Here's chapter 9! Dedicated to more world-building, since I felt I haven't truly given you Tellus. I also flopped out on Skystead, but maybe one day I'll get back to it.

_________________

Chapter 9: Clarus Academy and the Case of Dillon

Eradion was very different compared to Gwydion. Albeit, Gwydion had a few cities that were modernized, most of its cities were still mana-powered and had a medieval feeling to it. Gwydion was also mostly forestry and filled with many magical creatures and races.

Eradion, on the other hand, was second in technology compared to Polymetis. It was known to be the kingdom of humans, due to its largest population being humans and a long-lasting line of human rulers. Still, Eradion opens its arms to all races, genders, and sexuality. It has no problem with anyone of any kind.

The first thing the party noticed while crossing the borderlines from Gwydion to Eradion, was the homes. Unlike in Skystead, who borderlined Gwydion and Eradion, whose houses were closely placed together and was overpopulated. All homes near the borders were spaced out nicely, and each home was spacious, large enough for a family of five or six to comfortably live in.

The closer they got to the border, the taller, more fierce the buildings became. Until finally, they crossed the border. It was unlike anything they’ve imagined. Eradion was a mixture of life, trees were planted everywhere - even in the middle of the road - yet skyscrapers ruled the sky. Hovercrafts zoomed around the city, elevators lifted people, holograms of commercials of the newest products played, using the trees as a background.

“Wow!” Kai gaped in awe, he watched as a part of a building tore away from the original building and floated above it, disassembling itself. The building parts then raced towards the sky, to a part of the higher floors, while the broken building began to close itself.

“Eradion is a mixture of technology and magic, no other country besides Ophir, does this,” Ezra explained. “That reminds me,” he turned to look at Lilith and Ley. “Weapons?”

“Ah, that’s right!” Atira slapped her thigh. “I almost forgot!” Atira took out the box and began to hand out crystals to those who didn’t receive theirs. “Try not to materialize it in the car, they’re kind of big.”

“More importantly, where are we staying?” Caelus asked.

“Don’t worry about that,” Ezra waved him off.

“I hope it’s not in the mountains again,” Atira frowned.

“It’s not,” Brent giggled. “It’s much better than that.”

“Doesn’t sound like it,” Orion commented.

Brent drove further down the street, taking a sharp left, and finally reaching their destination. A large, white skyscraper loomed over them, casting a large, cold shadow over the group. It was almost entirely made out of one-way glass, yet had vegetation peaking through some cracks.

“We’re here!” Brent sighed happily, “modern life. I’ve missed it so.”

They headed inside; Brent went to the reception desk, while Ezra and Atira remained with the children.

“Why are we staying here?” Ley stared suspiciously at Ezra, who was smiling mischievously.

“The city we’re currently at is called Clarus - the bright city of Eradion. It’s called Clarus due to it being bright at night.”

“How can it be bright at night?” Kai questioned, tilting his head.

“I was getting there. Clarus is known to have a lot of city lights, holograms, cars, essentially anything that can create light. So, what does that tell you about Clarus?” Ezra paused and waited for their answers.

“It’s given a lot of mana by the ruler of Eradion,” answered Ley.

In regions, the rulers decide which region within their region receives the most power to run their cities on. The smaller region’s ruler then decides which city would benefit them more if they gave them more mana. However, in some cases, the ruler of the entire region can choose to power certain cities - these cities would be called regals.

Regals are known to attract many tourists and earn a lot of income for the region as a whole. Sometimes regals are strategic places in their region, other times, they are used for commercial purposes. Clarus was a commercial-purpose regal.

More importantly, however, Clarus was the most important commercial regal in Eradion. In Clarus, Eradion held their international tournaments or region-wide tournament. Not only that, but this city was located near the capital of Eradion and close to the heart of the region, which is protected by strategic regals. It was completely safe, probably the second most guarded city underneath the capital.

“Disregarding that, though, why do you think I brought you here?”

No answer.

“Specifically, it’s for the tournaments. I’ve thought a lot about your desire for world conquest, and the fastest way to the top is through tournaments. Unfortunately, some of you are still too young,” he eyed Ley. “Therefore, we’ll start participating in tournaments when Ley turns 2 years old. Exactly 2 years from now!”

