The air crackled with tension as the swords collided, sending a shower of sparks into the air. Clank! Leo pressed his blade against mine, his eyes narrowed in scrutiny. "Your posture is sloppy," he remarked, his voice stern. "You need to be poised to strike and ready to defend. Tell me, what would happen if I attacked you now?"With a powerful shove, Leo pushed me back, my feet sliding across the ground. "If you wish to join the Legon, you must have already mastered these basics." I gritted my teeth and charged forward, our blades meeting in a flurry of strikes. Though I managed to push him back slightly, Leo's expression remained unperturbed. "Do not act so rashly," he cautioned. "You never know what may happen once you lower your guard.''Suddenly, his foot swept behind my legs, and with a swift motion, I found myself sprawled on the ground, the tip of his sword pointed at my chest.
"Leo wins this match." The referee announced. I got back up and dusted off the dirt from my clothes.
Leo came up to me and spoke with a soft and kind tone telling me, "Good match."
I smiled back and said, "It would have been a better match if I had gotten my attuned weapon now."
"Speaking of that," Leo smiled "Today is the day you will get one." My eyes lit up from excitement and before I could say anything we were already off to the armory. "You are a sword user so you will need to attune with one. Each sword has its own purpose and power, there are no wrong choices." There have to be some wrong choices, right? Well, I hope that there aren't.
"Isn't that what our teacher said during the class discussion on the history of angles?" I questioned.
"That was the history of angels, for crying out loud you are one, and so am I. So how did you get the question on who was the 'first sword-bearing angel?' Wrong?!?" Before I could respond we had already made it into the armory and had arrived at the sword section. All the swords looked nice but I wanted one that would enhance my abilities of attack and magic.
After what felt like an eternity, which was only 15 minutes, I came across a sword I liked. "How do I attune with it?" I asked with the most dumbfounded look on my face.
"Close your eyes and see if you can see its magic core, if you can then just grab the core and you will be tuned with it." Leo responded.
"Here it goes." I nervously said. I closed my eyes and before I knew it I was floating in a dark place. In the center, there is an orb that is emanating with magic and energy. So this must be the spiritual core. There was so much energy and the force it emitted was immense. When I reached out to grab it the orb went through my chest and the room turned white, that's when I opened my eyes.
Months had gone by since I attuned with my sword. Over those few months, I trained with Leo and practiced magic in my dormitory. The school was the same and still quite boring. I do wonder at times if there was more to the attunement process or if the other angles had a different experience.
I was in class and we were studying the arts and crafts of an angle. Leo was next to me. He poked me on the shoulder and I turned to face him.
"You look terrible," Leo whispered to me.
"Oh shut up Leo, mind your own business," I whispered.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed."
"Actually, I did," I whispered with a tiered look on my face. We stopped talking as soon as Professor Valentine walked towards us.
"Leora, go to the dean's office." Professor Valentine told me. "Leo, you stay here." I looked at Leo who seemed worried about something but he had to get back to class. Before he left he signaled to me Good luck, this can't be good. The hallway to the dean's office was long and every student could see you walking or flying. Along the walls were portraits of angles of high accomplishments. There hadn't been a new portrait for a couple of centuries. Angles die trying to get such achievements, so I think there would be more worth living than dying for some stupid portrait. I opened the dean's door and there I saw the dean waiting for me with a serious look on his face.
"Leora please take a seat, we need to talk." The dean said.
"Is this about my attuned sword?" I asked
"No."
"Is this about the magic at night?"
"No."
"Then why am I here, I know I didn't do anything to get sent here for a good reason." The Dean looked at me as if he thought that I was hopeless.
"I called you here because of the attacks on other students."
"Attacks on other students?" I was shocked. "What does that have to do with me?"
"I just want to know if it was you or not. If it was you I need you to confess."
"You think I attacked those students?"
"I'm not saying that. I am saying that there is a possibility that it was you all I need to know is if it was you."
"It was not me, I just want to know why I was called specifically."
"There is no reason, I got my answer so you can head on over to class. Before that would you like some candy?"
"No thank you." I got up out of my seat and went back to class. When I got back it was break time before the next class.
Leo came up to me and asked "What did the Dean want with you?"
"He was asking if I was behind the attacks on the students."
"It couldn't be you, so why would he ask."
"I don't know, maybe they just need evidence to prove a hunch. I don't think this is the last we will be hearing about this."
"Agreed."
Before we could continue talking the teacher came back and flew saying "Alright class, time to learn the history of the 2 realms." If anything this was the one topic that was important to know if you wanted to become Legon you needed to know about this. The Legon is a group of elite angels who go down to the second realm. "The second realm used to be inhabited by creatures that we call 2nd realm-lings, these 2nd realm-lings knew not of our civilization in the first realm. They believed that there was a deity that created them. One thousand years ago a small group of these 2nd realm-lings created a cataclysm. Now the cataclysm has engulfed the 2nd realm. It is too dangerous to go down there because all the 2nd realm-lings have either turned into monsters of the cataclysm or are dead. The cataclysm is a vortex where dark angels live, these dark angels have deflected from our society and are trying to attack us."
"Psst" Leo whispered to me. I turned around and signaled 'What is it??' He looked at me and signaled back to me. I think these are the people who are attacking the students. Maybe the Dean wanted to know if you were with them or one of them. I was shocked. What do I have to do with them?? Leo shrugged and then we saw the teacher coming closer. We stopped talking and went back to listening to the lecture.
The teacher was talking about the dangers of the vortex, "You kids should never go into the vortex, even if you are a Legon. The vortex is an uncharted area where no angle has come from without being hurt to the point of gin insane, the is no way of healing the insane." Half the class gasped and the other half remained silent. There was some tension in the classroom before the teacher started talking again, "That is it for today's lesson, we will continue our lesson tomorrow."
"Hey Leo, meet me in the usual place for a talk," I whispered to him. He nodded his head and went to go get something. Our usual place was a small shed that no one knew of.
A few minutes later he came. "Hey Kyo, what did you want to talk about?"
I looked at him and said, "Do you think this could be related to my brother's disappearance?"
"It's possible that's what happened. He was a Legon so it could be possible." He continued "You have been looking for your brother for 2 years, you only want to become a Legon to find him. I support your decisions but I feel like that,"
"Don't say it, I know he could be dead but that won't stop me and my search. I need to know what happened to him."
Leo sighed "That's good and all but what if you get into trouble?"
"I won't," I replied "And it's not like they will kill me."
"I still think it's weird that people think I'm your brother just because our names sound similar." I nodded my head in agreement.
Hours passed and we finished our daily training. I went to my dorm and flopped onto my bed. I dug under my mattress and brought out my spell book. This was a book that showed magic for more advanced angels along with the rules of magic and why, which I found refreshing. In class, they would always say if we could do this or not, but they never said why. My brother gave me this book in the hopes I would be a prodigy, unfortunately, I never was one. I do enjoy reading through the book, but some of the pages just smell so bad. My favorite spell was the one that could turn wings invisible. This has no use because you can just tuck your wings in but it's funny to see angles curious how I can fly with my wings supposedly tucked back.