《The Magi Magic Games》


 Ch.1 Wake Up!

    ¡°Master, it¡¯s time to wake up! You can¡¯t afford to be late for the opening ceremony.¡± A voice yelled in my ear.


    I opened my eyes to see the floating body of a girl staring at me. No, I¡¯m not joking. There was a floating body above me. Normally, people would¡¯ve yelled ghost and ran off but, I¡¯m not your average normal person, far from it. I¡¯m a Prophet, a person who can use Mana in the form of Magic. That floating girl is in fact, a result of Magic. My father was a person who could you spiritual Magic. So he created Tangela, that spirit floating above me as a personal servant of sorts for my 12<sup>th</sup> birthday. Although, we¡¯ve been more buddies, than master and servant. I threw her a pillow and went back to sleep.


    ¡°Five more minutes.¡±


    The pillow smacked her right in the face. Taking it in her hands, she placed it on the ground and pulled off the blankets of my bed.


    ¡°Master get up now!¡±


    ¡°Fine fine, jeez I was joking. Also, please stop calling me master. Tangela we¡¯ve been over this a million times.¡±


    ¡°Very well Ma- Elenore. I¡¯ll be downstairs making you your breakfast in the kitchen. Please get ready for school in the meantime.¡± She then vanished through the floor of my room.


    I dragged my half-asleep self to my wardrobe to get changed. I put on my new school uniform: White jeans and a white shirt. I took all the remaining uniforms and shoved them in a suitcase. I looked myself in the mirror and gave a smile. My name is Elenore Magnus, I¡¯m currently 17 years old and this is going to be my first year at my new school: Golden Sierra Mana academy. Like I said before, I¡¯m a Prophet, someone who can use Magic because of the Stigma in our bodies, a mutated D.N.A strand that allows Prophets like me to wield Mana in the form of Magic. There are a lot of different types of magic users, ranging from conjurers to necromancers to elementals to enchanters and more! Personally, I¡¯m a Chaoser, which is kind of a rare honor. These types of magic users are quite rare and extremely powerful. Unlike ordinary Prophets, Chaosers, can draw their magic from the Chaos Essence, which basically makes up the entirety of the universe. This allows me to use magic from other arts, some I¡¯m a jack of all trades type of girl. Anyway, I stared into the mirror, straightening my uniform, brushing my ash gray hair to get rid of the knots, due to my sleep. My golden eyes still had some sleep induced fog in them, making me miss the comforts of my bed, but they started to sparkle. I finished up, picked up my suitcase and gave my room one last look. I wouldn¡¯t sleep in here for three years.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    As I was walking down the stairs, the sweet, sweet smell of pancakes and bacon hit me like a bullet. I rushed down the last couple of stairs, dashing into the kitchen, where Tangela had just finished placing the food on the table. As we sat down, we silently glared at each other, then our plates, then each other. It was on! We always did this in the morning, seeing who could finish their plate first. As soon as the oven beeped, she and I started to eat like animals. At first, it was shocking to find out that spirits can still eat even though they¡¯re, you know, dead. Since I found that out when I was 12, we¡¯ve always had these eating contests. I took my last bite, slamming my fork onto the plate, pumping my fists into the air.


    ¡°I did it! I won!¡± I yelled with a mouthful of food still lodged in my mouth.


    Tangela was finishing her last bite and immediately pouted.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe I lost! I gave you extra food and everything so I could win!¡±


    ¡°You even cheated? Cheating won¡¯t make you win Tan.¡±


    She simply giggled. ¡°Well, I learn from you Elenore.¡±


    She wasn¡¯t wrong. In the past, when I was younger I had the habit of cheating in contests since Tan would normally win the majority of them.


    ¡°So you¡¯ll be accompanying and staying with me when I¡¯m at school Tan?¡± I asked while placing the dishes in the dishwasher.


    ¡°You know it! But don¡¯t expect me to help you cheat on exams.¡±


    ¡°I know that.¡±


    When all was done, we went outside the house. We stared at it for a while, remembering the warm memories we shared.


    ¡°Goodbye mom, goodbye dad, I¡¯ll make you guys proud.¡±


    And I left.

 Ch.2 Attention Please!

    Along with all the new students, we were gathered and seated in the auditorium. On the stage, there was a podium with a microphone attached to it. Further back, stood two boys and two girls, with hands behind their backs staring forward. A young girl walked up to the podium.


    She tapped on the microphone, causing the speakers to blare.


    ¡°My I have your attention please?¡± She asked politely. We all fell silent.


    ¡°Thank you for your cooperation. My name is Eve Von Wolfe; I am the current student body president, with the student council right behind me. With all our heart, we welcome you all to Golden Sierra Mana academy!¡±


    A huge uproar of applause followed her comment. Eve patiently waited till we had finished and went quiet again.


    ¡°Now, as you all should know by now why you are here. You¡¯ve all been chosen by the Beings, to be born with a mutated strand of D.N.A called Stigma. This allows us to harness and use Mana in the form of Magic. We are thus called Prophets. It¡¯s the job of the various academies across Vextel to teach us how to master your arts and prepare us for the annual Magi Magic Games, which pits the students of every academy to fight against each other.¡±


    She gave pause before continuing.


    ¡°The winners are then sent to the Zone, to represent their planet in the Zone Games against Craynax, Skyria, and Oeria in honor of the Beings. The winner gets their deepest desire granted. Vextel has won the Zone Games a total of five times, two which came from this very school!¡±


    There was more applause from us. She raised her hand for silence.


    ¡°Now then, all of you will be divided into groups for homeroom. You will be escorted to your class by your teachers. Also, first and second-year students are placed in the same classes. Only when you become third-year students you will have your own classes with your own year. Now, I hope you find your experience here at Golden Sierra to be awesome!¡±


    With that, she and the student council bowed and left the stage.


    I was put in class 1-A. to my surprise, the student body president Eve was a second-year student! Plus she sat beside me! I got a good look at her in the gym, but up closed she looked stunning. She had fiery red hair, with piercing icy blue eyes. My gazing of Eve was interrupted by the homeroom teacher, a man named Albert Collins, who couldn¡¯t have been more than 30 years old.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    ¡°Class will now begin. Before we get to introductions, I¡¯ll explain to you what ranks and grades are, starting with ranks.¡± He stated.


    Behind him, a holographic pyramid hierarchy chart with six slots appeared on the board. They were labeled from E at the bottom, to S at the top.


    ¡°Rankings are school standings, determined by duels and team fights. So, during your stay here at Golden Sierra, your ranking is going to fluctuate a lot, constantly going up and down. Also, the powerfulness of your magic will help determine your ranking. For example, someone with an S rank means they¡¯ve won most of their fights and are the best of the best.¡±


    ¡°What about grades then?¡± A student asked.


    ¡°I was getting to that. Grades are what are used to measure the rarity of your magic. It has four grades; fourth being the most common type of magic-users and the first being the rarest. In the fourth grade, you can see witches, wizards, and alchemists to name a few. In the third, there are Rune spellers, Enchanters etc. In second we have people like; Necromancers, Forbidden magic-users, spiritualists. Finally, at first there are only two: Diviners and Chaosers.¡±


    He paused to let us consume this information, as some of the more nerdy people were scribbling down notes.


    ¡°Now ranking and grades are completely separate and independent categories. So in other words, you could be a grade three magic-user, but be in the top ten students or vice versa.¡±


    He proceeded to name all of us, where we were instructed to stand up, name ourselves and state what kind of magic user we were. He picked up the class list and randomly choose people. There were quite a few witches, wizards and alchemists. I saw some conjurers, elementalists, necromancers and even an illusionist.


    ¡°Eve Von Wolfe!¡± Our teacher called out.


    Eve rose from her seat to address the class.


    ¡°Hello again everyone. I¡¯m Eve Von Wolfe and I¡¯m a Forbidden arts-user.¡± Eve sat back down.


    I heard some people give off some whistles, with very good reasons. Prophets who use forbidden magic are quite powerful, hell the art could be a grade one magic if it didn¡¯t put a lot of mental and physical weight on its user after long periods of usage.


    Mr. Collins continued naming students. I saw some rune casters, a spiritualist like my dad, but mostly there were the more common types. Finally, my name was called out. I rose from my seat.


    ¡°Hello everybody, it¡¯s a real pleasure to meet all of you. My name is Elenore Magnus, and I am a Chaoser.¡±


    There was a collected gasp from the entire class, including the teacher.¡±


    ¡°Did I hear right? She¡¯s a Chaoser?¡± someone said.


    ¡°No way!¡± cried another.


    The teacher asked for silence once more, but I could feel people staring at me. I tried to ignore them because frankly, it was bothering me.


    The intercom crackled to life at that moment. ¡°Students Elenore Magnus and Celestial Styx please report to the headmistress¡¯ office immediately.¡±


    Huh? Was I already being called down to the headmistress¡¯ office? I felt this had to do with the ¡°incident¡± from ten years ago. I rose back out of my seat, sighing as I did. While walking to leave the class, I could feel everybody¡¯s laser accurate eyes burning through me, making me shiver. I walked down the halls, occasionally asking for directions from fellow students in the halls. When I finally reached the office, I was about to knock on the door, but they burst open and I got bear-hugged to the ground by someone.

 Ch.3 Long Time no See!

    I stood there dumbfounded, as a girl tightly snuggled her face into my chest. After what seemed like hours, this girl finally released her hold on me. As soon as she did, I took a few steps back. Now, I don¡¯t know about you, but I¡¯m not too fond of being hugged by total strangers.


    ¡°You two, please come in.¡± someone who I guessed was the headmistress called out.


    I entered the office, the girl tailing close behind me. The headmistress was sitting behind her desk, on one of those huge reclining chairs. She wore round glasses on the tip of her nose. Her brown hair was tied back into a ponytail. Her dull, docile gray eyes looked at us. She beckoned with a wave of her hand for us to sit, so we did. I looked around the office a bit. It was nothing spectacular. The desk had tons of paperwork, large windows with red drapes that overlooked the school¡¯s courtyard. The office had many bookcases, filled to the brim with books.


    ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to finally meet you Elenore Magnus. I¡¯ve been looking forward to this day.¡±


    ¡°You have?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Of course, your father is Orion Magnus? The legendary spiritualist?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°Well, he and I got way back, when we both attended this academy. Now, the reason I called you here is because of this transfer student.¡± She explained, waving at the other girl.


    I looked at her, and she smiled and happily waved at me.


    ¡°Miss. Celestia Styx here, transferred from Stormy Coast Institute on Craynax. When I had asked who she wanted as a guide and dorm-mate, she insisted on you I particular.¡±


    I turned to face this girl, who goes by the name of Celestia. I extended my hand out for a handshake.


    ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you Celestia. I¡¯m honored that you wanted me as a guide, but I¡¯m only a first year. There are people who know the grounds way more than I do.¡±


    Celestia made a face, which resembled pouting. I got extremely confused.


    ¡°You really don¡¯t remember me El? Poo, I¡¯m disappointed in you.¡±


    I stared at her. Her bombshell blond hair, occasionally glittering when the sun¡¯s rays hit her hair. Her violet eyes sparkled like they were gemstones. Suddenly, the name El finally clicked into place. I could almost imagine her hair getting shorter, having a darker tone, her eyes grew much brighter.


    ¡°Cel? Is that you?¡± I asked, flabbergasted.


    She happily nodded.


    I embraced her in a tight hug. ¡°You¡¯ve grown so much over the last four years! It¡¯s so good to see you again!¡±


    The headmistress looked at us with keen interest.


    ¡°You two know each other?¡± she asked. We nodded enthusiastically. ¡°Well, that makes introductions much easier now doesn¡¯t it? Now in the Magi Magic Games, you participate in teams of two. Same rules follow for the Zone Games. Because of this, students are asked to form a team with another partner by the end of the week. So I¡¯ve taken the opportunity and made you two dorm-mates, as well as partners. Looking at your arts, I believe you two are a perfect match.¡±Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    It was the end of the day, all classes were finished. Every student started to head for the dormitories. The boys headed to the boy¡¯s dormitories, while we girls headed to the girl¡¯s dormitories. My room was on the fifth floor, along with Celestia. Entering the room, Cel threw her suitcase and herself along with it on the neared bed.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe that I was able to see you again! The Beings must have blessed us! We need to catch up on all the lost time!¡± she exclaimed.


    I happily nodded. Celestia and I have been friends for practically ever. We met when we were both four years old at a park and we instantly became friends. We became so close that we could have been considered family, except for the fact that we looked nothing alike. Then her family had to move to Craynax four years ago, due to her father¡¯s research. We had promised to see each other again one day, but my life took a sucky, unpleasant turn. My mother lost her life to an unknown illness. When I was 7, the ¡°incident¡± happened, which resulted in the loss of my brother. My father had trouble coping with all of this. He committed suicide shortly after he gave me Tangela. So I sorta forgot the promise I made to Cel.


    Celestia sat up and looked at me with a deadly serious look in her eyes. ¡°But I don¡¯t blame you for forgetting our promise El. These past years must¡¯ve been hard for you. Mom and dad say that they accept you into the family with open arms.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, Cel.¡± I said, hugging her. ¡°How was life on Craynax?¡±


    Her eyes burst open with excitement like they always did when she had something she couldn¡¯t wait to talk about.


    ¡°Life there is mind-blowingly awesome! Craynax is far more technologically advanced than any other planet! They have actual robots serving in the military. Right now, the planet is trying to make the first ever robot that can wield magic!¡±


    ¡°Damn, that sounds amazing! But alas, I have no need for a droid, my young Cel.¡± I added.


    Celestia looked confused, which made sense, as she doesn¡¯t know about Tangela. So I decided to introduce them to each other. I snapped my fingers and the ghostly figure of Tangela materialized in front of me.


    ¡°Surprise!¡± Tan happily exclaimed.


    Cel, clearly surprised, yelled ghost and promptly fell off the bed. Tan and I immediately started laughing. Cel got back onto the bed with a wavering smile on her face.


    ¡°This is Tangela¡± I said pointing at Tangela. ¡°She¡¯s my very own spirit, a parting gift from father. Tangela, this is Celestia, my childhood friend.¡±


    ¡°How long has she been with us?¡± Cel asked.


    ¡°Since the morning, she follows me everywhere, just not always visible,¡± I answered.


    Tangela gracefully bowed in front of the stunned Cel.


    ¡°Hi there Celestia! It¡¯s always a pleasure to meet a friend of the young mistress.¡±


    ¡°Stop calling me that Tangela!¡± I whined.


    Tangela started giggling and Cel chuckled. I simply smiled. Looks like we would all be good friends. Without warning, Tan snapped into work mode, and put away all of our clothing into dressers and placed our suitcases.


    ¡°Hey Cel.¡±


    ¡°What is it El?¡±


    ¡°Well, as you know I¡¯m a Chaoser, but I haven¡¯t got the slightest clue on what your art is.¡±


    Celestia grinned, extending her palms. One of them caught fire, while the other one froze! Celestia was an elementalist. Elementalists were a third-grade magic-user since they could only master one type of element. But Celestia seemed able to use two and maybe more elements, meaning she could probably go toe to toe with second-grade class users by herself.


    ¡°I never knew Elementalists could use more than one element.¡± I proclaimed.


