What….was that? I shook my head hard, forcing the thought down. This wasn't the time. Whatever I had just seen, whatever those golden eyes were, I couldn't unravel it here in the middle of the festival square. I must look like a crazy person just standing here looking rattled and dazed. Besides I have to hurry to enrollment.
The academies always closed their books two hours after sunset, and the sun had already slipped below the horizon an hour ago. That left me one hour, maybe less, before the gates shut tight until tomorrow. Now I could wait but I want to sign up as soon as possible and make sure I make it before the maximum amount of enrollment applications are submitted. My chest still throbbed with the weight of the tortoise's bond, every step heavy, but I pushed through the press of bodies, weaving between wide-eyed candidates and families buzzing with excitement or weighed down by disappointment. My legs carried me faster, almost breaking into a sprint.
The glow of the luminite stones lit the streets in flowing rivers of yellow and gold, the colors of centraxiom, guiding the way through the city. I knew where I had to go, the Aarantiveer Adventuring Academy, the most prestigious academy in this district, the one I had dreamed about since I was a child, And now, finally, I had a link. the Ancient Soul Tortoise, steady as the earth itself inside me, pulsing like a second heart. I gritted my teeth and quickened my pace, lungs burning as the crowded festival streets gave way to broader avenues. The cheers and music faded behind me, replaced by the pounding of my footsteps and the steady rhythm of my new bond thrumming in my chest. I wasn't going to waste this chance.
The streets opened up, and then I saw them, the academy's towers. I had seen them plenty of times from a distance, rising like spears above the city skyline, but now they loomed ahead of me, close enough that the glow of their runes washed over the rooftops. Their silver-veined stone shimmered in the night like they were drinking in the luminite's light and casting it back tenfold. My legs slowed despite myself. When I finally stepped into the plaza before the front gates, the sight nearly knocked the breath out of me.
The Aarantiveer Adventuring Academy wasn't just a school. It was a monument. The gates were tall arches of blackstone carved with glowing runes, shifting faintly like living script. Beyond them sprawled courtyards laced with floating lanterns that circled lazily through the air, each one carrying a flicker of magic inside that sparked like captured starlight. Water channels wound between marble walkways, glowing faintly with enchantments that painted ripples of blue and gold across the walls.
The towers….the towers soared high into the sky, their spires wrapped in veins of luminite that pulsed with steady light, humming with a presence that I could feel in my bones. It was like the entire academy itself was alive, breathing magic into the night. I stopped just short of the gate, chest heaving, not from the run but from the sheer magnitude of it. I had dreamed of this place since I was a kid, and yet standing here….it was so much more. Beautiful. Untouchable. Alive with wonder.
For a moment, I forgot all about my burning lungs, the press of time, even the lingering memory of golden eyes in the void. All I could do was stare. I could've stood there all night, staring like some wide-eyed fool, but movement at the gate snapped me back. Professors stood beneath the great arch, their robes trimmed with silver thread, each one glowing faintly with enchantments woven into the fabric. They weren't stiff or intimidating like I had half-expected. Instead, they moved with calm precision, voices carrying as they welcomed candidates and directed the flood of students rushing in to beat the deadline. One professor, an older woman with hair bound in a tight braid, clapped a boy on the shoulder and guided him toward the courtyard with a reassuring smile. Another raised his hand to wave a group of nervous girls forward, urging them to hurry.
That sight hit me hard as This wasn't just a dream anymore, wasn't some far-off day. This was happening now. My chest tightened again, not from awe this time, but urgency. I shook myself and forced my legs to move. "Come on, Syllic, you waiting to be carried like a damsel in distress or are you gonna move forward and get shit done?" the sound of my grandpa's voice saying those words flashed through my memory as I gripped Old Dusty at my side. Although I know he'd disapprove of my choice to come to celanon, get my link at the festival, and try to enroll in an academy. Even still having his sword with me gave me a sense as if he's here with me, steadying me.
I refocused on my goal as I looked at The gates that weren't just beautiful anymore. They were a countdown. Every second I wasted staring was another second closer to the books closing, another second someone else might take my place. I pulled in a deep breath, squared my shoulders, and pushed forward into the line, toward the professors and the academy beyond.
The professors' calm voices guided me through the arch and into the courtyard, where a steady stream of candidates hurried across glowing stone paths toward a wide hall lit from within by lanterns of shifting color. My chest throbbed with each step, the tortoise's presence grounding me, but my nerves buzzed like fire under my skin.
