Chapter 4 (9): Academic City { Town}

Heru stood with his arms folded in front of the gates of the Academic Town, Yuri and the rest of the squad standing close by, I had slowed down so that I could at least see where I was going, my mind whirled with thoughts of excuses as to how I knew how to get here. Ézar jumped down from my back and bowed towards them.

"I am sorry that you had to deal with the assassin's because of me." He apologizes, I frown.

"It's not exactly your fault you know. You didn't ask to be haunted by assassins,unless you're a

masochist,which I highly doubt, Razé. Who ever placed a bounty on your head is responsible for what happened today." I say patting his shoulders with a faint smile. He shook his head.

"My wrongs..."

" Everyone makes mistakes, Razé. Everyone does something they shouldn't have without knowing, or even if they did, it doesn't matter. What matters is how you respond." I say grinning now. Heru nodded as he stepped closer.

"Asher is right, you know. This isn't your fault this is whoever has placed a bounty on your head's fault. And you two,you both have a test tomorrow. Now come on, we'll give you both a tour. It's gonna be epic! What do you guys wanna see first? The main square or the local markets?" Heru offered, he slung his arms over our shoulders and pulled us towards the gates, Razé looked towards me.

"You saved me,you choose." He says smiling softly, the setting sun caught his hair which glittered purple and gold as we neared the gate. I gave a toothy grin in response.

"The main square, please, Sir. Heru, and perhaps the market afterwards?" I offered hopefully.

"Sure, you need some relaxing since you've gotten here." Heru says. The guards wore their usual frowns when we got to the check point. They wore the crests of the Golden Dragon, which signifies the Royal King, which is the main ruler of Crastina. Heru held a badge of yellow and grey up for inspection, the guards held their staffs up and crystal clear energy flowed over the badge. A few seconds later the staffs lit up a dark shade of amber, the guards nodded at each other and held their palms up to the gates which swung open as if they were normal wooden doors instead of a thousand tons of iron and marble. Heru ushered us in to the lower square, vendors with colourful stalls sat at the edges of the circular square, dancers with flowing robes danced around the fountain, as a guitarist and singer played one of the oldest songs in the Kingdom,but the one with the most beat and beautiful words. Water sprayed out through the fountain, casting specks of distorted light all over the gobble stones of the square. Lighting everything up as the suns disappeared behind the towering buildings finally.

"Welcome to The Academic Town, or as we like to call it Akuan. Where each and every class of Elementors come to learn their what their respective magical talents are or to further develop them. Sure you'd usually need several years to learn our history to get through to the third round of testing,but I'm sure you'll do just fine in the first round. Which is basically potential testing. Any how, on to more fun facts. Let's head to the main square." Heru says as the air grew gloomy, not because of me, but because the squad had just realised that I might not make it to the third round. " Akuan has been around since the first bridge was discovered in the early years of the Crastina, by one Liliana Tiason, also the first ruler of this world and the overseer of its future functions and economic designs which had helped us greatly when dealing with Elementors,which is us,and you two. Basically everyone here, actually. Liliana had build this city herself. The crystal torches are made from her mana, the gobble stones, the red wood buildings are made of perfect marble mana, crystallized over millenia. The colourful fountain, that is also made by her,we call it an Erup Olit, Yuri will probably show you the library tomorrow so you'll see the saphire shard that keeps the mana running through this city, do you see that blue lines." Heru pointed towards lines that moved between the stone floor,between the buildings, posts and fountains, it glowed a mysterious ocean blue that flickered to a soft gold every minute or so. The lines ran like veins throughout the city pulsing with a beating throb of power.

"Its the mana that runs through the city? The one that powers it? But what would happen if the shard breaks?" I ask genuinely curious. I never got to ask this question. Heru blinked dumbfounded, before scratching the back of his head.

"Well then, we'll be thoroughly hopeless. The mana that runs through the city also provides amination and protection against beasts and demons. Without it, we'll be sitting ducks to the slaughter." Says Heru. I frowned.