    ¡°Normally we can¡¯t.¡± Celestia started, returning her hands to normal. ¡°But I was born with more than just one Stigma, four to be precise. So since I¡¯m an Elementalist, I can use four elements instead of one. I can use fire, electricity, ice and wind.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s pretty sick.¡±


    Cel nodded. We decided to go clean ourselves up before going to bed. Surprisingly, the bathroom was pretty big, and so was the tub, so we took a bath together like we did when we were kids. We sat in the warm bath and I instantly felt better, all of my stress being washed away.


    I closed my eyes, and before I could open them, I felt hands on my chest.


    ¡°What are you doing?!¡± I exclaimed.


    ¡°Did these babies grow while I was gone? Dam.¡± Cel said, her voice filled with humor as she checked me out.


    ¡°Why you!¡± I yelled.


    I pushed her hand away from me, and jumped on Celestia, tickling her.


    We continued to thrash and play together. We finished washing up and went to bed early. Tomorrow was going to be exciting and eye-opening. Life was starting to look up.

 Ch.4 Give me a Good Rank!

    Today was officially my first day at Golden Sierra. For every first-year student, the first day is dedicated to giving us a starting rank. We demonstrate our powers, while a machine measures it by total power input. Based on that, the machine will give us a rank amongst the thousands of students at Golden Sierra. We were all given gym clothes to wear since none of us had any. We were all seated in the gym when the teachers walked in.


    ¡°Alright everybody, silence please.¡± Mrs. Tyler, the homeroom teacher for class 1-C, called out.


    Gradually, the gymnasium went quiet. Mr. Collins spoke.


    ¡°Alright students, as we mentioned to you all yesterday, today we¡¯ll be measuring the total power input of your abilities from this machine here.¡± He pointed at the other side of the gym.


    The machine he was pointing to looked very much like those test your strength games you¡¯d play at carnivals. You know those machines that you had to hit a pressure plate with a hammer as hard as you could so a metal object would go up in hopes that you¡¯d ring that bell.


    Well, the measuring device we had was a tad different. To start we didn¡¯t have the famed hammer. And instead of having those markers that would poke fun at your strength with titles like you need to work out, not even close or what are you? A child? Instead, they were replaced with the possible rankings of E, D, C, B, A, and S.


    ¡°Now, this machine has been fitted with detectors, which will detect and review your power output.¡± Mr. Collins continued. ¡°These detectors will the procced to give you your rank. Any questions before we begin?¡±


    No student raised their hand.


    ¡°Good. Now we¡¯ll start with students from class 1-D.¡±


    As student by student of class 1-D went up and tried their powers against the machine, most of them scored pretty low in the rankings. The highest was a C rank. Class 1-C was almost the same, except there were a lot more C ranks then the previous group.


    ¡°If this keeps up, we¡¯ll just breeze right through the competition.¡± Cel whispered into my ear.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you listen to your homeroom teacher? Ranking and grades are separate. They could be C rank, but still, whip butt if they know how to use their arts. You also have to take into account the students from years 2 and 3.¡± I whispered back.


    ¡°No I didn¡¯t hear from my teacher, I was with the headmistress and you for the whole day idiot.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    I looked with keen interest at the students that demonstrated their powers. This was information, highly valuable information, which could be used at a later date. Soon enough it was time for class 1-B, Celestia¡¯s class.


    ¡°Wish me luck.¡± She said, giving my hand a firm squeeze.


    Her classmates took their turns, waiting to let loose their skills. One after the other they went up, showing their skill and given a rank. This was the class that started to have a lot of variety in the students. There were Necromancers, Warlocks and Cardinals, all second grade arts.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    I grinned to myself. ¡°Finally, some promising people.¡±


    Celestia was next in line. She closed her eyes and concentrated. At her feet, little fires burst onto the scene, flickering. She opened her eyes.


    ¡°Wait, that¡¯s it?¡± A student behind me asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s so lame.¡±


    ¡°Twerp is gonna get her butt handed to her.¡± Trevor Hans, a student in my class sneered. It was only the second day we were at school and he was already the resident first year bully.


    I stared at Celestia, silently praying she was pulling all of our legs and just pranking us. Surprise, surprise, she was, and I felt stupid falling for it. She extended her right arm out, snapping her fingers. Immediately, those small embers at her feet erupted like a volcano. They grew bigger and bigger, taller and taller. The flames circled around her, effectively causing a fire tornado. The students and teachers backed away from her to avoid becoming fried human, we weren¡¯t tasty.


    The fires eventually died out, with only Celestia in the middle of the gym, grinning like any good pyromaniac should grin. The display beside the ranking machine was rapidly flashing a letter: B. she was the second highest in her class, after somebody called Daniel May, who got a B+. My class was next. We all lined up, awaiting our turn. Celestia passed me, and we gave each other a high five. I was a bit nervous now, after seeing all the great different arts class 1-B had offered, but I was also pumped full of adrenaline. One by one, my fellow first-year classmates went, getting their rank, while I was raking my brain trying to think of a skill to demonstrate. I first thought of showing off my Transcendental Chaos, but I quickly shot that down. That was my trump card per say. If I showed it, people could find ways to defend themselves from it.


    ¡°Elenore Magnus, you¡¯re up next.¡± Mr. Collins told me.


    ¡°Right away sir.¡±


    Crap, crap, crap! It was my turn and I still didn¡¯t know what to demonstrate and I could feel everyone¡¯s beady, laser pointer eyes targeting me. I bit my lip like I always do when I¡¯m under lots of pressure. At this point, I was pretty sure my poor brain was steaming from overthinking. Then I got it! I¡¯d show them something fearful. I extended both of my arms in front of me and started to chant:


    ¡°I call you forward, knight of unyielding darkness, and soldier of chaos. Rise from the pit, weapon and shield in hand, to serve me and destroy my enemies. Come forth, chaos guardian, Dusk Templar!¡±


    A magic circle appeared in front of me. Dark, gloomy mist seeped out of the circle. It continued to leak out until the entire gymnasium was filled to the brim with mist so dark, I couldn¡¯t even see five centimeters in front of me. People were coughing behind me, probably also trying to swat the mist away but to no avail. When it eventually dissipated, a huge chunk of black metal replaced the summoning circle. It shifted and groaned, moving and lifting itself up, until it was about 10 feet tall. Its armor was all black; gauntlets, breastplate, greaves, helmet, shield and weapon, dammit. The helmet took the shape of a skull, with piercing, glowing red eyes, looming inside the helmet. The sword was a giant buster sword strapped on its back, with a whopping 6 foot tall shield in hand.


    ¡°Show me your power, Dusk Templar!¡± I commanded.


    In a rapid motion, it yanked its sword off its back, whirling it around and thrusted it into the gymnasium floor. The tremendous impact of the sword slicing into the floor like butter, causing everyone, me included to be blown back off our feet. A crevasse emerged from the initial impact of the blow, quickly spreading through the gym. Many students ran out of the gym, wanting to understandably not wanting to be swallowed up by the crevasse.


    Ok, I admit I may have gone overboard. Was there a more sensible skill I could¡¯ve used? Yes. Was there a less destructive skill I could¡¯ve used? Yes. Do I regret my decision? Hell no!


    ¡°Begone guardian, for you service is no longer required.¡± I told the knight, which evaporated back into mist, and vanished.


    At the back of the gym Mr. Collins, nervously cleared his throat. ¡°Urm, well then, this will conclude today¡¯s morning classes. All of you have acquired your starting ranks. You can now be challenged by other student, and issue challenges of your own. Be sure to attend your afternoon classes. Now can we get someone to fix the gym?¡±


    I started to make my way to the ranking machine, to know what my rank was, but before I could, someone grabbed my arm, pulling me out of the gym.


    ¡°Elenore Magnus, I have business with you.¡± He said.

 Ch.5 Oh Brother!

    Celestia and I followed this boy who had business with me. He had introduced himself as Robert Dragoon. He had extremely pale blond hair, and green-silver eyes, that were wild and savage looking. He was also extremely thin. Back at the gym, when he said he had business with me, I immediately knew it wasn¡¯t good.


    ¡°Elenore Magnus, come with me, the student body president wished to speak with you.¡± She had said.


    Celestia, who had seen me talking to this creep, uneasily walked up to me. Robert fixed his death glare upon Cel.


    ¡°I believe I asked to speak with Elenore, not you Celestia Styx. This does not concern you, leave us be.¡±


    ¡°No. She¡¯s my friend as well as my partner. Whatever events concern one of us, it concerns both of us.¡± I firmly stated.


    Robert closed his eyes and sighed.


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t look like I have a choice. Very well, she can come along with; I don¡¯t see why I should waste energy arguing with you Magnus.¡± His words were filled with venom.


    Anyway, we were walking behind this toothpick, heading to the student council room. What did Eve even want? If I had to guess, it could be to discipline me for destroying the gym floor, but deep down I knew it wasn¡¯t for that.


    ¡°Here we are. Please follow me, the president will see you know.¡± Said the toothpick.


    He opened the twin doors that led to the student council room. Celestia and I entered. It was spectacularly more impressive than the headmistress¡¯ office, that¡¯s for sure. Huge red curtains were hung along the giant windows. Portraits of important historical figures of Vextel were hung along the walls. A mini kitchen was in the far right corner of the room, being in the student council sure had its perks! Five desks were placed at the end of the room. Only two of them were occupied. One of these people was the student body president, Eve herself. The other was a tall, muscular young man. He wore trimmed glasses, covering his bright green eyes. His brown hair was cut short, plastered on his head.


    ¡°Welcome Elenore Magnus, and Celestia Styx, what a pleasant surprise. Allow me to introduce you to James Parker, my second in command, vice-president of the student council.¡± Eve said, welcoming us.


    James rose out of his seat and shook our hands. ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you.¡±


    Eve coughed. ¡°Now, back to the matters at hand. The reason I called you here Elenore, is not because of the destruction of the gym, so you can calm down, but it has to do with your brother; Zac Magnus.¡±


    My heart dropped. It had to do with my brother. It¡¯s only my second day at school, and I¡¯ve already heard his name. I wanted to crawl into a ball and cry my heart out. This surely had to do with the ¡°incident¡±. 10 years ago, my brother was incarcerated at Area 1, the maximum security prison where the interstellar planets¡¯ (Vexel, Skyria, Craynax and Oeria) most notorious thugs, criminals are sent. My brother was sent there when he was accused of causing a rebellion against the Beings. That¡¯s what I refer to as the ¡°incident¡±. I never believed the officers when they called my big brother a traitor, an Abandoned One; a person who defiles the will of the Beings and refuses to follow their will. Zac wasn¡¯t an Abandoned One.


    ¡°Judging by that look on your face, you must be expecting bad news,¡± Eve stated. I nodded.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not that bad. Your brother hasn¡¯t been executed or anything of the sort. The authorities wanted me to tell you that he has been trailed once more and the verdict hasn¡¯t changed; he¡¯s still considered guilt for defiling the will of the Beings.¡±The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    ¡°He¡¯s not guilty! He¡¯s just a scapegoat!¡± I yelled.


    Eve raised her hand for me to be silent. I let my emotions get the better of me. ¡°That¡¯s your opinion, but many people see him as an Abandoned One. I won¡¯t offer my opinion on the matter, but the Beings believe him to be guilty of such a crime.¡±


    James spoke up. ¡°The Beings believe your brother has sprung up rebellions on every interstellar planet, to rebel against them.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s idiotic!¡± I shouted. ¡°My brother doesn¡¯t have nor will he have that kind of influence! He¡¯s not guilty.¡±


    ¡°I fully understand your concern.¡± Eve started. ¡°But we cannot question the decree of the Beings. They decide what law in this universe is. But this is getting a bit off topic. I only called you here, to give you the information about your brother¡¯s condition, nothing more, and nothing less. You may leave.


    I squeezed my palms into fists in frustration. This was absurd! In the end, I realized that arguing would only cause more problems. I sighed and got ready to leave.


    ¡°Oh, one more thing. Congratulations on getting a starting rank of S. your one of the few first-year students this school has ever gotten to get a rank of S as their starting rank. I¡¯m looking forward to how you¡¯ll entertain us.¡±


    ¡°Are you ok El? Ever since we left the student council¡¯s room, you¡¯ve been quite tense.¡± Celestia pointed out.


    She wasn¡¯t lying, I was tense. My body always tenses up when my brother is mentioned.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll be fine; I¡¯m just worried about big bro, that¡¯s all,¡± I reassured her.


    We walked down the halls in silence, not to sure how to diffuse the tense feeling in the atmosphere. I ended up asking Celestia if I could be alone for a while. It was a frequent thing for me to do when I had a lot on my plate. I bought myself a Vextron soda and sat on a nearby bench, mindlessly sipping the soda. The bench gave me a great view of students doing various activities like sports, walking, eating and even somebody painting the school garden. It was peaceful. I missed those peaceful days before big bro¡¯s capture. When I still had dad. Ever since Zac¡¯s capture, the security committee of Vextel has kept an observant eye on me, monitoring me constantly, making sure I don¡¯t do anything wrong.


    ¡°What¡¯s this we have here? The little sister of that Zac scum is all alone. Serves you right for being related to that traitor.¡±


    I looked around to see Trevor Hans and who I assumed were his lackeys grinning at me.


    ¡°What do you want Trevor?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Nothing much, nothing much, only show you how we treat people who are related to traitors here!¡±


    He threw a swing at me, which I easily avoided by jumping away from him and the bench. The bench, however, suffered a different fate, as it was completely demolished. Trevor grinned even more as he lifted up his fists. His fists and arms were covered in runes.


    ¡°Force magic. You¡¯re a Physicalist. Also WHAT THE HELL!? You¡¯re seriously gonna use magic?: I yelled at him.


    Damn this guy was a rotten bastard. People who were Physicalists, use strength augmentation runes on their body making them more powerful, making them pack quite a punch, or kick or headbutt or whatever, you get the point.


    ¡°Of course miss S rank, if I¡¯m gonna steal that rank from you; I need to take you by surprise.¡±


    ¡°This isn¡¯t even a legal duel! I never accepted! You never challenged me!¡± I shouted at him.


    ¡°So what? Are you gonna be a chicken about it? Can¡¯t fend for yourself? You¡¯re pathetic.¡± Trevor snarled.


    Trevor lunged at me, pulling back his arm to punch me in the face. I might as well play along and show him who''s boss. Around my right fist, a black metal gauntlet materialized. Trevor brought up his fist and I gladly met it with mine. On the initial contact, for a split second, I could feel Trevor¡¯s trying to chew at my gauntlet to reach and crush my bones. But after that second, I won. My gauntlet vaporized his magic. I was pushed back a few meters, unlike Trevor, who became a flying bullet, as he was sent crashing into his lackeys. It took a while, but Trevor eventually got back up.


    ¡°You¡¯re gonna pay for that you brat!¡± Trevor yelled. There was hate in his eyes, and they radiated with intensity. It wasn¡¯t my fault he got injured, he¡¯s just a moron. I laughed.


    ¡°What¡¯s so funny punk?¡± he snarled.


    ¡°I regained my senses from my laughing fit, wiping away a tear. ¡°It¡¯s funny to see you angry at me when you¡¯re the one who got yourself into this mess, idiot.¡±


    ¡°Screw this! Get her!¡± he yelled at his lackeys.


