Ardere opened her eyes with difficulty, the noon light making her wince and shield her strained eyes.
She blinked as her eyes began to focus on her surroundings and she recognized a familiar ceiling. The smooth white texture with crystal lights embedded in intervals along the surface to provide maximum light with only a few crystals.
The magic circles that made the crystals emit such a brilliant white light spun in place around them, their symbols humming with a magical hue only noticeable to those who tuned their senses to detect its presence.
Ardere turned her head to see a familiar window, one large enough to let natural light in, but small enough so it could still be covered quite easily for some privacy.
The bed she rested on was just as familiar as everything else. The snow white covers, keeping her slim body warm and the chair that sat next to her empty.
Ardere was in the infirmary, she recognized the room since she had visited a few times while Kenji was hurt and after her fight with Ian.
She glanced around the room, noticing it was completely empty. Ardere found this quite odd considering Vincent was usually taking care of all the students who got into scuffles, most of the time though it was Kenji who sent them here.
Ardere removed the white covers and saw she wore a thick warm white shirt with long white leggings that felt oddly soft.
Picking herself up from the bed, stepping on to the marble floor, her bare feet feeling ice cold against the slick surface, her legs stiff from being inactive for what felt like quite some time.
shuffling to the window Ardere peered outside and saw the green fields that surrounded the school with hundreds of Demons going about their business. Though Ardere could not see most of the school from this one spot she knew the number of Demons enrolled was close to a thousand and was currently only seeing a fraction of them.
Suddenly Ardere heard the click of a door behind her and quickly she turned to see someone entering.
The first thing Ardere noticed was the white coat Vincent always wore, she had never seen him without it and could never imagine him in any other attire. His dark eyes only conflicted with his short fair hair, but his clean shaven face and bright soothing smile made her feel like she could trust this Demon to push her off a cliff and she would believe it would be for her own good.
"I figured you would wake up soon" Vincent commented, noticing Ardere up and about, leading with his calm smile.
"What time is it?" Ardere questioned.
Vincent didn't have to say anything as 12 bells rang and reverberated through the halls.
Arderes face twisted into confusion as she spoke.
"Twelve? but it should have been later than that when I was in the training hall with Kenji and I...."
Suddenly realization flooded into Ardere's thoughts as she panicked and realized she had been asleep for half a day, she turned around looking for her uniform attempting to head to her magical beast class.
Vincent closed in on Ardere, lifting his hands, palms out, trying to calm her down.
"I understand you wish to reach your classes on time, but I need to examine you before I can discharge you and before you try to justify your haste you should know you have been asleep for longer than you might think so a few more minutes of your time will be of no consequence to you."
Ardere was stunned, how long had she been asleep? panic was no longer the word she would use for what she was feeling now, she knew it would be bad if she had been in here longer than a few days.
Thinking about the scolding she would get from her math teacher, Nel Howser, she could only imagine the tirade he would be on for even missing one day, let alone more.
Putting her thoughts aside she could see Vincent's worried expression as she stood there and let anxiety fill her head.
Giving in Ardere let out a long sigh and settled on the bed, waiting for Vincent. The slim Demon pulled a stool next to her and placed his hand inches from her back and used his mana to examine her.
Ardere could feel Vincent's mana drift through her body, checking limbs and muscles, but straying from her more private areas, then he began examining her mana.
At first Vincent just searched the outer edge of her mana pool, checking for any ruptures or leaks she had guessed and while doing so he had written notes in a pad just out of sight of Ardere. she felt curiosity jabbing at her, but knew it was more important to remain still while Vincent continued his check up.
Then Vincent's mana poured into her pool and it felt like her mana was overfilling. she could feel her mana leaking from within her and looking at herself she could see it as well.
Her aura was ever so slightly visible.
Vincent looked to the glowing mana that surrounded Ardere and could see her bright blue aura.
"Hmm a strong aura, I'm not surprised you would contain one so virtuous."
