing the whole event. Of course, I will participate in some of the activities for fun.”

The days passed quickly. The day for the start of the camp finally arrived.

Our first stop of the first day is what humans called Area 51, we travelled using a large dimensional portal that the teachers set up, and I travelled along with Nightius to help out with him. We explored the inner region of the Area and learnt about the works of other creatures in the Existence.

Of course, there are bound to be some troublemakers and they played around with some of the strange equipment. They caused some of the regions of Area 51 to be connected to some other regions, and that made me deduce that the equipment causes space distortion. We had to use magic to break the space distortion to prevent anything else from accessing the Area. We end up apologizing to the people in charge of Area 51. Even though they mentioned they expected it to happen, I cannot help but to scold the students that played with the equipments.

The next place we visited is within a Rift of alternate dimensions, it is a museum of magical items. We taught the students about the power of such artifacts and the danger of using such things. We also get the chance to handle and use some of the weaker and less dangerous artifacts. Again, some of the students, in fact, the exact same ones that caused trouble before tried to access the other artifacts.

They even tried to break one of the artifacts containing the soul of an Ancient Beast. Luckily we managed to find them and stop them before they attempted to do so. We gave them another scolding and I was tasked to overlook them.

We then went to book in at a hotel located in the Elemental Realm. The whole school have lunch there. After lunch, we broke up the students according to class, and 2 teachers follow each class. I’m one of the supervisor so I am not assigned to any class, but since I’m supposed to help out Aquis, Time and Luthriel I volunteered to follow the class us four are in.

Our class followed seven other classes and entered the Water Elemental Plane. Everyone was warmly welcomed and the Creatures of Water showed us around the Plane. We had interesting activities prepared by the Creatures of Water, like solidifying and liquidifying objects with Water, creating life with Water, and using water to form other elements. As a farewell gift, all of us were allowed to keep a Seal of Water, which allows us to call upon a Water Spirit. We then gathered at the hotel as the night rolls in, the crimson moon of magic rose upon the horizon as the cyan sun of magic sets below the horizon.

“Did everyone enjoyed themselves?”

“YES~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!”

“Good. All of you will have the chance to visit all the Elemental Planes except the Elemental Plane of Void, which we have not received permission for. Have fun and learn as much as possible, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience being with the Creatures of the Elemental Plane, do not waste it.”

“Understood!”

“Now have your dinner and go to your rooms. Tomorrow you will get to visit another Elemental Plane for the whole day, enjoy yourself to the fullest. Remember, lights off at midnight and don’t use magic here!”

“Yes!”

“Innight, what is our schedule for tomorrow?”

“A secret. If you beg enough I might tell the three of you.”

“PLEASE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~! “

“Alright. Tomorrow do not show off your water spirits, we are visiting the Fire Elemental Plane. You should know that they are enemies of each other, so do not show any water magic in front of them. I will remind all of the class tomorrow about this.”

Then came the dinner and bath time. There were some argues during dinner time about the separation of food, as some people demanded more servings while others demanded lesser. I have to step in and resolve the issue of separation.

Then there are boys who tried to sneak near the girls baths during bath time. I had to give them a long lecture about being respectful to the girls, I cannot believe I have to teach these boys like little children about a topic like this.

At around 1 in the morning, I was woken up by the staffs of the hotel. Apparently there was a fight between the elements in the area nearby the hotel, and we have to set up a barrier in case they try take the fight into the hotel. I was forced to stay up the rest of the night and keep an eye on the elementals fighting there and alert the other teachers if they come near, luckily nothing happened.

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Breakfast time came. At that time the fight has already ceased, and I felt tired as I don’t even have the chance to sleep at all. Another fight broke out during breakfast time on the same topic of food distribution, I allowed the other teachers deal with the situation.

“Alright, everyone, please follow your teachers to the assigned Elemental Plane for the day. Please behave yourselves and do not use magic!”

“Yes~~~~~~~!”

I took the class with Aquis, Time and Luthriel towards the Fire Elemental Plane. We were warmly welcomed by the Creatures of Fire, and we first were let to visit the Pillar of Fire that fuels the fire in the Elemental Plane of Fire. We were then allowed to have a look at the lair that the Ancient Beast of Fire once lived in. Before we had lunch, we were shown around and allowed to read some of the materials in their Forbidden Library.