    I got ready to fight them, armoring up both my fists. Even with my magic, I doubt I would be able to fend off all of them by myself. They made their way towards me, activating their various magic arts. Then suddenly they all froze and fell to the ground, gasping in pain.


    ¡°That¡¯s quite enough. Let¡¯s stop this foolish game.¡±

 Ch.6 Its the Number 2 Fighter!

    Trevor and his friends were on the ground rolling and twisting in pain. I stood there dumbfounded. I¡¯ve never witnessed a form of magic so powerful that it would cause people to experience pain immediately.


    ¡°Trevor, how many times will I have to say this? The rules of Golden Sierra strictly forbids unregistered duels between students of any kind. I¡¯m starting to think your brain is as dense as your muscles. On top of that, you even stoop as low as using your gang to try and beat a single individual.¡±


    I looked up to see a guy slowly making his way towards me. He was so concentrated on Trevor, he didn¡¯t acknowledge my presence.


    ¡°This is only your second day here, and this is the fifth fight I¡¯ve had to break up.¡± He turned to face me. ¡°I apologize deeply for this idio-¡±


    The boy¡¯s voice died in his throat when he made eye contact with me. His eyes grew as big as melons. Great, I thought. Another person who is going to fear me.


    The boy had spiky black hair, with the front being dyed white. His eyes radiated two colors. His right eye was an icy blue color that seemed to cut right into your soul, while the left one was black, like the night. But that wasn¡¯t the most unsettling thing about him. His entire left arm was covered in scars, but they were all black scars. The left side of his neck and those scars as well. Every single scar was black, instead of the pale color scars usually have. They radiated magic, powerful and deadly magic. I could almost feel the magic pulsing from his scars.


    His head snapped back and forth between Trevor and me, like he was trying to understand what was going on. Finally, he started grinning like an absolute madman, laughing.


    ¡°My goodness Trevor, I knew you were dense but not this dense! How desperate must you be? Attacking low ranked people is one thing, but immediately attacking S ranked Elenore Magnus is something else.¡±


    ¡°Shut it you ass. I could¡¯ve taken her down if you hadn¡¯t intervened.¡± Trevor grunted.


    The boy snorted. ¡°That would be very unlikely. Even if you did, you wouldn¡¯t move rank, as once again this was an illegal duel.¡±


    The boy fixated his misshaped, or I guess discolored eyes on me.


    ¡°Please have a little stroll with me, Miss. Elenore.¡±


    ¡°What about them?¡± I asked jabbing a finger at Trevor and his gang.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about them; I¡¯ll have the magic dissipate once we¡¯re further away, so they can¡¯t bother us.¡± He replied. ¡°Now please follow me.¡±


    He made it sound like he was asking me to walk with him, but it was more like he nicely ordered me to follow him. I really didn¡¯t have a choice, as he wasn¡¯t going to take no for an answer, so I accepted.


    For a while, we walked in the garden of the school. Roses, violets, tulips and other beautiful flowers bloomed. None of us really spoke to each other. Not a single word was uttered. I kept glancing at him. I didn¡¯t really trust him. Sure, he prevented those guys back there, but a single action isn¡¯t much.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± I finally decided to ask, breaking the silence.


    We stopped by a cliff which overlooked the Golden Sea. Its name came from the fact that no matter the time of day or night, the sea always had a golden hue. Along, with the setting of the sun, that filled the sky with a beautiful orange, the sea was shining. The school took the name of the sea when it was constructed: Golden Sierra Mana academy.


    ¡°I always come here at this time of the day. It gives the sea a truly magnificent view. Beautiful, don¡¯t you think?¡± he finally replied, dodging the question.


    ¡°Yeah, sure the views amazing, but that wasn¡¯t the question buddy.¡±


    He stayed fixated at the sea, looking at the sun as it set across the horizon.


    ¡°There is life and beauty everywhere. Even in the darkest, gloomiest reaches of the universe, life and beauty will find a way to bloom. The human soul is an example of beauty. It is also what crushes us, our biggest weakness, but it is also our biggest strength. A tortured man can always strive for tomorrow if his soul lives.¡±


    ¡°Enough with the speeches bud answer that goddam question or I¡¯m leaving.¡±


    ¡°Very well, I apologize for evading your question. To answer your question, my name is Atlas Ryder. I am a second year at Golden Sierra. I am also the second strongest person at the academy with a rank of S of course.¡± He shook my hand. ¡°It is truly an honor to meet the daughter of Grimoire Scarlet.¡±


    I was taken back. ¡°How do you know my mother?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s because I owe my entire life to her.¡± Atlas bluntly put.


    ¡°What the hell do you mean you owe your life to her? Explain yourself!¡±


    He sighed. ¡°Of course. As you know your mother, Grimoire Scarlet, was a scientist that studied Mana and in turn magic.¡±


    I nodded in agreement. My mother was born without any Stigma, she couldn¡¯t become a Prophet, and she couldn¡¯t wield magic. But that made her only fascinated by Mana and magic. She became a scientist to find ways of finding entirely new kinds of magic arts. She also led a division of scientists that attempted to create artificial Stigma, so people born without them could become Prophets. Wait¡­ artificial. That couldn¡¯t possibly mean¡­


    Atlas gave me a weak smile, as the answer slapped me right in the face.


    ¡°Judging by that look on your face, you¡¯ve figured it out. Figuratively speaking, I¡¯m an artificial Prophet. I was born with five real Stigmas in my body, but I was born with a magic art that was too powerful and required more than five. It was slowly killing me as I grew up. My older sister tried everything to find help. Your mother caught wind about me, and I became her first and only subject.¡±


    ¡°Oh wow, that¡¯s, that¡¯s painful,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Three man-made Stigmas, your mother¡¯s entire life research were placed inside me. Thankfully, my body and my magic accepted them. The only side effects are these scars that cover the left side of my body.¡± Atlas finished.


    Suddenly, memories came flooding back at me. Ever since I was a young, my mother would arrive home later than usual, exhausted and shaken up. She barely spent any time with the family. Sometimes I would hear her mutter things to herself.


    ¡°The compatibility rate isn¡¯t high enough.¡± She would say. ¡°He fell unconscious again today.¡±


    ¡°All that time she spent at work, overworking herself to death.¡± I started. ¡°It was to save your life?¡±


    Atlas¡¯ eyes seemed to tear up a bit, but he kept himself under control.


    ¡°She died to save my life. Sacrificing herself for the sake of a child. But her research was a resounding success. The government took notice and sponsored it. I was shaken up when I heard of her passing. I do owe her my life.¡± He stated.


    Atlas stole one last glance at the sea, before announcing that he said all he wanted and started to make his way to the boy¡¯s dormitory.


    ¡°Wait!¡± I called out. ¡°What magic art do you even use?¡±


    He stopped in his tracks.


    ¡°I use a recently found magic, which will be classified as a grade 1. It¡¯s called Soulpurge. I¡¯ll be taking my leave now, you should too Elenore. You¡¯ll have classes in the morning.¡±


    He continued walking until eventually I was left alone.

 Ch.7 Whos This Number 2?!

    Tangela and Celestia were in the middle of playing, what seemed to be Mecha Obliteration when I entered our dorm. Mecha Obliteration is a fighting game where you can choose from a wide variety of different robots, then duked it out to the death. And from the looks of it, Tangela was currently whooping Celestia¡¯s butt


    ¡°Dammit!¡± I can¡¯t even beat you once!¡± Cel yelled in frustration, as her mech blew up.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve had many years of practice, thanks to the young miss. I practiced a lot on my free time.¡± Tangela responded.


    I closed the door behind me. ¡°So in other words, you cheated,¡± I stated.


    Both Celestia and Tangela jumped. Wait; was it possible for spirits to jump? Since they technically float off the ground. Well whatever, if they could, Tan certainly jumped.


    ¡°Finally you¡¯re back! We were worried sick about you!¡± Celestia stated.


    ¡°Sure didn¡¯t look like it.¡± I joked.


    ¡°Oh stop it you twit, you know I¡¯m telling the truth. So what happened is everything ok?¡±


    I told them about my confrontation with Trevor and his gang and meeting Atlas Ryder.


    ¡°Shut up!¡± Celestia exclaimed. ¡°You did not meet the school¡¯s number 2!¡±


    ¡°Well, I did.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s awesome!¡±


    ¡°What? Why is that? It¡¯s not a big deal.¡±


    Celestia groaned. ¡°How dense are you El? Do you watch the news? For someone who wants to get to the Zone Games, you know nothing. Just the fact that you met him is amazing!¡±


    ¡°WHY?¡±


    Tangela cleared her throat to get our attention.


    ¡°If I may butt in, Elenore, Atlas Ryder is not only the number two at this school, but he also placed fifth at the Zone Games with his partners, making him quite popular for the media. Only, they couldn¡¯t find him. Soon after last year¡¯s Zone Games, Mr. Ryder suddenly vanished from the scene, nowhere to be found. This garnered him the nickname: The Lost One. Many people speculated that he returned home to Nebula.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°Nebula? I¡¯ve literally never heard of this planet before.¡± Cel and I responded.


    On the wall-mounted TV, a planet popped up on it. Celestia and I looked at it. It was roughly two-thirds of Vextel, which is the smallest planet of the interstellar planets. The surface was gray and green. The screen claimed that 85% of the planet¡¯s surface was covered with, musky green water, while only 15% was the gray surface. It didn¡¯t seem like a planet I wanted to live on.


    ¡°I¡¯m not surprised that both of you hadn¡¯t heard of it.¡± Tangela continued. ¡°In fact, not many people have. Nebula is a planet that resides in the nearest solar system. Even with the fastest mode of transportation, it takes about a month¡¯s time to reach it. Another reason is that Nebula is not an interstellar planet. When the planet was discovered by the Beings, the Nebulans resisted the Beings. Only after being threatened with the destruction of their planet, only then did the citizens accept the Beings¡¯ sovereignty. At the time, Nebula was allied with neighboring planets; Maniax and Abstral, in an alliance known as the Trinity Pact Alliance. The governments of those planets, don¡¯t view us I a positive light, but they still partake in the Zone Games.¡±


    I wasn¡¯t expecting to get a history crash course, on the history of planet alliances.


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard about the T.PA from my dad once. He said the reason we don¡¯t hear from them often is that they don¡¯t communicate with the interstellar planets very often. Dad states that they see us as enemies, but don¡¯t attack out of fear of retaliation from the Beings.¡± Celestia added on.


    Tangela nodded. ¡°Now getting back to Atlas Ryder, he has barely any information on him. We don¡¯t know his family, personal information or date he was born. His planet refuses to give this information up if they even have it. All we do know is his appearance and his magic art.¡±


    ¡°He said it was called Soulpurge.¡± I recalled.


    ¡°Soulpurge is a new emerging magic art. It was only discovered about a year ago. From what data is available, Soulpurge is a form of magic that attacks the soul directly, making it extremely powerful, making it a Grade 1 along with Diviners and Chaosers.¡± Tan explained.


    ¡°Now that Mr. Ryder has reappeared on the public image since the last Zone Game, it must mean he has intentions to win. He¡¯ll be an obstacle for us El.¡± Celestia pointed out.


    We decided to leave the conversation at that. After all, we had many days to come up with a strategy to beat him and his partner, whoever that may be. We all played against each other in a couple of matches of Mecha Obliteration. I won the majority of the matches, cause I¡¯m the best at this game, with Tan close behind, and Cel at a very distant third. We called it quits for the night, we all hit the sack, and I almost instantly fell asleep. Hopefully tomorrow, I wouldn¡¯t be immediately assaulted by someone else.

 Ch.8 I immediately Get Assaulted by Somebody Else!

    ¡°Today we¡¯ll be talking about the Beings.¡± Mr. Collins stated when the bells rang for classes to start.


    I looked up from the comic book that I was reading. Why talk about the Beings? Most of us knew who they were. How would this even help us with our training?


    ¡°To start off, let¡¯s dismiss rumors about the Beings. They are not gods like many people believe them to be. They may seem like gods because of their monstrous strength, but they aren¡¯t. There are a total of five Beings. Each of them, except for one, overlooks a respective planet. The individual Being who does not overlook a planet is the strongest and watches over everything. As I previously stated, they aren¡¯t gods and can be killed or die of age. Attacking one, however, would be suicidal. Now we all know that the Beings created the Zone Games, based on two factors. The first is purely for entertainment, a show to please them and populations of the planets. The second is to see which planet can have the strongest Prophets.¡±


    Someone in the front raised their hand. ¡°Sir, what exactly are they? Are they human?¡±


    ¡°I cannot answer that question. The Beings are overly protective of themselves. Only their representatives, someone who relays information to the planets, know what they truly are, and they are forbidden from giving that information out.¡±


    After a while, I lost complete interest in the lecture, I didn¡¯t care about the Beings. They imprisoned my brother! I went to this school to learn how to handle my magic so I could get Zac back.


    ¡°Boring isn¡¯t it?¡± Eve whispered. ¡°It¡¯s like this every year. We have to talk about the Beings before we learn any good things.¡±


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you being condoning what I¡¯m doing?¡± I asked.


    Eve simply shrugged. I have a life outside of being the student president. Plus it¡¯s not like I was paying attention to the lecture as well.¡± She pointed to her desk, where she was drawing.


    The course dragged on forever, I returned to my comic book, eventually zoning out from the lecture. The bell eventually rang.


    ¡°Please remember that when mid-term arrives, the tryouts for the Magi Magic Games will be opened. Everyone can participate, but only ten teams from will be selected to go to the Games.¡±


    I walked out of class, after having collected my stuff. I saw Celestia arguing with two chicks. Oh boy, here we go again I thought.


    ¡°Lookie here, it¡¯s the traitor¡¯s little sister.¡± One of them sneered.


    ¡°I¡¯m very sorry about her attitude, I really am.¡± The other one said with an apologetic look on her face.


    The one who had called big bro a traitor was called Amanda Horn. She was a third-year student. Dark hair and her icy eyes fitted well with her personality. She had one nasty attitude, from what I heard. Honestly, Trevor should become her student. Amanda was like the queen bully of the school, her royal pain in the butt. She was very vulgar and aggressive. She would lash out at practically everyone. She sticks her nose in everyone¡¯s business. According to people I¡¯ve talked with, she¡¯s been discharged from school on multiple occasions, for flipping off teachers, skipping classes or not even showing up to school for weeks. Yet despite all of this, Amanda still kept showing up. She was ranked A.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    The other girl was a second-year student, called Jessica Horn, the younger sister of Ms. Tyrant over here. She looked like a younger version of her sister (shocking right?). She had the same dark brown hair, except they were neatly combed and tied in a ponytail. She also shared the same icy blue eyes as her sisters, but with none of the aggressiveness, only passiveness. On top of that, she was the complete polar opposite of her older sister (this time I¡¯m not being sarcastic, it was pretty shocking). I and probably a lot of other students would think she¡¯d act like her sister but nope. Jessica was polite, friendly and respectful. She would constantly apologize for all the aggressive, rebellious stunts her sister would do. Apart from her, only Eve and Atlas have been able to quench Amanda¡¯s wildfires, per say.


