"I know." Subaru sighed and looked back at the girls. "Things just became a lot more complicated."
Junichi nodded and looked at the girls. "Baenthor is the last of the six True Elemental Dragons. What could he want with Master? Why would he go against his isolationist ideals? It's the only thing that's kept him alive." Junichi sighed and looked towards the door leading out of the classroom. "I fear it may have something to do with our Master's Transformation..."
Sulris pulled away from the kiss and bit her bottom lip. "Sorry. I can't control myself around you. I've never felt this way before." She nuzzled her face into his neck and closed her eyes.
"You don't need to apologize. This is all so new to me, too. None of this has ever happened to me before." Sona looked down and chuckled softly. "That tickles, Sulris." He placed one hand on the back of her head and looked towards the classroom door. "We should head back. Our next class should be starting soon."
"I know..." She sighed and backed away slowly. "I have a feeling life with you won't have a dull moment." She giggled softly and walked towards the door. "Come on. I'm worried Junichi might be spreading more rumours." She slid open the door and walked inside the classroom.
"You have no idea how right you are, Sulris." Sona whispered and followed her into the room, sliding the door shut behind him.
"Master!" Ayame jumped up and ran to Sona's side. "What happened? Why do you look even more beat up?" She wrapped her arms around Sona and held him close. "Who did this, Junichi?" Ayame's face twisted in anger. "Who hurt my Master?" A hand was placed on her head "Hm?" She looked up as Sona started petting her head gently.
"It's okay, my sweet Ayame. I'm alright. Everything has been taken care of, okay? Trust me." He scratched behind her ears and she closed her eyes, giggling happily.
"Sona." Subaru walked up to her Master and looked him dead in the eyes. "Are you 100% certain that the voice who spoke to you called himself Baenthor?"
"Hm?" Sona looked up and nodded. "Without a doubt, Subaru. He called himself Baenthor. I am 1,000% certain that's what called himself. Why, what's wrong?" He continued to pet Ayame's head lovingly. She just continued to nuzzle her head into his hand sighing happily all the while.
"Then something big is coming, and you are at the center of it all. Just who exactly are you?" She asked rhetorically and sighed. "I know, I know. Arzotz's chosen. I just can't comprehend what he is thinking. You are far to young for all of this."
"Actually, I've been alive for 35 years, Subaru, dear. When I was brought to this world, I was given a younger body. My guess is it was to allow me to grow into this world. However the mind and plans of a God are far beyond my abilities to grasp." Sona whispered and shrugged casually.
"No way...Well, then, I guess there's no reason to hold back since you are technically an adult. Hey, Sulris!" Subaru called over Sona's newest lover.
"Hm? Hold back what?" Sona was puzzled as Sulris made her way over.
"What's going on, Subaru?" Sulris looked at Sona and back to Subaru.
"Remember what you said earlier?" Subaru grabbed Sona's chin and leaned down quickly, planting her lips firmly against Sona's mouth.
"What?!" Sulris was stunned.
"Auntie Subaru!!" Ayame covered her eyes and peeked through her fingers.
"Sis...?" Junichi was probably the most shocked out of everyone.
The other girls just watched in stunned silence. 'What is going on? Subaru is this how you really feel?' Sona thought to his familiar during their shared kiss.
'It is, Master. Sorry for stepping outside the boundaries of my duties to you.' She replied in his mind as she pulled away from the kiss. "There. According to Sulris I can be your lover now, too!" Subaru stood up straight and winked at Sulris.
'It's fine. I'm just stunned more then anything. Though I can't say I'm not happy you feel that way. I felt connected to you ever since you saved my life and that of my friends.' He watched the interactions of his familiar and his dark elf lover and couldn't help but laugh. "Sulris, so you're the one who put that kiss idea into her head?" Sona shrugged and laughed loudly as the door to the classroom opened.
"I didn't mean to do that..." She looked down nervously. 'Did I make him mad?' A warm, calloused hand slipped into her own hand and she looked up. "Sona..."
