The Rocaloi Academy
"Everyone, please stop fighting!" Ciemnosc, and everyone else, heard this voice speak softly yet was also shouting so loudly that everyone could hear it. If those around Ciemnosc were still clueless, then with the voice of this person reaching everyone and even more, their status could now easily be told to understand that every single person hovering in the air was indeed an Obsidiafying realm cultivator at least!
“Thank you,” said the person with this voice once again. His face and all the faces of the others were enshrouded with darkness as the glow below them was strong but mild at the same time. Somewhat the light appeared to be gentle and soft. But it had such obvious sharpness and lethality it glowed on the bodies of everyone below as it finally began to dim out little by little.
The dozens of people above also began to come down, not remaining in the air anymore as they dropped, they didn’t do so at the very rear of those that were positioned towards the west from Ciemnosc’s encirclement. Instead, they were all descending from the air right in front of Ciemnosc as he faced the west. And everyone could read the hidden meaning behind their actions, but even without it, they were already separating and giving space for these peak powerful people.
“...” All along, Ciemnosc had that surprised expression of his slowly turn into a noncommittal one, with his darkest eyes calming down and feeling deep inside glad that he had already extremely, utterly stabilized his cultivation base before this surprising intervention.
He also felt the stares of these people, who would very easily just entrap him, to say the least, and somehow felt even more relieved he never intended to use his Claws Out or his whip. And when Ciemnosc saw them come down to the ground, the dirt surrounding him and his prey, where the snow had already disappeared and only a bit of toughened dirt lay around his feet; he had already seen their faces while those around him were only now beginning to finally see.
“I’m sorr- haha, I’m sorry to have suddenly shown up at this time.” There was another voice, and it could now be clearly said that there were no leaders among them, only their same goal, the reason they were now showing themselves before mere ‘weaklings’ such as those now around them. “But we… have decided that we’ve seen enough and would like to stop this senseless chasing and striking back - now.”
“...” - “...” - “...” - “...” Though there was silence from the crowd of more than half a million people, there was also some kind of calmness striking everyone’s hearts for some reason. And before they thought that this calming voice would be introducing something shocking to them, it was a grandmother-like voice that was heard afterwards within their silence, breaking it but softly and as if being hugged warmly by such.
“The reason we stopped everyone from fighting is none other because there is just no need for any of you to chase this little kid anymore, and even less so necessary for this little kid to have to strike back against you. What you’ve been doing so far, isn’t it only fighting because you were ordered to? And what’s the cause? What’s the harm he has done that he wasn’t inflicted on by your people first?”
The grandmother’s voice, which everyone could see came from an old-looking female with a straight back, lithe condition of her body that could even be called lithe in some parts of her body, and white hair combed backwards with some kind of natural dreadlocks that were just not dreadlocks and a face that seemed stern but had a pair of black eyes showing only wisdom and understanding of the world that they thought they knew already.
“The sect is everything, I would give my life for the sect! What can you do about it?!” - “My major organization has been standing up in this world longer than any of your blood has been running through in this world! It’s all about loyalty and devotion to my cult!” - “My sect is my family and home, now that there is someone threatening, why would I not be more than glad to take out such a scum and powerful enemy like him?!”
“...” There were tons and tons of people, from the already quite a lot more than half a million cultivators here, screaming and explaining to these Obsidiafying realm cultivators of unknown origin of their major organization with pride and even as if trying to incite some kind of jealousy into them - it was as if some were trying to recruit these powerful people right away instead.
But all they got was silence not only from these powerful ones but also from the supposedly warm and understanding grandma that everyone without one immediately thought ‘this one is my grandma?’ and those who already had one found a kind similarity between theirs and this one. Though most left their families and disdained them for being mortals…
They also got that very same kind of silence from everyone else. These half a million people finally got their cold shower in processing what kind of ‘powerful ones’ these were. And began sweating a lot right after they processed it.