    ¡°Personally, if I was in charge,¡± Amanda said, pointing at me. ¡°Trash like her wouldn¡¯t even be with you, she¡¯d be locked up with her shit brother.¡±


    ¡°Amanda!¡± Jessica shouted. ¡°Will you please stop? She hasn¡¯t done anything wrong.¡±


    Jessica looked at me and mouthed the words ¡®I¡¯m so sorry¡¯ at me. Remember when I said that Jessica could control her royal tyrant? Well, let¡¯s make a slight modification to that. She could stop and control her sister from time to time, looks like she couldn¡¯t this time.


    ¡°You must think your hot shit, Magnus, being a Chaoser and all. Well, you¡¯re not. I bet you¡¯re just bark and no bite.¡± Amanda growled, jabbing her finger against my chest.


    ¡°Will you fuck off? You¡¯re creating a scene!¡± Celestia whined.


    I looked around us and sure enough, a crowd had gathered around, interested in the commotion going on. Like moths attracted to the light.


    Amanda simply grinned. ¡°Why? The more the merrier! Once I¡¯m done beating you to a bloody pulp, they¡¯ll all realize that you¡¯re nothing.¡±


    ¡°I just want to be left alone!¡± I complained.


    This chick was getting on my nerves, big time. Next thing I knew, I was on the floor and my cheek stung. She hit me! Nobody from the crowd said anything, because who wants to become a tyrant¡¯s next meal? I rose back on my feet, my eyes burning with anger.


    Amanda noticed my sudden change in emotion and pretended to be scared. ¡°Oh no! Little Magnus is angry! I¡¯m so scared, my feet are shaking.¡±


    Her idiotic, annoying, ugly grin resurfaced, as well as her fist. She lashed out at me, clearly intent on hurting me. I put my arms up to protect my face, but the hit never came. I slowly, and I mean ever slightly peered to see what had happened. First, the crowd was completely silent, not even a whisper. Hell, you couldn¡¯t even hear the crickets. In front of me was Amanda¡¯s fist alright, only that someone else¡¯s hand had a grip on hers. Atlas, Eve, James and another girl were there.


    ¡°No way. The top four ranking students in one place.¡± Someone muttered in the crowd.


    ¡°What do you want, Mr. Number 2?¡± Amanda snarled.


    ¡°Amanda, how many times do we have to say this? You know full well that unofficial battles and duels are strictly illegal.¡± James intervened.


    ¡°Yeah, so?¡±


    ¡°One more outburst like this and you¡¯ll be kicked out of this school.¡± He replied.


    ¡°If you wish to fight, duel outside.¡± Atlas bluntly said.


    ¡°I have an idea!¡± Eve exclaimed, excitement shining in her eyes.


    Oh crud, this wouldn¡¯t be good. Amanda jerked her hand away from Atlas and stared at me. This was gonna be my first duel, wasn¡¯t it?

 Ch.9 My First Fight!

    I hated Eve¡¯s idea. She said her idea was better than just having a team fight outside, where few could see it. Spoiler alert: I think her idea sucked. She said that I was one of the only Chaoser¡¯s to attend this school. So for my first fight, she wanted it to be a grand event.


    She had the entire school, and I really do mean the entire school, loaded into the Golden Stadium, the school¡¯s biggest fighting stadium. It had half a million seats. It housed the Magi Magic Games a total of ten times, so the number of seats are justified since thousands upon thousands of people come to see the games in person. Students, teachers, administrators and even janitors were present to watch the fight. The stadium was filled with cheering and yelling galore. The stadium was designed like a classic colosseum. You had your fighting arena in the middle of the stadium, while the seats to watch surrounded that. There was a protective field that surrounded the arena (Duh) to protect the spectators. There was a long, thin, rectangular table a few feet away from the arena, which housed five seats, all of them occupied. In the middle was the headmistress herself, to her left were Eve and James and to her right were Atlas and that girl from before.


    She had a set of discolored eyes like Atlas. In contrast, her left eye was a crimson red, like blood, fresh blood that I had just been spilled from a body. Her right eye was multicolored. Ok not like a rainbow, but more like it constantly exploded into a new hue of color, constantly changing. One second it was red and gray, and then it¡¯s replaced with dark green and purple hues. That had to mean she was a Grade 1 magic user, or a user of an art very close to it. See, Grade 1 magic is quite strong, even making you be able to go toe to toe with a Being if you were suicidal enough. Since it¡¯s very powerful, Prophets born with the ability to use and wield Grade 1 magic like Atlas and I are born with a physical ¡°deformation¡±. Scientists call it a Stigma Overload. Now, this physical ¡°deformations¡± aren¡¯t like having paralyzed legs and whatnot. It just means our bodies have a unique physical difference. Like Atlas¡¯ pure black eye and his black scars on his left arm. For the girl, it was that ever changing eyes, and her hair. Her hair was black, but the tips glowed a reddish hue. She stared at the arena like she was intrigued by my upcoming fight.


    So what was my physical deformation you ask? My body emits black mist, well sorta. It¡¯s actually highly condensed Chaos Essence. It also seems to be hotwired to my emotions. If I¡¯m in any state of happiness, none will be emitted. But if I erupt like a volcano in anger, I become engulfed in the stuff. Oh, and my eyes glowed in the dark.


    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the first ever team fight of Elenore Magnus and Celestia Styx, her teammate! Raven Flack, a third-year, who was the announcer for this match.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    There was a giant uproar from the students. I sighed. Eve did all of this just because it was my first official fight of the year? Wow.


    ¡°Today¡¯s match is between the Horn sisters, Amanda and Jessica, ranked A and C!¡± Raven yelled.


    The uproar and applause continued.


    ¡°And the other team, both of which are first-years, Celestia Styx and Elenore Magnus!¡±


    The second Raven yelled my name, Raven was completely drowned out by the yelling and cheering of the school. I never expected them to cheer for us.


    ¡°Being one of the only first-years to reach the rank of S as a starting rank, the crowd has high expectations for Magnus and Styx who has a rank of A.¡±


    Ah, it¡¯s because of my starting rank, that the crowd was so enthusiastic.


    ¡°Will these newbies be able to beat the Horn Twins? Who knows?¡± Raven exclaimed.


    Man, the dude was really enthusiastic about this fight, whipping the crowd into a frenzy. But I guess a lot of people were looking forward to this fight, or he¡¯s always that happy about fights.


    ¡°Before we begin this match starts, let me introduce to you our very special guests!¡± Raven announced.


    A spotlight shined on the headmistress and the other four. The cheers, whistling, and yelling got turned up to 11. I thought I was gonna go deaf. Eve and James smiled and waved at the crowd. The headmistress ignored all the commotion. Atlas gave a slight nod of his head as his form of acknowledgment to the crowd. The other girl just kept her gaze fixed on the arena.


    ¡°Holding a rank of S, a third-year and the fourth strongest in the school, James Parker; our vice-president! Strikingly, he uses Grade 4 magic as a wizard, to keep his position. Next, we have Eve Von Wolfe, also holding a rank of S, third strongest in the school and our very own student president!¡± Raven yelled.


    Whoa, wait what? Eve was only the third strongest? I was expecting her to be first!


    ¡°Using powerful Grade 2, Forbidden magic, she¡¯s not one to be trifled with. Ranked S, with Grade 1 magic, we have Atlas Ryder! A man who lives in mystery, we don¡¯t know much about him except for his magic art of Soulpurge and being placed fifth in the Zone Games. Atlas rightfully keeps his spot as number two! Last and certainly not least, we have our number one strongest student, Nova Eclipse! Rank S and using Grade 1 magic Veil, a branch of Diviner magic! Hailing from the lone planet Aclillon. Third in the Zone Games for two years in a row, Nova Eclipse, we are truly honored to have you.¡±


    The audience respectively clapped, as the four of them rose from their seats and waved. They took back their seats.


    ¡°Of course we cannot forget about our beloved school headmistress, so works so hard to make Golden Sierra Mana academy a truly magical place!¡± Now ladies and gentlemen, with the word of our headmistress, the fight will commence!¡± Raven said.


    The headmistress rose from her seat. ¡°Let faith and fortune rain down on both teams. The Beings salute you all!¡± she announced, delivering the lines necessary to start a duel or team fight.


    Having said those lines, the fight started.

 Ch.10 Let the Fight Commence!

    A buzzer echoed throughout the stadium. The second it did, Amanda barreled straight towards Celestia and me. As she got closer, she grew shorter, slicker and ran faster. She started to run on four hands, err paws. A tail sprouted behind her. Her skin became covered in orange and black fur. She had become a ferocious tiger sprinting at us a full speed.


    ¡°Watch out!¡± I yelped as I dove out of the way, dodging away from the killer but very smelly teeth. Didn¡¯t Amanda know personal hygiene was important? Also I don¡¯t know why I yelled for Celestia to watch out, as she also saw Amanda as a tiger, heat of the moment I guess. I turned around to face Amanda, only to see no Amanda. I whirled around the arena, frantically looking for Amanda, but I could see Cel. Wait there was only Cel? Jessica had vanished too! Realization hit me, but so did a claw. Pain flared up inside me as four claws ripped open my left cheek with such force, I lost my balance and sprawled on the floor. I felt hot streaks of crimson blood rolling down my cheek.


    ¡°Astonishing! Jessica Horn used her Invisible Will magic Art to turn her and her sister invisible, allowing them to throw the first hit!¡± Raven yelled. Invisible Will, turns anything invisible, Grade 4 magic. Absolutely fantastic.


    I quickly got back up on my feet, scanning the arena. Once again, it was only Celestia and I. A sudden flicker of black appeared behind Cel.


    ¡°Behind you!¡± I yelled.


    Celestia turned around to come face to face with a hulking black bear. Celestia¡¯s hands engulfed themselves in flames, as she prepared to attack the bear. But it was too little too late. Amanda backhanded Celestia, before she could attack. Cel yelled in pain, as the hit clearly broke something in her body. She collided into me. We fell like bowling pins, a perfect strike for Amanda.


    ¡°You alright?¡±  I asked Celestia.


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°The real question is if you¡¯re alright Magnus.¡± Amanda¡¯s voice called out.


    Pain flared in my right leg, I could feel teeth sinking into my tender, flesh. She was biting me! I had to get her off me. My arm got engulfed in black flames, and I promptly punched near my leg. Smack! A direct hit!


    Amanda yelled in pain letting go of me. Blood covered my right leg from the wounds Amanda inflicted on me.


    Amanda for a brief moment appeared in front of us, in human form, clutching her face. I had broken her nose.


    ¡°Fuckin bitch!¡± She yelled. She turned invisible again.


    ¡°Magnus finally got a hit on Amanda, but at a high cost! Magnus and Styx seem to have trouble defending themselves against the Horn sisters!¡± Raven excitedly cried. ¡°Could teamwork be their weakest link?¡±


    Weakest link? An idea popped into my head. I could use their weakest link against them!If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°Celestia!¡±


    ¡°What?!¡±


    ¡°Engulf the entire floor with flames!¡±


    ¡°Are you insane!? I¡¯ll end up hurting you as well!¡±


    ¡°Just do it!¡± I screamed back at her.


    Celestia winced as I yelled at her. I normally don¡¯t get agitated easily but being questioned ticked me off, especially when I wanted to smash Amanda¡¯s face in. Celestia weakly nodded and placed her palms on the floor. The temperature of the stadium stated to rise exponentially as heat escaped Cel¡¯s hands. Red streaks spread out from her hands and covered the entire floor. Flames burst up, burning everything it could burn. The flames licked and swirled around my legs. I condensed the Chaos essence that I¡¯ve been spewing out of my body around my legs to protect them from the flames, but the heat was still unbearable.


    The flames eventually became embers and died out. I quickly scanned the arena. My heart dropped. Across the now charred field, there was nothing, no sign of the Horn sisters.


    ¡°Was Celestia¡¯s flames ineffective against Amanda and Jessica?! They are nowhere to be found! And with the injuries that Magnus has, her team has been critically limited!¡± Raven exclaimed.


    ¡°What are we gonna do? Your leg and cheek are hurt and you still managed to burn your legs, despite shielding them!¡± Celestia remarked.


    ¡°Thanks for pointing it out, didn¡¯t notice,¡± I said through gritted teeth.


    ¡°But wait! What¡¯s this?! The sisters have suddenly reappeared! Amanda seems to have burned herself in order to protect her younger sister!¡± Raven shouted.


    Seriously, I understood his job was to keep the crowd interested in the fight, but it felt like the microphone was connected to his vocal cords. This guy was overly enthusiastic, but the crowd still erupted with cheers.


    But nonetheless, Raven was true to his word. In front of Celestia and I was, in fact, Jessica and Amanda. Amanda was in the form of a giant eagle, her wings surrounding her younger sister. Jessica was completely unharmed. Amanda on the other hand, looked like she was thrown into a pile of ash. She was completely covered in gray ash. She turned back into a human form and stumbled.


    ¡°That¡¯s a ballsy move coming from you of all people,¡± Amanda growled. ¡°But there¡¯s no way I¡¯m losing to trash! Jess!¡±


    ¡°Y-yes!¡± Jessica yelped.


    Both of them started to disappear once again. Great, they¡¯re going to try the same tactic again, and I couldn¡¯t risk injuring myself again with the tactic we used.


    ¡°Over my dead body,¡± I muttered.


    ¡°What?¡± Cel asked.


    Even with having a bite mark on my right leg, and having my legs slightly burnt, I broke away from Celestia, despite her whining and objections. I ran as fast as I could towards the vanishing Amanda. I wasn¡¯t going to let her win using such a cheap tactic.


    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, what is Elenore Magnus doing? She¡¯s running towards the Horn sisters despite her injuries!¡± Raven exclaimed.


    The crowd¡¯s yells and cheering were through the roof. I willed my right hand to be covered in the black gauntlet that I had used to beat Trevor. The sisters were completely invisible. I came to a halt closing my eyes and waited and waited. I was met with a punch in the stomach, a kick in the groin and an uppercut in the neck, but I stayed my ground.


    ¡°What the hell are you doing you, idiot!?¡± Cel screamed at me.


    I didn¡¯t respond. Then my opening arrived. A sudden gust of wind directly in front of me, Amanda was going to punch me right in the face. I swung my armored fist to meet her challenged. That baby struck home. I felt my fist shit flesh. The sound of bones breaking filed my ears. I opened my eyes, to be greeted with Amanda flying and crashing into the force field.


    ¡°Amanda!¡± I heard Jessica yelling.


    She materialized beside me and ran towards her sister, who was knocked unconscious by the hit.


    ¡°W-we forfeit! Somebody, please help Amanda!¡± she cried.


    ¡°Folks that¡¯s the match! Elenore Magnus and Celestia Styx have won their first team fight!¡± Raven exclaimed.


    Hell broke loose as the audience went absolutely ballistic. I vaguely remember Celestia running towards me. All the adrenaline left my body as I felt lightheaded and blacked out.

 Ch.11 I Come Back to Life!

    I woke up in the infirmary. First thing I realized was that all my wounds had healed up nicely, no traces of being bitten and slashed by a tiger. All the slashed were gone, and my legs were no longer burnt. My skin was perfectly fine and I felt no pain. I assumed the medics had used healing magic on me to speed up the healing progress of patients.


    ¡°El? Are you alright?¡± Celestia, who was sitting on a chair on the right side of my bed asked.


    ¡°Urgh¡­ yeah, I¡¯m fine. My head is just spinning, that¡¯s all.¡± I honestly answered her.


