The classroom was in eerily quiet as the students poured in one after another, the reason being all the weird dents that could be seen all over the classroom, some seats were broken and strangely miss Liv was just sitting there atop her desk and welcoming them in with a smile.
"What the hell is going on??". Finral whispered to Zasha who seemed to be looking around frantically in search of someone else, they had waited for Ryu to come out but he didn't come out and it was then they realized he never returned after the combat training section, they had wanted to ask miss Liv but seeing the condition of their classroom everyone was left speechless.
"Now now, everyone can just get a position to seat because today our topic will be a very sensitive one, one that touches on the very purpose and reason human started searching for perfection".
The students all sat down, some on the floor while some sat on the rest of the benches that were still whole.
Miss Liv looked around for a bit then asked.
" Have any of you heard the term 'demon'?" She paused to look at all of them and seeing that they all nodded she continued
" That's good, you all should also be aware of what they're capable of since you've all heard of them, then I'll be teaching you today about the demons".
She looked around as she saw all the students paying keen attention to what she was about to say, she smiled sweetly and continued.
" Long time ago our world had little to no cultivation, we only knew how to use spiritual energy in the simplest of ways, the spiritual energy gets into the body, it transforms into something called 'mana' , it was the purest form of spiritual energy and it was this energy that assisted mankind in different stages of evolution. During the era in which mana was all we could harness there was also a term known as affinities. Mankind only had access to the elements that they had an affinity to, there were also those who could use 3 to 4 elements at once, but this were geniuses among geniuses, you all also know the elements, air, water, earth and fire , this were the common elements that everyone knew about but there were also other elements. Light, darkness, space and time,these were the major elements that existed above all elements, they were so powerful that they each birthed sub-elements, for instance a light element user can also get affiliation to nature giving birth to the wood element or they can mutate and instead of light energy they get affiliated to the shadows, then there is the darkness energy thats related to death energy , all this are the major elements in the world, and demons are from the dark energy, they originate from a plane of existence much higher than ours which also brings the question of what they are doing in our much more inferior plane. Long ago the users of mana were called mages, and this mages use mana in a practice called magic, magic could be used in different ways, a light energy user can create medicines that could regrow a missing limb, the darkness energy user could be said to be the greatest protectors mankind ever had, they were the most sensitive to any fluctuations in the environment along with the space users, nothing was hidden from their sights, the nature users took care of the foods human needed and so on.
Now in all good there was still evil and that was the origin of what was known as black magic, at first a few dark magicians could use their connection to darkness to connect to other planes with the help of the space magicians, then summon some creatures to assist in the hard work to ease mankind from labour, this summoned creatures were then tethered to the summoner by the laws of our world and they feed of the mana of the summoner. But what happens when a summoner summons something much stronger and powerful that his or her mana couldn't hold?"
Miss Liv's question hung silently in the air as the students tried to absorb all the information she was giving them. when she felt like they were all back on track she continued.
" The answer is simple, the creature will look for another mage to get tethered to, and that was how this secret practice that was done by the top dogs of the community became known to the public and soon people began looking for ways to have their own summons. To make every simple ....
A day came when a dying mage who went hunting did a summon to save her from the maws of a beast and there came the first demon on our planet, the demon saved her, lived by her till she grew old and died, now one would question how she could sustain both their mana outputs for that long. But how would I know??, So demons came and realized that this plane of ours was weak, the lowly dregs of the demonic race decided it's better to encroach on our plane than go back and fight for survival on their superior plane, and that's how we have demons"
Miss Liv took more time explaining about the demons and the students couldn't help but wonder why she was so deligent in explaining till she stated.
".....And yesterday we caught a demon , a low ranked demon in this very academy premises and I'll be showing you what this demon looks like." She stated and started heading out the classroom. The students rushed towards her in a hurry, although they lived on the outskirts of the country, they hadn't seen a demon before and this got their interest immediately .
They made a long walk down the hallway as they could see other students going through different lessons and some in combat classes, some in meditation, while some also staring at them curiously.
Miss Liv took them down to the lowest floor of the building which seemed to be underground. They got to a dark staircase that led to a huge gate that stood quite majestically but gave off an eerie feeling.
Miss Liv walked in front and gestured to the students to wait before she turned back and face them.
"I forgot to say something, you all will have to behave yourself when in there, you mustn't say a word, like I said earlier demons feed off different emotions of humans, so the demon might make you feel sympathy or fear, you shouldn't give in, am I understood??"
"Yes ma'am" the students chorused
She nodded and turned, after taking a deep breath she pushed the huge gate open while walking towards the cell that laid at the end of the passage, she pushed it open and her eyes widened in shock, she stood frozen for sometime as different emotions swirled in her eyes before calming down, locked the cell back and turning back to the students.
" It seems luck isn't on your sides today, let's head back to class" she began moving immediately.
"What just happened?"
" Something's not right"
The students whispered in hush voices ,even though they were disappointed they could feel that the situation wasn't quite right.
Far away from the academy deep within a dark forest, a kid could be seen sitting beneath a huge three while taking in huge mouthfuls of air, his red eyes seemed to glow a bit before dimming.
"Hah, so that's how it is"
He sighed and stood up, flexing his muscles a bit, his huge pitch black wings stretched behind him like he was trying to soothe the numbness he felt from behind him and his wounds closing up quickly. He stood in silence for some time as his mind couldn't help but wonder back to what just happened.
