A Fresh Start

While Kyle's brain was caught between accepting what he was seeing and what was possible, he couldn't help but notice another terrifying fact. It looked like Raymond had lost control of the ball as he was on his knees gritting his teeth while the large blue ball began spinning.

"Is he…?"

"Unfortunately, no—That would make my work easier—he got things under control in the end, which I'm guessing was very fortunate for you." John explained. "You should probably take a seat."

Kyle promptly pulled one of the chairs and sat down. John also brought him a glass of water. "Wait! What do you mean by very fortunate for me?"

"Wait for it," John replied.

True to his word, Raymond got the situation back in control before he laid on the grass, wheezing. Right then the camera zoomed out before focusing on a car (less than a hundred meters away) that was approaching the mansion.

A myriad of emotions swept Kyle as John's words finally hit home. That car was his. He took two gulps of water to rehydrate his mouth before finding the courage to ask.

"So, you saw me?" Kyle asked just to confirm what he suspected earlier from the moment he saw their surveillance system.

"We saw you and a lot more that I'd rather you watch. At the very least it will answer a few questions I'm certain you still have burning up inside of you."

The feed continued showing Detective Kyle who had now reached the mansion's gate. He then got out of his car and used the intercom. While there was no sound, Kyle knew exactly what he was speaking at that moment.

Now that he could see the whole picture, he couldn't help but be annoyed. There were very few things that Kyle hated, one of them was being made a fool out of. The more he watched the scene unfold the more he felt like a fool.

Soon he was back in his car and Kyle remembered calling back at the station a couple of minutes later and confirming that Raymond was last in the mansion but disappeared. Right at that moment he cleared his throat and asked.

"What else do you have on him?"

"I had been monitoring him for a while now; his social media, school activity, phone records, we even have a permanent drone right on top of the mansion."

"Had? What happened?" Kyle had a feeling he knew the answer but just needed a someone else to verify what he already suspected.

"The day you showed up at the mansion is the day that we lost connection with his phone and any attempts to extract data or ping it have been unsuccessful. We believe he did something to his phone rather than destroy it as his phone number is still active."

"What about indirect access?"

John turned to Philip who responded.

"Nothing much. The guy's social media activity is as good as my grandma's. His Facebook page has only two pictures, one's the profile, the other was taken during his high school graduation. Nothing on Twitter, Snapchat…you get the picture."

"But we did manage to get something from his phone before we lost him. His phone records show frequent texts and calls Robin (Charles' code name) and a girl named Emma."

As Philip geek explained, he pulled Raymond's phone records and displayed them on one of the three big screens. The records were just mundane stuff that one would see in any typical teen's phone. There was nothing involving supernatural.

"Fast-forward, I want to know what happened next," Kyle returned his attention to the paused video feed of the day that he visited the mansion.

"There isn't much to see after that. They went in and came out after a few hours for his second training." Right after Philip explained, the video jumped to a black jeep pulling up on the driveway and two people Kyle was unfamiliar with walked into the mansion.

Kyle went into deep thought as he contemplated the missing time. Nothing added up and then another puzzle came to him. "You said you have an active drone on Raymond?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"I want you to access a footage of two days ago at around nine pm."

As he spoke, the tech geek typed in a few commands on his keyboard and a new feed appeared on the third screen. The feed showed Raymond being dropped at the university by the same lawyer. Raymond headed to the dorms while the lawyer went straight to the Admin.

"What are you hoping to find?" John who had been silent up to now finally spoke up.

"I had him that night but he slipped through my fingers. Till this day, I still don't remember exactly what happened. One moment I was talking to him the next I woke in his bed early in the morning."

"They did something to you?"

"Positive." Then Kyle look straight at John. "I'm in."

******

Raymond's new house was even bigger than the mansion back in Argo. His room, which he later found out was the master en-suite, much to his chagrin, was the biggest room in the entire house. Ray was about to complain until Athena proposed to get him an actual castle, that shut him up. Grumbling to himself, he sat at the edge of a ridiculously large bed, feeling completely out of his element.

A moment later, there was a slight knock on the door.

"Come in."

Adrastea walked in, smiling. "How do you feel about your new house?"

"A bit over the top, don't you think?"

"This is the least Athena could do. Besides, you haven't even seen the whole thing. Come, let us complete your tour of the place."

Groaning, Ray rose and followed Adrastea out of the room and into an expansive hallway. If he didn't know any better, Ray could've sworn the house was designed for giants. They could probably fit three of him and still not touch the ceiling.

