In Lucian's office, Lia was sitting nervously before his desk, explaining what they did, while the Headmaster was leaning against his table with crossed arms, listening, watching her eyes.
"Damn it…" He murmured.
"I didn't know it would have an Undead in it…." Lia added, looking sideways after finishing her story. "I tried sensing what was inside, but it was sealed, and I couldn't have known it was in there!"
"Not that!" Lucian smiled, shaking his head, "You are not in trouble… this can happen. I just did not expect that it would happen! It is rare to fish out an Undead!"
"Did… did it happen before?"
"We have a few known reports of similar events." He nodded, "Back in the Dark Ages, sometimes, when mages were not strong enough to kill an Undead, they sealed them away, banishing them into No-Space to be lost and forgotten about. You were lucky it was floating in that box of his for four thousand years! It was slowly sapped of all of its energy and life force!"
"Sapped… Life force...?" Lia murmured, remembering its face, its looks, and how it was looking like something that was on the verge of breaking, like some frail twig pulled out of the fire, "Do they need refreshing? Or… something?"
"Good eyes." Lucian chuckled, walking to a cabinet and bringing out a tea set, soon placing a cup of strawberry tea before Lia. "They are dead, Lia. Life has gone from them a long time ago. An undead will slowly dry up and break into pieces if it can't replenish itself. They need to feed on two things!" He raised his fingers while explaining, "One is mana. Many intelligent variants kept people, forcing them to meditate and gather mana, sapping it from them in the process. Like rearing cattle and milking them."
"Gross…"
"The second one is even worse." He continued, "They need fresh blood. So they not just milked them for mana but for that too. That is why unintelligent Undead go after the living. To feed and continue their unnatural existence!"
"But if they kill all of us, wouldn't that mean they would also go extinct?" She asked, thinking about it for a brief moment.
"It does not look like they care."
"Why do they need blood? Do they run out of it? That is why that Undead was so dry?"
"Something like that." After moistening his throat with tea, Lucian continued explaining, "You will learn about it next year, but in short, they need blood to remain in perfect condition. And they don't need much!" He raised a hand before Lia could say something, "They don't need to squeeze you dry! A few mouthfuls could do it, and it rejuvenates them fully! You were lucky it was completely dried up, being sealed away for so long, or this could have turned out horribly!"
Just as he finished, the door opened to his office, and Lauron walked in, his eyes serious, glancing at his sister, scanning her at once. Seeing she was okay, he let out a soft sigh, nodding at her before turning his eyes back to Lucian.
"I heard everything. Was it only one?"
"Yeah." The fox inclined his head toward Lia, "She was lucky but unlucky at the same time, that is all."
"What will happen next?" Lia asked, watching the two.
"Nothing." They said simultaneously, "You go back and keep this under wraps. No news to be spread, got it?" Lucian added while Lauron nodded, agreeing.
"O-okay." She stuttered, finding it a little weird but thinking they did not want any panic made sense.
"You can go now," Lauron said, smiling, leaning forward, gently stroking her head. "Relax a little! It was bad luck, but at least none of you froze up!"
"And it was great teamwork!" Lucian clapped, "This is what I want to see our students do when facing the unexpected!"
Lia smiled back at them with a shy but proud look, feeling reenergized by their words, leaving them in a much happier mood than she had arrived. Yet as soon as the door closed, the two men's faces turned grim.
"I arrived late." Lucian groaned, "That thing recorded her."
"Damn it!" Lauron cursed, his fists balling up. "I'll need to tell Mother!"
"Mhm. I never expected an Intelligent variant to appear on our Island… Is this an omen?"
"If it is, it is a truly bad one!" Lauron rubbed his temple, feeling exhausted already. "The guards contacted me… the moment it woke up, all the Undead we keep for training our students tried to break out of stasis. They sensed its arrival!"
"No breaches, I assume?" Lucian asked.
"None. Let us hope; that bastard was soo energy-deprived that it couldn't fully record my little sister's mana patterns!"
"Yeah…" Lucian agreed, but he was not so sure about it.
