Dashing down the hallway, Ojero quickly arrived at the familiars classroom door.
This door had various images of creatures of different elements, such as a Cerberus and even an Amarok, a very rare ice-type familiar.
Opening the wooden door, Ojero saw a room even bigger than the magic practice room. It was a giant arena!
'How did this fit inside?!'
The roof was gone, replaced with the open sky. Ojero was currently on a platform high above, looking down on the great central area. Thousands of seats circled the entire area.
Ojero let out a gasp when he realized this was all real. There is no way any illusion mage would put this much effort into a prank.
A voice then sounded behind Ojero.
"Enjoying the view?"
Ojero quickly turned around, and he saw a beautiful tall woman standing there. She was wearing long brown robes, and was adorned with various jewelry.
"How is this possible exactly?"
"Well, it should be obvious. We are no longer at the school. Many centuries ago, a strong space mage was a teacher for this class and decided the small room he had wasn't enough. Now, this room is used as both the familiars classroom and for sanctioned combat."
"So I am guessing you are the familiars professor?" Ojero asked.
"You would be correct, I am Professor Erica."
As she was talking, more students started to suddenly appear on the platform in a pop, including a certain blonde.
Ignoring her to save his sanity, Ojero pointedly looked away from Litany, wondering whose idea it was to make them have 4 classes together?
"Ok kids, gather around!" Professor Erica announced.
Everyone moved towards the professor, and when they all were close to her, the ground started to shake and quake.
Suddenly, the ground started going down towards the arena floor with everyone on it. As they lowered, Ojero looked out around the roof of the arena to see the Great 11.
There were 11 statues built at the top, looking down at the people in the arena. These were the Great 11, the strongest magicians of history. They each had a month named after them, but the 9th month was Thyrus.
Little is known what actually happened, but Thyrus was also known as the Dark Lich. He represented the elements of darkness and death, and was with the originals. Something occurred between them all, and Thyrus was killed by the combined strength of the other 11.
By the statues, between the 8th and 10th, was a pair of stone feet with jagged rocks at their top, making it appear as if it once held a great statue like the others but was brutally knocked off at some point.
For some reason, when Ojero saw this, he felt the purple and black crystal inside him react, almost as if they were enraged at the sight. The feeling quickly left, but Ojero started to sweat a little thinking about what happened.
When they reached the arena floor, Professor Erica ordered everyone to stand in a line at the very center.
"Ok kiddies, it's time to take the greatest step towards your magical growth this year; the summoner of familiars."
"I trust everyone has their familiar scrolls? Good. I will now show you how to activate them."
The professor went through multiple actions with her hands, muttering a specific combination of words everyone had to memorize. She then held a scroll out, and finished her chanting.
Once she finished, nothing happened, and everyone raised their eyes to look at her. wondering what she did wrong.
"Who do you think you are judging?" She snapped at them, "I already have a familiar idiots. Of course it wouldn't summon a second."
Everyone's mouths made an 'O' shape as they realized their own stupidity.
"Okay, now you can all spread out to summon your familiar, but don't go too far. If you need help, call me over."
At these words, Ojero promptly turned around and walked towards the far wall at the foot of the broken statue.
Something about it attracted Ojero, as if he was a long lost friend who he missed dearly.
Sitting down, he pulled out the box holding the mythic scroll his father gave him. It looked just like a plain piece of paper, but held great power in this world.
Opening the scroll, Ojero started to go through the motions and verbal cues to summon the familiar. As he chanted, he felt his mind drift away. It was as if he was comfortably falling asleep, and as he uttered the last word, he fell to the ground with no consciousness left in him.
Professor Erica's Point of View
***
'I always enjoy watching the new kids summon their familiars. It always gives me such a rush.'
The professor was watching all of the kids finish their actions, and fall to the ground. She remembered when she first summoned her familiar, how she fell and hurt her elbow. When she awoke, the first thing she felt was the massive pain, but she was too excited to care.
'Ah, the joy of youth.'
She was walking around, making sure everyone was doing things right. Although she told them clearly what to do, many of them would still mess up so it was her duty to fix it. If they did it wrong, they could enter the wrong area of the spiritual realm.
She paused in her walk, as she remembered 'that' realm.
In the Elemental Domain, there are dozens of separate realms that represent specific elements. Usually, the elements band together and try to take over neighboring realms. Familiars are very similar to humans in that.
Some are darker than others, and some are too dark to even speak of. The professor has been to one such realm, the Realm of Everlasting Plague. It is a dark place, full of familiars who control only the darkest and most vile toxins and diseases.
As she was ruminating on her past, a chill was sweeping the entire arena, as the temperature drastically dropped. Erica picked up on this immediately and jumped into a battle stance, as she scanned the area. Although she saw nothing, she knew this chill.
It was the chill of death.