“From here on out, we’ll be training your abilities day and night - with only an hour break inbetween and one day off every two weeks. Simple, right?”

“Not simple at all!” Caelus burst out, “what about my sleep?”

“You’ll sleep at night, obviously.”

“No! I need more than that!” Caelus protested, “I thought the mountains were hard, but this…”

“Oh, well!” Atira smiled, slapping his back. “Guess you’ll have to deal with it.” She then muttered, “or we’ll deal with you.” A sudden shiver ran down everyone’s spine.

“I got our rooms!” Brent smiled, “we’re on the 30th floor.”

“Eh? Isn’t that the highest? How’d you do that?”

“Obviously, with my good looks-”

“Stop right there.”

…

“So, who goes in what room?” Brent stared at the two rooms - they were side by side. Each room contained four beds, it was enough for all of them. However, there was an imbalance with their group. There were more males than females and more apprentices than masters. Either way they split it, the outcome would still be the same - a person leftover.

“Should we just split between masters and apprentices?” suggested Brent.

“Heaven’s no! What will happen to the girls?” Atira glared, slapping his arm.

“What do you mean?” Eve asked, tilting her head, Kai and Ley looked confused as well. However, the other three knew exactly what she meant. Orion, especially, turned a deep red.

“Nothing,” Lilith shook her head at Eve, who eyed the adults and the three older kids suspiciously.

“It’s something dirty, isn’t it?”

“Gross!” Kai yelled, covering his ears.

“We can do that, I’ll just share a bed with Eve and Ley can sleep in your room, he is a baby after all,” Lilith agreed. “Also, I have Rhett.”

“Ah,” everyone turned to stare at her, mystified.

“I forgot about him, where is he?” asked Brent.

“Here,” Lilith pulled a stuffed bear keychain from her dress’s pocket. “Rhett, wake up.”

“Man, I’ve been waiting ten years already!” Rhett yawned, morphing to a 3 foot tall bear.

“Eh, you can shapeshift?” Brent pulled on Rhett’s ears, who slapped his hand away with his soft “paws.”

“I’ve been shapeshifting for the past month,” he glared. “Where do you think I go at night?”

“So, it’s settled?” Atira sighed. “We’re definitely putting a barrier inbetween my side of the room and yours.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Brent rolled his eyes. “Not like anyone wants to see any of that-”

That earned him a punch to the face.

…

“What are we doing today?” asked Lilith, holding Ley who glared at every person who passed by them.

They were currently standing in front of their hotel, waiting for Ezra to give them instructions - or rather they were just standing there. Staring at him with anticipation.

“I rented out an arena we could use. However, we were limited to only half of it - the other half was going to be used for a school-”

“A school?” They frowned at him. The children haven’t been exposed to others their age for three months, that and they were told to ignore others (by Brent).

“Clarus Official Academy. Anyway, concerning your new training regime…”

Ezra explained that Kai would learn with Atira in the morning, learning how to utilize his ki and weapons. Orion, Caelus, and Rhett would be with Ezra, learning how to mix both mana and ki - except for Rhett, who was there to tag along. Ley, Lilith, and Eve would be with Brent - learning more magic and about their elements. Ley would tag along, because he’s still too young to participate in physical activities.

In the afternoon, they would learn academics from Brent, as per usual. At night, they would spar and later cultivate their ki or mana.

Oh, and of course, they would do even harder, longer runs in the morning - as requested by Atira.

“Ley, you are to train your perception,” Ezra ended. “Any questions? None? Alright, we’ll head to the place now.”

…

The arena was actually a dome - a glass dome. The dome was large enough to carry around 80,000 people, yet, despite its large size, wasn’t the main tournament dome in the area. The main tournament dome could perhaps carry 100,000 people - enough to hold the entire Clarus city - perhaps even more.

By the time they got to the dome, the other side was being used. Also, they managed to spot someone familiar - very familiar. In fact, he kind of looked like someone they knew…

“Ah! It’s Eldrick!” Kai yelled, jumping up and down - this caught Eldrick’s attention, whose eyes widened in surprise.

“I never expected to see you here,” Eldrick walked up to them. “Why are you here?”

“We thought it was a good time for a change of scenery,” Ezra smiled, lying smoothly. “We got what wanted there, and the children were getting sick of the mountains already.” That part wasn’t a lie.