If an Undead was sealed away and not killed… that had to mean it was a mighty one back in the day. Surviving so long, without any energy, even for an Undead, would be hard. Yet it managed to cast a defensive spell, resist the students' attacks and start analyzing them or, at least, Lia. They knew that most, if not all, intelligent variants were connected mentally. If it managed to record Lia's mana and looks, all the others would know about her. This was what made it frightening to fight against them in the Dark Ages. Even if you defeated and killed an Undead of that level, the next time, all the others knew about you. Your spells, your fighting style, your subconscious habits. Everything.
"For now, they will only know of her and that she has mixed fire," Lucian spoke up, breaking the silence between the two. "And only if that thing had the chance to establish contact with any other of its kind."
"Maybe we were lucky, and it failed to do so," Lauron murmured, looking at him before sighing and walking out of his office, disappearing to contact Reyra.
"It made contact." Somia's voice echoed from Lucian's bracelet just as he was ready to put his tea set away.
"Damn it…"
"But I blocked most of his outgoing messages."
"You can do that?" The Headmaster asked, greatly surprised.
"I am nothing but a soul, and they communicate via that. I couldn't block all he broadcasted, but the most important parts were obstructed by mine. He was weak. He could only transmit back that he was out and the girl's basic mana frequencies. It should be jumbled anyway so they won't recognize her fully or know about the mixed elements."
"That is a start." Lucian said, walking up and down in his office, "The kids are still too young and inexperienced to face anything at a higher level. They need to learn more so they can mask their powers before facing them. Haaahh… I will have to step up the courses next year! Notify all the teachers for an assembly, please! I need to hold an emergency meeting!"
"Mhm." Somia agreed, and soon every teacher on the floating Island was heading to his office.
…
….
……
Somewhere in a place that was in Meriath, yet not, in a garden that looked like an image straight out of the fables about paradise, multiple handsome men and women were sitting in a lotus position, meditating. All of them had perfect, shiny skin, glowing in an unnatural light, no matter their skin color. What made them similar was their hair, without exception; all of them had ghostly white locks flowing behind their backs. They wore elegant, white robes with golden trims at the edges, blindingly glittering when the sun's rays fell onto them.
Even though they were kneeling on slightly wet, green grass, brimming with energy, their clothes remained spotless. A soft wind blew between them, gently moving their white hair, carrying forth the sound of a creek flowing somewhere nearby. It was an idyllic scenery, drawing anyone into a doozy state by just looking at it.
"..." Then one of the figures moved. His body's minuscule flinch was enough to be noticed as everyone else was perfectly still. He opened his eyes ever so slightly, and they were like emeralds. They shone brightly, full of vigor, life, and absolute power.
"Master Xensha?" Another asked, a woman, also opening her green eyes, followed by the rest, quickly returning to reality when one of theirs broke the idyllic picture.
"A lost piece of me had just returned." He said, his voice calm, gentle, and sounding a bit curious. "It has jumbled memories, mostly useless... I will meditate on it to clear it up… but it was missing for a long time. I am surprised that it even returned to me after so long."
"It does not matter." Another male interjected. "We already recovered our injuries. We can soon try again."
"He is here, in with us." Another voice, belonging to a different woman, said it with a tinge of caution mixed into her voice.
"No matter." Xensha shook his head, fixing his sitting position, "I will hold him back while you harvest enough souls. How's our chosen doing? Did we mark all the puppets for turning?"
"We identified around a hundred who qualified to be prime quality resources." the first woman answered his question.
"Let's get to it then." Xensha nodded, closing his eyes, "We need to be stealthy with it and subdue them without being noticed ahead of time. We can't fail again." He murmured, his voice somehow sounding… fearful. "The moment another ascends... that tribulation will blast open the gates... and then they will be able to break through the seal and enter our Realm! We have to finish it before that… We won't go down without a fight!"
…
….
……
"So… we are going to try it again?" Sion asked as the Misfits' leaders were meeting at the top floor of their tower.
