'One-minute has passed'
'Two-minutes have passed'
'Three-minutes have passed'
"DAMMIT MAN!" Dr. Arturion yelled as Reiss shot a piercing glance towards one of the invigilators
Forcing himself to take a deep breath, trying as much as he can to settle his frustration, Dr. Arturion addressed the figure that was recounting the elapsed time.
"Just...tell us when seven minutes have passed, we don't need the play-by-play."
The invigilator shakily gave a nod before returning to his post near the Configuration.
Elsewhere, in a scene of reddened and scorched earth with sanguine clouds filling the air and coating the lands in a grim hue, a few straggling shadows can be seen battling a violent wind in an attempt to reach shelter, an eroded limestone outcrop whose only visible characteristic is a faint outline through the dust storm.
Once inside, the shadowed figures dusted themselves as one of them scurried near the entrance to gather decrepit branch-like structures before hurrying back and quickly starting a fire. The heat of the crackling flames expanded filling the enclosure and bringing a calm over the weathered group.
The shrouds were drawn off and piled against a nearby wall with the figures moving towards the flames to warm themselves. As the amber glow highlights their visage.
"What do our supplies look like, Ketsuiko?"
"With what we gathered in the tundra, we should have enough for a few days at most, what we need right now is water... Stephen"
A blonde and fair young man grunt as he reluctantly moved to a spot near the fire pit, digging into the dirt, forming a hole that only reached to a shallow depth.
"Water Magic: Blessings of the Remembrance"
Gesturing towards the shallow pit, as he cast the spell, a clean wellspring jetted outwards filling the pit with the crystal clear fluid.
"Happy?" He cast a drowned gaze at him before moving back to his place near the fire.
"Alright, that should do it for now at least" He thanked Stephen.
"Now then. Everyone, status update..."
"Not much in the way of injury except for a few broken ribs" One of the students replied.
"My left arm is still busted but the brace is working ok." Vauntuss answered afterwards with Tersia recalling when he took a hit from a behemoth to protect her and the students she found herself with.
The group moved on, each one listing their ailments, with each receiving aid directives from Ketsuiko, who was being advised by Herce.
"This is the longest we've gone without a change...best guess, this is the end" Ren commented on their situation.
"If that's the case, then there is no way they're coming for us"
"Wait, are we going to be stuck here?" Wails of fear and worry filled the shelter and he sounded the remark."
"I refuse to let that happen"
A stern boom of resilience sprang forth to stop the raging cries.
"We've braved toxic air, piercing winds, scolding heat, bone-shattering cold. And each challenge we faced, we were forced to adapt, grow and gain immunity and survive.
Three whole weeks, maybe more, we've had to adapt to survive, through the flesh melting, bone-crushing, lung burning, vomiting, tears, sweat, and blood.
Make no mistake, we are stronger than when we started. And we won't surrender till this has ended" the young man punctuates his speech as he points to the exit of the shelter...as if aiming towards the exit of this world
They gathered beside him, sitting enthralled at his hope, they rallied together and claimed loudly that they would not give in...But before they could continue their cheers, a blinding cold light exploded through the entrance and eclipsed the entire shelter.
The sheer brightness of the light was enough to disorientate and eventually—incapacitate.
Muffled, indistinct sounds flutter about within earshot as a bright haze masks the sight of anything recognizable. Moments pass, and only slowly does the full bearing of the environment make itself known. The bright light dulled the hue of the surroundings, but there was no mistaking it...they were back, they had made it back, finally.
As the first of the students manage to come to, the sight of the invigilator standing in wait was enough to trigger a beast-like response–one after the other, they become conscious, and one after the other–they threw themselves headlong into the nearest faculty member, none were spared as the devolved victims tried to mercilessly harm anyone who caught their gaze.
Fortunately for the staff, a Multi-Layered Ward had already been set up to protect them.
Still, one after the other, the students flooded from out the Configuration and quickly joined the fray after they awoke.
By the time the entire participating group had made it back, Reiss decided to make his move—slipping past all the students and entering the Configuration before a single one could react to his blinding movement.
They continued to pelt the ward while the rest of the staff stood, waiting at the sight of the monsters that came out of the Configuration.
Several moments pass before the sight of a lightning-clad silhouette shot out of the Configuration with a few students in tow, among them–was Shynerai.
"Forty seconds. Despite knowing where they were, you still managed to almost take an entire minute... you're getting slow Reiss."
"Art, if you're prepared to keep my time, then you should be able to go in yourself next time"
"Not happening, after all, work like that is why we have idiots like you"
"Mmm, no matter, these were the last of them"
"Alright, you can close the Configuration."
"Let me bind these few before the wake up." Dr. Arturion cast a binding spell on the still unconscious students that laid sprawled in front of him
Their exchange was made even briefer as the brutality of the deranged continued, which seemed to only worsen the longer they were allowed to lash out.
"For the love of—would somebody shut the damn Configuration already." Arturion bellowed.
"Y-Yes doctor, right away."
A group of the invigilators made their way around the Ward and towards the base of the Configuration, all the while making sure not to aggravate any of the preoccupied students.
"Don't look at them, just focus on closing the Configuration", one of them yells to a distracted colleague that came to a stop as he witnessed the aggression that was being held back by the Ward.