“Why are you here?” Ezra asked, directing the topic away from them.

“You see, my actual job was a teacher at Clarus Academy. I was chosen to help at Skystead as an operator - seeing as those in Gwydion were full with their hands.”

“Oh? What happened in Gwydion?”

“There’s a case of growing demons,” Eldrick sighed. Demons was the term they used to identify elementals who broke their limit and were unable to control it. Those like Grandmother Lilah.

The memories caused the three siblings’ excitement to dampen. A small frown on their faces as they continued to listen to the conversation.

“Strange,” Atira frowned. “Wouldn’t they know any better?”

“Perhaps not,” Eldrick shrugged. “Anyway, I gotta get back to my students, they’re starting to look over here.”

“Alright, kids!” Atira yelled, “we’re going to start today off with 5 miles in 45 minutes. Since we haven’t been exercising, I’ll go easy. After that, you are to head to your morning instructors. Got it? Good. Now, get going!”

It was much easier than usual - this time, the ground was flat and easy to run on. No climbing up and down mountains. Perhaps they didn’t even need 45 minutes.

As they jogged around the arena, a kid with light green hair and aqua eyes ran up next to them. They glanced at him once, before ignoring him.

“Hey, what’s your names?” he asked, struggling to keep up with their pace. “W-where’d you come from?”

“Who are you?” Kai asked bluntly, not even sparing another glance.

“Hehe… my name is Dillon!” Dillon smiled brightly, “so, who are you? Everyone’s curious - I mean, we don’t see Master Eldrick socializing much with others, so we thought you were special. I mean, you look special - that’s for sure. Are you strong? If you’re strong, we might have to…” Dillon rambled on, still struggling to keep up. They wondered whether or not he would be able to finish.

“Stop,” Caelus glared, shutting Dillon up. “Why do you care so much?”

“You guys look interesting,” he simply said, shrugging his petite shoulders. “So, are you strong?”

“Do we look like it?” asked Kai, hoping to hear the answer he wanted.

“You look intimidating, especially him,” Dillon pointed at Orion, who was running at the front. Orion simply ignored him. “His eyes scare me.” This caused Orion to frown, running even faster. Naturally, the pack followed his pace.

“Hey, wait!” Dillon chased after them, “how about that baby? Does he belong to that woman? She doesn’t look like she’d produce a baby that looks like, well… amazing.”

“Annoying,” Eve snapped, turning to stare at him. “You talk too much.”

Dillon blushed, “people tell me that all the time.”

“It’s true, you should listen to them,” Caelus said.

“Maybe, but I don’t care what others say.”

“Bravo,” Caelus raised his eyebrows, clapping for him.

Dillon, surprisingly, had a lot of stamina. That, and he was persistent and determined. An annoying combination, Caelus told him. He finished the five miles with them, albeit he looked dead tired afterwards.

“Do you do this everyday?” he panted, flopping on his back.

“We normally run under a shorter time limit,” Kai smiled, “can’t handle it?”

“I can!”

“Then get up.”

A few seconds later, Dillon attempted to stand up. His legs shaking, eyes watering. At this moment, the children stared at him, anticipating whether he would get up or not. Of course, if he didn’t they’d be slightly disappointed, but be alright with it. After all, they, too, had trouble standing up at first. However, they still managed to do it - even if it took a couple.. or several tries.

After falling several times, Dillon finally stood up, although he was panting even harder than he was when he ran. Raising a fist in the air, he stared at Kai, as if saying he did it. He achieved standing up.

“Hi, my name is Malachi, but you can call me Kai!” Kai grinned cheekily, supporting Dillon up. Dillon smiled happily at him. Although this small acknowledgement didn’t mean anything to them, Dillon felt absolutely ecstatic.

“Evangeline, call me Eve!” Eve smiled, joining her brother. If her brother approved of someone, she would be alright with them, too. It became an unspoken rule, after she and Lilith became popular in Skystead.

One by one, they introduced themselves, until finally, Orion was the last one. Orion still felt bothered by the eye-color incident. A long time ago, however, he would’ve been more hurt by the comment.

Orion sighed, staring at the determined boy in front of him. “Orion,” he said, giving him a slight smile.

