Chapter 1- World of Magic
The leaves that blanketed the ground were a beautiful golden color, just like my mom's hair. A soft breeze that blew through let out a whistle of wind that resembled the chorus of angels. A dying sunlight peeked from in between the gold and red leaves of the skyscraper like trees. The scene was like something you'd find in a photo album.
Until the blood. So dark that it bordered on black, the blood washed over the ground, staining the legs of the paints I wore.
It was more than just a little warm, in fact it was hot. So hot that steam rose from the ground into the air.
"This is so disgusting." A voice from next to me said. I looked to the right to see my sister Kami standing next to me. The blood had splashed onto her arms and face. She looked ready to throw up the contents of this morning's breakfast all over me. I didn't blame her though.
The corpse behind her wasn't pleasant to look at.
She was young. Long hair that could have been any color, but now was completely dampened by the dirt that stuck to it. Her glassy brown eyes seemed to stare directly through my body. She could be no more than seventeen. Judging by what she wore, the dark colors, she might have been a spy of some sort. Maybe she was beautiful at one point.
It was hard to tell, considering we were only looking at ½ of her body.
There were massive bite marks that covered the edge of where she had been ripped in half. There were no organs, and the blood had long dried, suggesting this had taken place a long while ago.
"I wonder why it didn't eat her whole." I muttered to myself. I turned around to face the object of my speculation. I held out my had, which had a flame burning in it. A makeshift light source, to fight off the dark of the setting sun.
A monster. With white fur marred and scarred by flames, and chunks of ice piercing its coat. The creature had its mouth open in one final death scream. Its body was covered in brutal scars.
"Frankly, I don't know, and despite it being rude, I don't really care. Can we just leave, before more come?" Kami grabbed my shoulder, sending a wave of cold throughout my entire body. That snapped me out of my thoughts, but as I turn to face he-
"ROOAAAAAAAAR!" I snapped my head to the direction of the sound. Multiple pairs of glowing red eyes were rapidly approaching.
"You see! I told you this would happen!" Kami shouted. I looked up. The sun wasn't low, but instead, the trees were so tall and closely bunched together that it made it seem as if the sun had set.
I snuffed the light out. "Seriously Raiden?" My sister asked incredulously. I ignored her. Instead, I closed my eyes, and honed in my mana sense.
In seconds, a world of brilliantly bright colors filled the dark void. Mana signatures. Nearly everything living had mana, unless you were a non-mage.
Using that, I was able to create a colorful map of this entire forest. And more importantly, the four beasts rapidly approach us.
They were crashing through the brush at high speeds, slamming into trees, each other, and tripping over stray branches.
They couldn't see well without the light.
Concentrating mana, I was going to call out to my sister when she cut me off.
"I know! Same as always."
I felt a massive surge of mana next to me, as the temperature dropped rapidly. Very quickly, it reached subzero temperatures, and through my mana sense I could see the ground freezing.
I looked at her with a bit of pride, before taking the expression off my face immediately. Even if she couldn't see my face I'd rather not risk it.
The creatures crashed into the clearing that we stood in, and at that moment we both acted.
Kami created multiple pillars of ice that she sent flying straight at the group of creatures. I began to charge mana, preparing to use a magic sequence.
"Tell me, did we really have to cut across this forest? You do know why this place exists right?" Kami asked, as she simultaneously, controlled pillars of ice, in order to fend off the beast. The beasts slashed and attacked wildly, attempting to fend off these inanimate chunks of ice.
"Enlighten me." I replied dryly. I began to prepare my spells. A flame spell, combined with a wind spell. On top of that combination, I layered an absorption spell. As I did all of this, lines flashed through my brain. Like the code of computers. All spells had an activation sequence. My brain processed that sequence, before executing the command, and performing the spell.
Like the 1's and 0's of computers, that was the basis of magic. Spells and sequences were all performed just like you'd code a computer.
At that moment, a beast lunged at me, however it was grabbed by Kami's ice, which had now transformed into the head of a dragon. The ice thrashed the creature around, before slamming it into the ground mercilessly. Dust and leaves were kicked up.
