Northgate Academy

The whole castle was in a state of disarray after learning that an actual Demon had appeared and declared war upon Ralithon, seemingly out of nowhere. Kain had called a meeting with the various nobles across Ralithon so he was busy for the rest of the day while Kabuto had gone to his room in order to digest all of the information. That only left me on my bed with a misty eyed Lyra, who slapped me and called me a dumbass for putting myself in danger. I'll be honest, I deserved the slap because I did a foolish and reckless thing, but I couldn't sit there and do nothing. If I have power and don't use it then what's it good for? Lyra just rolled her eyes at my reasoning and left the room. Jayne, however, was waiting outside of the door and welcomed herself in before sitting on the edge of my massive bed.

"I won't tell you that what you did was stupid, but you should know that your reckless actions are causing more harm than good, and in more ways than one." Jayne spoke softly, but she also spoke in a firm manner, causing me to swallow my words. She continued "You're not alone, Yuuki. You have people who genuinely care for you, we care for you, and want to see you happy, not on some power quest for revenge that will most likely get you killed!" before throwing her arms around me. I could feel her tears dropping down onto my shoulder as I sat there in a daze. Am I truly doing what my mother would want me to do? But without my goal what else do I have to live for? No, I must do this for myself just as much as I should for my mother.

I held back a sigh before I bit the dagger and wrapped my arms around Jayne as her sobs doubled. It felt really awkward to sit there with a crying woman in my arms but it also felt somewhat comforting to know that I had people to care for me, not that I would notice this until way later.

"E-Excuse my behavior, I was just really worried and stressed out..." A subtle blush touched Jayne's cheeks as she quickly composed herself and scrambled off of the bed. I couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous she looked, even though she glared at me and made a small ball of magma rotate around her finger in an obvious gesture of intimidation.

I put my hands up in a gesture of defeat and Jayne just sighed and extinguished her ball of death before turning silent at the edge of my bed. Jayne had been with me through a lot of tough times, and this was the only time I had ever seen here in this state. I felt bad for being the cause but I still have my purpose, my goal. That's something that I cannot just let go, no matter the cost.

I couldn't help but feel foolish in that moment, but I cemented my resolve regardless and steeled my heart before getting out of bed and putting on my usual training attire. Jayne looked at me with a curious gaze but kept mute as she watched me walk out of the door with a confident gait.

——

I ducked under a swipe aimed at my neck before slicing the beasts neck, decapitating it in the process. I was surrounded by an unusual sight. 10 massive Ironpaw bears loomed over me, baring their teeth and brandishing their claws. The insignia burned my skin but I held it at bay. I wanted to do this with my own power. I dodged another swipe before rolling out of a pincer attack and chopping off the paw of one of the bears, causing the sweet cry of pain to ring in my ears. I was surrounded by nine of the previous 11 bears, one on the ground howling while trying to stem the flow of its life force, that were all looking at me with a hint of caution instead of an overbearing cockiness. But I didn't stop there, I sheathed my sword and grabbed my bow and an arrow in one fluid movement before firing at the ground, a huge dust cloud erupting and giving me the sweet cover that I needed. I dashed like a phantom while slicing the necks and bodies of the Bears, injuring two while the rest had died. I faced the two Bears that were left, an eager smile on my face, but that faded quickly as a sharp pain erupted from my back.

I whipped my head around to see the Bear that had its paw amputated panting with its blood soaked claws reflecting the afternoon light. The insignia began to burn and grow despite me trying to withhold its power, but it seemed even more pissed than I was as it's power quickly surged through my body with the insignia now covering my whole left arm. Tendrils of red lightning danced around my body madly before shooting themselves at the amputated Bear, killing it in less than a second.

The pain lessened slightly the more I remained conscious, in turn giving me access to more of its power. A dense ball of the lightning like energy formed around my clenched fist as I turned towards the remaining Ironpaw's with an unrestrained fury in my eyes, causing both of the beasts legs to give out as my full bloodlust focused on them. The lightning ball surged forward like an unstoppable storm and collided with the beasts, exploding and causing a massive amount of damage as the shockwave was so immense that It had knocked me back a few meters.

The corpses of the Bears were now nothing more than ashes, not even their cores were left unharmed from my attack. My body protested but I leapt into the air and started shouting and laughing. I finally had the power I so desperately needed.

'Wait, it's the afternoon...damnit! I forgot about the Academy!'

I rushed back to the castle as fast as I could in hopes that I could make it back in time for the welcoming ceremony at Northgate, and hopefully avoid another lecture from Lyra, damn princess. I managed to sneak past the guards at the gate, mainly because I felt like it, and climb the side of the castle to my rooms window only to be greeted by Lyra, with her hands crossed and a noticeable vein pooping out from her forehead, Kabuto, and Jayne. I managed an awkward smile as Kabuto pulled the window open and put his hands together in a praying gesture, likely for me, as Lyra started to yell at me for leaving them with little time before they had to be at the academy.

"You could've just went without me damnit!" I grumbled under my breath as I got dressed into the school uniform.

