Author's P.O.V
"I hope everyone is ready for the trip yay!" Rin cheered while marching with her packing bags, and heading towards the main hall. The hall was filled with all the students with each of their items and travelling bags and the students were divided into the senior and junior sections. Dante accompanied by Mark and Luca walks towards the senior section, but Mark keeps on looking around with a confused expression on his face.
"what's wrong Mark, You seem lost." Dante with a relaxed expression on his face asked while Luca nodded his head to Dante's observation. "Are you nervous?"
"Nah, not really... I'm just wondering why the juniors are following... Are they coming along too?" Mark asked as Luca with his blank expression shaped his head in a 'no' manner.
"Mark you need to improve your memory," Luca said with a facepalm, while dante just remained silent and started to stare at some of the students still giving me bad eyes. "Remember that five years ago we also went there with the seniors who were taking the assessment too, We weren't participating, Father Alfred took us there to get to see the seniors in action... Now this year it's their turn to come and watch."
"Oh, I see, alright... So dante how ya feeling, are you ready to see the competition." Mark asked dante with a grin on his face while we had reached the senior section in the hall.
"No Mark, it's just an assessment... And I'm kind of nervous I guess." Dante answered Mark who then nodded his head due to the correction from dante.
Luca turned his attention to dante and then asked with a blank face. "dante... Are you still feeling bad about the... Bao occurrence... Remember that it has passed... The assessment is very important right now."
"I know Luca... But still even apart from that... I still haven't been able to summon my chronicle till now... And isn't that not a big factor in getting chosen for the assessment?"
I asked Luca, but he just sighed and stretched his arm over his head but then brought out an eyeglass from his pocket and wore it while adjusting it. This resulted in Mark and I sweat drop.
"Was that necessary?" Mark asked with a sighed expression.
"Yeah, and when did you start using glasses?" I also joined Mark with a sighed expression.
"That's not the point right now... And yes I do use glasses... I'm just too shy to bring it out." Luca protested and answered with a pose, but then returned his gaze to dante. "And no dante, summoning a chronicle sure shows your strength, is not necessary for assessment... Though I understand if you are confused about this since you weren't present for the last one."
"Oh yeah, dante why didn't you show up for the last one, Apparently even Father Alfred had to stay behind too?" Mark asked with a confused look on his face, as even Luca was waiting for an answer. Dante sighed and pointed to his right hand, as this one act answered their questions.
"Oh, so it had something with the mark on your right hand... Hmmm, I see." Luca concluded and Mark also nodded his head, understanding fully well what was up. "Alright then, so the assessment consists of three trials, the first one is the combat division, whereby all the oppositions will face off in battle, though of course in a sparing match," Luca informed, with dante understanding what he meant. "Now for the second part, your mana will be measured and scaled, Of course, they are different scales but in general it's just to test out your overall mana presence."
"Now to the last stage... In the simulated rescue mission, each opposition team will be asked to rescue a helpless victim or stop a natural disaster with our overall skills." Luca continued, but then he brought down his glasses a little bit and stared deep into my eyes... "But now note very well... this final trial is known to be the hardest of them all... Because those who cause the disasters are not humans or machines-."
"...there hamjis... Real ones, hi dante, hi Luca, hi Mark." Trinity came along with Rin, with their luggage as Rin was still cheering about the trip. "Though not the higher class ones."
"Yo Trin and Rin" Mark called out with a goofy smile, but Trinity just face palmed and giggled at him, while Rin just kept on cheering. "Still cheery about the trip Rin?"
"Of course, why won't I?!" Rin answered with a bright expression on her face, though Luca just readjusted his eyeglasses and whispered.
"...well what's the big deal? It's just an assessment." Luca responded but was then instantly held by the shirt by Rin; who glared at him.
"Just an assessment... HOW DARE YOU, THIS IS A STRAIGHT TICKET INTO JOINING THE DRAGON GUILD AND YOU CALL IT JUST AN ASSESSMENT, I SHOULD BURN YOU AND THOSE NERDY GLASSES OF YOURS INTO MOLTEN PASTE." Rin roared out, still holding him by his clothes.
"No not the glasses, it's a special edition!" Luca roared back, as Trinity, dante and Mark just stared at the scene in front of them.
But then a sudden light glowed from the main stage, gaining everyone's attention to it. The light dispelled to reveal Father Alfred in his bishop attire.
"I hope everyone is ready for the trip, please remember to behave yourselves when we reach there... Now for the representatives of this academy... Have already been chosen for the assessment, so if you hear your name... Please step forward." Father Alfred announced, silencing the whole hall, as some whispers could be heard from amongst the juniors and seniors.
"Oh, I hope, I get chosen." A senior girl wished
"Come on, pick me." Another senior male hoped.
"I pray I get chosen" another whispered in hopes.
