The image of the bright morning star slowly appeared beyond the horizon, its rays cascading down unceremoniously and in regular fashion.

The celestial ball of light remained as actively luminescent as it had always been, its presence dispelling the lingering traces of shadows hidden within the harrowing night.

It continued to rise gently, heralding the start of a new day as it’s beautiful golden rays gently fell onto most territorial nations and regions, casting a golden glow of light and heat onto the world.

A reclusive sand valley stood in between the epicenter of two fairly large territorial island nations—one a bright, lush garden territory and the other a crimson, gothic night city.

The sand valley itself stood in the middle, as if acting as a connecting pass for the two contrasting regional territories.

This seemed to be quite a conflicting observation, as the sand valley itself harbored certain dangerous characteristics that made it vastly impossible for the average man to thread through, thoroughly negating its use as a regional pass.

This sand valley existed as a vast oceanic desert, devoid of a single humid drop while being perpetually assaulted by raging tempests of sand, stirring up massive gales and covering the entire valley in a constant veil of dust.

The pale yellow sand glistened in the sunlight, its shiny image akin to forgotten gems dug out of an ancient, forgotten ruin, finally granted the opportunity to once more bask in the light of the sun.

One could vaguely make out the presence of massive bone-like protrusions within the sand-covered desert floor, their colossal and empty skeletons hinting to how large and dangerous these beasts must have been in the past.

That didn't seem to matter anymore though, as these seemingly harrowing creatures were now dead and gone, their empty skeletal husks now slowly being broken down and carried away by the raging tempest of sand.

The glistening heat enveloping the vast sand valley was immense and extremely suffocating, as one could vaguely discern a steamy cloud of heat mixed into the violent dusty gales, connecting the sunlit sky and the pillar-like dunes, akin to a ladder reaching from earth into the heavens,

A truly eerie, but breathtaking sight.

The yellow sands of the scorching desert rolled once more, carrying with them a small gust of sandy wind. This wind rolled over the empty skull of a fallen scorpion-like beast, causing it to toss and turn before connecting with something in the center of the desert.

A soft clang echoed out within the desert as if the decrepit skull had been knocked into an empty metallic object.

A suit of armor could be seen silently perched in the middle of the desert, its stance akin to a bowing knight, maintaining a one-knee stance while gently hugging a blurry sword embedded into the sand.

This armor looked quite slender and bleak, its color one of deep obsidian that looked as daunting as an empty night sky.

The armor had a couple of scratches etched into its obsidian surface, a testament to a contributed assault from the violent gales of sand, as well as whatever beast had previously roomed these vacant hot lands.

The constant assaults from the desert sand seemed to be quite ineffective in moving and vastly damaging the steadfast black armor, as its form remained embedded into the sand, vastly resembling a silent and lonely tree planted in the middle of a raging sea.

The armor remained passively silent and unresponsive, as if completely disinterested in the happenings of the world around it.

All of a sudden though, and seemingly out of nowhere, the previously stationary armor stirred, two flickering flames of red light appearing in the empty visage of its dark helmet.

The black armor suddenly exploded with crimson light, with fiery red flames appearing in every single open crevice of the armor, dyeing the previously all-black armor in a subtle shade of deep crimson.

The previously hollow and empty armor now appeared to have stirred into life, a black cape laced with crimson flames extending from its back onto the yellow sands of the desert, as its daunting figure looked like a symbol of spine-chilling dread when contrasted with its environment.

The armor slowly turned its head into the horizon, the red plume on its helmet swaying in the wind as it fixed its gaze on a distant island city.

It then reached for the blade silently embedded into the sand, finally exposing the blurry image to that of a pitch-black blade embedded with flame calligraphs in its center, looking like an archaic weapon that should only exist within myths and legends.

The daunting armored knight silently placed the blade into a sheet that had appeared out of nowhere at some point in time, lingering in place as if getting used to its new lively sensations, before calmly taking a step in a particular direction.

The knight kept striding through the gaunt desert, its footsteps leaving behind a fiery trail in its wake as it continued to march on.

The sands were once again enveloped in creeping silence, the direction the armor was marching through being the only source of sound.

If one paid close attention, one would be able to align the direction of the daunting ebony knight to that of a particular island city, its structure one that stood out even within the boundless ocean.

The island city was popularly known for its entertainment of research, as well as its nature of being a hospitable, all-accepting regional city.

It was the flourishing island of neutrality, as well as a popular hub of research and development within the three seas,

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It was the great Island of Estica.

...

Sophia walked tiredly through the halls of the academy, her languid face communicating intense displeasure at having to wake up so early in the morning.

She felt like enjoying a few more lazy moments in bed, as she felt extremely tired after having stayed up late into the night studying and doing her course assignments.

Alas, she knew that life wasn't that simple, and her schedule as a third-year Apprentice, as well as her job in the archives, wouldn't let her be as lazy as she pleased.

Sighing, she sipped from a glass of camomile tea, before taking a nibble from a small breakfast pie in her hand, causing a rare look of satisfaction to appear on her face.

'Ah... I seem to have forgotten to tell that guy not to stay back too late yesterday, as the archives get considerably more dangerous come nighttime. Well, forget it... I'm sure he must have gone back before it got too late anyway.'

Enjoying her light breakfast, Sophia strolled through the halls of the History Department, before noticing a detail that caused her to narrow her eyes.

The door for the hidden entrance into the archives, kept strictly for employee use, was slightly adjourned, the pale lights from within now streaming into the hallway.