"It's okay. Don't look so upset. The teacher is here now so come take a seat with us." Konotsune and Deltune were upset that they had to switch seats now. Ellie and Sulris were given their turn to sit next to Sona. Ayame, Subaru, Kono, and Del all sat in front of him. "Hey that's--"
"Good morning, students. My name is Valindra Faebella. Miss Valindra or Miss Faebella will be fine. I'm here today to teach you about Mana Control and Incantations. Some of you may know me if you have an aptitude for water as I'm also the instructor in teaching students how to control their water affinity." She wrote her name on the board and turned around to face the class. "It's good to see you again Mr. Harata, Miss Deltune. It seems you've made some new companions since the last time we spoke."
"Yes, ma'am. I'll introduce you sometime. It's good to see you again, though, Valindra." Sona smiled and bowed his head.
"Mr. Sona, while we do have a semi personal relationship outside the classroom, please refer to me as Miss Valindra in the classroom." She reprimanded the young student. "Well, now that that's out of the way, today we will be heading outside to the training field. Please bring the textbooks that Miss Nobutani gave you at the start of class." She turned to the side and walked towards the door, her rather large chest bouncing with each step.
"Outside training, huh? Sounds like fun." The other young boy in class with three tails finally spoke up. "Mmmm. That was a good nap." He yawned softly and rose to his feet.
"Toshiyuki why were you sleeping all class?" Aki chided her young tailed companion. "You were supposed to be paying attention!" She grabbed both of his cheeks and pulled on them hard.
"Owowow. Thath hurshs, sihster!" Toshiyuki cried out and his tails wagged rapidly.
"Sister?!" Sona turned around to see the two demi humans side by side. Aki had shoulder length blonde hair that she kept in a pony tail and blue eyes. Toshiyuki had the same color hair but he had green eyes. Their tails were both white with three red circles near the tip and two red lines going symmetrically down the sides. 'Well I guess looking at them like this you can really tell.' Sona chuckled nervously. "I don't know how I missed that."
"Well most people never look at us side by side." Toshiyuki joked and walked up to Sona. "By the way, I heard what happened. Thanks for looking out for Aki." Toshiyuki extended his hand towards Sona. "I'm Toshiyuki, but you can call me Toshi if you want."
"Oh, it was no problem. I'm Sona." He took Toshi's hand and they shared a firm handshake. The rest of the class started following Valindra so the two boys did, as well. "I'm not originally from Ayes. I came from a small island to the south west of the Trowan Continent. Demi Humans and Osgilithians coexist peacefully there so I've always been taught to treat everyone equally. Although the Trowan Civil War has reached even our small island. We were forced to evacuate so I ended up here." Sona made up a bullshit story off the top of his head and ran with it.
"Oh, I'm sorry. What about your parents?" Toshiyuki followed beside Sona.
"Your guess is as good as mine. They up and disappeared one day. No note, no reason. They just vanished, but when I went looking for them, people acted as if they never existed. The people of the island told me I had always lived by myself. I didn't know what to believe. Eventually I just assumed I dreamt my parents were real." Sona looked to Toshiyuki and frowned. "That was long ago, Toshi. Don't be sad for me." He placed a hand on the small boy's shoulder. 'Plus I feel bad since I'm totally lying to you. That came from an anime I saw in my other life.' He mentally berated himself for his lies, but he had no choice. 'I can't exactly go around telling the whole continent I'm an otherworlder.'
"I'm glad he's met another guy he could befriend." Ellie giggled innocently.
"I could say the same for my brother. Toshiyuki is a friendly boy, but he never really tried to get close to the other boys. I'm glad they both started talking." Aki giggled happily along with Ellie.
The class followed Valindra down a long corridor until they were forced to go left by a dead end. After five minutes of walking, they saw a door at the end with rays of the sun filtering through the window. "It's just up ahead. We'll begin shortly after arrival so be prepared. You can start by looking on pages 100 to 106. They cover the basics of mana control and lesser incantations. Incantations are based on a level system. The higher the level, the stronger the spell, though it stands to reason that stronger spells require longer incantations. That's why it's always best to pair up with others. There are more advanced incantations in the back, as well as a tutorial on how to create your own. I don't think any of you are at that point yet so we will skim over it later. Oh, and I probably should mention, you can only use incantations that match your affinity."