"What was that?" I heard Lyra ask from outside the door. Kabuto let out a light laugh before releasing an overly dramatic sigh.

"Haaa, when will you ever be on time you troublemaker. How much longer must we suffer from you poor sense of time my friend?" Kabuto easily dodged my halfhearted kick by imbuing wind energy into his feet.

We walked out of my room and the three of us said our goodbyes to Kain before hurrying towards Northgate Academy, which happened to be on the other side of the city. Thankfully, the crowd was massive and so no one was really going to reprimand anyone for being late, causing me to shoot a glare at Lyra. Everyone was more anxious than excited, most likely due to the recent appearance of Demons, but that did little to diminish my happiness towards my successful use of the strange energy that now resides within my body, coursing through my very veins.

After what felt like a whole day, we were finally able to get in the massive assembly hall and find seats just before the various candles that decorated the room extinguished, leaving only the stage at the very front bathed in a rather holy looking light that, for some reason, made a chill coarse through my body. The same old woman who we saw yesterday in front of Northgate was now standing on the stage in front of us.

"Students and Nobles, today is a special day where I get to experience watching each and everyone of you grow and soar past your limits here in my prestigious academy. I welcome you all and trust that you act with tact and kindness towards your peers and staff. Now, I trust that you all have came here knowing that you will be subjugated to a special kind of training in order to kill the Demons that have claimed war against us. You will be put through many trying times and tasks of varying difficulty, but fear not! For we will win this war, not by our own strength, but by the strength of our races united!" The crowds earlier anxiousness had faded as they roared in union, giving the Headmaster quite the smirk.

Soon after the little speech we were assigned to a team of ten, too big if you ask me, and were given the location of our rooms within the academy. I don't know if this was orchestrated by Kain or something but me Kabuto and Lyra were on the same team including 3 other males and 4 other females, making the team a balance of males and females. We engaged in little talking before we were instructed our first task, finding our rooms before midnight, even though it was already roughly 11 o'clock at night.

After about 10 minutes of following the map we had been handed, we noticed that we had passed the same building over three times, so I said screw it and jumped up a nearby building to gain a vantage point. We were looking for a house with stone walls and a type of red material for the roof, but all I saw were shimmering trees that glittered In the moonlight. Cursing under my breath, I jumped out from the tree and reported what I saw.

"Damn, well it might be an illusion, but how the hell are we going to find the place if it's surrounded by an illusion?" Kabuto muttered with his head in his palm.

"I-I can try to dispel the illusion..." a petite girl with strange purple hair, and light yellow eyes spoke out softly, requiring my to strain my ears to hear her.

"Well then do it already!" A dude with fiery red hair that spiked up and dark green eyes tapped his foot impatiently. Even though he was a big guy with muscles bigger than his head, I could tell he was weak.

"Hey man, shut the fuck up. We're trying our best to get out of here and if you don't like how we do it then go off on your own." I glared at the man, making him click his tongue and stand off to the side

"It would be a massive help if you could get rid of this illusion, can you try?" I asked the purple haired girl in as soft of a tone as I could. Her eyes practically lit up as she nodded her head and held her palm out before closing her eyes.

"Reality is but an illusion, and all illusions are reality. Bend, warp, and heed my call. Dispel!" The girls voice echoed through the dense forest as our surrounding faded, revealing that we were still back within the assembly hall.

Murmurs of confusion erupted as everyone realized that they had been under an illusion while we just walked back out of the door and made out way towards the location on the map. We had thought that it would be a massive building to house everyone in Northgate, but we came across a medium sized building with stairs that branched off into two sides of the living quarters upstairs. After further inspection we noticed that the house only had 10 rooms, with five on each side. I picked the room closest to the stairs on the right side of the house, which everyone referred to as the 'boys side' and made my ways downstairs after changing into more comfortable clothing. The only people downstairs were Lyra, the red haired asshole, and myself. Lyra and I started to talk about how unusual the whole place seemed while the redhead kept glaring at me the whole time.

One by one the rest came down from their rooms with Kabuto being the last one to come down. We got to know each other and everyone's elemental affinity. The boys side included myself, Kabuto, the redhead Kyrm Scarlet, a fire mage, an earth mage with brown hair and eyes named Adam Fulsh, and a lightning mage with dark blue hair and amethyst eyes named Verm Litros.

On the girls side was Lyra, then a white hair and blue eyed beauty named Senaris Raal who specializes in ice magic, the purple haired and yellow eyed illusion mage named Rin Nagasaki, a sound mage named Saya Anju with brown hair and eyes, and then there was an actual Elf named Elaris, no last name which is weird, who is a nature mage with green hair and strange golden eyes that felt like they could see right through you. All of the girls, with the exception of Lyra, were actually very beautiful in their own ways while Saya had a bit on an attitude problem, but it was actually very refreshing to see everyone getting to know each other and laughing.

But little did I know that the few years I was about to endure was going to be the worst and best time of my whole life, all wrapped up in a nice little bundle.