Inside, the air was thick with noise and movement. The academy had transformed its main office into a sea of temporary tables, each staffed by receptionists with neat stacks of parchment, ink pots, and glowing registry stones that flickered with each name recorded. Dozens of candidates filled the hall, some clutching fresh forms, others already waving signed papers, their faces flushed with relief.
I broke into a jog, eyes scanning for the shortest line. My focus sharpened as I spotted an opening, one table near the corner, a single receptionist sliding forms across the polished wood as fast as she could. Someone else had seen it too. The boy to my left surged forward at the same moment I did. My legs burned, but I pushed harder, weaving between two girls just stepping away. My hand slapped against the table edge not even two seconds before his did. "Hello ma'am, I'm here to sign up please." I breathed, half relieved and half excited.
The receptionist looked up, her lips quirking into a small smile. She was pretty, with sharp green eyes that glowed faintly in the lanternlight, her brown hair pulled into a tidy bun. She slid a parchment toward me, her voice steady but warm. "of course, here's the Enrollment form for you to Fill out. Also...." she added, lowering her tone and continuing with a mischievous voice. "youre lucky, you got one of the last forms we had left, as There are only five spots left."
My heart leapt into my throat. Only Five left Out of hundreds and I almost didn't make it. I swallowed hard, fingers tightening around the pen she handed me. "glad I made it" I said as I leaned over the parchment and started, scrawling out my name, place of birth, age, and everything else the neat rows of questions asked for. The pen glided across the page smoother than any ink I'd ever touched, the letters glowing faintly before fading into the parchment as if the page itself was swallowing the words whole. When I reached the bottom, I paused. A small circle etched with runes sat there, perfectly drawn and faintly glowing. I frowned, tapping the edge of the quill against it. "Uh… what's this part supposed to be?"
The receptionist chuckled softly, sliding a small silver needle toward me across the table. "That is where we verify you're who you say you are. You see, The form is enchanted. It doesn't just read what you write, it reads you." She tapped the circle. "A drop of blood here allows it to confirm your identity, test for falsified information, and catch any lies you might have written. If there's even a hint of deception, the page rejects the application instantly." I studied the page in amazement before asking "It can tell if someone's lying….through their blood?"
Her smile didn't falter, but there was a sharpness in her eyes now. "indeed, the enchantment was applied by the headmaster himself so there's no chance anyone below mythical level can lie." She nudged the needle closer. "Just a prick. Nothing to worry about, unless you've been dishonest." I swallowed hard, glancing down at the circle again. I suddenly felt very exposed, like every part of me was going to be on full display, But….I hadn't lied. Not about a single thing.
I pricked my thumb quickly without hesitating anymore, letting a bead of blood fall onto the rune. The instant it touched, the circle flared with golden light, spreading across the entire page in a web of glowing veins. The blood in my veins suddenly became hotter as a foreign and indescribably powerful energy coursed through my being. Without warning, the tortoise attached to my soul tried to fight against the invading energy with its own power, although it failed miserable. It was like trying to put out a colossal raging forest fire with a bucket of water when you actually needed an entire ocean.
The tortoise then started to draw on my own energy to aid it, but as expected it did not make even the slightest difference. At that point it started to pull on some of the connections to those other energy sources and used the multiple new surges of energy to empower its energy more and try to fight back. A surge of power I never thought I'd experience from my link yet fought wildly against the foreign energy, yet Even so, it still didn't even slow it down as it overpowered My links energy.
The receptionist smiled knowingly and laughed "I can tell from the look on your face that your link took it upon itself to try and stop the energy from the enchantment on the paper. It happens every time a student signs these forms, and every time the students are surprised at how powerless their links are against the energy. Its because, as I said before, this enchantment was made by the headmaster himself. The head master is a peak mythical antameox level existence."
She tilted her head and continued "as I'm sure you know, most people when freshly linked start in standard level, a very lucky small number start in uncommon, and even fewer people than that ever start in rare, and those who do always start in the first rank of rare, emerald. No one ever starts higher than the emerald rank. So let's say your an extremely lucky person and have a rare emerald rank link. That means the head master is a full 3 levels and 8 ranks higher than you."
"And I'm sure I don't need to mention how every rank requires at least twice as much cultivation, training, hard work, and constant improvement than the last in order to move up. Well that is until supreme palladium rank, at that point every rank requires at least 5 times more than the previous rank does. Then if you can get to legendary garnet rank, to break through to the lowest of low levels of the mythical level, meaning barely having enough power to be very low antameox rank, it requires at least 15 times more than the previous rank does." She said in a very informative tone.