We then had fire based food for lunch, it was spicy and it burned my mouth for every spoon I eat but I know I couldn’t ask for water to cool it down. I secretly use water spell in my mouth to cool it down instead. I felt bad for the others as they don’t know how to do that and unless they love spicy food, they would find this experience torturous.

After that horrendous lunch we went on further touring around the Elemental Plane of Fire. We even had the chance to meet the Grand Ruler of Fire, which gave us each a piece of Fire essence as a gift. We then left for the hotel soon after.

The same routine occurred for the rest of the day, everyone had dinner at the hotel and people fought over the food. I have to catch another few group of boys sneaking towards the girls’ room during bath time, and I have to force a sleeping spell on some boys who were still active past midnight.

The next day passed quickly. We visited the Wind Elemental Plane and received a Bag of Winds as a gift. The same few things that happened the days before happened again and I’m starting to get a Déjà vu feeling that everything in the morning and night kept repeating itself.

“Time, Luthriel, Aquis, tomorrow we are visiting the Light Elemental Plane. Do be wary of your surroundings and do not let anyone know that we work for the Darkness Elemental Plane.”

“Roger that.”

The next day came quickly. The guards of the Entrance of the Light Elemental Plane warmly welcomed everyone but I can feel the guards staring at me and whispering something behind my back. I know that Luricerite has already showed every creature in the Light Elemental Plane about my existence as I’m considered as a dangerous unit to them.

It is a dangerous move to enter the Light Elemental Plane but Nightius has told me I would be safe, Luricerite will not do anything as he has signed a contract of promising safety. That makes me wonder how he got the contract to be signed since Nightius couldn’t have went to the Darkness Elemental Plane alone.

First we were led to the Tower of Light. We have the opportunity to meet Luricerite, which is a bad move for us.

“Welcome, children of the Physical Realm, to our glorious Light Elemental Plane!” Luricerite’s voice rang down the long hallway in his throne room.

“We are pleased to meet you, Grand Ruler of Light, Lord Luricerite.” The teacher accompanied with me greeted him.

“A good day to you, Luricerite.”

“Well, well, well. If it wasn’t The Piece. I have been informed to not take action against anyone here, so I will not create a scene here. However this does not mean I will allow you to perform any of your acts here. I will keep an eye on you as long as you are here. The same goes for your friends within the crowd.”

“You need not worry about that.”

“Now, children, I have a gift for all of you, it is a feather from the wing of an Archangel. It will provide you the protection of Light.”

A general of Light came forward and gave everyone, including myself, a feather, I kept it in a pocket.

“If any of you wished to join The Light Elemental Plane in the future, bring the feather along and I will grant you a high position in the Plane. Now if you will please excuse me, I have other work to do.”

Luricerite waved at all of us and disappeared into a portal. We went a tour around the Tower of Light and taught about the long history of how Light Elemental Plane came about, and the records of the endless battle between Dark and Light. Of course, all of these were stories that were twisted accordingly to shape Light into the hero of the story. The students were taught accordingly to the truth of the story so they should be able to distinguish that this stories here were a biased one.

Or at least that is what I thought it to be.

We were then led to visit the Armoury, which showcased all their different weapons. I see many of the student’s eyes shone, but all of these are common to me as I have fought and saw all these weapons at least once before.

Next is lunchtime. We were seated at a long table in the Heavenly Palace. A chef accompanied us at the table, he had white feathered wings growing out behind his back so he must be an angel. Food were served to us in separate dishes, all of them were delicacies that I have not seen before. I hate to admit it, but they taste far better than our own special dishes in Darkness Elemental Plane.

After the lunch, we headed to a special location they called it as “Labyrinths Cube.” They said that they are having a game with us inside this place. Apparently they have placed a Seal of Light in the middle of the Labyrinths Cube and whoever gets to the centre of the cube first gets the prize.

From what the Creatures of Light organizing the event said, this entire cube is a maze-like labyrinth. Once you enter the labyrinth it is hard to get out again, as the maze continuously change as time passes. What makes this Cubs dangerous is not the constantly changing appearance of the maze, the real danger is the players inside will undergo distortion themselves, in both Time and space wise. Anyone inside will age differently depending on which side of the cube and the distance of the player from the centre of the cube, and according to the same conditions, the person in the Cube will also come under the effect of molecular manipulation. This can be a dangerous game if I and the teachers are not around to reverse the effect of the Cube.

