Elias instantly turned his head, a slight look of surprise and bewilderment etched onto his face. A person seemed to have been seated silently right beside Aamiya, maybe even since the very beginning.

It came as quite a surprise, as Elias was just taking notice of this silent individual, their presence seemingly nonexistent until they decided to speak up a moment ago.

Elias usually prides himself on his acute observational skills, as he had always made it a habit to scan through his immediate surroundings, paying attention to any peculiar detail that might deviate from the norm.

Not only had he not noticed the speaker's presence around him, but he had also not paid any attention to that general seating area, as if something around it was subtly deviating his focus, causing him not to pay it any notice.

Elias sighed helplessly. He assumed his body was still fatigued from all of the strenuous activities he had been put through in the last couple of days. This was the only logical explanation Elias could think of, and one that seemed to make perfect sense.

However before he could totally dismiss the situation, Lars abruptly spoke up, his voice cold and vigilant.

"Be careful... something seems very weird about that strange classmate of yours. Even I didn't pay any attention to her until a while ago, as if she was a void that existed in my cognitive focus, preventing me from detecting her."

Elias absorbed his brother's revelation, feeling like the situation was getting more and more peculiar. He felt like this classmate of his seemed to hold a lot of secrets, and was tempted to use her as a test subject for one of his Runic Invocations.

However, he ended up dismissing the idea, as he wanted to keep his uncanny abilities a secret for as long as he could while not drawing unnecessary attention to himself.

If people found out that he was already an Apostle, or worse—that he was under an unidentified Echelon that was ruled by a strange and unknown unorthodox god, Elias could only shudder while thinking about the fate that might befall him.

He also felt that everyone was entitled to their secrets, as it was perfectly human for one to have a few skeletons in their closet.

Elias himself had a lot of secrets, which was why he felt like it wasn't his place to pry, as long as whatever the secret wasn't causing him any direct harm or inconvenience.

Following this Elias straightened up his face, returning the greeting to the girl named Yves as respectfully as he could.

Elias stole a glance at her face over Aamiya's shoulder, but couldn't seem to recall her appearance after he turned his head away.

All he seemed to recall was that there was a person seated beside Aamiya named 'Yves', and even that thought seemed to be slowly drifting out of his mind.

He felt that by the end of today, even that singular thought itself might abruptly vanish, making Elias once again have only a vague recollection of a person named 'Yves' within his group.

'Whatever her secret is, it seems to be quite complex. Even if I'm just a newly advanced Apostle, it would take a lot of effort to mess with the observational focus of an Apostolic Deacon. I really hope she doesn't cause us any unnecessary trouble in the future.'

Elias took a deep breath, a wry smile appearing on his face as he glanced at the four individuals who would go through numerous life-and-death experiences with him over the next three years. These were the people he would be entrusting his back to, and even they seemed to fit the 'Abnormality' status accompanying his Echelon.

There was a guy with the physical appearance of a street thug, yet paid more attention to law and justice than anyone else,

A guy more interested in people present within written stories, showing his nonchalance to the real world and treating it as if it was an illusion,

A young lady who was popular and well known yet seemed to not appreciate the attention that came with her popularity,

A girl who seemed to be known one minute, yet unknown the next,

And then there was Elias, the most abnormal of the bunch. He couldn't even start listing all the things about himself that fell outside of the standard norm, as it would be a very long list.

Taking one last glance at his group Elias suddenly chuckled to himself, before murmuring under his breath condescendingly.

'What a group...'

...

Entering into his dorm for the end of the day, Elias didn't feel tired or exhausted, but instead immediately turned on his gas lamp while taking a seat in front of his reading table.

He patted the slightly scratched polished surface affectionately, feeling like he and the table had already been through quite a lot in the small time frame of them being together.

He flipped open the lid of his rusty silver pocket watch, nodding his head when he saw that it was still some minutes before 9 pm.

Elias had enjoyed quite the eventful day, causing him to have a subtle smile on his face as he recollected.

The bulk of his day had been spent with his new 'Friends', especially since their stern professor had emphasized group bonding and synergy.

Elias had spent the better part of the day in the company of the four of them—five if you count Aamiya's cute cat, which wouldn't leave him alone no matter how much its owner sulked.

He had especially bonded with Aamiya throughout the day, as the other members were either already close friends with him or were just in their own bubble, not initiating any conversations but not shying away from it when brought up either.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Elias felt like Aamiya was quite a nice and relatively simple person, but also had a feeling that she had an alternate side to her hidden beneath her delicate facade. Her eyes sometimes alternated between calm maturity and delicate youth, making Elias feel like she had a hidden secret of her own.

On the other hand Elias didn't really engage in small talk with Ne'em and Yves, only speaking once or twice to the former about their upcoming commission and totally forgetting about the latter.

Their first commission wasn't anything too hard, as it didn't involve hunting down demonic beasts or vanquishing malevolent spiritual entities.

They only had to act as a hidden security detail for a noble ball coming up in two weeks, an assignment that seemed quite straightforward and anticlimactic to Elias.

He had expected something much more exciting and felt his excitement dim once he was told about the details by Aamiya and Damien.

His classes for the day had been introductory as well, as Elias was told that the entire first week would be used for orientational classes to enable the newly admitted apprentices to settle down into their new course schedule.

Elias was mainly taught things that he already knew, and only felt a bit of excitement when it was time for physical and weapon training.

Thinking about the duel that he and Damien had decided to do for fun, Elias slightly winced, rubbing an area on his upper hand that appeared to be a bit sore.

Damien had gone a bit overboard with his speed and aggression, mainly because their new teammates were watching and he wanted to leave a good impression.

