Nocturnio (18.10.9973 AS)
Tristan and Laura looked at each other. “What do we do now?” –“We go and get her.” –“But what if it is a trap?” –“Do you really believe it isn’t a trap?” Tristan asked as he stood up. “Are you still going?” –“Of course I am… It’s partly my fault anyways.” Tristan walked out of the room, Laura hesitated for a few seconds but decided to chase after him.
On their way to the old training hall, they found Ernesti, who was fooling around with his classmates in front of his classroom. “What are you doing here? Classes are about to start.” Tristan hesitated to tell him about Abigail. He knew Ernesti would want to come with them.
“It’s Abby; those guys took her as a hostage.” Laura whispered so only Ernesti would hear. “What?” Tristan showed Ernesti the note and started to head towards the old training hall. Ernesti looked at Tristan and Laura who were spurting towards Abigail’s whereabouts and decided to accompany them.
They reached the ruins of the old school building. They had to cross the whole academy campus to reach the ruins. The ruins were behind the gigantic walls that encircled the campus of the Guardian Academy. The previous principal of the academy had built a forest around the ruins of the old school building to keep students away.
The current principal would have loved to tear down all of the ruins and the forest to use the place for new and modern facilities. But the historical value of the ruins was too high. They were signs of ‘Great War’ and a reminder of how ugly a war is.
The three of them were sitting behind a bush. “So what is the plan?” Laura looked towards Tristan with hopeful eyes. “Don’t tell me you want to just charge in, because I know you have a plan.” –“Yeah, well the plan is: You two charge in and fight. Meanwhile, I sneak in and get Abigail and we walk out.” –“Wait, that’s the plan? I thought you were smart” Laura rebuked Tristan.
“Do you have any better idea? You two have the greatest fire power of us three. Meanwhile I’m a master of Illusion magic. So it should be easy for me to sneak in without them noticing.” Laura stared at Ernesti hoping he would say something to change Tristan’s plan.
It was because she knew Tristan was ‘weakest’ in this situation that she didn’t want to let him sneak in. Laura knew it was a trap to hurt Tristan. So they most likely would be expecting him to sneak in. This meant they had a secret weapon besides the twins and Leo playing guards outside the old training hall.
“Very, well then.” Tristan clapped his hands and touched his bracelet. He activated his magic and a clone of him appeared out of thin air.
“Now to the details: You two go to the main entrance of the old training hall with my clone. And engage them into a battle. If you know you can defeat them, than do it. If you are on equal footing try to stall the fight as long as possible. The key point in your battle is to hide the fact that this here is just a clone.”
Tristan summoned three items and gave one to each of them. These Items were failed attempts of his research. They could just be used as an alarm. Tristan had thought of disposing of them, but was now happy he didn’t. “When I have Abigail I will activate the item to let you know that she is save and that you can retreat. If they discover this guy here is just a clone also let me know.” Tristan smiled wryly.
He once again touched his bracelet and turned invisible. “Before I forget it. You two should try and go for Leo first. Else his active could become a pain in the ass to deal with it.” Laura saluted. “Ok, boss.”
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“Why are you doing this? I didn’t do anything to you!” Abigail asked. “Shut up, you are annoying.” Was the answer she did get. Abigail was bound, sitting in an old chair inside the old training hall. She was trying to act cool. “If you let me go now, I promise I will tell the teachers not to punish, I promise!”
A loud bang could be heard. Abigail was thrown of the chair she had been on. Her whole body did hurt. Tears started to run down Abigail’s face. “I told you to shut up!” her warder said with a panicking voice. “We have come so far, it doesn’t matter anymore.” –“Sniff… Pleaseeee… I … Promise… nothin will happen… sniff… to you… sniff… just leh me ko…” The sobbing Abigail kept asking to be let free.
Another bang was heard. “Shut up! You ‘Passiveless’ scum! Mommy is a great benefactor of this Academy. I’m sure she won’t let them touch me. Yeah mommy will help me out this time! Yeah, mommy will help me.” Annemarie sounded confused. She knew she had gone too far with her little prank so she tried to hold on the idea, that her mom would get her out of her sticky situation.
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Laura, Ernesti and the Tristan clone walked towards the main entrance. “So we have to fight three people while keeping an eye on this thing?” Ernesti tried to verify Laura’s resolve. “Yeah, that’s the key. They aren’t allowed to find out this is a decoy. Or else the sneak attack will fail.” –“By the way, why should we take down this Leo guy first?” – “His active is ‘Heal’. So if he starts healing the others, we are in a great disadvantage.”
“This will be a battle of actives, right? I mean, since we don’t have so many spells outside them, to choose from. By the way my active is ‘Erdbeben’: Short story long, I can control earth.” Ernesti informed Laura. “Nice, we could be a good team. My active is ‘Gravity Smash’. This means that I can control the gravity around me.”
