'Were you even real?' Erina sat on a chair in her bedroom. The blue curtains were drawn, and yellow sunlight lighted up her room. It was no different from Damien's, save for the blue and pink theme.

In her hands was a broken stone hand, the wand that it used to hold was not there. A cavity was visible on the chipped hand through which water used to flow.

"I-I am so sorry," a tear rolled down her cheek, "it is just that sometimes I get very lonesome. And I remember our time together how we used to laugh with each other, how you taught me to read. I miss those days. B-but recently I-I can't even remember your voice. I have to look at paintings and at your statue to remember your face. My childhood, those happy days and you- they all feel like an illusion now. Tell me, Mother, tell me you were real... tell me that you used to love me!"

In her room, Erina sat in solitude. Clinging to her mother's memory and crying to herself.

Who could she stick to? Who could be the shoulder on which she could cry? Her father? He barely showed himself, much less talk to her. Her siblings? Most of them were on expeditions or in an academy, moreover, in their eyes, she was a little better than a pest. No one. No one was by her side, this is how she grew up- devoid of comfort and love.

The only thing she was valued for was her talent. She had the ability to become a fire extremist: Similar to Warlocks and Paladins but, much rarer. They focused on one element only and trained it to the peak. They were important assets for the country: they had high mana capacity and high affinity for their main element. Deadly and powerful, they could, sometimes, prove to be much more dangerous than Warlocks and Paladins.

She was a girl of fourteen, such responsibilities were unconsciously imposed on her by the surrounding ones. So she could only become what the world saw her be- A living weapon. Such an attitude only acted as a catalyst to her desire, the desire to become the best of the best.

'Damien Wells, I swear I will crush you and rise to the top!' she secretly swore in her heart.

***

The city of Titos was a grand city. It had wide well-built roads made of black asphalt which were spread in the whole city like a web. There were big wooden houses and brick houses: both kinds were well maintained, you could hardly see a shabby house. There were public parks and trees were planted on the sides of the roads. Trade and commerce flourished in this humongous city which had a population of eighteen hundred million people. Although this city had an area of 4000 square kilometres, it was densely populated. The city, however, was not revered for its huge area, its population or the majestic Tenebrees Castle, the thing that made it stand apart from other cities were the tall skyscrapers. These skyscrapers were, by magic, made to camouflage with the surroundings so one could not spot them until they stood close enough to their base.

These skyscrapers reached up to 600 metres in the sky. They covered a large area. Their purpose? They acted as magical research facilities for graduated scholars, as residing facilities for the army and their family and most importantly- a hub for adventures, explorers and such.

"Are we going to go there?" asked Damien as he looked through the windows of his carriage which was passing by a massive sky blue skyscraper.

"No, we are going over to the Alexandro Teleportation point," replied Louis.

The third passenger of the carriage, Erina, remained silent. Today was the day that they would be teleported to their academies. And that was exactly the reason Earl Lawrence had sent his son to the Marquis. There were four major teleportation points in the entire of Black Dragon Empire. One was in the Royal Capital, one in the Duke's territory, one in the Marquis's territory and the last in the southern duchies.

Every year, these teleportation points would activate on the last day of the month of Minis. They would teleport all these students to a common point- the Island of De Initium. It is an Island 60,000 miles east offshore of the Greater Aligarth Forest. This island is a centre for all the students who go to the offshore academies. Of course, there are academies on the land of Black Dragon Empire but, they are for the less talented people and are funded by the Empire's charity funds in order to ensure that everyone becomes a Herald before the age of 20.

The better academies are located offshore in order to provide an isolated environment for studies. Coming back to the topic, students are supposed to board the ships that will carry them off to their respective institutions.

Needless to say, these institutions have a massive campus, some bigger schools occupy two whole islands and have the area equivalent to the smallest duchy of the Black Dragon Empire.

Actually speaking, this custom of having better institutes in a remote area was a trend followed throughout the continent of Pandora.

"So where was this Alexandro Teleportation Point again?" asked Damien, the atmosphere inside the carriage was dreadfully silent.

"We will be arriving over there very soon you can see it for yourself then," said Louis nonchalantly.

Erina continued to stare out of the window. The uncomfortable silence came into being once again.

'Argh! Why does the noise cancellation system work so good!? This environment is awkward as hell,' Damien could only sit there hiding how he felt inside.

Louis, sitting opposite to Damien, had his eyes closed possibly thinking about the political affairs of his father's territory.

