As the sword and spear clashed on the battlefield time and time again, there appeared cracks in the fabric of space. Lightning crashed onto the plains every once in a while. Then suddenly the earth churned and a let loose a huge boulder that flew towards a one-armed man standing rigidly on the plains. Damien used his spear to crush the boulder into pieces. He did not do it consciously, his body moved on its own.

'Where am I?' he asked himself. The place felt familiar, but he did not know where he was. Rather, he could not make out his surroundings which looked fuzzy like a water painting. A man in tattered armour was floating in front of him.

'Jordan? Wait who is Jordan?!' Damien was surprised to know that man's name.

Jordan was finally tired of these little displays of strength. He wanted to show the entire Tempus army the strength of an Aryan. Jordan stopped in his tracks and stood there: seemingly one with the environment. After a second or two, something changed around the battlefield. A massive blue-green spell circle opened up in some distance.

As the constituents of the Army started to look around they could hear loud noises, but it was only till late that they recognized what it actually was.

*Rumble*

The Jade River had been summoned to the battlefield. The titanic wave of water raced towards the battlefield it only had one target- that one-armed man.

(R: Did you get the pun?! Like that man has one arm and is 'armed' with one weapon)

'Whaaat no!' Damien screamed but this body was not his own. He was just a spectator in this man's body.

The pressure the water carried was enough to scare the entire Tempus army who were running around breaking their formation to save their lives. Other than a few stronger warriors the entire Tempus army had, by now, broken formation and was in utter chaos.

Amidst all this one man was standing still, his spear still pointing at the heavens. This man had not lost his calm even in the face of such godly power. Only he had the strength to face the power of a demigod head on. This man was something of a god himself- the one who controlled the Tempus Army and called himself Chronos Imperium.

As the titanic wave rushed towards the demon army it had one primary target, Chronos. Chronos, on the other hand, used the full power of his body strengthening to face the pressure of heaven and earth that was about to be released on him.

'Aaaaah! No! Move!' Damien felt that pain was about to arrive soon.

Within the next few seconds, everything stopped for Damien and only the tsunami was visible to his eyes. The wave rapidly approached Damien and in a split consumed him. It did not stop there it continued to move towards the Tempus army and as it crashed unto them it finally calmed.

When all the water was cleared the entire Tempus army was now drowned and a large lake had formed where the water had hit the army. Then slowly and steadily the beings started to come out of the water. The two hundred thousand strong humanoid creatures were now merely a quarter of their previous numbers. The rest had either drowned or crushed into pieces.

While the entire Jordan's backers would be happy to see the Tempus army destroyed, Jordan was still very alert for he had not seen Chronos or his body. Jordan started to elevate from the battlefield to have an Ariel look. As he checked on the battlefield, he saw it.

Chronos was very much alive and standing in the middle of the battlefield as if this was a park. After he brushed his dark hair, Chronos looked up at Jordan. He had finally come to understand the demigod's powers, Chronos knew that if Jordan displayed such heaven-defying strength one more time the entire Tempus army would be annihilated. Even he, Chronos, would not be able to bear such loses.

The last attack had injured Chronos internally. Since he faced the brute force of the wave head on his ribs had cracked, and he had spit out a lot of blood. He had to end this fight very quick or the repercussions would be enormous on his body.

Damien knew all this, it was as if he was the one thinking, but he knew for a fact that his opinions would not reach the man who shared his perspective with him.

Chronos steadied his spear and taunted Jordan to attack him. Jordan was now content with what he had done even if he could not defeat Chronos he had severely injured him. The Tempus army was reduced to nearly fifty thousand which his backers could easily destroy.

Jordan still had some strength to spare, and he finally dedicated his complete and unhindered attention to defeating if not killing Chronos. Jordan flew straight towards Chronos his longsword in hand. Chronos, too, stomped his spear on the ground to signal of an ensuing battle.

*Ching*

Metal clashed and the duel had finally reached its last stage.

"You are a strong boy, what is your name?"

"What's in the name? Call a rose by any other name and it would smell just as sweet," said Jordan.

"Sad, killing such nameless bastards leaves a bland aftertaste."

Chronos had been now going to end this battle. He let go of the spear and summoned lightning. As the thunderclouds raged, he forced body strengthening to its very limit.

Lightning crashed down and coursed through Damien and an electric aura surrounded him. His eyes glowed as lightning emanated from his body. His falchion was covered in electricity. This was the last stage of a lightning affiliated spell- Blitzer.

Jordan, on the other hand, transformed into his elemental form.

Slowly all the elements of water and earth surrounded Jordan and with a loud sound. The earth was now silent. A being made from Earth with water coursing through its cracks stood on the plains opposite to whom stood a lightning being.

Then there was another change in Jordan as divine light started to course through his body. Jordan had finally decided to end his life using the remaining life-force in him. The divine light concentrated on Jason's eyes as they become complete spheres of glowing gold.

"Let's end this!"

Damien suddenly felt his conscience fade away as darkness enveloped his vision.

"Aaaaagh," Damien jolted up in his bed profoundly sweating. He looked around his small cabin, it was dark. He hurriedly switched on a lamp and stared at his watch.

'Oh! It is four in the morning,' he sighed. His recent dream was way too weird. He has had weird dreams but, this one just took the top spot.