They were hiding behind the wall of an old classroom. “The girl can use ‘Telekinesis’ this means she can use her mind to control stuff around her. The guy that looks like her has the ability called ‘Absolute Zero’. This means he can freeze everything he touches.” Laura explained the powers of her classmates to Ernesti, who just nodded in response.
“Are you ready?” –“Wait, we are charging in just like that? Without a plan?” Ernesti was surprised by Laura’s proposal. “Duh, we don’t have time to make extravagant plans. Every second count-“They heard a loud bang coming from the old training hall. “Abigail!” Ernesti called out.
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The invisible Tristan walked past Seria, who was building a pyramid out of stones she had been collecting. “So boring! When will they come? Are they gonna let her be beaten up all alone? Do they believe we won’t do anything to her?” –“I… I don’t want to do this… I… don’t… want to hurt anyone… guys, it’s not too late yet… we can go and apologize… maybe nothing will happen to us…”
“Shut up Leo. Like we care what happens to her. Annemarie’s mom is a big shot in the academy, right? So we don’t have worry about repercussions, right? We can always say we were just following her orders, right?” Richard pointed out.
‘Bunch of cowards!’ Tristan screamed from his inside as he reached the entrance to the training hall.
‘Not bad’ Tristan thought as he saw several magic circles around the entrance. ‘Mines? This must be Annemarie’s handy work’ Tristan assumed as he knelt down to change the magic circles so he would be able to move through the door with them exploding on him.
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“Sssomeone i-is there… I heard tthem.” Leo told his companions while running towards the entrance. “Yeah, looks like they are finally here.” Seria said while activating her active. She took the stones she had prepared earlier and hurled them towards the wall they had heard the noises.
The stones crushed into the wall and caused it to fall down, creating a cloud of dust. “Well done, now we can’t see them anymore” Richard complained. “Shut it! I-” Seria couldn’t finish her sentence because Laura started to charge towards her with an unnatural speed.
Laura had used her active to reduce the gravity around her body, so she could move faster than other people. In less than three seconds she had covered a distance of one hundred meters and was now right in front of Seria ready to punch.
Seria hid herself behind an invisible wall she had created with her telekinesis. Millimeters before hitting the wall straight on, Laura jumped over the trembling girl hiding behind it. Laura landed gracefully behind her and started to charge towards Leo, who was now standing behind Richard and Seria ready to heal them if they needed it.
Richard realized it and turned the soil into ice trying to stop Laura’s charge. “Seria don’t be such a scaredy cat! And protect Leo!” He called to his twin sister realizing that the iced soil didn’t cause Laura to stop but just to lose balance.
Laura couldn’t control her movements and hammered with full force into Leo, causing both of them to plump into the ground.
“Now!” Richard shouted and Seria pulled Leo from under Laura’s body with her telekinesis. She threw Leo’s unconscious body to the side and Richard started to bombard Laura with spears out of ice.
“They are actually not afraid of killing her!” Ernesti, who had been standing dumbfounded by Laura’s actions mumbled. He activated his active by touching the ground and formed a wall out of earth in front of Laura.
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Richard saw his attack being reflected just before hitting kneeling Laura. “Nice one.” He heard a female voice say. “You saved me again.” The female voice belonging to Laura, who was raising herself from the ground, continued.
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Today Miss Doctri was a little late. She had stayed longer as usual in the teachers’ lounge to boast about her class’ result in the mock exams. She was very proud of her students. Although, she didn’t want to do it, she had played the strict teacher for the past months. And now, finally, her students and her hard work had paid off.
This morning she had even gone to ‘Mitternacht’ to get a big chocolate cake to celebrate their grades with her students. But why did she just now walk into an empty classroom? Her students were supposed to be conscientious prodigies, so why was she standing there all alone?
She put down the chocolate cake on her desk and sighed. “How lovely, I didn’t think they would come up with pranks like this.” She hesitated. ‘Should I stay here and do nothing? Or go and search for them?’ She sighed again. “If I don’t search for them, I will lose my face as a strict teacher. After all, a strict teacher would never let them get away with it, right?”
After a few minutes she finally decided and charged out of her classroom towards the office of the principal.
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Tristan had entered the old training hall. It was a large sordid building, the holes in the roof and the rundown windows allowed day light to enlighten the room. On the other end of the hall Tristan could see the crying Abigail lying next to a chair.
He saw as Annemarie was shouting at her. Coming in he had heard an explosion. He had wondered where it came from. Now he had to see where it was coming from. After she was done shouting Annemarie used her active again and Abigail was sent flying with and big bang.
