The magical force surrounding Carla and Devion was so powerful that they had to hold themselves down as if gravity were swallowing them up from the ground. The girl tried to stand up, but the force was so strong that even keeping her power active to avoid being stuck to the ground was a physical feat.
Devion concentrated in the depths of his being to get up, but just as with Carla, it was already very difficult for him to stand up straight. By concentrating as hard as he could, he managed to let out a little more of his power, and while his flames tried to push back that dark cage, his ice surrounded them to help them up.
D... De... Devion...
A voice rang out in his head.
"Argh..."
"Devion, are you all right?" Carla asked as the ice helping her up weakened. "It's so powerful... This power..."
Devion... Devion!
"Ah... What's that..."
Devion. DEVION! Hear me. Hear my voice.
"What the hell is this?"
The voice continued to echo from his mind again and again and again. It was unbearable for him, and his power gradually slackened as Carla found herself thrown to the ground without Devion's help. The boy was completely absent, seemingly absorbed in another dimension as he yelled at a ghostly voice to be quiet.
Carla concentrated in turn, if he couldn't help her then she would have to do everything by herself. She decided not to fight her way to her feet and to concentrate all her strength on summoning as much of her powers as possible to break the cage surrounding them.
"Devion!" When Carla's blizzard surrounded them sufficiently, she managed to get up pushing with all her might on her legs. She grabbed the boy's shoulders to turn him to face her. "Devion! Wake up! What's going on!"
A gasp of fright caught the young magician as she turned her comrade around. The scar under Devion's eye had taken up a much larger space on his face as if a huge animal had scratched his face. Carla kept her composure, trying to call back the dark-haired man who had gone awfully quiet.
Devion. We'll be waiting for you. We'll wait for you as long as it takes.
A flash of light appeared before his eyes, he fell to the ground and there, facing him, was a panicked Carla, shaking him by the shoulders. Cristael was standing a few meters away from them and had managed to break the cage surrounding them. The voice had disappeared, but the chaos was just beginning.
"Are you okay?" Carla asked.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." Devion got to his feet, staggering slightly, he felt his scar suddenly diminish, had it grown? "What happened?"
"We've been attacked." Cristael looked at her son with concern. "We managed to fend them off, but there were casualties."
"By whom? And where are they?"
"We don't know, dear. They looked like shapeless shadows, with powers." Cristal beckoned the two children closer so that they could be helped and their potential injuries checked.
The evening drew to a close in worry and questioning.
Chaos had begun its macabre dance.
After this incident, Orpheion was in turmoil for many days. Injured students and teachers were treated and, fortunately and probably due to the professionalism of the institute's teaching staff, no serious cases were reported. However, the event left a lasting impression on people's minds.
The king and queen announced tighter security at the academy, and more soldiers were assigned to the two watchtowers on the island of Orpheion.
No one had been seriously hurt, but no one knew what had happened or why.
Devion hadn't told anyone about the strange voice he'd heard during the attack. It was as if he felt he had to keep this information to himself and that passing it on would be a crucial mistake.
As for Carla, she had become curiously shy around the boy, even though they were in the same class, but whenever she came across him, she avoided him as much as possible. She had noticed that he tried to greet her every time they saw each other, but she shunned him anyway. After all, a princess, even a cold one, could be a little shy.
After a few days, everything gradually returned to normal and classes resumed in a more pleasant calm, despite the larger scale they had taken on and the pressure of the mission that the Kaelian leaders had placed on the shoulders of the institute's students.
On this sunny new day, the physical education classes were going to be more than interesting. The first years had therefore moved to the outdoor training area, and out of the gardens onto a huge magical playground. All equally restless, the students were already enjoying the opportunity to put their powers to the test and gauge each other's progress.
"Hi, kids." A huge colossus stood in front of them, or rather the physical education teacher, Angus Steele. Sol joked, caricaturing, that Professor Steele was probably the size of a tree.
Angus Steele was a very tall, bearded man with long brown hair and a determined look in his eyes. He was probably one of the academy's favorite teachers for a lot of students. This was not only due to his absolutely phenomenal physical strength, but also to the fact that he had, surprisingly, virtually no mana symphony. Angus Steele was therefore the one and only being in entire Orpheion still in the Latent stage, and this was not unknown to anyone.
Everyone took their places in front of the professor, as they hadn't had any lessons with him yet, but his lectures were eagerly awaited and everyone wanted to know what a magician in the Latent stage could do to be teaching at Oprheion.
"I can't wait to see what a poor Latent can teach us." Herras with arms folded and a defiant look sneered at his friends.