"Aren't there secret passage ways underneath the city? How can there be veins like these if there isn't something underneath that could check whether their still working or something like that? Dungeons or old caves,dug up underneath the city?" I offered frowning.

"Ah.....there are. It's just no one's able to access them because you actually have to be apart of the descendants of Liliana, unfortunately their all idiotic bastards who sides with the demons, so if they ever get in the city.....well then let's just say that we'll be more than sitting ducks." Says a suddenly pale Heru. Huh, well at least I know so much more about the city now.

"Okay, but isn't there a class of Elementors that are able to retrace blood lines and their secrets and perhaps re-lock the passage ways and even the shard,for extra measure? After all nothing's impossible if you know how things work and how they function,you could even recreate the shard and increase the mana out put. Or even add it to other cities that are newly build and haven't been touched by Liliana?" I say as we walked towards a small stair case that twisted and climbed well above our head and around the corners of the buildings. Yuri looked at me as if I had grown two head but grinned madly.

"That's a genius idea! I'll take it up with the council once we get to an inn. It might be possible,but we need someone with at least one drop of Liliana's blood then we'll be able to trace back all the way to her and then we can have a seer see through her eyes as she made the shard and locked the passage ways! Incredibly genius,yet so simple as well!" Yuri slowed down taking out her communication device, forgetting completely about the fact that she said she would speak to them later. Oh boy.

'Hai, Liliana never died, she won't be able to see jack.' Lily says in my mind. I blinked.

'You finally spoke. I know. Lily, but they don't, this will simply point out that Liliana had never died and that they should start to look for her. When you and I found her in that hole back in my first life she was so bony and old that she looked like a bloodwraith.' I reply. I turned back to Heru.

"So mister history teacher,please continue with the historical history of this city, if you please." I say smiling. He grinned back.

"Alright then. This street that we are on, was the very first stand point of the Elements, though it isn't as important as the gathering of elements,it's still amazing. The elements are spirits that would choose those who live on the Cristina at random, turning them in to Elementors. Six Cria born, which means Cristina born, stood here fighting against demon invaders that had slipped through the defense's in the olden days, disguised as Knight Guards. The Crai born had fought tooth and blood hoping to buy time for the real knights to catch,up they were all of them just teachers who knew simple battle techniques and that was all. When all hope seemed to have been lost, the elemental spirits blinked to life in front of their very own eyes, they inscribed what happened on to these walls see." Heru pointed towards a wall, surrounded by rainbow flowers and plants. "The elements stood and fought with the Crai born, providing light to their darkness on that day, providing hope to our cities." Heru says passionately. I walked over and trailed a finger over the drawings, sketched with nothing but the point of their swords,still caked in black blood from the demons, making the engravement's more permanent. Razé stood alongside me his eyes filled with wonder.

"What these people must have gone through....." He trailed off. I nod.

"Must have been horrible. But it makes for a great legend doesn't it? What people are capable of is amazing, how we always seem to push past our boundaries, our limits and somehow overcome the odds that always stand against us. Spectacular, if you imagine what it would have been like, fighting against beasts, demons even, when you're basically nothing but human. We at Norway,at least had strength above others because of the fact that we have creatures that take possession of others souls, and therefore have always been a little more than human, so I can not imagine being anything but, but I can imagine being weak and helpless, we've all been there, at some point at the very least. But facing a beast, maybe ten times taller, stronger than you, with nothing but your sword and shield, seems to be more of a punishment. And a great feat to have pulled off." I say, Razé raised an eyebrow.

"Look who's talk active." He says. I blinked and blushed.

"Don't push your luck, Gladius." I say and backed away from the wall and towards the squad who talked in hush whispers, Yuri was back and looked paler than what was healthy.

"What happened?What did the council say?" I ask,they turned to look at us.

"Nothing you should concern yourselves with. Now let's get to that square."