I looked at my classmates, each of my friends shared the same expression, the expression of someone that was desperate for advise, that they’ll do anything for help.

I broke into a cold sweat and closed my eyes. I slowly extended my hand out in front of me, Growth... Sand began to collect in front of me and formed into a giant ant hill; the other students eyes widened in amusement.

“How'd you do that?” Iniko asked.

To be honest, I didn’t know, I shrugged my shoulders and closed my eyes once more; the ant hill continued to grow, when I opened my eyes, the sand stops. “I just close my eyes and do what the mana tells me to do, Mini, remember when we were in the forest?”

A light bulb went off in Minerva's head; she closed her eyes and focused her thoughts on the ambient mana. Black runes, similar to my own, appeared throughout Minerva's body, however her runes glowed with a calming purple hue; the rest of us watched with intent. Minerva's shadow starts to increase in size as the minutes pass.

Elsewhere in a nearby classroom

Professor Greenwitch looked outside the classroom window and watched his students surpass his expectations, when Professor Bouldier entered the room, “I don't see why you stress your students out like that...”

Professor Greenwitch turns around and smiles, “You'd be surprised what a little pressure can do to potential, Dorinda.”

Professor Bouldier approached the window with her arms crossed; Professor Greenwitch stepped to the side. Professor Bouldier looked out the window at the battlegrounds and her jaw dropped and turned and looked at her colleague with shock. Professor Greenwitch grew a beaming, yet intimidating smile.

“Dmitri... Does Lady Eos know about this,” Professor Bouldier pressed.

He chuckles, “She might, perhaps that’s the reason she asked us to revive the class 1-A and 1-B program.” The two gaze out the window, “It’s a bit bizarre that we know these children’s destiny…”

Professor Bouldier sighed heavily, “For now, we must make sure they’re guided down the appropriate path”.

A sudden gust of wind filled the classroom, much to the professors surprise. The two teachers braced themselves for battle and turned around to see no one in the room with them; they exchanged a look of  concern. “Looks like we have some company... Go notify M'Lady, I’ll take care of our guest” Professor Bouldier commanded.

Professor Greenwitch nodded his head pulled the white feather from his hat and began to scribe, “Aspect of Gaia: Wind Signature: Mercury Winds”. He vanished, leaving Professor Bouldier in the classroom alone. She looked around to see if there are any clues as to who may have been listening in on their conversation, “Crafty”. She looked in the back left corner of the classroom and saw residue from a spacial transportation spell. As she approached the corner, she grew an eerie feeling, as if she were walking into a trap, however she proceeded to examine the evidence from a distance. Upon her examination, she saw stardust mana, “Lady Hypnos,” she muttered. 

Back in the Battlegrounds

Moments passed and each of us were able to cause something to happen; it’s a bit hard to explain, you can see the spell whenever Mini and perform it, but since we’re out side, there was no way for us to know if Renata’s spell was working, and then there was Niko…

I’m not quite sure, but Niko’s signature left Lady Eos speechless. She mentioned that she’d never seen anything like his signature. The day we all learned our affinities, Niko’s scroll kept folding in on itself, Lady Eos placed him in the same class as me since he and I are roommates and we’re the same age. I figured she wants me to mentor him and help him with mana control, which is a little odd considering Mother and Jade both said Niko and I have a similar presence.

While we were all working on the spell, our lovable professor approached us with the same goofy smile taking up majority of his face, “Well, it looks like everyone managed to cast growth! Now, did any of you have any difficulties with this assignment?”

Renata raised her hand, “Yes, why can't we use the dowel-thingy? None of us were able to cast with it...”

The professor grinned and bursted in laughter, “Honestly, I have no clue!”

That wasn’t the answer I was expecting…

You can say that again, Minerva and Niko responded telepathically.

The professor clapped his hands once, “Well, considering you all passed this little quiz, I think it's only fair that we move on with our next lesson...”

Minerva raised her hand, “Which is?”

The professor’s face contorted in another devious grin, “I'll be testing your combat prowess, meaning, I'm going to teach you all how to fight!”

Minerva folded her arms with every once of attitude she could muster, “And what if I know how to fight?”