About 20 hours ago…
"You aren't human are you?" Miss Liv asked with a cold look in her eyes her hand clenched around the hilt of her Katana ready to unsheath it at any moment.
Ryu stood opposite her with no particular change in expression, one might even think he wasn't the one being addressed but his aura was a total opposite of his expression, the bloodlust he was emitting now could almost be tangible in the air and the fire lamps that lit the combat room seemed to flicker for some time, the temperature in the room dropped and the room got shades darker, his blood boiled and muscles tensed ready to attack at any moment, but he reined all of it in almost immediately, it felt like it was a blunder he made and rectified it immediately before anyone noticed but the problem was miss Liv already got the answer to her question.
Ryu realized that had he asked about the issue with his cultivation he would have also being exposed either way, it was like he was destined to be exposed on this moment. He couldn't help but release a soft sigh then turned to walk away. A frown adorned miss Liv's face when a soft voice drifted into her ears.
"I don't know what you mean and I'm tired for the day, I'll be heading to the cafeteria, see you tomorrow"
With that he walked out the training room door and headed towards the cafeteria,his mind racing on how to salvage the situation, he thought of leaving the academy but he didn't know where to go and now that he really realised the issue with his new identity he didn't want to lead any trouble to his mother. So he wasn't sure on what to do, he dipped his hand into his pockets and brought out a little bell , he stared at it for sometime before putting it away and continuing down the hall way.
"I think Finral and the rest might be waiting for me down the classroom "
With that thought he made a detour and headed towards the classroom he was totally unaware of the two blazing auras rushing towards his direction with blinding speed, miss Liv who was in the combat room looked up for a bit then snickered.
"What a fool" she clicked her tongue and sped out of the classroom towards the cafeteria.
Ryu just turned to enter the classroom door when his expression changed and his body moved immediately appearing across the door at the other end of the room, his back slamming into the wall and spitting a mouthful of blood.
He had reacted quick but he wasn't fast enough.
"Tsk tsk, this creatures are getting real bold this days to even send their youngling here or have they grown stupid over the years?". A thick boorish voice sounded from the door that Ryu had just stepped in.
" This one is different" the palace master's voice drifted in gently as he also landed.
It didn't take long before some other teachers started arriving and among them master young appeared, he had a complicated look in his eyes when he saw who it was. Miss Liv also arrived at the moment and stepped in.
She bowed towards the palace master respectfully and turned to the teachers.
" This one is my own so please let me handle him"
With that she turned to face Ryu who just stood up as he used his hand to clean the blood flowing from his mouth.
"Now are you ready to talk?"
she asked him with her usual sweet voice that could make one feel sleepy., Originally this was a soul attack but not a harmful one, it just made the person being targeted feel relaxed but Ryu didn't react much to it, using a mental attack on a wraith was nothing other than foolishness
"About what?" Ryu's voice still sounded as childish and innocent with a lace of gentleness and curiousity to it. Honestly he didn't know the reason for the whole ceremony. Although he knew he wasn't human again but he didn't know what he was exactly.
"What are you doing here?" Miss Liv asked again .
"I thought my friends were here" he replied.
Everyone immediately stiffened, his reply was totally misunderstood even miss Liv had to think for a few seconds before understanding what he really meant. The palace master and the other teachers grew more alert and started observing the surroundings.
"Does that mean there are more demons here?" A teacher asked with a shaky voice while Ryu got more puzzled.
"Demons??" He asked this time while looking at the teachers and then it all clicked, his eyes, his strength, the uniqueness of his cultivation, everything finally made sense.
"So that's what I am huh??". He asked again this time to noone exactly while staring at his hands.
Miss Liv frowned when she heard his questions, now she was genuinely sure that he wasn't a real demon, a demon won't be this calm in the face of so many ready to pounce on it.
She wanted to say something but a hand stopped her from the crowd so she stopped at took a step back.
"He did it!! The two students the other night, he did it!!"
And it all struck everyone's mind again remembering the sight of two young students mummified in the act of pleasure, it was quite a bone chilling sight to behold.
"Kill him!" The palace master said and took a step backwards. He had really thought he could handle the situation now, maybe capture him and get some information and he was also sure that the aura coming from Ryu wasn't fully that of a demon, but with what he had done,it was like the final nail in the coffin.
Before anyone could step forward to attack a head was already sent flying in the air and Ryu appeared just immediately on a desk that was nearby. Everyone turned to him in shock.
"What??, You didn't expect me to sit quietly and die did you??" He asked with a curious expression because they were just about to attack but he went first and he was been stared at like some monster.
"You son of a b…." Another head flew.
"Don't call my mother that" Ryu appeared this time with his hand grabbing the flying head as his gently voice didn't change at all but this time his blindfold fell then everyone saw those eyes that looked like blazing pits of flames.
Liz sighed, with those eyes, although he didn't look exactly like a demon he also looked nothing like a human.
That was like a wake up call and this time different techniques flew towards him.
"Good, that's more like it". His blood roared and rushed around his body , his muscles tensed as dark energy gathered within his palms forming into a very large sickle, it stood about two times his height before solidifying and then start humming in his hands.
"Let's dance…"