Lissa found herself wandering in a vast and desolate field, the ground itself was dead and dry yet it carried a cold aura akin to wandering in a cemetery at night as a thick fog fell upon the area. As she made her way up a hill she found a figure sitting on a rock that overlooked a valley of corpses. The said figured looked like a man in his mid to late twenties, with curly brown hair that carried streaks of white on the side while at the same time had the same light blue eyes that she had.

“What…is this place?” Lissa asked as she stood next to the Man, as she looked where he was staring as well. The valley itself was littered with swords, rifles, and other weapons serving as a tragic substitute for grave markers.

“Hmm? This is Axis.” He said in a low voice standing up picking up a discarded sword, this sword in particular, resembled that of a rusted equivalent of Arios’ Azure Blade. “This isn’t how I remember the place,” Lissa said responded as the man rusted the sword on his shoulder.

“Come Aniel, walk with me for a bit.” He told her as he descended down a slope as he walked further into the Valley with Lissa reluctantly following after him.

“I think you mistook me for someone else sir,” Lissa told him as they wandered through the valley. “My name isn’t Aniel. But I don’t remember seeing this part of Axis.”

“One can say this is akin to a gateway,” The Man said as he made his way towards a nearby spot as he sat down placed his sword down. “A place between the living and the afterlife, while you can move on anytime as soon as you die, those that stay within here often have a reason to do so.”

“Like unfinished business?” Lissa asked the man smiled once more as he gave her a pat on the head.

“Exactly!” He said as he stood up and looked from the distance and then frowned. “Ah shit, I got carried away.”

“What are you—?” She asked as she looked from the distance and her eyes widened in surprise as she found a pair of figures on the distance. One of them as an older man the same as age the one next to her, with golden blond hair with streaks of white hair just like his but had dark red eyes.

The Second Figure who was also in the middle of a conversation with the older man was none other than Thomas.

Lissa woke up in cold sweat, she turned around and found that she still in her room and not in the field, and she heard a faint scuttling noise in the vents which prompted her to grab a chair and immediately checked the vents only to find it empty.

“What the hell was that noise?”

The following day, Lissa was briefly exhausted likely from the lack of sleep after that strange dream which left her slightly yawning.

“Did you guys hear some faint scuttling noise in the vents last night?” Lissa asked as she shared lunch with several Class E students as well, specifically Thomas (because of course, he would), Ester (accompanied by Axel), Oscar, and Ren, from the prodding of Jun who was eager to have lunch with Ren in particular.

“I’m pretty sure I did,” Thomas said earning a nervous cough from Oscar himself as he nearly choked on his lunch.

“You alright man?” Ren gave Oscar a worried look.

“Yeah, I just remembered something important," Oscar said finishing his lunch as he hurried his way out, earning curious stares from the entire group.

“Hey Nina, you’ve been hanging out with him what do you he’s been—”

“She already left.”

Louis was about to ask Nina only to be told by Ester that she was in fact gone as well just like Oscar. All of them turned to Ren who was busy eating lunch with the rest.

“What? He’s always been shifty.” Ren shrugged earning an amused laugh from Thomas.

“I mean who are we to judge if he has some weird stuff, as far as I know, all of his research helped in the development of new weapons for the class,” Thomas explained with Ren nodding in approval.

“Wait I thought you were the Best Blacksmith of the Class?” Jun asked in confusion.

“He is.” Thomas cut him off. “But Oscar is out tech specialist, he managed to provide all sorts of gadgets and advanced upgrades for our weapons.”

“That’s true,” Ester said nodded. “Even if he can be ‘extreme’ in his suggestions.”

“Extreme?” The Class A students asked in confusion meanwhile the Class E students exchanged weary looks.

“If you don’t need unnecessary modification then he’s not the one you need to approach.” Thomas, Ester, Ren said in exasperation.

“He can’t be that extreme?” Louis scoffed, this then followed with Ren pulling his phone out revealing a bunch of pictures that showed all of their weapons before and after Oscar suggested modifying them. For Ester’s case, her usual combat staff now featured a pair of heat saws attached on each end while. For Thomas’ case, his Hraevesglr was converted into a two-handed mana powered buster rifle with a large bayonet at the end while his Sword-Mace was given a flamethrower at the top. For Ren’s case, his combat barrel fed automatic shotgun was now converted into a multi-barrel rotary grenade launcher.

“Glad I didn’t ask him for upgrades then,” Lissa commented.

“I mean nothing screams 'Fuck you and everyone around you' better than a mult-barrel rotary grenade launcher after all.” Louis chuckled earning an amused smile from Ren and Thomas from it.

“I mean it helps in crowd control after all,” Thomas chuckled as he scooped his lunch with his spoon only for him to suddenly drop it with a slightly audible clatter.

“You alright?” Lissa asked curiously looking at him.

