A hot breeze blew past Zain's face as he stood on the railing atop the school. The warm wind graced his cheeks as he stood deep in thought.
"In those last seconds…my stun should have lasted much longer. Yet he broke free from it, as if he wasn't even afflicted by it in the first place."
Can someone even shake off a stun effect like that? There's healing magic in the world, but based off that fight Chron clearly wasn't a support type mage. Could he wield both offensive and support magic?
"...Now that I think about it, I don't know much about his magic abilities, do I?" Did anyone for that matter? Chron was an existence known as a White Mage, the pinnacle of magic abilities that one could obtain. People say that when he was born, he already had such tremendous power at his disposal. While others, like Zain himself, had to train to become stronger, Chron was simply born with power. His mere existence was above many people in this world, so it's no wonder their fight was a complete wash for him.
"I said I wanted to fight someone on par with that masked bastard, but Chron is in a different league. Especially with his attitude now. He hardly takes anything serious, and it seems he only does when he finds whoever or whatever he's fighting interesting. I can hardly call that a training partner…"
With his only hope of having a strong opponent dashed, Zain let out a heavy sigh as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.
"Why is today so damn hot…?
"I know right? I mean Ashiya is always hot, but today seems even hotter than normal!" A second voice complains alongside Zain, causing the young man to turn his head. James casually intervenes in Zain's deep thought by walking through the door.
"Why of all the places did you come to the roof outside when there's a nice cool ice gem in the building keeping us from drying out..?"
"Nobody asked you to come up here…and how the hell did you even find me?"
"Well, I am a master of gathering intel~" James held a smug look on his face while answering Zain's question. "But ignoring that! I heard you had a fight with Chron Aeturnus! How did someone like you end up getting into it with the prince of Ashiya?!"
"And you know this…how exactly?"
"The whole school is talking about it! Although they aren't putting you in the best light…" James cleared his throat as he began mimicking the numerous student voices he heard on the way here.
"That rubbish commoner dare bare his fangs at Lord Chron?! He should die a thousand deaths!"
"How could someone of such lowborn status wield such power?! It makes no sense!
"Lord Chron is the best! Even when that loser cheated somehow and managed to land an attack, he was still able to take victory!"
Zain grumbled as he started walking away, only to have James continue walking behind him.
"Hey come on, cheer up! Don't keep walking around with such an angry look on your face, or it'll get stuck like that!"
James did his best to cheer up Zain, who he thought was sulking.
"Also, isn't this the longest I've ever talked to you without you trying to send me away? Is everything alright with you today?"
"You're like a weed with how you keep coming back to me no matter how many times I send you away. It takes more energy to get rid of you than it does to suffer through your presence until next period."
"As always, your words are sharp…you know they hurt, right?"
"I don't care."
"You should care a little bit!" James continued to complain down the hallway, and even through the cafeteria they walked through in order to get water. Their wait in line was long though, seeing as the entire school happened to be there in order to rehydrate. Ashiya was always a hot country, but today seemed to be even hotter than normal. Everyone seemed to be sweating to the point their uniforms got damp.
'What's going on with this heat…? Even the ice gem they have placed in the school to keep the halls cool can't keep up with this kind of heat. What in the world is-'
As Zain was deep in thought, a student dropped their glass onto the floor, spilling the contents everywhere. The liquid quickly evaporated as one by one everyone else started dropping their drinks.
"Ouch! Why's this thing so hot all of a sudden?!"
The room quickly fell to chaos as the temperature continued to rise higher and higher, before everyone heard a massive screech coming from outside. A large shadow, huge enough to cover the entire building flew around outside. Many of the students rushed to the nearby windows in panic to see what was happening outside.
"Are we under attack?!"
"What's going on?!"
James was walking around in a panic while Zain stared off outside. The waves of heat rolled along his skin and brought a strange sense of calm over him. Almost as if he had felt heat waves like this before.
"Wait…these are.." Zain came to a realization as he dashed outside to the courtyard. James, confused by his sudden sprinting, followed after him. The duo made it outside along with a multitude of other students as the beast in question perched atop the tallest building of the school. A giant body of fire sat and burned with intensity like nothing before. Soon it's flames began writhing in place before opening up to reveal sharp talons like a birds, and a long beak. The creature shrieked to the skies once again, causing the air to reverberate with it's intense noise. James cowered as he covered his ears from the intense noise while opening one eye to watch what transpired.
"What kind of demonic beast is that?!" In his panicked state, James looked towards Zain who stood staring towards the beast. The angry scowl that Zain always carried on his face however, was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a calm expression of understanding was forming.
"I see…so that was today huh…"
"Wait…is that?!"
"That's not a demonic beast…it's a divine beast. Each of the four great nations has a divine beast watching over them. And this is our guardian of Ashiya."
The flames atop the building solidified into a more recognizable shape, that of a flaming bird.
"Suzaku." Zain uttered the name of the divine beast as the crowd finally began calming down.
"People of humanity, calm thyselves." Suzaku spoke with a deep authority, bringing everyone to silence who was still in shock. The giant bird looked over the crowd of students before finally nesting on the pillar at the center of school grounds.
"This...this is the first time I'm seeing a Divine Beast. What is Suzaku even doing here..?"
"Most likely…it's time for him to find a new vessel."
"You mean the descent of Suzaku..?"
Zain nodded in silence to James' question. That could be the only reason Suzaku would show up today of all days. Each of the four divine beasts has a day where they descend on the students of their respective school. They choose one worthy mage to become their vessel and gain immense power to act as a guardian. They have repeated this action for generations, however many mages can go their entire lifetime without ever witnessing one of them in person.
"Yeah. Most likely his contract with his previous vessel has ended…"
James looked on with awe, while Zain retreated deep into his mind. One of the few important memories to him came flooding back in a wave of nostalgia and sadness, as he laid eyes on the flaming bird before him.
'Scarlet…' The name of his lover from the future passed his mind as she was Suzaku's previous host in the future.
'I wonder how she's doing in this timeline…?'
"Uh...Zain..?"
'From what I remember, she got Suzaku from someone here, but I forgot their name…'
"Zain..?!"
'Well, Suzaku is going to choose whoever they chose last time. As long as I don't change anything they'll end up as their host once more. And soon enough that power will pass onto her. In the meantime I need to find a way to-'
"ZAIN!'
"WHAT?! I'm trying to think here, dammit!" Angered by the repeated calling of his name, Zain shouted towards James.
"Your head! It's on fire!"
On fire? Sure he felt hot because of Suzaku raining down embers as he flew by, but that wouldn't cause him to be on fire. Confused he turned his head to the sky as a flaming plume hovered over his head.