In a view of the blue night sky, the sky above the heavens was dark and empty but twinkling stars were filling everything up while the halved moon was hiding somewhere in there. In addition, there was a huge bright comet, leaving a very long tail across the sky. It was moving slowly as it was still in the same position from the world's perspective. Below the sky, there were groups of thick clouds floating as their surface was colored blue. They were shadowing the lands from the aesthetic blue light from the sky and the stars above.

Everything was quiet and peaceful.

Then a huge ship came into the view of the sky and was slowly flying above the surface of the clouds. The whole deck of the ship was lightened up by the night. 

The ship had three tall masts but the middle mast was taller and had all the sails in color black. The front mast held one wide sail, the middle had two sails, and the rear had also one wide sail. The front sail contained a symbol of a huge white cross. The topmost part sail of the middle mast had a white circle marked on it. And the rear sail had both of the symbols, but separated, a white circle above and a white cross below.

This ship was a Saint ship, owned by the Saints, as their flag had the white circle and the white cross. 

On the lonely decks of the ship, there was a young man standing on the forecastle deck. He was beside the taffrails, in the center, staring ahead of him. His skin color was fair and he had amber-colored eyes. He was wearing a black hero suit with cool, simplistic designs. And when a strong wind blew to his face, his black cape whipped backward and danced wildly with it. His black, fluffy hair was swaying, and then he slowly raised his hand and clenched it strongly.

With a mature face, he had, it was combined with calmness and gentleness.

Then he felt a strong feeling of excitement as his heart was beating fast and showed his cool grin to the world. 

My name is Faeger... Since I was a kid, I have always been dreaming to become a saint. It's because of him, Zero, the greatest saint that has ever lived... I want to become like him... And finally, I'm on the Saint ship, the same ship where he stayed on board before he became a saint... I will begin my story here, the same with Zero, and become a saint! 

"Ooyyyy!!! Are you going to stay there or what?!", a man came out from a door from the second floor and yelled loudly.

"Yeah, I'm coming!", Faeger replied as he looked back and ran towards him. When he was in front of him, the man talked, "What the heck? Are you going to delay my schedule like you delayed everyone's time because you wanted to be on this ship?"

Faeger entered the door and told him while waiting for him to close the door, "This ship is special and different than any other Saint ship! This ship is where Zero stepped his first foot before becoming a saint."

The man closed the door and walked forward as he carried the bags. Faeger followed him and the man argued "Nobody cares. People here want to be a saint, not a tourist. Heck, this isn't even a tourist spot! This is just a normal ship that carries newcomers to the Cathedral of Sertifica."

"Well, I'm following his footsteps and that will help me be like him."

"Yeah, yeah, here's your room."

They stopped in front of a door and Faeger asked, "Is this the room where Zero stayed?"

The man looked blankly at the door and replied tiredly of his wants, "Yes... And all of the thousands who probably became a saint already..."

"Wooh! I can't wait!", he said happily and opened the door.

The room looked clean and small. The only thing inside the room was a bed for one person. Faeger went inside and watched all around the place, "Wow... Amazing..."

"Yeaaah, no... Here are your bags and we will arrive at the destination early in the morning. Be sure to sleep now or you'll fail your entrance exams tomorrow.", and he left as he closed the door.

After Faeger observed the place like a museum, he removed his shoes and jumped on the bed. He spread his arms and legs as his feet and hands were dangling on each side of the bed, "So this is where he slept, huh... Hehe, I can't wait to become a saint like him!"

He closed his eyes and for a couple of seconds, he opened them as he remembered something important, "I forgot to continue to read his story, One Human vs The Twenty Six Kingdoms!"

He went for his bag and grabbed a book. He jumped on the bed again and flipped the pages to where he stopped reading. When he found the page, he started reading and murmured, "In front of Zero stood the twenty-six minacious kings and queens. Undaunted and bold, he decided to walk towards them with his iconic smile. Hence, his one of the greatest battles began..."

"..."

For hours, Faeger kept on reading and reading the story as he also changed so many styles of body positions to feel comfortable while reading the book on the bed. After he flipped the last page and read the last words, he finally closed it with a contented face of finishing the book. He was so pleased from the story that he shouted, "Woooooooohhhh!!!"

