“I think I get why we need to conserve water now… damn it’s hot.” Vince complained as he slogged behind the rest of the class, the dunes in the desert were nonsensical to someone who grew up in the cold reaches of the USSR.

“Ah, the benefits of my Diversity appear… I don’t actually need sustenance as a part of my Diversity lets me live off of flames.” Edward resisted the urge to shout out that eating your own flames was disgusting, uncertain as to why he would think that… the feeling was also associated with needing a flying, talking, blue cat for some reason.

“...” Kazuya was likely the only one who considered… did Everburn poop? And if Everburn did… it was probably burnt away…

Everburn was probably also hairless considered they constantly expelled fire…

Really, the implications of constantly being on fire were constantly being updated.

“Luckily we managed to get to Gaza with minimal combat, it left us more rested for this trek.” Jade reminded, and indeed, in the one hundred kilometres between Gaza and Jerusalem they had fought quite a few Mystic Beasts…

The fights were all against two and three Star Mystic Beasts though, which was a good thing, and no groups of Mystic Beasts, only singular ones, allowing the group to conserve their energy by the time they reached Gaza…

Speaking of Gaza, they had left Gaza the day before… it was an odd day, chasing this lock-picking human whose best friend was this short white haired and green eyed Metal Sage.

The misunderstanding was sorted after the Sage let the normal human (who was near supernaturally skilled with lock-picks) know that ‘no, that white haired girl isn’t my sister, let’s keep looking’.

It was a weird day, and they were glad to rest that night for the walk they started the day before.

And they were still walking.

“Rested for this walk huh… It feels like we’ve been walking forever, but we haven’t actually moved that far.” Vince reminded, and everyone winced collectively at the unwanted truth.

With the dunes, the hot winds and the uncertainty of moving around when the sun was at its zenith, well, they felt way more tired than they should be given the distance they moved.

“That’s just how it is in desert areas… the same issue is prevalent in cave structures, or dark forests, your mind starts tricking you because of the environment you are in…” Everburn warned as the group of eight arrived at the crest of the dune they currently walked on.

“Heat in the desert sapping stamina, not knowing how much time has passed in caves, large forests being difficult to move through because of seeing similar trees and shapes all over, sometimes people even get lost on a mountain despite ‘knowing’ they should go downwards.” Everburn explained wearily reminding the Sages of the truth of the world.

The world was not a kind one… dying was far, far too easy when life was so, so precious.

“Well that’s depressing. Guess we’re just going to have to get so good that it doesn’t bother us like miss Everburn, huh?” Vince, who had accidentally caused this whole conversation, brought the mood back up with his smirk and challenge to the group.

They never really said it, but they appreciated Vince for his mood-maker habits…

Morale was an important part of life, not just fighting, and having someone who can say just the right thing to lift the mood?

There was a reason why a ‘court jester’ was an actual thing and a high rank position, even if it was just ‘royal funny-man’.

Edward paused to consider Vince for the position then waved it off; Vince had his own issues in the USSR for when he was done with Elem.

“That’s a good attitude to have; it will serve you well once you’re all out of school.” Everburn admitted with a chuckle, before raising her hand to stop the group.

“The dune wyrm’s are nearby, get ready for combat.” There was a nod, and instantly the group removed their cloaks, their combat uniforms already on show.

Combat uniforms for Sages emphasized mobility and toughness, but unfortunately many Sages were capable of creating Armour as their Clad, so why would they need practical combat uniforms?

The result was that at some point, Sage culture resulted in combat uniforms that looked like designer clothes while being tougher than bullet proof vests and even more flexible.

For Liza, she wore a black skirt and white leggings, shorts underneath the skirt, ankle boots, and a sky blue long sleeved zip up hoodie with a plain white tank top underneath, and a pair of fingerless gloves on her hands, Nirvana falling into her hands instantly.

For Kazuya, he wore slacks, sneakers, a tight fitting long sleeved sweater with a button up jacket with a tail reminiscent of a certain order of assassin’s, and a scarf, all his clothing black or a dark blue with the exception of his dark red sneakers… poor choice of colours for the desert, so he’d be getting an alternative uniform made when he returned from this mission.