"Then to go from antameox to cataclysmic takes 45 times more effort. From cataclysmic to demigod, I honestly couldn't even tell you. All this just to say, your link has no hope of overpowering his enchantment." Just as she finished explaining, the foreign energy subsided and My writing on the form lit up one line at a time, then faded as if being pulled deeper into the parchment. For a moment, I wondered what would happen if I had lied, would it burn me? Shock me? Or just vanish in smoke?
Then the glow dimmed, and the parchment neatly rolled itself into a scroll, hovering for a heartbeat before dissolving into sparks of light that vanished into the air. The receptionist tapped the glowing registry stone beside her. My name shimmered across its surface, hung there for a second, then sank inside. "Perfect. Verified. You're officially registered." Relief washed through me so fast my shoulders sagged. I had made it.
She leaned forward slightly, her tone shifting to something firmer. "Now, listen carefully. All candidates are to return tomorrow morning at sunrise. You'll gather in the main courtyard, where you'll be sorted into groups and taken to the testing halls." "Testing?" I asked, blinking. "Yes," she said with a knowing nod. "A practical knowledge exam. Randomized, designed to test not just what you know, but how you think. It weeds out those unfit for the academy. Many fail it." Her eyes lingered on me, weighing me, before her smile returned. "So rest well tonight. You'll need it." I managed a nod. "Thank you."
I stepped back from the table, my breath finally loosening in my chest. For a moment I just stood there, the bustle of the hall pressing in from all sides voices, footsteps, the sound of pens moving on paper, the shifting of candidates who still hadn't gotten their turn. Someone behind me cursed under their breath.
My legs felt lighter than they should've as I finally turned and headed toward the doors. The lanterns lining the hall reflected off the tiles, their shifting colors splashing across my face while I pushed through the last cluster of candidates and stepped outside. Night air washed over me. Cool, sharp, almost shocking after the heat of the hall.
For the first time since the link fused, the excitement finally dimmed just enough for everything else to hit me: the exhaustion, the reality, the weight of the unknown thing curled in my soul.
Festival lights stretched across the streets, garlands, drifting lanterns, streamers, glowing ribbons. Families mingled around food stands. A group of teenagers bragging and boasting to each other about their fresh links, laughing and shoving one another as they tried to one up each other. I don't know if they've enrolled in any of the academies or what they plan on doing.
I kept walking, heading towards the heart of the festival again, the night was still young of course. The more distance I crossed towards the festival, the more excitement I started feel again, spurring me into running towards it. As I was just a few streets away from the attraction section of the festival, it got more and more packed on the streets, everyone having fun and swarming the stalls. I could hear the start of the fianei display, an event during the festival of souls where the fianei's put on a show to engage and show off to the people of the kingdom. I've always wanted to see this event, I remember asking my grandpa to take me to see it after one of my older cousins told me about the one they had seen when they accompanied their parents to celanon to set up a stall. Of course, my grandpa always refused. Now is my chance though, and I can't wait! I rushed towards the event, street after street, corner after corner.
That is until I found myself crashing into someone and I nearly topple backward from the collision. A soft "oh" escaped the person I ran into, warm, silky, and so soothing it almost made my heartbeat slow. I jerked upright, hands raised in apology before I even looked at her. "Oh! I'm sorry! That's my bad, I wasn't watching where I was going, I'm really sorry," I blurted all at once. She looked down at me with only mild surprise and….amusement. The faintest curl of a smile tugged one side of her lips, like she found my panic intriguing and amusing.
When I finally took her in, I was stunned. She was striking. She looked to be in her early 20s with A beautiful, soft heart-shaped face framed by wavy, shoulder-length hair in swirled gradients of purple and pink, silky, full, and shifting with the breeze as if it had a life of its own. Her glowing yellow eyes were huge and expressive behind round purple glasses. Above her brow, three tiny pink diamond-shaped tattoos sat almost like a crown.
Her upper lip was covered in dark purple lipstick, and her lower lip covered in pink. Both curved faintly with a calm confidence. She wore A deep maroon robe-like gown, fitted perfectly at the waist, flowing like silk everywhere else. A V-neck with a keyhole cutout revealed just enough to be elegant without being provocative. Wide bell sleeves flared when she moved, lighter inside, like layers of dusk and amethyst. Her belt had a circular owl-faced buckle in purples and pinks, and the front slit of the gown showed long, shapely legs with every subtle step she took. Her boots matching her palette completed the look.
