Today was another great day at the academy. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the students were making their way to their first class. Everyone was wearing their new student uniforms, made primarily of blue and white, colours representing the Kingdom of Avangarden. Reginn and Sivrit had a Combat Magic class, taught by Eidgaon. Despite his looks, Eidgaon could use enhancement magic and other simple spells effectively without wasting any mana, an important skill in the field. While Reginn did not particularly need this, he wanted to enjoy an average school life so he just chose classes that seemed interesting. Sivrit on the other hand had to have her schedule aligned more toward Reginn's. It was at this moment that she realized that her mission was much more important than she thought.

At the sound of the school bell ringing, the first period had officially begun. After the anthem and the announcements, attendance took place. Sivrit noted all the significant individuals from this classroom including Kallen. Sadly her childhood friend Attila was not here, but she did share another class with her. The lesson began with Eidgaon's instruction.

"Good morning everyone, my name is Mr. Eidgaon and I will be your combat magic teacher for this year. As you can see, your peers may be different in age, skill and size, remember that you are app comrades. Also, there is an annual competition between classes, so make sure to familiarize yourselves with each other" announced Eidgaon "But first, I have a question for you: Why do you want to get stronger? There are already plenty of warriors and knights out there and it'll be extremely difficult to surpass them. So why do you train and fight?"

A small pause, then many students put their hands up.

"Reginn" picked Eidgaon

"It is the natural human instinct to want to become stronger. In this world, strength can create rivers and shape mountains. Who doesn't want strength?"

"A good answer. Magic allows us to overcome any boundaries and limitations. Strength allows for possibilities and change, not just violence" replied Eidgaon, content "Now, Rhine"

"Well, I want to become a warrior, not the strongest warrior. While the strongest may be the most important, the thousands of weaker warriors are crucial to protecting the kingdom, and I think that's admirable"

"You're absolutely correct. What is a leader without his soldiers? Strength is not the only metric of importance. Without our city guards, foot soldiers and trainees, the kingdom would not be as peaceful as now. Finally, Kallen''

"Strength allows one to achieve great things like protecting your loved ones and fighting for what you believe in. I wish to get stronger so I can atone for my sins and accomplish my goals.

"Uhh, that's a bit specific to you but I suppose you're right. Strength is needed to do what you want in this world"

Eidgaon was satisfied with another batch of great students. He could see their ambition burning in their eyes and was raring to unlock their full potential.

"Our first lesson today is just teaching you about various ways of making yourself stronger using magic, does anyone know any examples? Yes, Sivrit"

"Enhancement magic, enchanted equipment and magic items"

"Ding ding ding! You got them all! Except for one that is. This technique isn't known much, but there actually is a fourth way and it is called Limit Breaking"

Reginn's interest was instantly piqued. Limit Break? This must be some new technique invented after his death. Reginn never missed a chance for more strength and so paid close attention to Eidgaon. Many other students did the same, seeing that this was an elusive technique.

"Limit Breaking is the process in which the body sees a great jump in strength. This occurs when you reach your maximum potential and continue improving onward through gruelling training. This accumulated magical potential stored in you will then 'burst' and you will gain exponential strength, bypassing your base potential. This is pretty rare as getting to your maximum potential is already rare, but with enough training, it should theoretically be possible for anyone. So far only one of my students ever Limit Breaked, and his name is Reason, the current head guard."

Murmur broke out in the classroom as everyone knew who Reason was, except Reginn. He was too preoccupied with thinking how powerful he would become if he Limit Breaked. He was delighted in learning that the sky was not the limit, perhaps he could become even more powerful than the Goddess. Though he did not truly believe in that. He looked over to Kallen, who also seemingly did not know who Reason was. Reginn had been keeping a close eye on Kallen for a while now as he was pretty suspicious. His unnatural strength and the black and white artifacts, as well as his mannerisms.