“... Is… silence all it takes for you to shut up?” The grandmother spoke, still with the same wisdom and softness as before, but now with obvious hints of disappointment and berating. “We only maintained silence, yet you already think we’re gonna kill you all?”
“Now, I don’t think such a matter of this scale has happened before in your history, kids. But out of here, out of these lands and this wonderful Region, there is life and flowing blood through every just like in every piece of grain or debris in this Region.” The grandmother continued, and with her voice starting, her words began to explain and tell; everyone quieted.
“I have read records of how even a couple hundred thousand of ‘rebellious’ members are swept by the history lines on each of their books. Who can say there weren’t anymore? Or who here can tell me if what they did was wrong or right?” The grandmother waited for a response after talking just this little, and be it because of being too absorbed in her voice or because they were genuinely wordless for an excuse; nobody answered.
“They were good, people that betray their own family, their own people and their own convictions, vows, codes, beliefs and even… loved ones are the worst kind of people. Not villains, but just people, and the worst of them all.” The grandmother said, her eyes falling silently on Ciemnosc, and nobody then lost that little meaningful action but remained silent nonetheless.
“However,” just as there was a start of the half a million mix of the 4 ‘major’ organizations to voice tier agreements with the speaking grandmother and sustain their ‘strong’ ‘stance’ with their own ‘major’ organization, the grandmother continued her words… her terrifying words to these people with such ‘stances’.
“But what about the people who have betrayed their own?” The grandmother’s words were preeeetty simple, but they instantly shut everyone by instinct; their instinct had kicked in and no one here was an irremediable fool. She continued, “How many times have their so-called ‘crimes’ even been recorded? And how come many of those rebellions have to do with when there were incredible Craftspeople all around the world and they then… suddenly disappeared?”
“Every time that it happened, it was almost all in this case, was it not?” The grandmother didn’t take a single step anywhere physically, but mentally she made half a step into the hearts of everyone around here except for Ciemnosc perhaps. “There can only be a handful of these rebellions that were not only recorded in ‘such’ books, but in every single other record of the history books of this Region, but not of most of them, isn’t it?”
“Right now, what were you even told to make you so furious that you wanted to abandon the most precious things in life for you to come and kill this little kid, who has never even been able to speak a word towards any of you?” The grandmother set the question, but nobody seemed interested in hearing, all of them had the same expression on their faces… They didn’t even know because they just were told to do it!
“Now, I would like to ask something,” this time it was another voice that spoke. This voice was older than any other they heard. It came from a very old person who was always standing at the front even as everyone from the dozens of Obsidiafying realm cultivators here were all standing abreast with each other with only a few short lines for every few dozens of them.
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“You’ve come this far for this little kid, but if I were to tell you that you can escape from the clutches of heavy duty, blind orders, and 'unrequested' loyalty for even the most… ridiculous things. Would you do it?” The old man had not that much hair on top of his head, the center front of his white hair was now gone, but there was at least indeed some kind of remaining hair on top of his head he also had a long and thin, curly bear hanging from his under the chin.
“While you take some time to think about it,” the old man no longer looked at ‘everyone’ in general and set his old eyes on Ciemnosc’s body. “Little boy, there have been… many things that you have been through these last few weeks, especially at the beginning. Please, do forgive our peeking through these peoples’ records, for the moment you appeared in this world, just like little Jing Zhu, you were someone that caught our eye.”
“You knew… respected Jing Zhu?” Ciemnosc was already feeling his heart beat so wildly he almost took a run for it, even abandoning his commanding vehicle which had nothing more other than his arrays and those 3 cannons. But hearing about Jing Zhu’s name, he of course stayed and asked with his heart and eyes have gone silent - lifeless a bit; too.
