Rage bubbled up within myself. My best friend, one that I could talk to, is gone forever. I saw one of the seals is gone as well. The amount of anger I felt cannot be described with words, my mind was set only to kill the Creature of The Void which shot the arrow.
“Tsk. Missed. Well, never mind, I can always fire another one whenever I like. Now fight me, Zealus! Entertain me with your power!”
“I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU!!! ABSOLETE: ANNIHILATION!”
A magic circle with the symbol of Light appeared under the Creature of The Void. The other Creatures edged away from it, a huge beam of light emitted from the circle and devoured him. Its voice screams out the last words before it was completely obliterated:
“You have not seen the last of me, Zealus! I will destroy you one day and claim your position!”
Eventually the entire Creature disintegrated.
“NOW THE LOT OF YOU GET OUT OF HERE BACK TO YOUR PLANE! IF I SEE ANYTHING LIKE THIS AGAIN I WILL VANQUISH ANYONE WHO INVADES THE PLANE OF DARKNESS! ALSO TURN OFF THE PORTAL OR ELSE I WILL COMPLETELY OBLITERATE EVERYONE INSIDE THE PLANE!”
The various Creatures of The Void quickly evacuated from the Plane of Darkness and back into their Plane of The Void. I sensed the portal being forcefully shut off. I flew into the Plane to confirm that they did not leave a crack of the portal being left. The entire audience of the Creatures separated like Moses walking through the Red Sea as I flew across the Plane. I found no evidence of any trace of the portal left.
“NOW ALL OF YOU BE SILENT AND FOLLOW YOUR CONTRACTS! IF SUCH A THING HAPPEN AGAIN I WILL DESTROY EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU HERE! WITH THE ACUTAL ELEMENTAL PLANE AS WELL!”
Then I returned to the Castle of Darkness. Master is waiting for me at the top of the towers.
“I see what you did there. Great job clearing up the mess. Now we should return to the dining room and continue your lunch.”
“We should, yes. It is sad that we have a sacrifice but I guess it cannot be avoided. I will stay in this form until we leave the plane just in case the Creatures of The Void tries to stir up trouble once more. I suspect that the Creature you have saw who caused all this trouble has more of his followers within the plane who will take up his position and stir up trouble in the near future. With me around, though, they should not take any stupid moves.”
When we reached the dining room, it is in a state of mess. The students were running around and casting various spells around the room, the accompanying teacher has collapse in a corner, unconscious, for unknown reasons, but I suspect she possible came into contact with a stun spell. Master Inoxion clapped his hands, all the spells froze in space.
“Now, now, children, let us not get too excited. This is not a battleground where you are supposed to fight everything you encounter. Now let us continue your lunch which has been interrupted.”
The students focused their attention not on Master, but on someone else. That is Me. Possibly because they saw my transformed form, which has signified nothing but trouble before.
“It would be better that I stay in this form because of reasons, why is it so you all do not need to know. Anyway, why did Luthriel left the room?”
“Oh yeah, where is Luthriel? He told us that he is going to the toilet.”
“That idiot…… He…… would not be returning. Something……. Unfortunate…….. Happened and his soul took off to the Death’s Realm. We will suffer from a loss of someone with connections to the Darkness Elemental Plane and a good magic user. May he be reborned as someone with the same potential in the future.”
We continued the lunch in silence. No one dared to speak a word, even Master remained silent through the entire duration of lunch, and the silence is only slightly disrupted by the footsteps of the Darkness Elementals walking into the room and leaving. Before lunch ended, Master whispered to me:
“Innight, we will be performing a funeral for him. It will be conducted at this night, at 12 midnight. You are invited, but not forced, to attend. He is an important piece on the Chessboard, on Board 1, as the Bishop, since he can see into the future.”
“I wouldn’t be attending. I still need to keep the students in check. Also, it pains me to see his picture anywhere.”
“I understand. I will inform Necrov about him and find a time for you to talk to his soul.”
Master stood up and clapped his hands, 12 Darkness Elemental gathered in the room, each carrying a different artifact on a tray.
“Now, my children, we have a gift for you, but only 12 out of the 26 of you, excluding Innight, Aquis and the teacher, will get them. You must be thinking of getting them now, I expect. Now, had it been other Planes, the way to choose it is through a battle of death, I do not favour that kind of method. I prefer using much calmer and less primal method. This is how I will choose the children getting the artifacts……”
All 29 of us stood in front of the huge door that master has led us to.
“Alright, my children, this is my personalised Dungeon, which I like to call it the Infinity Dungeon. I have placed the artifacts throughout the dungeon. You have to fight off the monsters that spawns in this dungeon naturally and navigate through this dungeon using your brains. Be warned, I have traps that is placed all around this dungeon so if you trigger a trap, it will deduct your hp bar as shown on your golden bracelet I have just given you. Once the hp bar reaches zero, you will be automatically teleported back to this starting point. Now, once you go through the door, the game starts. You have 5 hours, have fun inside!”
In just less than 3 minutes, Time came out of the dungeon safely, on her hand she carried a stopwatch made of Dark Matter. No surprises here, since she can make use of her clones and try out all the paths of the dungeon, and since she is a user of Time and Shadows, she will seek out the artifact that has relation to Time and Shadows.
“What does this artifact do?” Time asked Master Inoxion.
“You have good eyes, Time. That artifacts enhances one’s control over Time itself and it is powered by Dark Matter, which also grants the user to manipulate Dark Matter itself, which is scattered throughout the Existence. You can keep it for your own usage, Time.” Master explained.
By the end of the 5 hours, only 7 out of the 12 artifacts were taken. The rest of the students either failed to reach the location of the artifact on time or they ran out of health to continue.
“Well, my children, this is the end of the tour around our Darkness Elemental Plane. I hope you have found this experience to be as fruitful and interesting as I do. Please do consider joining forces with out Plane when it is time for you to diverge in your study. We even offer study in the Void Elemental Plane, since we are connected to it. Remember though, you will need to fight off invasions of Light everyday if you do intend to join us in the future. Goodbye for now, my children!”
