(This chapter is unedited, and may be changed up in the future. This also goes for the rest of the volume as of now.)
"I haven't been on a school bus in a while." Alex thought as he stared out the window watching the glazed forestry, the bright reflective snow hurting his eyes after a short while.
He turned to check what everyone else was doing. Taylor had fallen asleep almost immediately as the trip had begun. Alex was tempted to push his head off of his shoulder every time it rested there, but he decided to just let him be.
A group near the front was singing, and some near Alex at the back, were competing on some games they had on their phone.
A group of older girls across the isle were looking at Alex and Taylor and giggling.
Alex sighed internally and looked down at the book in his hands. He winced as he felt a strong sense of nostalgia, he refused to let that memory resurface.
'I was naive, I didn't know the first thing about relationships, much less had I ever held a conversation for more than a few seconds. I spent most of my childhood alone isolated from even my siblings. I was just ignorant to a lot of things.'
Even though Alex understood that he was young and dumb, he still felt like there was something nagging at the back of his head. He had pushed her away, he had pushed his siblings away, and he had even pushed his friends away when he felt like he was loosing himself.
'Why do I do this?'
He had always justified it as a way to preserve his sanity, but the loneliness from each time nearly pushed him to insanity. It felt like he was doing more harm to himself than good, like each time he did it he was cutting his souls into shreds and causing himself anguish.
Alex put the book away and smacked himself lightly on his cheeks, hearing light giggling across the isle as he did so.
Alex put some earbuds in his ears and closed his eyes as he waited for the bus ride to be over.
After a while he lurched forward slightly as the bus came to a stop. He opened his eyes which widened as he saw some of the largest building he had ever seen before.
His eyes fluttered in all directions as he took in the sights. He pulled the earbuds from his ears and heard the quiet murmurs from all of the students.
"Holdensburg looks really great this time of year, the snow adds to its… aesthetic." Taylor said, pausing for a moment before he found the right word.
He rubbed his eyes and yawned as he woke himself up after the long ride.
"You've been here before?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, they hold the championships for most sports at the high school here, so as you can tell I have been here a few times."
Alex nodded as he returned to looking out the window.
Many cars and pedestrians passed the bus as their bus travelled to Holdensburg High. He looked back and saw the other bus from Dalifield was a little further behind.
After a while he saw busses becoming more frequent.
'We must be getting close.'
On cue Taylor spoke up. "There it is. It's pretty big for a high school, hope you are up for some cardio."
Alex smiled. "I'm ready." He said as he felt an feeling akin to stage fright.
"Save that energy for later." Taylor said repeating what Alex had said to him as he felt electricity making his hair standing on ends.
After a few minutes Duncan stood up at the front of the bus and spoke up. "Alright everyone, you know the drill, when we get off turn the rune formations on your badges on and stay together. No trouble makers either, those caught will have a punishment fitting the crime. Good? Good, now everyone off of the bus and good luck we expect a lot from you all."
Alex stepped off of the bus and activated the formation on the badge he had put on his shoulder. The badge changed colors as his elements disappeared and the school's colors of black, dark blue, and yellow appeared in their stead. Written in white, Dalifield covered the colors and announced the school they were from.
"David really did a good job on these." Taylor said while admiring how cool the badges looked.
"I did my own, how does it look, it isn't messed up is it?" Alex asked as he tried to tilt his shoulder towards himself.
"No, it all looks good, although the colors on yours seem to be moving as if they are alive, is that normal? Did you give yourself a better badge on purpose?"
Alex scratched the back of his head as he tried to explain himself. "I'm not so sure myself, all I know is that David said it was the side effect of my runes being completely in tune."
"So you say. Alright I trust you but next year you are programming mine as well." Taylor said as he and Alex followed their classmates and instructors.
"Will do." Alex said with a chuckle while zipping up his blue hoodie. He looked up to see if he could spot his old schools colors and was instantly drowned in all that was going on around him.
So many different groups with different badges walked parallel to his group. His eyes darted back and forth between them all. He caught many eyes looking in his direction, but none of them were familiar so he just ignored them.
"Any luck?" Taylor asked while searching himself.