“No, of course not, I only dared to contact her with a secret messenger.” The old man said, his gaze reminiscent of a past, before setting his focused gaze on Ciemnosc once more and continuing. “She refused my ideals to join this academy, which has stood hidden for hundreds of thousands of years by now, very secretly…”
“What?! Hundreds of th- no! That’s impossible! The major organizations would’ve known it by now, and the others who have warred here as well. How dare you all lie to us?!” - “That’s right, how can t- how can that even be true? It just makes no sense…”
With Ciemnosc not only not being given time to react, but also with the others who were once his pursuers seemingly choosing to forget about him and about their so-called ‘honor’ to kill him and rid their Region of such evil - many voices raised to the occasion and bombarded the ‘weak’ Obsidiafying realm powerful people that seemed to not dare kill them because of their allegiance to an actual, powerful and real major organization.
“...” The old man only looked at Ciemnosc though, ignoring the rambling crowd and just seemingly letting Ciemnosc take as much time as he needed for whatever reason. And once Ciemnosc’s lifeless darkest eyes looked back into the old man’s ‘soul’ after blinking and raising his eyes, the old man continued with his voice wonderfully making its way through the noise.
“I won’t do any explanations or convincing right now, as it is too much of a situation for you, kid.” The old man extended his hand in Ciemnosc’s direction, but it was more of a gesture than a pushy notion. “It would be too disadvantageous to do so, and insulting, too. So kid, will you join this academy now?”
“... Yeah, sure.” Ciemnosc tilted his head to the left a little, his eyes dropping for a second and a half before he lifted them yet again and with his answer coming out of his lips. The old man grinned in response and laughed as his hands held his belly and he faced the sky, “Good- tahahaha! From now on you are our academy’s stud-”
“No! Don’t let him go away. Kill him now!” - “NOW!” Kill hiiim!” - “Stop him. We can’t let him go away!!” Immediately, interrupting the old man’s great mood, however. There were a lot of people from the still bigger crowd that began shouting and forcing their way through their fellow disciples and believers who seemed to be in a trance or something; they had to act quick!
Phhshk!... Phhshk, phhshk, phhshk, phhshk, phhshk, phhshk, phhshk…
“AAAuuugghh! Wh- why…” - “Ack! Oggl, grrllgh!” - “AAAAH! Stop, why why. Why?!”
Just as there were many on the move and towards Ciemnosc, just as they were seeing with their own eyes how they themselves were getting closer and closer towards a seemingly unsuspecting Ciemnosc… They were ‘stopped’. And by their very own fellow disciples and believers of the major organizations, who no longer looked to be in a trance and were stiff, but had cruel and darkened expressions coloring their faces.
“Now I understand… why would someone like grand elder…” - “Yeah, now I get it…” Several moving hundreds and hundreds of Ciemnosc’s enemies that were already on the move became impaled in one way or another and even beheaded cleanly by another group of their fellow comrades ‘in a trance’ who suddenly worked together to stop the ones on the move.
And from those hundreds, there were about to be thousands, all who remembered at the last moment the reason why they have gained so much strength and status; recognition everywhere they went! Forgetting their memories of how long did that take and how damn long did they waste where they started from the moment they began at their respective major organization and their new life of cultivation.
But as they went in confusion between sober and thoughtful, as they were about to join the already hundreds and hundreds of others following the same— very same —as theirs - seeing their fellow disciples and believers being so unhesitatingly killed off and ultimately stopped by their other fellow disciples and believers… That alone not only halted their steps but even made them really question if… those words were even wrong and if their own major organizations were really what they thought they were…?
Pshift, pshift, pshift, pshift, pshift, pshift, pshift,pshift…
Without any delay, as some moved, some were thinking hard, and some acted; the Obsidiafying realm cultivators flawlessly moved their arms, lifting them and aiming the yolk of their fingertips towards the crowd.
Instantly, several strands of the translucent Power Energy flew out of the rings that each of their hands held, which was only one per hand in question. That Power Energy seemed to take form together a few meters above their heads and had no actual glow or shine coming off from it, as it then began to move towards the crowd down below.
