"Mina Kwon, your turn!" declared Jung Wong.
"Snake, I intend to respect the pact, please also do so in the case I fail."
"Don't worry I also intend to respect the pact, if any of us gain the status of a mage student, they would do their best to protect the others even if they fail." declared Stephan.
It was with a newfound peace of mind that Mina approached the podium, ignoring the ominous glares from the new student mage piercing at her behind Jung Wong.
Strangely, when the magic tool activated and started to scan her, the yin and yang didn't start their usual rotation. Instead, unless any previous times, it was the white color which started to slowly devour the black color. Jung Wong jumped in surprise at this sight, the men as stable and stoic as a mountain was showing an explosion of excitement for the first time.
The yin absorbed the yang in its entirety, leaving behind only a piercing white light becoming stronger and stronger in intensity until it jumped out of the magic tool, displaying the full sublime image of a full moon elevating slowly to the roof of the gymnasium. Then it slowly disappeared in feathers of white light under the astonishment of the crowd.
"Grea... Great Grade!" stammered Jung Wong
The proud Support Mage was showing a face full of excitement and bliss, like a kid finding a candy on the street. After all this years of hardships as a Scout for the Minister of Education, it was his first time finding a Greater Grade in an assessment. He would finally be able to walk proudly in his office at his return and expect a promotion for finding a talent worth nurturing.
"I have the honor to announce you that Mina Kwon is now an elite student mage", declared proudly Jung Wong, " Would you please have a seat on my right until we finish this assessment?"
The pleasantly surprised face of Mina at this show of reverence was a big contrast to the paleness and terror written on the students mages expressions. They had their chance at revenge but it disappeared like dust in the wind. Instead of swimming in happiness like earlier they were now wondering if an elite student would be a threat to normal students like them. And seeing the now suddenly polite attitude of the powerful Scout, they despaired.
Only John was blankly smiling while watching Mina, the event of the full Moon phenomenon successfully pulled him out of his dreamland letting him witness the birth of a Great Grade. He thought that it would be awesome if Stephan also passed the assessment. That way their trio would be reunited once again to rule the Seoul National Mage Institute together.
Stephan felt concerned seeing another, even close to him, achieving his dream instead of him. He could not manage to force himself to subconsciously congratulate Mina, during the entirety of elementary school, he was the one who ruled over the ruling trio, a leader. He never thought this position would ever change but seeing the now different attitude of Jung Wong and the reactions of the crowd he realized it would be extremely difficult to regain his past status.
While he was lost in his internal thoughts, he suddenly heard his name being called.
"Stephan Lee, your turn!"
No other passable mark were found and all the students left over received a fail, he was the last one to be tested.
Jumping back to reality, Stephan walked to the podium, his heart pounding madly in his chest. Each step toward the magical circle felt like trying to walk out of a swamp, his legs feeling too heavy as in a nightmare.
Jung Wong just wanted to get done with this test and start his triumphant return to introduce his new finding to the Institute, one greater grade and four passable grade for a single assessment was an excellent result for a single countryside school. What were they feeding this children in Gumi? It was with impatience that he walked directly to Stephan, pointing the wristwatch at his eyes.
Stephan gulped loudly while staring intensely at the yin and yang symbols on the magical tool. They started to rotate slowly and quietly.
Five seconds passed seeing no change at all in the behavior of the tool. Stephan expected to see the same phenomenon as Mina with the white color devouring the black one but nothing was happening.
Eight seconds passed and the yin-yang was rotating a bit faster but even the black color refused to devour the white.
Ten seconds elapsed, Stephan started to feel an incoming wave of despair, his past memories of his dreams and his boastful proclamations to become a Combat Mage flied through his mind as if he was seeing his life history in slow motion at the time of his death.
He noticed Jung Wong mouth opening slowly, his vocal cords about to pronounce a word,
"Failure!"
It was the end, Stephan felt his whole world collapsing suddenly, his shoulders crouching down as if supporting his crumbling dreams.
While the boy was suffering, the Scout was curiously staring at the two symbols rotating faster and faster. In all his training and experience he never saw anything occurring like this. Was it due to a bug from his magic tool?
Moving with more and more speed, the yin and the yang kept their rotation without devouring a single part of each other, a perfect balance, a perfect unity. They were now at a speed so fast that it was emitting a blinding light alternating between shades of black and white in a psychedelic epileptic effect.
Stephan and the whole crowd looked with astonishment, their eyes prisoner of this blinding phenomenon. The whole yin-yang was now expanding out of the watch filling the entire gymnasium.
The spinning yin-yang inundated the whole assembly under their shocked attention. Jung Wong fearing the unknown happening decisively decided to act.
With movements too fast for the human eye to follow, he raised his arm holding the magic tool to the sky, his lips moving frenetically. A blue light started to rotate around the wristwatch sending electrical looking rays on the floor of the podium. The dancing light started to decorate the silhouette of black boots, slowly raising up to show a black pair of military pants until it finished to materialize a man.
Fully equipped in black combat uniform, adorning an assault rifle pulsating with mana, the soldier walked out of the magical tool light letting another similar soldier with the exact same outfit follow directly after him, facing the astonished crowd.
Five similar soldiers were now present on the podium standing behind a white haired old man wearing an uniform covered in medals and a gigantic sun symbol illuminated by mana decorating his wristwatch. He was looking with delight at the enormous yin-yang rotating around the gymnasium
Jung Wong bowed towards the old man, preparing to explain the situation and the reason for his emergency call but was stopped by the military officer with a raise of his hand.
"I understand the situation Scout", said the old man, "You did well to use the emergency call function, we prepared it for a situation like this."