    ¡°Just give it a few minutes, you just woke up after all.¡± She responded.


    I gave it a few minutes. When my head stopped spinning the room suddenly got cramped. Atlas, Nova, Jessica and Eve were present as well, making me jump a bit. Nova sat on a chair at the foot of my bed, glaring at me, like she did back at the stadium. Was that the only thing she ever does? It was seriously starting to creep me out. It honestly looked like she was trying to find the best possible way to cut me open. Jessica and Eve sat on the other side of the bed with equally worried looks on their face. Atlas leaned on the wall far away from the rest of us. He really didn¡¯t like being with people huh?


    ¡°I guess I should start by giving a proper introduction. My name is Nova Eclipse, currently the school¡¯s strongest.¡± Nova finally said.


    ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you, I¡¯m-¡±


    ¡°Yes yes, Elenore Magnus, daughter of Orion Magnus and Grimoire Scarlet, younger sister to Zac Magnus, I know who you are. Everybody does at this point.¡± She interrupted.


    I winced at that last part. She kept adding salt to the wound. First, she mentions Zac and then stats that everybody knows who I am.


    ¡°Furthermore, I noticed in your match that you are completely reckless and took moronic actions, taking very risky actions to gain the slightest possible advantage, with an extremely low payout. Your teamwork with Celestia is practically none existent; it¡¯s surprising that you even won that fight.¡± She dragged on.


    Yeah, I was starting to dislike her more and more as she continued talking.


    ¡°Can it Nova. Back in the day, you weren¡¯t any better than Magnus. In fact, you were sometimes even worse. And please pick up a nicer tone of voice when talking to her. Her mother saved my life.¡± Atlas said with nasty venom in his voice. Nova instantly backed down like a defeated animal. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± She whispered.


    ¡°Frankly Elenore, it is true that you were quite reckless in your fight with the Horn sisters. But I must admit that you were quite spectacular with your moves and actions. You certainly impressed the crowd. You showed us a fraction of how powerful your magic truly is; consider me interested in future fights. You may prove an interesting opponent. May we meet again.¡±


    Atlas proceeded to leave the infirmary with Nova quickly in tow.


    ¡°Wait for me Atlas! Goodbye, every- Atlas wait up!¡± Nova shouted after Atlas and ran after him.


    ¡°Ok¡­ someone flipped her switch.¡± Jessica joked. We all chuckled.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°Nova sees Atlas in the highest possible regards. Nova admires Atlas¡¯ magic art and fighting style. He trained her for a bit, so they share a student-teacher relationship you could say.¡± Eve explained.


    ¡°But isn¡¯t it strange for the strongest in the school to act like that towards the second strongest? Shouldn¡¯t it be the other way around?¡± Jessica asked.


    ¡°No, not really. Truth be told, Atlas may be stronger than Nova. In the Zone Games, a reason why Nova placed higher than Atlas was that Nova at the time had a better teammate than Atlas. But at that time as well, Nova was a representative of another planet: Skyria, so they faced off against each other and Atlas won that match. They¡¯ve only teamed up together this ear. They¡¯ll be a very difficult team to beat in both the Magi Magic Games and the Zone Games.¡± Eve went on.


    She announced that she had to go meet with the student council for an important meeting. She shook each of our hands and left the infirmary, leaving only Celestia, Jessica and I were present.


    ¡°Hey Jessica listen, I¡¯m sorry for hurting your sister like that. She was ticking me off, and I felt like I may have gone overboard.¡± I apologized.


    Even though I despised Amanda Horn, for how she taunted me before the fight, and how intent she tried to badly injure me, I still felt bad for Jessica. They were sisters after all.


    She shook her head. ¡°No, no it¡¯s fine you have nothing to apologize for. I should be the one to apologize for not keeping my sister in check. She honestly deserved the beat you gave her. Maybe it¡¯ll teach her some restraint. I should go check up on her, make sure she¡¯s fine. Cya around Chaotic One.¡±


    ¡°And then there were two.¡± I joked. ¡°But was with that?¡± Chaotic One?¡±


    ¡°Oh, that? That¡¯s the title the school sorta just gave you.¡± Cel explained. ¡°Seeing how you made me burn the entire floor, injuring yourself in the process then charging towards Amanda despite your injuries and with barely any plan of attack? The crowd thought that was pretty ballsy and chaotic for you to do, so the name sorta just stuck.¡±


    Yeah, I guess that made sense I admitted to myself.


    ¡°Now that you¡¯re patched up; people can leave me alone and start bugging you.¡± Celestia sighed.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Well let¡¯s just say you¡¯ve become somewhat popular around the school. The new darling of Golden Sierra. Ever since the fight people have been bugging me of when you¡¯d recover.¡±


    ¡°Wait how long have I been out for exactly?¡±


    ¡°About three days. Even with the help of healing magic, it took a while for you to get patched up.¡± Celestia replied.


    She helped me get off the sickbed. She helped me move around the room a little. My legs were like jelly and refused to unjellify themselves if that was even a word; unjellify.


    ¡°Come one.¡± Celestia started. ¡°You can¡¯t keep your adoring fans waiting now.¡±


    Celestia certainly wasn¡¯t wrong; I had become the new darling of Golden Sierra Mana academy practically overnight. People would stare at me with awe or fear. Some asked to shake my hand or have an autograph. It was strange; I had only won one fight, by complete luck. Yet, here I was, being treated like royalty. Trevor and his gang avoided me at all costs, changing directions in the halls if they spotted me. But even more surprising was that Amanda Horn came to apologize, albeit forced by her younger sister.


    ¡°Listen Magnus¡­¡± she started, clearly uncomfortable with apologizing to me. I doubt she ever apologized.


    I was in the hall, reading a book on a bench, waiting to go eat lunch with Celestia when Amanda appeared.


    ¡°Can I help you?¡± I asked her looking up from my book.¡±


    I looked her up and down. She hadn¡¯t changed much from the duel. Her hair was still a mess, with knots everywhere. Her school uniform was missing the tie we had to wear, and her shirt was unbuttoned, allowing you to see a bit of her chest. She till defied the rules I see.


    ¡°Uh yeah, listen I just want to¡­¡± she muttered.


    ¡°Want to what?¡± I asked again.


    ¡°Let me finish! This I awkward for me to do, I¡¯ve only done this towards Jessica.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡±


    ¡°Look, Magnus, I¡¯m just here to apologize for how I acted during the duel. I harmed you a bit too much. But I still stand by what I said before the fight.¡±


    With that, she left me once again alone. A few minutes later I saw Celestia coming my way. I waved at her, she waved back. I made my way towards her until I was stopped by somebody who entered my field of vision.


    ¡°Follow me, Elenore Magnus,¡± Atlas told me.

 Ch.12 Hi Mom. Ill Make you Proud.

    Atlas and I were in town walking along the sidewalk, heading south. When he had spotted me in the hall, he had told me to follow him.


    ¡°There¡¯s something that requires my attention, and I would like to have your company, Elenore Magnus.¡± He told me when we crossed in the hall.


    I judged by the look in his eyes, that he wasn¡¯t going to take no for an answer. So I agreed to accompany him on whatever he had to attend too. I had to cancel my lunch time with Celestia, which bummed me out, but she said it was fine. If the number two needed me, it must be important.


    ¡°Thank you again for coming with me,¡± Atlas said, while we were walking downtown.


    ¡°It¡¯s no problem, but I felt a bit forced though,¡± I replied truthfully.


    He laughed. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m told that often by others. In school, I act more professional. But outside, I act more carefree.¡±


    ¡°Since we¡¯re in town, won¡¯t people flock to you when they see you? You are a pretty big deal after all.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine really. I send Nova out in town to do the groceries before I attend my business. More people flock to her than they do me.¡±


    I gave him a playful punch on the arm. ¡°You¡¯re an ass, I hope you know that.¡±


    He simply grinned at my remark. I guess he knew I was right. It had started to rain a bit as we continued to walk, it was a slight drizzle, so nothing we couldn¡¯t handle, but considering the looming gray clouds in the distant, it was sure to get worse.


    ¡°So where are we going anyway?¡± I eventually asked. It was a question had been nagging in the back of my mind, as we walked out of town.


    Atlas looked at me with a somewhat surprised look on his face. ¡°You don¡¯t know this route? Look around; it leads to somewhere important for the both of us.¡± He answered.


    I looked around. We had left the town behind us and had entered open road and empty fields on the left and right. The only thing of note here was a church to pray to the Beings and a cemetery where the dead were buried. I remember being here before in the past. It was not a happy memory, nor will it ever be. I was still a child when I was here, and I vowed to never come back here. It was the cemetery where my mother was buried.


    ¡°Mom,¡± I muttered with a shaky breath.


    Atlas nodded. ¡°Yes exactly. Every week, I find time to come to your mother¡¯s grave to pay my respects. She saved my life, but she passed away before I could express my gratitude. It was the only thing I could think of doing to express my appreciation towards her.¡±


    The death of mom was something I had trouble handling. I was just a child after all when she passed away. I couldn¡¯t bear to see my mom being buried under the ground. I wanted to one day, visit her again, but I kept remembering the pain I felt that day, losing her, and I always felt scared. I would ultimately fail to visit her and always pushed it back.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    We arrived at the cemetery shortly after. The drizzle had transformed into a pretty constant rain (very clich¨¦). Tombstones were lined up row by row, column by column. Flowers and items that held symbolic value decorated the tombstones, to honor and show respect to the deceased. I followed Atlas as we made our way to the final resting place of my mother. Dried, withered flowers were at the base of the tombstone. Atlas removed them and laid some fresh flowers he had bought while we were in town. I had bought some too when he suggested I do the same. I put mine beside his. Together, in silence, we stared at the words that were carved into the stone:


    Grimoire Scarlet


    XXXX-XXXX


    Wife, Mother, Savior


    Atlas gave me a nudge. I nodded and knelt in front of the tombstone, taking a shaky breath.


    ¡°Hi, Mom,¡± I told it. ¡°I hope you and dad are having fun together. Zac and I miss you guys.¡±


    I had tears welling up in my eyes. I felt scared, lost, alone and vulnerable. I had no family left. My parents were dead and my brother could potentially be executed. Tangela was the only one I had left. But she wasn¡¯t though. I had Celestia with me as well. And her family as well. Eve and Atlas seemed to care a lot about me. I may have lost my blood family, but I had made a new one. One that I refused to see destroyed.


    ¡°I¡¯m doing well. Tangela, a spirt dad gave me, has been treating me well and keeps me company. Celestia came back from Craynax. Now we¡¯re teammates and dorm mates! I¡¯ve already gotten into some fights at school, but I¡¯ve been fending off for myself.¡± I continued talking to her.


    At this point, I was openly crying. I had my fingers digging into the dirt as I spoke to mom. I missed her so much, and I never could work up the courage to visit. I felt so stupid all these years, never visiting her, but finally being here, in front of where she lay, I felt better, safer, like she was with me right now, still alive, holding me in her arms or embracing me in a hug.


    ¡°I¡¯m planning on participating in the Magi Magic Games and becoming a representative of Vextel in the Zone Games. I¡¯ll train really hard and do the best I possibly can for you and dad. I hope I win so I can hopefully get big bro back. I¡¯ll make you guys proud.¡±


    Atlas placed a hand on my shoulder, signaling it was time to go, as the rain was worsening. I got up, brushed myself off and wiped the tears out of my eyes. I smiled at the tombstone. ¡°I¡¯ll visit again soon mom, I promise.¡±


    Atlas gave his regards as well, telling mom that he¡¯s forever grateful for what she had given him, the chance of living. He told her how he met me and says that he¡¯ll keep an observant eye on me.


    ¡°Feel better?¡± Atlas asked me as we made our way back into town.


    ¡°Much better. How did you know that this would make me feel better?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t, I just wanted you to accompany me, Magnus.¡± He replied.


    It suddenly became a downpour, making us have to sprint back into town. Atlas and I were completely drenched once we made it in town, and we were starting to get cold as well. There was no way we were making it back to school without catching colds.


    ¡°I live near here; we¡¯ll shelter there for the meantime.¡± Atlas offered.


    I took his offer; there was no way I was going to go back to school in this state of dress. As we sprinted to his place, my mind wandered off to mom, I was grateful that Atlas brought me to go see her. Maybe in a way, she was still looking over me, but through the guise of Atlas. I had promised her I would visit again soon. I would plan to go every week with Atlas to see her and make the occasional trip back home to see dad. I was going to make them proud of me. But I had already accomplished that. I would always make my parents proud.

 Ch.13 Atlas, Tell Me Who You Really Are!

    Atlas had rented an apartment outside of town. It was an old apartment that had a relatively cheap monthly payment. Atlas used it to avoid the media or used it as his home away from school as he disliked the boy¡¯s dormitories, for being too loud and dirty. By the time we reached the building complex, both of us were completely drenched and I wanted to get changed for obvious reasons. Just to paint you a picture, we have to wear white uniforms. Both of us are drenched and I didn¡¯t feel comfortable with Atlas checking out my underwear, and I¡¯m sure he could return the feelings. Once again, very clich¨¦, but life is life.


    We quickly entered his apartment. As Atlas said, the apartment was nothing grand. It was a three-room apartment, from the looks of it. The living space was the kitchen and living room merged together. I assumed that the other two remaining rooms were the bedroom and washroom.


    ¡°Washroom, now,¡± I said urgently as soon as we got in.


    Atlas, everting his gaze pointed to the nearest room.


    ¡°It¡¯s right over there.¡± He stammered.


    I rushed over to the washroom, quickly closing the door behind me. I removed my damp, soaking wet uniform in the hamper that was available and rummaged through the drawers and cabinets looking for a towel so I could dry off. I eventually found the cabinets that held the towels. I took two out. I wiped myself down with one of them and then proceeded to rub it on my hair vigorously to dry my hair. My hair became a mess as a result, but it was worth it if it meant I was dry.


    ¡°I let some of Nova¡¯s clothing by the door. I¡¯ll be in the other room changing.¡± Atlas said, knocking on the door to get my attention.


    I opened the door and sure enough, there was a pair of Nova¡¯s clothing. I picked them up, closed the door and put them on. It was a snug fit, to say the least.


    I exited the washroom after cleaning myself up and three the other towel to Atlas so he could dry his hair.


    ¡°Thanks.¡± He said. ¡°How is Nova¡¯s clothing? I assume you guys share similar measurements.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re fine, but it¡¯s a fit tight around the chest. Clearly, we don¡¯t share the same sizes in that department.¡± I joked.


    ¡°Is that so?¡± he stammered to which I laughed.


    I checked outside the window, where unfortunately it portrayed the heavy rain outside. It didn¡¯t seem like it was going to let up.


    ¡°Get comfortable on the couch or something; I think we¡¯ll be here for a while.¡±


    I sat on the couch, staring outside, while Atlas went in the kitchen to make us lunch(as we did not have lunch) and call Eve to explain our situation so the school doesn¡¯t panic. He came back with a plate full of sandwiches filled with different stuff from eggs, to ham to PB and J. He also had two cups of coffee, which he gave me, one. I took a sip of the coffee just to warm myself up inside.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°I just got off the phone with Eve; we¡¯ve been excused for the rest of the day,¡± Atlas told me.