"Ay! Shut up! I'm trying to sleep!", his neighbor scolded him for being too loud.

"Sorry!", Faeger apologized for the disturbance and continued with his normal voice, "What a great story! I wish I could read more, but that was the last book I have about his story... Well, time to sleep..."

He walked out from the bed, placed the book inside his bag, turned the lights off, and laid down on his bed. What a great time he had as he enjoyed reading the story of Zero's battle, and when he closed his eyes and gave a smile, someone knocked on his door and shouted, "Hey, wake up! You're going to be late for your entrance exam!"

Faeger opened his eyes in shock when he heard it because it was already morning. His face looked tired and needed so much sleep as his eyes were obvious to tell as there were having eye bags. He ran to the door and opened it. He saw the same man who guided him to his room and asked hurriedly, "What time is it?!"

This kid didn't sleep at all..., and replied, "The time is your ass is late!"

But the next door of Faeger's room opened with force and a young man's head popped out. He had a brown, spiky hair, blue eyes, and an aggressive-looking face. For this moment, his face looked tired and had eyebags, just like Faeger. Slowly and steadily, both of the young men realized as they looked at each other. Two of them were late from staying up all night.

"Huh?", both of them said in confusion and the man had it, "Get your asses moving! Everyone except you two is already in the Cathedral of Sertifica!"

"Shit!", Faeger panicked, forgot his bags, and ran outside the ship. The young man felt the same and ran outside, but he was wearing a black school uniform, having the front of the top with a white cross. While both of them were running towards the opened, one-man door, both of them went inside together and got stuck. The young man said, "Dammit! Ey! You're in my way!"

"Your way?! This is our way! Where am I supposed to go, huh?"

"I don't know! That's your problem!"

"Well, my problem is you!"

While both of them were fighting in verbal, the man went behind them and kicked them in the back, "Just go, dammit!"

Both young men fell on the deck and immediately stood up, and rushed to the plank where it bridged to the road of the second layer of the Cathedral of Sertifica.

Cathedral of Sertifica was an independent country, not a kingdom, ruled by an archbishop, his bishops and priests. It had its own government, governing the country by its own laws and system, and authority with their own soldiers. This vast, towering country had three circular layers, the bottom layer, middle layer, and the top layer. The bottom and middle layer had no difference as both of them were for the people who would live and stay but the top layer was where the important people lived. There was a wide and tall church, with a huge dome in the center, that was made up of ivory-white marble. The land had so many beautiful towers, mesmerizing gardens, and man-made body of waters. Each of the layers was connected by wide, long, sloping stairs that were all around the layers for people to go up and down. This magnificent country was attractive to look at from afar as it was surrounded by a bountiful land of fields of flowers and tall grasses.

While Faeger and the young man were running to the top layer of the country, it seemed they were having a race as both of them were glaring and growling at each other. 

"Stop following me!", the young man got irritated running with Faeger.

"If you don't want me to follow you, then see you later, sloth!"

Faeger began moving his legs faster and had gotten ahead of the young man but the young man was troubled, "What the hell! Get back here!"

"Hell no! I'm not following your ass! This what you wanted, right! Hahaha!"

Faeger went farther ahead and started going up the long stairs.

"Grrrrr! That fucker!"

Then the insides of his legs started to change as different colors of aurora lights filled his left and right legs, affecting his pants. His legs felt strong and boosted. He slid his shoes on the road to slow him down for a short moment and when it was the right time, he jumped towards the top layer in incredible speed and height. While he was in mid-air, he smirked, "Hehe, with this, I can reach to the top first! Look at him, running on the stairs, getting sweaty and tired. I bet he will pass out. HOLY SHIT! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"

While Faeger was getting tired of running upstairs, he took a break to catch his breath while breathing heavily, "Hah. Hah. Haaah..."

He looked behind and the man was not there, "Heh, I bet he gave up and went home for being too slow, hahaha..."

"Move away... Move away... MOVE AWAAAAYYY!!! YOU IDIOT!", as the voice started low at first, it just started getting louder in Faeger's ears.

