Chapter 7 - 13 Years Later
Maxmillan had grown into a fine young man with an admirably impressive physique. He had rigorously trained himself to develop this kind of intimidating, powerful muscular form. He did everything—impossible sets of push-ups, press-ups, curls, squats, calisthenics, and so on to develop his current, fascinating muscular appearance. He really took his strength, core power, and body fitness into extreme consideration.
However, he had a problem that kept him awake most night—since he was a child. And this was because of his appalling and disheartening inability to sense Astra Mystralis and enter into a state of harmony with it.
So, not being able to harmonize with Astra Mystralis, greatly bothered him a lot that he couldn't leave home to go anywhere else, since almost all the kids in his particular neighborhood who had grown into good-looking adults, had become talented casters of Astra Mystralis.
Besides, Maxmillan felt really bad that he couldn't make his parent in this world proud of him. Although they loved him deeply, regardless of whether he was a caster of Astra Mystralis or not, he still however felt bad and terrible. So, these thoughts filled him with nothing but sadness and caused him to feel very useless and worthless.
One day while sitting outside in the verandah of their home, where he was lost in the bleak, stygian forest of thoughts, the ground unexpectedly started to tremble, instantly forcing him out of his deep thoughtful state that encompassed him with nothing but an overbearing melancholic aura.
The moment his eyes snapped open, a thought instantly flashed in his head and caused his eyes to widen in both shock and dread. While the particular eye-widening thought that had surfaced in his mind, was the thought of another overwhelming zombie invasion taking place in his town.
He looked at himself and saw that he wasn't armed, and that he was still young to do anything significant or remarkable, since he was in the body of an eighteen year old boy.
The moment these thoughts occurred to him, his mind churned and his facial expression spoiled, since he felt that if the earth truly shook because of what was approaching them from afar and were hordes of an invading zombie army or something related to that, he would die again or worst, turn into a zombie. And he had vowed to hold onto this precious second life that he was given and be truly purposeful with it.
But not very long, he saw hundreds of a particular towering beast which exuded nothing but majesticness, grandness and fierceness, dart towards them and evoke a large dust storm that accompanied them from behind as they stomped the ground with their adorned hooves.
Then seated on top of these beautifully embellished tall beasts, where humans dressed in stunning ceremonial armors in which a few of them held dual-colored flags that possessed a particular symbol at their centers.
The beasts these humans rode on, looked like wolves. They were grey in colour and had large eyes that glowed in intense scarlet. They were twenty feet tall and thirty feet long. So, this made them look enormous in size and would invoke both dread and fear in anyone that saw them. There were about fifty of these wolf-like beasts that the humans seated atop of them rode on.
Maxmillan's heart skipped many beats and was on the verge of structurally collapsing.
The hell!
What was this?
Were the gods kidding him?
In this new world that he was brought into, they also had problems with invasion too or what?
What are these beasts and who were those human-like beings covered in ravishing armors that rode atop them?
He questioned himself as he looked from left to right; from one beast to another and at their different riders with the gigantic icy-cold hands of fear gripping his whole figure.
Not very long, the beasts arrived in front of them, while the people that rode atop them soundlessly leapt to the ground.
They wore shining black chest armors, purple shoulder plates, and shining black arm gauntlets that had bold symbolic engravings on them. Also, engravings of a certain flowy pattern, could be seen on the right side of the armor that they wore.
Then hung at their backs were large curved swords, giant double-edged blades, massive halberds, falchions and other sorts of ancient war-fighting weapons that mysteriously glowed in different colors of light.
Only one who wore a flaming masked helmet out of all them and was at the forefront, remained atop the beasts. This person seemed to be overseeing the whole thing. But these person had the figure of a female, thereby implying that a woman was the one in charge of this particular beast-riding armored group.
The people that leapt down from the beasts walked forward to meet the townspeople, while one of them who walked at the front, spoke pridefully and arrogantly once he arrived before the townsfolk that had gathered before them with their individual families, "There is no need for introduction, for I believe you all know who we are already."