Edward was dressed like a member of a biker gang honestly, black jeans, ankle boots, red tank top, an open leather jacket over that, and his flexible gauntlets resting over his fists, his boots sat just underneath the greaves he had clasped above his jeans… he had a similar issue to Kazuya except he handled the heat much better.

Jade, on the other hand, was essentially wearing a dress with boots that went to just under her knees, ball-room gloves covering the majority of her arms, the metallic shine hinting that the gloves weren’t as simple as they appeared, and with a flourish her rapier was in her hand ready to be used, in her off hand a dagger appearing.

Vince wore the male version of Jade’s greyish white dress, a black suit without a tie, leaving the top button loose and what looked to be dress shoes as his pistols fell into his gloved hands.

Honestly Vince looked like a hit-man or something.

Leah was the only one among the girls wearing pants instead of leggings, she was also wearing sneakers instead of boots, and for her torso she wore a jersey, revealing that Leah was a bit more… womanly, than her fellow women, getting some jealous glares from Jade and Liza while she held her wand in her hand.

Tony was probably the only member of the class whose arms were uncovered, wearing slacks, sneakers, and a short sleeved sweater, his clawed gloves already on his hands as he secured the fabric… one would think that Tony wasn’t worried about his arms.

It was just that Tony felt that having free range of movement on his arms was more important than guarding them.

In addition, they could all handle the heat with their current clothing but Tony was the lightest dressed with the exception of Jade, those two were feeling much better compared to their classmates.

“…Right… forgot how weird Sage’s dressed for fights…” Everburn muttered, getting the first years to note her full body-suit covered with metallic plates and her helmet…

The first years could actually walk around in public with their clothes and immediately drop into a fight, part of the reason why combat uniforms looked casual was for that reason, and because people were calmer around other people, but around uniformed soldiers they were more likely to be tense.

Everburn couldn’t exactly blend in anywhere, but you could also say her clothes were definitely made to defend her.

There was a bit of movement as everyone looked a bit sheepish at that statement while they checked their weaponry, Kazuya using his inventory to remove his weapon, thinking back to his spar with his father.

“Dad, you use a katana, you know how to use that most… so why did you teach me a different weapon as my main weapon?” Hiiro had asked, and his father looked between the katana in his hands and the weapon in Hiiro’s hands.

“Hiiro, did you know that Japan was famous for warriors known as samurai? I was never one, but I admired them, I started training with a katana because I thought it was their main weapon.” Hiiro blinked, looking at the weapon he had aimed at his father.

“I was actually a bit wrong. Samurai were definitely swordsmen, but a sword was their secondary weapon to be used when they were forced off of their horses. The weapon you use, is the one they used the most.” Hiiro held the haft and eased his grip, preparing to thrust.

Thinking back to then, Kazuya removed his weapon from his inventory, twirling the haft of the weapon before stabilizing, the spear blade glinting in the sharp light of the Egyptian sun.

“Ooh…” everyone looked at the weapon with interest the moment it appeared, recalling that they had never seen Kazuya’s weapon beyond his katana, which had been missing since the beginning of the mission.

“No wonder you didn’t carry that around casually, it’s quite attention grabbing.” Everburn admitted as the spear haft was already about as tall as Kazuya himself.

“Yeah… though… when I was first learning how to use it I was forced to carry it everywhere like my katana…” Kazuya looked to the side, his face showing his distaste as they imagined a younger Kazuya carrying the long weapon everywhere he went, having to set that next to his desk in school…

Yeah, his parents were sadists.

“…I feel for you. Anyway, the dune wyrm’s are in that direction, I can feel their heat signatures underneath the ground, we’ll need to-” Everburn was interrupted as a strange crackling sound rang up from behind them, getting the entire group to turn around, wondering what just happened…

In return for turning, the group was met with a floating circle of flame, the flames spinning faster and faster before the centre of the circle seemed to blur, space itself caving in before they could no longer see through the circle, a black void showing as a hand extended through it.