‘Is she crazy? If she keeps that up, she might hurt her badly’ Tristan was shocked. He had to hold back the urge to openly charge at Annemarie and strangle her. He sighed. ‘From the looks of it Abigail won’t hold longer if I don’t show up.’
Tristan looked at the in magic circles covered ground. ‘If I touch one of them, all of them explode. What kind of nasty spell is that?’ Tristan complained.
‘If I can’t charge at her through the grounds, I will just have to fly.’ Tristan lifted off and headed to the other end of the room. He landed fifteen meters behind Annemarie who was staring at the entrance. “It has started.”She said as she heard the noise coming from outside.
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“Who are you and why are you here?” Richard said pointing at Ernesti. “I’m Ernesti Tod and I am Abigail’s big brother.” Ernesti bowed. “T-Tod?” Richard almost chocked swallowing his own saliva. “That girl is a bastard from the Tod clan?” – “You see she isn’t a bastard. Her mother is my stepmother. And dad would be really mad if something were to happen to sis.”
Laura’s eyes widened as she heard, that Abigail’s mother was recognized as the wife of the brother of the Tod’s clan head. She had always assumed Abigail was in the similar situation as her.
Leo, who had regained consciousness looked in disbelieve at Ernesti. He had heard the conversation and looked really scared now. “Th… That means… Annemarie’s mom won’t be able to box us out right? I… I knew it! This was a bad idea!” he screamed and ran off crying towards the school yard.
“Wait, don’t be such a coward!” Richard shouted at Leo who was now nowhere to be seen anymore.
“Looks like you lost your healer” Laura smiled maliciously. Seria, who saw that smile started to tremble all over again. She knew she couldn’t keep up with Laura’s agility. She was sure she wouldn’t be able to counter attack and only defending wasn’t an option. Right now she would have loved to run away from the fight, but her pride did not allow her to.
Laura once again reduced the gravity around her body and charged towards the trembling Seria.
Richard wanted to stop her like he had done earlier, but the earth under him started shaking. So strong, he lost balance and fell down. “I’m your opponent.” Ernesti waved at him.
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Miss Doctri and the Principal were heading to the nurse’s office. She had told the principal about her students not appearing to class. The principal had suggested asking the nurse for help.
The active of the nurse was ‘Spueren’. This ability allowed her to sense the presence of people around her. “Meddie could you please search for Lina’s students?” –“Two of them already visited you.” Miss Doctri added. “Yes, indeed.” Meddie smiled, she would never forget about Tristan and his case. It was just too peculiar to forget.
Meddie closed her eyes and concentrated on Tristan’s aura. The principal and Miss Doctri were standing motionless next to Meddie for more than five minutes. Before, Meddie’s eyes suddenly opened. "They are all in the ruins."
“What? What are they doing there?” Miss Doctri asked. But no one answered her question. “Let’s go!” the principal said. “I have a bad feeling about this!”
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Laura charged full speed at Seria. Seria had created a shield around her to protect herself from Laura’s punches. But once again Laura jumped into the air just before touching the shield.
‘What is she doing’ Seria thought. ‘Does she want to take out Richard first?’ Seria looked towards her brother, who was exchanging blows with Ernesti. ‘Should I warn him?’ –“I’m your opponent!” Laura shouted appearing behind her setting up for a kick.
Although, Seria had managed to block the kick with her telekinetic wall, she was sent flying. She landed roughly on her back. “What’s up with her strength?” She mumbled as she stood up.
Laura now took out a piece of paper from her pocket. On the paper there was a magic circle drawn. She let her mana flow through the paper. The magic circle started glowing. And once again Laura charged towards Seria with top speed.
Once again, Seria tried to stop Laura’s body from moving, but her telekinesis was yet too weak to control the movement of other people against their will. “Not good.” The only thing left for Seria to do was to rely on her shield.
Laura jumped up just before cannoning into Seria. Above Seria she leaned forward getting ready for a front flip kick. As her legs were in the position she activated the magic circle in her hands. The piece of paper disappeared and Laura’s left leg hardened. Using her active, Laura now changed the gravity around her making herself a thousand times heavier than the usual gravity.
This time Seria had been following Laura’s movement. She saw how she was going to kick her shield from above. Out of reflex, she did cross her arms in front of her face to protect it.
Laura’s hardened heel smashed full force into Seria’s telekinetic shield. Her kick destroyed the shield. Laura’s heel connected with Seria’s arm. A creaking sound could be heard as Seria’s bones were crushed. “kyaahhhhh” Seria screamed in pain.
Laura landed next to the crying girl. “MaKe iT sTaaPH! iT hUrtS! iT hUrtS! MaKe iT sTaaPH!” The desperate girl screamed swinging her lifeless arms around. “Your wish is my command” Laura replied smiling and kicked Seria in the stomach causing her to lose consciousness.