"No, but we seem to be gathering a lot of attention already. Maybe you will find yourself someone special here." Alex said before pulling his hood up over his head. The dark blue material covering his black hair.
"Maybe, but just a word of warning, be wary of those with a lot of confidence. They are a real headache." Taylor said while also pulling up his hood. A dark red material covering his blonde hair.
"All right I'll listen to the professional."
Alex glanced at the large buildings that they walked past, each and everyone of them had intricate designs making his eyes want to stick to them like glue.
A quiet murmur spread across the crowd and Alex's head turned back to where they were headed.
"Is that a domain?" Alex asked as he saw fluttering yellow dome off in the distance.
"That is the Anti-Magic barrier set up to prevent conflicts." David said as he appeared from within the crowd.
He had arrived earlier as he was one of the highest ranking Rune-Writers present. Spotting Alex within the crowd was easily doable as even the students a grade above him couldn't compare to the aura of his energy.
"This is made from a powerful rune formation, that would cost a fortune to create. You will see what I mean when we get closer." David said as he disappeared into the crowd leaving a trail of astonished voices in his wake.
Alex saw that he was wearing the rune guild's badge. His indicated that he was rather high up in the ranking.
Alex smiled as he watched David leave. 'I'm surprised he put that badge back on. After he learned that his guild was just a puppet guild he wasn't himself for a few weeks.'
Alex could see there was a new look in David's eyes as he walked off.
He was about to turn his head but just as he tried to, he locked his head in place and his eyes flicked back. Off in the distance Alex could see the familiar colors of his old school. 'Red, White, and Yellow.'
Alex's eyes locked in on the group he could just barely see. He tried to see if there was anyone familiar, but it wasn't possible from this distance. He decided to take a chance taking the spacial energy near the group under his control he scanned the crowd to see if any of them were familiar.
Alex tried to keep his energy low but it wasn't enough. 'Somebody noticed my energy.' Alex thought as he felt a wave of energy crash through his spacial perception and shatter it.
Alex focused in on it and he saw a tidal wave of energy coming from a man who was casually reading a book while sitting on a bench next to the path they were taking.
'Some scary people.' Alex thought as his eyes flicked to the random people who were stationed around them.
Alex looked at the way the world rippled around each and everyone of them. 'The camera man on the side who is taking pictures of all the students. The tour guides. Even the "couples" that are sitting beneath trees next to the path, are all like predators.'
"Wait. There is no snow here." Alex said as he glanced back a the green grass surrounding him.
"Heated grounds. It would be expensive but the Holdensburg school system has a lot of fire mages." A voice to his right said.
Alex looked over and saw a guy with red hair looking in his direction, the guys pale skin seemed to glow in the winter sun's light.
"With a school of this size I'm sure that they have plenty of mages from all of the elements." Alex said as he looked away from the red haired boy who stood nearly a foot above him in height.
"Dalifield, I have a friend who went there. My name is Cameron by the way." Cameron said as his hand appeared in front of Alex.
Alex looked at his hand for a second before he shook it. "I'm Alex."
"And I'm Taylor." Taylor said as he grabbed the guys hand and shook it as well.
"So what are you guys planning to take part in this year?" Cameron said as he looked back at the two who walked next to him.
"Hunting and potion brewing for me." Taylor said as his other clubs didn't hold any competitions for first years.
"And you?"
"Same as him just adding in the rune writing." Alex said as he noticed they were finally nearing the large dome.
"They let you into that competition, your only a freshman right?"
Alex nodded in confirmation.
"It takes years to lear how to write runes you must have had a good tutor."
"This is Alex's first year writing runes." Taylor said.
'Oh! Their school must be running low on students in that club. I should've guessed that at first.' Cameron thought as he looked over to his group. 'My schools number of mages more than doubles theirs, it should be easy for them to join any competitions.'
Alex could already tell what cameron was thinking, but he didn't even bother trying to correct him. 'He will find out soon enough.'
Alex watched as Duncan walked up to the guard at the entrance to the dome. He presented a sheet of paper to the man and gestured for his group to follow him.
Many buildings and what Alex could only describe as large arenas were seen within the dome.