Immediately the group was on guard, knowing that there was no logical reason for a teleportation user to be here right now, and well, rogue Sages were a thing…

From the portal appeared four people, one by one, starting with a man with red hair smoking a cigarette, a girl with long black hair and scratch marks all over her neck, then a large dark skinned man with white hair and finally a man with a cloak and no skin showing.

“Ah… we made it… and look Blake, you landed us right in front of our prey.” The cloaked man spoke, walking forward by a step or two before the first years suddenly noted Everburn in front of them, between them and the group.

“Apostle! How’re you alive?” Everburn roared, her slightly feminine voice now gone, replaced with a roar of flames and that manly tone the first years had heard before.

“Everburn, looks like our information was correct… and yes, I’m alive… you should let the King of Darkness know that she should make sure her enemies are dead when she walks away from a fight.” The ‘Apostle’ spoke with a shrug of the cloak Everburn turning her head slightly to glance at the S-Class.

“All of you, run, he’s a powerful rogue Sage!” The students didn’t need to be told twice, turning to run even if the other Sages would obviously catch them first.

This wasn’t some cartoon where they say ‘no, we won’t abandon you!’ because that would just get them killed.

With them all being three Stars, and the enemy being someone an eight Star Sage was worried about, well… stepping into that fight would be like being an ant trying to stop two elephants from fighting.

Maybe whales would be more appropriate.

“Hey now… who said you little kids could run?” there was a massive wall of darkness stopping them from moving any further, leaving the S-Class staring at the woman standing in front of them with worry.

“Sorry about that Jessica, I’d help you, but I doubt I’m much use with Everburn so close…” the red haired man spoke out as he strolled closer, the muscled black man walking at his side…

Everburn, as much as she wanted to turn to protect the students, was incapable of helping when she was attacked by the Apostle in front of her.

“Leave them alone, isn’t it me that you’re after, after I almost killed you?” Everburn screamed at the Apostle, her arms crossed above her head blocking the massive blade of the scythe in the Apostle’s hands.

“Not really… killing you would be nice if you could actually be killed right now. But no, our goal, is one of them.” The Apostle said, pushing forward for only a moment before Everburn pushed back with a flash of flames, the Apostle stepping back as his cloak burned slightly.

“One of the students? They have nothing to do with you, they aren’t even proper Sages yet, why would you…” Everburn cut herself off as she glanced at the students… particularly Liza, Kazuya and Edward.

One controlled Time, the other was one of only four Sages of his kind in the world, and the last was the prince of an Empire and the only person in the world with three Elements.

Their potential was great. If the Apostle had heard of them… and felt them to be a future danger… some Sages, particularly the powerful ones, thought much more long term than younger Sages, partially because they age so slowly.

“Ah, you have an idea. But regardless, I doubt you’re in any position to stop us, you thing. You and I, as much as I hate to admit it, are roughly the same strength… so ignoring the two of us, and looking at everyone else in this place…” the Apostle spoke, a vicious grin showing out from under the hood.

“There’s no way you can stop us from kidnapping that Essence user.” There was a minute pause as each of the first years focused on their second-strongest member of the class, Kazuya tightening his grip on his spear with worry.

“The Apostle is right… so come with us little boy, and we’ll leave your classmates… mostly alive.” The red haired man offered, even as the man to his side began to crack his knuckles, stalking forward…

This was it? Their first mission and already one of them was going to die? Kazuya looked at his friends, hating himself for what he was about to do as he got ready to step forward…

It was logical. Sacrifice one to keep six alive, it made sense, if Kazuya was stronger or more important then maybe it could be argued to keep him alive, but he couldn’t really see himself as that important.

He wasn't a unique Time user, he wasn’t the prince of the Empire, he wasn’t the sole Sage of a rich corporation, he wasn’t the heir to a family of Mystic Beast hunters, he wasn’t aiming to learn the techniques of a King nor was he a person who had some hidden depths to his talent hindered by confidence (very specific, that last one) he wasn’t any of them.

He was Hiiro Kazuya. Three Star Essence Sage and not exactly special beyond that Element. He was a great weapon user only due to training near constantly, he injured himself many a time when he began learning how to use a spear, let alone the katana.