However, Elias was the one to bear the brunt of his recklessness, as he had been whacked in the arm quite ruthlessly as a result.

He had sustained a slight bruise, and Damien had been given an automatic loss for reckless endangerment and careless combat behavior.

The day had gone on quite smoothly after that, with Elias clocking into the archives for his daily two-hour shift before hurrying back to his dorm. He seemed to see his senior giving him some suspicious side glances, but didn't think much of it as he had more important things to do.

Thinking about the sad and depressed look that was on his friend's face, Elias chuckled in amusement, no longer paying attention to the pain from the bruise while feeling that it was quite worth it.

Elias stretched in his chair, before calling out to Lars, to which the latter swiftly responded.

They swiftly dove into the results of their night-long research within the archives, the soft light from the gas lamp illuminating both of their figures.

They had both been able to find out quite a bit from all of their midnight reading, but answers to some of their most crucial questions still remained unanswered.

An example was that they weren't able to find out anything about the unknown deity with the spine-chilling title, as well as historical references to what he had gleamed within his wisp.

As far as Elias could tell from all of the historical documents he has perused thus far, it seemed like there had always been only five deities, as all of the religious texts only referred to the currently known five.

They also hadn't made any leeway in Interpreting his strange dream, as well as the cryptic text that was still haunting him to this very day. Most of the divination books were mainly theoretical, not showing any of the basic steps needed by a novice in dream interpretation.

However, they had come across quite the discovery, a discovery that had made all of their time worth it.

In one of the books related to Paranormal Studies, Elias had found an abstract reference to the swirling mists of light he had recently started to see all around him.

Apparently, during an unnamed era in the Old Testament Calender, the founder of the academy, Noa El-Lah, had published a paper on the discovery of a new form of energy, one with vast similarities to both the swirling mists of light and the inky black mist present within Elias's Spiritual Sea.

The Benign Philosopher likened this unknown energy source to the fundamental building block of the world, emphasizing its importance while drafting up numerous theoretical studies to back up his assertions.

In his words, Noa El-Lah described it as 'The source of everything and nothing', stating that this energy was all around us yet abnormally without a definitive and traceable source.

His papers explained that this energy was what was responsible for the creation of everything that had supernatural and paranormal qualities, as his studies and research showed a lot of experimental evidence proving that supernatural abilities come from high amounts of exposure to this particular energy.

The exact details weren't described in the reports, causing Elias to feel like the situation was much deeper and more complex than it was described.

What actually shocked Elias was his finding out that this energy source was vastly essential to the Apostolic Assessment, as it had been hinted that the ceremony could not be carried out without it.

After digging through more documents, Elias eventually found out why. The Holy Grail used in his assessment was crafted from objects with stable concentrations of this energy, as it was the only intermediary source that could balance both divinity and mortality.

It was an essential catalyst in ceremonial rituals and one of the most important hidden building blocks of the world.

This energy was later labeled as 'Ether' or Etheric Dust or energy, a word which was said to translate to 'Formless’ in an unmentioned language.

Apparently, it had been named by Noa El-Lah himself, with the permission of the five orthodox churches and the then six racial territorial leaders.

Elias sighed in his seat, feeling like the name was quite appropriate for the swirling blackened mists of lights.

Their forms were quite contradictory, as they seemed to pop in and out of existence at intervals. Elias even attempted to grab some of them, but felt his hands phase through the air, as if nothing was there.

Elias lingered for a bit, before turning towards Lars with an expectant gaze, "So... Can I try one of the invocations now?"

Lars remained silent, noticing the slight excitement hidden beneath his brother's eyes. He then sighed, not knowing what else to say.

"Well, I guess it's alright. We didn't see anything pertaining to any inherent risk involved in activating them. Apart from the Tribulations which you would have to bear, it should be alright."

Elias nodded slowly, trying his best to conceal the excitement in his heart.

As Lars had just mentioned, they had been able to find out the meaning of the Trials and Tribulations of Faith, with the former being a qualification trial you would have to go through before advancing in ranks, while the latter was basically just the backlash that comes with using said abilities.

They hadn't been able to find any comprehensive explanation on both topics, with the only available ones being summaries which were meant for students.

Elias read the details of his trial within his wisp afterward and was shocked to see that his Trial of Faith—which was highlighted as the Trial of Dion, was already completed, with the details stating that he had to embody the ultimate contradiction, which he already did.

Elias and Lars didn't understand what this meant, or how they had even completed it, but suspected that it had to do with Elias's connection to life and death, as both concepts were perfect contradictions to each other.

In any case, it was apparently safe for Elias to activate his Runic Invocations, causing the young man to feel quite excited.

Settling into his emotions, Elias took a moment to decide on which Runic Invocation to activate first, before choosing the one which seemed to be the most straightforward.

Elias slowly focused his senses on himself, subtly activating a dormant mysterious ability that seemed to resonate from within his very soul.

Various illusory lines slowly manifested all around Elias, their taut forms like dyed strings of light, filling Elias's room and transforming it into a den of cobwebs.

All of these lines were connected to the five fingers on his right hand, causing Elias to resemble a lone spider silently wielding and weaving web strings in the dead of night.

Raising his eyes, Elias met his room entirely covered in thin strips of illusory webbing, causing him to heave a sigh of relief.

He had done it,

He had successfully activated the Runic Invocation—Finger Lines.

However unbeknownst to him, a peculiar change had taken place on his face within the tabletop mirror under the dim gas lamp.

The image of a luminescent lunar moon was slowly outlined on his forehead, floating gracefully close to his skin like a divine symbol of light and blessing.