'Flying in the sky, summoning calamities, destroying armies with a single spell... was I kidnapped by aliens? I have read those stories in which a nasty alien kidnaps children and takes them to another world to fight against ophidiophobic old men and keeps them in eternal captivity...' Damien sat in the dark contemplating when he had been kidnapped.

(O: For those who did not get it that story is of peter pan)

'Okay, so first the boat started moving really fast until we reached the terminal velocity. I barely managed to not be blown away and slam into the quarter-deck like swatted flies. Then that announcement was made that we will continue on at this speed and reach the academy in 24 hours. Then lunch was served.

Hmmm, I still wonder how they managed to make that long table suddenly appear on the deck. However, the steak was delicious. Could that steak have been drugged, so they could kidnap me? I guess no; I shared mine with Erza who came back to apologize to me.

The good thing was very few people saw my face and remembered it- that's why no one was looking at me suspiciously. Anyway, we spent something like six hours idle. That reminds me I won that card game that I played with Erza's friends. Could they be the aliens in disguise? Nah, I like those people. Surely aliens would have a robotic voice and an unnatural behaviour.

Then by nine in the evening, we were sent below deck. The below-deck area was expanded via spacial magic, and we were sent to our cabins. My cabin number was the same as my roll number- 457. And the total number of children in my batch is around 600. Then I spent my time here sleeping.'

Damien scratched his head. The dream had already turned obscure in his memory. He sighed after knowing that he could not properly recall its details. Shaking his head he decided it was no use pondering over it.

"Now that I have woken up, I might as well try my mana breath."

After practising for hours following his defeat against Erina, Damien trained harder. He concentrated and did not let anything distract him, and the result was- he succeeded in mana breath the day before yesterday.

Mana Breath was a technique commonly used to increase one's mana pool and mana concentration. It involved literally inhaling and exhaling mana. One would slowly inhale mana and fill themselves up to the brim.

After holding on for some time they would inhale a bit more mana. This would cause the mana concentration in their body to exceed their mana capacity. This was called the unstable state. Any disturbance in their attention would cause the mana to go wild in one's body and explode out hence, harming the practitioner.

After a short time, the practitioner would slowly exhale out the mana and repeat the process. This technique had three benefits- one: that it increases the concentration and purity of mana that is collected in one's body. Two: it increases the mana pool. Three: it strengthens the body.

Damien had read that Heralds needed to increase their base mana pool by fifty points, learn to separate the basic element's mana particles and learn to activate their innate spells in order to become a Neomage.

Apparently, after becoming a Neomage, his mana pool will be assessed in basic mana units. The bigger the base mana pool size the faster in the increase in mana through the breathing technique.

He had also read that once a Neomage, his school will provide him with another meditation/training technique that would aid him till Titan rank. All he knew about ranks were that these were awarded to one after a specific set of exams. He also got to know that Hydra Academy was a place for nothing less than geniuses. A lot of Nobles had graduated from here and were incredibly strong. The people who joined the army from here also held high posts. Moreover, the adventures and scholar that graduated from here were also top-notch.

What surprised him was that Hydra Academy's course required one to become a Neomage in their first year by the Quarterly Exams. So he had to become a Neomage by New Year.

A Neomage was a Herald's doom. A Herald's mana attack would only replenish a Neomage's mana pool. Damien had read that the difference between a Herald and Neomage was that a Neomage could invoke his innate spell. They had a much larger mana pool than a Herald which could be replenished quickly if someone was dumb enough to shoot mana attacks at them. And last but not the least- a Neomage could only passively recover mana that means their mana would recover with time. This rate was directly proportional to one's spiritual aptitude. Although the recovered mana at an instant was small, it was much better than waving one's arms to tell one's enemy that they have no mana.

In spite of the fact that there was such disparity between a Herald and a Neomage, it did not seem that the same power difference could be found in the ranks succeeding Neomage.

Damien could only give a sigh of thanks at that. If such rank disparity existed then fighting an unknown person would be more or less like swimming in the open ocean, hoping that some dangerous creature would not attack.

Damien then folded his legs and sat on the floor in a meditative position. He continued to practice his mana breath until he was exhausted. It must be understood that Mana Breath did not only train the mind but the body too.

Damien laid on this back looking at the wooden ceiling. The window was still covered by the curtains, so he did not know what time was it now. After all, he had absolutely no record of time once he started Mana Breathing; he thought it was because he concentrated too much.

Initially, Damien had thought that his competitions would be with these 600 children only. But, then he got to know that De Initium was, in fact, a very big island and that there were several ports on it. Since one could not build teleportation gates too close to each other lest they interfere with each other or the area becomes too crowded, the four teleportation gates transferred the students to four different ports. All academies had at least one ship in each of these ports. Thus, it was safe to assume that there would be three more ships carrying the same quantity of students to Hydra Academy.

After daydreaming for a while, he suddenly felt the boat deaccelerate. The retardation was subtle, but he could feel it.

"WE WILL ARRIVE AT THE ALEIDAR ISLAND IN TWO HOURS, MAKE SURE TO NOT LEAVE ANY BELONGINGS BEHIND!" the voice of a woman boomed across the ship.

"So we are finally here?" Damien smiled as he stretched his body, "No matter what my job, I will receive the title- no I will become a Hero!"

The journey of a hero had just begun.