"Huh?", Faeger was confused hearing things, as he was looking down to the bottom of the stairs but then he looked above and his eyes widened from shock, "WHAT THE-"

The young man crashed into him and both of them were rolling down the stairs. When they finally landed on the pavement of the second layer, they were all covered by injuries around their bodies and were groaning in pain. As both of their faces were on the ground, Faeger held his head tightly and said angrily, "This is... your fault!", as he looked at him.

The young man moved his head at Faeger and argued, "My fault? It's your fault for stopping at the moment I was coming!"

"Quit your excuses! I will blame you for my tardiness on the first day of the entrance exam!"

Faeger crawled towards the stairs and started going up, but the man crawled and went upstairs, too, "Not if I went up there first!" 

When both of them were side by side, crawling towards the top, the man held Faeger's head and used it to pull himself. Faeger was shortly behind and got pissed, "You!..."

Faeger took revenge and grabbed his head to pull himself to the stairs.

"How dare you!", the man shouted.

"Oh hell, I will do it again to get up there!"

The man got pissed, held his head, and pulled himself. And Faeger did the same thing, too, but they never stopped fighting with words. They were doing it until they finally reached the ground of the top layer. When both of them were there, they laid down in the ground with their front bodies facing the sky and took a break as they were breathing heavily and sweating profusely. 

"I did it...", Faeger softly told him.

"No... I did it!...", he replied as he forced himself to stand up first and began running to the church.

Faeger looked at him running with a surprised face, "Dammit!", and stood up immediately. He ran as fast as he could to try and reach the church first.

However, the young man entered first and saw a lady behind the desk, "Yes! The receptionist!", as he was glad to see her.

He went in front of the desk and he immediately introduced himself quickly, "Hi, my name is Rex! I'm here for my entrance exam!"

"Good morning, Rex. Before you-"

Faeger entered and saw him talking with the receptionist, but he shouted, "My name is Faeger!!! I'm here for my entrance exam!!!", to disturb them.

Rex looked back in surprise because he was seeing Faeger running towards him. Without any time to react, Faeger pushed Rex with his shoulder and slammed him on the desk, making the desk move forward. Rex laid down on the floor and Faeger took the advantage to be the first, but the lady didn't know what was going on and said unsurely, "Uhhh. Pardon me... But could you tell your name again?"

"My name is Fae-"

"You asshole that fucking hurt!", Rex hooked his neck with his arm and tried to choke him while backing away.

"You...", Faeger was surprised by the attack and got serious. He wrapped his feet around Rex's legs and forced Rex to slip. That resulted in Rex to fall and hit his back on the floor.

 

"Oah!", Rex flinched from the impact of the pain on his back and had loosened his arm from Faeger's neck. Faeger stood up and went near to the desk. He answered, "Sorry about that, my name is-"

While Rex was laying down, he moved his feet and hooked Faeger's ankles. Quickly, he pulled and Faeger slipped, hitting his chin on the surface of the desk and slowly sliding his face on the side of the desk.

"You shit! Are to pick a fight with me?!", Faeger challenged him as he stood up. 

Rex stood up, too, and bursted, "Bring it on, you fuck!!"

Things got heated up between them and started fighting immaturely. The lady had enough asking, but she seemed to know what to do next after what they told to her. She checked the papers she was holding and searched for the names: Faeger and Rex. She found them and told them nicely, "Gentlemen, your classroom is EX-2, second-floor."

Both of them stopped fighting as their hands were at each other's neck and looked at the lady. They listened carefully and after knowing where their room was, Rex pushed Faeger and ran to the stairs of the church. He yelled as he used his words, "See you later, sloth!!"

While Faeger was on the floor, he exclaimed, "Dammit! That was dirty!", and stood up. But before Faeger chased Rex to their room, the lady stopped him and told him, "Wait, Faeger."

"Huh? Is there a problem?"

"Yeah, you need to wear your uniform before entering the class."

"Uhhhhhh... I don't have one..."

"What?"

"I'm poor..."

"Oh... Then follow me. Maybe there are unused uniforms for you to use."

She went out from her desk and walked to the hallway, Faeger was happy and followed her, "Woah, that's really nice! Thank you!"

Both of them walked away from the entrance hall and things had gotten quiet for a moment. Then the man, who kicked Faeger and Rex, came into the hall with their bags. He walked up front the desk and waited for the receptionist. He placed the bags down and continued waiting patiently. When the lady came back to the hall, she sat on her chair and asked, "May I help you?"

