In a mystical-looking place that carried the sunlight, shining down gently and gracefully, sat an Elf basking in the sunlight. The room was tastefully decorated with a theme of nature, which the Elves adored.
The sun cast down on the Elf's glittering blonde hair, creating a splendour that was hard to describe using mere words alone.
A knock was heard on the door.
The High Elf's voice sounded out, low but lovely. The voice contained a hint of serenity, as if the owner wasn't quite there.
"Enter."
The High Elf's servant bowed low and respectfully, only revealing the tips of her ears. Where she could not be seen, her eyes glinted with fervour.
"Your Majesty. The rise of the darkness is approaching," the female servant said. "Give us an order, and we will fulfil it to the best of our ability."
"Yes," the High Elf said absently. His eyes were dark. His slim finger tapped on the throne he was seated on, the sound ringing out amongst the silence of the room.
"Heed my orders," he said languidly. "Activate all the runes. We cannot afford to fail now."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
The female Elf exited the room of the King, faithfully carrying out his orders.
Once again left in silence, the High Elf resumed his previous activity, staring up into the vastness of blue above him. The cleansing was approaching. There was no more time left. They had to act quickly.
°•°•°•🐢. . . .
Seyton watched the chaos that happed around him. His Master, who was the cause of the chaos, stood in the middle of it all.
Her training and lessons had gotten progressively harsher over the course of two years. It came to the point where Seyton wondered how badly his Master's heart was wounded with the departure of someone who should have been close to her.
He couldn't help but disapprove of Nocturne's actions inwardly. Did he not know what he was doing when he left? Did he not think about the implications his departure carried? Even if he was to leave, he should have told his Master.
Outwardly, it seemed like his Master's actions hadn't changed at all. In fact, even to those around him, it was hard to tell that something had displeased Master. His actions had been so gradual that it felt entirely natural.
Other than spending an unhealthy amount of time in the Mage Tower, that was.
His Master, now at the age of seventeen, had grown into his looks splendidly. Even as a Vampire, he couldn't help but stop and admire whenever he was caught unawares. Seyton's face darkened at this thought. He, who so prided himself on his control, couldn't help but lose control due to his Master's higher level charm.
He had worked hard ever since Master had converted into a Vampire. Every day, he took a few minutes to look, then quickly trying to tear his eyes away, as if it was some kind of challenge. The quicker he could do it meant that his resistance over that fatal beauty was getting better.
Much to his chagrin, it seemed like he never got any better, but Seyton silently didn't give up. One day, he would be able to do it without any lag in his reaction time. Thankfully, he saw that Shade had it worse than him, so he used Shade's example to encourage himself.
Deltan let out a yell as he charged at Nine, distracting her as Aciel and Eden followed up behind, casting spells at her. Lucien snuck up behind, swinging a sword. Brooke stabbed his sword in the ground, causing the ground around Nine to break and tremble.
Nine smoothly dodged the sword behind her, grabbing Deltan by the collar and throwing him at Brooke, causing them to land in a heap, groaning. She rapidly fired two spells at Aciel and Eden, countering them perfectly. She then stomped on the ground, causing everyone within five feet of her to stumble and trip.
Lucien jumped right as she stomped, avoiding the spell, before swinging his sword, producing a white aura that shot towards Nine in the shape of a crescent. Nine dodged low under it, kicking off the ground as she flew towards him. She exchanged five blows with him before capitalising on an opening he showed, sending him into the heap with Brooke and Deltan, causing the two who had clambered back up to fall down again.
As she did that, she quickly froze Eden and Aciel to the ground, causing them to groan as they gave up.
"Not bad," Nine said, smiling faintly. "You've gotten better."
The group of five cheered up as their faces lit up at the rare praise from Nine, completely different from the dejected expressions they were showing earlier.
The surroundings broke out into cheers and gasps of admiration.
Seyton looked at those people dryly. Not only were there Nine's students in that lot, but also a bunch of shameless fools from the Mage Tower, following Nine around.
Those who hailed from the Mage Tower always carried expressions of worship as they stared at the actions Nine made. It almost felt like they had a Nine radar, with the way they quickly appeared in the vicinity whenever Nine left her residence.
His Master had a growing fan club in Cosmos City, unbeknownst to the normal citizens in Cosmos City.