Master Inoxion waved goodbye at us in front of the gates that stood on the border of the Darkness Elemental Plane. The students who had the artifacts were excited and begin trying out their newly gained powers. I have to put a temporary seal on all of the artifacts to prevent them from using their powers too often.
“Alright, students! This is the last night of your camp! You should have gathered enough information about the Planes you wished to work for in the near future. We hoped you have enjoyed yourselves as well. Remember that you need to go to sleep at midnight and don’t use magic!”
At midnight, my seals activated again and reseal my true power. I heard many sounds coming from the Darkness Elemental Plane, which is the nearest Plane to our hotel. That is probably originating from the funeral Mater Inoxion was talking about. I couldn’t sleep with all the sound ringing nearby from the Plane, so I decided to have a walk around the hotel. As I walk down the corridor of the 2nd floor Girls dormitory, I found Time walking there.
“Couldn’t sleep, Time?”
“Well, yes and no. I’m intending to recall my True self from within the other universe in another Timeline. Do you want to see how I truly am like, Innight?”
“Well I don’t have anything to do right now, so why not?”
“Alright then, I have to warn you though, my true self isn’t what you consider as pretty and sane.”
I stayed silent while Time stood still in the room with her magic circle, in the form of a clock inscribed with roman numerals, tick under her. The hands of the clock slowly wound from 3 (III) to 12 (XII). When both hands of the clock reached 12, the clock opened up a dark portal and swallowed Time. A girl with an orange frilly dress rose out of the portal. She looked at me, I saw her right eye is a normal red tinted eye, but what that is out of place is her left eye. Her left eye holds an inorganic golden clock, complete with the both hands.
“Now what do we have here? An image of the Grand Ruler of The Void? How splendid.” She spoke.
“You can call me so, Time. Now may I know why did you call your true self into this Universe when you have never done so?”
“Tonight is a special night. A night where the gatherings of strange creatures galore from various sources from the Existence. I am the organizer and the party will not end until I allow Time to flow again.”
“When did you stop the Time?” I suddenly realised Time has stopped flowing.
“Ah, that is a great secret. You should not ask a woman her secrets…Zealus.”
“What is this party that you mention? I have not heard of anything like this before. And how did you know of my true name?”
“That, my dear friend, is because you are frozen in Time itself whenever the party starts. You were not as powerful before as now, the power you have now allows you to resist my power of control over Time.”
“I have asked this before, I will ask this again. How did you come to know about me?”
“I lived for as long as you do, for many eternities and undying no matter how long Time passes. On one occasion of the Existence recreation, I found you destroying Existence itself. Since I can read the Timeline from the past to the future, I figured out you are as the same as I do, even much more power, but basically have same powers, which is control over Time. I have always been alone since nothing can resist my immense power over Time itself so when I found you, I figured that you can be my friend. However before I can reach out to you, you left. You were sealed by the Ancient Magic of The Void and I find that you were reborned as an ordinary human. So I decided to find you, now it finally happened. Do you accept me, Zealus?”
Loneliness. She is trapped in the prison known as Loneliness. This is the same prison I was trapped with as well. I was lonely because of my immense power as Zealus and Creatures of The Void is the only living object that I interact with. Even as human I carried along myself with bad luck and it follows me wherever I go, this caused me to not be able to have any friends for my social circle. I perfectly understand the feelings of one who is locked within such a prison, so I can empathize with her.
“Of course I agree to your request, Time.”
A smile sprouted on her face.
“I am eternally grateful for you, Zealus!” She hugged me and begin crying.
“Now, what about your party? Where is it held and how long do you intend to last it for?”
Time did not answer, she continued crying in my arms. I pat her head softly to calm her down. It has been a while since I had contact with another girl, so I am slightly troubled and have little idea of calming her down. Her crying soon subsided and she looked up at me with her odd eyes of hers.
“There now, my dear girl, you are no longer alone now. Now do you mind telling me about your party?”
She wiped her tears away.
“Yes, about that. You are to come with me to the party, since you are now connected to me. Together we will dance in the party until we are satisfied, to the ends of Time!”
She then vanished.
“Oh, I will come to pick you up later, Zealus, for now let me construct the party room and invite our other guests first!”
Is that Time acceleration? I thought to myself. I continued my little walk around the hotel, seeing everyone frozen in Time. Just how big is her field of time control? Then I remembered the artifact she has received from Master Inoxion. That might have increased her capability of magic. A hand suddenly grabbed me from a portal that just appeared and pulled me into it. When I was through the portal, I saw the hand belongs to Time, and we are at the middle of a blackened room.
“Welcome, Zealus, to my Party room, created as a separate dimension separated from any Universes and Timelines. Everyone here, say hello to Zealus!”
“H…Hello, Grand Ruler of The Void Elemental Plane, Zealus.”
“Hello to everyone. I am currently in human form as I am still placed under the seals of Ancient Magic of The Void.
I cannot see any Creatures in the Darkness itself but I can sense them. From the source of their mana flow, most are from various Elemental Planes, others are mages from other Universes, signified by their abnormal mana flow.
“Now then, everyone, please enjoy yourselves to the maximum. Remember, this party can last for as long as I intend it to last.”
“Yeah~~~!”
A gathering of people sat in the middle of the artificial Void Elemental Plane.
“One of our members failed us. This is atrocious. We cannot afford to lose any more members just because we are not careful in our plans. Our machinery is not fully functional as well so we cannot activate it for our plans. Everything is failing and falling apart, we need help to ensure the machine is done before Zealus activates himself again.”
“Leader, so what should we do now, while waiting for the machine to be complete?”
“We should consider the option of reliving all of his seals for now as the most important job. It is the perfect time to slowly draw out his inner-self to proceed with the current plan.”
“Power grid wise?”