'High Level spells with long incantations? I kind of figured you could only use your affinity.' Sona flipped to the back page and his eyes went wide in shock. '10th Level Incantation. Ignatius. It's almost a two paragraph incantation. We have to memorize these? I don't think it'll be a problem for me, but, I have an unfair advantage...' Sona sighed as he quickly read through and memorized all the spells in the book. 'This feels so unfair...'
"Alright class." Valindra pushed the double wide doors open and a great green field stood before them. "This is the athletic field. Anybody who plays in the sports clubs knows about this field. It's also where we will hold training sessions and practical exams." Valindra walked to the center and instructed the students to line up. "First I'll ask for volunteers. If nobody does then I'll pick and choose."
Toshiyuki raised his hand high. "I'll go first Miss Faebella!"
"Okay, Toshiyuki is up first." Valindra wrote his name down on the roster. "Whenever you're ready. You can read from the book this time but during the practicals you'll have to rely on memory." Valindra stepped back to watch from a distance as Toshiyuki opened his book.
"Okay. Here I go." Toshiyuki looked down at the book then raised his hand slowly. "A frozen hell, a white abyss. Accept them in your cold embrace. Freeze them all with icy breath, and grant to them a frozen death. With your power I reshape, and coat the land in frozen scape. Flash Freeze!" Toshiyuki's body glowed as the mana from his body raced to his hand. The air around them grew cold and the green field was covered in ice in front of Toshiyuki. "I did it..." Toshiyuki exhaled slowly and cheered.
"Nice job, brother!" Aki clapped loudly for her twin's success.
"Nice job, Toshi!" Sona put his hand up as Toshiyuki walked back, they clasped hands and patted each other's shoulders. "Proud of you man."
"Thanks, Sona. Why don't you go up? It's easier than it looks." Toshi looked to his friend and tried to goad him into going next.
'I would, Toshi, but...' Sona thought to himself and shrugged. "I'll wait."
"Toshiyuki, excellent job. Who's next?" Valindra looked around at the students.
"I'll go, Miss Faebella." Elandeli stepped forward.
"Okay, Miss Darkfang. Go ahead when you're ready." Valindra marked her paper.
"Very well." Elandeli took one of her claws and stabbed her finger causing blood to drop from the wound to the ground. "Oh Bishop of Insatiable Thirst, to you I offer my blood. Drink! In the name of Lady Elandeli Darkfang, I seek unto you to fulfill thy contract! Give to me your power as I give to you myself. As defined by our covenant, pierce mine enemies and feast upon them. Invoke Blood Contract!" The blood that had begun to pool at her feet slowly sunk into the ground. The ground trembled as several massive blood red spikes shot from the ground. "Voila!" Ellie turned around as the spikes receded into the ground.
"Very good, Miss Darkfang. A blood contract is difficult to obtain. I'm impressed. Okay, next?" Valindra looked up from her notes. "Nobody?"
"Very well. Miss Deltune. You're up." Valindra picked someone since no other student volunteered.
"Okay." Del walked up slowly and opened her book.
"You got this Del!" Sona cheered for his woman.
"Make us proud Big Sis Deltune!" Ayame cheered along with Sona.
"Show us how it's done girl!" Sulris cheered for her new friend.
Deltune blushed from all the attention and took a deep breath. "A frozen hell, a white abyss. Accept them all in your embrace. Freeze them all with icy breath, and grant to them a frozen death. With your power I reshape, and coat the land in frozen scape. Flash Freeze!" Deltune chose the same spell as Toshiyuki. The temperature dropped rapidly around them and once again the green field became covered in ice. "Disperse!" The ice disappeared and tiny snow flakes floated downward.
"Beautiful! Nice job, Miss Deltune." Valindra marked off her name and looked up. "Okay. Any volunteers?" She looked around again and shrugged. "Okay. Let's keep on going down the list. Atsuhide?" She looked around for a moment. "Where's Atsuhide?"
