As the instructor had already expected it was 637 who stepped forward to volunteer.

“And no not you 637 you will be going last, you went first last time! Time to let someone else take the honor dont you think? How about you 627” He said pointing to the kid with the crimson tattoos. The boy shot a glare at him but stepped into the middle of the circle anyway, he flexed his muscles preparing himself for whatever pain he was expecting.

But as he waited and waited nothing happened he then looked questioningly at the Instructor when suddenly with a loud electric zapping noise bolts of lightnign appeared. The dull gray lightning bolts seemed to connect to some glowing white spots on Tatt's body.

Tatt's let out a roar in surprise but then muffled it into a grunt as he took all the pain in and then he glared at the instructor defiantly. Tatt's semmed to be completely determined not to show any weakness to the instructor. Even 637 had to admit he put on quite the display the lightning bolt lookalike thingies where growing thicker and thicker and you could see that the pain it was causing him increased the thicker the bolts became.

The bolts grew and grew untill after at least 5 mins of the lightning Tatts finally let his legs give way and landed on one knee. Panting heavily, his chained partner who was standing just outside the octogram moved to his side and put one arm over his shoulder and helped the tattooed boy out of the octogram. “Not bad kid. That is some decent willpower you got there” The instructor said in one of his rare moments of praise.

How well Tatts did no one really knew until the next boy went. This boy was alot smaller than Tatts was and with his straw like hair and skinny body he seemed pretty fragile. As soon as the bolts hit, the boy was screaming and it took him only about half a minute to land face down on the floor panting and unable to move.

The children started going one after another the only noteworthy ones that did better than the rest were tatts partner who managed to hold herself up for about 3 and a half minutes. Hers was slightly peculiar because she seemed to be mumbling something with her hands clapsed together during the entire process.

The little monkey managed to stay up for 3. Which honestly was quite impressive. No one expected him to hold on for that long. Smaller people do get easily underestimated.

But then it was the turn of Oak. Oak moved his gigantic body to the octogram. He placed himself in the circle and prepared himself for the ordeal with a heavy exhale. The bolts hit him the same as the others but with him it was a bit different.

Instead of hitting about a hundred of different spots as the bolts did with the others all the bolts converged into the middle of Oak's chest. He grunted in pain and started mumbling some words under his breath.

The room seemed to vibrate with the sound of his voice, the echo the words caused could be felt with a slight impact on their skins. The hair on their arms started to stand on end and goosebumps appeared on the skin. There somehow seemed to be some magical power in his words. This was only confirmed to 637 by the fact that there was a green glow coming from between the cracks in Oak's bark like skin.

His eyes also started glowing a dangerous tint of green. The kids started to feel a presence as if mother nature herself was infuriated by this display and wanted to eat away at their very existence. The rumbling grew and grew and the kids had already backed themselves into the walls as far from Oak as they could possibly go inside this closed room.

It took at least 10 minutes, during which everyone felt nervous and on edge, before Oak finally fell on one knee. Before anyone could help him up however, he stood back up on his own and moved outside of the octogram. The other kids seemed a bit frightened of him now and made room for him to walk through them.

Luniera of course didn't seem scared in the slightest, nothing ever really seemed to faze her, and gave him a pat on the shoulder and a wide grin. “If im ever in the need of a massage ill ask you to do that again” She told him in that teasing tone she used so often, which Oak only answered with an annoyed grunt.

“Well i guess its my turn next!” Luniera said happily stepping forward with some enthusiasm. Most noticeably she was to everyone's surprise, skipping. She sat herself right into the middle of the octogram and took on a meditative pose. “Well lets get this over with!”

The bolts hit Luniera just the same as all the others before her but unlike the others she didn't even flinch. Not so much as a blink escaped her as the bolts hit her.

She just sat there soaking up the damage the lightning bolts inflicted as if she was doing nothing but meditating. As the time passed on the bolts grew thicker and thicker but her demeanor didn't change in the least.

At 5 minutes, the bolts where about as thick as a finger. 10 minutes the bolts where now about as thick as her wrist. 20 minutes the bolts where now as thick as her upper arm. 30 minutes the bolts where now as thick as her head and seemed to be trying their hardest to inflict more damage. But the girl still seemed completely at ease in the middle of the circle.

By now everyone was simply staring at her in complete awe. Even the instructor seemed to have nothing to say about this display. He seemed to be incredibly impressed. Even the seemingly always stoic Oak was awed by this display, Snowflake however seemed to be praying for her wellbeing not that it would do Luniera any good, actually it was more like she didnt even need the prayer.

Maybe we should start praying to her instead of some unseen goddes, 637 mused. Most noticeable off all was Tatt's who stared at her with nothing short of worship. I think Tatt's atleast thinks shes worth praying to.

After a good 40 minutes the lightning bolts stopped growing any thicker until they suddenly just dissappeared. 637 could say nothing else than the circle had probably just given up on reaching her pain limit. Luniera stood up and walked back to the others like nothing had happened. Questions could be seen in everyone's eyes on how she was able to withstand such pain ,but as they had no memories they all knew it would be a pointless question to ask.

“Wat an extremely interesting bunch we got ourselves this year” 637 could hear the instructor mumbling to himself. “636 your up next” he said returning to his usual rough way of speaking. Snowflake shuffled to the center of the octogram looking at 637 for support. 637 not really sure how he was supposed to help just gave him a ,wat he himself hoped would be seen as an encouraging nod.