“We have to abandon it. We will find another method to do so. We will meet again the next time the moon is full again. Number 9, prepare a funeral for number 6. We will attend it during our next meeting. Let us disband now.”
We had a great time in the party. I get to meet people from the alternate dimensions and understand how magic in their dimension operates. I also get to interact with Creatures of other Elemental Planes, which allowed me to further understand how their Planes operates. During the whole duration of the party, Time grabbed onto me and refused to let go, this made us look like lovers. Well, not that it matters to me, it felt nice to have a girl clinging to you anyway. Warm, tender and fulfilling, it fills the endless Void that my heart contains.
“I hope all of you had enough fun for tonight! Look forward to our next meeting when the Planes align again!”
After Time said these, a blinding light grew from the middle of the dark room and enveloped everything. After it faded I find myself and Time back at the corridors of the hotel again. I felt the Time is flowing once more. Time is still clinging onto me.
“Um, Time. You should really go back to sleep, also you should hide your true self.”
“I know, but later it shall be.”
Time left my arms and walked towards the girls’ dormitory, her orange frilly dress dragging out behind her, and she slowly melt into the shadows.
I breathed out a sigh of relief.
“I cannot get used to how Time behaves sometime.”
I continued walking down the corridor and listening for any sounds. I can still hear the faint murmuring and chanting from the Darkness Elemental Plane. I then reached the main lobby of the hotel. The staffs were all asleep and all was quiet. Suddenly something caught my attention. I have kept a good picture of how the hotel’s main lobby is like because of my mistrust on this location since it has relation to the Light Elemental Plane. The grandfather clock in the room has been noticeably moved from its’ original position. Also, the hands of the clock is not correct. My Time Crystal shows the time now is 12:35, however the hands of the clock both points at XII.
I suspect something is going on under my notice. It may be just because the clock holds a hiding place for the staffs of the hotel but I do not fully trust them. All of them are Creatures of Light and thus I won’t be able to trust them as much as I would if they are of other Elemental Planes. However to reveal the secret I will need more clues. I begin flipping around the notes the staffs have.
Nothing. All the notes contains are daily records of activities in the hotel itself. There is nothing of the sort that mentions about the clock. I guess I will have to test it out myself, there is only so many combinations of the hands of the clock that I can try. I begin turning the hands of the clock, I have to put a spell to silent the clock to ensure it doesn’t chime.
When the hour hand of the clock reached V and the minute hand reaches XII, a clicking sound came from inside the clock. It begin moving itself in a circular motion around the room and spiralling inwards to the middle of the room. Once it reached the middle of the room the circular path the clock took all sank downwards into a stairway, taking down the clock as well into the Darkness of the stairway. The staffs stirred in their sleep and mumbled something. Hopefully they will not awaken before I figured out the secret of this clock.
I walked down the stairways that just appeared. On the walls there were strange paintings. For some, it painted a picture of the Ancient Beast of Light, for others it painted the Grand Ruler of Light. All the paintings seemed to be painted for many eternities ago, and all paintings are moving. I continued gazing at the various paintings as I walked down the stairway. At the very end of the stairway, I felt a wall blocking my path. I can feel a spell casted over the wall so it must be a fake wall to cover up whatever secret that it is hiding.
I instantly analysed the spell and broke it. The wall disintegrated. Behind the wall is a dark tunnel lit by white flames. I walked through the dark tunnel and at the end of the tunnel is something I never expected to see.
At the end of the tunnel is a colossal room, decorated like a nest. Eggs of various size and shape surrounded the sides of the room. At the middle of the room a huge machine is overhanging, it seems to be pumping mana and magic into the eggs itself and sorting them out. Every few moments, a new egg pops out from beneath the machine and the machine arrange it to fit in the room.
“Right. Slowly back out……” I told myself.
Then the machine must have spotted me. For all of a sudden metal pipes and wires crept towards me. I casted a barrier and flew upwards, the metal pipes and wires flew upward and begin to surround my barrier. I start flying out of the room and up the stairs. When I flew out of the stairway the stairway begin retracting into the walls and the opening begin to close. The floor just managed to close in time before the wires managed to catch up to me. The clock rewound back to its’ original position.
I was stunned at the situation. My breath was quick and sharp. What was that? I thought to myself. That was not something that I have ever known. That is definitely a plan by Light since all the paintings there are associated with Light, but why? And what is their intention behind those things? It looks like those eggs hide Creatures inside, but what exactly? Time is running short. I need to report to Master before Time runs out.
Then the clock chimed 6 times. The staff awoke from their sleep.
“Ah, what is it that you are doing here, The Piece?”
“Nothing. Just having a walk around the zone.”
They cannot be trusted. This entire hotel has a secret to be unfolded. I need to uncover it as soon as we can, I do not trust what that is hidden underneath here to be safe.
I hurried back to the gathering point for the entire school. I’m still shocked by secret hidden under the hotel. Everyone has already gathered and the Principle is delivering the speech.
“…And so, we conclude our 5 day trip to our Elemental Plane. I hope everyone have figured out which Elemental Plane they intend to work for in the future. Now we shall dismiss everyone by level and class.”
I returned back to my class of 3-A. Time, with her usual school uniform, was standing beside Aquis.
“Time,” I whispered. “You are using your clone self and hiding your true self again, aren’t you?”
“Right.” She whispered back.
“Good.” I continued. “Something big is about to happen, sometime in the near future. I need you to keep yourself safe before then.”
We board the bus and travelled back to school. When I went back to my room, I found an envelope waiting for me on my bed. It was a white envelope, I tore open the envelope, and inside it was a letter with a small and white circular object. I took a glance at the sender. It was from Luthriel.
Strange. I thought. He should be dead and unable to interact with the Physical realm and his soul should still be bound to the Death Realm. How did he send me a message?
I begin reading the letter.