"This is a grand magic academy. This place is the magic forest that surrounds the academy. It's a defense mechanism. Its entire purpose is to ward off invaders, in tangent with the academy's impenetrable barrier."
Kami flicked her hand and icicles began to rain from the sky. "All of this is done to hide the magic academy away from the public, as well as enemies. As a war academy, it might as well be as important as the imperial palace. So I guess my point is, why the hell would we go through the back door, specifically meant to catch and kill enemies, instead of the front door!" As Kami shouted that last part out, she closed her fist, and the head of one of the monsters popped like a balloon.
Blood would have drenched us, however she created a shelter out of her ice. Now there were only three. I had finally finished charging my spell. I held out my hand.
"You should know better than anyone Kami. As Chisaki, we are not the type to go through front doors." I said, as I released the spell, letting a torrent of burning hot flames wash over the creatures.
"HUGHUGHGUGUHGUGUAGUA!" They began to scream as the flames hot enough to melt metal came into contact with their bodies.
Suddenly the forest was lit up with the lights of the flames, and I got a better look at those creatures. They were like polar bears, that had been sized up multiple times, until they were the size of a small house.
They were covered in scars that glowed brightly from the mana in their bodies.
They were abnormalities, created when you expose animals to too much mana.
Magical beasts were what they were called.
As the beast thrashed in agony, they began to charge up magical spells and fire them wildly into the forest.
However the flames that I had layered with an absorption spell absorbed the blasts of magic, and converted them into power. ONly growing stronger and burning hotter.
Soon, hell erupted in front of me. Flames were so strong that they made me sweat from where I stood. They reached into the sky, as if they were trying to grab the fading sun.
The screams and shrieks of the beasts that were burning echoed through the forest. They cry of the dead.
My sister shivered.
I didn't flinch.
Closing my fists, I activated the wind spell. "Hallowed wind scythe."
Suddenly a massive vortex of wind killed the flames, and a massive blast erupted through the forces, displacing leaves in the massive wind storm that followed.
When the wind cleared, there was nothing left in the clearing.
Except for the chard ground and the ice shelter me and Kami stood in.
We stood in silence for a few moments.
"Did you think we'd be killed or something? Dude, they're more likely to kill us if we go through the back entrance, which-may i remind you-is made to stop armies!"
I sighed, desperately wishing for something to block out the nagging of my sisters.
"We didn't know if the information that those people told us could be trusted." At that, my sister was finally silenced. "With the state everything is in right now, non-mages would be happy to see us all burn in hell."
"That exact logic is why we shouldn't have come through here either. The world is at war. We're going to a war academy. We'll be lucky if we don't lose our lives out here." Kami replied. She had a point. It was a constant never ending war between mages and non mages. The winner was always shifting. That very war and conflict shifted societies balances today. Even if everyone higher up swore up and down that relations had gotten better.
No matter how they tried to paint it, there could never be peace between those who could wield mana, and those who couldn't.
"I won't let that happen." I said with a serious face. "I won't fail my mission and you aren't going to get hurt."
That much I could guarantee. I wouldn't fail my mission.
I wouldn't fail my one purpose. Not again. Not like back then.
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It took the entire night to reach the magic academy.
Theta Magic Academy was as large as a castle and just as grand as one as well. Spiraling peaks and staircases that seemed to touch the sky. Large battlements surround the Academy. Diamonds and rubies were placed all around the castle, rising peaks and battlements. The Academy was a mixture of white, striped with gold, sparkling with Jewels, and the peaks of the building-colored red.
Slowly, we both began to walk along the long winding path that led to the back entrance of Theta magic academy.
The path was sprinkled with beautiful Tsubaki flowers. It was a breather to get out of that cramped forest, with trees so tall that it made morning sunlight impossible to see. I seriously hoped that we wouldn't be late.
"So we actually made it. Without immediately being killed." Kami said. She sounded more shocked than she was actually letting on. "That's nice, but what the hell are you planning to do about that barrier? You know-the impenetrable one?'
I stretched my hands wide, yawning. "You speak like I'm not infamously known for always having a plan."
She scoffed. "That's news to me." As she spoke, she lightly tapped my arm.