Rolling his eyes, he tuned out his thoughts and focused on Adrastea.

"…8 bedrooms, two kitchens, ten shower rooms, three staff bedrooms, and three living rooms, excluding your private living room."

They went downstairs and into the main living room. "At the moment, only you, Charles, and I live here, but that may change soon if the need arises."

Adrastea led him towards the back of the overly large mansion. "And of course, a pool, a tennis court, a stable and…"

"…Finally, Athena has commissioned a brand-new T-pod for you." Adrastea finished the tour.

"Sounds redundant. I mean, with teleportation and all…?"

"Teleporting in public is not only prohibited but also dangerous and not to mention chaotic. The only teleportation allowed is through the Service Portals located all around the City. Don't worry; we'll be installing one for you tonight, and you can use it any time. Besides, once you're over the rush, you'll get bored pretty easily, and you'll find the shuttle much more exciting."

…

Inside the garage, there were three T-pods, two of them were the size of a Mack truck while the third was a bit larger than the other two and also shiny. Getting inside the new T-pod, Ray immediately spotted the difference.

Unlike his first experience. This one only had two seats at the front while the back had six seats in a semicircle and at one end of there was a small bar with drinks on display.

This time there was less bewilderment in his voyage, allowing him to savor the experience. They went straight to the Transport Sector, and Ray and got himself registered before hopping on the T-pod for an official tour.

During this tour, Ray learned most of the features of the City, like the Service Portal. These were located in every Sector. They were almost the same as the first portal Ray saw back at the first mansion on his first trip to Olympus.

Each Service Portal contained twenty portals, and was separated into two. The first ten were for incoming, and every couple of seconds that passed, new people appeared and exited from each of the ten portals. The other five were for outgoing. Unlike the incoming portals, everyone who got on these portals disappeared in a brown mist. In a way, it looked much like a city in an MMORPG game.

But unlike a city in an MMORPG, almost everyone could connect their private portals to the Service Portals and use them directly from their home. Each Service Portal was also connected to other Service Portals throughout the City, allowing anyone to jump from one Sector to another.

Finally, Ray learned there were different levels of using the Service Portals. The city level was ranked at the lowest and could only use five out of the ten portals, and the range was limited to the City's outskirts.

The next level was the inter-city level, which only had two portals that allowed one to jump much further distances outside the City. Unlike the city level, the range was not limited, but the use was much stricter and more controlled. This level was also open to the public.

The next level was the official level; this one was strictly accessed by those who served the current power. The official level also had two portals, but unlike the city portals, they were not limited to within the City. They could connect to other jump points outside the City.

Finally, there was the imperial level. This one was mostly used by Olympians and was rarely used due to special circumstances. But once in a while one could get lucky and meet a god coming out of one.

Having finished his tour, Raymond came back home to get ready for the next event; classes. Being a student almost all his life, Ray was long resigned to the rigors of early mornings and was a little surprised to find that this trend could be avoided if he wished it. It was basically a dream come true.

From what was explained beforehand. He would have four types of classes. The one he was used to, which he will start immediately, everything was cleared at Olympus University. Other than the additional curriculum, there was nothing he couldn't keep up with.

His second class will be Magic, which he learned was divided into four branches; Alchemy, Combat, and Theory. Based on what he learned about the current trend, one branch is enough to get by and get employed in any industry that uses magic like portion companies.

Some, on the other hand, Supernatural learn at least two to be considered a Specialist. As much as Ray wanted to learn all three, he found Alchemy boring and ended up choosing the other two. Magic Theory and Combat Magic add up to three, and finally, Combat Training from Charles makes it four.

Even though he had a lot of leeway when arranging the time for his classes, Ray still placed his regular classes and Magic Theory in the morning and the other two in the afternoon. While his regular classes will be at Olympus University, the other classes were all private tutoring.

Adrastea became his Combat Magic tutor while Charles continued beating him up while disguising it as training. What he was mostly interested in was Magic Theory and who his new teacher will be. Once he was sure he had everything in place, Adrastea took him to where he will be learning.

After the tour, Ray was taken to another estate that also has a magnificent castle. Adrastea told him that was where he would be the rest of his magic lessons would be.

He was actually quite excited as it was the only aspect that didn't sound boring in his mind; who doesn't love magic. The fact that he had magic almost had him giddy and shivering with anticipation. He was a little bit impatient, to say the least. If it weren't for Athena's library, he would have probably been even more anxious.