    ¡°That¡¯s nice.¡±


    ¡°Yeah just don¡¯t expect Eve to always be like this, she still has to show discipline after all. She can be pretty strict, trust me, I¡¯ve seen it first-hand.¡±


    ¡®Oh really?¡± I raised an eyebrow.


    He laughed. ¡°My first year at Golden Sierra, so last year, before I participated in the Magi Magic Games and the Zone Games, Eve and I were in the same class. Elections for the Student Council also started that year, as the previous student president had graduated. Eve shocked the school, by getting an overwhelming amount of the votes. Let¡¯s just say that a first year with new found power is not a recipe for success. Eve and I had a heated rivalry as we clashed during school and outside of school. It came to a peak, in the tryouts of the MMG, where my team beat hers.¡± He explained.


    ¡°So she calmed down after?¡± I asked.


    ¡°She left her high school personality behind her and became an entirely new person after the tryouts. We became friends if you will. I was quite surprised at the sudden shift in personality myself.¡±


    ¡°What about Nova?¡±


    ¡°What about her?¡±


    ¡°Well, how is she like? Cause frankly she doesn¡¯t seem to like me all that much.¡±


    Atlas nodded and chuckled at my statement in agreement. He explained that Nova was someone that was all about getting results. She was a closed off gal, that showed certain emotions to specific people.


    ¡°Truth be told, her being somewhat rude to people is annoying along with her ¡®switch¡¯ when she acts like a child around me sometimes.¡±


    ¡°Thank you!¡± I exclaimed, startling Atlas a little bit. ¡°I knew I wasn¡¯t the only one who noticed that!¡±


    Atlas and I talked for hours, jabbing jokes at each other, talking about anything we could think of, overall just enjoying ourselves. The rain dragged on for the majority of the day, so we were practically trapped in his apartment for the rest of the day. I called Celestia to explain the situation so she and Tangela wouldn¡¯t panic.


    ¡°So I¡¯ll only be home tomorrow. I¡¯m staying at Atlas¡¯ place till this rain passes.¡± I told her.


    I immediately regret telling her with whom I was with.


    ¡°With Atlas huh? Well, I won¡¯t take up any more of your guy¡¯s time. You two enjoy yourselves.¡± She kid.


    ¡°Shut up!¡± I yelled. ¡°You know full well, that we aren¡¯t doing anything of the sort!¡±


    ¡°But you may later though. Just admit it El! Atlas is a good looking guy, and you¡¯re a good looking girl I guess (I was gonna kill her, in a friendly way of course and not literally, duh). And when two people love each other very much-¡±


    ¡°Go to hell!¡± I told her, pressing the end button on my phone. I could almost imagine her and Tan laughing their butts off at my discomfort. I was totally gonna get back at them.


    ¡°Hey, Atlas.¡±


    ¡°What is it, Magnus?¡± He answered as he took a sip of coffee.


    ¡°Tell me about yourself.¡±


    Atlas spat out his coffee, coughing as he recovered. ¡°Excuse me?¡± He asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s like I said. Tell me about yourself. I barely know anything about you, apart from your name, appearance, and magic art.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that enough?¡± he followed up.


    I shook my head. ¡°Not for me. I want to know how you met my mother. I want to know more about mom. She didn¡¯t say much of her work to anyone in the family. So I want to know about you and my mom.¡±


    Atlas fidgeted with his cup of coffee. ¡°I¡¯ve never really told anyone about my past. Only a very select few know of my history. But I assume you won¡¯t take a simple ¡®no¡¯ for an answer?¡±


    ¡°Not unless you want me to continuously pester you about it. Trust me; I will be persistent Mr. Ryder.¡±


    He sighed. ¡°Very well I might as well tell you. But this does not leave this room. Capisce?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Capisce?¡±


    ¡°It means do you understand, back on Nebula.¡±


    ¡°Ohhhh, getting all fancy on me now aren¡¯t you?¡±


    Atlas facepalmed. ¡°I think I understand why Nova finds you slightly annoying.¡±


    ¡°Hey!¡±

 Ch.14 The Life of Number 2 Atlas!

    My life and my fateful meeting with Grimoire Scarlet happened when I was about five years old. My Soulpurge started to slowly kill me, as my Stigma couldn¡¯t handle the power of my magic. The first signs appeared one day when I was at a park on my homeland Nebula. I was playing with my older sister in a sandbox. It was a day I remember to this day so vividly, as my life flashed before my eyes.


    It was an extremely sunny day on Nebula since the planet happens to orbit two stars. The summers were dry, cruel days, but the wildlife and plants had evolved to get used to the heat. We, humans, adapted to it as well, but we still sweated a lot. The dry heat came rolling in like a freight train. People left and right were sweating like they were a melting glacier. Clothes clung to our skin, damp and sweaty. But I didn¡¯t have a single care in the world. I was just happy playing with my older sister who I adored.


    ¡°Minerva! Let¡¯s build the biggest and best sand castle ever!¡± I happily exclaimed in my child five-year-old voice.


    ¡°Sure thing Atlas.¡± She smiled.


    I was absolutely spoiled by Minerva. I adored my older sister. Well, she was my step-sister to be precise. Minerva Highborn. At the time she was thirteen, meaning she¡¯d be twenty-five today. My mother was never a big fan of Minerva. They would constantly argue, as my mother did not want me near my sister. Eventually, my mother left us, leaving him to raise two kids on his own. When our father died from two stabs and a gunshot wound from a mugger, my mother never even bothered to come try and come back and take me.


    Normally, that would¡¯ve been a problem; a thirteen-year-old teenager having to raise herself and a five-year-boy. In normal conditions, this would¡¯ve been an impossible task. But my sister was good at doing the impossible, too good. Minerva, in short, was a prodigy. No matter what fields she would enter to work in, be it art, science, math, everything. Meaning she¡¯d use her brilliant mind and artistic talents to get the vital money we needed. I remember once a magazine wanted her on their cover! To me, at five years old, this made perfect sense. She had long, silky soft, midnight black hair that seemed to suck in the light around her. She had amethyst purple eyes that shown with intellect and energy.


    So like I said before, she and I were building a sand castle when it suddenly struck. My heart was jabbed with intense pain. I could almost picture a viper biting into my heart. My breathing was cut short fast. Oxygen refused to enter my lungs. I clawed at my chest while gasping and gulping for air.


    ¡°Atlas! Atlas! What¡¯s wrong?!¡± Minerva yelled. ¡°Somebody call an ambulance!¡± She yelled at the other people at the park.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Initially, some people looked at her in confusion. Why call an ambulance at a park? That was nonsense! Their confusion was flipped into panic and worry when they saw me struggling to breath, as I clutched my chest. Phones flashed into view and the local hospital must have received hundreds of calls about this one kid having a heart attack at a park.


    I fell into my sister¡¯s arms, gasping in pain, trying to combat my heart attack. My sister kept calling out my name, weeping. She kept saying that it would be alright. My vision blurred, my hearing got choppy and the darkness came for me. When light re-engulfed my world, I was in the hospital. As soon as I got the news, I wished I had stayed with the darkness. I had been in a coma for an entire month¡¯s time, machines and healing magic keeping me away from the doors of death. The doctors had performed a Stigma scan on me. I was a Prophet. I had an unknown magic and was the owner of five Stigmas. But my Stigmas were low in numbers. They couldn¡¯t properly contain my magic. The result was that my magic was slowly eating away at my body. The doctors said that I had maximum one year left to live on my own, until machines would be required to forcibly keep me alive. Then shortly after I¡¯d be eaten by my magic.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. There is nothing we can do.¡± The doctor weakly said.


    Minerva was sobbing her heart out while I sat on my sick bed, expressionless as if this information didn¡¯t faze me. Minerva didn¡¯t bother to argue with the doctors, because she knew they were right. I was going to die. Well, I was supposed to die. She may have not argued with the doctors, but that didn¡¯t mean she was going to give up on me so easily. She dropped out of school and spent her days doing research and staying by my side at night. Eventually, days, weeks and months passed with little to no fruits of labor to show for it. But that didn¡¯t stop my sister. She kept on rolling like a train. I on the other hand¡­ it wasn¡¯t getting any better. My magic slowly started to attack various organs in my body. It attacked my lungs, my eyes, and my brain. Breathing became a constant struggle. My vision sharply declined forcing me to wear contact lenses or glasses. And I started to get mild psychological damage. Eventually, I was warded off from the other patients, as other patients feared my condition was contagious, even though it wasn¡¯t. My food was brought to me every morning, noon and evening. If I wanted to see someone, I either had to wait for a nurse to arrive to check in on me or hope I¡¯d get visits. Minerva usually was the only one that would visit me (which was perfectly fine with me).


    Then one night, a spark of light started to slip back into my tormented soul. I was hooked up to machines that night as my lungs refused to work properly. Minerva sat by my side, holding my hand, with a reassuring smile on her face. She had the day off and spent the entire day with me. We played various games together, ate together until my lungs failed me. It shocked both of us as it suddenly happened. As I started to slip into a deep sleep. All of a sudden, the door burst open, and a red haired goddess was bathed in the light.


    ¡°Hello.¡± She started. ¡°My name is Grimoire Scarlet. I have what it takes to save your life Atlas Ryder.¡±

 Ch.15 Atlas Could Live?!

    After the woman who had introduced herself as Grimoire Scarlet, announce that she could save my life, Minerva and I were put in a space shuttle, heading to the interstellar planet called Vextel. The hospital papers were already signed which would explain why there was no resistance as we left.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am, how exactly can you save my brother¡¯s life? Traditional ways won¡¯t work on him.¡± Minerva asked politely.


    I sat at the far end of the spacecraft¡¯s passenger bay, still hooked up on some machines. I stared at the lady who called herself Grimoire Scarlet. When she announced that she could save my life, I held her in extremely high regards, after my sister of course. I still had trouble believing my ears. ¡°Save your life.¡± She had said. The only person that had stated that ever since my epidemic started. Scarlet seemed to be young, maybe in her early thirties. She seemed to be gentle and motherly, talking to Minerva and I like we were her children. She had scarlet red hair, that was obviously dyed, most probably to fit her last name. Her golden eyes were delicate and calm, but at the same time shown with passion.


    ¡°It¡¯s very simple.¡± She answered. ¡°We will make your brother, Atlas Ryder into the first artificial Prophet!¡±


    ¡°Artificial Prophet?¡± Minerva asked, confused.


    Scarlet nodded. ¡°The first ever. I¡¯m a scientist and my field of research is looking at Mana, Magic, and Stigma. Stigmas being mutated D.N.A strands have fascinated me to no end. Why do people like me have no Stigmas, while others do? Why can¡¯t we all have Stigmas so we can all harness Mana in the form of Magic? Those are questions I want to find answers for. So my team and I have poured years¡¯ worth of time and resources into a project we call The Stigma Helix Project or SHP for short. In a nutshell, the goal of this project is to help people with no Stigmas like me to be able to experience the joy of wielding magic. To create new forms of magic and build fully, functional, artificial Stigma.¡±


    ¡°But that¡¯s impossible! The body or magic may not even accept these false Stigmas!¡±


    ¡°In any normal event, then yes, it would be impossible. But I¡¯ve looked at Atlas¡¯ medical files. From what I could gather, his situation isn¡¯t the norm. Atlas'' epidemic is a rare case known as Eater Magic Disorder. It is a rare type of illness known to us so far, so there has been no effective counter-measure have been researched so far. As the name implies, a person¡¯s magic eats away at the person¡¯s body, even after death. So if a family wants to keep the body, incineration is needed, albeit the family will have ash. Eater Magic Disorder or EMD, is caused when the magic a person has is too strong for the Stigmas to control. This is a disorder is usually seen in people that wield Grade 1 magic but were born with too few Stigma.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    I saw her hand Minerva a file that held my medical and personal information. Minerva looked through it as Grimoire continued talking.


    ¡°Studies have shown that Prophets wielding Grade 4 to Grade 2 magic usually are born with one or two Stigma, but it is becoming increasingly common to see Prophets with these magics to be born with more. Grade 1 magic users however, naturally are born with about three to five Stigmas, five being the maximum we¡¯ve ever seen in a person. Now, your younger brother Atlas, has five Stigmas, the highest possible amount a human can gain. Well, so far that is. But he has EMD despite this fact which means he is a stronger, deadlier magic that has yet to be discovered. So this is where our man-made Stigmas come into play. We will slice into his genetic buildup into the fake Stigmas so they copy his D.N.A.¡±


    Scarlet walked up to a console, pressing some buttons and a display popped up. It showed an animated step by step of what would happen.


    ¡°These fake Stigmas are made using organic tissues and with the help of organic magic so they essentially act like mutated D.N.A strands. Before his magic starts eating his D.N.A strands, we will operate on Atlas, and cure him, Of course, I cannot promise to you, that this will work, I can only give you my opinion.¡±


    ¡°Essentially, my brother will be a test subject.¡± Minerva stated.


    ¡°Well if you phrase it that way, then yes.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s your opinion on this then? Will it work?¡±


    ¡°Positive.¡±


    Minerva sighed then reluctantly nodded her head. ¡°If this saves my brother¡¯s life, I will be indebted to you.¡±


    ¡°No need. Unfortunately, we only have three Stigmas that are almost finished construction. We will have to hope that his body and magic accept the new Stigmas and hope they will be enough to control his magic. If not, Atlas will most likely die.¡±


    We were on that ship for almost a month. Every time that I would look out the windows, Vextel and the other three interstellar planets loomed closer and closer. I was blown away at how different the interstellar planets looked compared to Nebula. Blue oceans, green landscapes and gorgeous weather. On the day that our ship landed on Vextel, we were lead to a car. Minerva, Scarlet and I got into the car and headed into the unknown. I sat in the back along with Minerva, who was clutching my arm. She gets scared and nervous easily in places she didn¡¯t know.


    ¡°We have arrived.¡± Grimoire Scarlet announced a few hours later.


    We had pulled up to a big building complex. People in lab coats, doctor and nurse uniforms were waiting for us at the entrance of the building.


    ¡°Welcome to Vextel and your new home Atlas. This is where you will be staying in the upcoming months. We will be conducting various check-ups on you. You will be placed on a diet, and placed on a training regimen.¡± Grimoire told me.


    ¡°For you Ms. Minerva, you¡¯ll be placed in school and adapt to life here on Vextel. You will be able to see your brother quite regularly. I hear that you are a prodigy. You will no doubt be of great help to all of us.¡±

 Ch. 16 Mom Saves The Day!

    My new life on Vextel was in short, very restrictive and scheduled. Every morning and evening I had scans performed on me to monitor the rate of my degrading body. After every breakfast, lunch, and supper, I had to work out to the best of my abilities to keep it in shape. I didn¡¯t mind my new restrictive lifestyle, but what I did mind was how I could only see Minerva a couple of times each month. Instead, it was Grimoire Scarlet who took over as being the parental figure in my life. She would be there with me every day to check up on me and see how I was doing. Sometimes I would see her walking around the building talking to other doctors or scientists. Somedays, however, Scarlet didn¡¯t visit me because she was backed up by work. I got upset over that fact, despite knowing that she was very busy trying to save my life. I was holed up in this building for four years now, meaning I was now nine-years-old and in a bad state. Heart attacks and organ failure were becoming more and more common. Somedays I had to be hooked up to machines for the entire day. But I endured it. I had faith in Grimoire Scarlet, who had become a mother figure in my life.