"Please me." Rin squealed in a tiny voice, as dante started to worry that she might burst.
"Please Don't choose me, I don't want extra work... " Luca whispered in a hopeful voice.
"The names are... Trinity Hashima as 1st rep!" Father Alfred called out in a bold voice as everyone else cheered for her. Her uniform changed into a white battle suit with white gloves and a commander's hat.
"The next... Rin Kamado-." Rin Cheered so loudly, but soon kept quiet and apologized. Then Father Alfred continued. "As the 2nd rep!"
Rin's uniform changed into Trinity's new outfit.
"The next..."
'Please don't choose me!' Luca prayed in his thoughts and started to sweat profusely.
"Luca Gomen as the 3rd rep!" Father Alfred called out, resulting in Luca looking down in defeat. As he's uniform also changed.
"The next... Mark Rivers as the 4th rep" Mark grinned and held Luca up from his defeated position, as his uniform changed too.
"Haha let's do this!" Mark cheered out in excitement.
"And the last call...." Father Alfred called with a little pause but then smiled.
'You keep on surprising me...' Father Alfred thought with a smile.
On the road trip
Dante's P.O.V
"CONGRATS DANTE!" Rin shouted out in a loud voice while hugging me too close which resulted in me blushing. We were all currently on the bus, though it appeared that the reps bus was different from the rest, as while the others were 30 seats, this bus was just a round couch-kind off-setting. "We're all on the same team, awesome!"
"At least they got the clothes alright, really love the style," Luca commented while checking his clothes out.
"I guess so, though I'm more pumped up for the combat," Mark responded with an excited expression on his face.
"So how far is the place anyway?" I questioned while trying to suppress a tired yawn, which Rin and Trinity noticed.
"Well there's still a long way to go, so how about you take a nap, Until then alright," Trinity said with a smile on her face, as Rin also nodded in agreement with Trinity. I yawned and shifted to a free space on the couch to take a quick nap.
"But don't sleep too much dante, Remember that the trials start immediately when we drop off," Luca said while resting his head and readjusting his eyeglasses. "A reason why I hate this… good night guys."
"It's still afternoon nerd," Rin said with a glare sent at him.
"No one asked crazy blue," Luca said drifting towards sleep, but then got punched in the face by Rin, who looked vexed.
"At least he's now asleep… and so am I," I said while closing my eyes into slumber.
Dreamworld
'Where am I?' I questioned trying to observe my terrain, until.
Boom!
A flash of light blinded my eyes, and as a very loud explosion shook me, I forced myself to open my eyes.
To meet a sight of pain and sadness, as I held onto Trinity and Rin's unconscious bodies, I looked up in front to see Luca barely kneeling with his sword supporting him and Mark, who is also barely unconscious and is trying to still protect them from… something in front.
"W-what is going on, t-trinity… rin… l-luca… mark, guys what happened-." I heard a loud boom and cracking sounds in front of Mark, I tried to focus on the source… and to my surprise, I saw a Chad knight in a broken white armour and a white blazing chronicle beside him… a very familiar one to be exact.
The knight turned back at me with, just his eyes visible… those eyes…
"I'm… sorry dante," the knight said with a sad tone, as a flash of white light overtook the scene and I saw everything disintegrate right in before me, but before everything was gone, Mark turned to me with his eyes dark and red iris.
"Turn back… or lose it all… child," he said and then everything flashed before my very eyes.
End of dream
I jolted up in a panicked manner and remembered the very last sentence from my dream.
'What does it mean.' I thought until I looked up to see Rin who now stared back at me with a happy expression on her face, as Luca kept on glaring at her, Mark was seen staring out of the bus window in awe and Trinity just kept her gaze on me, guessing that she must have sensed my mana disturbances again… a bad dream, but I just nodded at her with a smile to calm her nerves.
"Well, dante it's good that you're awake now," Rin said with a large grin and hugged me very close again by the neck, though it was too tight and I started to get choked up, as Luca tried to get me out.
"Rin m-my n-neck!" I coughed out in pain, but she just held on more and stared at me with a larger grin.
"Where are we you asked. Well, let me tell ya!" Rin continued her choke on me, as I started to turn blue in the process.
"I think… You are choking him." Luca tried to call her attention, but instead, she glared daggers at him, silencing him, as he just turned his sight to Mark. "What's that mark, You have something to show me, sure!"
Luca went over to Mark, who just kept on staring out the windows.
"B-betrayal ah!" I called out in my choke hold.
"well dante… welcome… TO THE HQ OF THE STRONGEST GUILD IN THE WORLD… THE DRAGON GUILD!" Rin announced and forced me to look out of the window, I saw a multitude of impressive structures and Officers Chad in futuristic armour… but the main sight was the huge mountain dome ahead.
"WELCOME… TO MOUNT UNITY."