His classmates thought him talented when it came to fighting with weaponry, that wasn’t really true…

The only talent Kazuya was ever told he possessed was that when it came to how he thought as a fighter he was brilliant.

But before Kazuya could even finish moving forward, a bolt of Lightning dropped from the cloudless sky, forcing the three rogue Sages backwards and kicking up sand.

“Hey, hey… I was waiting to get more information, but… you all really want to try and take my son?” Kazuya… no, Hiiro, felt his eyes widen as he stared at the vanishing cloud of sand, revealing the glass beneath the feet of Izuki Kazuya, and at his side was Miya Kazuya…

The Kazuya Pair were here? Rather, Kazuya’s parents were here?

Getting the idea the S-Class looked at the two with adoration in their eyes, two particular girls suddenly fretting over their appearance.

Hiiro didn’t notice Liza and Leah’s actions as he stared at his parents who turned to look at him with a smirk.

“Hey there Hiiro, nice to finally meet your classmates… could have been a better venue instead of this though.” Miya giggled behind a sleeve as Izuki nodded.

“Yeah, you never want to introduce us, you’ll make us lonely.” The two powerful Sages turned to their enemies with a smirk.

“The Kazuya pair… oh right, that kid’s name was Hiiro Kazuya… so he’s your son…” the red haired man complained, ruffling his hair for a moment before glaring at the two.

“But that means very little… aren’t you two just six Star Sages? Do you really think you could do anything to us? The two of us are seven Star Sages and this lovely lady is an eight Star Sage.” That was a bit of surprise, everyone had considered the red haired man to be the strongest, but it was in fact the black haired lady?

“Ah, that’s a scary line-up, we can’t really do anything to an eight Star Sage… but that’s some old information you’re working off of there.” Izuki warned, lifting his hand as with a flash his katana appeared in his hands, and power started building, Miya to his side summoning her massive hammer.

“We were six Star Sages about sixteen years ago back when we took our last dangerous mission. Since then we’ve just been doing lower order work because…” Miya looked back to Hiiro with a soft smile before turning a stern glare at the three rogue Sages.

“We had someone to come home to. Someone to protect. But you’re insane if you think we let the time go to waste.” Izuki finished for his wife, clenching his fists as lightning enveloped his form, the sand rising from the ground to cover Miya as they reappeared in armour.

Izuki’s armour had sharp, jagged edges, it lacked a chest plate instead having a strange cloth covering his chest and a helmet with wolf ears on the head, the armour being pale yellow mixed with blues and greens which shifted depending on the angle at which the light hit it.

Miya’s ‘armour’ was better described as a dress, flowing and in different shades of brown, but despite its soft appearance there was no doubt it could block a few blows given it was her Clad.

The dress had wide flowing sleeves, a thin waist before flaring out to just below her knees and on her head was a tiara, despite being ‘princess’ themed it didn’t make Miya look silly, instead making her appear regal, looking down upon her opponent.

“We’ve been seven Star Sages for the past five years you know? That’s two of you out.” Izuki warned, pointing his katana at the three suddenly annoyed rogue Sages.

“That is indeed surprising, the fact that you kept that secret so often… you do well in hiding that aura of power associated with seven Star Sages…” The Apostle called out, before raising a gloved hand.

“But with Jessica’s presence your addition is still worthless. You aren’t at the threshold to eight Stars, if the two of you were, then you might be able to challenge Jessica together… but you aren’t.” The Apostle then pointed straight at the red haired man.

“Blake, get the boy, Jessica, Ivan, keep those two nuisances busy.” The Apostle was unable to give more orders as Everburn blurred to his side, twisting as her fist as she launched a punch at the Apostle’s stomach…

The Apostle managed to block with his scythe, but the sheer force of the blow sent the man flying… flying far beyond what the first years could conceive to be possible.

It was no wonder high rank Sage fights didn’t happen in a controlled setting really… a stadium might contain the fight so long as neither of the Sages hit the other like Everburn just hit the Apostle.

“I’ll handle the Apostle, good luck you two!” Right, Hiiro recalled that Everburn knew his parents, or at least they knew Everburn somehow, so it wasn’t a surprise that Everburn trusted his parents.