Innight. If you are reading this it is highly likely that I am dead and my soul is captured by the Light Elemental Plane. I need you, first, is not to inform anyone about it. My soul is likely to be held captive in one of the experimental chambers. If anyone finds it they will destroy all evidence of the chamber and you will never know what they are actually planning behind. You might be wondering how I knew all this, this is one of the few reason I sent you this letter. I will arrange the content of this letter in this manner: How I knew this, why did I approach you and claimed to protect you, and how did I send this letter to you.
Firstly, how I knew this. Before I got myself involved in all the mess of the battle of the Darkness and Light Elemental Plane, I am actually an Angel in the Light Elemental Plane. This may sound something shocking to you, but I am tasked to overlook you under human form, and I lost my status as an angel when I failed to help out in the operation to flush you out from the school population. I have grown to be fond of you so I didn’t want to hurt you, because I know what they have in store for you once they have captured you. I was stripped of my power and became a normal human. That is how I came to join the ranks of the Darkness Elemental Plane since I decided to join your side to help you out instead.
Next, why I am helping you out. The Light Elemental Plane has set up a plan to resurrect the Creator on their side. They have discovered the site of the death of Creator, I lack of the authenticity to have access to the knowledge of where the site is, so you have to figure that on your own. They are currently uncovering the remains of the Creator and have a plan to recreate it in the form of Light. However, they are currently lacking of a few things to put their plan into action. They lack of enough power, magic and mana to reassemble and awaken the Creator and they also lack of the knowledge to reassemble the pieces together.
They only know of very few Creatures that have such immense power to do so, hence their first target is you. You have the knowledge of the Existence over many eternities and you have immense power, though sealed. You are currently in human form so they can easily capture you without any problems. They intend to capture you, then either convince you to turn to their side, or forcefully use magic to convert you to their side, so you can contribute to their plan and make their plan a successful one. You must quickly regain your powers, Innight. Just moments before I write this letter, I have secretly visited the experimental chambers and found that they have succeed without your help. They have already constructed a robot that have the powers of the Creator that can create any Creatures it is programmed to. They are about to launch an all-out war against the Darkness Elemental Plane and only with your true power you are then able to stop it.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Finally, how did I managed to send you this letter. I have contacted the Rulers of the Darkness Elemental Plane, to be precise, Nightius, to keep this for me. I have to conceal the letter with a white envelope and using a Purification Orb to prevent any Creatures of Light destroying this letter. I have told Nightius to send you this letter if I indeed get killed.
You might not have known it, but Luricerite has secretly hidden many spies in the school itself. All instructed to keep an eye on you. Also, this is a rumour that I have overheard, but it seems that Luricerite is cooperating with the Rulers of the Void Elemental Plane, I do not know what his intent is, but it cannot be of good intention. Keep an eye out of things, I suspect more deaths will occur after me if you don’t figure out how to defeat that monstrosity. Be safe.
-Signed, Luthriel
I knew something was on. That room I saw under the secret room must be the room that they kept their machine called “Creator”. All those eggs are creations that the machine has created. Knowing Luricerite, that machine must not be the only one that they have. If they have discovered the remains of the Creator, they must be using it to sustain the continuous creation of the machines. My first objective is to first discover WHERE that place is. Discovering and disrupting their supply chain will first terminate the creation of the machinery. Only after I can stop their supply then I can figure out how to destroy them. The question is, how much time do I have left before the Light Elemental Plane attacks with their creations? Where is their first target?
*knock knock*
I hid the letter in my drawer.
“Come in.” I shouted.
The door opened. Time and Aquis walked in.
“Innight, we have been informed that we are to shift our rooms to yours, starting from today.”
“HUH?! What kind of absolute nonsense about you sprouting?”
“That was an order by the Grand Ruler of Darkness Elemental Plane, Lord Inoxion. He is concerned with after the attack of Luthriel and he has received words that Luricerite has hidden many of his armies within this school itself. He is worried that we might be attacked by the Creatures of Light, hence he wanted us to be safe by letting us stay together.”
“Alright then. However I really need you to behave yourselves, you both are girls and being with the same room as I will guarantee problems, so please try to prevent showing that we are staying together.”
“Um, but it was announced just now over the System.”
“AH! THIS IS GOING TO BE TROUBLE!”
The next day, instead of receiving stares from everyone in the school, there were excited about something. In front of the Noticeboard, a group of students gathered there. I’m curious of what is there and I squeezed my way to the front of the Noticeboard. What that is attracting the attention of the students is a Notice. I begin reading it.
“After the trip to the Elemental Planes, we need the students to develop the potential to work for the Planes. As such, we are starting a system of Rankings in the school itself. How does it work? You are allowed to challenge students in the school anytime you wish to other than during lesson time. You can win the battle by destroying the school badge, or rendering the other side unconscious, or having them forfeit. Gain yourself fame and glory by winning the 1st place spot in the school! Students that enters the top 10 of the rankings will earn themselves a special dormitory room and royalty treatment. The higher your rank, the better your rewards! For starters, the rank now corresponds to how well you have performed academically, but it will be updated as soon as the first battle starts. Have fun and battle well!”
I can feel all the eyes staring at me. I have the highest academic score at magic casting, potion brewing, and magic history and knowledge. Because of these, I will be the one holding the rank 1 position in the school right now. It wouldn’t be long before someone challenges me to a battle.
“Innight! I challenge you…”
“No! I challenge you!”
“No, I…”
“No! ...”
As I have expected.
I ignored them and head for my class. Let them fight among themselves. I thought. I will need to drag this out as long as possible, in order to conserve mana and magic in case Light attacks.
In that afternoon, 3 different individuals challenged me. I accepted them because I think need to showcase a fragment of my power to deter others from challenging me. I took all of them out in less than 5 seconds, and they all scrambled off in fear. Time and Aquis were both challenged as well and they won all the battles. At the end of the day, I still sat at the 1st place, Time sat on 2nd, while Aquis’s position is around 200th to 250th.
“Time, you need to be wary.” I told Time when we get back to our room. “I suspect this ranking system is more than what it is on the surface. Don’t lose any battle.”