She looked like a mysterious, dark, magical librarian. "Are you alright?" she asked, her voice soft but carrying effortlessly over the festival noise. "Uh, yeah. Yes. Sorry again. I was running and clearly not watching out and before i knew it, you were there, and then I was there....running into you...." I stopped myself before I started to word vomit out of awkwardness. I took a breath and calmly said again "Sorry." She let out a musical hum, not laughter, not a sigh, something in-between, and tilted her head slightly, her wavy hair shifting like liquid amethyst.
"No harm done," she said, waving a graceful hand. "You're hardly the first person to run head first through a festival crowd." Then added with a light teasing note, "Though you may be the most apologetic."
Heat crawled up my neck. She glanced toward the direction I'd been sprinting, then back at me. "You seem in a hurry," she said. "Trying to reach the display before it begins?"
"Yeah," I nodded, finally catching my breath. "I've always wanted to see it. Never got to, until tonight." She hummed in acknowledgement "Then you should hurry," she said kindly. "The front rows get crowded quickly."
She stepped aside to let me pass, but not before giving me one last curious glance, Like she was cataloguing me in the quiet, owl-like way a librarian would when deciding which shelf you belonged on. "Enjoy the show," she added, her voice almost glowing. I nodded, still a little stunned, and managed, "You too." With that, I turned and kept moving toward the heart of the festival, though significantly more carefully this time, the echo of her calming voice lingering in my ears like the faint aftertaste of magic. That is before I cringed at myself for saying you too when she was obviously heading away from the fianei display.
Then on top of that, i felt a chill running up my spine that I couldn't tell if it was excitement for the display, or the strange feeling that surrounded that lady. Eventually I shook the feeling off and continued on my way. The closer I got to the center of the festival the more crowded it got until you couldn't walk a foot without bumping into someone on all sides. So I started weaving between normal families, merchants, children darting under elbows, and many different types of people. Every few steps someone laughed, shouted, or called out to a friend. The scent of the different and unique festival foods mixed together into a mouthwatering haze that drifted through the air.
The roads were laid with what I now realized to be gold shining luminite bricks. It was bright enough to notice but not enough to really be a distraction. Some of the buildings around also shone, just enough to light up the area around them but still shining none the less. It is simply outrageous how much luminite was present. Don't get me wrong I've seen luminite before as levalley had a few luminite brick pillars as light posts in the center of the village but we mainly used lanterns. So seeing a place lit up with nothing but luminite is a shock.
Speaking of lanterns though, lots of families were releasing floating lanterns with custom paper shells they made. It was easy to tell which lanterns were made by families with small kids though as they were very colorful and were covered in crayon drawings. They drifted through the sky as they were released by festivalgoers, it was a tradition that was done during every celebration in the centraxiom Kingdom, even in my village we released floating lanterns for every celebration. Soon the night sky overhead was a sea of floating lanterns, they glowed gold, blue, green, purple, or silver and a good portion of them were multicolored with drawings on them. The sight was beautiful.
Even so i still weaved through the crowd as fast as i could. I pushed onward, slipping between clusters of spectators until the streets finally opened into the Grand Festival Square. The square was enormous with tiered viewing platforms that seem to have been erected around a vast rectangular stage made from polished white stone. people packing into every available space as fast as they could. Vendors lined the edges of the square while guards maintained pathways through the crowd. I scanned the crowd for any available empty spot on any of the rows closest to the stage.
Predictably all of them were filled, or so I had thought until I felt an arm around my shoulders. I looked to my right at the owner of the arm, I saw tall kid around my age with a huge larger than life grin that seemed to be overflowing with manic excitement. He's wearing a pair of red sunglasses with semi-transparent lenses and he has short vivid blue hair thats shorter and more slicked back in the back, while in the front he has spiky bangs that spikes outward towards the right. He looking at me excitedly while I was extremely confused and asked "Do i know you?...." He smiled wider and said "not at all!"
What is happening right now? I'm not to keen on random people I don't know touching me and acting like they know me. "Then why are you touching someone you don't know." I said with more annoyance lacing my voice than I intended to let out. "Because youre going to come sit with me and my friend ramskull over there." He said while pointing to two empty seats near the front row not that far from us that were next to a boy. The boy was around our age and average height with a lean but muscular build with shaggy blonde and red hair that spikes backward in a windswept way. He has blue eyes and two reddish-black horns, one on each side of his head, that made me realize he was an animalkin. he wore a dark red asymmetrical, long-sleeved, double-breasted stylized high-collared jacket with slit sleeves along with yellow thorn sigils, with a button on his collar, shaped like a cross-like insignia, His jacket was half-buttoned, exposing a light yellow shirt with a black line running parallel to his collar under it. He wore long dark red dress pants, dark red shoes with yellow soles and dark red gloves with yellow sigils. He wore a dark red belt with yellow domino marks on it.