“Well Everburn’s just as strong as ever… it’s a shame we won’t be able to see their full strength though…” Izuki turned from the spot where the Apostle was launched from, Everburn vanishing in a burst of fire as she dashed away, leaving the five powerful Sages staring at each other…

“You two really have no way of surviving this fight… you’re going to die.” The black haired woman, Jessica, spoke out, reminding everyone there of her presence… she was the game breaker.

With her presence, there was no way for the Kazuya pair to win the fight, as a team of two there was no better partnership, so they expected to be capable of defeating the two men when working together…

And it was in this moment that one of the first years remembered something…

She remembered meeting an Elf for the first time. She remembered being given a gift.

And she remembered the words that came with it: should you ever be in danger, plant it.

And so it was that Liza dug out a seed from her pocket, scuffing her boot with the sand to make a small divot, and dropped the seed to the floor.

No one saw it except Edward, who widened his eyes, remembering where that glowing seed came from…

And then Liza kicked some sand over it, and stepped back slowly.

It was a good thing she did, because there was shaking, a shuddering of the floor shaking the sand around them loose, which finally attracted the attention of all around as a massive green stem grew from the ground, culminating in a giant flower, bigger than a person easily, looming over the group.

“…The heck?” Blake, the red haired fire Sage spoke, obviously confused as none of the children should have been able to do that… there was only one Wood Element user around and he was only a three Star Sage.

That was when the flower opened, and there was awe and dread felt in equal measure when it spread to reveal a being standing on the yellow petals of the flower…

An Elf. In particular-

“Basil! I need your help!” Liza immediately dropped her halting way of talking, it was partially an act in the first place, and this was no time to be slow about talking.

The Elf looked across the gathering of Sages, looking across them as if an emperor looking across his subjects before he looked to the surroundings with a scowl on his face.

Right, Elf, they liked greenery, the desert was horrible.

But when Liza spoke, the Elf named Basil looked to her, the disdain in his eyes vanishing immediately as he jumped from his flower, landing in between her and the Kazuya pair.

“Miss Krown, I see you got into trouble earlier than expected… would you mind informing me of the situation, and who these people are?” With how Basil said the word ‘people’ one would think he meant ‘insects’.

Liza didn’t bother correcting the obviously powerful Elf when he could just as easily ignore her wants, he already appeared to help her, and she wasn’t going to try her luck.

“My classmates and I are being attacked by Rogue Sages, the two in the dress and armour are one of my classmates parents, the three enemies are trying to kidnap their son, Hiiro here.” Liza didn’t call Hiiro by his preferred ‘name’ but that made sense, there were three Kazuya’s in the area right now.

The Elf looked to Hiiro who was pointed out, before widening his eyes and looking at Hiiro much like he looked at Liza.

That was, Basil was looking at them as living, intelligent creatures. Every other thing that entered the Elf’s gaze seemed to be dog droppings.

“Ah… another blessed… well, I suppose this is a worthy cause all things considered.” Basil nodded, turning and flicking his arm, a bow made of wood with a string of thin vine growing from his hand as he faced the rogue Sages.

“I am Basil Gael-fern, ambassador of the Elves, and an eighth strata warrior.” His explanation was met with smiles from the ‘good guys’ as they realized they had an eight Star Fae on their side.

“Izuki and Miya Kazuya, seventh strata by your terms, with your leave, we will handle the two seventh strata Sages?” Izuki offered as the Elf looked to the Lightning Sage with narrowed eyes.

“That makes sense… I’ll deal with that being of Darkness there. And address me that casually again and I will hurt you.” Basil’s arm blurred, and there was a booming noise as the strongest of the enemy Sages had her own arm blur, showing a massive claw made of darkness having hit an arrow into the ground.

She had been forced back from the sheer momentum of the arrow though, making Jessica frown as she clicked her tongue, dashing forward to attack the Elf.

Ivan and Blake prepared to assist her, only to find themselves blasted into the air, soaring through the sky while across from them were the Kazuya pair.

“Hey, sorry about cutting in there, but we’re your dance partners, you know, couples waltz and all that.” Blake and Ivan’s faces both distorted into grimaces as they realized what the annoying blonde man was implying as they were about to land.

