Aron's fingers wrapped around the spear, gripping it firmly. Behind him, Rin saw him meticulously observe the handle with his left hand. She had a smile on her face, happy to find the boy so interested in one of the greatest mysteries of the academy.
It's been so many years and truth was, that the academy itself was losing hope of finding a suitable bearer for this relic. Nowadays, the ceremony had just become a formality. Apart from that, only a few overconfident kids will try their luck here.
Aron on the other hand found himself totally mesmerized by the intricate patterns dug in the shaft of the spear. The patterns provided a great grip to hold onto the weapon. *Thump* "Hmm?" He was treading his fingers over the shaft when he suddenly felt a jerk. At once it was like the spear pulsated with life.
Blaming it on his over fascination with the weapon, he returned to check it once again. *Thump* This time when he felt it, it was fairly obvious that his mind was not making things up. There was something wrong with the relic itself. He used both his hands to grip on the shaft, trying to get a better feel of the throbs.
"Can you feel it, too?" Rin had now walked over to stand opposite to him, confusedly staring at the boy's face in the increasing dark surrounding. "Feel what?" "You don't hear anything?"
She placed both her hands on her waist. "Are you messing with me, kid?" Her actions told Aron that probably he was the only one who can hear those beatings. *Thump* As if it was just to convince him, he heard the same thumping once again.
Ignoring a glaring Rin, he closed his eyes to better feel that rhythmically beats. If he had to define it, then it was like the heartbeats of a large beast. *Thump* *Thump* Heartbeats that were growing more powerful and frequent with the passing time. *Thump* *Thump*
Rin had cooled down when she saw the boy meditate with his hands around the shaft of the spear. This was too elaborate for just a prank. 'Was he telling the truth?' Doubting herself, she too let her senses open up. The best she can feel was the dense aura emanating from the spear and that was nothing new.
Five minutes later, she had given up on her efforts. But the boy was still standing there with closed eyes. Rather, he seems to have slipped into an even deeper meditation. 'Can it be..?' *BOOM* Right when the thought crossed her mind, a blast of energy hit her chest.
Both individuals on the pedestal were thrown in the air. In the split moment, she extended her hand to capture the boy into her embrace as they fell on the ground. Caught off-guard by the blast she had been thrown almost 20 meters away from the energy blast.
Yet, once she landed on the ground, she had bigger problems to deal with. "Aron??" In her lap, the boy was bleeding from all his orifices. "Fuckk!!" Immediately, Rin picked him up into her arms and jumped into the air, directly flying towards her office. The reason for her panic was that the boy was neither breathing nor can she feel his heartbeat.
***
On the borders of the Raymond Empire stood a massive forest, inexplicably dense and unexplored. In a part of the forest that was covered with had dark-leafed trees and vegetation, stood an absolute behemoth of a tree that was reaching out to heaven itself.
*Rumble* *Rumble* Black clouds were converging on top of the forest. Lighting churned in the sky above, each strike filling the profound beasts of the dark forest with dread. *Rumble* *Rumble* Each bang of the lightning was black, just like the surroundings.
The clouds were denser where the large tree stood, its canopy reaching out straight among the churning clouds. On one of the branches of the tree stood a large nest, almost 20 meters in diameter. A black mass can be seen resting in the nest. *Rumble* With another strike of the thunder, black mass flinched.
A pair of piercing yellow eyes displayed itself before two huge wings stood up, making clear that this was an absolutely massive bird with large black feathers that crackled with bolts of lightning. "Hmm..!!" The beast moved its head to stare in a particular direction before its wings fell back around itself before closing its eyes.
It was a majestic beast, completely unharmed and unfazed by the dreaded lightning strikes from the skies. Even while sleeping, the aerial beast was realizing a boundless might that shrouded the whole of the dark forest.
***
In another tower inside the academy itself, a blonde woman was diligently working on her desk. Beside her, a woman sat with her head on the table. From her regular breathing pattern, it was evident that she was in deep sleep.
*Thud* "Ahhh!" Wendy was scared to death when the woman beside her jerked awake. "What was that for, principal?" The blonde woman looked down at the ruined document with spilled ink spread over it. She was in the process of fixing it when he saw the lady next to her get to her feet.
"Follow me, Wendy. Someone messed with the relic." Shocked by the words left by the dark-haired woman, the assistant too jumped through the open window to follow behind the principal. Not long after both ladies found themselves in the field with the spear still stuck inside the pillar.
The explosion had caused a commotion and there were a few people gathered around. Rin had left with Aron as soon as the fault appeared and hence no one saw them leave. "Principal is here.. make way." Wendy immediately took charge, shoving the people away from the platform to let Madelyn walk in.
Her eyes looked at the relic, Madelyn gripped the shaft and analyzed a new crack in the pillar that must have caused the explosion. It was evident that some just tried to free the spear and succeeded albeit barely. With a heavy grip, she tried to tug the weapon out but failed to do so.
