The place had no substance, a morphic space without any form. 20 high school students were to be seen standing as time froze them. They were surrounded by none other than pitch-black surroundings, standing in dark ocean depths. Suddenly, a sound can be heard somewhere. Footsteps? Rustling clothes? It was not clear if the approaching presence was alive.

 

Out of nowhere, three figures wearing dark cloaks appeared from thin air with a golden moonlight symbol in the middle. What are they? Deities? One could say they are. However, one man with his eyes moving around the vast emptiness of the place wouldn’t say so.

 

(Where am I? Who are those people? Are they the ones responsible for transporting us in here?)

 

Sirius only regained his consciousness after the three presence arrived. However, there’s some sort of magical restriction placed within his body. He can’t feel or move anything other than his eyes, nor the bridge connection between his soul and body. Because of that, he stayed vigilant as his eyes didn’t leave at the three figures that are walking past his classmate.

 

(Who are these people? What do they want? Incarnation? Celestial being?)

 

Series of questions appeared from his head. Searching for an answer, what came next frightened him. In an instant, one of the mysterious cloak figures appeared in front of him. It startled Sirius. In a panic, he tried forcing the gateway bridge link to his soul, but it only backfired. An enormous amount of blood spewed out of his mouth.

 

(Damn it. Shouldn’t have forced it.)

 

“ᚠᚨᛋᚲᛁᚾᚨᛏᛁᚾᚷ, ᚨᚱᛖ ᚤᛟᚢ ᚨ ᛗᛟᚱᛏᚨᛚ?”

 

Sirius was taken back after it spoke. However, he doesn’t know the language it’s speaking. For Sirius, the sound it made was full of gibberish while eating its words. Sirius speaks hundreds of languages and heard thousands of them, yet this is the first time he heard this language. It made him confused.

 

(What are you?)

 

“ᛏᚺᛟᚢ ᛋᛖᛖᛗ ᚾᛟᛏ ᛏᛟ ᛒᛖ ᚨᛒᛚᛖ ᛏᛟ ᚢᚾᛞᛖᚱᛋᛏᚨᚾᛞ ᛗᛁᚾᛖ ᛚᚨᚾᚷᚢᚨᚷᛖ.”

 

In front of Sirius, a black eye with a red pupil materialized, staring at him directly into his eyes deeply. Sirius felt an excruciating pain in his chest. Every molecule in his body was screaming danger. He knew something will happen. To escape, Sirius once again tried forcing the gateway.

 

“ᛁᛏ’ᛋ ᛁᚾᛖᚡᛁᛏᚨᛒᛚᛖ, ᛗᛟᚱᛏᚨᛚ”

 

As Sirius tried forcing his way again, but the result is the same and it only worsened as he started spewing blood not only in his mouth but also in his eyes. Because of it, Sirius’ mana body circuits were gravely damaged as the consequence of forcing it. One thing came into his mind, the thoughts of how his life will end here. For the first time in his life, Sirius felt powerless and frightened. He saw the frozen Alice on his side.

 

(Mother, I’m sorry for failing to protect Alice. I failed you.)

 

An orb of light materialized in front of Sirius. Instead of getting startled, Sirius felt helpless and accepted his fate. As the orb of light gradually enters his head, it started condensing more mana. And, in an instant, the orb exploded inside of his head. Suddenly, countless runic letters started flowing inside his head, thus it made him scream internally as his brain can’t process all the information, and making his brain overload.

 

Sirius’ eyes gradually started fading, but he heard something that came from the unknown presence in front of him. “May the light bless you, son of—”

 

Sirius’ world darkened.

 

 

──────♢ ♢ ♢ ♢──────

 

 

“Poo—!”

 

“Pooch!”

 

Anguish cries entered Sirius’ ears, gradually opening his eyes. What greeted his eyes was the crying Alice on his side. He felt a sharp pain in his head. He grunted. Remembering the events that transpired, he suddenly felt something inside his head was erased. Thus, it made his confusion more confusing. However, that confusion vanished as his focus shifted to the tearful Alice beside him.

 

“Who made you cry?”

 

“Shut up. You made me worried.”

 

Alice embraced him tightly. It caught him off-guard. They’ve been together for years, but neither did he expect Alice to be this worried for him. It feels like a bad-omen was about to come into their life. Truth to be told, what he felt was the accurate representation of their situation right now.

