Two weeks have gone by. Astrea spent most of her time with the nymphs except when she has to take care of her class. She made them go through what she thought would be her master 'Hell Training'.
It was an extreme version of the play of cat and mouse. She, the cat, has to hold back the students, the mice, for one hour. If one of them manage to get out before the time runs out, they will all be freed from her Hell training.
But she was the genius disciple who managed to finish his extreme training in one year. What they thought would be easy was, in fact, the worst nightmare ever. They received a beating that almost killed them to make sure they do not move. When every one of them is crippled, she just waited for the hour to finish. Some tried to run while she was hitting a student but she quickly caught them.
Astrea sighed at how disorganized they were. Even with strong individuals, if they don't unify, they won't be able to beat an incredibly stronger foe.
She kind of liked to play this game. Now she understood why her teacher liked to do this. It allowed her to move her body around. The last time she moved around so much was for saving her classmates eight years ago.
Well, she will have even more occasion to move around with her class.
The beginning for the first years was going to be fun.
Not far away, she could hear the sound of dispute. She neared to see two groups yelling at each other.
One of them was a group of 9th graders. The other were high schoolers.
A teacher was confronting the middle-schoolers.
"Move away kids! We are taking this field!"
"What are you saying! This has always been the training ground of the purging class!"
"Well, it's no more the case!"
"Under whose permission?" tonelessly said Astrea.
"As the 22nd in ranking, I can get the training space of any lower ranked so..."
"You didn't ask for my permission, so go back to yours."
"Haaa!? You dare-"
"Noisy!" she yelled and the instructor fell, the front of his body meeting the ground. When she released her pressure, the guy was unconscious.
"Take him away!"
"Y- Yes!"
The high schooler took their teacher away.
"I just hate guys who do whatever they want without thinking of the consequences... Anyway! Hello class! I am Astrea Elysium and I will teach you how to purge ghosts!"
"This course is all about the way to exterminate the evil ghosts. To become a good exorcist, you will need to be able to adapt any situation thrown at you. It's even more so as you are humans! You have to be always prepared!
I will first teach you how to defend yourselves and fight against a ghost when they are in an extremely violent state when their reason is lost. If you don't like the idea of killing, then I invite you out."
Nobody moved.
"Seems like you made your mind. Then we will directly begin now."
"If you are spotted by one and you know you can't defeat it, what do you do?"
"You fight it until reinforcement arrives!" said A student.
"You can but that is if you are sure there are. If you can't then you just run away."
A student: "But what if it follows us?"
"You still run while looking for a place full of yang energy. Even better if you had a yang talisman to throw at him."
B student exclaimed: "But yang talismans are so expensive!"
"It's better to have one than none. In an emergency case, it could save you. Is the price of a talisman comparable to your life?"
"..."
"Well! For the first lesson, I will teach you the art of running away. You should warm up as we are going to run a lot!"
After everyone stretched, she looked at each one and nodded.
'Not bad! They are really fit. Seems like they practiced martial arts.'
"I want to test your stamina and speed. For the next two hours, you need to run from here to the elementary school!"
"Aaah!?" "No way!" "It's hundreds of kilometers from here..."
"Don't cry too fast! When you are running, you are allowed to use martial art, magic or anything in your arsenal. You are just forbidden to take the school's transportation."
"Ouf!" "She frightened me." "Thank Goodness"
"You only have two hours! You will also be followed by elementals who will pursue you in your tracks"
"Huh?" "What is she saying?"
Out of thin air, around 50 spirits of different types appeared. There was water, ice, fire, plant, air and even the rares lightning, light, and darkness. The majority was low ranked, but you could see a few high ones.
"I will be nice and leave you 10 minutes to get as far away as possible. After that, I will release the low spirits, after another 30 minutes, it will be the turn of the high spirits. They will act like the ghosts and attack you. If you get caught by them, They get to play pranks on you."
"Aaah!" "Nooo!" "I thought there would be no death training! My senior lied to me!" "Why did I end up with this teacher!"
"Don't waste your breath. The test begins in 3, 2, 1... Go!"
After pronouncing go, she could see a lot of incantations' lights appearing everywhere. In a few seconds, the student disappeared from their sight.
One of the high spirit, the light one, neared Astrea.
"Thank you for letting us participate in your game. It will nicely help our little ones to spend their energy."
"Oh! You are welcome."
The light spirit also added: "They may also find a contractor."
"That's what I'm also hoping!"
Elementals and ghost are part of the same immaterial realm. Ghosts are former living being and elementals are also souls but they were born without bodies. Their ways of thought are too different from each other. Elementals usually fight ghosts. The latter is a violent and greedy group trying to eat souls to get stronger.
The elementals need the help of the people from the material world to absorb their processed compatible mana or source of energy, grow faster and defend themselves.
So this 'game' organized by Astrea not only has the goal to make her students run for their lives but also give them the chance of contracting spirits.
It is something that has never been done before as the only ways to contact spirits are either enter a special location, be a god, or not have a material body to enter the spirit world.