Sun rose from the north, and a cold breeze blew from the east, making trees' leaves flutter. Huge trees stood in a row on both sides of the road that almost touched the sky. A young man and a small girl stood on one side of the road and waited for the carriage to come. The girl wore a blue dress with a jacket on top, a yellow bucket cap on her head, and a red bag on her shoulders. On her side stood a young man wearing a fancy coat. He looked in his twenties, his icy blue hair fluttered in the air, and his grey eyes observed the surroundings. His expression was serene, like nothing could disturb his mood.
Time passed slowly, and after a few minutes in the distance, a four-wheel carriage moving in their direction could be seen. The carriage moved fast, and in a few seconds, it was already in front of Eon and Haze. The carriage looked black and was drawn by a big creature with a long neck and legs and a big stomach. It closely resembled an emu but bigger and muscular. At the front driver's seat sat a middle-aged man with a short white beard on his face. He wore a black suit, and his hand held a leather line to control the animal.
Haze stared at the animal with curious eyes, who stared back at her; both animal and woman seemed to compete.
"... at your service, my lord" the carriage driver stepped down and bowed to Eon and Haze before walking to the side of the carriage and opening the small door.
Eon pulled Haze from her stance and walked to the side of the carriage, where the middle-aged man had opened the carriage door. Eon and Haze entered the carriage. Inside, the carriage looked like a small house. It had a sleeping room, a big sitting area in the center, and a kitchen and washroom. Haze looked astonished and observed her surroundings; she ran to a window inside the carriage and looked outside, then inside. She followed the same action multiple times, trying to understand the reasoning behind the size difference. At the front door side stood Second respectfully and waited for Eon to move.
"Master, I talked with the carriage driver and hired it for the house." Second spoke.
Eon stepped inside and sat on a sofa in the sitting area; he looked around the carriage from inside. He was quite impressed by the concept of space and artisanship used in the carriage. These types of carriages were quite famous in Aurora city. Because luxury and service the carriage provided were first class.
With Niel's signal, the animal resembling a bird in front moved, moving the carriage forward. The carriage moved slowly for a few kilometers, and something unexpected happened. When the big animal driving the carriage gained enough speed, its hooves started to glow in rainbow light, and after a few seconds, the carriage suddenly disappeared. Leaving the road empty as before.
The Aurora city landmass spanned 13573 thousand kilometers; compared to a normal city, it easily qualified as a small country. The major parts of the city were divided into sectors, from rich to poor, business to shopping. Each had designated areas like Sector 5 'Back Gardens' was the area specially designated for living. But the prices of houses in Back Gardens were astonishingly high. With that much money, one can easily buy a barren planet in outside galaxies.
Sector 3 'Aurora Park,' where 'The Aurora Academy of Advanced Arts and Mystic' was established, spanned a total of 1900 kilometers. It was because of the academy that the city was even famous in nearby domains compared to any other city. An invisible wall covered the Sector 3 area, stopping anyone without authority from entering the region.
'Swish,' a bird-drawn black carriage suddenly appeared on the Aurora Park main road, which led to the entrance of Sector 3. The road was relatively empty with few people on it. However, on both sides of the road were big buildings, which functioned as an outer teleportation hub for Aurora Park.
Soon the carriage stopped in front of a magnificent structure. The building looked like it was made by fusing hundreds of big doors at multiple angles; carved out of white stone marble, it gave people a feeling of awe. Eon and the rest stepped out of the carriage, observing the surroundings. Then, without wasting any more time Second ordered Niel to park the vehicle, and the three entered the building.
After entering the building, a large hall greeted the three of them. Holding Haze's hand, Eon moved forward. The hall was big; at the front was a big sitting area, where one could see various red and gold Victoria-style furniture. The hall was painted in dark green, and golden color with various expensive panting decorated its walls. A huge, long crystal ornament hung on the roof, glowing with a yellowish light; it raised the hall environment to another level. Eon, Second and Haze looked around. As compared to outside, the hall was bustling with people. When they crossed the sitting area, they saw humans and different species walking around in the center area.
On both sides of the hall were hundreds of reception desks with teleportation doors beside them. Each teleportation door showed different scenery that led to a different place. Eon and Second saw people walk to representatives sitting behind the desk. They showed their IDs before entering the teleportation gate.
Eon holding Haze's hand with Second walked to an empty desk. He produced a yellow color paper out of thin air and placed it on the desk. The woman sitting behind the desk lifted the paper, and her eyes scanned the contents of the paper. She glanced at Haze; her eyes lingered on her for a few seconds before returning to paper. She pressed some buttons on the desk, which changed the scenery inside the teleportation door beside her.
"You can go inside; Her mentor will come and pick you guys up at the entrance in a few minutes" she handed the paper back and instructed.
