"I didn't know that mongrels were allowed in such classes…" Elvis scoffed as he looked at Lucas and Karl from where he sat. The seats were lined up like a staircase with the last row of seats being the highest point in the room.
Lucas put his hand on Karl's shoulder. Principal's grandson or not he knew Karl had to keep his emotions in check if he didn't want any trouble.
Lucas's eyes ran across the room and he saw Zed seated in front, far away from Elvis.
"What? Cat got your tongue?" Lucas stared at the infuriating Pendragon with a look of disdain. He left Karl and walked up the steps in between the seats and came face to face with Elvis who sat at the edge of the topmost row.
"You want to get beaten up again?" Elvis asked without any sign of fear nor anxiety, he looked as if he relished this moment, he got up and stood face to face with Lucas.
Lucas flung his fist forward, aiming for Elvis's face and the boy with royal blood did the same, attacking with a punch of his own. But then both hands stopped in place, like some invisible hands were keeping them from moving.
"Now, now, no fighting in class… until I tell you to." Someone said from down below, his voice was sweeter than anything Lucas had heard prior.
Lucas looked over and stared in awe at the guy who stopped his punch without even being there. He had snow white hair, his eyes were covered with dark glasses and he was also smiling. He wore different rings on different fingers, he made a simple gesture with his hand and Lucas felt the invisible hand loosen around him and he was free.
"Well, I'm your teacher, lecturer, instructor or whatever you want to call me. My job here is to teach you about Ruin control and maintain law and order within this classroom." His face suddenly changed, his smile faded, he looked up at Lucas and Elvis.
"The next time you try to start a ruckus in my class without my permission, I'll make sure you never know peace again."
Lucas and Elvis shuddered, his words held extreme weight and the look on his face made them feel fear.
"Well, now that that's taken care of let me introduce myself. My name's Asher Lindenheart, yes yes of that clan." He said, his smile returning to his face.
'Another one of these bastards from a famous clan.' Lucas thought to himself as he walked a little bit down the stairs and sat down next to Karl.
"You think he'll know Deborah?" Karl whispered to Lucas, his face back to its usual mood.
"Let's forget about that for now and focus on the class." Lucas replied with a sigh.
"Now, the entire point of this class is basically teaching you guys how to control your Ruin. But before any of that can someone tell me what Ruin is?" Asher started, his voice audible throughout the entire room.
A girl raised her hand and stood up.
"Yes Sonya?" Asher said with a smile.
"Ruin is the energy gotten from our negative emotions like anger, fear, jealousy and so on."
"Affirmative. Each and everything has Ruin within them, especially Cursed Creatures, they are made entirely out of Ruin." Asher explained, he stopped and observed the class, it was almost filled to the brim. He muttered to himself and then continued.
"The more negative emotions we harbor the higher our Ruin grows, the higher the amount of Ruin one has, the easier it is to detect them." His eyes went across the room and landed on Lucas who instantly looked away.
"Learning to control this energy will help you all in many ways. You might have already used it during your First Impositions to strengthen your attacks or enhance your durability but you were basically wasting a large amount of it."
"What do you mean sir?" Another girl in the class asked, her eyes were brimming with excitement.
"Well, what I'm going to teach you is a way to use an infinitesimal amount of Ruin to basically achieve the same result as when you use a large amount of it." Asher replied with a smile.
He sighed a little, reading into his cloak and taking out a bottle of water. He uncapped it and took a sip then he continued:
"Now, controlling Ruin is the same as controlling your very own body. One should take Ruin as an extension of his or her own being, channelling it to different parts of the body. Ruins can also be fired as beams, projectiles, arrows and so on."
Lucas nodded, what he was getting now wasn't something that was common knowledge. Yes he did know that Ruin was formed from negative emotions but besides that he basically knew nothing else, from this class he'd basically learned that Cursed Creatures were made entirely out of Ruin, in fact, everything was made of Ruin.
'Ruin Dominion huh?' Lucas thought back to his Faculty's ability and what it might entail.
"Now, if someone has more Ruin than you then damaging them would be an uphill task but it's not impossible, just requires the proper control." Asher began again, he clapped his hands and then two pillars about six foot tall were brought in by four guards.
The pillars stood about as high as Asher himself, he nodded at the guards as they walked out.
"I will need a volunteer." He beckoned to the crowd of students, waiting for one of them to step up.
"Well since no one wants to do it, I'll have to go do it myself then." Elvis said as he got up from his seat and walked down the stairs. He smirked as he passed Lucas's seat on his way down.
"Well, now that we have a volunteer he's going to do something for me. Destroy that pillar with Ruin, doesn't matter how you do it, fire it as a beam, a projectile, put it into a punch, a kick or a slap it doesn't matter. What matters is that you destroy it." Asher instructed, he shifted back a little and gestured to Elvis to go ahead.
He stood in front of a pillar, channelling Ruin to his hand, the amount he believed was necessary to destroy it. He straightened his fingers and made a chopping motion with his hand, hitting the pillar, causing it to crack and crumble to the ground.
The entire class clapped, all except for Lucas and Karl. Zed seemed indifferent as always. Asher clapped as well, grinning from ear to ear.
"Impressive, but that was mediocre." Asher stated, Elvis's eyes widened.
"Mediocre? I'm sure you wouldn't be able to do anything on that level." Elvis scoffed, folding his hands, nodding at Asher to destroy the other pillar.
Asher sighed.
"Well, you're right. I wouldn't be able to do anything on that level…" he stopped short, he raised his hand and stretched out his index finger, and then tapped the pillar lightly, it turned to dust and crumbled to the ground.
Everyone was overcome with shock, including Elvis.
"I would do something far better than that. Pendragon." Asher said, his smile still on his face as if mocking Elvis.
Elvis stood there, his anger rising, his Ruin rising along with it, he stared at Asher for a while before he calmed down and then walked back to his seat. As he passed, Lucas smirked, almost giggling.
'Now the fun begins.'