Now while I didn't appreciate him being so familiar I wasn't going to turn down the front row seat so I let him drag me over to the seat. Though not before asking "and why are you offering me a seat next to you guys?" He laughed and beamed at me while slapping my shoulder as we sat down "I recognized you from the registration and thought you seemed awesome. I'm kamikeru and this is guy beside me is my friend ramskull!" The guy beside him glared at kamikeru and said "hmph. for the 10th time, my name is not ramskull you lout. You may call me ardam, as it was the name that was bestowed upon me by my parents. Also we are NOT friends. You randomly recognized me an hour ago and have been pulling me around nonstop despite my protests and wont let me leave."
I looked at kamikeru and asked "so you just randomly grabbed two guys you don't know and are saying we're friends? We literally are strangers." He put his arms around both mine and ardams shoulders and pulled us in close with a laugh "I'm a great judge if character! And you two have a lot of spirit and great character, I can tell! So I decided to befriend you both! As far as I'm concerned we're already brothers!" I stared at him. Then I stared at Ardam. Then back at Kamikeru "....You are insane." Kamikeru threw his head back and laughed "Well you accepted my invitation of friendship! So who's truly insane here."
"I didn't accept anything. That wasn't an invitation of friendship you offered me a seat." I said in exasperation. "It was an invitation!" He said with a laugh. "What part of that was an invitation of friendship?" I asked. "The whole thing was! Dont over think it, we're friends now so deal with it brother!" He said stubbornly. I immediately understood why Ardam looked like he was one minor inconvenience away from committing a crime and shot him a sympathetic look. Ardam crossed his arms "Hmph. Finally, someone else understands my suffering."
"So you've been dealing with this for an hour?" I asked. "Unfortunately." He said while shaking his head. "I think you meant fortunately." Kamikeru interjected. "I did not." Said ardam curtly to which Kamikeru replied "Cmon you know you did." Ardam sighed in exasperation "hmph. I absolutely beg to differ." Kamikeru nodded and laughed "Classic ramskull." Ardam's eye twitched "it's ardam you big lout! Also im not a ram animalkin. There are other animals besides rams with horns! I'm a BULL animalkin! A! Bull!"
Kamikeru nodded his head like he was taking what he heard seriously "I see. So you're bullseye not ramskull, got it." I couldn't help but laugh at that although i quickly tried to stifle and hide it. Ardam glared at me with a look of mock betrayal "hmph. And i thought I finally had an ally." I smiled and shook my head "don't be like that ardam, I am your ally." He looked away from me and quickly retorted "i shall consider it." Kamikeru laughed and was about to jump in when all of a sudden lots of big glowing rectangulars started to appear in the air, especially towards the higher tiers of the stands. "What are those?" I asked confused.
Ardam looked at them and explained "it's a member of the hataue family. You know how every person with a link gets an attribute ability and usually a hidden attribute ability? Well these things you're seeing are the hataue families hidden attribute ability."
I looked at him and asked "are they a fianei thats just called the hataue family? I've never heard of them. If so, its strange and highly unlikely for all their members to have the same hidden attribute ability. Or are they are they not a fianei and are actually a family, although its still strange and highly unlikely if thats the case" Ardam shook his head no "they aren't a fianei. They're all a family, relatives by either blood or marriage. Although they are a noble family. Them having the same hidden attribute ability is strange though. While it's strange and an extremely rare occurrence, there can be a biological inheritance of abilities. Where the children of a person always seem to unlock the exact same attribute ability of one of their parents, although they always have a different hidden ability from their parent. This is how it usually occurs in most of the already extremely rare cases. There is another version of this that is rarer than how it usually happens, where the children of a person always seem to unlock the exact same hidden ability of one of their parents, but always have a different Attribute ability from their parent. again though, both of these are extremely rare, one is just rarer than the other. As im sure you know most people develop their own unique attribute abilities and hidden abilities."
