Last Training Session

6 MONTHS LATER...

Autumn fell and winter rose, devouring the entire continent, painting it is a coat of snowy white. The frigid winds blew across Eric's face, whispering cold melodies around his ears. The students of Crownswell Academy have changed into their winter wear. Despite the chilly season, the students were all in an uplifting mood as the Inter-Kingdom Tournament was upon them in a few days.

Inside the training room, Eric was tapping his foot impatiently. On the ground in front of him was Anastasia and Parzival breathing heavily, tired out of their mind.

"T-the devil, he's the devil I tell you..." Parzival shuddered.

"...Wait till I tell f-father about this," Anastasia chugged down a bottle of Starburst. After months of drinking it, her body has gotten used to it. Her body was now cleared of all impurities resulting in a 50% increased speed of spellcasting and control. Mastering both concurrent and nonverbal spell casting, she was now comparable to the mages of the past. She had gained a magic circle and became an Elder Mage but her fighting capabilities were on par with a Supreme Mage.

As for Parzival, after torme- grueling his mind and saw that he was fit for training, Eric invite him over for a joint training with Anastasia. At first it was a little awkward, but over time, they became close enough to joke around.

With the help of Alphyn, Eric had sealed a portion of Parzival's 'Dark rage' ability so that it only manifests over his arms. Now the abyss energy has been limited to an abyss gauntlet. With months of training, he now had absolute control over them.

"Come on, this is our last training session, get you asses up, you can't give up just yet." Eric raised their body with gravity magic.

During these past six months, Eric was also studying new magics. After figuring out how the gravity magic works from the gravity ring, he had successfully leaned it after a few months. Usually learning a new magic was not a hard task for him, but gravity magic was a whole different class compared to normal magics.

Magics like Space, Time, Gravity and Spirit are fundamentally different from elemental magics, they are magics that affect the world on a much higher level. They are known as Origin Magic, magics that existed before all others.

He also learned healing magic from Anastasia. It was not because he wanted to torture his enemies and heal them back only to torture them again, no(yes), but to heal his friends in case they ever needed his help.

After seeing all the different magics that Eric could do, Anastasia and Parzival have decided to stop questioning it and accept it as the norm. Their worldview had already been destroyed the moment they met this mysterious being called Eric.

Getting back to their feet, they stood there sending death glares at him. If looks could kills, he would have already been dead several times over.

"Good, now endure this. After you reach me this training will officially end."

Cancelling the reverse gravity, he then increased it by 4 times.

Eric took out a chair and slowly sipped his drink as he watched them shuffle slowly towards him. Time ticked by slowly for him and he could only imagine how much worse it was for them. After a long time, they finally reached him.

"Congrats! You have now passed the Basic training, now let's move on to the Intermediate training!" He clapped his hands together.

"WHAT!" They both exclaimed together. Anastasia conjured her ice spears and Parzival readied his abyss gauntlets, preparing to come at him with everything they got.

"WOAH woah woah, calm down, I was just joking... JOKING!!"

But they did not heed his words as they minds were already dead from the training.

They chased him across the room for 5 minutes before collapsing onto the ground. At first Anastasia started giggling, then they all started laughing. The bond they forged over the months was stronger than ever.

After half an hour of rest, Parzival had an announcement to make. Gathering around him, they saw 3 rings nestling on his palm.

"I know this will be embarrassing to hear, but I want to express just how blessed I am to have such incredible friends like you, ever since I met you guys, my days have been a constant joy. So I want to give these rings to you guys as a symbol of our friendship." He blushed.

"Woah you got these made from orichalcum? Those are pretty expensive." Anastasia said.

"Ehehehe, I wanted to go all out, there is also a communication rune inside."

Eric picked up the ring, and examined it. The exterior was black in color with a head of a lion engraved on it. He was a bit touched by this. Initially, he had no plans of making any friends when he entered the academy, but looking at the people in front of him, he thought that it was not so bad after all.

Putting on the ring, he activated the rune inside the ring with a small boost of his power. Looking at his actions, the rest followed too.

Soon Eric heard voices inside his head.

~Hellooooo caaann youuu heearrr meeeeeeee~

~Hey Eric are you there?~

~Yup, loud and clear.~ I replied to both of them.

***

In a desolate land far away, inside a broken castle, there sat a man in shadows. Dark vile energy rolled off him, the aura emanating from him was so intense no one dared to move a single muscle. As he stood up from his throne, the hundreds of dark figures inside the room immediately knelt down, their eyes fixed onto the ground.

The mere action of him standing up sent fear rolling down their backs. They dare not breath in the direction of his presence, for the fear of being killed.

"MY LOYAL SOLDIERS, OUR PRAYERS HAVE FINALLY BEEN ANSWERED. THE SHADOW ARCHON HAS GRACED US WITH HIS INFINITE WISDOM. THE DARK VESSEL WILL SOON APPEAR, AND WITH IT WE SHALL AVENGE OUR ANCESTORS AND DOMINATE THIS WORLD!" His voice boomed throughout the entire room.

The hundreds of soldiers roared in return, shaking the entire castle.

"ALL HAIL THE SHADOW ARCHON!!"