The fan club consisted mostly of the Mage Tower mages, as well as every one of her students. They seemed to think that Master didn't know of their existence but judging from the dry look she sometimes put on, he didn't think that his Master was as oblivious as they thought.
Shade appeared next to him now that the spar was over.
"Seyton, look!" Shade said, excited. "My Black Phantom grew bigger!"
Seyton peered at the spider that was indeed slightly bigger. He wouldn't have noticed had it not been pointed out, but politely didn't mention that. "Indeed, it has."
Shade preened, as if he was the one who had grown instead. He held up his hand to his shoulder, allowing his familiar to crawl up. It settled there, looking like some sort of bizarre fashion statement.
The Mage Tower fan club whispered amongst themselves, arguing, unaware that Seyton could hear every word they were saying.
"Who should approach Seyton this time?"
"You know the rules, idiot. We each take turns."
"Right, this time I'm going!"
A lone mage broke out from the crowd, heading towards Seyton with a shy face.
Seyton waited patiently for the mage to gather her nerves.
The female mage stuttered, her face red as she thrust the present out to him. "Please accept this!" she said, her face burning.
Anyone who saw this scene would have thought that Seyton was being confessed to, but he knew better by now.
"Thank you, as always," Seyton said politely, receiving the present from her.
She straightened out, her face cheerful and bright. "Thank you so much!"
The people from the fan club did this every day. Even when Nine didn't leave her residence, they still somehow managed to track down Seyton or Shade to present a present to Nine. They were truly diligent in this regard.
Seyton knew the reason for Master's budding fan club. It seemed that every page written by Nine had been multiplied and copied over hundreds of times. The Cosmos City mage population was booming in the past two years, all due to Nine's writings. Not only that, she also had those who were part of Cosmos Empire's military secretly join.
The way they acted, they all clearly thought that they were being very secretive about it. None of them knew that others had joined, so the crowd around Nine was always made up of the mages from the Mage Tower. Those from the military could only send presents secretly and watch from afar.
Every person who ended up joining the Mage Tower ended up in Nine's fan club, much to the bewilderment of those not in the know. They managed to keep it a secret from those not in the know, but the Head Mage was the president of the fan club himself.
Those outside could only wonder. How could they worship the incompetent Crown Prince so much? Was it just because of his outstanding looks?
Cosmos City was singlehandedly bringing up the average Magicians. More and more outstanding magicians were being produced all because of Nine. Although, somehow, those in her school still somehow hadn't caught on to this yet. Seyton would enjoy every moment once the news finally hit, and no doubt it would. Secrets were never kept secret forever.
Seyton watched as the female mage went back to the group, as all of them erupted into cheers. He didn't hate them.
Mostly because he was secretly in the fan club as well.
Seyton made sure to keep it hidden from his Master. It was too embarrassing and didn't suit his mask, so he kept it a secret.
But even with all these positive things happening, he couldn't help but want Nocturne to return quicker. He was afraid that Nine would end up burning himself out. His Master made everything seem so easy, but the effort put behind each step was almost staggering. He couldn't even amass any jealousy, seeing how hard his Master worked for it.
Nocturne leaving had clearly fractured something inside Nine, but Seyton didn't know how to fix it. Shade was likewise helpless, but still tried to help by bringing little items to Master every day. Seyton couldn't help but feel the other man was somewhat like a big dog wanting to please his Master.
His Master was somewhat colder now that Nocturne was gone, almost as if him leaving had been the last straw with Nine making any new connections. Even the Head Mage, who clearly worshiped the ground Nine walked on, couldn't get too close before his Master closed off and acted coldly.
Seyton couldn't help but be worried. Seventeen was a fragile age for humans. Even if his Master was a Vampire now, he was still going through major changes, and Nocturne leaving had probably struck an unknowing blow at Nine.
Even though Nine showed no signs of it, Seyton could somehow feel the festering anger inside of his Master at times. He was extraordinarily angry at the fact Nocturne left. Seyton knew that once he returned, he would probably end up getting the lashing of a lifetime. He couldn't help but feel sympathetic at his inevitable suffering.
As Seyton followed after and watched Nine savage the military recruits, he couldn't help breaking out into a cold sweat at their clear suffering, thinking that Nocturne's would be so much worse than that.
He dutifully ignored some of the blissful expressions in the crowd. He didn't see anything, he thought, looking up into the sky.
Nocturne had better come back soon.