Regalia's class was nearing its end. So far, she has taught the class how to properly maneuver in spirit form and how to identify the components that make up each etherite. It took much longer than it should have because some people lagged, especially Newt. She got a feeling it was due to a lack of confidence, but where that lack of confidence came from, she didn't know.
"Alright, for homework, write three paragraphs on a specific type of etherite we saw today." They were conversing in the physical world then. The students were then dismissed and let out to their next activities. Regalia molded a splash of water and cleaned the room spotless.
Regalia left the classroom. The hallways had gilded walls and paintings of men of noteworthiness. Some of the paintings had men standing beside dragons, others showed men with swords raising them high over a recently captured hill on a battlefield. Regalia knew less about these figures than the humans definitely looked up to than the divine figures that were at the church the other day. Mortal history didn't seem all that interesting to her.
Regalia was walking towards the stairs when she met another dark-haired woman. She introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Marabel."
Regalia talked to her while walking down the stairs. "Hello, I'm Regalia and I teach here."
Marabel smiled, "So do I."
They continued to chat about the different people and features of the school. Marabel was way more knowledgeable about the school than Regalia.
"Hey, did you know about the Library?" Marabel asked.
"What about the library?"
"The Library holds a special power you should see." Marabel smiled in a giddy way.
They proceeded through the corridors all the way to the underground basement doors. The doors were large, depicting a woman holding an apple and a book. Regalia could sense something as she approached the door.
"What is guarding the door?" Regalia questioned. She couldn't see anything in front of her other than the doors.
"Those are the unknowns; they don't attack or reveal themselves unless someone tries to enter during closed hours." Marabel was assuring her that Regalia was safe.
"Interesting, these creatures are made from some ancient magic." Regalia has only heard of magic this sophisticated that could create a creature that couldn't be seen, heard, smelled, or detected by most senses.
The doors opened, and they went through. On the other side, they found a maze of bookshelves that were each several times bigger than the outer wall of a house. There were floating bridges leading from one section of the library to the other.
There was a circular desk in the front area of the library. At that desk was a six-eared woman with red hair. Marabel went to the redhead and asked for multiple "Fire Transmutation" books. The red-haired woman wrote something on a piece of paper and gave it to Marabel. Marabel then went off to get the books.
Regalia asked the Red Headed woman her name.
She responded by saying her name was "Resong."
"Hello, Resong, I wish to be informed about the structure behind you?"
There was a tall stone pillar depicting a woman weaving some thread. She was heavily cloaked, so much so that her demeanor was indecipherable. Below her on the same pillar was a little slit that had a rectangular hole in it.
"Well, the pillar behind me is the Resource Caller, it's a sophisticated ancient magic that collects knowledge scholars send across the continent."
"That Goddess on the Pillar, I think, is one of the Gods that took part in the calamity war, although on the wrong side unfortunately." Regalia was interested in how the pillar worked.
"Yeah, well, even dead Gods still leave behind their power. In her case, she created the Web, a connection of magical posts that allowed sorcerers and even non-sorcerers to communicate and share ideas and information over long distances."
"Interesting, if this is so useful, why haven't I heard about it?" Regalia questioned.
"The Web was heavily damaged in the calamity, and while we somewhat understand the magic used to make it, we simply lack the magic prowess to expand it to what it used to be unless we get one of the major gods to take over the maintenance and extension of the web."
"Why haven't any of the Gods done so?" Regalia was really intrigued now.
"Well, to be short, the web is extremely dangerous because the information that should be kept secret spreads like wildfire, and also people can make plans on the web that go under the radar. That's why this library, more than most other libraries, is kept under high security since this is one of the few public places you can access the web."
"Is there a book on the Web?" Regalia wanted to find out more.
Resong reached under her desk, pulled out a book that had no title, and gave it to Regalia.
Regalia went to a table with the book she got. Sitting there was a young man with green hair wearing a red robe. She did not focus on him at the moment and began reading.
There was a lot of information on the web in the book, but not a lot of information on the goddess that created it, which is normal in the case of the fallen Gods, as hiding a God's name can stop them from coming back from the dead as Gods sometimes do. She would continue reading for a couple of hours.
…
Outside the school's gate were two men, both with red tattoos on their faces. One had a squiggly red line coming from his left eye, and the other man had triangles encircling his left eye. They were reasonably distanced from the gate in order not to draw suspicion. They talked in very low voices.
"So is the key in there?" The second man asked.
"Yes, I am sure of it." The first one answered.
"How heavily guarded is it?" The second man questioned.
"A speck of dust would need permission to get in there; it's guarded like the gates to hell."
"Unfortunately, if the key is what we think it is, then invading the Bastion of knowledge is the only way to bring about the Final World plan."
"Well, did you expect this to be easy? What we are trying to do is the most forbidden of all actions, we are going to unleash the enemy to the divine."
"Only if we can access the library under the school, it either starts there or ends there, no in betweens."
"Ok then."
The two men walked away from the gate; however, their plans for the school and even more so the world were only beginning to brew.
…
Insignia was teaching her second class of the day. The class took place outside in the grass fields that were surrounded by a gold gate. The students were practicing on a wooden dummy. Throwing basic elemental spells at it.
"Stop using fire to do extra damage to the wooden puppet that's taking a shortcut," Insignia shouted.
"Wouldn't using obvious weaknesses be a good strategy and useful in the future?" one of the students retorted.
"Competent combatants expect you to exploit their weakness, which is why they put guards around their weak spots or even misdirect you altogether," Insignia explained.
A young man with sparkling orange hair spoke up, "Teach, there ain't nothing left for me to learn 'cause I am already the best at combat."
"Is that so?" Insignia scowled.
"It be the truth," he cockily spoke back.