 

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

 

“No, you’re not! Look at yourself, your eyes and mouth are full of blood! How can I not be worried? For heaven’s sake, Pooch...”

 

“Seriously?!”

 

Sirius took off his face mask and saw a red gooey wet substance in it, throwing it in the side. He then noticed a dark red substance covering his vision. He removed his contact lenses. From all the blood that’s in his eyes and mask, it confused him. Because something must have happened, there’s no way his eyes and mouth would bleed for no reason.

 

However, those thoughts were left on hold. Sirius noticed the place, the shadowy, high-ceiled cave with crystalline blue rocks imbued in mana around them. It left him perplexed on how they arrived at this place, with no recollection of entering here. He then remembered the geometric patterns, lines, and runic symbols that enveloped the entire classroom.

 

“Alice, what happened?”

 

“... I don’t know. Some light blinded my eyes, and then the next that happened was I’m here and you’re beside me unconscious.”

 

“What about the others?”

 

“... I don’t know...”

 

“I see... Teleportation magicka... In quantum theory, it may certainly possible... But, in modern magicka it’s not attainable yet... The only plausible explanation was that this is a work of a higher being... Or perhaps we’re in a dimension...”

 

Sirius started contemplating the idea of magic that can teleport a living matter to other places, thus that discovery can be one of the largest discoveries in modern magic. However, there’s still the idea of they’re in some sort of dimension, plane, or astral valley. With all those thoughts in his mind, countless possibilities started emerging in his mind.

 

“Pooch, hate to break it to you, but someone has been watching us since earlier. And, I could tell it’s strong though I don’t know what that thing was.”

 

“What?”

 

“That’s why I’ve been on high alert. I could tell it got some malicious intent from the mana.”

 

Sirius stood up and removed all the dirt and dust in his clothes, narrowing his eyes in a certain direction, and released a mana wave intent towards it. He expected a response, but he got nothing. With a gigantic wave of mana, Sirius was certain that it will alert it.

 

“Odd.”

 

Alice has been wary of it and stayed vigilant. The inexplicable uneasiness that she’s getting from it was abnormal, and nothing to be made fun of. The same thing could be said for Sirius.

 

“Alice please keep it in check, I’ll check something.”

 

“Keep it quick, that thing hasn’t moved an inch ever since I noticed it.”

 

“Thanks, just report if there are any peculiar movements.”

 

Sirius entered a trance-state. He checked his Astral body and circuits for any damage that may have caused by the unprecedented event that happened to them earlier. No one can tell what dangers lie within the darkness of the hollow cave.

 

“Alice, let’s try walking the other way and check if it will follow us.”

 

“Okay.”

 

They started walking in the opposite direction. As they're trying to figure what that thing was, a dark needle came from the direction at a speed no normal human can ever perceive. Noticing the incoming needle, Sirius and Alice maneuvered to the side, dodging it.

 

With the attack, they heightened their senses and prepared themselves for the next attack. However, the next attack didn’t happen, and it made them confused. Suddenly, both of them noticed a large presence of mana speeding up at an inhumane speed to their current location. It alerted them.

 

“It’s coming! Get ready!”

 

[Sova Nexus]

 

“For real?! After we moved!?”

 

[Twilight Nexus]

 

Nexus, a battle suit armor that was specially made for magicians which are meant for strengthening their physical abilities, by pouring mana as it’s similar to an exoskeleton suit. They were special clothing with magical enhancements embedded within it.

 

Sirius and Alice’s colorful uniform morphed into jet-black outfits consisted of leather hoodies, cargo pants, gloves, and sneakers. On top of that, they’re wearing a black-golden mask with illuminating white eyes and an owl symbol engraved on the right cheek.

 

“Alice, I told you many times to get rid of that scarf. That thing is insignificant.”

 

“No way! It’s part of my battle suit, it looks cool! A beautiful dark assassin with her signature white scarf in the starry night.”

 

“We are wearing all black, then you wore a white scarf which made our getup useless... Fine... Get ready...”

 

“Hmph, can’t appreciate my cool-looking appearance,” Alice said mutteringly.

 

“What?”

 

“Nothing! I said, affirmative!”

 

“...”

 

“Tch, summon!”