"Miss Valindra. He's in the infirmary. Long story. I can explain later or Headmaster Hawthorne can tell you." Sona looked down at the ground.
"Okay. Thank you, Mr. Harata. Very well then. How about you come up next?" She marked Atsuhide down for a make up when he was feeling better.
"Sure." Sona looked up at the sky and smirked. 'Hope you're watching future father in law.' Sona chuckled in his mind and walked confidently into position. "Ready." Sona took in a big breathe of air before speaking. "I seek the one born from the fires of creation. Spring forth from the oldest flames of the abyss. I call upon the indiscriminate flame to burn away everything. Pour unto those deemed unworthy, a bubbling cauldron of purification, and burn away Good, Evil and Chaos alike! I invoke this gift unto the unclean and return them to the ash from whence they came to fuel the eternal flame. I wish for everything to burn, burn, burn! Ignatius!"
While Sona was doing his incantation the other students watched in awe. Some flipped to look for the spell and others just stared, mesmerized by the sight.
"No way. He's trying to cast a Level 10 Incantation?" Valindra was in disbelief. She didn't think he could pull it off, but he had the confidence to try.
Everyone was silent as they watched Sona. Nothing happened for a few moments. 'Come on, Sona. I know you can do it.' Sulris thought to herself. The other students sighed in disappointment, thinking they weren't going to see the spell.
Then, Sona's body started glowing red. Flames leaped from his body and danced around him. The image of a massive red dragon formed from the flames and flowed around Sona's body. "Go forth and burn!" He pointed to the sky and the flames of Ignatius shot straight up to the heavens. Everyone watched in fear and amazement at the sight in front of them.
'He...he did it...' Valindra looked down at the young man whom she was destined to serve. 'There is no doubt in my mind now. He is indeed the chosen one of legends. Just as the prophecy foretold.'
"Woo-hoo! Way to go, darling! You're amazing!" Ellie ran over to hug him as he dropped to one knee. "Darling?" Ellie ran faster and threw her arms around him. "Are you okay?"
"...y-yeah.." Sona struggled as he tried to control his breathing. 'Holy shit. That took a massive toll on my Mana. I knew it would be powerful, but without access to all of my Mana, it'll be hard trying to use a level 10 incantation.' Sona thought to himself and fell into Elandeli's arms. His face fell into her chest and he sighed, completely drained.
"D-darling?! We can't! There are people watching!" She covered her face with her hands when Sona's face fell onto her breasts. She looked down when nothing happened and giggled softly. "That really did drain you, didn't it? I'm so proud of you." She cooed and ran her hand backwards through his hair.
There was a soft snoring sound coming from Sona but he had a huge grin the whole time. Proud of his most recent accomplishment. "Come on, Darling." Elandeli rose to her feet and lifted Sona up effortlessly. She walked him off the field and to the nearby building. Deltune followed after them. Elandeli sat down and Deltune helped lay Sona's head in Ellie's lap.
Once that was done, Del laid down beside him. "He always pushes himself so hard..." Ellie sighed softly.
"I know. Can you blame him, though, Ellie?" Del reached her hand out and placed it on his cheek. "The fate of this world rests on his shoulders. He does his best to hide it so he doesn't worry us, but I can see his soul. Deep down, he's terrified..." Deltune caressed his cheek with her hand.
"I'm well aware, but he needs to learn to trust us. He doesn't have to do this alone." Ellie sighed softly and closed her eyes.
"He's been alone all his life. Now that he has us, he's scared of losing us. He's scared he won't be strong enough to save us, like back at the Imperial Capital." Deltune thought back to the sight of Sona laying in the infirmary bed. "We have to show him we can help, that we won't drag him down. We have to get stronger, Ellie. Together."
"You're right, Deltune. And we will. All of us will become much stronger. We will prove that we can protect him just as well as he protects us." Ellie nodded in agreement.
"That's the perfect attitude to possess ladies." A voice called to them from behind.