"Yes!" Lia answered, watching them, looking determined. "Are we that unlucky to drag back a second Undead? I don't think so!"
"Even if we are, we are going to kill it!" Aurora wrote, "This time, we would be ready."
"I agree." Keily spoke up, surprisingly calm, "Everyone says they can travel No-Space and retreat into it. It is not surprising that they snack on things lost in it… fishing out more is good because then we can kill them all!"
"Someone is fired up!" Raufon laughed, slapping his back, "And I agree! We are students of the Institute of Eight Elements! Should we be afraid of some Undead?"
"It was an intelligent variant," Koa added, looking the group's calmest and most serious.
"And even with being locked away, who knows how long it resisted us!" Ceiline agreed, remembering how the Undead ignored all of their spells.
"So?" Aurora asked, signing with her hands. "Undead has to be killed. It is our duty! It was my first time facing an intelligent one. The only difference, as it seems, is that it can cast its own spells."
"Enough!" Lia raised her hand and voice, displaying the look and attitude of a leader, "We are going to continue as is! Tell nobody about it, and that is it! Aurora is right! After we finish school, we are to use our power to hunt the Undead! If we wanted to have an easy life, we shouldn't have come to the Academy in the first place!" She looked at them, glancing into each of their eyes before continuing, "Using the telescope is fairly easy and straightforward. We are going to do it in a rotation! Every leader will learn to gaze into it, use their subordinates to fuel it, and try to fish out different holding spaces!"
"We are going to use it too?" Xin asked, surprised, mainly because they were not part of the original group of Misfits.
"Yep!" Lia grinned, "The things you get out will belong to your group! You can either distribute it between yourself or place it into the vault with a set price! If someone from the group buys it, you receive 80% of the CP!"
"Nice…" Koa whispered, licking her lips.
"Fufufufu~" Lia giggled, rubbing her hands together, "I want to use it as soon as possible!" She said, looking at Keily, "So get ready~!"
"Eh…" Keily flinched, looking at the others, asking for help with his eyes, "Boss… your look sometimes is more frightening than an Undead's!"
In Lucian's office, Lia was sitting nervously before his desk, explaining what they did, while the Headmaster was leaning against his table with crossed arms, listening, watching her eyes.
"Damn it…" He murmured.
"I didn't know it would have an Undead in it…." Lia added, looking sideways after finishing her story. "I tried sensing what was inside, but it was sealed, and I couldn't have known it was in there!"
"Not that!" Lucian smiled, shaking his head, "You are not in trouble… this can happen. I just did not expect that it would happen! It is rare to fish out an Undead!"
"Did… did it happen before?"
"We have a few known reports of similar events." He nodded, "Back in the Dark Ages, sometimes, when mages were not strong enough to kill an Undead, they sealed them away, banishing them into No-Space to be lost and forgotten about. You were lucky it was floating in that box of his for four thousand years! It was slowly sapped of all of its energy and life force!"
"Sapped… Life force...?" Lia murmured, remembering its face, its looks, and how it was looking like something that was on the verge of breaking, like some frail twig pulled out of the fire, "Do they need refreshing? Or… something?"
"Good eyes." Lucian chuckled, walking to a cabinet and bringing out a tea set, soon placing a cup of strawberry tea before Lia. "They are dead, Lia. Life has gone from them a long time ago. An undead will slowly dry up and break into pieces if it can't replenish itself. They need to feed on two things!" He raised his fingers while explaining, "One is mana. Many intelligent variants kept people, forcing them to meditate and gather mana, sapping it from them in the process. Like rearing cattle and milking them."
"Gross…"
"The second one is even worse." He continued, "They need fresh blood. So they not just milked them for mana but for that too. That is why unintelligent Undead go after the living. To feed and continue their unnatural existence!"
"But if they kill all of us, wouldn't that mean they would also go extinct?" She asked, thinking about it for a brief moment.
"It does not look like they care."
"Why do they need blood? Do they run out of it? That is why that Undead was so dry?"