“No worries. I have control over Time, remember?”
“Right…”
Our room is transformed into a king’s bedroom when we returned. This must be the benefit for having the 1st place in the school itself. I don’t know how the 2nd place is treated since Time and I are staying in the same room under the instruction from Master Inoxion.
“Innight, I challenged you!”
“This again? Lanette: Oblivion!”
Small bullets of Void flew towards the school badges and broke it before the two girls could even react.
“Now off with you.”
The girls ran away, crying.
“You too, Aquis, you are at the middle range of the ranking system. You should not get into trouble anytime sooner since there is still a long way to the bottom list. I have no idea what will happen to you if you reach the bottom of the list so don’t lose your position. Avoid challenging others to keep your rank in check.”
Some people crept near our room. I can hear them scratching against the door.
“Now what are the lot of you doing here? Challenging me?” I asked.
The group trembled.
“N-no. We are challenging Aquis.”
“Whatever. Aquis, go ahead, it’s your battle. Don’t you dare to lose.”
“Yes sir.”
In just a couple of moments the group of people were flung towards the wall of the corridor.
“Now if you excuse me. I need to continue my talk with Innight.” Aquis said.
The group scampered off.
“Check your rank now, Aquis.”
She took out a tabloid and turned it on and started swiping it. That tabloid was distributed to all of us this morning, it is used to check the rankings.
“Let’s see. 250th.”
“You still have a long way to go, Aquis. Try to work your way up the ladder.”
The night passed with ease.
*The next day*
“So, Ms. Yuri, what is the Existence?”
“Good question, Foruis. If you have studied about humans’ science you should have known about Omniverse, where it is the collection of all universe, including the true universe, the parallel universes, and the reverse universe. We-”
We were in the middle of a science lesson when the explosion occurred. I immediately felt the presence of a spell casted by someone hidden under the explosion. The teacher fainted and all of the sudden the girls ganged up on all the boys, locking them under spells. Even Time and Aquis is under the influence of the spell. I floated upwards into the air and casted a powerful barrier around myself. The girls begin launching all kinds of spells but to no avail. Eventually they gave up and rounded up the boys and teleported them to somewhere. They then left the classroom.
I need to find the source of magic. Most likely someone is manipulating with the minds and actions of the girls and causing them to act as such. The caster of the spell is also most likely rendering the teachers unconscious. It is my job as the leader of the magic Security Team to stop the source of magic. I first did a tracing of the magic, and it traced back to the 2nd floor classroom in the D-block, where the explosion occurred. I begin my teleport to there.
When I arrived, I saw a beautiful girl sitting in a golden throne in the classroom. She has long sea-green hair, sea-blue eyes, a doll-like figure, she has a teddy bear in one of her hands and she is wearing a crown. She stroke her teddy bear she is holding and commented:
“Now, now, Freddy, no worries. The evil boys have been decimated.”
“Now, may I ask a question on what you are doing, my ‘queen’?”
She looks surprised and looked around the room.
“Above you, ‘Queen’.”
She looked up and found me.
“Why are you still alive? My cute servants, destroy this boy immediately!”
A few girls rushed into the room and started firing spells towards me, but to no avail.
“Ah you stupid girls! Let me deal with this idiotic boy! Rewrite!”
Suddenly I felt my mind is being attacked by strange ideas, I managed to block them out with my strong wave of magic. It appears she has mind influencing magic. This explains why she has control over the girls of the entire school.
“Why won’t my magic go through? WHY?”
“You should know who I am. I’m Innight, rank 1 of the entire school and the leader of the Magic Security Team. Little magic tricks like what you have just used has no effect over me.”
“Ah this is why I hate boys! All disgusting, annoying creatures! All boys are worthless, a sore to my beautiful eyes! Get out of my way, Innight! I want this school to be a place for beauties, not for disgusting creatures like you!”
I shook my head.
“I afraid I cannot do so. It is my duty to preserve peace in the school and manage the correct usage of magic. You have violated the rules that the school have set so I am afraid that I have to lock you down.”
“You will not! Gabriel: Protection!”
A blue barrier appeared around the ‘Queen’. I immediately realized she has the power of an angel. She must have associated herself with the Creatures of Light to gain such power. No matter, I can break through this kind of low level magic.
“Excrition: Insigma!”
The barrier immediately shattered, yet the girls around her did not regain their senses. This meant her magic is on the level of an Archangel, which contains too much magic in order for Insigma to shut her down. This raises her danger level by a slight amount, but it is not so high that it becomes something I cannot deal with.
“Freddy, help me!”
The teddy bear in her arms hop onto the floor and grew to human size. It begin firing spells, weapons and various other things towards me, but to no avail. All were disintegrated before they can touch me.
“Freddy, move away! Durandal!”
A sword that shone so that I had to cover my eyes, appeared in her hands. It is decorated with jewels of Light and has feathers of Angel covered on the handle of the blade. That is Durandal, a holy sword that can only be used by Creatures that have their level of magic reach the level of an Archangel.
“Eden: Hymn of Light!”
A huge beam of light that is emitted from the sword walloped me. I can feel the overwhelming amount of Light magic stored within this attack. However, no matter how strong she is, and no matter how powerful Durandel is rumoured to be, it cannot defeat me so easily, the Creator and Destroyed of Existence himself.
“Now that should erase this ill-mannered bug!”
“Or is it so, my ‘Queen’?”
“Why won’t you just get rid of yourself, you… piece of trash?”
“Why have you came to hate boys so much? They have not done anything wrong, granted, some are mischievous, but many are nice creatures.”
“Shut up! You are incurring impurities to my ears so much that you should deserve death right now!”
“Looks like you will not listen to reason. In the world of Magic, power speaks the most. I will show you where you actually stand against us.”
I waved my hands over the entire group of girls and her Freddy. Immediately the girls went back to normal and her Freddy turned back to normal size.
“What just happened here?” One of the girls asked.