Taking back the sheet of yellow paper, three of them moved forward and entered the door.
The Building Eon and Second entered was called 'The Hall of Doors,' a business created by the 'God of Doors – Lemin.' 'He' had the Authority over the Concept of Teleportation, Space, and Time and other few abilities made from three concepts. The Hall of Doors also worked as a Church to spread the faith of 'Him' in the world.
The Hall of Door had branches everywhere in 'Second Grade Civilization' from cities, continents to planets to every Galaxy because they provided people with means of long-distance travel; this made The Hall of Doors quite known in the universe. The Hall of Door also offered an 'Anywhere Door' contract to anyone who can use magic, the price being that you have enough magic to open the teleportation door and a small amount of money every time you use it. This contract also helped them gather more faith than some other Gods.
Overall, in the current universe, where Gods exist in every corner. To people, faith was nothing more than a transaction, leaving aside a few exceptions.
----
Milan sat on a chair holding a pen in her hand; she seemed deep in thought. From time to time, she would write something on a book placed on the table in front of her. Her whole room was filled with bookshelves. Except for the table in the center of the room, it was hard to find even an inch of space in the room. Milan's concentration broke when a glass cube sitting on her table in the corner flashed with light and projected a holographic image of three people on top of it.
"Aaaaaa!" Milan cried out angrily as she grabbed the hair on her head.
"How can these people throw their stuff on me" She walked in circles around the table, trying to calm her mind down.
Milan had been studying at Aurora Academy for the last nine years, this being her tenth year. Last year she finally advanced from the eighth sequence to the seventh sequence. Milan was not like other people with a life expectancy of only thirty years; she had a lot of unfinished wishes. Most of her daily time went into studying mysticism and the rest into finding and taking drugs/potions to calm down the chronic pain in her body. In the end, it left her with little to no time to do other things.
Aurora Academy had a unique style of education compared to other institutions; the academy normally assigned every new student to a mentor/person studying the same path as the student. This guided students in better understanding the nature of their path, and students were also free to take part in free courses provided by the academy on different concepts and fields.
Milan slowly calmed down her anger because of her recent advancement to sequence seven. She finally stepped on a path of mystic/supernatural and can be said to have broken free from her human limit, finally progressing to becoming a higher being. Because of that, she was not in the student category anymore and could take or be given a student to mentor. Milan had already requested her mentor and filled a request not to give her any student, but life is never fair, and last week her mentor informed her she was assigned a student that she could not reject.
Milan tidied up her lab and table. She straightened her clothes and hair before finally walking out of her room to pick up her student.
A blue color anywhere door suddenly appeared on top of orange cannon hill, and it opened. Eon, Second and Haze walked out of the door and looked around. They stood on a flat cannon hill where no animal or structure could be seen in front or back. The only thing that impressed them was that at their back was a cannon, and when they walked a few hundred meters forwards from the top of the cannon, they saw a lush and green tropical forest stretching far wide on land, which gave a sense of a magical land. But this was only seen by Haze. Eon and Second eyes were looking at the sky, and what they saw left them truly speechless.
A huge structure in the shape of a curtain made from off-white marble dropped down from clouds on the earth. There were thousands of these thick wavy marble curtains suspended in rows from the sky and covered the whole land as far as eyes could see, but none touched the land. They were a few hundred meters far from touching the earth. Each of these marble curtains was a few hundred meters thick in size and went past the clouds in the sky.
Suddenly a red door opened in front of them, and a beautiful woman walked out, grabbing their attention. Her look was otherworldly. She had light yellow golden hairs falling on both sides of her moon-like face. She wore a long crème color dress that covered her long legs and platform leather knee boot. She was five-eight in height but relatively thin. But the most beautiful were her eyes. One could see a literal golden river swirling around the pupil if one focused.
"It's magnificent. The academy structure design is based on aurora lights produced on the poles of planets because of electromagnetic waves. Because of this design, the academy is called 'The Aurora Academy.'"
"It took engineers more than five hundred years to design and make the concept. It was quite a challenge for them to make a structure that spans more than five hundred kilometers area stay afloat in the sky."
Milan spoke slowly as she saw them staring at the huge structure in the sky. She moved forward and introduced herself.
"Hello, my name is Milan Elev. My apologies. Everyone had to wait here."
"It's fine, Miss Elev. We were admiring the view. It is a marvel of engineering and magic" Second spoke in admiration as Eon, and his eyes moved toward Milan.
"Let me take all of you into my office before we continue our conversation" Milan opened another red door and waited for the three of them to walk. Before the meeting, she was quite nervous about how she would manage the situation as it was her first time taking a student and meeting parents, but surprisingly it went well.