Ardere had never seen her aura before and was quite surprised she would even be able to see it with the state of her mana pool.
"This explains quite a bit about you." Vincent commented
Ardere looked up at Vincent in confusion and as if he read her mind he elaborated.
"Your aura indicates you are loyal, responsible and reliable. However it also indicates you are conservative, predictable and...." Vincent stopped his words there as he thought twice about what he was going to say.
"Anyways I think it suits you Miss Damonium."
Ardere was never interested in the symbolism of her aura, she even felt sceptical about the whole aura personality thing, but for some reason that description seemed to hit the mark.
Ardere felt proud knowing that she was responsible and reliable even though most times she didn't feel like so.
Vincent continued to search her pool and Ardere stopped paying attention to Vincent's mana, but she did notice when he suddenly stopped and his face twisted into confusion.
"What is it?" Ardere said concerned
"It's...Nothing, it's just...." Vincent was at a loss for words and Ardere guessed he was about to tell her that her mana pool shrunk in size due to over exerting it. She sat preparing herself to hear those words as she spoke
"It's fine, I assumed my mana pool would shrink because of what I did, but I have to face the consequences of my own actions." Ardere said, a bit heartbroken that she lost progress after all that time.
However she wasn't too worried since she remembered the feeling of her mana manipulation quite vividly and knew it would help her cut the cost on mana.
"No, you are mistaken." Vincent pulled his hand from Ardere's back
"Your mana pool isn't smaller, it's actually grown a bit."
Ardere blinked at those words, waiting for Vincent to let out a laugh saying he was playing a cruel joke or that he was just trying to make her feel better.
For a moment Ardere was silent as she searched Vincent's face and when she saw he was earnest, she stammered.
"Wha...WHAT!!?"
Ardere didn't mean to shout, but her surprise was too extreme for her to hold back, the words just flooded out of her as she questioned whether what she was hearing was true or not.
"I can't exactly explain it, but when you came in here your mana pool was scattered and could barely retain a shape. I gave you time to rest and encouraged your pool to repair itself by pushing it together. I did notice that mana leaked while your pool regenerated, but it didn't get smaller it actually grew."
Vincent turned to his notes and began scanning them, searching for something he might have missed.
"I have treated many with broken mana pools, but yours was different from any I have ever seen. your mana pool was broken but not completely shattered, and it healed like a muscle that had been worked through and strengthened itself."
Vincent spoke to Ardere while scanning through his notes and once he looked up from Ardere he had a worried look plastered on his face.
"It seems you managed to increase your pool while you slept, but I would advise you don't continue to break your mana pool on purpose for the goal of strengthening yourself. This is likely a fluke, a one in a million chance of happening and if you continue to attempt this again, it could likely destroy your mana pool completely."
Any thoughts of excitement and relief Ardere had moments before were swept away by Vincent's warnings.
If her mana pool was destroyed she would be as good as dead. In a world filled with raw mana and no way to process and refine it her body would starve for it and she could wither away.
The thought was dreadful to her and she wondered if Kenji could have known what would happen, then again she wondered how Kenji's body was completely fine without mana considering humans of the past were said to have magic like that of Demonkind.
At one point the Humans were the biggest rivals of every race in the entire world. Some races thought they prayed upon humans like the Vampires and the dragons, but in all reality the humans posed a threat so great no one race could compare to them.
Humans were told to be ruthless and greedy and worst of all deemed themselves the dominant race.
They apparently proved it during the war twenty four hundred years ago when the last great human king died and the last human tyrant led the human and Demon nations to war.
The humans were not physically or magically superior to any other race, but they held something most, if not all the other races wanted.
The humans held what they called Holy power and it was as rare as it was frightening.
Demon scholars and other races alike always attempted to try and replicate this power. It was unknown and most thought of it as magic, but of a different element or even a different form.
The Holy power was said to give humans the strength of ten and to cast a light that burned all other races who were touched by it, while humans only gained strength and we're healed by it.
