Hubert...

The office, all the way from its wall into the paper that sat on the headmaster's table, twitched unnaturally, expanding and shrinking like a flexible box made of rubber. Twisting like a piece of wet cloth being wrung before untwisting itself.

His eyes widened upon hearing the title of the person who claimed herself as Tianna. Though confusion had already overwritten any other feeling as his eyes darted around the strange, moving room.

He challenged the headmaster, but he wasn't planning to go down without a fight after all. It was simply the adrenaline and survival instinct that kept him up, kicking up.

Yet as he stood, feeling his entire body from the tip of his finger, until the organs in him—the liver, heart, lungs, and eyes—followed the strange movement of the room. He knew he was mere dust in the weird, tight grasp of the headmaster.

"You dare challenge me with that meager talent of yours?" Tianna's voice came from all over the corners of the place. It was like a loud bell, echoing and ringing directly into his ear.

Hubert's muscles sprung forward. His body was like a soft toy being pressed repeatedly as he rushed to the chair. Ignoring the loud ringing and high pitched voice of the headmaster ringing in his ears.

"Huh?" the headmaster hump could be heard, smug, almost surprised.

Then Hubert leapt forward, over the table of the piling paperwork. Head first, his hands directed at the office chair, tackling it.

Thud

Bruck!

"What?" he asked midair, confused.

Hubert greeted the ground with his nose, a loud thud accompanied his fall. Behind him, the chair crumbled, disintegrating, into the ground upon Hubert's violent tackle.

He quickly got up despite the blunt pain in his reddened nose.

The situation was disorienting, the slightest of his fingers barely touched a part of the chair before it crumbled like an unnailed structure. There was almost no resistance, not from the frame nor from the person sitting there.

Turning around, Hubert peered into the cloud of dust made from the debris of the chair. Yet, not a single silhouette could be seen in it. He was met with emptiness.

"You thought I was there all along? Well, you thought wrong," the headmaster said, her voice ringing in Hubert's ears like before.

Then a sliver of silver approached from the right corner of his eyes, gleaming and revealed by the moonlight of the window behind him. 

Hubert turned right. Nothing

Then the same sliver approached from the left. He turned left.

Nothing.

"Go to sleep," her voice rang again.

Thud.

From behind, the same sliver knocked him out, accompanied by a damped, dull sound.

His hearings numbed, and his sense of touch disappeared. Every single strand of his muscles, letting out the remnant of their strength. His consciousness fading out.

"Whaaaa…" the last of his words, escaped from his soft and limp lips.

Then the color of the floor greeted his blurry vision.

—

His eyes sprung open, greeted by the usual darkness of his subconsciousness and mana mind.

"Is this my mana mind?" he asked himself, looking around, expecting to stand on the ground while the stream of water greeted him, the breeze of wind softly hitting his place and the sun warming him.

Yet there was nothing, complete darkness.

The darkness was crippling and cold, void and infinite, unending and borderless. It was much darker than the one he despised and was familiar with. It was so much darker that he felt the emptiness gripping on him tightly, not letting him go.

"Hubert," a wavy and faint voice called from the far darkness. Like being carried by emptiness.

"Who?" Hubert looked around, searching for the source of the voice.

"Hubert…" the voice got stronger, as if approaching.

"Reveal yourself!" Hubert demanded, searching for the coming of the source. His feet planted in the darkness, ready to fight once again against the endless trouble and enemies that came and will for him.

"HUBERT!" the voice sounded once again, this time, like the roar of a lion beside his ear. Demonically calling and crying in a high pitched, shrieking voice.

Hubert covered his ears with his fingers as it was leaking out blood, so much that it escaped through the gaps of his fingers and onto the darkness below him, disappearing. His eyes closed, enduring the sharp and jolting pain.

Step

A sound came to him, piercing through and overwriting the ringing sound. His eyes opened, in misery.

Step

The sound approached, but he knew not how close it was. His eyes, curious, looking up.

Step

The sound continued. His face rose.

Step

His eyes searched, peering into the darkness, once again.

"Who are you…?" he said, as clearly as he could, despite the misery he was in.

The sound stopped coming. The source was near.

"Hubert…" the voice called. It was distinct, sharply contrasting from the previous devilish symphony. It was soft, and loving, and welcoming, and calming and relaxing and refreshing.