Professor Greenwitch closed his eyes softly, “Ah yes, you may already know how to throw punches, but that doesn't mean you know how to fight efficiently,” he stated. “For example, let's take two people, one person is a master axman, and the other is a novice swordsman. Given the range advantages the swordsman has, he is nothing compared to the master axman.”

We collectively nodded our heads.

He continued, “That being said, I've assigned a combat class that would best suit each of you. You'll find a Weapons Ticket on your desk in the classroom. You are to take it to the school's armory to receive your practice weapon. Once given, meet back in the classroom for further instructions... Understand?”

Without hesitation, we all rapidly nodded our heads and made our way back to the classroom. When we entered the room, the professor had our tickets sitting on our desks, each of us looked at the ticket and began to pack our things once again to leave.

Minerva looked at her ticket and raised her hand, "Ninjutsu; Sub Class: Shurikenjutsu, what is that?!?” At that moment, a lightbulb went off in her head and the realization made the rest of erupt in laughter. I made my way around the class and inquired about at all of the tickets, Renata's ticket was labeled Ranger; Sub Class: Kyūdō and Iniko's ticket read CQC; Sub Class: Vale Tudo. After we all discussed our new weapon assignments, we made our way to the school’s armory.

The Armory is a separate building from the main school that didn’t look like it could fit two people inside, let alone an entire arsenal of weapons. As we approached the the small shack, we saw a woman sitting chewing some bubblegum and reading a book, she quickly shuffled her belongings out of the way and straightened her posture. “Tickets please,” yelled the armory clerk.

Minerva approached the window and handed her ticket to the clerk. The armory clerk looked at the ticket and smiled gently before stepping away. She returned with a small black box and put it through the window's hatch, “This is a pretty rare weapon class to have, and I have this extra special set just for you,” she exclaimed.

The clerk reopened the hatch and handed Minerva her new weapons, she opened the box and saw an assortment of throwing knives, shuriken, and other ninja tools. She quickly closed the box and grew a devilish smile as she made her way to the back of her class's line.

Renata approached the window next and gave the clerk her ticket; she stepped away for a brief moment and returned with an enormous bow and a quiver full of arrows.

“Ummm, I think this may be too big for me, Ms,” Renata stated with a bit of confusion.

The clerk gives Renata a warm smile, “Trust me when I say, this bow is the perfect size for someone as strong as you, M'Lady.”

Renata blushed and took the bow and arrow set and joined Minerva, the two girls giggled and examined each others weapons.

I directed my attention to Niko, “You should probably go first, I'm pretty sure there won't be any issue finding something for you!”

Niko contorted his face into a grimace, “I'm not sure, I have no idea what CQC even is!”

We both bursted in laughter as we approached the window, Iniko handed the clerk his ticket and she expressed a puzzled face; the confusion she had was enough to draw our attention. She darts her eyes in my direction, “Let me see your ticket...”

I handed the clerk my ticket and she nodded her head; she left the window and actually took longer to return with our weapons. However, she did make it back with a katana and a pair of gauntlets, “I'm not to sure what your professor was thinking, giving you such a difficult fighting style, but he thinks it'll pair nicely with your friend here.”

The clerk opened the window hatch and pushed the gauntlets toward Niko, he immediately tried them on and they fit him perfectly, “Feel free to stop by any time if you need any repairs or upgrades! And don't worry about the cost, I usually just bill your parents”. The clerk waved us goodbye and we made our way back to the main building

Moments Later in the Classroom

When we made it back to the classroom, Professor Greenwitch was waiting eagerly at his desk with that same large goofy smile. I can’t put my finger on it, but he reminds me of a character from an anime I used to watch in my past life. The professor reached into his desk drawer and pulled out three stacks of textbooks, “In addition to the last textbook I handed out, you'll also be studying from these books as well: ShangriLarian Continental Lore, Rudimentary Weapons Grimoire and a Rudimentary Combat Grimoire. These books will aid you in your journey to become a well-rounded mage.”

“This is kind of a lot to study,” Niko barked.