Sivrit was a bit surprised with how composed Eidgaon was during his classes in stark contrast to his usual self. It seemed that a lot more went inside his head than she gave him credit for. The classes ended normally without any hitch but a loud noise of the ground rumbling sent everyone to panic, though it ended a few moments later.

"What is it this time..."

Reginn senses that there was a great power emanating outside, and decided to investigate.

"Sivrit, when anyone asks where I am, just tell them I've got a terrible stomachache"

"What? Are you skipping class?"

"Yeah"

Before Sivrit could reply, Reginn was at the end of the hall. Without hesitation, he jumped out of the window and made his way to the centre of the noise.

...

After claiming the greatsword Kaizer, he returned to the academy but did not feel like attending classes. He instead went to the colosseum to test out the claymore. It turned out that without the possession, this was just a regular sword. Kaizer could not even speak in this form, which was great for him. He soon became bored and went ahead to leave the arena.

"You there!"

Reginn turned around expecting a staff member to tell him that this was a restricted area but was surprised to see Kallen.

"...You're a hero aren't you?"

"And if I am?"

"I am a hero as well, Kallen, the 13th hero. I wish to cooperate with you to find out why we were resurrected"

"As if I believe that, you seem far too weak for a hero"

Of course, Reginn believed what Kallen said, but after the disappointment that was Kaizer, he wanted to have a battle.

"I know that" replied Kallen, frustrated "but I'll prove to you that I have what it takes to be a hero"

"I like the attitude!"

Kallen summoned his black and white gauntlets.

"These gauntlets are called 'Sapienta'' and 'Justita', they're specialized in causing status conditions such as stun, sleep, and paralysis"

"And why are you telling me this?"

"Well, I thought a future comrade would need to know that"

Reginn grinned hearing this, this confidence was exciting for Reginn. Now he knew that even if Kallen was weak, he would not be disappointed.

"Here I come!"

Reginn vs. Kallen

Kallen charged up his gauntlets with white light and struck his jaw. But just like the battle before, nothing happened.

"I see... your gauntlets don't have much power but they can inflict these status conditions?" said Reginn "Since you told me a bit about your abilities, let me tell you something about myself"

Reginn took off the top part of the school uniform, exposing his torso. Dark marks began to appear on his body, giving him an almost Pravusic appearance

"I am what they call a 'World Beast', creatures created directly by a god," said Reginn "I was created by the Goddess as the guardian of humanity"

Kallen was shocked about this revelation, but his status as the World Beast explained his unusual strength. World Beasts were the pinnacle of lifeforms, created to be the harbinger of the gods. They enacted god's will, protecting valuables and destroying all in their path. If he was a World Beast created by the Goddess, that meant that...

"That's right, I am Reginn the 2nd hero of mankind!"

He was one of the first heroes, meaning that he was one of the strongest. There was a pattern that every consecutive hero would become weaker generation after generation. Of course, there were many exceptions to this rule, but it was uncontested that the first few heroes were one of the strongest entities ever in this world.

"My status as the World Beast allows me many luxuries, such as immunity to status conditions and having multiple forms and phases. My immunity to mana is all me though. That is a unique talent granted to me by the Goddess."

Kallen knew that this meant that he had no chance of even scratching Reginn. Even though he was a pretty ancient hero, he was still weaker than even his successors. He relied on a gimmick which was why he failed his goal of protecting the kingdom...

But he knew that the goal of this battle was not to win but to prove his determination as a hero. Therefore, he continued to fight, knowing that it was in futility. He tried out every status condition he knew; silence, sleep, stun, paralyze, confuse, disorientate, brittle, slow, stagger and even Death's Door, a trump card status condition that cursed the opponent to die after 7 days, but made them unable to die during that period. He had a unique version of this Status effect that acted instantly at a cost of a large amount of HP and mana. This was the status condition that he used to defeat the demon lord of his time, but it seemed that even this did nothing to Reginn.