This caused an annoyed expression to appear on Sophia's face, as she didn't know why the door was still in the same state she had left it the day before.

'No way... Did that guy forget to lock the door after he left? What type of unprofessionalism is this? I will make sure to report this issue to the professor when she gets ba-'

Before she could conclude her inner thoughts, a figure darted out from the archives, almost bumping into her at the door.

Sophia managed to scramble to attention, before taking in the image of her junior, standing at the door with an awkward expression on his face.

He offered a sincere apology to her for almost running into her, before bowing and excusing himself as he now had to prepare for his morning classes.

Sophia remained motionless, simply staring at his slowly departing figure in silence. She hadn't said a word throughout the entire ordeal, as her brain was still scrambling to regain clarity.

'Did that guy rush here so early in the morning? Such diligence. Not bad. Now I feel sorry for entertaining those previous thou-'

Stepping into the archive halls, Sophia's train of thought was once again interrupted, as she couldn't believe the sight before her eyes.

The previously massive pile of books in the corner, which should have taken at least a couple of days of slow organization to completely catalog, had now been arranged and neatly stacked onto their respective shelves in an organized manner.

This would only have been possible if one spent an entire day in the archives, doing nothing else but sorting through all the materials with effort and concentration.

Sophia's mouth suddenly twitched, not knowing what to say.

...

Elias sat in his usual seat in the back row, stretching lazily and enjoying the feel of the cool morning air.

He had hurried back to his dorm to freshen up before instantly rushing to class, so he was feeling quite refreshed even with his lack of sleep from the previous night.

Even with that Elias still felt that his day had been quite lucrative, with the only minus being that he had needed to miss class to make it happen.

He didn't seem to notice how fast time was elapsing once he and Lars got into their zone of concentration, and had only come to when the time on his rusty pocket watch was nearing midnight.

Elias had felt quite worried about missing class on his second day, but was reassured by Lars that it wasn't too bad a situation since they had been able to cover more than half of the entire first-semester curriculum for his general ed classes in just one night.

This meant that he really hadn't done anything wrong, as everything that would be thought was already known by him.

Ditching class to study more extensively seemed like a perfectly reasonable excuse.

Elias also accepted that logical fact, but made a mental note to himself to work on his time management so as to never miss classes again.

As a scholarship student, his reputation was almost as important as his grades. He didn't want to be known as the first bad egg within the first few weeks of his admission.

Sister Marie would skin him alive If that ever happened.

Elias was then about to start brainstorming on the wealth of information he had amassed while alone in the archives but paused, as he noticed Damien's approaching figure.

His friend was holding a small box of steamed buns in one hand and two cups of iced tea in the other. He walked directly toward Elias, settling beside him while passing him his breakfast.

"Hey Eli, where were you yesterday? Did you have to go out of the academy? I checked back to your dorm when you didn't show up for class and you weren't there. I was a bit worried."

Elias smiled, feeling warm from his friend's genuine concern. He then went on to explain the circumstances surrounding the previous day, as Damien calmly snacked on his steaming wheat bun.

"I see. Sigh... Honestly, I'm not even surprised, that's the kind of person you've always been. You always get stuck in your own little bubble whenever you study, not paying any attention to the outside world. I remember how hard it was to get you to play together when we were kids."

Damien sighed, feeling a bit reminiscent.

Elias snickered at his friend, before calmly enjoying a sip from his refreshing iced tea. "Okay, okay that's enough of that... You sound like an old man whenever you talk that way. Fill me in on the events that transpired yesterday. What did I miss?"

The two friends then dove into an interactive conversation, finishing up their breakfast while waiting for their first class to start.

Damien took the last bite of his bun, concluding his debriefing of the events which mainly consisted of boring day-to-day activities. "And that's what happened yesterday. Anyway, the most important part isn't even all of this, as I have managed to save the best for last.

"Remember when the professor told us that our class groupings would be released yesterday? Well, it was!"

Elias was shocked. He had totally forgotten about the class groupings due to his personal matters. It didn't even once cross his mind!

Running his hands through his hair, Elias slumped into his chair, before peering at the overly excited Damien. "Sigh... I was too busy so I completely forgot about that. You... Why do you seem so excited, did you get into a good group?"

Damien huffed, his face as smug as could be. "Even better! I got into the best group, a group with you in it! What other group could compare with being with my best friend?"

Elias was once again stunned, feeling like it was quite peculiar for both of them to be in the same group. Didn't it seem a bit too unconventional? Was fate giving him a small bout of good luck after overly plaguing him with misfortune recently?

Well if that was the case, he definitely wasn't complaining. Being grouped with someone he knew was an optimal scenario.

Elias steadied his emotions, before once again regaining his composure. He chuckled at Damien's beaming smile, sharing his friend's happiness at the present situation.

"Well aside from two of us, who are the other three members? Did you get to talk to them yet?"

At the mention of the other members, Damien's face seemed to morph into a complicated expression, as If he was greatly troubled by something.

"Well as for them... you'd actually be surprised to find out that there is also someone you are familiar with within the other three."

Elias eyed Damien suspiciously, not understanding what his friend meant by that. The only person Elias was familiar with in the academy was Damien himself unless he was talking about-

Elias's inner thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the subtle smell of blooming coral flowers, making him feel like he had been plunged into a lake at the edge of a tranquil green meadow.

A voice as gentle and elegant as the soft sounds of running spring water echoed within his ears, carrying with it a soft but melodious tone,

"Good morning, Elias. How are you this fine morning?"