****6 YEARS LATER******
***On the outskirts of a jungle surrounded by a barrier***
"today's the day huh?"
"Yh..."
"C'mon, don't look so nervous. There's nothing to worry about"
Two ragged-looking young boys sat on logs across from each other , one with a tense look on his face, the other with a calm and relaxed demeanour about him.
"And if they don't let me out of here? I doubt they're expecting anyone to survive six years in this place, much less a kid. They might think its the illusion of a Ludo*" King anxiously said, all while keeping eye contact with the dark skinned boy he had grown really close to over the last six years.
"We've been over this how many times now? If that happens you use plan B and copy me. One way or another, the both of us are leaving this place today" answered Royale in a slightly exasperated voice.
"I suggest you both move now, the quicker the better. Gives you time to accustom yourselves to the outside world before you sign up for the Academy" suggested Chronus, speaking directly into their minds.
"Speaking of which, do we even know when they start accepting applications?"
"No, which is exactly why we need to leave now. For all we know we might already be too late, that would set us back quite abit" replied Royale, his serious tone relaying how he didn't want to be set back any further.
"Hopefully we have enough time to not only get accustomed to life outside but also find a place to live, buy new clothes, equipment and probably weapons. Look at us aswell! We look a mess, we're gonna need haircuts aswell"
What he said was the truth, as a result of diligently training for the past six years for a total of 20hrs every day not leaving room for much else other than sleep and lightly washing up in the nearby river, their hair had continued to grow untamed throughout the whole time,
They now both had lots of hair. Bushy and straight alike tied back and held in place by makeshift ropes made out of leaves so as not to get in the way of their training.
"There's a lot to do isn't there?"
Royale nodded.
With a sigh King heaved himself up from the log he was on "lets get going then"
Royale grinned knowingly and stood after securely tying a hand made bag around his waist. "Finally, I've been waiting to do this for how long now?"
They exited the small cave they had been using as a home for the past six years and headed out into the all to familiar jungle, traversing through what they had come to label as the safe zone on the very outskirts of the Jungle.
On their left they could see the towering fence that kept this jungle isolated and as they weaved past the many trees and bushes in their way, their eyes now well accustomed to the almost pitch blackness of the Jungle, they both felt a deep sense of anticipation and urgency as well as nervousness in Kings case.
Today was the day they had been consistently working hard towards for the past six years and they could really feel the emotions flooding in as they carefully approached the the gate of the large fence that had emerged from behind a pair of large trees.
Before them was the long run down path he started at six years ago, still as dilapidated as ever it snaked its way toward the small gate at its end. securely shut and guarded by two tall men in dull bronze armour.
"Well, I should get going, I'll meet you on the other side", before he could respond, Royale swiftly vanished from sight, leaving behind his own shadow which swirled briefly before also dissipating into nothingness and leaving King stood silently watching the backs of the two guards on the other side of this gate.
After taking a moment to regain his composure, King's face took on a calm and indifferent expression as he slowly and confidently approached the gate.
When he reached the gate he cleared his throat loudly and shouted a few times to catch the attention of the guards, before realising they couldn't hear him at all. Strange since he could clearly hear them discussing and making idle talk to pass the time, judging by the voice and physique, the one on the right was clearly a woman.
'Must be the barrier, it must have some sort of sound nullification feature that probably works only one way' King concluded 'But then how do I get their attention?'
'Maybe if I damage the gate a bit? May as well give it a try'
The air around his hands began to slightly distort and crackle with bluish sparks as he charged up enough energy to damage the fence. However, as soon as he started doing this the two guards on the other side quickly spun around in alarm and jumped back, raising their swords menacingly in the direction of the gate.
Despite it not showing on his calm and collected face, King was surprised at their reaction. Although he had planned to try and damage the gate he had never expected to succeed.
He had seen creatures stronger than him attempt it only to fail miserably as the gate remained unscathed, if it was possible for a 12 year old boy to damage it, the monsters of this jungle would've long since escaped. The two men where completely safe, why have such a reaction?
'Look closely the helmets they're wearing, those don't look normal. They must be designed to pick up when an attack mana is being gathered or something along those lines' pointed out Chronus and upon further inspection King noticed that their open faced roman style helmets were slightly glowing blue.
The two guards had visible expressions of shock on their faces as they stared in surprise and confusion at the boy who stood on the other side of the barrier.
One of them ,the woman on the right, soon replaced her shock with an expression of pity, disgust and anger.
"That adventurer from earlier was right, a young boy about twelve years old did appear here, but he looks way different to what i imagined he would"
"Yeah you're right, but then again this could be a completely different boy. If this is the boy then the description he gave us was completely misleading. I don't know if we should let him out, if we got it wrong and its not the right person there'll be hell to pay" responded the male guard uncertainly.
The female ground her teeth unhappily, "Can't we just let him go regardless? Leaving a child in their alone is just cruel, this one's been incredibly lucky to survive this long even if he's not the right one, don't you think he deserves it?"
The male guard shook his head bitterly "I understand what you're trying to say Anna but you and I both know what the higher ups are like" he reached inside the satchel by his side and took out a formal-looking piece of paper. "Maybe we should ask him if this is his name just to be sure"
Anna let out a regretful sigh "He can hear us right? Anyone, even a child, with half a brain would be smart enough to realise that to get out they just need to lie regardless of whether or not it's true so they can get out of here"
The man winked and replied "That's not our problem now is it? I you know what I mean"
Catching on Anna smirked and nodded.
The male guard who was called Jorge then turned back towards the gate and looked the boy on the other side in the eyes.
"Little boy your name wouldn't happen to be Jullius Norden would it?"
King inwardly grimaced as that name was read out, bringing back with it old memories, but he remained calm and without hesitation nodded.
"Well then, i don't know how you did it but you successfully outlived your sentence of six years here. Please step back so I can open the gate and let you out" Ann swiftly recited as she pulled some sort of knife handle out of her own satchel.
King quickly obeyed,
As she approached the barrier, the handle began to glow as from it sprouted a ruby red blade, about 20cm long which she dug into the outline of the gate and traced around it until she arrived back at her starting point.
The rectangle she traced in the air glowed an enchanting red before disappearing and leaving a large rectangular hole in the barrier which was slightly visible against the ghostly white almost transparent barrier.
She reached into the hole and opened the gate for him to pass through, before closing it shut and quickly resealing the barrier.
Once on the other side King felt a distinct pressure lift off him. He felt lighter and found that it was easier to breathe. The air around here wasn't contaminated by some sort of miasma and for the First time in six years he wasn't constantly hearing the roaring and noise of monsters going about their day.
It felt truly different to what he had gotten used to.
He turned his back to the Jungle and in front of him he could see a large road about 100metres from his current position.
About 20metres to his right was a large six storey grey building on an elevated platform. It looked important and had many windows showing the spacious office rooms on the third floors and above aswell as the large halls on the bottom floors.
"Right, we need you to sign this kid but first follow me to that building over there where we can get you some proper clothing. We cant have you walking around in those rags" As Jorge said this he was nodding in the direction of a smaller red brick building that resembled a well kept and larger than average shed or storage room of some sort off the the left.