“All of you girls better move out of here. If everything goes well you are just going to see some casualties, if worst come to worst, you are likely to see bloodstains everywhere in your class. Don’t scream, nothing has happened. Yet.”
All the girls rushed out of the classroom, screaming.
“What HAVE YOU DONE?!”
“I broke all of your spells. That is an easy job for me. I am the Creator and Destroyer of Existence, my power is way stronger than all of the school population added together. Know your place, ‘Queen’. Now please stop all your controls over all the other girls in the school, if not I’m afraid I have to fight you head on and render you unconscious to disable all your spells.”
“No way! I will rather die than to let the boys wander out here!”
“Then let me apologize in advance. Lanett: Phurilex.
A ball of Void flew from my hands towards the girl. She attempted to cut it with her Durandal but with no effect. It grew and enveloped the girl.
“Now, you stay in here while I ask you some questions.”
“No way am I answering them! You will get nothing from me!”
“You know, I do not like to hurt girls. Girls are nice and beautiful creatures, sometimes acting a little spoiled like a princess, but that makes them cuter. I do not wish to hurt a cute creature as such, but if refuse to listen to reason, I have to treat you like an invader, I have to resort to using torture. I will tear out every single piece of living flesh from that body of yours if I have to. Since you force me to, I will do it.”
“What… What do you intend to do to me?”
“Answer my questions, then I will not need to resort to violence and torture.”
She looked on the ground for a few moments.
“Alright. Ask away.”
“My first question: Why did you lock up all the boys?”
“I never like the boys. I was always teased by them because of my beauty. Ever since young, I was bullied by them, they tainted my heart greatly and left a scar that will never be erased. I always wanted to erase boys form the world to prevent anymore incidents like me happening and to make the world a better place.”
“Do you even know that humankind need both male and female to co-exist in order for the survival of the species?”
“Huh?”
I gave her a long lecture about the reproduction of humankind. Her face blushed when I finished the lecture.
“I… I never knew. I always thought…”
“Now that has been cleared up, you should recognize the importance of males in the humankind society. Now, this may sound strange coming from me, but not all boys are as what you have seen. Granted, most are mischievous and childish, they love to inflict harm onto others and bring many problems to everyone, but not all are as such. I, myself, love to interact with girls. I think they are the most beautiful creatures of the entire Existence, and you know that I have seen many creatures due to my age and my true nature. Sadly, I’m feared by others due to my immense power and of the status I hold. I only interact with one girl thus far, she is named Time. Granted, she isn’t what other boys consider as a perfect girl, but to me she is wonderful. A girl, to me, is the greatest gift the Existence can bring to me.”
“So not everyone is trying to harm me?”
“Of course not, silly. What is your name?”
“Charlotte.”
“Well, Charlotte, somewhere down in life you will find someone who will be able to appreciate you. It will happen eventually, just ignore the others, I know you have been scarred by boys in the past, but remember, they are other who have suffered more than you did. Do you think I have a good past just because I have this great power? I fear I have to answer that it is not the case. Because I get to live for as long as Magic lives, I have seen many tragedies, went through rounds of betrayals, heartbreaks, isolations and many other tragedies. I have suffered much more than any other human have went through, I also had extremely bad luck with everything so failures come to me often. Believe me, it is not something that you will want to experience.”
“Really? You suffered so much?”
“I did. I reincarnate as human so many times that I have lost count the numbers of times I have went through hell. Every time it happens my heart dies a little inside, my minds lost its grasps on everything, it can even become so painful that I want to die. However, even with all that, I survived. Charlotte, you can survive through this. Remember, there will be someone that will be able to appreciate you for who you are, and are admiring you in secret. Even when it seems the world is against you, I am available for support.”
Charlotte’s face blushed, so did I. I cannot imagine that I said these words to a girl.
“So, uh, can you please let me go now?”
“Ah, sorry, Yes. In a moment.”
I waved my hand over the ball of magic that surrounds Charlotte, immediately it shattered.
“You might want to clear up your throne, Charlotte. The teacher and the other students are already sneaking outside the door, eavesdropping everything we are saying here.”
“Huh? When did they?!”
“Just 4 and a half minute after I broke all your spells, the teachers have all awoken and the girls informed them about the situation here. They immediately rushed over here after that. No worries, teachers over there, I’m just having a little chat with Charlotte. No form of bloodshed occurred here whatsoever. Can you all please leave us alone just a little longer?”
A few shuffling noises occurred at the door. Then there was silence.
“Charlotte. I recommend you to work for the Darkness Elemental Plane. It is the Plane that I works for in my past Timelines. By working for them you can also get the chance to meet me more often. You can also meet my other friends that works with the Darkness Elemental Plane as well. They will not harm you, I can guarantee that.”
“I will consider this. Thank you for saving me, Innight.”
“No problem. That is my job as the leader of the Magic Security Team. It is also my responsibility as a man to save a girl from trouble. Drop by my room anytime you like when you want to have a chat with me.”
I opened the door, a hill of students tumbled down into the room.
“All of you, I did mention that to not eavesdrop the conversation we have. Now I have to erase your memory.”
“Sorry! We don’t really meant it! Please don’t erase our memory! We swear that we are not going to mention a word to anyone!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
“Fine. I guess I will take your word for it. If I do hear any rumours spreading out in the school I will trace every single one of you down and erase you from Existence.”
*Gulp* “Yes sir.”
I walked back to my classroom, only to realise Time and Aquis were pouting.
“Innight, when had you got into a relationship with another girl?” Time asked.
“I did not. Why are you making that face?”
“Don’t you know why? I am the only girl you ever need in your life! Why did you gain yourself favour of other girls?”
“Huh?”
That is when I found Charlotte sitting on my desk.
“Charlotte! Why are you here? You should be back in your class!”
“I’m here for my support! Innight, lend me support! I cannot stand those boys in my class bullying me again!”
“Again? Here, I give you this.” I handled Charlotte a small blue crystal.
“What is this?”