"Yeah, have you seen the two idiots here? I'm returning the bags, they've forgotten."

"I see. They are busy at the moment for their entrance exam but their respective dorms are located on the third floor. Faeger stays in the room, M-06, second hallway and Rex at M-05, next door. You can leave their bags on their doorsteps."

"Thank you.", he said and went to the men's dorms.

"..."

Inside the classroom, EX-2, there was a female teacher with glasses, who looked petite, shy, and awkward, stood on a platform, behind a whiteboard and in front of a teacher's desk. She had orange short hair, which was twin-tailed. There were students of young men and women, sitting randomly on the tiered seating. She's currently wearing a light green sweater dress. They were waiting patiently as the teacher wasn't looking at her own students. Then one man asked loudly, "Teacher! When will we start?!"

"Eh! Uhh... Ah... Wait!...", she was astonished from the sudden question and panicked. She held the papers, covered her face, and read what was written. She answered the question, trying to suppress her panic, with a soft voice, "It says here, I will start the class once we are complete.", and once she finished, she still held the papers in front of her face.

Some of the students murmured in worry, "Why are you still covering your face, teacher?"

Somewhere in the tiered seating, a beautiful young woman was slightly pissed from the late students. She was fairly tall, had a fair complexion, and her colored-yellow hair was long and wavy. Her piercing eyes were dark yellow as she had the appearance of seriousness and cool. She was wearing the student's uniform of color black top with a white cross, a black short skirt, black stockings, and black shoes. She whispered behind their backs, "How could anybody be late when we were all sent in the country at the same time from the same ship? Unbelievable..."

Then Rex barged into the class and shouted, "I'm here!!! Haa... Haa... Haa...", while sweating, having a messy, dirty uniform.

"Eeek!", the teacher squeaked from the surprise.

Everyone was silent as all of them looked at him. The teacher even looked at him with the papers in front of her face, and the silence became awkward, but the teacher said, "Uhh... Please... Find any available seat."

Rex walked to the tiered seating and sat to an empty place on the front row. And the silence continued. While all of the students were waiting for the teacher to start, the same guy asked, "Aren't we going to start, teacher?"

"Ehh... We are still lacking one more student."

But Rex said, "The last person won't be coming, teacher! He told me that he will quit the entrance exam because he is currently having bad diarrhea. He shat the hallway while coming here."

"Ohh... That's too bad."

"Hehehe...", Rex lied and made Faeger look bad as he laughed evil with a whisper.

Then the door opened and came to Faeger out with a fresh black uniform, as he was carrying his rolled black suit. He quickly apologized to the teacher, "I'm very sorry for being late, teacher! Because I had troubles with that guy!", as he pointed to Rex.

"Ehh? I thought you quit because you were having diarrhea?", she asked.

"What?! That liar lied!"

"Waw, you must've excelled in English, huh?", Rex used sarcasm.

"Now we are all complete.", the teacher spoke while the men were arguing.

Faeger rushed in front of his table and said angrily, "Huh? You think I don't know redundancy?"

She continued as her words were covered by their loud voices, "Please.. Take a seat so we can start."

 Faeger continued, "I had to say in redundant to make a hole in your coconut apple brain because I bet those ears aren't functional!"

"The fuck you say?!!", as Rex stood up and faced his face.

Then a loud slam of a clenched fist was heard by everyone and all eyes looked at the person who did it. It was the yellow-haired girl who made the sound, but she looked badly mad at the two men's childish behavior. She scolded them, "Sensei is speaking. Don't try to disrespect her! Close your mouth or I will do it by myself."

Faeger immediately ran from fear and sat on an empty space. Both Faeger and Rex sat properly and placed their hands on the table like behaved children. The teacher felt happy from the young woman's words, "Thank you, Raiko... Now, could the last two students tell us your names?"

Both of them stood up at the same time and introduced, "My-"

They glared at each other's faces as they were about to fight again because they felt they were interrupted intentionally. But suddenly they felt a bad aura coming from Raiko that they looked at her and freaked out. Faeger sat down and let Rex introduce first.

"My name is Rex. Nice to meet you!", he sat down and then Faeger stood up, "My name is Faeger, eighteen years old. I want to become a saint because I want to become like Zero."

