Chapter 7: Student Instructors (1)

~7.1~

*****

During the fight over Arslade, while Kye was busy with the S-rank demon beast, Allison and Alethea were fighting a veritable horde of C to A rank beasts. While Kye was preparing the enormous spell with the gigantic rune in the sky, the city defenders were starting to have trouble. Allison couldn’t be reckless with her power, though if she did go all out, she could end the battle quickly... at the expense of damaging the city and likely taking the lives of everyone caught in her spells.

The more mana one channeled, the more it radiated outward. Mana was fundamentally an impure form of Aether. It was much less potent, but also much more deadly. If Allison used aether, which she very well could, she would likely destroy the city. If she used mana over the city, the fallout from her spells would pose great danger to the city. As much as she hated to admit it, she was much less fit to defend against a hoard of enemies than Kye or Alethea, despite being capable of channeling exponentially more power.

Allison had an ace in the hole but wanted to avoid using it at all costs. Alethea picked up on Allison’s hesitance and set to work. She transformed her aethersteel blade into a pair of bracelets and clapped her hands together.

“<<Aether Drive>>!” Alethea’s aether output exploded, shocking everyone the same way as when Kye did the same thing only minutes before. With her output in full swing, she slowly pulled her hands apart. A dense mass of aether formed between her hands, slowly morphing into the shape of a sword.

“Come and hear us.” Her words echoed. Everyone on the battlefield could hear her speak. “There is a great evil in this sky. To those dark hearts who pray upon the innocent, I promise... you cannot hide from us.”

As she spoke her incantation, swords like the one between her hands formed all around her, forming many rows of circles. Allison picked up on Alethea’s intent right away and had protected her from the demonic beasts while she prepared her spell.

“To the goddess, I pray, take these souls and grant them the salvation they so sorely need.” Alethea grabbed the sword in front of her and pointed it forward, saying only, “<<Swords of Light>>!”

Once she heard “Swords of Light”, Allison knew her job was over. By the time Alethea had finished casting her spell, there was a blade for every A and B-rank in the sky, numbering in the hundreds, perhaps even over a thousand. The blades shot forward and sought out a target. Each blade was infused with white aether powered void mana.

Upon impact, the blades exploded. The explosions were small, just big enough to engulf the beast they struck. There was no heat, no flames, and no shockwave from any of the explosions. One might question whether they were explosions at all. Each impact engulfed the target beast and faded a moment later, leaving nothing behind.

Her performance was grand but was overshadowed by the gigantic runic spell that Kye was casting. Suddenly, an enormous blast of aether rained down from the massive rune and engulfed everything on the far side of the mountains.

“She really went that far...” Alethea muttered.

Allison only stared in silence. Her expression hardened. If there was any doubt before, I have none now. But if she does not remember... how do I approach this?

*****

Next Saturday...

“Your first class, huh?” Kye said. She and her group walked down the hallway toward a source of anxiety for Alethea.

“I’m afraid, Shi-chan.”

“It’ll be fine, there’s probably only a few people attending. It can’t be that bad.”

Liliana and Aliana exchanged doubtful glances as the group came upon the door to the classroom. When they entered, Alethea froze. Even Kye was surprised. The two attendants sighed.

“Wow...” Kye said.

Each classroom was designed for up to thirty students. The over fifty that showed up barely fit in the room - that’s without the desks.

“I think we need to relocate,” Liliana said, giving Alethea an apologetic smile.

The noise from fifty people chatting suddenly changed as the students realized Alethea had entered the room.

“Lady Alethea, please teach me!” “Me, too!” “Make me your disciple!” “Marry me!”

Kye caught that last comment. “HEY! She’s mine!”

“Everyone, look! The Goddess of Light is with her!” “Are they dating?” “Of course they are, you dummy.”

Those comments brought Alethea out of her freeze giggling. Kye was annoyed by the title. “Why don’t you have a title?”

“I think it’s fitting!” Alethea replied. “If not for them, will you be my personal Goddess of Light?” She put on her best puppy-dog eyes. The other students went crazy and Kye’s face reddened. The two attendants next to her burst out laughing.

“That’s...” Kye was too embarrassed. The students were cheering and whistling, and that only served to embarrass her more.

“Okay, okay, come on guys, that’s enough!” Alethea managed to get them quiet, allowing Kye to recover. “It seems we have too many for this one room and, given what this is for, we don’t really need a classroom, anyway. Shall we move to the training grounds?”

“““Yes, ma’am!”””

*****

“How do you think they’ll do?” asked Layla. She and her siblings were sitting and enjoying tea next to the window of Allison’s office overlooking the courtyard of the school. They could see the training grounds from there and were watching as Kye, Alethea, and company went inside for their class.

“They’ll be fine. Their attendants alone are quite powerful, and the regular students their age are far from their level. Even the older students won’t try anything, considering that Kye and Alethea are both accredited with heroic feats now.”

Layla and James exchanged glances and hesitant smiles.

“I don’t think that’s a problem to begin with,” James said.

“Hmm?” Allison looked over at her brother.

“I meant how well they’ll do as teachers,” Layla elaborated.

Allison smirked and looked back out the window. “They’ll do fine. I daresay they’ve taught us more than we’ve taught them.” She eyed her brother without turning her head. “If either of you are worried at all, perhaps some surveillance magic is due?”

Without moving a finger, James casted magic that formed four screens out of mana, each with a different view of inside the training grounds.

*****

Revision: 12-2-2023