"Something like that." After moistening his throat with tea, Lucian continued explaining, "You will learn about it next year, but in short, they need blood to remain in perfect condition. And they don't need much!" He raised a hand before Lia could say something, "They don't need to squeeze you dry! A few mouthfuls could do it, and it rejuvenates them fully! You were lucky it was completely dried up, being sealed away for so long, or this could have turned out horribly!"
Just as he finished, the door opened to his office, and Lauron walked in, his eyes serious, glancing at his sister, scanning her at once. Seeing she was okay, he let out a soft sigh, nodding at her before turning his eyes back to Lucian.
"I heard everything. Was it only one?"
"Yeah." The fox inclined his head toward Lia, "She was lucky but unlucky at the same time, that is all."
"What will happen next?" Lia asked, watching the two.
"Nothing." They said simultaneously, "You go back and keep this under wraps. No news to be spread, got it?" Lucian added while Lauron nodded, agreeing.
"O-okay." She stuttered, finding it a little weird but thinking they did not want any panic made sense.
"You can go now," Lauron said, smiling, leaning forward, gently stroking her head. "Relax a little! It was bad luck, but at least none of you froze up!"
"And it was great teamwork!" Lucian clapped, "This is what I want to see our students do when facing the unexpected!"
Lia smiled back at them with a shy but proud look, feeling reenergized by their words, leaving them in a much happier mood than she had arrived. Yet as soon as the door closed, the two men's faces turned grim.
"I arrived late." Lucian groaned, "That thing recorded her."
"Damn it!" Lauron cursed, his fists balling up. "I'll need to tell Mother!"
"Mhm. I never expected an Intelligent variant to appear on our Island… Is this an omen?"
"If it is, it is a truly bad one!" Lauron rubbed his temple, feeling exhausted already. "The guards contacted me… the moment it woke up, all the Undead we keep for training our students tried to break out of stasis. They sensed its arrival!"
"No breaches, I assume?" Lucian asked.
"None. Let us hope; that bastard was soo energy-deprived that it couldn't fully record my little sister's mana patterns!"
"Yeah…" Lucian agreed, but he was not so sure about it.
If an Undead was sealed away and not killed… that had to mean it was a mighty one back in the day. Surviving so long, without any energy, even for an Undead, would be hard. Yet it managed to cast a defensive spell, resist the students' attacks and start analyzing them or, at least, Lia. They knew that most, if not all, intelligent variants were connected mentally. If it managed to record Lia's mana and looks, all the others would know about her. This was what made it frightening to fight against them in the Dark Ages. Even if you defeated and killed an Undead of that level, the next time, all the others knew about you. Your spells, your fighting style, your subconscious habits. Everything.
"For now, they will only know of her and that she has mixed fire," Lucian spoke up, breaking the silence between the two. "And only if that thing had the chance to establish contact with any other of its kind."
"Maybe we were lucky, and it failed to do so," Lauron murmured, looking at him before sighing and walking out of his office, disappearing to contact Reyra.
"It made contact." Somia's voice echoed from Lucian's bracelet just as he was ready to put his tea set away.
"Damn it…"
"But I blocked most of his outgoing messages."
"You can do that?" The Headmaster asked, greatly surprised.
"I am nothing but a soul, and they communicate via that. I couldn't block all he broadcasted, but the most important parts were obstructed by mine. He was weak. He could only transmit back that he was out and the girl's basic mana frequencies. It should be jumbled anyway so they won't recognize her fully or know about the mixed elements."
"That is a start." Lucian said, walking up and down in his office, "The kids are still too young and inexperienced to face anything at a higher level. They need to learn more so they can mask their powers before facing them. Haaahh… I will have to step up the courses next year! Notify all the teachers for an assembly, please! I need to hold an emergency meeting!"
"Mhm." Somia agreed, and soon every teacher on the floating Island was heading to his office.
…
….
……
Somewhere in a place that was in Meriath, yet not, in a garden that looked like an image straight out of the fables about paradise, multiple handsome men and women were sitting in a lotus position, meditating. All of them had perfect, shiny skin, glowing in an unnatural light, no matter their skin color. What made them similar was their hair, without exception; all of them had ghostly white locks flowing behind their backs. They wore elegant, white robes with golden trims at the edges, blindingly glittering when the sun's rays fell onto them.