The ringing voice in his ears was nowhere to be heard.

Hubert looked up. There was nothing but he knew there was something. His lips moved, wanting to greet, but his words were stuck in his throat. Yet, he felt safe near the invisible being.

"My servant… Trust," the voice said.

Tears came out of his eyes, not of frustration, but of exhaustion, as if all the weight on himself, his shoulders and soul and spirit was lifted up. He sought refuge from the merciless and torturous world and he knew he found the place he desired.

"Are you-" he was about to ask, but was interrupted.

"Shh…" the voice hushed.

He nodded and closed his eyes, placing his head on the once hated and despised void, now like a softness that welcomed him. Slowly and gradually, he became moveless, letting go of all his weight as the void consumed him.

—

"Huh, however much his talent was, he's just like a speck of dust in the headmaster's presence," Xillian spoke, his tone praising, walking over the fine and untouched office of the headmaster, making his way to the unconscious Hubert.

"Be quiet, Xillian," Marcus responded, his voice coarse and commanding, standing, guarding the door that his back faced. His bald and shiny head, reflective of the light produced by the glass chandelier.

"Finally, I can go back to my usual research," June said, her voice relieved, standing near the library, looking at the collections of books.

"Huh, didn't you enjoy this fine specimen of a man?" Veronica asked, her eyes peered over, her eyes fixed at Hubert, a slight grin appeared on her face. She quickly took an inhale from her smoking pipe.

Haaa

Exhaling the smoke, her blowing was the only sound in the silent room. The headmaster, owner and master of the office, nowhere to be seen.

"Alright, the last thing…" Xillian muttered, continuing on his duty.

Clink

Clank

The sound of metal meeting metal echoed through the room, his hand reaching over his back pocket. Then he pulled out a restraining device, a pair of handcuffs that glowed bright white in the lit up room.

Xillian then crouched down and grabbed Hubert's left gloved hand.

"Gloved? Weird," Xillian muttered, the other seemingly noticed his curiosity.

"What is it?" June called, walking over to him using her short steps, like a jumping bunny.

"Nothing, but…" Xillian said, hesitated. The only thing he needed to do was to put the handcuffs on Hubert's wrist and his duty was done, but he didn't.

The handcuffs clinked again as Xillian placed them on the tan marble floor. Then, as curiosity took hold of him, he held Hubert's gloved hand and raised it highly.

Veronica and Marcus, noticing the slowness, stepped forward.

"Xillian, be quick," Marcus said, ordering, as he looked on what was happening.

"Yeah, yeah, just let me see what's in here," Xillian dismissed Marcus's words, then he placed the tip of his fingers on the base of Hubert's gloved hand.

As he was about to pull it up, revealing what was hidden, a slight breeze of wind interrupted him. Xillian knew the weird nature of the breeze, a breeze in a tightly closed place appearing out of nowhere.

The rest of the hall masters noticed too.

"Prepare to fight, someone is coming,"

Veronica dropped her smoking pipe on the ground and grabbed a sword out of nowhere.

Marcus readied his fist, bumping them together, his gaze determining of beating any opponent that came to them.

June pulled out a teaching wand, pointing it to the window like a seasoned rapier fighter.

"No…" Xillian said, his tone in disbelief.

"What do you mean, no? Bring that boy back here so it doesn't harm him," Marcus shouted, slightly agitated at Xillian's slowness.

"It's not coming from outside," Xillian revealed.

"Then, where is it coming from?" the bad-tempered Marcus barked once again, Veronica and June heeding no mind to his aggressive nature.

"Its from him," Xillian said, dropping Hubert's hand to the ground, joining the lines of the other hall masters.

The breeze became stronger and more devastating. Once it was like a refreshing calm breeze, the second it became a storm, stirring up and scattering the piling paperworks once again.

Then the wind, rotating, combined into a single speck. Behind the wind, Hubert's eyes opened, glowing with a mix of color, like a rainbow.

WHOOSH!

The wind spread outward, blowing into every direction. The impact was so strong that it blew the hall masters away, bashing them against the papered wall.

Hubert rose from behind the office desk, levitating. It was clear for all to see, his eyes glowed black.