“So, Dillon, how old are you?” asked Kai.

“I just turned six years old last week!” he grinned, Kai frowned. He was younger than Dillon, but he won’t tell him that.

Lilith came back, walking over with a young baby in her hands.

“Ah!” Dillon stared at the baby, “what’s his name?” Ley glared.

“Who are you?”

“Eh..?” Dillon stared at Ley with bewilderment. Could babies talk so fluently at a young age? He doubted the baby was even a year old! “How?”

“It’s a looong story,” Kai jumped up and down. “So, Caelus and Orion went to the forest…” He explained to him what happened and how Ley came to be.

“Wow! That’s amazing!” he stared at Orion and Caelus with awe, a newfound respect for them. He wondered, are they really kids his age? They seemed to have seen a lot of things. Dillon has never went outside of Clarus before, that, and he barely got in Clarus Academy, too.

He was currently ranked last in his class - that, and he was also the youngest. The older kids didn’t like him very much, so they ignored him, leaving him out of their groups and friendships.

“Oh? Who is this?” Ezra asked, walking over to them. He stared at the green-haired child before smiling. “Your name?”

“D-Dillon, sir,” Dillon casted his eyes down to the ground.

“Hm,” Ezra stared at him for an extensive amount of time - well, that’s what Dillon felt. “Not too shabby,” Ezra commented, “determination, persistence…”

Ezra continued to analyze Dillon, even as Atira and Brent walked over. They stared at the child with expectation and anticipation.

“Well, you’re alright talent-wise,” Ezra said, although the words seemed harsh to Dillon. He thought his talent was pretty decent - even above average. “But if you worked hard enough, you could bridge the gap between you and those more talented.”

“Really?” Dillon brightened up.

“Yes, hard work is everything,” Ezra nodded. “So, where’d you come from?”

“Clarus Academy, sir!”

“One of Eldrick’s kids, I see…” Ezra stared at Dillon, before sighing. “You best hurry back.”

“Right!” Dillon felt something amiss, as if he were dismissed. “See you later! Oh, we can hang out now, right?”

“Of course!” Kai yelled back, watching the small figure of Dillon run back to a fuming Eldrick.

“No good?” Atira asked, frowning.

“Good enough, but… I don’t know whether or not being surrounded by geniuses will either make him or break him,” Ezra sighed. Dillon would either become disheartened by those with higher talent or work even harder to bridge to gap between them.

Orion stared at Dillon, who was currently doing the same training as those around him - but he was alone. He clenched his fist, remembering a certain incident where he, too, was alone.

“Ezra,” Orion called out, staring at Dillon. “I think he can do it.”

Dillon watched the older kids, who were swinging their weapons effortlessly. Dillon frowned and started to work even harder - copying those older and perfecting his current skills. He ignored those who giggled at him or tried to dishearten him by making comments.

“No, I know he can do it,” Orion stated, as if it were a fact. Dillon, who was the youngest and weakest of his class, was working harder than those older than him.

Ezra’s lips twitched upwards, he stared at the children who were looking over at the young Dillon. Even Ley stared at Dillon with some expectation, albeit he still looked cold.

“I’ll have a chat with Eldrick later…”

“You mean it?!” Kai yelled excitedly, when Ezra nodded, he let out a roar - yes, it’s exactly was it sounds like. A roar. Those from the opposite side jumped in fright and looked around to see who caused the roar.

“Now let’s start your training,” Ezra smiled evilly.

___________

Thanks for reading, remember to give me some feedback - it helps a lot.

Yay, new character, lols. I really wanted someone who was less talented, yet hard-working enough to bridge the gap between him and the other characters. He'll definitely help with character development. Hopefully you'll like him, he'll soften them up a bit...

I wrote this chapter, legit, twenty times. I felt that certain parts were weak and lacking information.

Am I adding too many characters? I feel like I have a moderate amount, especially since it'll be just these guys until perhaps a few more chapters.

So, someone pointed out that they've gotten strong - fast. I totally agree with this, even as I was typing the chapters, I thought that they were too skilled for only 3 months training prior. I then realized, I did, in fact, added their training - but glazed over it. That's why it might've been seen as "too fast."

TLDR; I'll be doing a DETAILED chapter about their TRAINING.

Yep, so... thanks for reading. Bye!