*Sigh* She turned around to address Wendy. "Who was it?" The blonde lady shook her head. "No witnesses. They didn't see anyone. The person must have left in a panic, I guess." As a capable assistant, she had already questioned the people around and came up with a conclusion.
*Thud* Another person fell from the skies. Nancy heard Wendy's answer as she landed in a hurry. "Is it free?" There was a glimmer of hope in her eyes as she directed her question to Madelyn. "No. But we got hope." Contrary to her, the principal had a grin that spread from her ear to ear.
"Disperse the crowd, Wendy." At Nancy's command, the lady assistant sprung into action, convincing people to leave. Though a few people were dissatisfied, Wendy's stern words forced them to leave the grounds. With her as the guard, the two older ladies appraised the damage caused to the stone pillar.
"Any ideas?" Madelyn saw her blue-haired senior fall in thought for a while. Suddenly her eyes shined brightly. "Let's go, I know a suspect." Without any further delay, the two ladies leaped into the sky leaving behind a disgruntled Wendy, who was tasked with keeping the area clear.
**10 minutes ago**
*Knock* *Knock* Yana removed her reading glasses and putting her book to the side, got up to open the door. "Hi, sister!" She found a smiling face waiting for her. "Hey!" The two ladies hugged each other.
"Please come in." Yana invited her half-masked guest inside. Darlene followed the woman inside. "Sorry, for the disturbance big sis. I didn't see you in the mess for so many days, thus wanted to check on you."
Yana revealed an enchanting smile. "Thanks a lot for the concern, Darlene. Huuu.. I was facing some troubles, that's why I never left my room." "Ohh.. is that something I can help with?" The redhead settled on the couch as Yana brought her some coffee.
"Mhhh.. I don't know. It's actually related to necromancy discipline. But anyhow you are welcome to try." Darlene followed her gaze to look at a sturdy skeleton at one corner of the room, with its limbs tied up. Previously she had ignored it because apart from looking much stronger than a usual skelly the bag of bone didn't have any other qualities.
"Isn't that just a skeleton? How is that causing your issue?" Darlene sipped hot coffee from her cup while appraising the bag of bones. "It's not that simple. This guy. He was summoned with an ancient spell." *Crash* Her words caused the redhead to lose control of her faculties as the cup handle between her fingers broke and spilled the coffee on the floor.
Darlene apologized for that but Yana just waved her off, handing her another cup. "Are you sure about that?" There were only a handful of ancient spells left in this world. The condition was so bad that there was not even a complete grimoire left, rather all this generation was left with were a few pages from them.
"Yeah, pretty much." Yana sipped from her mug and signed lightly. "Hahaha.. well if we think about it, you are related to all this." Darlene was left confused by her words. "Me? How come?"
"Want to know who summoned this thing?" Yana had a knowing smile on her face. Suddenly, Darlene was struck with inspiration. "Don't tell me!!" Yana broke into laughter once again. "Cheeky brat.. The script that he had been decoding... It was a complete spell."
Darlene took a while to register all this. "Rascal..! All he told me was that this was supposed to be some message from his parents." Both ladies looked into each other's eyes before laughing uproariously. "That guy had all of us for a ride. Once I get my hands on him, his sorry ass is going to cry for mercy."
Darlene nodded her head as well. "For sure. You can have one ass cheek. Let me slap the other one." "Deal.. hahaha..!!" Their back and forth continued for a while before both of them walked across the room to study the skeleton together.
"So you are saying that it murdered the miscreants on its own accord, without a proper command?" "Yep.. that's what makes this guy peculiar." "Did you try initiating a contract with it?" "Yes.. no headway there as well. My conclusion is that maybe only the kid can initiate it, who knows."
Yana shared the details with the masked woman, who sat right next to the skeleton, closely observing its bone. "And it won't leave, as well?" "Not with the methods I have currently. That's the reason I was going through some books to find out more about a summon like this."
Darlene gently placed her fingers intricately over the chest bones of the summon. Yana saw the lady frown. "Anything?" "Please bring me some ink and a fine brush." Yana was a smart lady and already figured out what the lady was trying to do.
"Here." Darlene dipped the brush in the ink and began painting it on the chest bones of the skeleton. All this while the undead remained unmoving. She used a very light hand to cover the bones under a thin layer of ink. Beside her, Yana was ready with a large piece of paper.
Darlene smiled and both ladies held the sheet of paper across the skelly's chest, carefully touching the painted bones with it. "Done." "Wow.. you are a genius Darlene haha.." The lady scratched her face in embarrassment. "It was only a coincidence." Yana slapped her back in praise and brought the sheet of paper under a light source.
"Let's see, what we got here." They had to use a large handheld lens to reveal the extremely small letters printed on the paper. Realizing what that was, the two ladies stared into each other's eyes. That was the ancient script. Yana was not an expert in this field and hence can only depend upon the redhead to decode it.
< Kudos!!>>