Somehow, I ended up in the castle training room. Hanz and I faced each other while Apollo and Zeph stood to the side, waiting.

"Why are we here?" I asked, still confused.

"It's a spar between you and Hanz. Come on, it will be a great learning experience for both of you," Zeph called from afar.

I looked over at Hanz and he gave a shrug, "It's up to you if you want to fight. Either way, it doesn't matter to me. I think they have some type of bet going on."

"That would explain things," I sighed and got into a fighting stance. "Let's just get this over with. I'm curious to see what you've got anyway, Hanz."

Sensing Hanz's mana core, I could see that he had grown stronger as well. His mana core was now at the mid-purple stage. His elements, fighting style, and speed were all unknown to me, so there was no doubt it would be interesting. Adding to the fact that I couldn't use Rye or my dagger, the fight became even more fair, and I began to get a little excited.

He smiled and said, "Agreed."

"Remember, boys, no using familiars, only magic, and martial arts," Apollo said.

We both shook our heads at the same time and waited for the signal to start.

Apollo shot a beam of light our way, and as soon as it exploded, we began.

I felt the fuzz on my arms stand up as I heard the sound of lightning charging up. The light from Apollo's spell disappeared, and my eyes adjusted back to the battlefield, and that's when I saw him.

Hanz had a ball of condensed lightning in his hand the size of my head, and it shot toward me at an incredible speed.

I shadow-stepped to the side as fast as I could. Just like Zeph's training room, the castle's training room also had trees and a lot of shadows, allowing me free reign of movement. Still, I hadn't expected to use it so early. Now he knows I can do it, and that could change things.

He used explosions of fire to propel himself forward. Mid-air, he spun and faced me with another charged ball of lightning.

I conjured a wall of ice to block it. The ball of lightning dispersed on impact, but also destroyed my wall, sending glimmers of ice flying everywhere.

He followed up with multiple flame-clad strikes, sending kicks and punches one after the other.

I clad my body in ice to combat the herd and weaved and dodged eventually getting a potent kick at his side, sending him tumbling feet away.

His fighting style was chaotic and almost unpredictable. It was as if I was fighting a wild beast. At first, I thought it was just his lack of training, but it wasn't. Hanz knew what he was doing. He truly had the instincts and fighting style of a beast.

It didn't take him long to get back on his feet, and he used his flames to propel himself toward me again. This time, though, he shot himself up in the sky and dove down towards me. As he did, a giant ball of flames began manifesting in front of his mouth.

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Is he about to...?

Before my thoughts could even process, a giant arch of flame shot towards me like a flame-thrower from the sky.

I tried to shadow-step, but the bright flames, along with his positioning in the sky, didn't allow for any shadows.

He planned this.

I encased myself in a dome of ice and did my best to keep supplying it with mana so it wouldn't melt from Hanz's surge of flames. Luckily, my efforts paid off, and his flames didn't eat through.

When his spell stopped, I dispelled my ice dome and shadow-stepped toward him, ready to strike. But when I saw him, he was on one knee.

“You win, Fal. I’m out of mana. I can't use another spell,” he said.

I grabbed his arm and helped him up. “You did amazing, Hanz.” I was truly impressed by his abilities. For him to improve this much in such a short time was insane, almost scary considering the fact that he was, unlike me, a normal child.

Apollo and Zeph made it over to us.

“You did great, Hanz. You as well, Falyn,” Apollo said.

Zeph slapped Hanz on the back. “I didn't expect you to use your flames like that. You even caught me off guard with your beast-like fighting style. It suits you, kid.”

Hanz smiled. “Thank you.”

“You two should go rest up, take a walk around the castle. Zephyrus and I will discuss the next part of your training.”

We shook our heads and walked out of the training room. Raiden and Rye followed after us. Raiden rode comfortably on Rye’s back.

Hanz was quiet for the first five minutes of our stroll, then randomly asked, “How do you feel about our upcoming first year of academy?”

“I’m not really too excited. I do want to learn more about high magic and how it fully works,” I replied.

“I heard the first year is one of the most difficult. I don't care about that though, I just want to improve.” His gaze turned to me. “It’s amazing you can use high magic at your age. Even my brother says it's truly a feat. Not having compatible elements is unlucky, but I’m sure I’ll make do.”

“It shouldn't matter too much. Isn’t lightning the most powerful natural element offensively?” I asked.

“Yeah, that's the reason I’m not worried,” he responded. “By the way, did you happen to see the announcement?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“How did you feel about it?” he asked.

“I thought it was interesting. The idea of an entire new continent would intrigue anyone.”

“Yeah, I feel the same. And I also assume you saw the Worthies as well.”

“Yeah, what about them?”

“They are my goal. I don’t care about being king. That duty will go to my brother. I just want to be as strong as a Worthy.” He turned to me. “What is your goal, Falyn? Why do you train so hard? No one I know our age trains as hard as you and I. So, what pushes you?”

I stayed silent for a moment, contemplating his question. What was my goal in gaining strength in this new world? I realized I had never really thought about it before. In my old world, strength was a tool of war, but here, I was gaining strength on instinct alone.

"I would be lying if I said I had a noble goal like yourself," I replied. "But if I had to say, it's so I can live freely, truly free."

In this world, I had a family to protect, but I was also not tied down by rules anymore. I could use my strength freely, for myself, not for some greedy king's war.

"I see. I had assumed you wanted the same as I. I thought you also wanted to be the strongest," he said.

"Oh, I still want to be the strongest," I admitted. "Who doesn't?"

"Well then, I guess that makes us rivals," he said.

"I guess it does."

We finished our walk and headed back into the training room, where Zeph and Apollo were patiently waiting for us. As soon as we arrived, they began speaking.

"As you may or may not know, the two of you are our successors. Meaning, if anything were to ever happen to us, you guys would fulfill our positions," Zeph explained. "And we cannot have weak successors. So, this summer, you will be training every day, and it will be held here together. You two should get used to each other because it will be you guys every day until the entrance exams."

Hanz and I traded glances, neither one of us complaining.

"Now that you two know the deal, get up and let's get started. The training won't be anything you haven't already done, but we want you in top shape to show those other kids up at the exams," Zeph said. "Another couple of months of training would never hurt."

"Okay, but do I really have to be your successor? I never agreed to that," I questioned.

End Vol 2.