"Alright right now we are headed over to watch the preliminaries take place. Tomorrow the potions club will compete and on Wednesday the hunting club. the runes club will compete, along with a few other clubs on thursday. The final combat competition begins late Thursday and it ends on Friday." Duncan said to the group of kids before him as they stopped in a less crowded area. "That is the schedule, everyone clear on what you are doing?"
All of the mages nodded.
"Good I'll have the maps for you by the end of the day until then let's enjoy the show."
Alex was looking down at his hands as he walked. He had summoned some spacial energy and the dome didn't seem to notice its presence. He quickly let it go and he followed his classmates as they entered the largest arena within the dome.
They walked into the stands before sitting together in a group.
"Where are they?" Derek asked as he looked down into the arena below them.
"Down there." Ana said while pointing to a group of students that were difficult to spot.
The group was also looking up into the stands.
Alex smiled as he saw Tom and James waving in their direction. All of the first and second years from Dalifield waved back to the captains across the arena from them.
After nearly an hour of waiting Alex watched the last of the students entering the field.
'That's her older sister.' Alex thought as he recognized a familiar face.
'She graduates this year.' Alex looked around in the stands but he couldn't see the younger group from his old school.
'If her sister is here then she will be too.' Alex thought as he planned the next few days out.
'After this week many people will know my name. Hopefully that is enough.'
"Pay attention all of you, you will be up there in the coming years." Duncan said several large groups of students stepped up on stages that rose from the ground.
No more than three students from one school shared the same platform. A loud tone sounded and a clear dome rose around those who were below, allowing them to use mana once again.
Alex watched as countless mages went into an all out brawl. They were focused on attacking certain areas of other mages.
"They are breaking small badges on other mages, they will be separated into groups depending on how many they break and how many they manage to keep unbroken." Taylor said answering Alex's question before he had even asked.
Alex looked at all of the elements clashing. On every stage there was always one or two that stood out from the rest.
After a few minutes of pure chaos Alex saw a familiar sight. A clear domain appeared around a stage, several students on it were tossed to the ground. On it was the blonde haired Tom. Several students were seen trying to take potshots at him, but he was able to fend them off and break their brittle badges while he was at it.
Another domain appeared this time it was red. Alex expected to see the dark haired James but instead he saw, a tall red headed man holding all of his competitors at bay with one arm.
'Must be related to Cameron.' Alex thought as he turned to look at the other stages. All but one of the stages ended up having someone that could use a domain and on that stage there was a woman weaving in and out through the rest of the mages.
A steady flow of mages walked off of the platform as she gathered more and more points.
'She really is a light mage.' Alex thought while watching Tori's older sister defeating all those mages with the brute strength of a light mage.
"She is very good." Taylor said as he spotted who Alex was staring at.
Just like the rest, she was nearing the master's class.
Alex watched as several students easily stood above the rest. But not all were lucky on many stages multiple duels had begun and seemed to be on equal grounds.
Not even a minute after Tom had activated his domain, he deactivated it and stepped down from the stage.
"Why did he get off?" Alex asked as he saw him step down.
"He has already reached the limit. Somewhere around seventy badges I think. Soon the others will be doing the same thing." Taylor said before pointing.
"There's James, he is holding back against them."
Alex looked over and saw jets of flame streaming from a figure.
'It's hard to see but that is definitely him.'
James was fighting with only hand to hand combat, and using his flames to keep others at a distance from himself. Much like with Tom he soon stepped down from the stage, but he wasn't the only one, another few from his stage got down as well.
Alex looked around, several people were standing around the stages just standing and watching the others fighting.
'It won't be fair. If I were down there this year I would have to put a lot of effort in fighting, but waiting a few years will set me apart from the rest.' Alex watched with a light frown. Right now he was picturing himself down on a stage all of the brittle badges of the students near him breaking with no warning.
'Overkill, complete overkill, but it all makes sense in a few years my main adversary will not be them but someone else.' Alex looked up, as if searching for something or someone.
'Hell. Built upon the fragments of the flames of reincarnation. An entire plane of existence built on top of where we are today.' Alex internally sighed. 'And yet, I can't see it even with every different perspective i have.'
'But even still, that is where he will be.'