    One day I was in her office, doing those regular medical checkups like measuring your weight and height, your breathing, blood pressure etc. She proceeded to take a sample of my blood and saliva, putting them in test tubes than in a machine that will compare them to previous blood and saliva samples to find changes in my body. I noticed that Grimoire had bags under her eyes, and was working sluggishly today.


    ¡°Ms. Scarlet, you¡¯ve been looking quite exhausted lately. Is there something wrong?¡± I observed.


    She gave me a reassuring smile as she ruffled my hair. ¡°No, no, just having some family issues.¡±


    ¡°Do you have kids?¡± I asked.


    She nodded. ¡°Yes I do, two actually. Both of them are wonderful kids.¡±


    ¡°What are their names?¡±


    ¡°The oldest one is Zac Magnus and the youngest is Elenore Magnus. She¡¯s nine, just like you. Both of them are Prophets as well.¡±


    The machine interrupted our conversation as it made a beeping sound. Scarlet focused her attention on the display monitor, checking the results. She nodded to herself before returning her attention to me.


    ¡°The time has arrived Atlas. We can now operate on you. Your body is weak enough that it¡¯ll be forced to accept these new Stigmas if your body wants to live. I have to get the operation room ready. Your surgery will take place tomorrow afternoon.¡± She announced.


    She hastily gathered her documents and left the room, leaving me alone, unsure of what to do. I glanced around the room, expecting someone to pop up and give me directions on where to go next. Instead, a document caught my attention. It was a sheet of paper that stood out like a sore thumb because it had a picture of sis. I sat there, eyeing the document, wondering what it possibly could contain. Eventually, curiosity won out and I snatched the file. I opened it and the first piece of paper was a file with my sister¡¯s information. It dated back from four years ago:


    Minerva Highborn, female, thirteen years of age. Child of Jules Arcadia and Sarah Highborn. Status: Prophet. Stigma: Five. Magic: Grade 1, Abyssal Space. Sibling(s): Atlas Ryder. Signs of Stigma Deformation: Present. Specifics: Black hair, that sucks in light around it. Blood type: AB-Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Then I looked at the next piece of paper which had more recent data. Data from this year to be exact. Almost the entire file was changed:


    Minerva Highborn, female, seventeen of age. Parents are unknown. Status: Prophet. Stigma: Five. Magic: Grade 1, Abyssal Space. Sibling(s): None. Signs of Stigma Deformation: Present. Specifics: Black hair, that sucks in light around it. Blood type: Unknown.


    The papers dropped out of my hands, scattering all over the floor. I was in complete shock. How were her parents were unknown? How was I no longer her brother? What was going on? I couldn¡¯t get the answers that I wanted as a nurse found me alone, and brought me back to my room, and got me ready for sleep. I fell asleep that night with all this new information stuck in my mind.


    Today was the day. Today was the long-awaited day. Today was the day to see if I would live, or I would fade away and die. There was barely any time left before the surgery would take place. I was lying down on the operation table, surrounded by a fleet of surgeons, nurses, scientists and government officials here to witness the success or failure of the Stigma Helix Project. Minerva wasn¡¯t present before I went under. I had so many questions to ask her. I was disappointed that she wasn¡¯t here. I wondered if she was late, forgot about the date of my operation or just believed that I would survive. Either way, it didn¡¯t matter as soon after, I felt sleepy and lost unconscious.


    I remember I was floating in an empty space. My limbs refused to respond. I just drifted endlessly with no destination in sight. But I had visions, or maybe they were dreams. They flashed by me so fast I didn¡¯t have time to see them. But I thought I saw a girl with gold eyes fighting an older man. She was crying, and bruised, while the man looked at her with a pained look. I tried to see what was going on, but it abruptly ended, as a hand yanked me back up to the world of the living.


    I opened my eyes. My vision was extremely fuzzy due to my poor eye sight. I blinked multiple times then suddenly my vision became crystal clear. The fuzzy silhouettes of the people around me cleared up. Minerva, Grimoire Scarlet and a mix match of other people were silently glaring at me.


    ¡°W-where am I?¡± I groaned. My head felt heavy.


    ¡°You¡¯re back on you sick bed.¡± Scarlet responded.


    ¡°Atlas! Are you alright?!¡± Minerva asked me. I wanted to ask her questions, but I decided now may not be the right time to do so. I noticed she was clutching my left arm. My eyes bugged out. What happened to my arm?! It was covered in black scars. I rushed out of bed, ripping off my shirt and stared at myself through the mirror installed in my room. I nearly dropped dead from the reflection itself. I was looking at me, but I was an entirely different person. Those black scars were all over the left side of my chest as well, creeping up my neck. One of my eyes had also turned completely black.


    ¡°Stigma Deformation. Only occurs on people that can wield Grade 1 magic.¡± Scarlet explained. ¡°Congratulations Atlas Ryder, you are the first ever artificial Prophet.¡±


    Present


    ¡°So it really is a miracle that you¡¯re alive.¡± I told Atlas.


    He nodded his head. ¡°In short yes it is.¡±


    ¡°So what happened afterwards?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Multiple things. Minerva vanished without a trace after my safety was guaranteed. My health eventually returned to top form. My organs became stronger. Then shortly after, your mother passed away.¡±


    ¡°You have no idea where your sister may have disappeared off too?¡± I asked him, turning the conversation away from mom. I had promised to visit more often, but it didn¡¯t mean I was fine talking about her.


    ¡°Unfortunately, yes. Even now, I still have nagging thoughts about what I saw on her medical files. There must be a good reason for her disappearance. But I will find out in due time, and once I find her, I¡¯m getting answers.¡± He stated.

 Ch. 17 Hi Big Bro.

    I sat in a small room, which was empty except for a lone chair facing a window. Two guards stood outside, ready to pounce if anything happened. On the other side of the glass was a dark room, which also had a chair in front of the glass, and a door at the far end. It had been a few months since I had last been in a room like this, so I was a bit nervous.


    ¡°Alright, Bring him in.¡± a voice buzzed in.


    On the other side of the glass, the door opened and someone walked in. mixed emotions flooded into me when I see. I was pissed. I was angry at how that place was treating him. He looked like a slave. His clothing was dirty beyond dirty. They were ripped everywhere, and at some places, there were entire chunks of clothing missing. He had scars and gashes all over his body. He looked like a skeleton. He was extremely thin from malnutrition to the point where you could see his bones. His dirty blond hair was longer than my hair, which was long. But despite all of that, I was still happy to see that he was still kicking.


    ¡°Hey, big bro. It¡¯s nice to see you again.¡± I said while giving off my best smile.


    Zac lifted his head to look at me through the window. In his eyes, I could see the pain and torment he¡¯d been through. It was painful to watch. But when he saw me and recognized me, life flooded back into him. He smiled that contagious smile of his, a smile that made you feel all warm inside and sent tingles down your body. Despite what he''s going through, he still had that smile.


    ¡°Elenore! I didn¡¯t think that you would be my guest today. It feels like it¡¯s been months!¡± Zac exclaimed.


    I giggled. ¡°It has been months since we last saw each other.¡±


    He scratched his head grinning. ¡°Sorry sis, you lose track of time stuck in here.¡±


    ¡°But they didn¡¯t inform you I was your guest?¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°No, they didn¡¯t. I assumed it was governmental officials or my lawyer. They just told me someone wanted to see me and they dragged me off to this heap of rock.¡±


    ¡°How was the trip from Area 1 to here?¡±


    He rubbed his hands together. ¡°It¡¯s definitely not the best trip I¡¯ve taken, but I got here safe and sound. But enough about me, how are you doing sis? How¡¯s school? Made any new friends? Anybody I have to beat up once I get out of here?¡± he asked.


    I laughed. My brother still had a sense of humor even though he was branded a traitor. He always refused to talk about it, always changing the topic of the conversation to something more pleasant, usually, me being the focus as well I was freer than him.


    ¡°School¡¯s awesome!¡± I told him. ¡°Celestia came back from Craynax and we¡¯re partners! You do remember her right?¡±The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t she the one that challenged you to a chest growing contest?¡± he asked grinning.


    I blushed in embarrassment. Celestia did, in fact, challenge me to a chest growing competition when we were kids. It would explain her actions in the bathtub back when school started.


    ¡°That¡¯s not the point! But anyway we won our first duel together a few days ago. Oh! And I met Atlas Ryder!¡±


    Zac raised an eyebrow. ¡°Atlas Ryder huh? Wasn¡¯t he mom¡¯s patient? The one that she planned to turn into an artificial Prophet? He lived?¡±


    ¡°Well, obviously he lived idiot. I wouldn¡¯t have told you that I met him if he was dead.¡± I snorted.


    Zac laughed while scratching the back of his head. ¡°Sorry, sorry. It was stupid of me to ask. So how is he like?¡±


    ¡°At school, he¡¯s a secluded guy. He doesn¡¯t seem to like the attention of others. He¡¯s the school¡¯s second strongest, though it¡¯s rumored that he¡¯s holding back his real strength. Outside of school, he¡¯s an all-around cool guy.¡±


    ¡°Out of school huh? You guys dating or something?¡± Zac joked.


    Before I could answer, however, Zac suddenly got out of his chair and acted all dramatic.


    ¡°I cannot believe this. Elenore Magnus, my adorable little sister has a boyfriend! Alas, I always knew this day would arrive, but so soon and so young? I¡¯m flabbergasted yet so proud Elenore! Please, you¡¯ll have to introduce me to this Atlas Ryder now. I¡¯ll have to tell him not to mess with my little sister.¡±


    I felt my whole face go red. ¡°Shut up Zac! You know that I¡¯m not dating him!¡±


    He grinned and sat back down. ¡°You¡¯re so easy to embarrass El; it¡¯s hard not to make jabs at you.¡±


    We continued to talk about my school life and life in general. I told him about my fight with Trevor and my duel with Amanda and Jessica Horn. Something Zac didn¡¯t seem thrilled about.


    ¡°So people vent their frustration on you for what happened to me huh? Not cool. They better hope that we never meet when I get out of here.¡± He said.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine Zac, really. I beat them anyway, so I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll attack me again. Also, don¡¯t make this any harder for you.¡± I told him pointing to the door behind me where the two guards were.


    ¡°When? You sound pretty confident that you¡¯ll be set, free big bro.¡±


    He smiled. ¡°Well of course. I¡¯m innocent. My lawyer is fighting hard to prove the court that I¡¯ve been wrongly accused, and I¡¯ll be set free eventually.¡±


    The door behind me opened up. ¡°Miss. Magnus, your time is up. Please leave the room as soon as possible.¡± One of the guards yelled.


    ¡°Looks like our time together is up sis. Hey, don¡¯t give that face. We¡¯ll see each other again soon. You just have to schedule another meeting.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I guess.¡±


    Zac stood up from his chair and stretched. We waved each other goodbye. I watched him as he walked back to the door and disappeared into the door. I left the building shortly after asking the guards when I could schedule another meeting with him.


    ¡°We do not know Miss. Magnus. We will notify you whenever there¡¯s a spot open.¡±


    I thanked him and left the building. There was a commotion in the streets that was drawing a rather large group of people.


    ¡°Hey what¡¯s going on?¡± I asked a bystander.


    ¡°There¡¯s going to be a fight between two students of two different schools. Apparently one of them is Nova Eclipse, the strongest student at Golden Sierra Mana academy!¡± he told me as he pursued the crowd.


    Nova huh? This might be useful to see her fight, considering she is the number one strongest at our school. I decided to follow the crowd to see the fight.


    Zac Magnus was back in the transport shuttle, heading back to his home that was Area 1. Shackles were placed on his ankles and wrists, and he was tied to a seat so he couldn¡¯t move. He was happy that he could still see his sister after all that has been going on. Seeing his dear little sister was almost worth all the pain. Almost.


    ¡°She¡¯s a good kid, that Elenore. I hope her eyes will open soon.¡± He said to himself. A smile spread on his face. A different kind of smile.

 Ch. 18 Go Nova Go!

    The fight was gonna take place at a nearby arena, where you could schedule times to have the arena to yourself for training or in this case a duel. I followed the crowd and we filled into the available seats protected behind a force field I managed to get a seat that was the closest to the arena, right beside the protective shield. Sure enough, Nova was there, standing in the arena facing another opponent from another school.


    The opponent was a guy. He wore a black school uniform with a red tie, which loosely dangled from his neck. On both hands, he wore black leather gloves. His pants were also black but had tears and holes on them. He had slick brown hair that looked like he dumped a barrel of gel on them. He had musky green eyes, like a swamp with is nasty color and gloomy trees. He gave off a somewhat aggressive presence, not like Amanda¡¯s but more like somebody who has a dominant presence, someone who liked to be in control. It was a weird clash with his appearance, as he looked like some guy who would be up to mischievous activities.


    ¡°Who is he?¡± I muttered to myself.


    ¡°His name is William Banks. He used to be Nova¡¯s old partner.¡± Atlas answered my question.


    I nearly jumped out of my seat. Atlas was suddenly sitting beside me. He wasn¡¯t there before.


    ¡°By the Beings At-¡±


    Atlas shushed me. ¡°Please refrain from calling me by name, I would rather not be noticed. Let¡¯s give Nova and William all the attention ya?¡±


    I nodded at his request. He didn¡¯t really like showing his presence in public, which would explain why he was hiding his face and scars with a hoodie and using a fake lens on his black eye to give it the same color as his right.


    ¡°So why are you here then? Wouldn¡¯t it be safer if you stayed at school or at your apartment?¡± I asked.


    ¡°It would be, but I am also intrigued by this fight. It is a duel of old teammates after all.¡±


    ¡°So what caused the break-up of the team?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re looking at him. I¡¯m aware that Eve told you a brief history of Nova and me in the Zone Games. I and my old partner beat Nova and William when we faced off yes, but my partner got injured in a match that wouldn¡¯t be healed in time for our next match so we had to resign. My partner was a third year, so my partner graduated and I needed to find another teammate to form a team. Nova was fixated on me beating her and came here to find me and demanded she be my teammate.¡±


    ¡°So why is William Banks here?¡±


    ¡°Probably to try and get Nova back. He¡¯s a stubborn guy. He could team up with other strong magic users but he is devoted to having Nova as her teammate.¡± Atlas answered.


    Damn. That guy followed Nova from Skyria just to get her back? That¡¯s some dedication. It creeped me out.


    ¡°Nova! If I win this duel you will become my teammate once again!¡± William called out.


    Nova snorted. ¡°Why would I join you? My teammate is far better than you. I¡¯d be insane to join with you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve trained myself. You¡¯ll see that I am far stronger than last year. I¡¯ll beat you and prove to you that you should be my partner!¡± He declared.


    Nova just waved him off with a flick of her hand. She proceeded to nod towards the announcer and judge of the duel. The announcer nodded.


    ¡°Welcome everybody. You are all here to witness a duel between Nova Eclipse of Golden Sierra Mana academy and William Banks of Crescent Moon academy from Skyria. I will be your announcer and judge for this duel.¡± He announced.


    The crowd politely clapped to both combatants. The announcer waited for the crowd to quiet down before continuing.


    ¡°Let faith and fortune rain down on both combatants! The Beings salute you all!¡± He yelled as the buzzer rang, commencing the fight.