Many of the crowd felt it, they all thought that these powerful people were now about to kill everyone off, that they had finally annoyed these powerful people and paid for it without anyone being spared. Well, Ciemnosc only, perhaps, as he is now part of this formidable… how did they call it, ‘academy’? And to think Academies could grow this much as well.
The Power Energy that moved around, however, wasn’t harmful to those who were either in a trance or even to those who were about to make a move yet stopped for whatever reason in the end. And they could all see it, as strand after strand of translucent Power Energy began to move in front of their faces and even a little bit in the distance, with several of them targeting every single person making a move against Ciemnosc… against their student.
It wasn’t to a speed that they couldn’t see. But it was so fast that they could sure as hell not react to it and would only end up being easily hit by it even if they were to be in the Conflagrate realm, something they could understand and think of by pure instinct.
In a moment, those other people that made a move were all caught by those strands of Power Energy, lifted into the air,d slowly brought to in front of the Obsidiafying realm cultivators. These ones to make a move and that were captured by the strands of Power Energy were those which were either too strong for the crowd to take or that had injured somebody or many others of their own people.
And now, as they stood in front of the Obsidiafying realm cultivators, everyone could see how a few hundred of them were all hopeless before this strange… move in cooperation with each other’s Power Energy and tools? It almost looked as if they could just randomly send their Power Energy outside their bodies at will without forming a deathly technique, something that is very well known to be impossible!
“These people, they dared to covet the life of one of our academy’s students. How dare they!” One Obsidiafying realm cultivator spoke, followed by another who sounded even more enraged and hurt even. “And right in front of our academy, do they have no shame nor heart?!”
“In f- in fr-...” - “What? In front of their aca- de… my?” - “Are we-?” - “Look behind them! It must be it, what the- wow~!”
More voices came to be yet once more, and this time because of the powerful people’s words, which attracted the whole damn crowd’s attention and made them seem all particularly enthralled by the never before seen method to hide such an enormous piece of land from the naked eye - no wonder they had managed to be hidden for so long! Could it really be true? They were literally built on a mountain!!
“...” Ciemnosc was, of course, also very surprised to see this. Even with his Spirit Sense, he wasn’t able to sense it before, let alone a single person that was further to the northwest of his current position. And if they hadn’t intervened, he just might have never stepped into this… array! Because if this wasn’t an array, then what were those tiny inscriptions he could see at the aperture from where these powerful people seemed to have popped out?
“What is the name of… y- your respectable academy, sirs and madams?” From within the increasingly getting louder and louder crowd, all being overtaken by an unknown, child-like attraction towards the new, and no longer fearing it as if it was the devil and their major organizations’ words the gods of gods; one small voice spoke out words from a fragile and slender looking young boy among the crowd.
“Hmm, glad we are being asked that, at last. Ahahaha,” the old man was the one to speak this time again, his laughter making those beside and behind him all grin from ear to ear for a moment while his laughter receded and calmed down. His eyes were then directly shown to the young boy who spoke and clearly answered that boy’s voice which was somehow the loudest and most clearly heard set of words out of nowhere.
“It is the Rocaloi Academy, the birth of many talents… from all around the world!”
“!!!” The crowd went wild, silently though. Some looked up at the sky as if they were expecting to see the old man in the air with wings of freedom and a new era! However, they lowered their eyes embarrassingly and looked with respect towards these people now. While others were just too stunned to even move their heads or eyes anywhere else or any one bit, which would make anyone red with this amount of pairs of eyes set on them.
“Hoho,” but not the old man, who chuckled and clapped his hands without making any noise. The gap in the array behind them began to open a little bit, revealing a multitude walking out of it and curiously gazing at the more than half a million large crowd outside their ‘homes’. It was then that it happened.
“I would do it, I would!!” A strange hurried and dragged-on shout rang out from the large crowd, and despite its strangeness, it only gave birth to more. “I would too. Please accept me!” - “I want to as well, please let me join you!” - “Me too, me too…”
…