Snowflake seemed to take some confidence from this and straightened himself up. The bolts hit him and he couldn't help but let out a small yelp before stubbornly holding his mouth shut and staring at 637 with all the power he could muster.

He seemed to take courage in the steadfastness of his freind and just stared into his eyes stubbornly while the bolts did their work. He held on longer than 637 had expected. They were nearing the 2 minute mark and he was still standing.

With Snowflake nothing strange happened until he reached the 2 minute mark. He started glowing again, his eyes had the same purple glow 637 had seen before. The others of who most had seen this glow before started murmuring amongst themselves asking eachother what it was exactly and what was happening. Then things started to get really weird.

The purple glow started to counteract the grey lightning bolts and Snowflakes body started to push back the grey lightning with violet lightning of his own. The violet lightning kept pushing back the grey lightning which seemed to be resisting and growing thicker faster than they normally would have.

The violet lightning bolts started to connect themselves into some kind of magical web-like formation and pushed back the grey lightning until they could be pushed back no further. The violet magic didn't stop there however it started to worm its way into the grey octogram and slowly spreading through out the rest of the web

Before things could escalate any further the instructor rushed forward and dragged Snowflake out of the octogram. “What in the name of the 13 bloody hells were you doing!” He asked Snowflake more surprised than actually angry. “I... i... dont know?” Snowflake said shivering a bit and looking exhausted. It seemed that he himself had no clue as to how he did wat he did.

The violet seemed to have pulled back out of the web and back into Snowflake and the room seemed to have returned to its normal state. The instructor gave the circle a good one over before motioning 637 into the octogram.

“Well i know your tough but at least your bloody normal” The instructor mumbled to himself before stepping back into the side lines. But to 637's misfortune it seemed the web he stepped into was no longer the same. As soon as the lightning appeared it came as one single big fat beam from the ceiling to the floor.

The instructor seeing this lept in without hesitation to drag 637 out of the beam but he wasn't even able to get close. Before he could even touch 637's skin he was blasted back into the wall accompiened by the loud sound of thunder which crackled throughout the room.

The nerves of 637's body where screaming out in protest at the amount of pain they where feeling he himself could not hold quiet to this kind of pain. He screamed his lungs out and even when he thought his lungs would come out through his thoat he just screamed some more.

The pain was indescribeable as it lanced its way through every pore and cell in 637's body.

The intricate symbols on the wall however seemed to be disappearing the Instructor noted, rubbing the back of his head in frustration. He stared helplessly as the web of power seemed to be sucked into the young boy.

The others who had no choice but to watch from the sidelines seemed to be frozen in shock. Oak crashing himself into the invisible wall to try and get to his new found freind. Snowflake was just staring at the scene shocked possibly believeing himself to be the cause.

Luniera just grimly watched as all of it happenend. She gave the room and the web a good one over but knowing nothing of magic she realized there was nothing she could do to help. She did however remember the elder who had turned the chains around their feet ethereal.

Thinking about the weird elder with his magical powers she dashed out the door and sprinted towards the status plate room with all the speed she could muster. The wind created by her speed made her hair flow behind her as she dashed through out the hallways. Not even taking the time to turn she just ran up the wall and swung herself into the new hallways.

Before she had even reached the status plate room she was knocked over by a sudden shock wave as something faster than she had ever seen before passed her by. She quickly leapt up again and throwing the strange event from her mind as she burst intot he status plate room.

The room however, was empty.

With a loud crash the door to the room with the octogram was burst of its hinges. In a flash of ethereal blue light 637 disappeared from between the beam and the magic suddenly winked out.

Laying there in the arms of the elder was 637. The elder somehow seemed to stand there without a hair being out of place. He was as immaculate as always.

“Do not worry children he will be alright” The elder assured them with his soft voice. A wave of relief passed through the onlookers. “Now i have some work to do so i wil be excusing myself” And just like that the elder calmly walked out of the room again as if nothing had happenend.

The whole process took bout 2 minutes. But to 637 it seemed to take a lifetime, More than a lifetime the pain seemed to have altered his perception of time during the whole ordeal. Then a wave of relief hit him and his vision turned black.

He woke up on the cold floor of the Octogram room, his head supported by something soft and warm. This time however there where no intricate markings on the wall's, ceiling or floor.

“Your hair!” Luniera said to him he opened his eyes and toke some hair into his hands and looked at it. Grey! All of his hair had become the same kind of dull grey the circle had been.

“Your eyes seemed to have changed aswell” Oak told him calmly as if he had not been affected by the ordeal at all.

“Yea”Luniera said looking into his eyes “They are white i think? Cant really tell properly because they are kind of shining.”

Still feeling the effects of the pain the lightning had caused. 637 tried to get up but his body didn't really do wat he wanted it o.Tatt's and Oak helped him onto his feet until he could regain some of the feeling in his legs and could stand on his own again.

“S..s...sorry....” Said Snowflake crying. “it.. was .. because of wat i did that you.....” He trailed off as shimmering beads of wetness fell down from his face onto the floor. “Not your fault, it was rather fun actually” He said managing a small grin and ruffling Snowflakes hair. Snowflake seemed to gather some of his will from this and gave 637 a feeble smile.

“I think after all this you guys have earned yourself at least an hour break so sit down and rest after that we will be having lunch.” The instructor let them know.

Well at least i survived 637 thought to himself sighing in his head. But i really hope i don't have to get into another magic circle again later!