The next day came quickly and the two avoided each other. Leo woke up earlier than the royal, once more doing his morning routine of stretching, exercising, and showering. This caused the royal to wake up with a very upset expression.
"Ugh, what time is it?" The royal groaned out from underneath his pillow.
"Four thirty" Leo said calmly as he exercised.
"4:30?! Are you nuts?!" The royal lifted themselves out of their bed as they asked Leo with tired eyes.
"I always get up at around four." Leo replied with an innocent face.
The royal just stared at him with tired eyes before eventually pulling out his phone in defeat. Seeing this, Leo continued on until it was almost seven. Then Leo left for class and the royal left not long after.
Sitting in Ethan's class it seemed as though all the seats would finally be filled. By the time Ethan entered they in fact were!
Leo even managed to hear Ethan mumble, "Thank fuck…" although not very professional, Leo agreed.
Ethan walked to the front of the class and shouted, "And now! The moment you've all been waiting for! Soul realms!" He raised his hands in the air in a very excited manner.
Too bad most of the class just stared at him, silently urging him to get on with it.
Ethan coughed awkwardly, "Okay, okay, I get it. Nobody ever wants fun… All right, where to start?" He tapped his foot on the ground while thinking.
Most of the students were just flabbergasted that he hadn't thought of how to even approach the subject after all this time.
"Okay, let's start here. All demons and angels have a soul realm. It is not to be confused as a soul. Every living thing has a soul, just not a soul realm. Think of the soul as you, and the soul realm as a house. It's not the best analogy because it ignores humans, but it kind of works. Your soul realm is basically a different realm only you can access. The bigger the soul realm, the more power you generally have.
"You need to channel your soul realm into the soul, then into the body, to manifest it into the real world. It's much easier than it sounds. But there are some things you need to be aware of.
"You have four things to be aware of, and this may get a little confusing, but I'll try my best to simplify it. First off you have a permanent pool. This is the maximum amount of magic you'll be able to use at any one time, it is permanent unless you do the fourth thing, which we'll discuss momentarily. The second is potential pool, this is how much you can currently use of the permanent pool before the strain gets too much for your body. This amount can be increased through training. Third is active pool, this is how much you have in your potential pool before reaching the point of stress and your body gives out.
"Basically, think of three bars. One measures the best you can ever achieve. The second measures what you can achieve now, and the third measures how much you can use until reaching your potential pool cap and you pass out.
"As for the fourth thing to be aware of is, well, your permanent pool is only semi-permanent. There is something incredibly dangerous and will ruin your career, if not your life, if you use it. Leaking your soul realm. You can leak your permanent pool into reality, this will create a massive spike in power, but your permanent pool will shrink accordingly. If your permanent pool is reduced to nothing, you will die. Doing this will make your pool rapidly disappear as well so most people can only do it for a few seconds before dying. Basically, leaking your soul realm skips the channeling into the body step, going straight to reality. Generally, this is only possible through a tear, in other words you need a way to skip channeling into your body, this can be done easily through wounds, but can be done in other, more complicated, ways.
"So, be careful when your injured, and if you intend to leak your soul realm, only use it as a last resort.
"While entering your soul realms, you can reside there, but your body will stay in the real world. I'm telling you this because generally they exist as the soul sees itself, so you'll naturally find it very calming there. Keep this in mind so you don't stay in your soul realm any more than necessary, to avoid getting stabbed or something in real life. Let's see, what else, actually, I think that's it. I know it's confusing, but you'll get used to it quickly."
The class continued with his explaining various theories about the soul realm as well as answering any questions the class had. But the class came to an end, and everyone walked full of vigor to the dirt field.
Mr. Griffith stood there watching some nearby crows cawing in the trees. He only looked at his students after they all sat down in the grass, next to the field.
"Once you learn how to access your soul realm, hopefully today, you'll start our fourth curriculum, which is specifically for whatever class you are." He rubbed his temples, "Let's hope today goes smoothly, soul realms are tricky business at first, but they get much easier to manage."
He walked closer to his students.
"Alright, all of you listen and listen good. Some of might've already noticed it, but your soul realm actively wants to be opened. It is also very easy to open and enter. But if you remember, it is also a very calming place. Some find it hard to leave and want to stay there. Do not stay in your soul realm, it will only make you want to abandon the real world. Also never enter it in a battle, your body will remain in the real world, you're not entering a pocket dimension, contrary to what some humans think. But luckily time does flow slightly slower in your soul realm, so you can stay for a moment to think of strategies before a fight.