"Alright, let's do a little test duel with the stipulation that if you make me use more than 10 spells, you win, or hit me once you win."
"Ok," they both walked into a circular patch of dirt surrounded by grass.
"Start," Insignia said.
The student named Laxocus manifested walls of lightning surrounding the arena and shot lightning bolts from all sides.
Insignia created a bubble of water around her to block all the lightning bolts. "This type of spell is called a block type for preventing damage." She said, using her spiritual self.
Laxocus formed a sword made out of lightning in his hand and charged fiercely, prepared to strike.
Just as he was about to attack, Insignia divided the bubble she was in into 2 and used the new bubble to encapsulate Laxocus. "This type of magic is called Sealing and is primarily used to subdue an opponent without killing them."
The student struggled to get out of the bubble and found himself unable to access his magic.
"The bubble is specifically made to seal lightning magic. If you know how to do other types of magic, you can get out." Insignia was stone-faced; it was not very fun for her to overpower a much weaker opponent.
Laxocus signaled surrender, and Insignia dispersed the bubble, keeping Laxocus in place. The student fell to the ground, coughing up water and holding his throat. He would think again before challenging her. He would think again before challenging any of his teachers." Ooooooouch," he yelled.
"You should grow a tolerance for the pain of battle or sooner be grasped by the peace of death." Insignia went and stood in front of her other students and explained the combat piece by piece. "The lightning strikes used against me are attack type spells which are meant to do damage to the target, the bubble I was in is called a block type spell meant to prevent threats from ever reaching me which is only one way to defend against attacks, and finally the bubble I put around Laxocus was a seal spell which prevents your opponent from using abilities and sometimes moving."
A student raised their hand. "How do you stop a seal and get out of a seal?"
"Seals only prevent certain types of magic, like water, fire, or ice, so simply use a different type of magic, or simply use a type of magic that counteracts the type of magic the seal is using, For example, ice magic would have countered the water bubble I put Lax in," Insignia explained.
"Still seems hard to prevent."
"Sealing is usually done on targets far, far weaker than the user because it's easier sealing magic weaker than your own," Insignia emphasised.
Laxocus got up a little roughly and then walked his way to the healer's room.
"Now, for the next exercise, I will flood the grounds, and everyone must defend from my attack," Insignia yelled.
It started raining.
…
Sceptia was on the roof of the school, teaching her class. "Ok, class imbuing life into your magic is actually really difficult, so don't be upset if you don't get it at first."
Sceptia started describing what she was doing. "Using your spiritual self pull elemental essence from your surroundings but only one type then combine it with nervous essence, which is produced from all sentient life, and shape it into the form of a sphere with a few edges with the edges where the limbs will form then move construct in a rhythmic pattern to increase its radiance."
Sceptia made a little water elemental that had small, stubby arms and a drooping-looking face.
"He's cute," "So cute," "I want to bite him," "I want to hug him," "I want to keep him," are all statements made by the girls in the class. The boys were hesitant to show any appreciation for something so femininely appealing. Sceptia then instructed the class to create their own simple life constructs.
The girls went on creating cute, simple constructs. The boys, desiring to separate themselves from their female peers, went ahead and made more dangerous constructs out of fire, lightning, and poison. Of course, in their recklessness, instead of making the constructs small and manageable, they made them as big as their meager magical skills would allow. The disaster that followed was a perfect tragedy based on hubris.
One student with purple hair made a watermelon-sized poison construct. It was a large, amorphous purple slime creature that was unstable. It convulsed and thrashed around until ultimately popping, spraying its acid contents everywhere, catching only its creator in its self-destructive area of effect attack. The student screamed and spasmed in pain.
Sceptia, quickly like a mother saving her child, created a bubble around the student that was filled with healing magic. The student's distress seemed to stop, and their burnt skin and other scars began healing. He looked at peace in the bubble and was kept there for the rest of the class. Some of the other students pitied him, while some of the other students, mainly the boys, mocked him for being reckless.
"Ok, for the rest of the class, only earth elementals are allowed," Sceptia ordered.
The girls all threw things at the boys who were causing trouble and kept shouting "it's your fault" and different variations of it. The class afterwards went rather smoothly, although less fun than it could have been.
…
Strength had awakened Adrian from his slumber. Adrian was a bit weak but forced himself to his feet. Strength then gave him a hug and did a small chant. "I am your sun and I shine my light onto you." Then Adrian felt rejuvenated and refreshed.
"What happened… why do I feel so much better?" Adrian questioned.
"I used my magical trait to help you." Strength said in her soft, mature-sounding voice.
"So you're a sorcerer with magic like Regalia?" Adrian asked.
"Pu pu pu no," Strength giggled.
"Very odd laugh you have."
"Magical races laugh differently than you."
Adrian stretched his body and prepared for work. "Next exercise?"
"Oh, the next one may very well kill you." Strength grinned.
"What?"
"This is a secret exercise technique that is extremely dangerous."
"Is it necessary?" Adrian squirmed a little.
"No," She kept smiling.
"Then why do it?" Adrian's brow bent down.
"Because… ONLY THE MOST EPIC CAN DO IT." Strength yelled while balling her hands into a fist.
"Wa Waaaa WHAT" Adrian's mouth opened wide, and his eyebrows raised.
"Yep, only the greatest heroes ever can complete this challenge."
"But I am nowhere near that great, at least not yet." Adrian was mentally prone.
"Thats why you need to do it is to reach your full potential." Strength leaning over him, peering into his soul.
Strength pulls Adrian by his arm to a room that was deep within the gym. The room had a vault door. Strength turned the vault herself using brute strength. They went inside and closed the door behind them. Inside, there was a chest that disappointingly looked normal. Strength opened the chest and reached her hand in. "This is a secret between the two of us." As she pulled out a … golden club.