Rex was shocked by what he heard and shouted, "Bastard! That's my dream!"

Raiko raised her clenched fist, preparing to slam it again and Rex saw it. He immediately looked in front and went silent.

Faeger clearly heard what Rex said, but he looked at him conflicted from his words, Dream?  A dream to become like Zero?... Does he have the same dream as mine?!

"Faeger? Are you okay?", the teacher asked worried as he was blanked out. But he snapped out and answered, "Sorry, I'm alright."

He sat down, and the teacher slowly peeked from the paper and checked the students' faces.  After that, she placed the papers back on the table and introduced herself as her shyness stopped, "Now that I know and remember all of your names and faces, I will now introduce myself. My name is Astrel. I will be your adviser for three weeks. Within that span of time, you will have your entrance exam because becoming a saint is not easy, with or without any special powers. Your goal here is to take numerous exams that will challenge your body, mind, emotions, and spirit, basically all of you, and receive, in the end, a certificate of blessing from the archbishop because that's the only way to enter Saint Haven."

Faeger looked enthusiastic and excited as he heard it, and thought, Saint Haven... The home of Saints... The land of perfect... The Utopia... I want to go there! 

Astrel continued, "The life of a saint is the hardest as you will experience all the hardest. Before I will start, could you raise your hand as I ask a question?"

"Yes!", everyone answered in unison.

"Great!", Astrel took a book and a pen, and began asking, "Who are weapon-users here?"

Some students raised their hands, and she wrote their names on the book and continued, "How about non-weapon users?"

A lot raised their hands, including Faeger, Raiko, and Rex. After listing them all, she continued, "Magic users?"

No one raised. 

"Aura users?"

Some raised, Rex was one of them. Thus, she continued once more, "Lastly, Devil's Eyes user?"

Not much of the students raised, but Raiko and Rex raised their hands.

"Alright, that's good enough for me to separate you in your way of fighting for your entrance exam. The whole entrance exam will be documents of your results to analyze if you could become a saint. For the first day of your entrance exam..."

Most of the students thought the same thing as they were shocked, An exam already?!

"It will start tomorrow morning."

Oh, thank god!

"Because today will be for your time to unpack your belongings in your dorms, feel comfortable and home in your rooms and the beautiful place, walk around the cathedral and learn the locations in the building. You're free to do what you want for today. You are now be dismissed. Also, don't be late tomorrow and the rest of the three weeks."

The students stood up and went to the exit of the classroom. Faeger yawned tiredly and told to himself, "Damn, I need to get some sleep."

When Rex was about to leave, Astrel called them, "Faeger. Rex."

Both of them looked at her and she continued, "As there is always a punishment for being late in class."

Rex looked disappointed, "Of course."

Faeger's face looked like he's going to die, "Noo... I want to sleep. I'm too tired to do anything..."

"The punishment is to clean the classroom... But today isn't a class, so you can go. But never be late again.", she smiled at the end.

"Well, I'm out.", Rex left the room and Faeger felt blessed and happy from Astrel, "Thank you, teacher Astrel. You're an angel. Ah, she covered her face."

Because of her shyness, flattery was one of her weaknesses.

Faeger left the room and followed where the rest of his classmates went, to the third floor. He walked up the stairs and saw everyone going inside their rooms. In the hallway, he saw bags on the doorsteps. Rex took his bags and went inside his room. Faeger immediately knew, "Ah! I forgot my bags! Those must be my bags!"

He ran to his bags, and they were in front of a door, "They really are my bags! Thank you whoever did this... So this is my room."

He entered with his bags and the room was luxurious for a person living. It was clean, neat, and nice. It had the important things needed for a room to rest, study, and be comfortable. 

He closed the door and was amazed by his room, "Woah, I never had this kind of room before... Well, time to sleep!"

He jumped on the bed and started sleeping comfortably.

In the next room, the same room as the rest of the rooms, Rex didn't fix his things and just slept on his bed immediately. Both of them were tired from the last night that they didn't sleep because the bag of Rex fell down and a book slid out from it.

The front cover of the book contained the name of Zero.

"..."

As both young men had the same dream, the dream to be like Zero. Only one could be like him but both could be like him, too. But their roads would be the roughest as they became rivals.