"Just enter your soul realm, check it out, and leave. It's as simple as that. Once you do that, we'll teach you how to thread it through your soul and into your body. Once it's in your body you can make it manifest in the real world.
"Alright, to enter your soul realm, and this is going to get a little weird, calm your mind and enter your soul. You'll have to feel it, I know that doesn't really help, but this is… like a journey of introspection. Yeah, that's sound weird to say but its accurate. Once you enter it and check it out, leave, and just talk amongst yourselves. If you're having problems speak up or I'll assume you've got it under control."
He gestured for the students to begin and most of them were just confused instead opting to stare at their teacher. The stares were almost exclusively composed of new demons. Many of the old demons had already entered their soul realm at least once.
Apparently, demons and angels both had soul realms so even though Leo was a half-blood, he had one he could enter as well.
He blocked his mind off from any outside interference and emptied his mind.
"In that dark pit of nothing, I saw a friend reaching out to me."
Leo heard a voice speak to him, from where he couldn't tell. He had suddenly found himself in a plane of white. There was absolutely nothing here and was slightly unsettling.
"A friend from ages gone, never met, but always there, always trying to give a helping hand."
This time Leo thought he could see something off in the distance.
"I now wish to be that friend, so take my hand."
On the horizon of Leo's consciousness, he could see something.
"Follow my voice, I'll take you to meet me."
Leo did as the voice requested; it wasn't a demand but rather a plea. He set out in the direction of the voice, as he did it got louder and louder.
Eventually, Leo was met with door, a literal one. Completely out of place with the blank white area around it that was his mind. It was an oddly elegant door, it had intricate carvings in the wood and the handle was a bronze one, highly embellished and beautiful in every way.
Leo reached out and opened the door. Doing so he found himself standing in a pitch-black place, his feet were standing in some sort of liquid. The liquid was as dark as it got, much like the area around him. It was accurate to say it seemed like an abyss.
"It's so nice to finally met you, young master."
Leo whipped around and saw a weirdly human grey fox, standing on two feet, slightly taller than Leo. It wore an excellently made suit, as beautiful as the door from before. It stuck out its hand to Leo.
"Please call me Grey. It may be simple, but that's my name."
Leo was dumbstruck as he stared at the fox speaking in a language not made for its tongue or mouth. The whole situation was too much for him to handle.
Hesitantly Leo shook Fox's hand, he replied, "Math-"
"It's impolite to lie, Mr. Blight." The fox cut Leo off.
Leo stared at the fox with suspicion.
"Now, now, it's best we get these things out of the way. We're going to be spending a lot of time together you know." Grey spoke in a soft voice.
"Where am I?"
"You are currently in your soul realm, Mr. Leonardo."
"Don't lie to me, they can't be this large, nor is anything allowed to be in them, like a certain fox."
"Well, what can I say? The grandson of a god is obviously going to be special." Grey said with a smile that looked slightly mocking, although that wasn't the fox's intention.
Grey continued, "Although I wish for you to believe me, I know it might be hard at first. But we're stuck together, regardless of if you enjoy it. So, please, let's make the most of this relationship why don't we? It's a shame about everything that happened while I was sealed away, I'm sorry for that. But my job is to help guide you, and while I don't agree with your aspirations, I will help."
"…" Leo just stared at him.
"You should go now, before Augusto gets suspicious. Honestly, I would've thought he would've been dead by now." Grey smiled as if reminiscing about something pleasant.
Leo's eyes widened, "You know my teacher? Mr. Griffith?"
"Indeed, I know a lot of useful things, I'll of course help you out down the line when it's needed. Now you'll have to leave, we'll talk later after you start experiencing… the problem."
"The problem?"
"You'll see, now please leave. Don't worry, it's your soul realm, it and I are not going anywhere."
Leo reluctantly left, he did it by allowing his concentration to falter which kicked him out of his realm. After he did, he noticed most others had already visited and left their realm.
He sat looking at nothing in particular thinking about what he just experienced. Noises went in and out of his head, he paid them no attention. He just stared at nothing. Thinking empty thoughts that amounted to nothing. For one of the first times in his life, he couldn't create an answer. Not even a guess.
That upset him.