He pointed at one if the rectangles "The hataue family has become a prominent family and gained significant noble standing because of this hidden ability, its called view. It originated with the great great grandfather of the current hataues and has been continually inherited. They are the go to family for viewing, communicatiom, and/or spectating artifacts. This much information is known because this is what the family has told the king, and the public, as they aren't shy and don't care if people know what their hidden ability is. As for the specifics of it, they can create, shape, control, manipulate, and generate transmissions and the concept of transmission, the action or process of transmitting something, or the state of being transmitted. So they can transmit various things using any of the four affinities, magicana, enerchi, spiritual energy, and inner pressure. Although apparently this power isn't just broadcasting signals, as they can transmit other things like information, energy, and even objects and beings." He said before continuing.
"Basically this means they can create, shape, control, manipulate, and generate a "window" connecting two non-adjacent locations and showing and transmitting a clear view and the clear sounds of the other side of it. this "window" can appear in whatever shape they want and it allows objects, energy, and people to cross through, acting as a portal. They can bind these portals to things and objects if they want. They can make these portals tangible and hard, canceling the portals ability to allow objects, energy, and people to cross through and only transmits and projects the auditory and visual information of the other side. They can bind the portals that only transmit sound and visuals to things."
I nodded while ardam explained further "They can link multiple portals together and make it to where one portal transmits audio and visual to the multiple portals linked to it. The Reverse can happen to, where multiple portals transmits audio and visual to the same one portal. A person can then touch the portal and swipe in a certain direction to switch which transmission it's showing. They can have multiple portals transmit to multiple portals by having the transmitter portals, transmit audio and visual to the multiple portals linked to them, the recievers. The transmitters are all connected, but can't transmit to each other, while being simultaneously connected to the receivers, which are all connected to each other but can't transmit to each other, where the receivers then can switch between the multiple transmitters."
"They really released that much information about their hidden ability? I like their spirit! Also artifacts? What do you mean?" Kamikeru chimed in. "Yes, artifacts. The first hataue family artifact is a transmittion tool they make by binding a reciever portal to the inside of a 2 inch thick piece of clear crystal thats also usually 60 inch wide to let whoever is using it swipe between and watch the different transmitter feeds. They call these transmittion stands and they sell them in their shops in the trade district of the city. Their second artifact, which they also sell, are smaller, hand held, versions of transmission stands, but they only transmit to one other portal and are designed only for communication between the two linked portals." Ardam yawned after explaining.
He then snapped as he continued "now like I was saying before this lout interrupted, The hataue family mainly use view for kingdom sponsored events like the labrazeon raids where The kingdom of centraxiom sponsors a competition to see who can clear a newly discovered random entrance the fastest. During this time, fianei's, squads, usually solo adventurers, and the kingdoms army all put together their own party of 3 to 5 people, and all these parties register to compete. The hataue family is tasked with creating portals that they telekinetically control to follow each participating party to show their progress through the labrazeon. These portals are transmitted to 5 gigantic portals that are in a coliseum for spectators to view. These 5 portals often swith between the different parties competing. The hataue family also does this for sporting events and for events like the fianei showcase."
"So im guessing the showcase is about to begin if these portals are appearing" i said as ardam nodded and was about to say something, but he was interrupted. The portals quickly showed the image of a man floating mid-air by standing on a portal that im guessing he made solid. Being in the front row, i looked at the stage as we were close enough to not need the portals to see and saw him floating above the center of the stage. He was a well built man with black hair, green eyes, a mustache and goatee, and he looked to be in his forties. He was dressed in a stylized black suit with silver designs on it.
"Welcome one and all! I hope you all are enjoying your time here at the bi-annual festival of souls...." He said, the sound of his announcement rolling through the festival like distant thunder. Instantly, thousands of conversations began dying down. He smiled and continued "well i say its time to continue that enjoyment. I am fahbro hataue, and it is my pleasure to kick off the fianei showcase!" Fahbro shouted as he spread his arms dramatically as fireworks went off overhead. the crowd, including me and obviously Kamikeru, cheered loudly as the show began.
"First its my pleasure to introduce the first fianei. Founded by their leader, the demon fortress himself, rorik kaelthorn, and being led here in the fianei showcase by their vice leader, kavivander aleximov! Its the infallible empire fianei!" The crowd cheered as he finished his announcement. I was caught off guard as A second later a very small blur hit the stage, causing an explosion of rubble and dust to fly out and obscure the stage. Almost everyone in the first 4 rows, especially me and my new acquaintances, found themselves seriously struggling to not be blown back from the strength of the shockwave. The dust and rubble cleared suddenly as a gust of wind flew from the stage, at least what used to be the stage, and in its place about six people stood in a triangle formation. At the front of the group stood a tall and muscular man.