Seria’s desperate cries had caused Richard’s attention to wander from his opponent to his sister. This was obviously a fault. Ernesti used this as an opportunity to put an end to their fight.
Ernesti hurled hundreds of stones towards Richard. Richard was hiding behind an ice shield, but because he had stopped paying attention, the weakened shield gave in to the stones. The stones hit Richard making him cry out in pain and lose consciousness.
“Well done” Laura walked towards Ernesti. “And they didn’t even realize this was just a clone.” –“Now that you mention it, where is the clone?” Ernesti asked as he looked around, but the clone was nowhere to be found.
“Shall we go in?” –“Yeah, we haven’t heard the signal yet, so I’m sure Trist needs help.” As both of them were about to enter the training hall a bang roared through the air. And both of them were hurled through the air.
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Miss Doctri and the Principal hurried through the campus. They wanted to reach the ruins as fast as possible. Suddenly Miss Doctri stopped.
“Leo! What are you doing out here!” Thy crying Leo looked towards Miss Doctri and the principal and froze. What should he say? Before he could react to her question Miss Doctri was already in front of him.
“I… I’m so sorry! I… I didn’t mean to hurt anyone… I promise… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” Leo repeated again and again.
“What you mean by that? Who is hurt?!” Miss Doctri asked shaking the boy. “Lina, stop it! You won’t get anything out of him right now.” The principal said, putting a hand on Miss Doctri’s shoulders. “Let’s just hurry to the rui-” The roar of an explosion had interrupted the Principal. “What on Fors was that?” –“From the ruins! Follow me!”
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Tristan was standing right next to Abigail. He would have loved to sneak over to Annemarie and beat some common sense into her. Unfortunately, he couldn’t count, on his ‘invisibility’ spell.
The spell he was using was an optimized demon level spell. It was too weak for close ranged sneak attacks. The closer one would get to the caster of the spell the easier one would be able to see through the spell. People who were closer than five meters would see the caster as if he wasn’t under the influence of the spell.
Therefore Tristan decided to use a decoy to get her attention. He knew he would have to fight her. He summoned his dual broadswords, casted his ‘clone’ magic and got ready to attack.
The Tristan clone entered the room. He was standing a few steps from the minefield. “You are finally here!” Annemarie called out towards him. “If you wanna save her, you will have to come over and get her.” She smiled.
Tristan said no word. He just glared at her. “I Said come and get her!” Annemarie screamed using her passive to create an explosion behind Tristan. Tristan jumped into the minefield, she had created and started to charge towards her.
‘How is that possible? Why aren’t my mines exploding? He shouldn’t have an ability to do that!’ The smirk on her face was gone, replaced by a panicked expression.
She was about to activate the mines as she saw a shadow dashing towards her. She managed to evade the swords the shadow swung at her. She created a small explosion between her and the shadow. Throwing it back a few meters.
Annemarie saw how the charging Tristan vanished in thin air. Another Tristan appeared where the shadow should have been.
“That’s how it was! You cheeky little shit! To think a ‘Passiveless’ like you would manage to almost touch me in a fight!” Again she was again sneering. “But you know; now I will show you what happens to people that don’t act like they should!”
“Not good!” Tristan was surrounded by magic circles. He touched his bracelet and opened a gate to his armory.
Annemarie watched as the explosions hit their target.“Mhaahhahaa Yeah, that’s what you deserv-” She choked on her words. Tristan was still standing there, where he was supposed to explode. “How?!” The decoy waved at her and disappeared.
“Where is he?” She looked around and noticed that Abigail wasn’t there anymore. “Where?”She looked up and saw a big shadow in the air. “I don’t know how a ‘Passiveless’ scum like you can fly but I will show you how a crash-land feels like.
Tristan was avoiding using his true abilities out in the open. Thus he couldn’t just open a gate and get Abigail and himself out of danger. He realized he didn’t stand a chance in a fight against Annemarie without going all out. Therefore, he had used the gate to get close to Abigail and once again cast the invisibility spell on both of them. He used his skill ‘fly’ and tried to leave the hall the crying Abigail in his arms.
He didn’t expect the spell not to work on two people. So that Annemarie could still see them as a shadow in the air.
Annemarie created an explosion above of them. The shock wave caused him to land in the mine field. “Shit!” he shouted as all the magic circles in the mine field were activated at the same time. In panic Tristan entered his armory just before the explosion caused by the chain reaction reduced the old training hall to rubble.
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Both of them landed roughly on the ground of Tristan’s armory. “Where are we?” the sobbing girl in his arms asked Tristan.