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Reginn was starting to get bored again and came up with a new idea. He took out Kaizer and pierced the ground with it. Though Reginn himself had no mana as he was immune to it, he could utilize the mana around him to perform some spells he learnt from the Goddess, one of which was ⌈Angelic Summoning⌋. This ability allowed her to summon a Pronus, a holy servant with no will of its own. Rather, it followed any instruction from the summoner, unlike a Pravus with its own ambitions. Pronuses were emotionless and efficient, a perfect servant.

The summoned Pronus had white hair and came equipped with armour. Her appearances were very similar to Kallen's, which made Reginn wonder if Kallen was related to Elysium. Elysium in this world was not Goddess's home, rather it was where souls were sent when they were extinguished on the Plane of Existence. It was in the opposing direction to Hades with the Existence at the center. Elysium and Hades were ruled by a single entity, though it was never known who they were. It was still mysterious to Reginn how and why the two realms existed and he had never been to either of those realms. However, he knew from the stories the Goddess had told him that bother realms were made completely of mana, creating what is known as Imaginary Spaces. When mana concentrations are extremely high, they start to react to each other even though they are usually inert. This continuous chain reaction causes great chaos in these spaces, with an incredible amount of energy output. Elysium and Hades were ImaginarySpaces which were conquered by the unknown entity, with order returning to the area. However, the mana concentration still gave the entities born there great strength, such as this Pronus here.

Summoning a Pronus or a Pravus was no simple task, however, it was always with it. They were otherworldy beings with a natural proficiency in mana control. Together with heightened stamina, strength, speed and defence, he thought that perhaps giving the Pronus's body to Kaizer was a tad bit dangerous. Yet he was confident that he could just kill it if things got out of hand. To be completely honest, he took a twisting liking to Kaizer, it was entertaining how docile she had become after the brutal defeat, but he liked her better when she was cocky so this would be a good opportunity to give her some confidence back.

"Here, take this and let it possess you"

Without a word, the Pronus grabbed hold of the sword and Reginn could see that Kaizer's mana was flowing into Pronus. While this was happening, Kallen had an enticing sense of familiarity with the Pronus, though he could not remember from where. Nevertheless, he had to focus on the now. He deduced that he would most likely be tested by battling this Pronus. Though he was unsure what the purpose of the sword was, if he could at least put up a good fight, he would prove himself worthy. He would first test some status effects to see if the Pronus was immune and hopefully, it would not be immune to all like Reginn. If one worked, it was perfect, but if none did, he would need to resort to a much more offensive tactic and focus on strengthening himself.

"...Huh?! What is this crazy new body?!" shouted Kaizer from the Pronus's mouth

"It's a temporary body, be grateful. Maybe I'll make it permanent if you put up a good fight"

Hearing his voice, Kaizer was reminded of her defeat and gulped. She was unsure how to feel toward Reginn as she had never had to stoop under someone nor had met anyone stronger than her. She was not even sure of her own fate. However, for now, she would play along as not all hope was lost.

"...Alright then"

"Also, don't kill him"

Reginn walked away a few paces before sitting on the ground. The air was silent and the clouds drifting by darkened the arena. The tension was slowly building and Reginn could physically see that manifest in the two heroes' mana flow. He realized that things were never interesting when he got involved. From the back of his mind, he only knew around 15 individuals stronger or rivalling him, and most of them were inactive or in another realm. This was going to be fun.

"Well, what are you waiting for?!"

Kallen vs. Kaizer

At the announcements, Kaizer instantly activated her skill.

"⌈Dichotomisierung - Wind Blades⌋!"

Reginn realized that she was acting far more carefully this time around. Instead of closing the gap, she chose a ranged option even when it cost more mana to activate. While she had a large mana reserve, this could still be dangerous as she only had her own mana to work with and not the Pronus's. If she ran out of mana, the possession would automatically be cancelled as well.

