Special Chapter XIV - End of an Era (part 2)

After an hour, I flew towards the floating island in the middle of Xyphon. The headquarters is still empty, but I found someone waiting there.

It's… Veneo. He's just alone in the front yard, as if waiting.

I landed not too far from him and he turned his confused gaze at me.

"Rize… What just happened??"

"I healed the entire kingdom."

"Y-You did…?"

Veneo looked very shocked. The kingdom is incredibly large, and there are tens of thousands of people living here. For me to go around and heal them all in just one hour is… unbelievable.

"Well, believe it. I underwent evolution in just one day. I'm capable of that now."

I said arrogantly, and he still looked very shocked.

"Still… it's pretty hard to believe…"

For Veneo to be surprised this much, it means that what I just did is nothing small. 

I do understand the scale of how incredibly large my growth was, yet I don't feel that much surprised. I thought this was normal for me to grow insanely quick.

Right… I have become so used to myself growing so fast. I'm surprised I'm not pessimistic at this point, like wondering why I couldn't do more.

No, I don't feel like that at all. I'm proud, but I'm not pessimistic.

Is it… weird?

Surely it is, because Veneo just stared confusingly at me.

"In that case… should this be kept a secret?"

Veneo cleared his throat and turned around.

"Surely. People will start seeing you as a god if they know."

"Uhm… Wouldn't that be a good thing?"

He turned around again, staring at me with his annoyed face. I chuckled and waved my hand.

"Joking."

The two of us then left the front yard and headed down to the mages barracks at the bottom of the floating island. There, we can see a lot of people on the wide field, gathering.

The two of us landed and were immediately approached by a mage. The mage bowed before reporting.

"The healer has already finished, sir. But, she returned right away due to some circumstances."

Healer?

"It's Lezlia, if you're wondering."

Veneo said to me, and I immediately understood.

To heal the students, Veneo called in a powerful healer that can heal curses, just like me. He called in Lezlia, who is also a King tier healer.

I'm amazed at how Lezlia was able to heal everyone. There's so many students, and she was able to heal so many. King tier healing magic can be quite consuming.

I joined my friends on the field, leaving Veneo with his work. 

The evening goes by, and everyone remembers that night as the miracle night, where the stars fall from the skies and bless everyone on Xyphon.

Of course, the news reaches even the other kingdoms.

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.

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For the next few days, everyone outside Xyphon was very surprised when they heard how the entire Xyphon kingdom was cleansed. 

It was said that there was a poison outbreak that sourced from a famous water bottle company, and possibly every single person in the kingdom was affected.

But, due to the miracle that was dropped on the kingdom, nobody was even close to being harmed by the curse poison.

The people of Xyphon believed that this was the blessing from the goddess of restoration, Haelen. The other kingdoms didn't want to believe it, but they had no choice. Such an event was only possibly done by either a god or goddess that is capable of blessing an entire kingdom.

The ones behind the scene, such as a mage from the Magister rank as well as the owner of the company were captured and put on trial. The owner of the company was proven not guilty, but the Magister was sentenced to death for nearly poisoning an entire kingdom using curse magic.

The Magister insisted on not having his consciousness on his actions, but the kingdom had no one else to blame but him.

He was sentenced to death two days after the trial.

As for the miracle event, people still believed that it was done by the gods or goddesses.

However, they didn't know the real truth.

It was in fact done by a lazy student council vice president from a known academy.

The days went by, and the internship came to an end. Before ending, we had one last moment with the mages, as well as being with our instructor.

On the last day, after the mission, we returned to the mage headquarters. We landed on the front field, and we all turned to Roy who was our instructor.

"Well friends, looks like this is our goodbye."

Roy said to us, but nobody seemed to be caring. I turned to look at the faces of my teammates and chuckled.

"Should I spoil your identity to them-"

"No!! Do not!!"

Roy shouted loudly at me, which caused the others to look suspicious. He cleared his throat while I chuckled.

"T-Talk to me after everyone returns… Rize."

"Sure thing! Better have some meals in your office!"

I said the word office, and the others became even more suspicious. Roy turned around and hurriedly left us towards the HQ.

Behind me, I can sense some eyes staring at me.

"Identity?? Roy??"

Albert asked, and I shook my shoulders while giggling.

"Your fault for not noticing..."

I turned to Arfius and tilted my head. I grabbed Keira and Leo before flying off to the barracks with them. Arfius took Albert and followed behind me confusingly, and we headed to the barracks together.

After arriving, we meet up with our friends in the barracks while waiting for everyone to return from the mission.

At sundown, everyone has fully returned from their missions. The mages gathered the students again on the wide middle field for some last words.

Eaden, as usual, became the main speaker. He told us the details of our entire week of internship.

Out of seventy five teams that were formed, only six that couldn't get into the second tier. Which means, only six teams that are incapable of going into missions without supervision.

Thirty two teams couldn't advance to the third level, meaning these teams are incapable of heading into an actual danger at the same level as a mage's mission.

The rest, thirty seven teams were fully capable of heading into danger head first, alongside the professional mages as their teammates. In other words, level three.

Exactly fifty percent of the students were already capable of becoming professional mages already.

That is… a way larger number than what I had expected.

I thought it would just be ten or fifteen percent… Did they make the missions too easy?

That couldn't be it. Jericho and Manda were fighting dungeons, and I'm sure other teams also had similar missions.

Surely they made it too easy… surely.

No major injuries, Eaden announced. The worst to happen was during the water poisoning thing that happened during day three. So really, nothing bad has happened aside from that.

The culprit was executed, and the curse was cleansed. Everything really went correctly that day.

I'm still unsure as to what will happen to the assassins I fought that night, but it's not like I cared.

After the ceremony, we all returned to the academy.

I got promoted to student council president a little bit earlier than it should be, and time goes by.

Roy a.k.a. Veneo promoted me himself in front of everyone during a ceremony, and I think some of them boo-ed.

Before long, exams were already in front of our faces.

And… so is the end.

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The sound of bubbles echoed in the dark room.

Tubes, filled with what looks to be a blue liquid. Inside are individuals with multiple cables connecting them.

Large… weird looking individuals.

Due to the dim lighting, it is impossible to see the individuals inside the tubes. But, from just looking at the silhouettes, it's clear that these are not normal humans.

From just seeing the silhouettes, a grin formed on the face of a man wearing a lab coat.

"Doctor Besmar."

A call came from behind him, but the doctor is still not moving.

"The students have returned to the academy."

The voice behind him reported, but the doctor chuckled.

"I see… Thank you for telling me."

The sound of footsteps was heard again, showing that the owner of the voice has left the room.

The doctor walked forward, and he placed his hand on the glass of the large tube.

"I still can't believe a mere student was able to take down so many of my assassins… Forget it, it's probably that brat Julius's son. I am still very concerned as to how my curse plan failed…"

His eyes stared deep into the tube in front of him. The silhouette inside the tube slowly moves around, and a hint of an eye can be seen coming.

The eye of a dragon.

"But… at least I found the answers I needed… for my true plan."

The doctor grinned widely, and he slowly giggled.

That same giggle slowly turned louder, and burst into laughter. The room was dark, and there was nobody else aside from him, stacks of books, machines…

And the mutated beings inside the tubes.

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End of Cursed Crisis Special Season.

To Be Continued on The Fifth Season