"So, fast-forwarding to what we came here for, we are here to inform you parents that the Floating Lotus Academy is about to have its hundredth and third admissive Astra proficiency evaluation exams. So, instruct your children to come to our prestigious institute to write exams and be admitted into our grand institute once they can pass, and be given scholarships if they can stand out from the crowds that would be gathered there on that glorious day."
"We promise to take good and wonderful care of your children, and would train them to become powerful spellcasting experts that would awe and rival the gods themselves. Hahaha!"
Maxmillan whose frantic mind had now calmed, since no invasion event that would wipe out everyone was going to occur, heard what the speaker said and couldn't help but have his eyes sparkle.
As someone that still dreamt of accomplishing a lot through harmonizing with Astra Mystralis and in the end, become a remarkably great and monstrously formidable spellcaster that would make his family and the entire world proud of him, was enticed greatly by what the speaker said.
But he could only shake his head in disappointment when he recalled how he couldn't congruently align his perception, senses and entire being with Astra Mystralis, the unbounded, ever-pulsing arcane energy that would make all of his dreams come true.
The speaker and rest walked back to their beasts before jumping onto their backs. Then with a shout, the beasts immediately turned around and shot forward at shocking speeds.
So, they had come in this number just to deliver this little message? Maxmillan thought.
Then he concluded that perhaps they came in this overwhelming number and manner to look tyrannical and powerful to the people, so as to well up fear, astonishment and unceasing awe in the hearts of everyone that would gaze at them.
When those armored men jumped onto the beasts' backs, Maxmillan's eyes shone with surprise.
These people who seemed like warriors, since they wore armors and carried heavy instruments of war on their backs, had jumped onto the backs of their beasts that were more than twenty feet tall.
It was like they had superhuman jumping abilities. Besides, it seemed like they defied gravitational force since they jumped onto the backs of the beasts like leaves floating in the wind.
Once Maxmillan witnessed such gracefully executed acts of high vertical leaping, he couldn't help but be wowed.
When they left, the atmosphere returned to normal. Then people started discussing.
"The Floating Lotus Academy have come again to recruit our children into their various ranks. But it is a good thing for them, since they would go there and become powerful. They would make us, their parents, be feared by all..."
As someone was speaking, he was suddenly interrupted by another person who snidely mentioned, "Oh. And what if they end up dead from the missions assigned to them, who would make you proud and feared by all? Their ghosts? Or their souls rotten in the underworld? "
Like that, they engaged themselves in intense and verbally abusive arguments.
Maxmillan went back into the house with his parents. At the moment, there was a question burning within his mind that he needed to ask them and be clarified on.
"Mom, those people in uniforms riding on those beasts. Who are they?" he asked.
"They are one of the many grand academies in the city. The one you asked about is the Floating Lotus academy. Actually, due to a great calamitous war that happened many years ago, many academies within most cities have incorporated military warfare training into their curricula."
"So, other than instructing the kids and training them to become powerful spellcasters, they allow them to go through rigorous military training to become warriors that would protect the city. These people were a specially trained group called Astra Knights and were highly respected everywhere they went to."
"However, not everyone can make it into this group. And like I mentioned to you years ago, the leader of this group, who is also the commander of the low-level and average-level casters of Astra Mystralis, is the Astra Spellcraft Commander."
"So, these academies go to different towns within the city to announce the start of admissive exams into their academies." Lenna explained.
"Alright mom. I perfectly understand now." Maxmillan said.
He then looked at his mom who looked back at him with the aim of trying to understand his gaze.
"Dear son, don't tell me you have plans of going there? You don't have the ability to sense Astra Mystralis and would only go there to embarrass yourself."
"You would be scornfully mocked and ridiculed by everyone there, including the families of the kids who excitedly accompanied their kids to watch them perform. I don't want such unfortunate, bewailing incident to befall you. It will really hurt me if you are made to experience such a disheartening thing." Lenna hurriedly said with an imploring tone in her voice, while Maxmillan looked at her with dimmed ponderous eyes. Only he understood what he was thinking about.