“This is a Calling Crystal, you can use this to communicate with me. It can also project a person’s image in the form of a hologram. If you need support, call me using the crystal, you can see me with that, try to avoid calling me during class though.”
More gazes from the other students were directed towards me as I talked to Charlotte. That is most likely because of how pretty Charlotte is, she is just like a doll herself, so beautiful and fragile looking, with her height just reaching my shoulders. I should consider myself lucky for being able to attract such an adorable character.
“Thank you so much, Innight!”
She then left the classroom.
Break time came. I have to fight another wave of challengers who still failed to understand how weak they actually are. The same thing also goes for Time. If this continues we will have to fight everyone in the school once for them to properly understand how powerful we both are.
“Who in here is the bastard named Innight?!”
That came from a girl with black hair with crimson red eyes, she looks similar to Charlotte and are of similar height, the only difference is her eye colour and hair colour.
“It is me.” I raised my hand. “Another challenger?”
“How did you dare to interact with my sister?!”
“Eh, I don’t even know what you are talking about. Wait… are you the sister of Charlotte?”
“Yes, I am her younger sister, my name is Nicki! How dare you, a disgusting creature of male, touch her beautiful skin and move her delicate heart? I swear I will annihilate you!”
“I assume you are going with a challenge are you? Let me warn you that I still hold 1st place in the school and it has not changed despite waves of challengers fighting me.”
“That does not matter! I have the power of the Archangel! I will make you regret for your actions!”
My eyebrows moved. Does this mean that Charlotte and this girl, Nicki, have connections to the Light Elemental Plane? I will have to find out this eventually.
“Let us begin, Zafkiel: Dreamite!”
Everyone around me except Time crumbled to the ground. It appears to be a sleeping spell, causing others that are of lower magic power to fall asleep.
“Why?! Why did my power of the Archangel does not cause you to fall under my spell?”
“I have an incredible amount of power, unmeasurable by any standards. You do not need to know how did I get this power or where. Now your place, human. You are not comparable to me in anyway. Now, for the finishing move, Karok: Orbital Shriek!”
A black arrow shot from my hands into the badge of Nicki. It instantly broke.
“Now that’s the end of the battle. Please leave.”
“Y-Y-You haven’t see the last of me. Heed my words, stay away from Charlotte!” She cried as she left.
“You just earned yourself more trouble by interacting with the girl, you should heed her advice and stay away.” Time said.
“Need not. The spell I just casted also cause everyone to be repelled from her and her spells are weakened by thousand fold. She would not be able to cause any more trouble after this. Also, I suspect Nicki is the one causing Charlotte more trouble than relieving it. Furthermore, both of them have Archangel powers, which are considered as very rare users as most human will not be able to hold the powers of an Archangel. I need to gather more information on how did they gain such powers. They might have, no, they definitely have, relation to Light Elemental Plane. I need to know their connections. They may have news that will be useful for us.”
“You are right when it comes to this type of things. Very well then. We also need information about the moves of the Light Elemental Plane.”
Break time ended and lessons carried as normal. I went back to my room, Time and Aquis went to get their snacks. Then the group of boys that attacked me various time before appeared before my door.
“You, Innight, fight with us!”
“I have repeated this time and time again. I am not inclined to start a fight with any of you. Nor are you strong enough to fight against me at your current states.”
“Just SHUT UP AND FIGHT US!!!”
A bolt of light flew towards me and I waved at it. The spell is then deflected back at the caster, stunning him.
A barrage of spells flew around the room. I deflected all of them back to their respective casters. Blood begin to spill around the room. Apparently they ignored the few rules of the school of not using spells that can hurt others. Well, not that it matters, they cannot harm me.
“Damn it, why won’t it hit? WHY WON’T ANY OF THEM HIT?!”
“I am the Creation and the Destruction. My age is far longer than the Existence. My power is incomparable to anything you ever know. You will never be defeat me.”
“Don’t make me laugh! There is no such thing in the entire Existence! No books have ever recorded anything like this and we have studied everything in the library!”
“You are still unknowledgeable. The library of our school does not cover everything. There are two libraries that contain the knowledge of the Existence, to which you have no access to. One, the Eternal Library, which is isolated from everything, and known to be floating within The Void of The Gap. Second, the Forbidden Library, which is located in the Darkness Elemental Plane. Any other libraries within Existence has much lesser knowledge covered by it. I have read through every book in both libraries, which made me much more knowledgeable than any of you here.”
“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!!!!!!! I SWEAR I WILL END YOU HERE, INNIGHT! OUROBOROS!”
My eyebrows raised a little. That is a forbidden spell and is not taught to any because it has a great cost when casted by the user. Not just that, the spell may backfire and be casted on the user instead.
A magical circle with the symbol of Infinity appeared under myself, I felt my magic is begin placed under seals and strings of light bounded me to the ground, a dragon made of light then shot out from the circle and consumed me. The boss of the group begin laughing like a lunatic.
“FINALLY I WON! I DEFEATED THAT USELESS CASTER! NOW I CLAIM THE PLACE OF RANK 1 IN THE SCHOOL! I AM THE BOSS OF THE SCHOOL! I−“
“Do you really think it will end so easily?” I interrupted his announcements.
“WHAT?!”
The dragon burst into pieces. The flesh disintegrated and I flew out of the crater the magical circle created.
“Ouroboros. The magic of Infinity, approaching the power of a Lord level Light spell. I have no idea you have the power to cast it, let alone to maintain the spell for more than a second. I sense a large amount of magic flowing from you, surpassing the level of the teachers around here. Who is backing you up?”
“I AM NOT OBLIGED TO TELL YOU ANYTHING! DIE! RAGNAROK!”
“It is time to put all this nonsense to an end. I do not wish to hurt anyone but you have no intension to do things peacefully. Your mind has also shattered which gives me no purpose to grant you mercy. Also, you are far too weak to perform Ragnarok. Destroyer: Shatter.”