Erina was sitting on the other end of the seat not giving a damn about anything.

Damien was sitting alone on his seat.

'Awkward' he thought.

After a few uncomfortable minutes, they arrived at their destination.

"We are here," said Louis. The doors of the carriage opened, and they got out in a sophisticated manner- as all nobles should.

What stood before Damien, made his jaw drop. It was a massive dome-like structure. It was made of hexagonal pieces of reflective blue glass which glimmered in the sunlight. Metallic strips criss-crossed on its surface to enforce the dome. A lot of people were heading into this dome just like ants near an anthill. Three-metre tall gates were opened at regular intervals enabling entry. Around the dome, green tall trees were planted on the flat grassy field, even though it was almost autumn, there was no yellow. From the sky, it would look like a massive bubble with a ring of green around it.

All kinds of people were there, some were in cloaks, some were wearing pointy hats, some were in sleeping gowns- well, Damien didn't mind them. Only one thing was common amongst them: they all had one or more children of fourteen with them. Damien could sense that eighty per cent of these children were heralds.

'Guess being a herald is no biggy' he thought.

Louis gestured Damien and Erina to follow him. Slowly moving through the crowd, they reached the gates.

"Good morning, Master Louis," the guard at the gate bowed.

Louis nodded in reply. Some people looked at Louis and whispered to their colleagues,

"I am sorry for the inconvenience, but we need the ID of the people who are to be teleported," the guard said with an apologetic expression.

"I understand," said Louis, "Erina, Damien please show him you Identification."

Damien and Erina showed him their scrolls that they had received from the Holy Draconic Association along with the letters of invite of their academy, although the letters of the mage test we kept securely with them. After all, the information of your abilities must be kept a secret.

The guard confirmed the identities and let them pass.

Much to Damien's disappointment, the entire dome was empty- there was no furniture or anything of that sort in here. However, there was a huge semi-circular arch about fifteen metres in radius, placed vertically at one end of the dome. It was made of two feet thick silver metal which had blue coloured mana runes engraved on it. It was affixed on its place by several cable-like structures possibly made of the same material. The smooth dark blue marble floor produced a reflection of this arch.

"Umm," Damien was confused what should he do. He looked over at Erina who was standing there with her arms crossed under her breasts- slightly emphasizing them.

'Come to think of it, Erina is kind voluptuous- wait no she is slender, but she has well-developed features. Let me guess she should be 32-20-30 wait why the hell am I thinking this?!' Damien shook his head as he tore his eyes away from her.

'Why is she taller than me' Damien made a grim face. He dejectedly strolled to a corner. 'Last I checked I was 5 feet and 3 inches. Alas, shorter than average...'

However, Damien's train of thoughts was broken by an announcement.

"Ahem- The Teleportation Point will activate in one minute and remain open for two hours. Only students are allowed to pass through," The voice of a man boomed across the dome as nearly fifty thousand children moved their heads towards the Arch.

After a minute two tall men approached the two ends of the Arch and placed their palms on it.

"The Teleportation point will activate now," another announcement was made.

*Boom!*

The air exploded. The children standing near were flung back as a blinding white light wrapped the interior of the dome.

*Wizzz*

Damien opened his eyes. A thin membrane of a transparent glowing material covered its interior. Damien looked through the arch to see that there was a completely different scenery on the other side.

"You all may enter now," another announcement was made.

The more daring of students approached the arch, with a gulp they jumped at the membrane and arrived at the other side. Seeing their example everyone else followed. Damien moved with the crowd, he could now hear the sounds of zoop whenever someone passed through it.

Soon enough, Damien was standing in front of the membrane. He touched it with his hand, the membrane felt like a viscous cool fluid. Before he could be done admiring the beauty of this membrane someone nudged him, and he fell through it.

*WOOOOZ*

Damien felt like he was thrown with a very high velocity, numerous images passed by his eyes in a millisecond. Passing through the membrane felt like moving in a powerful static field.

*Thump*

He was on the other side now. He felt nauseous and bent his body. He looked around to see that he was now on a port. The floor was cemented and there were several stores selling magical items in the near vicinity. Several wooden ships were docked at the port.

Suddenly someone appeared from behind him and pushed him forward.

"Why are you standing there like a fool? Get moving!" said the person who had pushed him.

Damien stumbled to the side. Slowly, his nausea was starting to disappear.