We spent the entire evening playing the game. Time has the advantage playing this game as she can summon numerous clones of herself, so it was no wonder that she was the first to reach the centre of the Cube and won the game. I and the accompanied teacher had to heal a couple of students that were affected by the Cube’s magic. The Creatures of Light that guards the Cube certainly have a good laugh on the reactions the students have when they finally emerged from the Cube itself.

After the game in the Cube, we went for one last visit to the Magical Centre of the Plane. We saw how the Creatures of Light experimented with new magic spells in the Centre. For some of the rooms, I, Time, Aquis and Luthriel is not allowed to enter as we are members of the Darkness Elemental Plane, which I can perfectly understand. We then left for the hotel soon after.

“Alright, tomorrow is the last day of the school camp. Everyone, please remember we have a reflection after the entire camp, so please reflect upon this entire school camp and tell us where should we improve it so we can tweak it for future generations.”

“Yes~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!”

Finally the day I was waiting arrived: The visit to Darkness Elemental Plane. I can finally show them around the Plane that I have devoted myself my whole life in, I can also sense the excitement that Time, Aquis and Luthriel is hiding. We approached the gates of the Darkness Elemental Plane. Master Inoxion and his other 24 Lord’s statuette situated at the front of the gates greeted us.

As the gates of the Darkness Elemental Plane opens, I saw Lord Inoxion standing right in front, giving everyone a big bow.

“Welcome, everyone, to the Elemental Plane of origins, The Darkness Elemental Plane!”

I heard some other mumblings from the students. They have been brainwashed after the wrongs teachings given by the Creatures of the Light Elemental Plane yesterday, so they would be questioning the truth and reliability of master Inoxion. Master Inoxion will have a plan to deal with that later.

“I’m Lord Inoxion, the Grand Ruler of the Darkness Elemental Plane. I have taken a free day off to guide all of you around my Plane, please enjoy yourself around.”

The first location of the tour is the Castle of Darkness in the middle of the Darkness Elemental Plane. Master Inoxion went through the Art Gallery in the Castle and explained the history of the Darkness Elemental Plane. There were questions raised against Master Inoxion about the real truth, they explained that Creatures of Light told them about their side of the story. Master Inoxion rebutted the argument that Light has always been an enemy of Darkness and they will twist the truth in order to shape themselves as the “Good” character.

The students nodded. Whether did they internalize the information is another matter altogether, but what Master Inoxion did is sufficient, for now.

We then went to our Magical Armoury. Different from the Light’s armoury, instead of magical weapons, ours is filled with bottle of different sizes, each having different contents.

“What are these? Grand Ruler of Darkness Elemental Plane?” One inquisitive student asked.

“Ah… These are my proud creations of magic. We extract magic from The Void and condenses them into these liquid you see here. All these bottles contain spells that are condensed in their purest form, just one drop of the liquid is many, many times more effective than the spell being casted by any powerful mage. Only we, the members of the Darkness Elemental Plane knows how to do this. Light is capable is creating weapons from Magic, we Darkness are capable of using Magic to create more magic, that is, amplifying them.”

“Why don’t the both of your Grand Rulers work together instead?”

“That, my dear child, has a complicated reason behind it. If you have listened closely to the lesson I have gave just now on the history of the Darkness Elemental Plane, you would have realised that we never start out any attacks on any other Elemental Planes, but Light has always been the ones starting a war against us. If you want to know more about it, you can learn more if you intend to work for our Elemental Plane.”

“But we heard that you are evil.”

“Ah, of course people have this misconception that Darkness is evil. This is incorrect. Evil operates on a different Realm from us. If you have no idea, there is another Realm that exist within the Existence. That is what we call as the Astral Realm. In there is where the Mana Elemental Plane and many other Planes of Energies, lies. We currently have no access to this Realm but the things within that Realm are capable to reach ours. Evil lies within there as well and we have no connections to it.”

Then we had lunch. After having tasted the dishes yesterday from the Light Elemental Plane I secretly told Master Inoxion about it. Master Inoxion told me that he has plans to deal with it, which made me wonder what he is up to.

“Now, children of the Physical Plane, I need you to understand the basis of our Elemental Plane. Different from Light Elemental Plane, everything in this plane is made of Magic. Hence, I have to seek your understanding that your lunch will not be of anything that you can actually view as edible. Rest assured, they still perform the same function as any other Physical food substance and taste similarly as well.”