The magic circle that is slowly growing underneath the boss shattered and broke apart.
“DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!”
He screamed as he casted all kinds of spells towards me, all were considered Lord Level spells. None of them even did a scratch on me. I did a scan on his brain, he has incurred permanent brain damage and has become a lunatic. If I do not kill him now he may become a problem in the future.
“You, The Boss, I do not know your name, or in fact, anything about you. However, your mind has completely shattered, and you no longer have the capability to perform as a normal mage. I have to, regrettably, say this: you have to die here.”
“YOU WILL DIE FIRST BEFORE I DO!” he screamed while still maintaining his casting speed.
“Exculsion: Death”
A black magical circle with the symbol of Darkness appeared under the boss feet. Black miasma surrounded him and consumed him, his last screams can be heard throughout the entire dormitory and everyone rushed towards my room to have a look. Girls screamed as they saw the corpse of the various students of the destroyed group, boys have a feared impression left on their face. This will leave everyone a scarred memory implanted in their minds. I heard some of them informing a teacher of the situation.
In minutes a group of teachers came, they ignored me and begin cleaning up the scene. Some of them tugged the teachers and tried to file a complaint on me, but with Triview crystals placed all around the school the teachers should have saw what actually happened. Even if they don’t, Nightius have the authority to keep them all silent until he further speaks with me to clean things up. No one spoke or moved as the teachers cleared up the scene.
“Mr. Rakan, Innight just killed a group of people! Shouldn’t he be expelled from school for this?”
“We will explain everything during tomorrow’s assembly. He will not receive any form of punishment.”
“But…”
“This is an order from our higher ups. We are instructed to follow it. We cannot do anything else.”
I looked at the crowd, there were whisperings around them. I cannot exactly decipher what was spoken but they ranged from saying I’m a bloodthirsty monster to saying I have connections to the higher ups of the teachers. Whatever it is, I have killed people, and that is undeniable. However that was in both self-defence and to eliminate a potential problem.
That night Nightius came to visit.
“Honestly, I understand that the group leader went insane and may have become a problem, and those dead students are a result of them using dangerous spells, but you could have use simpler ways to dispose of them, at least don’t leave splatter of blood everywhere.”
“I can’t help it. I can only think of that spell at that moment. Then again, if I used Devourer it may have caused magic instability due to the nature of the spell. Anyway, he could have joined the other Cults if left untreated. That may eventually balloon into a problem that we have to face later in the future.”
“*sigh* I guess you are right. That is the job of the Security magic Team anyway, to resolve all problems of magic. I will resolve the issues of this case but please, Innight, avoid leaving any injuries inducing spells and if you have to, clean them up before anyone sees it.”
I explained the details to Aquis and Time when both of them returned.
“Ouroboros? But isn’t that spell Lord Level? Not anyone can use it! Only you and Time and the some teachers here would have the capability to cast the spell!”
“Which is why I’m finding this strange. There is definitely something hidden behind our backs. There has been the recent spell and power outbreaks, and people that are capable of casting high level spells appearing, I suspect something is going on. If we just have more information…”
“There you are, Innight!”
That was Charlotte. She jumped straight into my arms.
“Charlotte! Won’t Nicki, your younger sister come and cause me trouble for this?”
“Just ignore her, Innight. All I need is you! I love you, Innight!”
“NOOOOOOO! SISTER!!! HOW CAN YOU IGNORE ME!!!!!!!?”
“Uh oh.” I said.
Nicki popped her head out from the doors of my room.
“Get away from her you disgusting animal!”
“Stop it, Nicki! He’s my lover, don’t do anything to him or I will be forced to pin you down!”
“Now, the both of you…”
“SHUT UP! Don’t you bastard dare to disrupt our heavenly conversation!”
“Now you are just being an insolent creature.” I whispered to myself.
“Sister, have you forgotten how incorrigible males are? They are pointless, terrible, always aimed to hurt others.”
“He… Innight is different from the rest! He saved me from my deepest point. He cared for me, he is immensely powerful too. He can protect me. He is different from the males that we have always encountered.”
“It is a disguise! He can turn when you are not looking at him!”
“I trust him. He could have destroyed me when he trapped me in his Prison spell but he choose to convince me and let me go.”
“ARGH! It’s useless to argue with you. I will knock some sense into you, sister!”
Then both of them flew outside the window, in blast of lights, one black and one yellow. Each blast of light is clashing against the other.
“Innight, shouldn’t you go and stop them?”
“Impossible. They have to settle out themselves. My intervention will only delay this start of the fight. Only when they have settled out through the fight will they be able to understand each other more clearly. I can only intervene when both of them exhaust their powers.”
The twin lights still clash in the sky. I can hear them still arguing as they fight. There is nothing I can do to resolve them. With each clash, a wave of magic disturbance spread throughout the school. I cast a barrier to shield the school from receiving it. I used Enchanted Eye to view the battle up close.
“You never understand! Innight is not like those males we have all experienced! He is not even human! He understands the pain of loneliness and hence I can connect with him! I want to be him!”
“You don’t need anyone other than me! We sisters have loved each other deeply and will never betrayed each other! Others cannot be trusted!”
“Gabriel!”
“Zafkiel!”
I saw a flail appearing for Charlotte, and a sword for Nicki. That must be the materialization of their Archangel powers, as I see those weapons are points of highly condensed magic powers. The weapons clashed and clang as the weapons cross paths. At the same time, spells of various kinds were fired against the sisters.
The lessons carried on with the sisters still fighting outside. There are no problems as my barrier can shield any attack and waves of magic disruption. The only catch is I cannot sustain the barrier for infinitely long, with the seal still intact, I can only keep the barrier up for a maximum of 8 hours. If it drags on any longer I will need to maintain my flow of mana and magic with an external source.
When the school is over, I can sense that the sisters are drained of power and are laying on the ground.
“Time, Aquis, go back to the room first. I need to attend to the sisters.” Saying these, I went outside and onto the school field.
I sighed.