Kallen dodged the blasts, not taking any chance with blocking them. From the Pronus's and the sword's aura, he could see that he was up against a formidable opponent. However, he could not continue to play safe and closed the gap. Kaizer reacted by swinging her greatsword, but Kallen ducked under and landed three consecutive hits before being kicked away. From just this exchange of blows, he confirmed that it was immune to stun and sleep, but not brittle. Brittle was a status effect that slowly lowered the target's defence by a certain percentage. However, its only weakness was that it had to be reapplied and stacked again and again to make a significant dent in the defence. While he could experiment with more status effects, he decided that this was good enough. Kaizer realized this but knew that she had a counter. She would lead him to think that he had an upper hand, making him relax and hit him with her skill at an opportunistic moment.

The battle continued and Kaizer let Kallen hit her multiple times. Soon, Kallen decided that it was the perfect moment to deal the final true blow. This time, he would not lace his blow with a status effect, rather, he would infuse his fist with a large chunk of his mana, increasing the momentum and force behind it. However, when he saw the confidence leak out of Kaizer's expression, it made his mind falter a little.

At the moment, Kaizer tracked that 99% of her defence was reduced, but if it went according to plan, her opponent would be the one to fall. The moment she saw Kallen's fist start to move, she activated her skill.

"⌈Meta-Dichotomisierung⌋"

This skill was the same as her usual, but instead of swinging at the opponent, she seemingly sliced herself. She knew that if she swung at Kallen, he would just dodge it. However, no apparent damage was dealt, instead, her brittle status was reduced from 99% to 49.5%. This was the full extent of her talent, not only did she have the ability to divide physical objects in half, but she could also divide metaphysical concepts in half as well such as HP, mana storage and status. Those were concepts that were seemingly calculated and managed in another realm, just connected to the Plane of Existence; The Abstract. She did not know this, but her ability had the power to travel through space-time and affect other realms as well. This plane, in particular, was a sub-realm of the Existence that was made of pure information and calculation, which were then 'reflected' or 'cast a shadow' onto the Existence. Only a few could ever hope to affect this realm and even knowing about it was a sign that you were a higher being. Only Reginn, the first hero, Goddess and the other gods knew this realm though only the Goddess and the gods could visit there. This impressed Reginn, if she knew more about what her talent could do, she could become one of the strongest warriors, though she would still be weaker than him, of course. He could see that she used up most of her mana on that single reduction of status and the cost of mana was probably proportionate on the importance, or on which layer of The Abstract the status was. He estimated that perhaps the highest she could ever go was the stats such as HP and mana which would permanently affect the opponent, though things like Life-Condition or Divinity were probably unchangeable.

Kallen was shocked by this action but still followed through on his punch without checking the status condition. To his surprise, his blow did much less damage than he anticipated, and Kaizer stood there confidently, though it was evident that she had little mana left. When Kallen tried to back away, Kaizer grabbed his wrist, there was no escape now.

"⌈Dichotomisierung⌋"

With this skill, Kallen could feel intense pain in his abdomen. This vivid pain reduced his vision and made him nauseous, causing him to vomit. Kaizer had bypassed Kallen's body and hit him directly in the kidney to prevent killing him. He rolled up into a fetal position and suffered internal bleeding.

"You'll be fine. You can live with just one anywa-"

Midsentence, Kaizer puked out a large amount of blue blood. Pronuses had blue blood because liquid mana flowed in their veins. Mana in a solid or liquid form was a semitransparent blue substance that was a bit glowing in the dark. In these higher concentrations, it would be fatal for most lifeforms to touch it as they were like small Imaginary Spaces, chaotic and unstoppable. Though when exposed to matter, the energy would quickly dissipate and these spaces would disperse into the atmosphere. As such, the blood did not fall to the ground but rather evaporated away.

"Wha- How- w"

Kaizer struggled to speak as the blood continued to pour out. Her skin then began to turn into a charcoal-like substance. Even in his immense pain, Kallen managed to speak.

"That's Semi-Instant Death's Door for you..."

It turned out that when he threw his punch, he changed his mind at the last moment, infusing it with Instant Death's Door, however, since he lacked the mana nor HP to do so, the result was a Semi-Instant Death's Door. He was just too suspicious of his opponent's confidence and made sure to make it a draw.

