Vincent walked carefully over brush that littered the forest floor. He watched as a large Aspected person shambled around aimlessly.
"Ready?" Will's voice whispered from Vincent's side.
Vincent looked to his other side. Theresa was with a few Scholars, all ready to observe and take notes. They all nodded to him.
Looking back towards Will, he smiled and nodded. Beside Will was a graduated Hunter. Together they had been locating the remaining Aspected and freeing them. The Aspected people became much harder to find since Vincent gained the position he did. This was the first one they had found.
"Let's go," the graduated Hunter whispered. The three of them rushed towards the Aspected, which let out a roar of anger as it realized it was being followed.
Together, Will and the Hunter stopped the Aspected from moving. It was a combination of their Signed energy that held it in place. "Now, Vincent!" the Hunter shouted.
Vincent began to rip the Aspected from the person. His celestial energy flowed from him and wrapped around the Aspected. He had never felt the tension between the person and Aspected until now. He could feel the Aspected fighting back as the form before him struggled against Will and the Hunter.
"I want to be free," Vincent heard a voice scream. No one else reacted to it. Vincent was sure it was because of his connection to the Aspected. With his power, he stood between the celestial spirit and the human.
"I'll free both of you!" Vincent said back. His words echoed through his energy to the two beings.
After a few more seconds, Vincent felt the release. The Aspected parted from the human and seemed to ascend into the Celestial Space. The human fell to the floor. They groaned, their voice sounding groggy.
"Sir, are you okay?" the Hunter asked, kneeling down beside the man. The Scholars came forward and began inspecting him too.
"Wh-where am I?" the man asked.
"You're in the forests around Apsis Academy. Are you a Signed?"
The man blinked a few times and then nodded. "I am. Or was. I don't know how long it's been. I've been trapped in such darkness for as long as I can remember."
The Hunter helped the man up. "We're going to take you back to the academy. We will need to ask a few questions once you're ready. You're the first of many people out here that we need to rescue. This boy here is the only reason you are back."
The man looked at Vincent. "I heard you. You're shining celestial stardust was the thing I reached to. Thank you so much."
Vincent smiled and nodded. "I want to help anyone I can with my abilities."
The man returned a smile and began to walk with the help of the Hunter.
Theresa lifted her phone up to her ear. "We got one out of the Aspected fine, Evans. Bringing him back now."
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Her eyes widened after a few seconds. "Really? New students for the new semester?"
Vincent looked at her. She hung up her phone and shrugged. "Guess some more Signed showed up. Evans said they're not traditional Signed."
Vincent's jaw dropped. "You don't think?"
"Let's go find out!" Will said.
The three let the Scholars and Hunter escorts the man back to campus. They didn't want to use the sextant just in case it would hurt the man any. But they let the three use one to get back quicker.
Arriving at campus, tons of students were near the entrance of the school. Vincent led the other two as fast as he could to see who the new students were. He pushed his way through the crowd and saw three new faces in the center. Cole was next to them and looked happy.
"They're all Ophiuchus Signed!" he exclaimed as he saw Vincent.
"Oh!" Vincent replied, disheartened.
Theresa and Will put hands on Vincent's shoulders. "There will be another Celestic Signed someday," Will comforted with.
"I hope so. Glad to see the 13th getting more students. I'm sure Ophiuchus feels happy now that Lloyd is out of the way, no longer able to corrupt them."
The other two nodded at Vincent. Theresa reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone again. "Evans is calling again, one second."
"Yes, professor?" she asked, covering one ear with her free hand. "You need to see us? We'll be right there."
"Evans needs us?" Vincent asked.
"Yeah I guess someone else needs to speak with us."
The three congratulated Cole on having more Signed join his Sign. Then they headed inside and went to Evans classroom.
Vincent was the first one to the door. He could hear talking coming from the inside. He opened the door carefully, not wanting to disturb the conversation.
"Ah, Vincent, Theresa, and Will," Evans announced. "Please come meet our honored guest."
Vincent saw Bran and a few other Heads standing beside Evans. A front of them all was a tall slender man with a light golden hue to his skin.
"Ni hao, Celestic Signed," the new person greeted. He gave them a slight bow.
"Hello," they said collectively.
"I am Professor Chen from Xuexiao of the Loupan, or roughly 'School of the Compass.' It is our academy in China."
Vincent looked between Chen and Evans. He had remembered that Chinese Astrology was a thing for Signed as well, but he wasn't ever expecting to meet a professor from the school.
"You can tell them why you're here, Chen," Evans added.
Chen nodded. "I am here for you three who fought so valiantly to stop Lloyd and have even helped save someone from being trapped with an Aspected, as you call them here."
"Thank you for coming all this way, but we were just doing what was right," Vincent said.
"It is that reason I have come to ask for your aid. Yin, or as you call them Aspected, have been giving us trouble and it seems the practice of how they contained them here doesn't work in our Signed."
"So Aspected are in China too?" Theresa asked.
Chen nodded. "We aren't positive if Lloyd had caused them, but they are still a threat even after his passing. All we know is your 14th sign can stop them and we need that ability."
"So you want me and my friends to go with you to the School of the Compass?" Vincent asked.
"With your school's permission, we would be honored to have you help us with the Yin problem head on."
Bran nodded. "We would need to ask all your parents of course, but we Heads already think it's a great idea. We have our Aspected contained in our forests, with a few exceptions. I believe your abilities could help save more lives there."
"What about the ones here? Shouldn't I stay until we help all of them?"
Evans cut in, "Well we're working on seeing other ways to potentially free both Aspected and host without needing you, but it'll take longer. For now, Hunters are becoming more guardians than Hunters. We don't want anything bad to happen to the Aspected in your absence. There will also be no experimentation. It's either we're 100% sure we can use our abilities to replicate yours, or we wait for you."
Vincent was surprised but glad to hear that. He looked to Will and Theresa who both looked excited for the opportunity.
"It looks like we're going to the School of the Compass," Vincent replied.
Chen let out a cheer. He shook Vincent's hand and it began the process of setting up their next adventure. Aspected were needing to be freed and not cause any harm to people. Celestic was the fastest way to do that.
Vincent could almost feel Celestic shining brighter.
The End