 

Alice summoned a Barrett M82, a custom-made sniper rifle specifically made for magicians, a long-range combat support weapon to assist close-combat magicians. The bullets were created by the user itself, as they convert their mana into bullets. Since, it’s directly linked to the person’s soul, as the souls are the origin where the mana is kept within, or what they call mana furnace.

 

Taking their stance. Suddenly, both of them felt anxious. As time passes, Alice can feel its presence gradually getting closer at an alarming speed. She adjusted her scope, taking a closer look at the incoming presence.

 

“It’s coming!”

 

“Roger! Summon!”

 

Sirius summoned a black steeled katana in his back, unsheathing it. He took his stance. However, he noticed the smug face of Alice looking at him in a far distance. He furrowed his eyebrows.

 

“Why are you making a face like that?”

 

“Nothing~♪ That thing suits you~♪”

 

“Shut up, I’ve got nothing since someone broke my schiavona which left me no choice, but to borrow something from Japan HQ.”

 

“Fufufu~♪”

 

A loud screech echoed through the entire cave, tearing their eardrums. It made them cover their ears. As they were covering their ears, a dark needle plunged toward Sirius’ face. Luckily, he managed to dodge it by moving his head to the side.

 

However, it made Sirius frowned as the frightening speed of the needle could obliterate his head in a matter of seconds, plus the deadly substance imbued in the needle. Holding his katana grip tighter.

 

“Alice! Be careful of those needles! They’re mixed with some substance!”

 

“Affirmative.”

 

Alice understood what he meant by it, it made her more cautious and serious. Looking up in her scope, she released a mana field barrier around her. Alice noticed something disturbing as her scope tracked a dismembered creature approaching them at a frightening speed. She started firing some shots at it, but they were all evaded by outmaneuvering through the cave.

 

“It’s here! Get ready!”

 

“Roger.”

 

With the loud firing shots from Alice, he took his stance, readied his sword, and swung with all his might.

 

[Twilight Style: Crescent cleave]

 

A cleave consisted of mana shattered the ground and keeps continuing in the direction of the unidentified presence. It shook the whole cave, creating distressed vibration that’s making the rocks from the ceiling of the cave fall out.

 

Sirius then dashed forward. But he got stopped abruptly because of the thick, sickening miasma covering his feet. In the miasma, a figure dashed out of it, attacking him directly. He took a defensive stance, blocking the whip-like attack. Which seems to be a human arm? Neither Sirius knew the answer, as he’s blocking the terrifying blows of the creature from both of his sides.

 

In a faraway distance, Alice was watching everything from her scope with her eyes widened with a terrified face.

 

“A human...?”

 

Alice quickly focused on her scope, following Sirius and the creature as they exchange attacks with each other. Neither of the two had some hit. Yet Alice’s heartbeat was pounding in nervousness. No matter how quick she follows them with her scope, she can’t do anything as there’s a chance of hitting Sirius.

 

“Pooch, get out of the way!”

 

“Ah, yeah! Thank for the tip! I would if I can!”

 

“God damn it.”

 

Sirius’s situation was gradually getting worse, as he can’t get a hold of the attacks any longer. Beforehand, he put some enhancements to his body for precautions. Even with his resilience, he can’t withstand the blowing power of the creature. He wasn’t sure if the thing he’s fighting was a monster or an actual human.

 

From the figure, one could say it’s a human with the distinctive features of a human, but its head was split in half while deteriorating, and at the center of it was a green crystalline rocked jammed in between the head. And its body was deformed in a gruesome way, with sharp rock-like scales embedded within its hard skin. No matter how Sirius tries to cut it, the skin of that thing is way too hard for his katana to slice.

 

“Seriously? This is going to take longer than I expected...”

 

 

──────♢ ♢ ♢ ♢──────

 

 

In a magical ornate palace somewhere in the same world as Sirius and Alice, 18 students were found lying on the floor unconscious. A high woman priest can be seen standing in front of those people, standing dignified with her cross-like staff.

 

“Arise, the chosen ones.”

 

After saying that, one by one they started waking up. They were all confused at first, but suddenly something calmed them down. The woman entranced their eyes in front of them as if they’re looking at a goddess of wisdom.

 

“Behold the chosen protectors of our beloved Atrium. I, Priestess Mari, shall welcome the chosen ones.”