The Pronus completed its transformation into a mound of charcoal, which crumbled beneath its own weight. The greatsword was dropped to the ground with a thud, and its mana flow was very weak but pulsing. Reginn learned that Kaizer effectively had 2 lives as long as the opponent didn't directly kill the claymore first which hosted Kaizer's soul. Reginn was excited at this revelation, perhaps he could create the perfect warrior, worthy of his mantle as an apprentice. Of course, Kallen had done well as well, so he'd be allowed to cooperate.

Reginn walked toward the greatsword to pick it up, then tended to Kallen. He used some basic healing magic, but it'd take a while before his kidney completely healed.

"I kind of wished I could keep that Pronus... Oh well"

Reginn was ultimately satisfied. At the end of the day, he recruited another hero as well as learned more about Kaizer's potential. Now, this was getting really interesting.

...

The first face to greet Kallen when he woke up was Reginn's. They were at the school infirmary with the excuse that Kallen 'fell down really hard'. It was surprising how they even got to stay here, but that probably had to do something with Reginn's intimidating aura.

"So, you've woken up!"

"God, I didn't know heroes could be this weak! Passing out from kidney puncture?" said a mysterious girl next to Reginn

Kallen knew that it definitely was not just a kidney puncture, rather, it felt like his whole kidney was chopped in half. Though he was more confused about who this girl was.

"Oh yeah, forgot to introduce her. Go ahead, introduce yourself to your new comrade"

"...My name is Kaizer. I'm the one who could've killed you if I wanted to during that battle. Nice to meet you I guess"

"..."

"Well, she's actually the sword she has on her back. It's cursed or something"

"It's not cursed! Great mages across the land had to work together to transfer my consciousness into this greatsword you know!"

While Kallen was confused, he was still able to piece things together. He had fought a possessed Pronus, not a real Pronus. It all made sense to him now, she was able to survive the Death's Door because the Pronus died in her place, but he still had one question.

"...Then whose body is she possessing now?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean this? Heheh, I learnt this from the Goddess, ⌈Perfect Puppet Creation⌋, it's like a lesser version of ⌈Life Creation⌋ but greater than ⌈Puppet Creation⌋. This should act as a vessel for her, though I get just a tiny bit of control over her"

"What do you mean tiny bit?! Thi-"

Kaizer's mouth suddenly shut itself shut and she was struggling to speak. Reginn was much more powerful and potent than Kallen had imagined. He began to reminisce about his past and how he thought he was truly strong. Perhaps if he was just a bit stronger, perhaps if he was more like Reginn...

"Good job"

"Huh?"

"Good job on your battle, you are one of the strongest heroes I've seen," said Reginn, patting him on his shoulder, "keep going and you'll be strong enough for whatever you're trying to achieve"

"..."

"I can't believe you said something like a quote from a book, that's so embarrassi-"

Kaizer's mouth zipped up once again.

Kallen felt a strange emotion swell up in his chest. Gratefulness, sadness, pride, he did not know how to feel but it was assuring to hear the strongest guy he knew call him strong. He sensed that he had earned his respect and Reginn's attitude toward him warmed up, it was almost like he was a different person. Tears began to flow out of Kallen's eyes not out of pain, but of feeling his doubts wash away. Noticing this, Reginn and Kaizer left the room to give him some time for himself. It had been a long day for all of them (except Reginn).

"Meet me at the entrance of the school tomorrow!" shouted Reginn just before closing the door.

There was no reply but Reginn knew that Kallen heard him. Kallen looked out to see the sunset, just how long had he been out for? And they stayed next to him all that time. He felt nostalgic, having comrades once again. He searched his mind and imagined all his friends' faces back in his era. He hoped that he could meet some of their descendants if possible. Kallen looked at his fist. He was confident that he could avenge them and the people he failed eventually, no matter whatever form that would take.

"...Just see! I'll atone for my sins this time!"