"Well, kid, I'll show you what a Latent can do."
Herras stopped dead in his tracks. He had a knack for making a fool of himself, Devion thought. Herras stepped forward, looking ridiculous. Finally facing such a colossal, even Latent, was perhaps not such a good thing.
"I'm not scared Sir."
"I don't wish to make you, Mr. Blanchard." The professor bent down and circled the young man with one hand under his chin, he seemed to be analyzing him. "Very well. I see, I see. Contract your muscles, kid."
"Why-"
That was all it took, and with one punch Angus sent Herras flying several meters away from him. By the simple use of brute force. The students held their breath, then after a few seconds a cheer went up. Professor Angus Steele was definitely an extremely strong teacher.
"Lesson number 1. Never let your guard down. Don't relax your muscles in unfamiliar territory. And above all, you don't judge without knowing your opponent's strength. Strength is as much in your muscles as in your magic." He turned his head to look at each of the students one by one. "Divide into groups of two now, and we'll move on to more practice."
Everyone took their places, and while Devion naturally took his place with Sol, his gaze drifted to the other students in his class, whom he knew very little about after all. There were quite a few of them, but only a few in particular caught his eye.
Not far from Herras Blanchard, or the annoying jerk, as Devion liked to call him, stood a rather snobbish-looking girl. Her pink hair was pulled back in two ponytails on either side of her head, and as she readjusted her glasses before staring at the young boy, she turned her disinterested head. He remembered her name. The nerd, Violet Tanaka.
Not far away, a very discreet, slightly agitated young man stood with both hands swaying nervously from left to right. His curly brown hair added to his innocence. The stressed one, Charly Velmoran.
On another side, Devion remembered another one, because, despite his gloomy appearance, he was part of the Scholar Assembly, and that was very surprising. Dev told himself that he would rather not get too close to this small dark-haired man, with eyes as dark as his hair and a scary smile plastered on his face. The ghost, Vladymir Sorris.
Sol was standing right next to Devion, deep in conversation with another boy Devion already knew. His long green hair was virtually unavoidable. The prince, Galahad Morwynn.
Finally, glued together were young girls, one of whom he already knew well and the other from afar. A rather petite teenager with short, bobbed blue hair stood close to Carla. Devion remembered her name because her older sister had spoken at the welcome party and was better known at the academy. She smiled sweetly at Carla but stared longingly at Devion before giving him a quick smile. The nice one, Maya Locke.
And there was the last one he only knew very well, Carla Artheimer.
The rest of the class gradually paired off, and Professor Steele stepped to the center of the assembly. Arms folded, an encouraging smile graced his face. With a thump, he struck the ground and a huge hole formed in the center of the field.
Angus Steele laughed under the blissful silence of the students.
"Dearest students, even a poor Earth Element Latent like me can claim such a show of strength. That's why I want to make you the next Angus Steele, hahaha!" He stopped laughing after two very long minutes, during which his audience remained in a mixture of surprise and admiration. "All right, enough joking around. In groups of two, I want you to fight each other using as little magic as possible."
The first pair to face off brought together Charly and Violet against Herras and one of his friends, whose name Dev had by no means remembered.
Herras briefly turned his head towards Devion with a look of absolute disdain. The dark-haired man waved his hand before sticking out his tongue mockingly. This little war that was going on between them had ended up making him laugh, despite the days that passed Herras still seemed to have a real grudge against Devion.
The fight was about to begin, and that interested him much more. Devion then turned his attention to an activity he enjoyed even more than putting his rival in his place: watching other magicians use magic he didn't know.
When the fight began, Charly stood back, leaving Violet to take the battle head-on. Nevertheless, neither of them really moved, and when Herras' friend rushed at her, she looked up at the sky and, with a flick of her hand, a few flames shot out of her arm, enveloping her opponent and burning him back.
On the other hand, Herras, shifty as he was, had discovered that Charly was standing further back, the young man seemed very nervous and Herras intended to take advantage of this. This time it was fire against earth. Herras threw himself at Charly, who erected a wall of rock out of fear.
"No, Charly! You're using your power too much!
"STOOOOOP." Professor Angus Steele stopped the fight as quickly as it had begun. "Indeed, Charly, Violet is right. I asked for minimal use of your powers. You have therefore lost the confrontation. Next ones."
The two duos parted, and as Charly was getting his back up from an annoyed Violet, Herras turned his eyes back to Devion. Good luck," he breathed.
"Next up, Devion Boëlthorn and Sol Wolfrad against Carla Artheimer and Maya Locke. In position."