The few humans that could wield this power were known as Divinas, they wielded this Holy power, but at the cost of being unable to wield any other form of magic.
This was why most scholars believed it to be some new element of magic, lost a millennia ago. however, none were able to recreate the so-called Holy power.
Could Kenji be one of these Divinas? She had only heard of them from old stories her father would tell and her tutors would only briefly cover them in their history lessons, maybe this was worth looking into
Vincent made sure Ardere was very much aware of the consequences of carelessly breaking her mana pool in an attempt to make it bigger again and sent her off to class. Ardere normally would have been running to class, but her legs still felt stiff and instead felt it necessary to walk, since she was already late.
Ardere made it to the doors of her classroom and pushed open them open, the loud wood groaning as she forced it open.
Upon entering, all eyes rested upon Ardere, it felt awkward walking in so late and the ear piercing silence didn't make things better. She saw Kenji's uniform, which stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the students who wore black clothes streaked with corn blue, Kenji's however were streaked with red.
Alice Black, clapped her hands grabbing everyone's attention and spoke.
"I did not say to stop, just because someone has arrived does not mean you can get distracted, continue on!" She said speaking to everyone in the class.
Ms.Black walked up to Ardere, her face much like Kenji's, wore an intimidating glare and her eyes almost felt as if they pierced your very soul.
"I'm glad to see you are well Ms.Damonium, I trust you will have no issues catching up with your fellow classmates and training with your team."
Ardere felt a wave of confusion hit her as she looked past Ms.Black. She could see the entire class was split into groups of three, suddenly she remembered she had no idea how long she had been asleep.
"I will do my best ma'am." Ardere said, attempting to keep things short and hoping Kenji and Melodi could explain further.
"Go get changed, then meet with your group." Alice said as she walked off to check on the groups of students.
Ardere rushed to change into her class uniform and then met up with Melodi and Kenji.
"You look like you're doing better." Kenji said, not facing her.
Ardere was about to give Kenji an earful before Melodi jumped on her and gave her a death grip hug.
"You're okay!" Mel squealed
Ardere was caught by surprise and almost toppled over with the blonde ray of sunshine in her arms.
"Mel...it's good to see you....but please...I...can't.."
Melodi released her hold on Ardere and she sucked in air. Mel was stronger than she looked or maybe she was just stronger than before.
"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt you." Melodi said with her hands clasped together close to her chest.
Ardere smiled at Melodi, though she felt like she had just seen her not long ago, in reality she didn't know when was the last time the two conversed together.
"Well I am fine, even after your surprise attack, but I wanted to ask. How long was I recovering?
Melodi's face twisted into one of worry while someone off to the side cleared their throat and Ardere turned and noticed a third person there.
A female with curving horns protruding from her head and a long thin black tail was standing off to the side, she seemed shy and next to her was a feline type magical beast with a fur so rough it looked like solid rock.
It was the girl from before, the one who was master to the Vishup. Ardere was unsure of who would also be in her group, but seeing a Demon with such a helpful Summon lifted her spirits a bit.
She needed a bit of good news considering she was going to have to catch up on a lot of class work for all her classes.
"Oh! you're...."
"Sandra" The girl said, correcting Ardere when she struggled to bring a name to mind.
"Right, Sandra please excuse my rudeness I never got your name the first time we first met." Ardere said embarrassed.
"No need to apologize. It has been a while since we had seen each other, I was hoping we would get to train together before the Hunt, but I was not sure if you would recover before then."
Finally Ardere had enough of everyone hinting at how long she had been gone and finally wanted some answers.
"Kenji, how long was I asleep?" she said
Kenji turned around and Ardere saw details she hadn't noticed from across the room when she first entered.
Kenji had cuts and scrapes all along his face and his arms were bruised. What had happened to him? did Ian come back for some revenge while she was incapacitated? or was this the result of another fight he had gotten into.
"You've been in the infirmary for about twelve days." Kenji said, his voice low and serious.