After a few moments, Raghnall saw two silhouettes by the distance. And sure enough, he saw the two men he's been waiting for, smiling happily as they calmly talked with each other while slowly walking. Behind them was a pissed off Rira that seemed to be glaring at the two. Then, she suddenly hastened her pace as she walked passed the two men, all the while glaring at them. She didn't even try to mask the annoyance in her expression as she blatantly moved past them.
Then, she walked towards Raghnall's side as she vehemently whispered.
"Those two slowpokes have been talking for ages now! They're the last ones in here and I've been following them since forever! And they walk too slow as well! Can't you kick them out?! We're supposed to be done here moments ago! And we've only got a few moments left until that old man seals this place!"
Raghnall furrowed his brows as he looked at Rira.
"Why don't you go on ahead and leave then?"
"Have you forgotten? We can't leave until everyone leaves! So, do something! You're supposed to be the Keeper of this gate here so why are you not doing anything?"
Rira looked at him strangely and it made Raghnall sweat a little in panic.
Heavens! He almost forgot he was supposed to be Favian.
She didn't notice, did she?
Hiding his anxiety, he couldn't help but cough lightly as he replied.
"What do you want me to do, then? It's uhm.... i-improper for a Keeper to just violently kick them out."
She didn't seem to notice his strange behavior as Rira huffed. Then, she glared while crossing her arms as she spoke.
"Make them leave! I don't care what you do! I have a class after this and I don't want to be late again! And that old man is going to lock this place up! If it were to be sealed, we would have to beg that old man to have it open again. And you know how cranky he gets whenever that happens! I don't need to listen to another lecture about punctuality!"
Raghnall peered over to the two men's direction and saw that they actually stopped a distance away. They talked for a short while then one laughed to whatever the other guy talked about.
Seeing the action, it made Rira's anger soar.
"Those little--argh! Frode! Go and do something! Hurry!"
Rira pushed Raghnall towards the men's direction as she crossed her arms angrily.
Raghnall sighed as he looked between Rira and the two men before helplessly making his way towards the two guys. Just as he was nearing them, he stopped midway when he overheard what their topic was.
"---finally, that little dumb wrench had her use! To think we were able to extend our test for a day! Hah! Now, we can take our time reviewing!"
Herad laughed heartily while Galen smiled in agreement.
"Her getting injured not only helped us get rid of her, but we also got to have a bigger chance of passing on our first try, which might make us legends along with the second prince. Today's not a bad day, hehe."
Galen spoke as he merrily hummed after. Herad continued the conversation, oblivious of the darkening gaze behind them.
Then, when Herad was about to talk about something else, he felt a sudden distortion of the magical particles around him until suddenly, he can no longer see anything. In a panic, he tried to look around but all he saw was pure darkness.
What's happening?
Why did it suddenly turn dark?
He felt as though he was blind, seeing only nothing but pure unending darkness. He felt uncomfortable with the dark abyss he was seeing that he wanted to scream.
But no words came out.
It felt like his mouth refused to open and his lips felt like they were contained with pure metal.
Why can't he make a sound?
What happened to Galen?
Is he still here?
Since he couldn't see, he planned to feel around his surroundings using his arms and hands but he found out that he also couldn't move them as well.
With that fact, his fear escalated. Very much so, that he felt faint and nauseous from it.
Can someone tell him what is actually happening?!
Herad screamed in his mind.
Then suddenly, he felt his arms and legs move. They moved without his instructions. His body began to imitate the movement of him walking.
Then, he felt his mouth start to move as well. It felt weird for him. It was like someone else was controlling his body.
His mouth began to talk about random topics, like the weather, plants, food, and many else. And whenever he was finished speaking, he could hear Galen replying to his talking. He wanted to scream to Galen to save him from whatever has been happening to him.
But, instead of a scream of help, what came out of his mouth were words of appreciation about plants.
Giving up, he figured to just cry inside his own mind since he couldn't do so with his body.
Then, after a few torturous moments, a sudden flash of light suddenly enveloped the darkness and he felt the heavy weight on his body starting to ease up.
Then, with newfound hope, he screamed at the top of his lungs.
"GALEN!"
Then, in a flash, his sight came back and he was finally able to see his surroundings. He was in a familiar place filled with trees and grass. He tried to look further beyond but despite the help of the sunlight, the density of the trees made him unable to see anything farther than a few meters away. But, he didn't dwell too much on it as he shifted his focus onto Galen, who was right in front of him, and what happened earlier.
"What just happened?!"
He spoke hurriedly as he tried to check his body for any changes. But there wasn't anything. In fact, the only thing he noticed that changed was the fact that Galen was oddly quiet.
He was utterly confused about what happened earlier so he figured to ask Galen about it.
"Hey, did you notice something weird about me earlier? I felt a sudden fluctuation in the magic particle around me so I must've been on a spell or a curse."
"But, who would even do something like that?! Controlling a high rank in a Mage class? That can only be done by someone stronger! But then again, why would anyone even do that?"
He was about to continue on but then he abruptly stopped.
Because he couldn't help but find Galen's silence strange.
So, he decided to finally look at Galen closely.
But as soon as he took a step forward to do so, he felt something colliding with his face.