Even though they were kneeling on slightly wet, green grass, brimming with energy, their clothes remained spotless. A soft wind blew between them, gently moving their white hair, carrying forth the sound of a creek flowing somewhere nearby. It was an idyllic scenery, drawing anyone into a doozy state by just looking at it.
"..." Then one of the figures moved. His body's minuscule flinch was enough to be noticed as everyone else was perfectly still. He opened his eyes ever so slightly, and they were like emeralds. They shone brightly, full of vigor, life, and absolute power.
"Master Xensha?" Another asked, a woman, also opening her green eyes, followed by the rest, quickly returning to reality when one of theirs broke the idyllic picture.
"A lost piece of me had just returned." He said, his voice calm, gentle, and sounding a bit curious. "It has jumbled memories, mostly useless... I will meditate on it to clear it up… but it was missing for a long time. I am surprised that it even returned to me after so long."
"It does not matter." Another male interjected. "We already recovered our injuries. We can soon try again."
"He is here, in with us." Another voice, belonging to a different woman, said it with a tinge of caution mixed into her voice.
"No matter." Xensha shook his head, fixing his sitting position, "I will hold him back while you harvest enough souls. How's our chosen doing? Did we mark all the puppets for turning?"
"We identified around a hundred who qualified to be prime quality resources." the first woman answered his question.
"Let's get to it then." Xensha nodded, closing his eyes, "We need to be stealthy with it and subdue them without being noticed ahead of time. We can't fail again." He murmured, his voice somehow sounding… fearful. "The moment another ascends... that tribulation will blast open the gates... and then they will be able to break through the seal and enter our Realm! We have to finish it before that… We won't go down without a fight!"
…
….
……
"So… we are going to try it again?" Sion asked as the Misfits' leaders were meeting at the top floor of their tower.
"Yes!" Lia answered, watching them, looking determined. "Are we that unlucky to drag back a second Undead? I don't think so!"
"Even if we are, we are going to kill it!" Aurora wrote, "This time, we would be ready."
"I agree." Keily spoke up, surprisingly calm, "Everyone says they can travel No-Space and retreat into it. It is not surprising that they snack on things lost in it… fishing out more is good because then we can kill them all!"
"Someone is fired up!" Raufon laughed, slapping his back, "And I agree! We are students of the Institute of Eight Elements! Should we be afraid of some Undead?"
"It was an intelligent variant," Koa added, looking the group's calmest and most serious.
"And even with being locked away, who knows how long it resisted us!" Ceiline agreed, remembering how the Undead ignored all of their spells.
"So?" Aurora asked, signing with her hands. "Undead has to be killed. It is our duty! It was my first time facing an intelligent one. The only difference, as it seems, is that it can cast its own spells."
"Enough!" Lia raised her hand and voice, displaying the look and attitude of a leader, "We are going to continue as is! Tell nobody about it, and that is it! Aurora is right! After we finish school, we are to use our power to hunt the Undead! If we wanted to have an easy life, we shouldn't have come to the Academy in the first place!" She looked at them, glancing into each of their eyes before continuing, "Using the telescope is fairly easy and straightforward. We are going to do it in a rotation! Every leader will learn to gaze into it, use their subordinates to fuel it, and try to fish out different holding spaces!"
"We are going to use it too?" Xin asked, surprised, mainly because they were not part of the original group of Misfits.
"Yep!" Lia grinned, "The things you get out will belong to your group! You can either distribute it between yourself or place it into the vault with a set price! If someone from the group buys it, you receive 80% of the CP!"
"Nice…" Koa whispered, licking her lips.
"Fufufufu~" Lia giggled, rubbing her hands together, "I want to use it as soon as possible!" She said, looking at Keily, "So get ready~!"
"Eh…" Keily flinched, looking at the others, asking for help with his eyes, "Boss… your look sometimes is more frightening than an Undead's!"