He motioned to pull him on his shoulder before dragging him back to the incantation's base, snapping him out of his delirium with the help of another berating.
"Focus damnit! for their sakes"
"…ehh yes, yes apologies."
After managing to come to his senses, the startled invigilator moved to join the rest of his colleagues at the various poles of the Configuration's base.
"Quickly now" Dr. Arturion eagerly ushered them.
With all of them in position, the spell base began rising to life with an ever-increasing humming that accompanied the violet glow emitted by the Seal.
"Spatial Construction Magic..."
"Wh—what's the holdup, Reiss?" One of the spell caster's rage as he felt the incantation being interrupted.
"It's the new guy, he's still getting into position" Reiss responded in a relaxed manner despite being entirely bathed in the cold violet light."
"Sorry, sorry, the base is set now, we can close it."
"Huh, finally…Riemann's Configuration."
With everyone in place, the Configuration base was complete and so began its closing.
Several overwrought moments pass.
Once the last of the boreal chills and phantasmal wisps of violet light had all but receded and the air of the hall had gained its essence, the feral students slowly recovered.
First, from their blurry vision and pretty soon their rage…though this time before any one of them was conscious enough to make a break for the protective Ward in their mania, Dr. Arturion and Reiss made the first move, swiftly incapacitating them—within only a blink of the eye, all of the students laid on the floor, stunned and more importantly…alive.
"S—Say what you want about these kids but there's no doubt that this year's batch was a handful." One of the invigilators exclaimed as he sat on the hall's floor, trying to catch his breath.
"I'll say, you've got no idea what I had to go through." Reiss added.
"What…did the little girls you came in giving you that much trouble" He mocked.
As Reiss began bickering with the other invigilators, Arturion was able to catch a glimpse of the wound that was seemingly concealed beneath the tattered threads on the right-hand side of his coat.
'Who did that to him, the idiot…' He thought as he moved between the unconscious students, checking on their condition.
After he was certain that they were all alive and in stable conditions, he got up and scolded the "problem children" before ordering them to help in transporting the students to the Medical Ward.
One after the other they helped the arriving Medical staff with just that, all the while Dr. Arturion left the clean-up of the site of the aftermath to the remaining invigilators as he accompanied his staff.
Walking alongside the various stretchers, the sight of the resting students brought a look of relief to the old doctor as he stayed his hand from reaching for his cigarettes with a resounding thought coming to mind:
'He managed to bring them all back—these troublemakers might yet be the hope…' he swiftly punctuates the thought with a change of his expression, showing kindred a…smile.
Elsewhere…
The familiar sensation from the somnolent glow of the overhead lights drew Shynerai out of his sleep in a heaving panic, fearing that he had severely wounded himself again.
"Relax, please you need to sit back down or you'll up open up your stitches"
"Stitches…ah, yeah I think I found one of them."
"See, that's what I was talking about, now please sit down. I already called the doctor so he'll be here soon", the kind nurse eagerly urged him to return to his bed and rest.
The door is heard swinging open
Dr. Arturion entered the room and made his way to the now lively bedside of Shynerai:
"So you must be…ah, number fifty-two is it, well welcome back."
"Tell me how are you feeling, are you experiencing any sort of discomfort?" The doctor inquired as he walked through the curtain towards him.
"Yes doctor, he seems to be doing quite well now. I'll return to my other duties now if that is all."
"You may go. Thank you, dear"
"Now, young Astrapordt, do you mind telling me why the only place I ever seem to find is in my Ward?"
"WAIT...what. It wasn't my fault this time, honest."
"It's alright kid...
You know you're pretty stiff for a kid," he remarks with a chuckle as he continues his examination of the young boy.
"Would you mind standing up for me and doing a few motions?"
After Shynerai completed the physical test, he was told to rest back onto his bed and the doctor disclosed his medical results
"Listen closely Shynerai, you've sustained quite a bit of bodily harm today,"
Severe dehydration, three broken ribs, fractured left wrist, mild head trauma, multiple lacerations and scarring across the torso, partial loss of hearing in the left ear.
Shynerai's eyes sank after hearing the doctor continue down the list, though Dr. Arturion seemed unfazed by the young man's frantic search across his body, desperately checking for all the described injuries but as soon as he saw the stitches again, he froze.
"So you've finally noticed huh, well if the procedure was as successful as I'm sure it was, then you shouldn't need those stitches by the end of the day."
"Wait, what procedure…you mean I was in surgery"
"Quite, all of those who completed the Configuration received emergency treatment which was supervised by myself"
"The treatment was only for the most immediate injuries, the rest was left up to your…'enhanced physiologies."
"Anyways all the things I listed have already been treated, you are free to join your classmates once you sign off here " Handing him the Notebook with his medical record.
"Hold on doctor, you said we're enhanced…as far as I know, we're all just...normal kids."
"Correction, you were normal, that was until we gave you a special kind of 'medicine', though only to the sixty of you that survived your…ehem...Auditorium Introduction."
"Anyways, what we gave you wasn't ordinary cough syrup, it's responsible for keeping you alive through the harsh conditions of the Configuration."
"Now you should head to class, whatever questions you may have will be handled by your homeroom teacher…the idiot."