    William immediately broke into a run, making a sprint to reach Nova. Nova didn¡¯t move but instead decided to stay in place.


    ¡°William here is at a disadvantage. He is a brawler; close quarter combat is his strong suit. He uses magic that is very similar to Trevor, A Physicalist.¡± Atlas explained. ¡°Nova, however, she doesn¡¯t have that limitation. She can attack from close range, mid-range or long range thanks to her magic. William packs quite a punch, I¡¯ve had to fight against him after all, but Nova is stronger.¡±Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    I didn¡¯t pay much attention to Atlas; I was completely absorbed in this fight. Glowing runes appeared on William¡¯s arms and hands; they glowed red, scorching red.


    ¡°The difference between Trevor¡¯s and William¡¯s magic is that William can alter his runes. Trevor can only buff himself with his runes, but William can alter his. He can make them emit heat to the point where if punched; it will feel like you¡¯ve been hit by a blazing inferno. He can make it fell like you¡¯ve been punched by a speeding train, been electrocuted by lightning, have the air knocked out of your lungs.¡± Atlas explained further.


    Back to the fight, William had Nova take on a defensive stance. He was absolutely unrelenting, throwing punches left and right with no sign of letting up. Nova had used her Veil magic to set up a rainbow shield in front of her to take the blows of William¡¯s attacks. But William kept smashing the shield to smithereens, forcing Nova to keep putting one up.


    ¡°I thought you said that Nova would be stronger!¡± I exclaimed, seeing Nova not being able to throw in an attack.


    ¡°Back in the Zone Games, Nova was stronger than William. I guess he really did train a lot for this fight. But of course, only a moron would think that Nova is backed into a corner.¡±


    Turning back to the fight, William was still dishing out punches, but at a slower, more sluggish rate. Nova, however, looked rather unscathed, except for a few bruises and cuts. William, on the other hand, was a waterfall. His hair was drenched in sweat, splattered over his face, covering his eyes, probably making it harder for him to see. Nova was willingly putting herself on the defensive to tire William down and it was clearly working.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong William? Getting tired? I thought you said that you had trained for this fight?¡± Nova taunted him.


    William¡¯s eyes narrowed as he growled. He clenched both his fists, put them together and lifted them in the air.


    ¡°Oh shi-¡± Nova cried with widened eyes.


    She started to quickly back away from William, turning around to run away, but she was too little too late. William brought down both fists, slamming them on the ground. Initially, nothing happened, but then shockwaves could be felt, big shockwaves, powerful shockwaves. They were powerful enough to fracture the seats we were sitting on, even making a vendor lose his balance and topple over.


    So sure enough, the shockwaves were more than enough to send Nova to the ground and her foot got stuck in a fracture in the ground that wasn¡¯t originally there. As she tried to get up, she clearly broke her ankle, as it was twisted to an unnatural degree. Nova let out a cry of pain as the spectators gasped. Atlas visibly winced as the ankle broke.


    William walked up to Nova huffing and gasping for air. He ran a hand through his wet hair, bringing it back, so it no longer obstructed his view.


    ¡°See? I told you I trained. You really shouldn¡¯t have taunted me, Nova. As a result, you¡¯ve got a broken ankle, that won¡¯t be healing well anytime soon. Just give up, I¡¯ve won.¡± William demanded.


    But from Nova, he only got an unwavering grin and furious eyes. ¡°Over my dead body William.¡± She exclaimed as she spat on him.


    William wiped away the spit of his cheek with the back of his hand, shrugged and picked Nova up with his other hand, lifting her off the ground. ¡°Have it your way.¡±


    He proceeded to bring back his free hand, balled it into a fist and started to repeatedly punch Nova in the stomach. Nova winced in pain as she received punch after punch. If the damage was minimal, her ribs would be bruised, at the worst, her ribcage was completely shattered, under the strength of the punches.


    ¡°This is not going well for Nova, I may have underestimated William,¡± Atlas muttered.


    Nova clawed, or rather tried to claw her way free from William¡¯s grasp, but he stood firm, his hand still clamped around her throat. Spectators muttered among themselves.


    ¡°Disappointed. Nova is better than this.¡±


    ¡°Maybe that William fellow is simply better.¡±


    ¡°One-sided fight if you ask me.¡±


    William suddenly laughed. ¡°Hear that Nova? People think you¡¯re weak, weaker than me.¡±


    Suddenly William became absolutely quiet and so did most of the spectators. William let go of Nova and she quickly crawled away from him, to keep some distance, not that it mattered. Williams was on the ground, in pain, as he clutched a part of his body. Nova kicked him in the you know where. I looked around the audience, as pretty much all men; including Atlas winced as if they could feel his pain.


    ¡°Why Nova?¡± William groaned.


    ¡°Sometimes you gotta play dirty to win Will,¡± Was her reply.


    William had a face of absolute shock and then anger. ¡°YOU KICKED ME IN THE BALLS!¡± (He said it not me).


    ¡°Exactly, playing dirty. You may need to get those checked out by the way.¡± She joked.


    ¡°Asshole.¡± He grunted.


    However, for how dirty Nova¡¯s move was, she was still injured, while William would eventually get back up to finish the fight. He staggered and stumbled for a while, but he did eventually get back on his feet, slowly making his way to Nova, runes reappearing around his arms.


    ¡°He¡¯s going for the finisher,¡± I called out.


    Atlas didn¡¯t answer back, simply staring at the field. I looked at the announcer for the fight, who hadn¡¯t said anything since the fight started. Why was the fight still going on? Clearly, Nova was going to get badly injured.


    ¡°You lose Nova, it¡¯s my win,¡± William stated as he brought back his fist, ready to deliver that knockout blow,


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be so sure about that William,¡± Nova responded.


    William struck, his blow missing Nova by an inch as she scrambled out of the way. She extended her right arm, opening her hand. Underneath William, a circle of light appeared, glowing with magical power.


    ¡°Game over William.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you!¡± William yelled, trying to lunge out of the circle.


    Nova snapped her fingers together and the light of the circle enveloped William, blinding all the spectators including myself. A deafening explosion soon followed, with the light vanishing a few moments later. When all of us could see again, William was on the floor, unconscious and was suddenly tanned. Nova blew him up.


    ¡°The winner is Nova Eclipse from Golden Sierra!¡± The announcer exclaimed.


    The crowd erupted in cheers.

 Hiatus and Announcement

    Hello all,


    This is basically the same thing as my other story The Blade of Gaia, I''ve lost the creative direction for the plot and progression of this story, well more like I have too many ideas on how to progress this story and don''t know which one to pick. Since this is my more popular story per say (and my favorite one to write) expect for this mini-hiatus to be over soon in the upcoming weeks with a new chapter currently in the works. Another short story from Blockage of Writers is nearly finished and will be posted either tonight or tomorrow (Depending on when it is completed and timezones. I have EST)


    Also, I will take this time to announce a new story is currently in the works. I know this would make it the fourth story and I am putting too much on my shoulders along with school and work, but this is a story that I am fiercely passionate about as it is not a story that I revived from high school unlike Blade of Gaia and The Magi Magic Games but is a story that I have started from scratch. Its debut will be in the upcoming weeks and I hope you guys will enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing the chapters.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    Another announcement that I wish to make to put my scheduling on track, is to post one chapter of at least one of my stories once a week. This way I don''t exhaust myself and you guys can at least have one chapter to read. If I post more than that''s a bonus for you. I don''t have a specific arrangement of which story will get a new chapter first, it''s whatever chapter I finish first.


    So thank you for your patience and support, see you soon.


    Cronos_Infinity

 Ch. 19 Attention! Attention!

    Everybody was gathered into the city center of Golden city, the capital city of Vextel. It was an amazing city center. All sorts of buildings could be found here, with many local shops to be found and explore. There were wooden houses, stone houses, steel houses etc. The center stood as a legacy or monument, to show how far the human race had evolved.


    The reasoning for everybody to be gathered in the city center was that sirens started to blare out, soon after Nova¡¯s fight. Sirens were installed in every city, and they would blare different types of sounds to warn the citizens of various events. This time the sirens were warning us that there would be an important announcement to be made.


    In the center of the center (heh good one El), a giant spire rose up, seeming like it could almost touch the sky. Thousands of television screens hung on the spire. Major announcements if needed to be televised would be displayed on the screens on the spire. Every city on Vextel and the other interstellar planets had these. I happened to find myself at the complete back of the crowd along with Nova and Atlas. Which thank The Beings for that; I didn¡¯t want to be squished by complete strangers.


    ¡°Wonder what this broadcast will be about? There weren¡¯t any scheduled broadcasts for today.¡± I asked.


    ¡°There better a damn good reason for this, I can¡¯t get my bloody leg healed and patched until it¡¯s over,¡± Nova growled.


    Right, since the sirens warned us about this broadcast minutes after Nova¡¯s fight, she didn¡¯t have time to get her injuries healed up. So we had to take a chair from a nearby bakery for her to sit on. For all I know, William is probably still unconscious back at the arena.


    Well, let¡¯s look at our options.¡± Atlas butted in. ¡°If it¡¯s an emergency broadcast because it hasn¡¯t been scheduled, that leaves us with a few options. There could have been a change in the government, news about the Abandoned Ones or a meeting between the Beings just took place to discuss planetary matters.¡±


    ¡°Whatever the case is, it must be very important,¡± I added.


    ¡°Whatever the case is, it better be quick or someone¡¯s going to get hurt,¡± Nova added.


    She¡¯s certainly gloomy when hurt. Somebody should give her a chill pill.


    ¡°Thank you all for attending this sudden broadcast. It will now commence.¡± Said a disemboweled robotic voice through the floating speakers placed around the city center.


    The screens on the spire flashed to life, revealing the face of Emma Kane, the president of Vextel. She was a lady in her mid-thirties. She took power three years ago riding on an election platform that well, was her ticket to victory. She had short dirty blond hair that stopped at her chin. She had battle hardened brown eyes showing the population that she was all work and no chat.


    ¡°Hello fellow citizens of Vextel, I apologize for this sudden interruption. This announcement is currently being broadcast to every planet under the Beings¡¯ watchful gaze. Today my fellow citizens is a sad day for all of us. As of five hours ago our beloved Representative of Vextel, Thomas Xen was assassinated in his home.¡±


    Xen was murdered! This was simply unbelievable! Shock and outrage spread throughout the crowd of people. Who could¡¯ve done such a thing?!


    ¡°The killer was an Abandoned One, whom we assume is part of an even bigger opposing force. Unfortunately, the killer committed suicide to avoid capture. May the Beings watch over Thomas Xen during his passing. In the immediate future, I urge fellow planets to increase their security measures to protect their Representatives, their people and the peace from these criminals.¡±Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    The silence seemed to roll all over us as we gave Thomas Xen a moment of silence.


    ¡°Now I will proudly introduce to you the new Representative of Vextel. Citizens, I am proud to present to you our new Representative; Minerva Highborn!¡± Kane announced disappearing off the screen to allow the new representative to be seen.


    The new Representative, Minerva Highborn appeared on the screen¡­ wait, why did that name sound so familiar? Minerva Highborn that name sounded so familiar, but I couldn¡¯t place my finger on it until I saw Atlas¡¯ face that is. His face was in absolute shock. His mouth was wide open, as he stared at the new Representative. I looked over at Nova who quietly nodded at me. That was Atlas¡¯ sister! She fit the profile that Atlas had told me. She had long, midnight black hair that seemed to suck in the light around it, tied in a ponytail like Atlas had said. Her amethyst purple eyes were filled with intellect, determination, and radiance. She wore a black suit, accompanied by a red tie. Even from a screen, her presence was dominating, like she had an aura hungry for respect and subordination.


    ¡°Fellow citizens of Vextel, head my call!¡± Her voice boomed with authority. ¡°Head my call here and now! The Abandoned Ones for too long have terrorized us, refusing to understand what the Beings do for us, is for our protection. They are low lives, thugs, criminals that only wish to upset the peaceful societies of Vextel and the other Interstellar planets.¡±


    The crowd was absolutely stunned. Never have we seen a Representative talk and move with such power. She seemed to control the crowd as she talked. Minerva had complete dominance for us all. I looked at Atlas, and he looked sick. He was shaking uncontrollably, pale as a ghost, inches away from a nervous sweat. This was so out of character for me; I didn¡¯t know how to react.


    ¡°For too long, we lightly punished the Abandoned Ones for their acts of terrorism! They attack our very foundation of living, killing innocent people in the process, and all they get is life imprisonment. And now a Representative has been a victim of one of those acts. We must make an example of these traitors!¡± Minerva barked.


    ¡°No, no, no no no¡± Atlas muttered under his breath. ¡°This is not like her; she wouldn¡¯t do that would she?¡±


    ¡°For the first time in Vextel¡¯s history as a modern society, I have introduced a dead penalty policy to any Abandoned One, by public execution. Break the laws and our way of life, your life will be taken as well. I have already contacted the other Representatives and have urged them to follow. We will rid ourselves of this Abandoned One''s infestation. Head my words fellow citizens; they will no longer inflict pain on our families!¡±


    The screens went black, leaving only an eerie silence among the crowd until the town center burst into cheering. People were applauding and whistling, even a ¡°Minerva¡± chant started to emerge from the crowd. Atlas, Nova and I made our way out of the town center.


    ¡°That was not like Minerva, she would never go so far as killing people. I need to meet her, talk to her.¡± Atlas told us as we left. He had calmed down and regained his composure, but he certainly must still be shaken up.


    Nova pitched in, probably trying to calm Atlas down. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just a ruse, a feint. Maybe she won¡¯t execute actual prisoners; she¡¯ll get fake dummies executed. Some were falsely imprisoned for being falsely accused of being an Abandoned One.¡± It may have been my imagination but I thought I saw Nova flash a glare at me.


    Atlas shook his head. ¡°Maybe, but knowing my sister, I don¡¯t think she¡¯s bluffing.¡±


    ¡°You haven¡¯t seen your sister in years Atlas; you don¡¯t know your sister anymore.¡± Nova cut in.


    I looked ahead and gulped. ¡°Well, we may be getting an answer soon enough, look,¡± I said pointing in front of us.


    In front of us were two police cruisers with a black sedan in the middle. A woman in a suit was waiting outside the car. ¡°Elenore Magnus, your presence is needed elsewhere. Please, if you would kindly.¡± She said, opening the car door.


    ¡°Are you talking her to Minerva?¡± Atlas asked. ¡°I demand to be allowed to follow; I have questions for my sister.¡±


    ¡°Atlas Ryder, you were not one of the people requested, hence I will deny your request. Elenore will be brought back at Golden Sierra when this matter is dealt with.¡±


    Atlas looked like he was going to argue with the woman, but Nova places a hand on his shoulder and shook her head; this wasn¡¯t the time to get aggressive. Atlas huffed in annoyance be reluctantly nodded at me and turned to leave, Nova in tow.


    ¡°If you would kindly Elenore, we¡¯ll be on our way.¡± The woman said. I quietly got into the black sedan, the car door being closed shortly after. The woman got into the driver¡¯s seat and radioed the two police cruisers. They put on their sirens, and with one car in front and one behind, cleared a path for me to whatever my destination was. My gut told me, it wasn¡¯t going to be for anything good.