He had already been told by Louis that after reaching De Initium, one has to board the ship which will take you to your respective schools. He looked around once more to see that all the ships had the symbol of their schools painted on them. It did not take Damien time to locate the enormous ship of Hydra Academy. Its symbol of a nine-headed serpentine creature radiating out of a point and turning to glare at the viewer was quite remarkable.

He moved through the crowd and reached on the right side of the ship. A few people were standing there.

Damien approached the person who was wearing the badge of this school. He wore a long emerald-coloured cloak which dropped down to his heels. He had a handsome oval face. Under his combed nape-length black hair was a pair of resolute grey eyes.

He saw Damien approach.

"Why young man, are you lost?" he spoke in a melodious voice.

"N-no I am actually here to board this ship, you see I have enrolled in Hydra Academy," blurted Damien.

"I believe you are lost since the entry to this ship is on the other side," the man said, he was going to turn around when he though that why should he trouble a child on his first day.

"Can I see your proof of identity?" he stopped and asked.

"Sure," Damien gave his ID scroll to him with his admission letter.

"Okay young man- Damien that is," the man handed back the scrolls, "I will talk to Kristy and let you board this ship."

Suddenly the man's image blurred, and he disappeared, Damien was left there wondering, 'What the heck?'.

Then a moment later a gale blew and the man was standing right there.

"Good news young Damien, you are allowed to enter," he spoke with a smile.

"Uh-"

Damien could not utter a word as the world around blurred and before he knew it, he was already on the ship.

The ship was enormous. It was 350 metres in length and 49 meters in width. Its hull was coated with silver and black paints making different patterns. It had a twenty-metre tall main mast, its the foremast was about a metre shorter, while the mizzen was even shorter. The sail was painted golden and black. The figurehead was of a nine-headed Hydra with all its serpent heads bearing fangs in the forward direction. All in all, it did not differ much from an 18th-century ship.

Damien looked around to see children of his age scattered around the deck. They all were in groups chatting with each other. In all this, Damien was standing alone.

'Awkward but okay'

From a distance, he spotted Erina with another girl. They were laughing at some joke when Erina noticed Damien's gaze. She sneered at him with bloodlust in her eyes. Then she grabbed her colleague's hand and marched off.

Damien could only shrug at this. He looked around once more in order to find a good spot to hide his 'outstanding tactlessness'. His eyes caught the glimpse of someone familiar.

"Erza!" he approached the girl whom he had met on the train the other day.

"Eh?" Erza turned to see Damien but did not recognize him immediately.

'This silence is killing me,' Damien wanted to cry.

"Oh! Is it not Sir Damien," Erza gave him a wry smile.

"You enrolled in Hydra too?" Damien was slightly surprised to see her here.

"Um yeah. You see I have a very high mana pool and an A class ability, so I got this offer and I immediately accepted."

"Cool," Damien felt that his slightly above average mana pool could not get him in this academy at all. The only reason he got in was of his SS class ability.

"What about you?"

"Umm... I have a slightly above average mana pool and an SS class ability-"

"WHAT? YOU ARE THE ONE WHO HAS THE SS CLASS ABILITY" Erza shrieked as she took a step back.

Everyone turned their heads to look at him.

'I wanna die,' Damien's eyes moistened, and he dumbly smiled as he was assaulted with gazes of curiosity. He felt like an animal at a zoo.

People started whispering to each other.

"So he is the one?"

"He looks weak..."

"SS class? So what?"

"He looks like an airhead..."

Numerous murmurs about Damien made the atmosphere even weirder for him.

'What should I do?' Damien broke out cold sweat.

"The Ship will set sail in one hour!" the voice of a woman boomed across the ship. The usual buzz began again as people's attention turned elsewhere. Damien took his chance to slip away and sat on a seat in a corner.

He was cursing himself for being 'gaucherie: materialized'.

It was already noon by the time the ships began moving. Damien wondered if the swaying would cause him seasickness. But, to his surprise, the swinging stopped after the ship was out of the port.

The ship started accelerating.

"Huh?"

The ship's acceleration increased with every passing moment.

"BRACE YOURSELVES!" the man whom Damien had met was standing at the quarterdeck shouting.

The ship was literally tearing through the waves as it continued to speed up at an unnatural rate.

Damien was holding the railing, so he would not be flung away.

"Aaaaahhhhh!" Strong winds slapped him in the face, but the ship was still accelerating.

Some children slipped and slammed into the quarterdeck. Screams and shouts were muffled by the noise of waves crashing and wind howling.

This is how the academy's ships covered those unnaturally long distances in one day.