"Really? It's hard to miss greatness when it's right in front of you." As I said this, I nodded. I sent her a signal. She stopped, noticing that her shoes were untied.
Kneeling down, I began to tie her shoes for her. "Allow me. After all, you wouldn't want to get this nice dress dirty." I flattered her, all the while watching the spot's behind us. We were being stalked.
"How chivalrous. If only you could actually muster the courage to talk to real girls." I threw Kami a glare.
That was a completely unnecessary shot.
As Kami spoke, she set up a trap using faint ice magic. As I finished tying her shoe, I nodded to her.
As soon as I stood up, I threw a stick I had picked up from the ground into the air. I had imbued it with mana.
The stick flew by, curving to the right. That was the clue I needed to find them. Holding my hand out, I cancelled the concealment spell, and at the same time, someone dashed at me.
They were wearing all black. I was already prepared for the attack, and I was planning to bind them with ground magic, however they disappeared.
Their mana signature reappeared behind me. They moved so fast that I seriously doubted that it was just their movement speed.
Is he using m-
As I turned around, forming a blade of pure mana in my hands, I saw them pulling out a gun from their trench coat.
My blade stopped inches away from his neck, and he pressed his gun to my head.
We stared at each other. He was tall, and he wore sunglasses. He had the same school uniform as me, a white and blue blazer. He had a special emblem on his, a sort of shield.
"Put your weapons down. And tell your friend to release her magic."
I looked down at the ground, where I could see Kami's ice magic attached to his legs, holding him down.
I held my hand. "Kami, release it."
"Raiden! Bu-" I shook my head, shutting down her argument.
She released her spell, however I did not drop my weapon.
"I assume you're the defense force captain?" I said, eyeing the shield emblem on his sleeve.
"You're not the one asking questions here." He said. "What is your goal here? Scouting? Information? Whatever it is,you are very dumb for coming this far out. " His voice was no nonsense. I couldn't see his eyes behind the dark tint of his sunglasses, however I could feel his hateful gaze burning at me.
I gestured to Kami, and she pulled out both of our ID's from her pocket. "As you can see, we are students of this magic academy." He eyed the ID's closely.
"And yet, I can't seem to believe that it's the truth. Any true student of Theta magic academy would have been sent something with their admission letters. If you didn't receive it, you didn't get an admission letter. Capiche?"
There was no joking tone in his voice.
That happened to be the problem. We got our admission letters, but none of whatever item this guy was talking about.
"You do know that this isn't the time for dumb brakes right? The kind of situation we're in. This academy isn't some sort of game!"
"We know that better than anyone. The world is on the verge of war. Not just with non-mages, but also with other continents. So do you really think we'd be stupid enough to make a joke like this?"
I attempted to plead to his rationality. He was going to say something else, when suddenly someone spoke from behind him.
"Yuri Hamani. Raiden Chisaki. Lower your weapons." Hearing my name spoken in such a serious tone, I immediately lowered my weapons, and Yuri did the same.
I turned my head to see a girl. She was pretty, with long black hair. She wore a dress, along with a cropped blazer, all in the colors white and blue. Small snowflake designs adorned the bottom of her dress.
She had a friendly smile on her face. But under her eyes, I could see dark circles. Despite the liveliness in her figure, there was also fatigue.
"Sui-President." Yuri said, as he lowered himself into a bow.
Noticing his actions, me and Kami moved to do the same when Suijin stopped us.
"No need. In this school, status isn't something you have to bow to. I truly believe that everyone deserves to stand on equal footing." As Suijin said these words, Yuri walked to her side. "I am Suijin Hajimoto, Student council president. It's my pleasure to meet you."
As she said this, me and Kami responded in kind.
"That being said, I'm truly sorry for the mix-up. It seems there was an error in your admission letters, leaving you with no way to get her safely. And yet you still managed to cross the magic forest and end up unscathed. At the very least, I should introduce you to the school, and give you a personal tour."
I was just about to say that it wasn't necessary, however Suijin's gaze stopped me.
"Hopefully, we can all get along during the tour." She tossed a chilling gaze at Yuri and me.
I nodded. "It'd be our honor madam president."
As Suijin turned around to lead us into the magic academy, she said
"And drop the president, please."