“Hmm? Yeah just been tired the past few days.” Thomas said with a reassuring laugh, but she noticed his dominant hand was shaking. “To be fair you’ve been overworking yourself the past few days in the Library with extra work, so it makes sense that you’d be exhausted and or fatigued after everything that had happened.” Ester scolded him as she narrowed her eyes on him.

“I can’t say no for an extra opportunity for learning after all.” Thomas grinned, it was after that statement Lissa had finally noticed the weariness on his eyes.

It really made her worried truth be told.

Later that evening, Lissa made her way to the library. This was due to being shaken up from the dram the other night she wasn’t so eager on having yet another dream to the afterlife with a stranger.

“Lissa?”

She turned around and saw Petra, who was missing her coat that evening who was also stacking books on a nearby shelf.

“Oh hey, Petra.” Lissa smiled at her, as she was browsing a Romance Novel called ‘Lady Immaculate and Lord Bookworm’ on a nearby shelf. “Another quiet night in the Library?”

“Not really.” Petra shook her head with a disgusted look on her face. “I caught two lovers flirting and all over one another on a secluded part of the Library earlier.”

“Jeez, those two need to get a room,” Lissa said slightly disgusted. “I know right, this is a library, not a love hotel.” Petra laughed as she leaned on a bookshelf.

“Since you’re here I need your help with something,” Petra said as she nodded at her to follow, to which she does and eventually they stopped on a nearby table from afar they can see Thomas, with Petra’s coat, draped over him to keep him warm that night. Surrounded by tons of books and notebooks. Every now and then she can see him let out a tired yawn and rub his eyes but he would still continue to read and take notes.

“I heard about…the Embassy incident. How two of his teammates died and there’s a good portion of people who blame him as a means of coping.” Petra said worriedly as she and Lissa hid nearby away from his field of vision as he suddenly slapped himself to stay awake as he continued to study. “And since then, he’s been studying here every night.”

“But he’s—”

“Overworking himself, yes.” Petra let out a worried sigh, Lissa can see it clear that she’s just as worried at him as much as she is. “No matter how hard I try to talk him into resting he would chuckle and say he’s fine when it’s clearly obvious he isn’t. And I’m worried he might burn himself out from all of this.”

“What do you need me to do?” Lissa said without hesitation.

[Axis:Legacy]

Thomas woke up in a start as he found himself still sitting in his chair on his usual spot in the library and found that Petra’s coat had fallen off when he woke up, his notes and books were all neatly stacked and arranged in contrast to earlier which were scattered about his workspace.

“Shit Petra’s gonna give me an earful after this.” He said rubbing the exhaustion off his face as he was about to pick up another book to begin studying again.

“No need.”

He looked to his side and saw Lissa reading a book about Leadership, something that he was reading before falling asleep an hour ago.

“Lissa, uh hey.” He said awkwardly as she gave him a worried look. “I was yeah I was studying just now.”

“I can see that well.” She answered putting the book down. “So listen, do you…want to go on…a date?”

Thomas blinked at her, followed by him rubbing his eyes, and then rubbed his face. Was he so sleep deprived that he was hallucinating his fantasies now? Or perhaps did he have too much caffeine into him that he was becoming delusional? No, it’s probably because he’s still asleep and—

Slap!

Lissa looked in surprise as Thomas proceeded to slap himself in the face, the pain itself was very much real. “Ah, so I really am awake,” Thomas muttered as he looked at Lissa with an amused smile.

“Well…” Thomas said looking at Lissa. “It won’t hurt to relax everyone in a while.”

[Axis:Legacy]

Lissa found herself staring at the ceiling in her room the next morning her face turning bright red as she recalled the events that had transpired the previous night.

“Holy shit…I’m about to go on my first date,” She muttered in a low voice, despite her beauty the Politics of her hometown know her well as the Illegitimate daughter of the Ikross Family and was ignored or avoided by everyone save for her siblings who still cared for her despite everything and Louis who was the only person who genuinely reached out for her. Any other attempts at reaching out to her would often lead to the revelation that she was only used by lesser Families as a means to elevate their status.

She heard a faint knocking on her door and opened to find Ester, Jun (while dragging a reluctant Nina along), and an amused Petra tumbling into her room.

“What the hell?” Lissa asked in surprise, as she and Petra helped the three girls stand up. “Oh hey sorry for interrupting your morning but they couldn’t resist,” Petra explained to her.

“We’re here to help you with your date!” Both Ester and Jun said excitedly as they pulled in a handful of bags from the outside and showed it to Lissa. “Sorry but I told them.” Petra chuckled as the girls placed the bags on her bed.

“It seems so,” Lissa said in mild amusement. “But look I’m fine this isn’t—”

“Don’t even think about lying on how this isn’t your first date,” Ester narrowed her eyes causing Lissa to briefly freeze. “Louis told me that you were a lot colder back then.”

Lissa flinched for a moment, she made a mental note to punch Louis in the face the next time she sees him.

“Okay fine,” Lissa let out a sigh of defeat and then smiled at them. “What do you have in mind?”