The elementals came in and served us lunch. The first was a plate with purple glob.

I knew that is going to happen. We never had any pretty looking dishes in the past and I doubt Master is going to retrench the chef and replace it in such short notice.

Then an alarm sounded. It interrupted us in our middle of having lunch. I knew what is happening but the others do not. Master Inoxion clapped his hands, the elementals immediately withdrew from the room.

“I’m afraid I have to leave you children to yourselves for a few moments. Let Innight explain to you what is happening now. Now if you please excuse me.”

“Innight? What is this?”

Everyone in the room, except Aquis, asked me.

I sighed. I should have seen this coming.

“The Creatures of The Void! It is time to reawaken our ruler! He has been sealed into the body of a mere human but we will find him!”

A huge roar came from the audience, a huge crowd of Creatures of The Void, all black and transparent.

“Today we shall storm the Castle of Darkness! We will find him back and reawaken him from the human he is!”

Another roar came from the crowd.

“And we shall slay him! For he is no longer worthy!”

More roars came.

“So now, let us go! TO THE CASTLE OF DARKNESS WE MARCH!”

“So there is an invasion in the Darkness Elemental Plane now?”

“Yes. I am 99% sure that it is another daily attack by the Light Elemental Plane. They do this every day without fail, attacking us during sunrise, noon and sunset every day.”

An elemental rushed into the room.

“Innight! Lord Inoxion wants to meet you, right now! Emergency!”

“All of you, STAY IN HERE! Master does not call for me unless it is really an emergency. The situation outside is likely to be dangerous and by moving outside, the invaders are likely to treat you as one of us and will attempt to slaughter you. I will set up a barrier around here.”

I took up a magic booster from the assisting teacher and carried it with me outside. I pulled along with me the Darkness Elemental.

“Bring me to Master Inoxion!”

“Yes sir!”

Master was at the top of the Castle.

“You are dismissed now, Elemental.”

The elemental retreated back into the depths of the darkness of the Castle.

“What did you call me here for, Master?”

“Something strange is happening. Look over to the right, at the artificial Void Elemental Plane.”

I looked over the direction Master Inoxion is pointing at. Creatures of The Void is pouring out from there and attacking our Creatures of Darkness.

“That cannot be right. The last time I visited the Void Elemental Plane there isn’t that much Creatures of The Void. Also, we have locked down on their weapons to prevent them attacking us.”

“Right you are, Innight. The thing is, I have discovered a portal in the deeps of the Void Elemental Plane. I suspect it is connected to the real Void Elemental Plane, the real Void Elemental Plane that lies within The Gap. We need to discover the reason behind their invasion and shut off the portal.”

“Alright, so what should I do?”

“Innight, I need you to awaken your powers. Can you turn into your original form? I suspect that they would listen to the original Grand Ruler and will hopefully stop the invasion.”

“I can try.”

I shapeshifted into my Zealus form.

“Good. I need you to show yourself to those Creatures of The Void ad find out their reason for invading us. If possible, command them to stop the invasion.”

“Alright.”

I flew out to the middle of the battlefield. The battles stopped suddenly and the Creatures of The Void all cried “It is him! Our Grand Ruler!”

“May I ask a question to all my servants there?”

“Of course! Our Master!”

“Why are you fighting the Darkness Elemental Plane when you have swear complete obligation to the Darkness Elemental Plane?”

“Another ruler that took your place ordered us to! He wanted to slay you to become the new Grand Ruler of the Void Elemental Plane!”

“You say what?! Who dares to challenge me?”

“It is I!”

A huge Creature of the Void appeared before me. A shot of Light arrow suddenly flew towards me without warning, just before it hit me someone appeared in front of me and took the shot instead.

“Luthriel!”

“I… appeared… just in time.”

“How did you…”

“I have prophetic vision. I can see… into the future.”

“Why did you take the shot instead? You don’t have the ability to alleviate Light! I’m immune to Light based attacks like that!”

“That… that is not the reason why. The arrow is dipped in poison. The poison can destroy magic.”

I gasped. “That means, you are…”

“Heh. Guess I’m useful for something after all. It is great to have met you, Innight, and experienced everything together. It is time. For me to leave.”

After he finished speaking he disintegrated into dark particles and it flew away into The void.