With the Kazuya’s and Everburn gone, and the Elf named Basil fighting the woman named Jessica, that left the S-Class with nothing to do… except get out of the ground zero of this insane battle.

Luckily for them, Basil seemed to want to take the battle away in the first place, and that Jessica seemed to not release her full power because of the presence of the younger Sages, probably because Hiiro was supposed to be captured and not killed.

This left the S-Class moving towards where Everburn had said the dune wyrm’s were…

“Oh shit.” Tony’s exclamation was a surprise and completely understandable when they realized that they were facing three dune wyrm’s in front of them, and recalling that they were supposed to exterminate a nest…

“Even with a battle between gods going on a bit behind us we still have to finish our mission? This sucks.” Vince summarized with a barking laugh, clearly not really finding the situation funny, but laughing in spite of it instead of because of it.

“I suppose so, but hey, even without the help, this is our mission.” The only hope was that the nest wasn’t large enough to warrant having a four Star leader… even if their current opponents were all three Stars, they could still hope to defeat a nest of dune wyrms, as bug/insect type Mystic Beasts gathered in large groups but were weaker than other Mystic Beasts of the same rank.

No one wanted to deal with a ten Star Mystic Beast insect though… the thought was terrifying.

Following Edward’s reminder of the nature of the journey that brought them here, there was a scoff heard as a hard gust blew for a moment, Hiiro twirling his spear before dropping into a low stance, both hands on the spear haft.

“Exactly. And while I’m worried about the fact that they are fighting for me…” Hiiro focused, his body tensing as he burst forward, a blur was made as his spear found itself in the body of a dune wyrm, the Mystic Beast screaming in pain.

“I need to prove myself worthy of their actions!” The fight was on.

With that, the lines in the sand were drawn, with four battles happening simultaneously.

The first year S-Class against a nest of three Star dune wyrm’s.

Basil Gael-fern against Jessica, the eight Star Darkness Sage.

And the Kazuya pair was against Blake and Ivan, seven Star Sages of Fire and Light respectively.

And finally Everburn fought against the Apostle.

At the very moment this fight was occurring, the King of Light opened his eyes; standing from his previously kneeling position in Jerusalem, as he looked to the statue of the One God, like all depictions of the deity it possessed no face.

“Oh lord, protect my flock for they know not the struggles they face. They know not the burden we protect them from… and I pray that when we need to give them this burden, that their shoulders be strong enough to carry its weight.” Elior finished his impromptu prayer before turning and walking out of the Temple Hill.

“Sir, Basil vanished.” Elior chuckled at the no nonsense tone of the usually petty Prince of Lightning before looking into the distance, his gaze aimed at the Gaza Strip.

“That’s fine… I know where he is. Call Clara, tell her we need to talk about double checking things.” Elior once more considered having a phone before shaking his head.

He couldn’t figure out the technology, rather leave that for other people around him as usual.

Rick seemed confused but nodded, removing his phone from his inventory while Elior maintained his gaze, his eyes shining white for a moment.

“How interesting… it isn’t every day you see the Heir of Fire let loose like that.” Rick froze at the mumble, hearing the unexpected topic, but before he could question it he heard the click, handing the phone to Elior.

“What is it? You’re interrupting my bi-hourly accounting session.” Eliro huffed, rolling his eyes even if his scary conversation partner couldn’t see it.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me you child, don’t forget who taught you that.” Right, forgot, Elior had been trained by Clara back before he became the ‘King of Light’ and yet she had already been the King of Darkness for long before that…

He still had no idea how old she was, he was smart to not ask.

“Right, sorry. It’s just… that Apostle kid? The one that was going on about death, or the grim reaper, something to that effect? He’s alive.” Elior added, getting a sigh from the phone.

“You’d think removing something’s head would kill it but apparently not. Do I need to come down there or do you have it handled?” Clara’s question was met with a scoff.

“I’d say it’s not really necessary. The old Emperor got their kid on it.” Clara breathed in sharply… right… well in that case-

“I’ll track the Apostle down when he loses.” Yep, plan made.