Professor Greenwitch began to pace the classroom, “Well, there's a reason for that... You see, this school, along with Avalon Academy, were designed to train and cultivate mages, in the hopes to fulfill an ancient prophecy...”

For some reason, his demeanor changed, and all of us noticed, almost at the exact same time. He carried a sense of wisdom and poise when he spoke about the history of this world, “Long ago, shortly after the evil chaos dragon went on a rampage, there was a group of powerful mages that foresaw a hero who lived two lives, that will defeat the dragon and help bring prosperity throughout this land. The first head mistress, Lady Gaia, decided to create an institution where she can hopefully teach them the proper way to use their skills to overcome this great evil.”

Minerva raised her hand, “How will the Head Mistress know who the hero is or will be?”

The professor smiled, “That's just it, she doesn't, you see, the prophecy only states that there will be a hero, no mention of what that hero may look, how they may fight, or even their affinity or signature, only that they have lived two lives... Pretty vague prophecy, if you ask me...”

That was anticlimactic, I liked the idea of a chosen hero, but with a super vague prophecy, I don’t see myself being intertwined with that. The rest of the class all had hung heads looking blankly at their textbooks.

The professor clapped his hands once, “But don't get let down, now! Over the centuries, this school has grown some of the strongest mages this world has ever seen. The current head mistress being one of them... Wait... Why aren't any of you writing this down???”

And in that moment, each of our hands lifted up and began writing on their own, almost like we were being controlled by a puppet master, “Open your Continental Lore books to page fifteen. The mages that stand at the pinocle of strength are referred to as a "Lord/Lady" and their are two distinct types of Lords that we will discuss. The first Lord type is the Dragon Lord. Dragon Lords are beings that are direct descendants of the Dragon race*, such as Dragonmen and Dragon Newts. There are a total of twelve Dragon Lords at any given time. The other type of Lord is referred to as a Demon Lord...”

Minerva and I exchanged a puzzling look.

The professor continues his lecture, “Mages that manage to find themselves following this evolution path, must max out their soul counter and meet the Dragon/Demon racial requirement. Once those requirements are all met, the evolution process will begin... But that's information for the future, for the time being, just know the strongest mages in the world of hTraé are the Lords and Ladies of Shangri-La.”

“What about Asura Lords?” I asked as I raised my hand.

The professor gave us an oblivious smile, “There's no such thing.”

Both Minerva and my jaw dropped at the mention of this information. We spent our entire lives believing that we were Asura and that our father and uncle were both Asura Lords.

Renata cleared her throat, “Mother says that even though Asuras are the primordial race, it’s impossible for them to exist, the Fairy clan is endangered, and those of us that do have a fairy gene, it isn’t prominent enough to create an Asura.”

“My life, it's been lie,” Minerva yelled out.

The professor stopped in front of Minerva’s desk and tussled her hair, “I can see why you feel that way, but an Asura Lord isn't the proper name, Myrlin, Minerva, Iniko, your father is known as Chronos is what is known a Dragonmen, the Demon Lord of Time and is thee most powerful being this continent has ever seen...”

The mere mention of our father being the strongest person on the continent was enough to to make shiver in fear. I’d seen my father and uncle spar in the past, however, I didn’t think much of it, they kind of just looked like they were goofing off; but the day that I saw them both get serious, was the day this hunch began.

“The reason these mages are so strong, is solely due to the fact that these mages are all forms of Godkins*: Species that fall under this class are Asura, Dragons, Demons, Fairies, and Celestials.”

Professor Greenwitch approached the board and began to jot down notes as he continued his lecture, “We can continue this subject another day, right now, however, I'd like to give you a brief run down on what to expect from this class this year. Each of you will be given the opportunity to grow and evolve your signature as well as hone your combat skills. At the end of this academic year, you'll have to compete in the class advancement battle tournament. The class as a whole must accumulate a total 75 points during this tournament in order to advance your class to the second year. So be prepared for a long and intense school year!”

Professor Greenwitch flashed a devious smile before erupting in laughter. I focused my attention to Professor Greenwitch while copying his notes, but from the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a tall dark haired woman standing in front of the window outside of the classroom; I quickly averted my eyes, and the woman vanished.